The first follow-up to Cyanide's 2009 release of Blood Bowl adds 11 new races from the tabletop game, an updated interface and ruleset, and a new single-player story mode.
The UI has seen a serious (and necessary) makeover, they added 11 new races (bringing the total to 20), new stadiums and a full on story/campaign mode.
How the hell did they manage to get 20 races? There's like half of that in the entire Warhammer lore. Or have they just split the races up? Like splitting skaven into Eshin, Pestilens, and Skryre?
"Did you play any of the real-time mode? if so, what's it like? "
I think it's generally safe to say it's still for crazy people. I usually default to turn-based mode, so I haven't taken a poke to see if it's any different for Legendary Edition. I imagine they might've done a few tweaks to it. Still not sure if there's direct control portions or not.
@GunslingerPanda said:
"How the hell did they manage to get 20 races? There's like half of that in the entire Warhammer lore. Or have they just split the races up? Like splitting skaven into Eshin, Pestilens, and Skryre? "
Well, ostensibly, it's a discrete license from the main Warhammer stuff. But, yeah, there's some splitting of the races up, and still an awful lot of overlap between Blood Bowl lore and Warhammer lore. I think the only race that's missing is Chaos Dwarves, which is really a shame. Apparently it had to do with some problem regarding Minotaurs.
Not sure, admittedly. The campaign stuff was kinda janky from the Dark Elves edition, thanks to some shaky AI. Looks like the AI is vastly improved in this version.
Which is to say, a Skaven team won't just try to cage their way down the field if they're playing against Chaos/bashy teams. Also, they foul a lot more, which is great.
Admittedly, it's not for everybody, but compared to the weirdness of the quick look, it seems that Cyanide is taking steps to allow for people who don't even have the slightest idea what the hell Blood Bowl is about to get a grasp of the game. So, the fact that LE has a lot more transparency regarding what's going on is significant. There's still probably a bit of trial and error or reading before you can suss everything out.
It's also a tough IP to work with since Blood Bowl was never meant to be fully "balanced."
So, depending on the mode and the team you pick, you can expect some pretty catastrophic losses until you earn enough cash to build up your team rating with re-rolls, cheerleaders and a more varied roster. And, as far as Goblins and Halflings go, well, things are horribly stacked against them to the point where they're mostly for comedic effect or players that like their games to be stupendously difficult.
But playing through a couple competitions and levelling up your players (especially with Chaos/Nurgle/Skaven teams - which all have access to special mutations like a second head or a big hand) is tremendously satisfying. Pulling off a last-ditch touchdown or gang fouling a star player to death just feels fantastic, because, man, you have to work for those victories.
(Either that, or I'm just a really shitty Blood Bowl player.)
Online stuff seems to be pretty cool as well. I'm told it's the prime attraction for a lot of people. I haven't ventured that way myself, since I'm still learning the ropes, but I look forward to giving it a shot. Maybe getting a team in to a competition.
Rock Paper Shotgun did a great series of AARs last year:
That's a good question. From what I've read, there isn't really a cohesive ruleset for the Bretonnians. Could be wrong, but I haven't seen them included as a team for Blood Bowl, even at the tabletop level. That said, the Chaos Dwarves didn't make it in because of their Centaur-like unit. Maybe it's along the same lines as the Bretonnians.
@NekuSakuraba said:
" @MuttersomeTaxicab: How is the learning curve? "
The learning curve is still a little bit steep. Since this game has its roots in a fan-made project, they still make the basic assumption that you're familiar with all the rules and don't need them to go easy on you. There are tutorials, but they're not always the most helpful. If you're not sure you're into losing a lot to learn the ropes, it might be worth trying before buying. I've still had a blast with the game, even while consistently losing, because levelling up players and watching my team actually get some great skills over the course of a season is tremendously satisfying. But, yeah, still manages to be a little obtuse.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along
with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely
increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.
Comment and Save
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other
Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll
send you an email once approved.
Log in to comment