Blood Bowl

[Lyngs]

The Games Workshop tabletop game Blood Bowl has been under development for PC/PSP/XBox360 for about two years. It is due for release this June.

Official trailer (http://www.bloodbowl-game.com/videos/)

Informative fansite (http://bloodbowldigital.com/)

[drywall]

hrm.

[Flufball]

Oh that reminds me. I must bug the VC lot and see if they're up for a java game (http://fumbbl.com), I've not played it in ages.

[drywall]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_League

apparently due to a licensing cockup this was supposed to be the blood bowl game but wasn't, yet was allowed to use the races, rules and gameplay of bloodbowl.

dunno if the game interests me much, great concept and played both incarnations of the tabletop before GW started to suck (buncha moneygrabbing whores) but while it allows both real-time and turn-based modes seems more a strategy type game than a sports game plus doesn't seem to have more than 1on1 modes so doubt it will do well on consoles.

[Lyngs]

Article on BB up on Gamespot (http://gdc.gamespot.com/story/6206889/).

[Lyngs]

New SHINY website (http://www.bloodbowl-game.com/)!

Beta registration (http://www.bloodbowl-game.com/beta_registration/index.php)! (first come first served. Starts soon!)

[Lyngs]

In the beta as of two days ago. Its everything you'd want from a PC version of the boardgame. Besides a few minor bugs, this game is beautyful. Personaly im going to spend a lot of time with this one.

[Volw]

Same, not downloaded yet tho.

[Flufball]

Well, it's out to buy for the download version but for some reason they've priced it at £40!

[Peete]

Got the game as well :)
coach : Peete
team : chaos (1090)

Thanks God the game is good, because it's the shittiest interface ever, it takes ages to start a game.

[Lyngs]

Got my copy monday, have been playing since :P Some minor bugs, will be fixed soon according to official forum tho. God I love this game! Nuffle hates me tho :(

Coach: Lyngs

[Peete]

Only Lyngs playing ? I can't believe it !
I know DW is playing since he joined the BB fan page on FB, gief coach name :)

[Flufball]

I'll be getting it soon Peete, just can't afford the £40 at the moment. :)

[Flufball]

Look up Flufball, I now has the game.

[Flufball]

It's good, but it's not worth £40. General Blood Bowl fun can be had for free (http://fumbbl.com/).

[Flufball]

The Box copy comes out soon, £30 at play, £25 at games webby. Still expensive but it might be slightly easier to justify it if you're not like me and stupid enough to buy it at full price. :p

[Lyngs]

Only worth playing in an established league atm. open games are ruinded by cheaters and quitters.

[Flufball]

FAO Hovis: This is now available for pre-load on Steam. You has no excuse now! :p

[Ardesco de la Furia]

FAO Hovis: This is now available for pre-load on Steam. You has no excuse now! :p
and they released Dark Elves. I want an undead team :(.

[Hovis]

I'd love to remake my old Dark Elf team, but I'm not sure I could withstand the relentless beatings that occur during the growing of an elf team. My orcs could hold their own even before they were uber, but elves are weak and silly and all but incapable of maintaining a live team on the field.

[Flufball]

Squishy and very very good at dodging. Bastard Elves. Anyhow, preload the thing and see if you can use the cunning view-CD key button, if it's there, to good effect. If not, I'll see you on the 25th and you can start using a progressive team against my Squishy humans that have only played four games.

[Lyngs]

Played 10 matches with my new Dark Elf team. So far, using the new matchmaking system, 7 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. Have'nt lost or gotten a single player injured beyond two badly hurt. Maybe I just play Woodies wrong, but never had a team of pansies lasting 10 whole matches without any one snuffin' it.

Any way, if any of you are interested in an organised league, take a look at Orca Cola Championship (http://www.orca-cola.com/). We have 150+ active teams, unfortunately we wont start a new season till January. If any of you sign up tho, I will make sure you get seated by then.

[Hovis]

You need to get an elf team properly squared away to be any good at all against a human player. The AI will go easy on you, a human player knows that they can concede a touchdown or two but you can't sustain eleven concussions or worse. Dark Elves sound like slightly more agile orcs, which is a good balance. Elves are in the skaven category of being just too damn fragile to be practical early on.

