So, the legendary edition of Bloodbowl comes out in a few days, so figured I'd poke around and see if anyone else out there is planning on getting it. For those that don't know about the Legendary edition, they're basically adding in all the races that they left out in the original version, which mostly includes the more difficult to use races such as vampires and necromancers and halflings and such.

For those that don't know what Bloodbowl is at all... well, imagine a game of football, except with orcs and lizardmen(Or elves or mummies or trolls or...), and the ball is covered in large spikes and maiming is considered less of a fowl, and more of a tactic.

Bloodbowl started out as (and still exists as) a fantasy (literal fantasy) football based board game. You had the field as a board, and minis for your players. Orcs, humans, elves, wood elves, dark elves, lizardmen, chaos, necromancers, nerguls, vampires, amazons, halflings, and ogres just to name a few of the possible races (Okay, over half). It is exceptionally tactical with multiple roads to victory. You can kill (or at least maim) your opponents enough that they quit/you can just walk in touchdowns, or you can try and play the ball with passes and sprints and such, or you can do some mixture. You're players earn experience (star player points) for things like seriously injuring other players, making passes, and making touchdowns, which lets them learn new skills such as being better at passing, running faster, being better at blocking, or (for some races) growing new limbs, just to name a very few.

You also keep track of how much your fans like you, which can influence things in the game, from game income (More fans means more people in the crowd) to what happens when the crowd (Remember, we're talking ogres and trolls and orcs and all kinds of stuff in those crowds) storms the pitch and beats down on players they don't like, or allowing you to reroll dice because their cheering encourages your players (Good coaching can do that too)

Cheating (within the rules of the game) is an option. "...has set up rules as to where, when, and for how much, a referee can take a bribe." and some races (I'm looking at you goblins) rely on it heavily to win games (Chainsaws are not 'allowed' in the game.)

The computer game is amazing as it captures both the rules, and the feel of the game. I've noticed maybe 1 or 2 rules errors, and those seemed to happen more for speed of play than anything else (There are some abilities that give you the option of rerolling if you fail a particular action, but the CG does the reroll automatically. Because there are occasionally different levels of failure, this can be a big deal sometimes, but not often) and the rather notable absence of the goblin bomb thrower from the goblin team. I'm hoping he makes an appearance in the new edition.

So, if you haven't checked it out, I highly suggest looking it up, and waiting for the new version to come out (I'm not entirely sure if it is stand alone or not though...) if you plan on buying it. Oh, and if you do buy it, I highly suggest playing good old classic as opposed to the new blitz version. Adds a bunch of bells and whistles that aren't needed (And the real time is fairly aweful).

The only real complaint I have for the game is that the AI is quite poor, and wins more by virtue of you rolling snake eyes more often than you should than anything else. Luckily there is online play from single matches to tournaments.

Unless they dramatically improved the A.I. I will only get this later when it is available for 10 bucks or so.

Bye
Thanee

I bought the Dark Elves edition off Steam a few weeks ago. My major frustration with the game is the fact that it is apparently impossible to pick a ball up off the ground. Every time, no matter what race I play, no matter what kind of player I tell to pick up the ball, he fumbles and causes a turnover. Seriously?! It is basically impossible to play the ball in my experience, simply because you can't get the ball, let alone keep it.

Been playing the Dark Elf edition since it came out, and having a blast. Sometimes the d6's get you, sure, but there's ways to stack the deck that cut down on such silliness (rerolls, and that sort of thing can help out immensely).

My current team, Khaine's Khowboys, remain undefeated in their illustrious career. Go Khowboys!

Years ago my buddies and I played league seasons of the board game of Bloodbowl. My Undead team went one season almost undefeated. Despite my league championship victory, the league MVP went to my friend's Human receiver, Holden McGroyn. He was awesome. My guys tried really hard to kill him, but he always dodged out of the way.

Do you know all of the things that effect your chances? Most players should have a 4 in 6 chance of picking up the ball. Elves will have a 5 in 6. A few players will get a free reroll if they fail (Sure hands is the skill).

Now, why do you seem to be having so much trouble? Well, most likely you're trying to pick it up with an opposing player nearby. Each player that is adjacent to the ball gives a -1 to picking it up. The general strategy unless you have high agility people with lots of extra rerolls/sure hands is to stand a couple people nearby so that there is a chance that when it scatters, it'll scatter to another of your player who can catch it.

If you want to play the ball, grab elves or skaven. If you want to crush people, grab chaos or dwarves or orcs. The others are largely mixed. I particularly love the lizardmen. They start out with some skill deficiencies, but they can become amazing once you've gotten your front line a level or two. And it is entertaining trying to get a touchdown with the krox when the ball gets stuck to him somehow.

Edit: I remember when I was introduced to the board game. I had a lizardman warhammer army, and so used pieces from that so I wouldn't have to buy BB minis. It scared my opponents because my krox had a massive battle axe and they were all dressed in war gear instead of pads.

Had lots of fun with the vanilla version.
It was just a blast to watch when my bladedancer vaulted and tumbled past a half a dozen enemy players to throw the ball to my other bladedancer standing at the enemy line.

Most likely have to pick up the newest version, even thought i'm all too busy with playing New Vegas