Blood Bowl 3, the brutal sport that blends American football with the Warhammer universe, is kicking off its fifth season—and bringing a whole new faction to the league with the Necromantic Horrors Blood Pass.

I'd describe the Necromantic Horrors as "Halloween Weirdos," and I mean that in the best possible way. Along with shambling undead (which we've seen before in Blood Bowl 3) the Necromantic Horrors introduce Wraiths and Werewolves to the mix. While some of their units are a bit unorthodox, they're far from the most difficult team to get a grip on. Blood Bowl 3 rates them 3/5 stars for difficulty, so any seasoned player should be able to make them work.

Below, you'll find a breakdown of the Necromantic Horrors' players and key mechanics, plus some advice on how to play as (and against) them.
 

I get knocked down…

The secret weapon of the Necromantic Horrors is that almost all of their players come fresh out of the undead draft with the Regeneration skill. This means any time they would suffer a casualty, they roll an additional d6, and a roll of 4 or higher means they simply get placed in your reserves instead. This can be very powerful for some obvious (and not-so-obvious) reasons.

The catch? Necromantic Horrors can't use Apothecaries, which allow other teams to ignore KOs and reroll casualties. If the dice do take a bite out of one of your star players, you have to live with the result. Yes, it's definitely better to have a free Apothecary of sorts on every roll—but plan accordingly.

Since even your basic, low-cost Zombie Lineman gets access to Regeneration, I found that this allowed me to field what would be a pretty inadvisable team on any other roster, focusing more on expensive players like the Werewolf and Flesh Golem without bringing along a lot of extra cannon fodder for safety. After all, you don't need a bunch of backup players when your shambling hordes will usually pop right back up again in time for the next possession. And it means your team accumulates more veterans over long competition formats, since fewer of them will be, you know, dead dead.

Playing against this mechanic can be tricky, but if you're the type of Blood Bowl 3 player who likes to use lots of Blocks and intentional fouls to whittle down the enemy team by attrition (also known as the fun kind), you'll really want to focus on the high-value players. Don't waste time or risk a red card chewing through standard zombies, since they'll as likely as not return to haunt you again later anyway.

There's also another notable crack in this regenerating armor, but we'll get into that later.
 

Where wolf?

Let's talk about the Werewolf, my personal favorite player from the Necromantic Horrors faction. They're quite quick and durable, with okay strength and agility. In addition to Regeneration, their Claws always break through a knocked-down opponent's armor on an unmodified result of 8+, no matter how tough the opponent is. That can be extremely powerful against super tanky enemy players who would be very difficult to injure otherwise. The Werewolf also comes with the Frenzy ability, which basically means they must follow up every Block with another Block, if possible.

Using a Werewolf as a giantslayer and going after your opponent's most robust linemen is certainly viable, but it will require bringing some friends, since their meager starting strength of 3 won't cut it against a lot of those big boys.

The real killer play with the Werewolf involves lining up a bunch of follow-up tackles, taking advantage of Frenzy to literally carve a path through the enemy line. There's theoretically no limit to how many Block attempts you can set up with this combo other than the size of the enemy team. It requires a lot of coordination and planning ahead, but the rewards are proportional.

Against the Werewolf, it's best to take advantage of their fairly low strength to keep them from doing too much damage. But remember, any time they knock down one of your players—even a pretty beefy one—there's about a one-in-three chance you'll suffer an armor break. Don't underestimate them!

Position your line so they can't Frenzy too many times, especially on defense. Or better yet, make sure their only follow-up options on that mandatory Frenzy attempt are fights they wouldn't want to pick. And don't be shy about using rerolls against a result that would see your high armor players knocked down, even when you wouldn't normally be too worried about it.
 

Ghouls 'n Ghosts

The putrid twin hearts of a Necromantic Horrors line are the Flesh Golem and the Wraith. The former is pretty straightforward with Regeneration, an immunity to pushback, and the Thick Skull modifier that can change a more serious injury roll result into a mere stun. Using the Flesh Golem as an anchor to zone out rushing plays works pretty well. They have very good armor and decent strength, but are also very slow.

The Wraith might be the most interesting player on this whole roster—and, when used correctly, probably the most deadly. In addition to Block, Regeneration, and Sidestep, which really let them dictate the results of any offensive play against them, Wraiths also have Foul Appearance, which negates any enemy action targeting them completely on a roll of 1. Their weakness is the No Hands trait, which means they can never be in possession of the ball. But using Wraiths to shut down a drive or carve a ghastly hole through an enemy defensive line is what they're here for.

Against these nasties, the Flesh Golem can be brute-forced due to his respectable (but not exceptional) strength of 4. You might have a hard time taking him out for good, but just keeping him knocked on his rotting rear-end for one turn should be enough to slip by him—and with a speed of 4, he won't be able to catch up after that. The Wraith is tricky to play around, to the point that I generally just try to stay away from it with my ball carrier as much as possible, or keep a mob of overlapping coverage against it on defense.
 

Romero's nightmare

So how do the Necromantic Horrors actually score, then? Well, as counter-intuitive as it might seem, they are a faction that depends heavily on their running backs. Ghoul Runners come from the 28 Days Later school of rotters, with a snappy speed of 7 and a decent Agility of 3+. Their passing game is nothing to write home about, sharing a 4+ with their Werewolf buddies. You could certainly try to turn the Necromantic Horrors into a passing team, but it would take a lot of SPP investment.

I found that Ghouls work best in pairs, juking around tackle zones and handing the ball off back and forth between each other, often taking advantage of openings my Wraith and Werewolves made. Their biggest weakness is that they're the only Necromantic Horrors who don't come with Regeneration, and you can only draft two of them, so it's really rough when one of them gets injured and you don't have a backup.

Werewolves can also make decent runners with the right training, but I find that's a bit of a waste of their talents. Still, you probably want to have at least one who can put some points on the board in a pinch if one or more of your Ghouls goes down.

Against the Necromantic Horrors, this gives you some pretty clear priorities: take out the Ghouls, and fast. There are only two of them at most on any given team, they're not that durable, and without them, the Horrors are going to have a much harder time scoring at all. Even removing one of them from the field will really shut down a lot of this faction's best plays.

Flesh Golems, Wraiths, and Zombies can't pass the ball, and Wraiths can't even hold it. If a Flesh Golem or Zombie does end up with the ball, they're slow and easy to catch. You'll be in pretty good shape once you make sure those Ghouls stay in the dirt.
 

Thriller

It's hard to say this early into the season what kind of wild plays people will discover with the Necromantic Horrors, or how they will match up against any specific existing faction. But whether you're joining the harrowing hordes yourself or just want to punch their crooked teeth in, hopefully this guide gives you enough to get started.

Blood Bowl 3: Brutal Edition is available now on the Epic Games Store.