I think @raged_norm has that
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@Whistle_Pig is right. Haven’t road tested it yet though.
I’ve seen a few people say it’s a but fiddly.
Blood Bowl?
I’m a big fan of games (obvs) and a big fan of the NFL so this seems like something I should try, but it’s quite an expensive game to buy without trying it.
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Games Workshop’s miniature one?
It’s got some really good things about it. It’s about risk management and sequencing heavily. Each team/race has quite different play style and does that asymmetry well. The importance of how you shape of your team feels a decent abstraction of a team sport.
That being said I personally find teams a little flat at the start and the campaigns(season) can be tough to manage. There are some rules for adding skills without campaigning though. As your risk is based in small numbers of dice it can feel swingy if your inclined to view it that way or tense and exciting if your inclined to view it the other way.
As a miniature gamer I preferred Necromunda but that’s a different beast only comparable because of manufacturer/design studio. However as they were GW I do compare them and as a teenager and a GW staff I would not suggest BB campaigns but I always enjoyed playing in them until they inevitably fell apart. There’s a reason it’s stayed available for so long, it’s well done for what it is so if it’s your thing you will probably enjoy it.
Edit: aren’t there computer game versions that basically follow the boardgame rules? That could be a cheaper way to test it
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Old school Blood Bowl was okay at first back in the day but was a slog of a game and basically more like playing Warhammer. Our NFL game of choice was Statis Pro Football but that is long since out of print properly and, while fans are making cards for recent seasons, the original sets from the 1980s go for $100 upwards on eBay.
Board Game B(o)ll(o)cks (Board Games 4K) did a nice review of Blitz Bowl a few weeks back, a streamlined update to Blood Bowl which they enjoyed.
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I like it a lot but it’s very old school and can be a bit draining to play in long bursts. It’s also heavily luck-based, although a lot of the game is being aware of the risks and either taking chances or retiring early. It’s good but probably outdated now.
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Played it a lot between the ages of 13-16, that’s 10 years ago in the late 90s early 00s? Probably wouldn’t touch it now.
We ignored the crippling turnover rule though.
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That’s like, the rule that makes the game. Without it, Blood Bowl is terrible.
So, my own take is that it still holds up and I’d like to play it more.
I avoided the expensive miniatures route by recreating 22 teams with labelled wooden cubes. Unfortunately, without the buy-in investment from each player buying their own team, I found it difficult to keep a league going.
I second the recommendation to play the licensed digital version or any of the free sites like fumbbl or other digital implementations.
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To elaborate: the turnover rule is one where if a player on your side falls over or drops the ball, your turn ends.
This means you have to do all the zero-risk positioning first, then the lower risk actions, then the ones that have a reasonable chance of going wrong. This is made more difficult and dynamic by the fact that the positioning you want to do might largely depend on which step of your turn things go wrong.
The result is tense decision making within your 4 minute turn limit, and dramatic reversals of fortune. It’s a great bit of design, and surprisingly one that wasn’t present in the initial 1st edition release. I think 2nd edition introduced the rule that made Blood Bowl the long-standing popular game it is today.
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I’m sure my copy read any failed roll, but I’m most likely wrong. We did play like this to be fair.
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There are a few more conditions, but a failed block (one that doesn’t result in your opponent going down) doesn’t result in a turnover.
Turnovers
- A player on the moving team is Knocked Down (being injured by the crowd or being Placed Prone is not a turnover unless it is a player from the active team holding the ball … e.g. skills like Diving Tackle, Piling On and Wrestle count as being Placed Prone) or
- A passed ball, or hand-off, is not caught by any member of the moving team before the ball comes to rest or
- A player from the moving team attempts to pick up the ball and fails (note: failing a catch roll, as opposed to a pick up, is by itself never a turnover) or
- A touchdown is scored or
- A pass attempt is fumbled even if a player from that team catches the fumbled ball or
- A player with the ball is thrown or is attempted to be thrown using Throw Team-Mate and fails to land successfully (including being eaten or squirming free from an Always Hungry roll) or
- A player is ejected by the referee for a foul.
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Thoroughly agree with all this. You’ve basically spelled out what I was alluding too with the risk management comment and nailed why it leads to excitement and tension.
Do they still do the living rulebook as a download? Have you tried the new Dungeon Bowl?
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I don’t know, I do have the living rulebook as a pdf if anyone wants it. Haven’t heard anything about a new Dungeon Bowl - the (really) old edition didn’t leave a good impression when I read the rules for it many many years ago.
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And here I thought you were talking about a failure to move the turn marker resulting in a turnover if your opponent calls it out. That was always kind of a BS rule.
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I don’t recommend buying the latest version of the online BloodBowl - its still got quite a few bugs. Buy the 2nd edition of the computer game - works pretty much perfectly as an implementation of the boardgame
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I’ve got a £60 voucher for my local FLGS. Just know I’m going to have AP about what to buy!
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Yes, anyone who fancies it, get BB2 not 3!
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I’m intrigued that it’s a good enough game to enjoy it without the tactile experience of chucking loads of dice.
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The pain of bad rolls remains the same.
The one big caveat is that playing against the incompetent computer opponent isn’t much fun.
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Yeah its ok for a quick game and maybe practising a tactic but the AI is pretty stupid
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