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 scarletsquig wrote:

Going to re-quote a post of mine from earlier in this thread, since it seems to have appeared in an alien language for some people reading it:

Also, any requests for me to post a pirate copy of the .pdf on Dakka (or anywhere else) are going to be ignored.

Still happy to continue answering any questions anyone might have about the rules, as I have already been doing on previous pages.

Can you go into maybe the core mechanic or statline concept?

We talking bb block dice clones, d6, d20, proprietary dice? Card based? Coin flip? Spinny wheel?

And are we talking bb statline with piles of skills or some other function?

We talking back and forth turn based? Interactive both sides turns? One sided play mechanics? Reactive dice rolls and interrupts?

I really can't consider preordering a game where I don't know if the rules are legit or just "elfball"

It does seem eerily similar to Elfball at first glance.

nkelsch wrote:


Can you go into maybe the core mechanic or statline concept?

We talking bb block dice clones, d6, d20, proprietary dice? Card based? Coin flip? Spinny wheel?

And are we talking bb statline with piles of skills or some other function?

We talking back and forth turn based? Interactive both sides turns? One sided play mechanics? Reactive dice rolls and interrupts?

I really can't consider preordering a game where I don't know if the rules are legit or just "elfball"

I can't help with the bloodbowl comparisons, since I've never played it but I can answer everything else.

- d6 used for everything. There is also a deck of 54 cards of various types that are played in-game for various effects.
- Stats are Move, Strength, Speed, Skill and Armour. There's a ton of different special skills in addition.
- Back and forth.. you get 5 Action Tokens to spend each turn, which can be used to move/perform actions with models, or you can spend them on cards. Interrupts are featured, as a special ability that lets you act in the middle of your opponents turn.
- Your turn ends once you've spent your 5 AP or you lose possession of the ball, either by losing it to the opponent, or by making a successful strike.

What is the intended/max team size? 5actions makes it sound like teams are small like 6 max which makes me think hockey.

Is scoring based upon a basket, a goal or endzone? Like moving the ball somewhere to score?

I remember a fantasy hockey fanrules which was actually pretty fun. Beach blood bowl was also really fun and casual friendly so anything which can make for short tactical games in a sport format sounds interesting.

How many players on the field at a time? What is in the boxed game? $80 seems pretty high. How many players come in the expansion boxed teams?

From ScarletSquig's post earlier in the thread:

- 8 players initially, but this can be expanded up to 14 via hiring new team members and MVPs. There's an underdog system to balance games out in the case of highly uneven teams.
- No, you have to have 3 Orcs and 5 Goblins in the starting team. The Orcs are guards who can't pick up the ball anyway, they're there to beat people up! You could easily just use some regular warpath marauders in place of the goblin jacks though.

Looking at the pic from Beasts of War, perhaps 6-7 players on the pitch at any one time? From the sounds of things, I am getting the impression of some kind of high-speed, Speedball esque experience*

* On that note, I just remembered that cool little robot with the stretcher in that game! Hope they do something similar

Does the Rulebook have rules for other teams than the 4 mentioned teams?
(Orcs, Humans, Forgefathers and Veer-Myn)

Super Nashwan v Revolver

 reds8n wrote:

 scarletsquig wrote:

Anyway, while you're here - can I make a new thread for this tomorrow, for the purpose of punctual updates that explain the stretch goals and rewards better than the actual KS page itself does?

That's fine, when you do hit the alert on this thread and we can lock it.

And another Mantic thread gets the Putin treatment for including negative comments



Oh, and if you need extra referees

Just got this in the mail:

Pre-match Analysis with Jim Horowitz
We’re less than 24 hours away from two of the sport's most legendary teams taking to humanity’s greatest DreadBall stomping ground – the majestic Co-Prosperity Park!

Not since they played the Midgard Delvers have the Greenmoon Smackers been so hotly tipped to claim victory but never discredit the Trontek 29ers – a dominant victory over the Skittersneak Stealers last season left those rats reeling in masses of their own fur – that had to hurt!

Let's take a look at those teams:

Trontek 29ers
It's been widely documented that Trontek Industries became involved with DreadBall in its earliest days, bringing it to the vidcasts and sports channels in its rough and ready form.