I'd imagine that a 2000 rated wood elf team is absolutely fucking lethal though. Once you get block on the linemen, plant a tree in your line and get some levels on your thrower and catcher you're going to be able to score like it's Tottenham versus Wigan.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Hovis get yourself this game and a DE team. I need someone to steamroll with my chaos team. ;)

[Lyngs]

Once you get block on the linemen...
You dont want linemen with block on a Woodelf team, at least not the first 3 or 4, what you want is Wrestle and Dodge. You got Wardancers for the surgical attacks.

[Hovis]

You dont want linemen with block on a Woodelf team, at least not the first 3 or 4, what you want is Wrestle and Dodge. You got Wardancers for the surgical attacks.

It's the having a line that doesn't fold up element that I want. If you lose the centre you're in a world of hurt.

[Lyngs]

With wrestle, you get the ability to hold off cages and even make holes on your opponents turn. Against bashy teams you get the upper hand because you have higher MV than they do. You will in general survive longer too, cause both players go down without any injury rolls.

If you are on defense, then three wrestle linemen on the line of scrimmage is gold. Keep out of enemy tackle zones as much as possible and make it as hard for him to advance as possible. Have your Wardancers ready to punch through to the ball carrier. Try to get your opponents cage to go to one side and do what you can to keep his players spread out.

On offence you want your thrower at the back end of your side, holding the ball. Make a hole or two in your opponents defences, and get as many players as you can into his back field. Spread out. A pass and a handoff should let you score in two turns. Some times it is better to stall against bashy teams tho.

[Hovis]

I'm not sure that a thrower is worth the cost to be honest. Elves just whip the ball around anyway. Just one guy to throw it kind of seems inflexible, especially when he's an expensive target. Because elves are so fast too you never really need to make long throws.

[Lyngs]

I'm not sure that a thrower is worth the cost to be honest. Elves just whip the ball around anyway. Just one guy to throw it kind of seems inflexible, especially when he's an expensive target. Because elves are so fast too you never really need to make long throws.

Throwers are the only ones who can get Passing skills on normal rolls. I always try to have two. The first one takes Leader, gives you an extra re-roll at almost no cost, and Team Value should always be as low as possible. Second is kick-off return, that is the single most usefull skill on offence. You want to get the ball moving as fast as possible.

If you play elves like were they orcs or dwarves and cage up, then you are dead meat against bashy teams.

[leanmeankillingmachine]

Out of interest, anyone going to be playing this on xbox ? My copy should be here by friday, anyone up for a game give me a shout....

[Flufball]

Sorry Lean, I'm happy with the PC version. Ardesco, didn't know you had the game, I've mostly been playing SP rather than Multiplayer at the moment due to lack of people to squish.

Lyngs, I may well be interested in that league of yours, I'll look into it.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Sorry Lean, I'm happy with the PC version. Ardesco, didn't know you had the game, I've mostly been playing SP rather than Multiplayer at the moment due to lack of people to squish.

Lyngs, I may well be interested in that league of yours, I'll look into it.
Aye. I played it for a week or so but time decided to be skint so I had given up on it for awhile. Redownloading it atm, bug me on steam if you want to have a go at my chaos team. :)

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Played Fluf this afternoon/evening. Was rusty as hell and lost. But still managed to kick the shit out of his human team. :shinner:

[Hovis]

Fluf's teams can take a punch all right. First game we played I killed four of his boys. :shinner:

The last time we played it was 1-1 but we both missed crucial dice rolls for touchdowns.

I may get the game, it's birthday time after all.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Fluf's teams can take a punch all right. First game we played I killed four of his boys. :shinner:

The last time we played it was 1-1 but we both missed crucial dice rolls for touchdowns.

I may get the game, it's birthday time after all.
Oh the **** got his licks in aswell. Was an orc team incognito for the first quarter. My brain/luck finally quicked in during the second and he started suffering. I took great care to annihilate his 2 good catchers. :D

[Flufball]

Best thing about it was that my team is the online one which hasn't had any of the leveling up that my SP team I took against Hovis had done to it. I think I had a single lineman and both catchers up a single level and that was it and I still managed to pound his squishy Chaos team into dust.

That said, my team couldn't pick up the ball to save their lives. The game itself was 1-0 and the second half was a real Scotland vs Australia affair. Oh and the bastard made one of my catchers -1 to his movement!

Good times.

[Flufball]

Oh and Ardesco, I hope you know what the red skull is for now. :p

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Pinch of Tzeentch VS Wolfenburg Renements: Game 2

Lets just say Fluf's team consists mostly of greasy lawn ornaments at this point. All though he did pull off a hero drive for a single point at the last minute. ;)

2-1

[Flufball]

Maybe, but my lawn ornaments still managed to kill one of your chaos minions! :p

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Maybe, but my lawn ornaments still managed to kill one of your chaos minions! :p
Sacrifices must be made for the greater plan. :cool:

[Hovis]

I'll buy this game and take you all on.

