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 Pacific wrote:

lonestarr777 wrote:
How does it feel not to have any joy left in hat cold black heart Pacific?

I'm excited about this for two reasons. First, Bloodbowl always seemed cool but I missed it the first time around. Second, GW seems to finally be pulling their heads out of their butts on this.

I'm hoping for a lizardman team.

Sorry but I think mine is a legitimate concern. The player community for BB is massive internationally. I love the game, I have friends who love the game and travel abroad to play in tournaments. And finding the rules, team rosters and miniatures online is about as difficult as finding pictures of Kim Kardashian's butt, I'm afraid that's not an argument for relaunching the game.

Couple this with GW giving not one gak about existing player communities (WHFB) and their ineptitude concerning the rule mechanics of current games (AoS and the state of 40k) and you can see why I have concerns.

GW might see it as a quick cash injection, one and done release, but they have the potential here to destroy player communities. Their track record does not fill you with encouragement.

This isn't GW prime, it's Forge World/specialist games, and FW have a much better track record for writing and updating rules.

 Mymearan wrote:

 Pacific wrote:

lonestarr777 wrote:
How does it feel not to have any joy left in hat cold black heart Pacific?

I'm excited about this for two reasons. First, Bloodbowl always seemed cool but I missed it the first time around. Second, GW seems to finally be pulling their heads out of their butts on this.

I'm hoping for a lizardman team.

Sorry but I think mine is a legitimate concern. The player community for BB is massive internationally. I love the game, I have friends who love the game and travel abroad to play in tournaments. And finding the rules, team rosters and miniatures online is about as difficult as finding pictures of Kim Kardashian's butt, I'm afraid that's not an argument for relaunching the game.

Couple this with GW giving not one gak about existing player communities (WHFB) and their ineptitude concerning the rule mechanics of current games (AoS and the state of 40k) and you can see why I have concerns.

GW might see it as a quick cash injection, one and done release, but they have the potential here to destroy player communities. Their track record does not fill you with encouragement.

This isn't GW prime, it's Forge World/specialist games, and FW have a much better track record for writing and updating rules.

Yeah. FW are a bit more on point when it comes to rules, not by much.

As for the player communities, GW is in a difficult situation no matter what they do.
BB as is should continue, since it is fan run there is no direct connection by GW and no investment needed from the existing tourney and playing scene. GW has a need to stop any promotion of events called BloodBowl. Since it impacts a product hey are trying to relaunch/sell.

It maybe that the NAF community will be reached out to or has been.
Putting myself in GW's shoes I would have to look long and hard at anyone running events using a brand I want to relaunch and make money from. From a point of view of goodwill and my legal position regarding ownership. I would think that GW have learnt the lessons of CHS and Spots.

 Mymearan wrote:

 Pacific wrote:

lonestarr777 wrote:
How does it feel not to have any joy left in hat cold black heart Pacific?

I'm excited about this for two reasons. First, Bloodbowl always seemed cool but I missed it the first time around. Second, GW seems to finally be pulling their heads out of their butts on this.

I'm hoping for a lizardman team.

Sorry but I think mine is a legitimate concern. The player community for BB is massive internationally. I love the game, I have friends who love the game and travel abroad to play in tournaments. And finding the rules, team rosters and miniatures online is about as difficult as finding pictures of Kim Kardashian's butt, I'm afraid that's not an argument for relaunching the game.

Couple this with GW giving not one gak about existing player communities (WHFB) and their ineptitude concerning the rule mechanics of current games (AoS and the state of 40k) and you can see why I have concerns.

GW might see it as a quick cash injection, one and done release, but they have the potential here to destroy player communities. Their track record does not fill you with encouragement.

This isn't GW prime, it's Forge World/specialist games, and FW have a much better track record for writing and updating rules.

It's Andy Hoare, previously of Forge World, who's managing the new Specialist Games dept. Given what we know of him, I think we can show a huge amount of trust in him to do the right thing, both by the game and by the community. He's one of the good ones.

