Is Leap a Good Skill for an Amazon Blitzer in Blood Bowl?

The first skill for most Blood Bowl players is pretty simple. There are good old standby skills, like block, guard, etc.

But what about the second, third, or other "deep" skills? When your start players start getting up there, you have to get a bit more creative in your skill choices. This is also a good time to specialize one or two people for certain jobs.

With that in mind, is leap a good choice for an Amazon Blitzer?

The Odds of Leaping with Amazons

First things first, let's take a look at whether or not an Amazon Blitzer can effectively execute a leap.

To use leap, you move up to two squares and then make a straight up agility roll. For the average Amazon Blitzer (Agility 3), that means a roll of a 4+. Without any re-rolls, that's a probability of 50%. Not so good, not so bad.

Hopefully you have a re-roll, though. With the optional re-roll, the probability becomes 75%. For more on probability of making a roll with a re-roll, see this article about the probability of two independent events. While that's certainly not a "sure thing," a 75% chance is pretty good.

When Is Leap Going to Help?

Leap is great for one thing - cage busting. Leaping allows you to move into an area that is covered with tackle zones without making any dodge rolls. You just need to make straight up agility roll (4+), which is do-able with a re-roll.

Consider the fact that your Amazon Blitzer has block. If you can cancel any other assists - which should be easy if your opponent doesn't have guard - you can achieve a one-die block. Some people scoff at this possibility, but you've only got a 1/6 (16.67%) chance of a Blitzer knocking herself over (read more about one-die blocks here).

If your target has Dodge and Block, this may not be a great idea. You'll have a 1/6 chance of knocking him over (a straight up POW), and a 2/3 chance of pushing or doing nothing. If you have strip ball, though, that's another story!

With strip ball, you've got a 2/3 chance (66%) of either knocking the opponent down or stripping the ball. This increases to 5/6 (83.33%) if your opponent doesn't have block.

Is This Reliable?

Is this the most reliable defensive move? No.

But it is a great way to increase pressure on your opponent. If the rest of your team is in position to contain your opponent, why not take a risk and knock the ball loose? If your opponent is on a strict time schedule (i.e. he has only two turns to score) that one strip ball might make the difference between a score and a no-score.

The combination of leap and strip ball on an Amazon Blitzer makes for a very effective cage buster. The Amazon doesn't have the great agility of an Elf, but a 75% chance of landing (with a re-roll) is an acceptable risk to take in game-changing situations. Having one Blitzer on the field with this combination of skills might just be the difference between a win and a loss.