Night Goblins Bring Squigs and Complete Chaos to Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl is getting considerably less predictable.

Games Workshop has revealed the new Night Goblin team during the Big Autumn Preview, bringing an entire collection of Squigs, handlers, and unfortunate Goblins to the pitch alongside the upcoming 23rd issue of Spike! Journal.

And unlike simply giving the existing Goblin team a different coat of paint, this looks like a genuinely different way to play.

The Squigs Are the Team

The new plastic team contains six Night Goblin Linemen alongside two each of four new positional types: Cave Squigs, Squig Wranglers, Squig Hoppers, and Squig Herders.

That lineup tells you almost everything you need to know about the design.

This is not a disciplined team with a couple of novelty players attached. The Squigs are central to how the roster works, and the Goblins appear to exist partly to keep those bouncing balls of teeth pointed in roughly the right direction.

The Cave Squigs and Squig Hoppers both have Pogo, giving them extra mobility around the pitch. The catch is Squig Rage, a new rule GW has teased but has not yet fully explained. What we do know is that keeping Squig Herders nearby will be important if you want to prevent that rule from causing problems.

That sounds exactly like Night Goblins should play.

Fast, dangerous, useful, and always approximately one bad decision away from becoming your own problem.

Squig Wranglers Are Completely Ridiculous

The standout piece of rules information is the Squig Wrangler.

These are Strength 7 Ball & Chain players.

For anyone familiar with Blood Bowl, those two facts being placed next to each other should immediately explain why things are going to get strange.

Ball & Chain players already introduce an element of controlled chaos because their movement does not work like a normal player. Adding Strength 7 means anything unfortunate enough to get in the way is going to have a very bad afternoon.

Whether that makes the Wranglers reliable is an entirely different question.

This is still a Stunty team, and GW is openly describing Night Goblins as something that will require both skill and a little luck to manage effectively.

That sounds less like a warning and more like the sales pitch.

Even the Linemen Are Annoying

The regular Night Goblin Linemen bring Dodge and Stunty, as you would expect, but they also have Taunt and Shadowing.

They may not be the players doing the spectacular work, but they look designed to become irritating little obstacles that are difficult to grab and equally difficult to completely escape from.

That creates a nice contrast with the Squigs.

The Goblins interfere with the opposing team while the increasingly questionable collection of bouncing monsters handles the part involving violence.

Presumably.

Spike! Journal 23 Adds the Rest of the Story

The complete rules arrive in the 23rd issue of Spike! Journal.

Alongside the team rules, the issue includes background for Night Goblin teams such as the Eight Peaks Loonatics, rules for the spiteful shroom and bat Squig balls included with the kit, a coaching guide, and the usual Spike! features.

GW has also confirmed that more information about Squig Rage will arrive closer to release.

That is probably the rule we are most interested in seeing.

Our Take

This might be one of the easiest Blood Bowl teams to understand from a hobby perspective before you even read the full rules.

It is Night Goblins.

They brought Squigs.

Things are going to go wrong.

And that is exactly why the team works.

The miniature range has a strong identity, the new positionals appear meaningfully different from the standard Goblin roster, and the interaction between Herders and Squig Rage suggests players will have to actually manage the chaos rather than simply point their strongest pieces toward the end zone.

Will they be competitive?

We do not know yet, and without the complete roster, costs, and Squig Rage rules there is no point pretending otherwise.

Will a Strength 7 Goblin swinging around the pitch on a Squig be entertaining?

That question feels considerably easier to answer.