I don't see any more 'chapterhouse/spots' fiascos in GW's future. I think there's been a significant satori moment at the boardroom and with the changing of the guard, we'll see some far more community orientated attitudes.

Another day, another post from Games Workshop, well Forgeworld, building hype. Love the squig ball

Nice balls!

Squig ball, awesome! How has that never appeared in BB before, it's so in keeping with the tone!?

I'm getting really excited about where this is heading...

Squig Ball! Now with "Oi! Come back 'ere!" special rule….

Edit: it's heading *rolls d8* left a bit.

 Mr_Rose wrote:
Squig Ball! Now with "Oi! Come back 'ere!" special rule….

Edit: it's heading *rolls d8* left a bit.

That would be awesome! Tempted to introduce that as a low-cost inducement; all balls scatter an extra time?

GW have maneuvered themselves into the position they're in with Blood Bowl and it's a shame, but managements change, and so do markets. When they dropped BB (and the rest) they did so because they didn't feel it was making enough money.

The market and management (or at least the strategy) have now changed and GW are bringing it back. The Living Rulebook as of the most latest edition is a fantastic set of rules, but is only in the state it is in because of the extensive work done to it by fans themselves. This, combined with the small but fanatical set of fans who have continued to run BB as a tournament for decades, makes pulling it back into GW somewhat problematic from the point of view of the old-skool fans... Unless they wanted to be ruthless about it.

Disclaimer: I'm an old-skool fan, but I also want to see a new edition of BB with plastic players and an updated aesthetic.

So what it comes down to is this: BB belongs to GW. Copyright, rules, everything. So they can pull it back. The LRB is good, but it's not the be all and end all. So they can basically do what they like about it. The old-skool fans never spent enough on it to keep it alive last time around, so who cares what they think? Half of them are so bitterly anti-GW at this point that they'll hate whatever GW do as a matter of principle.

I doubt GW will be that ruthless. They're making quite genuine overtures to the fans, and appear to be embarking on an actual marketing campaign, even if it mainly consists of a few posters at gaming conventions and a facebook page with sneak peaks. But I think the answers to alot of these questions are going to depend on how long you've been a bitter and twisted old BB fan (although that consists of two decades for me and I'm STILL excited about it coming back, regardless of how it's done, so maybe it comes down to how reasonable you are).

I missed out on this game before, so I'm excited to finally get my hands on it. Now if they'll only redo Mordheim as well.

 Monkey Tamer wrote:
I missed out on this game before, so I'm excited to finally get my hands on it.

What was stopping you from playing before?

You could get the rules. You could get the pitch. You could get the dice. You could get the miniatures. You could get opponents.

Was it just lacking the official GW stamp of officialdom?

 infinite_array wrote:

 Monkey Tamer wrote:
I missed out on this game before, so I'm excited to finally get my hands on it.

What was stopping you from playing before?

You could get the rules. You could get the pitch. You could get the dice. You could get the miniatures. You could get opponents.

Was it just lacking the official GW stamp of officialdom?

I was lacking disposable income in the 90s. If there was ever a reissue I missed that as well. As far as the miniatures I didn't see them for over a decade, so even if ebay was an option they were out of sight and out of mind by then.

 Monkey Tamer wrote:

 infinite_array wrote:

 Monkey Tamer wrote:
I missed out on this game before, so I'm excited to finally get my hands on it.

What was stopping you from playing before?

You could get the rules. You could get the pitch. You could get the dice. You could get the miniatures. You could get opponents.

Was it just lacking the official GW stamp of officialdom?

I was lacking disposable income in the 90s. If there was ever a reissue I missed that as well. As far as the miniatures I didn't see them for over a decade, so even if ebay was an option they were out of sight and out of mind by then.

They were on GW site for sell up until like 3ish years ago. Box set and teams, and a crapton of other sites had models, dice and some nice feilds. My friend ran a Shadowforge Bunny based Pack team, that was epic.

Noir wrote:

 Monkey Tamer wrote:

 infinite_array wrote:

 Monkey Tamer wrote:
I missed out on this game before, so I'm excited to finally get my hands on it.

What was stopping you from playing before?

