Barnes on Games #4 - Space Marine Adventures and Blitz Bowl

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Good write up Mike, pointing out the plus and minuses. About 10-12 years to late for my lad although I did manage to get in the classic 1980s GW kids games.
And interesting that this appears to be a US only release.

There seem to be a few similar concepts between Blitz Bowl & Shadespire.

Does it feel completely different? Or is it a sports version of SS?

I'm glad to hear space marine adventures isn't bad. I'm not much for co-ops, and the price seems a bit hefty (MSRP is $40 here).

But if I can find it on clearance, I'll buy it for the spawnling.

Blitz Bowl is just brilliant. I finally found the football game I've wanted forever.

The real bonus, is it has a ready made expansion inside. This was a good move by GW for a lot of reasons.

They don't have to make an SKU just for a blitz bowl expansion.

They sell more Blood Bowl teams.

Blitz Bowl players pay half the cost of a Blood Bowl player if they can find someone to split the cost of each team box.

7 potential teams (or an 8th if you get this months White dwarf) means the game doesn't have to be successful in order to be expanded.

I just got a couple more teams today, and hope to fill in the rest soon. I imagine even if Blitz Bowl doesn't get card support for undead, halflings, nurgle, etc. that it won't matter. I think I'd be happy with the present selection. And if not, then Blitz Bowl will act as a true gateway game of old, and pull me into Blood Bowl. (Not likely, but within the realm of possibility)

Blitz Bowl is legit.

And fucking fun.

Colorcrayons wrote: Blitz Bowl is legit.

And fucking fun.

And unavailable in most of the world .

Your enthusiasm and description made me want to pick this up but I can't purchase it from anywhere in the UK! There seem to be German copies distributed in Germany but only Barnes and Nobles (who don't ship to the UK) received English copies. I hope this is a temporary thing but I'm guessing this is a Barnes and Nobles exclusive for the foreseeable future.

Colorcrayons wrote: Blitz Bowl is legit.

And fucking fun.

100% agree.
As Barnes said, Blood Bowl sucks as a one-off, non-league-competitive game. But I can whip out Blitz Bowl with basically anyone (non-gamer friends, wife, county sheriff) and have a good time. Even the The weird point-gathering Challenge Cards actually work perfectly within the confines of this game.

I typically avoid GW stuff, but Blitz Bowl is total fun.

sornars wrote:

Colorcrayons wrote: Blitz Bowl is legit.

And fucking fun.

And unavailable in most of the world .

Your enthusiasm and description made me want to pick this up but I can't purchase it from anywhere in the UK! There seem to be German copies distributed in Germany but only Barnes and Nobles (who don't ship to the UK) received English copies. I hope this is a temporary thing but I'm guessing this is a Barnes and Nobles exclusive for the foreseeable future.

This makes me want to be game mule a for our English speaking European friends.

I recall Matt Thrower lamenting this as well.

The problem is shipping costs. As always.

If anyone has any good suggestions, I'm all ears and would like to help. This game is worth the effort, IMO.