[Killswitch]

Do you get special characters in the online version? I played table top Blood Bowl for years and had a Wood-Elf team with Jordell Freshbreeze and there were immense, capable of 1 turn touchdowns with good rolls.

[Hovis]

Do you get special characters in the online version? I played table top Blood Bowl for years and had a Wood-Elf team with Jordell Freshbreeze and there were immense, capable of 1 turn touchdowns with good rolls.

You can rent them for a game.

Meanwhile tonight's results.

Pinch of Tzeench (Ardesco) violated my Dark Elf team The Albino Pimp Hand with a morale crushing 2-0 win. Basically wiped out the team and I learned that Stab is an utterly ghey skill.

Second game:

Pinch of Tzeench 1 - Scary Tree Raiders 5. Ardesco finds out the hard way that I don't fuck about playing Wood Elfs. :D

[Hovis]

Ardescos gobbos beat my Gobbos 2-0 featuring purely epic gobbo tactics, the pogo over the defenders and the stunty throw. Great stuff.

My dark elves suck, but eked out a 3-1 over the gobbos too. Did concede the fastest ever touchdown to a long gobbo throw and run though.

If there was some way for gobbos to keep 11 'men' on the field they'd almost be quite good on the attack because of the throwable players. I think the gadgets might be a red herring and a cheap way to lose three players. Full linemen, couple of trolls, lot of rerolls, could be a half decent team. Not decent mind you, just half.

[Flufball]

Loaf has a tree that appears to enjoy sun bathing.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Loaf has a tree that appears to enjoy sun bathing.
Damn tree always kept my Chaos Warriors preoccupied. Least I annihilated his War Dancer. :p

Also here are the Gob VS Gob and Gob VS DE replays.

Place them in this directory or a variation thereof. Go to One Player > Load > Replays ingame.

C:\Documents\BloodBowl\Saves\Replays

[Hovis]

Got beat 1-0 by Fluf's humans, but it was 1300 rated against 850 (boosted by merc linemen) so no shame there and I avoided too many serious injuries. Was pretty badly steamrollered.

Fluf then came at me with a dwarf demolition team that looked likely to do some real damage. Kept my guys at arm's length and won 5-0. There's now a slim chance I might be able to play the match after next with the Scary Tree Raiders using the actual players I've bought, rather than merc ringers.

[Hovis]

New Dorf team The Stuntmen, beat Pinch Of Tzeentch 2-0. There's new bruisers on the block.:D

I heard a peep from Kosh regarding Bloodbowl as well, so some of the VC boys might have it, so might could be we could rig up a league.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

The Shoreside Tube Rats VS Punch Drunk Skitters

Hovis annihilated my team. Turning most of them into grease marks on the pitch. But the most epic moment was down to my last 4 players. 2 of 4 were down, 1 caged in, and 1 across the field. I had nothing to lose so I grabbed the ball (these were linemen, mind you) and managed to pull a Hail Mary across the entire width of the field to my lone rat. Hovis desperately tried to catch him but to no avail as my rat dodged his way to the TD. :shinner:

[Hovis]

Shoreditch Tube Rats. And no mention of the classic (albeit largely unopposed) 2 turn touchdown at the death to equalise.

That was the only 20/20 rated match I've played in, and it was epic. :D

[Flufball]

Mega. Bread, I wish to play you the night if you're up for it, will be playing Commandos with Pry on VCB untill you shout me.

[Flufball]

Replays from my games with ManFriday (from VC) and Ardesco. I feel sorry for Ardesco because he had terrible luck, but I'm happy with my win over Friday as it's nice to actually beat him for once.

[ManFriday]

Lucked out of a 2-1 loss against Fluff and then massively lucked into one against Hovis. Check out the last play in the replay.

[Hovis]

I'm liking the four team league system, sort of puts me to mind of the Champions League group stage. Maybe we should do two games each next time, as well as more balanced teams.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

I'm liking the four team league system, sort of puts me to mind of the Champions League group stage. Maybe we should do two games each next time, as well as more balanced teams.
A fresh Skaven VS leveled-to-fuck Dwarf team had nothing to do with your landslide victory, right? :rolleyes:

[Ardesco de la Furia]

Also your reply speed is shite. I've sat here watching you write a novel for the past 10 minutes. :p

[Hovis]

A fresh Skaven VS leveled-to-fuck Dwarf team had nothing to do with your landslide victory, right? :rolleyes:

Didn't stop Manfriday's orcs beating me. Although to be fair packing five dwarfs around a black orc attempting to throw a long bomb -ought- to have stopped that from happening. Le sigh. This game has a sense for the dramatic.