You could get the rules. You could get the pitch. You could get the dice. You could get the miniatures. You could get opponents.

Was it just lacking the official GW stamp of officialdom?

I was lacking disposable income in the 90s. If there was ever a reissue I missed that as well. As far as the miniatures I didn't see them for over a decade, so even if ebay was an option they were out of sight and out of mind by then.

They were on GW site for sell up until like 3ish years ago. Box set and teams, and a crapton of other sites had models, dice and some nice feilds. My friend ran a Shadowforge Bunny based Pack team, that was epic.

I hadn't even thought of the game since the 90s. If you told me Necromunda had been on the site up until 3 years ago I wouldn't have known. Out of sight and out of mind for over 10 years for me. I guess I'm just not as obsessive as others. I didn't even know what Age of Sigmar was until recently. I went to finally purchase an Isle of Blood set and found it had been replaced. I regret that I missed the opportunity, but apparently it's coming around again.

I think I may finally get into it. Never have done BB before now but I'm ready to finally dip my toe.

Now... to decide on a team...

if this is legit im totally going to play. Damn you GW!! Damn you!!!!

 MeanGreenStompa wrote:
Now... to decide on a team...

I recommend you don't pick Halflings, Goblins or Ogres until further notice. These three teams have a 30-35% win rate and need fixing more than most teams.

Also: I don't know the company that is offering it, but this is the sort of product I'm glad is being made. The main problem I see with it at the moment is that it doesn't seem to have room for the rulebook.

 AlexHolker wrote:

I recommend you don't pick Halflings, Goblins or Ogres until further notice. These three teams have a 30-35% win rate and need fixing more than most teams.

I don't necessarily agree with that. It's a bit of a bummer if you happen to like the particular aesthetic, but I've always liked the idea that some of the teams were harder by design, as a challenge to more experienced/better/luckier players.

 Jadenim wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:

I recommend you don't pick Halflings, Goblins or Ogres until further notice. These three teams have a 30-35% win rate and need fixing more than most teams.

I don't necessarily agree with that. It's a bit of a bummer if you happen to like the particular aesthetic, but I've always liked the idea that some of the teams were harder by design, as a challenge to more experienced/better/luckier players.

Oh, I'm fine with some teams having a higher skill floor than others. If a newbie coach is better off with a "hit man, walk to endzone, win game" team than one that involves more complex strategies like goblin flinging and secret weapons, that's perfectly reasonable. But between skilled coaches both should be equally viable - winning with Goblins should be harder because they're a more complex team, not because they're a worse team.

 AlexHolker wrote:
Also: I don't know the company that is offering it, but this is the sort of product I'm glad is being made. The main problem I see with it at the moment is that it doesn't seem to have room for the rulebook.

See, that's something else that worries me. If GW's jumping back into the fray, are we going to see all the awesome crowdfunding projects that bring out great looking teams and pitches go away?

via FB

Good afternoon, Sports Fans! We're proud to show off some of the trophies being awarded at Warhammer World's upcoming Blood Bowl, The Bugman's XXXXXX League Cup on 21st-22nd May. Being as how the event is sponsored by Bugman's Bar, these are no ordinary trophies but rather one-of-a-kind, exclusive, engraved Bugman's hip flasks! Perfect for any Blood Bowl player travelling to an away match. There's still a few tickets left, so if you fancy your luck at winning one of these, go here to find out more details: http://warhammerworld.games-workshop.com/the-bugmans-xxxxx…/

.. Glad to see the Gouged Eyes legendary Captain is mentioned !

https://www.facebook.com/GWWarhammerWorld/posts/1197418010277677

Blood bowl eh? well that's going to be a £100+ box set.

anyone going......?

 reds8n wrote:
anyone going......?

Anyone? I demand photos!

“Will you take a look at that, Jim.”

“Indeed, Bob. If I’m not mistaken, that looks like a close up of the official pitch from next season's Blood Bowl league.”

“And very good it’s looking too. I can’t wait to see the whole thing.”



... fret not : this is the ungrided -- is that a word ? It is now ! -- version, to show off the texture/art a bit better.

