Playing with Orks. Bad weather,-1 to catch the ball or Pass. Humans being slaughtered due to incredible and killer melee dice rolling.

But unable to catch the ball. Faceboot only needed 4+ with reroll to grab it. Raining. Mud. What is a ball? Do we need it? Why my coach urges me to grab it? It is wet and dirty.

While the massacre blooded the center of the camp Faceboot rolled his dice 15 times before catching it during Turn 8, first half. During the first half 3 Humans died. 3 More severely wounded. 1 Clear Wound. But 15 rolls to catch that dammed thing.

No League, simply 2 old players loosing virginity with the new box. 35 mm bases...mmmm... Strange. Stopped after the first half. Then dust off AHs "Atlantic Storm". Ahhhhh...dices...

Haha, I used to play Khemri (and in fact, my new Necron-based Khemri team is coming along nicely, so I might again), that is what every game feels like to us!

Used to play Chaos Dwarfs :-)

Haven't played in a while.

Wuz' da difference with this edition and the previous edition?

None as far as I know.

12 hours ago, Cununculus said:

Used to play Chaos Dwarfs :-)

Haven't played in a while.

Wuz' da difference with this edition and the previous edition?

Minimal things. Although for Chaos-anything - Piling On has been removed and they gave out a nerfed version as optional rule (using a team reroll instead of normal ones). So no more Claw-Piling On-Mighty Blow ridiculousness. Human Catchers are 10k cheaper. League play had some reworks, players now have to be rehired after the season and may get more expensive when they don't want to play anymore. Spiraling Expenses have been replaced by a system where you might lose some money after any match, with worse chances the more you have stockpiled. Wizards aren't a thing for the moment, although they are likely to be reintroduced in a later Deathzone supplement.

I remember playing in a league after college. I was playing Dwarfs and was in a match vs. Orcs. I was winning and there were just a few rounds left before I had to win. I was late for GWAR show (mythical band I had not seen yet and really wanted to). I just needed to pick the ball up and hold on to it for a few turns. My guys were getting knocked down and some luck would go against my opponent. I would forget to just stand up my guys every turn and try to pick the ball up....and fail. Turn over. It happened so often that the Orcs managed to rush me, grab the ball, and win the game.

Was still worth it to go to the GWAR show!

Blood Bowl is so superb game that I stopped playing Leagues because sometimes people loose their temper. I am not a puritan citizen. You can cry and hit the wall and shout after "1, reroll, 1". But 22-23 years ago I played BBowl in a gameclub devoted to GWs games. Some players were friends, others Mr Nice Guy.

But sometimes no Mr Nice Guy. Mr Berserk. The situation was under control while playing "short" 10-20 games per Cup (ahhhhh... youngsters with plenty free time). It becames hotter the day we started a 9 month League. Much hotter.

We started mid September. Aprox March next year the Dark Gods played with us, mere mortals. Young and hot blooded. Two of the most competitive players suffered badly when 150+ XP minis died or were crippled. Bad luck. And bad temper.

Early in the 90s I was a hardcore player too. The League was a (minor) obsesion. I played RPGs and Wargames too, so too much time playing each week. One night I decided to quit from the League after I killed the most experienced elf Wardancer never seen in our Club. Fault. No skill... simply kicked his head while face up. Kill. No Doctor available.

My opponent enraged. Really. We exchanged several blows after he said some nasty things about my mom. 2 or 3 days later we both expulsed from the club. My friends quit. The other guy's friends quit. One or two months later the club dissapeared.

When games are so good that your life focus around it... Bad. Really bad.

That is nasty indeed! Sometimes people really get attached to their team and players.

I joined a D&D Light RPG group of my friends, three of them also played in a small league.

One of them would come over for a match before moving one block of appartments further down the road.

He had a human team with a ridiculous well developed thrower and had aquired the mythical "Griff Oberwald"

I had a less rapidly developing Chaos Dwarf team. I joked with a friend I would attack Griff with the only Dwarf with Mighty Blow and if it didn't work I would use an Evil Git of a Hobgoblin for a nasty foul.

During the match the fancy thrower got a -1AG injury so he used the apothecary. Somehow I actually managed to hit Griff with the Mighty Blow Chaos Dwarf after which he went down but stayed on the fieled. Next came the Evil Git. Fouled. And killed Griff....

The remainder of the game passed gloomy with my friend muttering curses about bad luck.

The game dragged to a 2-2 tie. But as an added insult to injury I decided my hard hitting dwarfs should take a last swipe at the fancy thrower, who died as well.

His 2 major players dead, 2 others in hospital and a tie in a game he thought would be easy made my friend "not amused".

We finished the remaining turns in uncomfortable silence. He packed his stuff and left. I had to explain D&D that evening would be with minus one....

The emotional component of Blood Bowl is unique, amazing, and also terrible. It is the key reason for why it is such a compelling game to me.