But yeah I agree, even teams would be better. Fresh off the sinking ship Skaven are a world away from the slippery, lightning fast little sonsofbitches that they eventually become. Stick a couple of levels on a Gutter Runner and the little shit usually ends up with a movement speed of 10 and sprint rerolls.

Will have to see what Manfriday's Orcs do to the Skaven, should be an interesting game. Those orcs are hard as nails. Was trading blows with them the whole match and they never gave an inch. Forced the apothecary to save a killed result too. I conceded really lucky touchdowns to be honest, but couldn't score touchdowns with my levelled up team, so it's a fair result, but I reckon the orcs will be ones to watch.

I'm thinking I might try yet again to get a Dark Elf team going for the next one. I will work out what Witch Elves are for if it kills them.

[Hovis]

Also your reply speed is shite. I've sat here watching you write a novel for the past 10 minutes. :p

Nuts to you hippie.

[Lyngs]

I'm thinking I might try yet again to get a Dark Elf team going for the next one. I will work out what Witch Elves are for if it kills them.

If you need some guidance, check this out mate: http://bbtactics.com/dark-elf-witch-elves/

[Flufball]

I'm getting a little frustrated with players on this game who get the ball, run it to your TD line and then sit on it, poised to score, in a cage, for eight bloody turns. I know why they're doing it but it doesn't make it any less frustrating, especially if the rest of their team is pounding me to bits elsewhere.

[Ardesco de la Furia]

I'm getting a little frustrated with players on this game who get the ball, run it to your TD line and then sit on it, poised to score, in a cage, for eight bloody turns. I know why they're doing it but it doesn't make it any less frustrating, especially if the rest of their team is pounding me to bits elsewhere.
Its the strategy they'll use against you countless times and the one I was using on you the first time around with your elves vs my chaos. The only somewhat reliable counter is to groom one of your players into the ultimate blitzer. A character that can get the ball out of any player's hands.

Now where's Hovis run off to? I need to pound his Dark Elves into a bloody mess. :D

[Flufball]

Its the strategy they'll use against you countless times and the one I was using on you the first time around with your elves vs my chaos. The only somewhat reliable counter is to groom one of your players into the ultimate blitzer. A character that can get the ball out of any player's hands.

Now where's Hovis run off to? I need to pound his Dark Elves into a bloody mess. :D

Yeah I know, it's still infuriating. At least you didn't rub it in when we played. The bastards that I've been playing had no reason not to score, already winning, nine of my players badly hurt (this happened in two separate games) and they sit on the line waiting out the clock. Wankers.

[leanmeankillingmachine]

Fuck me this game is hard, just trying to play the campaign mode at the minute while I try and learn the basics and its next to impossible.

Even on easy mode im lucky to win 1 game in 10 and its taken me almost 2 days of playing and only a handful of my players have lvled up to 2 or 3 (except for my blitzer who is lvl 5 which I dont know why coz hes still a useless ****).

Anybody recommend a good team for a beginner and some basic tactics ?

[Hovis]

Fuck me this game is hard, just trying to play the campaign mode at the minute while I try and learn the basics and its next to impossible.

Even on easy mode im lucky to win 1 game in 10 and its taken me almost 2 days of playing and only a handful of my players have lvled up to 2 or 3 (except for my blitzer who is lvl 5 which I dont know why coz hes still a useless ****).

Anybody recommend a good team for a beginner and some basic tactics ?

I find when starting out you ought to aim to play as little of the actual 'sport' of the game as possible. Passing the ball about and stuff is pretty sophisticated. I slapped together a dwarf team (Chaos works too) and just kicked the shit out of everything. Get the ball to a runner where possible and just use the rest of your players to shield him and kick the shit out of the opposing team. Once you've got the hang of the violence take baby steps into short pass and move gameplay with Orcs, then move up to the dainty teams like Elves and Skaven. The more fragile the team the harder it is to play in my view.

[leanmeankillingmachine]

Ive been playing a dwarf team the past day or so, ive given up on them now since their MA is so low that when you need to claw a touchdown or two back you are severely hampered by the fact you can run too far and when you do trying to pass or pick up a ball with them just isnt going to happen.