The game/pitch will have a grid over it still.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Jadenim wrote:

 AlexHolker wrote:

I recommend you don't pick Halflings, Goblins or Ogres until further notice. These three teams have a 30-35% win rate and need fixing more than most teams.

I don't necessarily agree with that. It's a bit of a bummer if you happen to like the particular aesthetic, but I've always liked the idea that some of the teams were harder by design, as a challenge to more experienced/better/luckier players.

Oh, I'm fine with some teams having a higher skill floor than others. If a newbie coach is better off with a "hit man, walk to endzone, win game" team than one that involves more complex strategies like goblin flinging and secret weapons, that's perfectly reasonable. But between skilled coaches both should be equally viable - winning with Goblins should be harder because they're a more complex team, not because they're a worse team.

That's not really what blood bowl is about though. It has teams that are flatly worse by design - particularly so that someone can introduce a group to blood bowl and not have to worry about stomping them into the dirt.

Vampires, Ogres, Goblins, and especially Halflings are "handicap" or "joke" teams. There are "high skillcap" teams (mostly the elf lineup), there are "super strong early, weak later" teams (norse, Dwarf) for someone who likes to start strong, there are "hyper-scaling" teams that become juggernauts later on (Chaos)

the_scotsman wrote:
That's not really what blood bowl is about though. It has teams that are flatly worse by design - particularly so that someone can introduce a group to blood bowl and not have to worry about stomping them into the dirt.

But that's stupid. If you don't want to have to worry about stomping a newbie into the dirt you don't need the game developer to deliberately misrepresent how much gold your players are worth; if you want to give your opponent an advantage, just let them take an extra 200k of inducements.

Simple question: Is it your game?

The game is designed by the designer. If it makes sense to the designer that hobbits would be terrible at blood bowl, and all a team of pathetic wimpy goblins could do to win would be to sneak illegal weaponry onto the pitch, and a team of nothing but Ogres would be big and dumb and easy to outsmart even if they could smash stuff... that's their perogative.

Blood bowl is a game of random beer n' pretzels silliness, to its very core concept. Almost everything in the game is a highly variable random roll, right down to your players living or dying of their injuries. All the different teams are stronger at different times in the league by nature of how they're set up, and if you don't like that setup...well, I don't know what to say besides it's not the game for you. Blood Bowl makes 40k look like a game with no randomness to it, and that's saying something.

The game designers did not go into making the game going "hey, how can we make all these teams that do different stuff in a balanced manner" they went into it saying "what if our fantasy races were playing football against each other? What would they do?" There are 24-odd teams to choose from. Don't play the handicap teams if they bother you, there are an absolute ton to pick from.

yeah,

the_scotsman wrote:
Simple question: Is it your game?

the 3 copies at my house are.

I agree with your sentiment, it is a beer and dice game! (who the feth eats pretzels!)

However Blood Bowl is also one of the most balanced games in existence!
It's ruleset is water tight! It's Team are characterful yet finely tuned.
Goblins should play Elves and can win!

Any 1,000,000 gold starting team has a fair chance of beating any other IMO

Inducements IMO are more about equalling out league games.
Some teams are winning, players are ranking up skills and all that gold is buying extra players guys.
Other teams are losing and players have died.
Inducements allow these teams to play a league game and the underdog gets help.


I'm bottom of the bracket in one local league going into game nine, I've suffered something like 5 deaths!
my Vampires are about to play the #1 Lizardmen with 500 something in inducements!
But As I joked to my opponent "Wizards, Chainsaws and bribes oh my!" I'm not worried about the Team Value difference.

In another league my Vampire are running all pistons banging and are top of the table after 3 games...

some Luck Some skill, loads of Beer!
GW's best game!
BLOODBOWL!

Panic...

I will also confess to a certain amount of interest about the setting, will it still be the 'alternative warhammer reality' setting? Have the End Times occurred there? Will it (please, all the gods and devils) hold onto it's full, wacky, sometimes edgy sense of humor?

Will 'norse', 'Empire' etc teams still exist?