And boy am I scared for my Blodging Orc Blitzer...

As we of my friends used to say...

"When one guy who is supposed to be my friend laughts when my better runner fails to Dodge and is in risk of dying... I feel the Blood God taking control over me..."

Low AR scare me to death. I used to play Orks or Dwarves because AR 9 is fine to me. Not fancy play after many upgrades but while kicking that AR 7 AGI 4 or 5 fast guy...jijiji.

Fault turn 8 second half loosing 1-3... THERE IS NO REASON TO EXECUTE A FAULT WITH 5 ORKS INVOLVED... I know. AR 7?

2 hours ago, Admiral Deathrain said:

The emotional component of Blood Bowl is unique, amazing, and also terrible.

There was a review based not on how the game played, but rather how accessible it was to people with various physical issues, like how well it plays for people who are color blind, or people with cognitive issues, ect... They do that for a lot of games I gather.

They got to the emotional accessibility, which I guess means how likely people with emotional issues are to have have a problem playing the game... The first line said it all..

"Oh god!"

17 minutes ago, VanorDM said:

There was a review based not on how the game played, but rather how accessible it was to people with various physical issues, like how well it plays for people who are color blind, or people with cognitive issues, ect... They do that for a lot of games I gather.

They got to the emotional accessibility, which I guess means how likely people with emotional issues are to have have a problem playing the game... The first line said it all..

"Oh god!"

Yeah, should I ever have children I will teach them to take losses with grace using some robut blood bowl set (maybe made from LEGO) and old fashioned Monopoly - because you can't teach them how unfair the world is soon enough. They will suffer, be broken, and remade in my image!

Children taking losses with grace... Good luck.

I think that Blood Bowl and X Wing are two superb games to have fun with your son. For less than 200$ you can add the new BB, two X Wing core sets and a couple of extra small ships.

When I was young we played Monopoly and Scrabble... If this was awesome, imagine X Wing after watching Rogue 1 or BB after a little paint time. I have never played BB with childs but quite experienced with X Wing and young players.

Only Pansey Elves play the ball in Blood bowl!

My Ork Blitzers were not bad runners. Mov 6 is quite low to run with the ball but not easy to Blitz. Sometimes instead of breaking noses I ran... Strange feelings. TD?

Move 6 is pretty ok.

Hobgoblins are fragile with AR 7, but for 40k they were also quite.... expendable....

Somewhat like an academy pilot TIE-fighter ;-)

4 hours ago, Cununculus said:

Move 6 is pretty ok.

Hobgoblins are fragile with AR 7, but for 40k they were also quite.... expendable....

Somewhat like an academy pilot TIE-fighter ;-)

Now I really have a strange image in my mind, a goblin flying a Tie while standing on top of it, Green Goblin style, with the ball in it's hands. I think this needs to happen

9 hours ago, Hexdot said:

My Ork Blitzers were not bad runners. Mov 6 is quite low to run with the ball but not easy to Blitz. Sometimes instead of breaking noses I ran... Strange feelings. TD?

Well they are the highest movement on the team if you don't trust Goblins - I even tend to run the ball with my MV5 Thrower.

Goblins were Mov 6 too. Troll can, in a perfect world, launch a Goblin but less than 15% chance of success. Too many rolls. For each TD one Goblin eaten.

Aahhh, Blood Bowl, probably the best GW's boardgame – or any game – ever. Unfortunately it is a bit too challenging to play due to the commitment needed for a proper league game. And IMO that is the way to play it to build up those stories which will be remembered after year – or even decades. Very few games give similar emotional experience as league play Blood Bowl.

My personal favourite BB story (from '98 possibly) is a league final between a three-season Chaos team known for the extremely brutal playing style, ugly figures, and not-so-nice coach and a rookie (well, one season) Dark Elf team, who prodigally got in to the final despite all odds. There were at least half a dozen spectators in the local gaming store where the final was played, all supporting the underdog Defls, hoping that they'd score at least once againt the vastly superior team.

The match started with Chaos offence but they had some unlucky double skulls during the first turns, and suddenly the weak Delfs had taken the ball, put one beastman to the injury box and another one (a star, naturally) to the cemetery! All of this was accompanied by cheering of the crowd, which was probably too much for the poor Chaos coach who did a figurative table flip in turn three or so, conceded the match, packed his minis and left the store – never to be seen again playing there. Dark Elfs were crowned champions, and the team dominated the league for seven more seasons losing the championship only twice.

Blood Bowl is truly a game of big emotions! But definately not for everyone, I remember that the games against the said Dark Elfs were mentally stressing and left me physically exhausted.

I just wonder how it was possible to get so many players to play so many seasons before the internet...

Perhaps because Internet was much less interesting those days and the 28k modem experience less interesting that playing Leagues