Just started an orc team and they seem to be performing a hell of alot better.

[Lyngs]

Orcs are IMO the best beginner race.

There are a lot of good strategy, starting build, and skill choice articles on this site: http://bbtactics.com/

[leanmeankillingmachine]

Fuck it im still struggling with the orc team - still only winning around 20% of all games in the classic campaign, on the brightside I seem to be getting a few more draws in.

Out of interest, how long does it take in campaign mode to build up a decent team ?

Anyone tried this game on hard setting yet ? Christ im having problems on easy mode then god knows the kind of butchery that will happen to my team if I upped the settings.

[Hovis]

I'm not 100% sure but I think on harder modes it might cheat. Feels like it does anyway.

As for how long it takes to get a good team, depends what you want.

If you want to be cynical about gaining XP play some gobbos. You'll score a lot of TDs and you'll make a lot of kills.

[Lyngs]

IMO the AI, even on hard is a joke, but I have been playing this game for over 10 years. It has illogical skills on its players, and to me it just seems that it gets luckier dice rolls on Hard.

Some teams dont realy need extra skills to be good. Wood Elves for example, they are the strongest starting team IMO, if you know how to play them. Where Chaos wont shine untill about 1600+ TV. Orcs just get better and better the more skills they get. Where Wood Elves gets more vulnerable to injury as bashy teams get more skills to combat their weaknesses.

[leanmeankillingmachine]

Just found the rather enjoyable tactic of chucking a goblin with your troll over a line of defenders - looks like it developing nicely into a match winner.

[Peete]

Untill your troll decides to eat the gob, no save or reroll, the gob is gone forever. :shinner:

[Hovis]

Untill your troll decides to eat the gob, no save or reroll, the gob is gone forever. :shinner:

Gobbo gets an agility check to escape. I think it's about a 1/36 of you actually eating the guy.

Very, very good tactic though.

[Peete]

Always Hungry (Extraordinary)
The player is always ravenously hungry – and what’s more they’ll eat
absolutely anything! Should the player ever use the Throw Team-Mate
skill, roll a D6 after he has finished moving, but before he throws his
team-mate. On a 2+ continue with the throw. On a roll of 1 he attempts to
eat the unfortunate team-mate! Roll the D6 again, a second 1 means that
he successfully scoffs the team-mate down, which kills the team-mate
without opportunity for recovery (Apothecaries, Regeneration or anything
else cannot be used). If the team-mate had the ball it will scatter once
from the team-mate's square. If the second roll is 2-6 the team-mate
squirms free and the Pass Action is automatically treated as a fumbled
pass. Fumble the player with the Right Stuff skill as normal.

A double 1 is something commun in BB unfortunatly :(

[Flufball]

If anyone is still interested in this, it's on Steam for £4.25 as a weekend deal.

[Lyngs]

A new edition is coming out later this year with better tutorial, 20 races/teams, less bugs and more...

I am currently part of the beta test team and it looks promising.

[Tapja]

The new season will be.... legendary. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-legendary-blood-bowl/705514

[Lyngs]

The new season will be.... legendary. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-legendary-blood-bowl/705514

It will indeed, if they start fixing the bugs the testers have reported.

[Tapja]

It will indeed, if they start fixing the bugs the testers have reported.

So, how buggy is the release?

[Lyngs]

It's not too bad in general, it is much less buggy than the first game, and Cyanide is working hard to fix the ones found.

There is one big problem tho. Someone has made a small program that can detect the outcome of dicerolls in advance. This is only possible as the dice roll mechanism is currently clientside. I have confirmation from Cyanide that this is getting fixed within the week, and that they will most likely move it serverside ASAP.

If you are mostly into the single player part. I can highly reccomend buying it now. There is a new story mode and extended campaign that is rather entertaining. The AI has been improved significantly, alto if you are a skiled player, you can still beat it with relative ease.

If you want the game for the Multiplayer part. Leagues and Match Making, then I would advise against getting it untill the exploit is fixed. There has been no guarantee that the dice rolling mechanism will be moved serverside, so any fix to the clientside will only hold for a limited time.

The league I am playing in, is currently discussing suspending all matches untill the exploit is fixed. Even tho it was only released Friday and not many know of it yet. I am sure it will spread a bad vibe across the community. The suspision that you opponent is using the dice cheat is IMO enough to ruin the game.