Blood Bowl Season 2 Gets Blitzed - Review

After some wilderness years relegated to “cult” status with only...

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I'm glad you addressed the Blitz Bowl thing head on. It's basically the big question anyone who isn't already a diehard is going to be thinking about if they're considering the purchase.

After decent years of a computer version, it would take so much for me to sit down to an analog version. I'm also in the camp of not liking some of the rule changes. Blitz Bowl is definitely on the 'To Buy' list.

I agree that the computer version has rendered the tabletop version of Blood Bowl more or less irrelevant unless you are lucky enough to live near an active and thriving tabletop league. Most of the "true blood bowlers" have been playing on Fumbbl for over a decade, anyways.

I consider myself in that group, by the way. I've done a lot of Fumbbl and been playing since I was in middle school, over twenty years ago. By all accounts, this new edition is doing what so many e-sports companies like to do: change the meta to inject some energy into the game. Only time can tell whether the rules changes are overall good or bad, but I think it's good that they are changing, since LRP6/CRP blood bowl was a mostly solved problem set.

It seems, though, like this debate over Blitz vs. Blood for the "best Bowl" kind of misses the point, or rather, ignores that these are games aimed at two different user bases. Blitz Bowl strikes me as specifically for the people who want to play a sports board game. Done in an hour or so, thanks very much, put it back in the box.

Blood Bowl isn't about the match, it's about the league. The season. Without a dedicated league structure, in my opinion there is NO point in playing a single game of Blood Bowl. It makes total sense to me that most people would want Blitz Bowl, and that's probably as it should be. But in the same way Advanced Squad Leader sits there on the horizon for anyone who says "Sure, I like Combat Commander, but I'm really looking for MORE", so Blood Bowl can lie, tantalizing anyone who likes Blitz Bowl enough. I don't think it is ever going to have as big of an appeal, in the same way that sports cars don't move as many units as Toyota Camrys do. Maybe only 30 people buy the new Supra in your city this year (or show up to the annual ASL event) but it sits there as a "halo car" to get people excited about getting a Toyota.

But who knows, Games Workshop has never really shown themselves to understand market forces in the past, so maybe I am giving them too much benefit of the doubt. A dedicated boardgamer interested in the concept of fantasy football would almost definitely take to Blitz Bowl over Blood Bowl, for sure, as Barnes and others have pointed out.

Did you ever use Ski's javanet client for PBeM? Like the MBBL league? I remember using that before FUMMBL really took off.

Cambyses you make an -excellent- point here. You are exactly right, a one off game ofnBlood Bowl is practically pointless and it also misses the point. Blood Bowl is fundamentally a campaign game. Maybe GW should market it as an”Legacy game” LOL.

I do like the video game but it is just flakey. There is a third one coming out, perhaps it will have some improvements. But yes, if I want to play “full” Blood Bowl...that’s the way to go for sure.

Broken record Drew here, just popping in to say...

DREADBALL.

Not as pretty as GW's Blood Bowl or Blitz Bowl, but DreadBall is still heavily influenced by the design hand of James Hewitt (plus Jake Thornton, Stewart Gibbs, and some other blokes...).

League play? Check. Multiplayer? Check. Illegal underground violent variant? Check. Wonky British production and distribution? Check.

Another good review Michael. As a semi-retired Blood Bowl coach, I prefer to paint GW teams more so than play 'em nowadays. I agree 100% about one-off games. I've even soured on the Blood Bowl tournament scene. The level of competitiveness for a game devoted to Nuffle is just a turn off. League play is the OG legacy board game experience. I mean, miniature legacy game disguised as a board game.

But still. DreadBall.