Given the ever-present logo of Trontek it is hardly surprising that their team is one of the most highly regarded of the major leagues. It's has been recently reported that they're interested in signing the famed Number 88 so that their defeat at the hands of the Midgard Delvers in the last rush of the game isn't repeated this season.

Greenmoon Smackers
The Smackers began their career as pirates, ambushing lonely merchant vessels from their hideout on the green moon of Lanthis IV. Eventually they found some recordings of DreadBall games in the entertainment suite of the MVV Bilge Rat and, with little to do for months on end, started playing games among themselves.

As their raids began to focus on stealing DreadBall equipment, they soon came to the notice of Digby, who decided to strike a deal and bring their raw talent to the big leagues.

Let us know who you'll support - stay tuned to DBCN for more live sport!

I would like to echo the question on action points and cards..

5 AP per turn.. does playing a card take a point, or is it drawing a card take a point?

Is there any other way to getting cards in hand other than paying an AP?

Is the playing field fixed in size or can you make your own stadiums or use Home Field Advantage sort of rules?

 Kroothawk wrote:
And another Mantic thread gets the Putin treatment for including negative comments

Ah, I see basic reading and comprehension are outside of your capabilities now? Or did SS's suggestion he'd manage a proper active OP for a DB KS topic just *slip your mind*?

nkelsch wrote:
What is the intended/max team size? 5actions makes it sound like teams are small like 6 max which makes me think hockey.

Is scoring based upon a basket, a goal or endzone? Like moving the ball somewhere to score?

I remember a fantasy hockey fanrules which was actually pretty fun. Beach blood bowl was also really fun and casual friendly so anything which can make for short tactical games in a sport format sounds interesting.

- 8 player teams, 6 players allowed on the pitch and 2 substitutes. Players can move on and off of the yellow square at the back.

- The game is definitely more hockey than football. No player actually touches the ball (it moves at very high velocity, is solid titanium + anti-grav and would break players hands), they use hooked extensions to their arms or holographic catchers/launchers (as can be seen on the cover art). Think the idea is basically the that game is one giant pinball machine! The ball can even be used as a weapon, launching it at other players heads.

- Not just one goal, 3 of them! You can attempt to "throw a strike" whenever you are standing in the glowing area ofhexes on the board, and there is nothing between you and the goal.

 adhuin wrote:
Does the Rulebook have rules for other teams than the 4 mentioned teams?
(Orcs, Humans, Forgefathers and Veer-Myn)

No, but the Kickstarter will have stretch goals for an additional 4 teams, including an all-female one. The basic book contains rules for a ton of "Star Players" (called MVPs) which are available to bid on in leagues.. lots of different types here, ranging from robots to tentacle aliens that entangle their opponents.

 porkuslime wrote:
I would like to echo the question on action points and cards..

5 AP per turn.. does playing a card take a point, or is it drawing a card take a point?

Is there any other way to getting cards in hand other than paying an AP?

Is the playing field fixed in size or can you make your own stadiums or use Home Field Advantage sort of rules?

- Drawing a card takes a point.. playing the cards is done at various points it seems (sometimes in your turn, sometimes your opponents turn, even in the middle of one of their moves). I don't have a copy of the card deck, so I can't go into too much detail on those.
- Each team starts with a certain amount of cards of a particular type... seems like particular cards can be bought mid-match during a league too.
- Nothing about custom-stadiums or home pitches at this point in time.

What is in the boxed game? $80 seems pretty high. How many players come in the expansion boxed teams?

Looks like 16 models, ball, pitch, cards, tokens, dice and rules. I imagine the expansion boxes will have 8 models in them, but more word on that tommorow.

Higher price I've heard is due to higher quality components this time. People weren't too happy about the thin card and B&W rules in Mantic's other games,so this one will be about $20 more expensive than Mantic's previous board games to pay for better components (proper durable pitch and colour rulebook) from the start.

 BladeWalker wrote:
While I like the models and enjoy the inter-company drama over my morning coffee I have never found sports based board games to be very fulfilling either due to the pace or complexity. Going to live sporting events, participating in sports, or even watching a game on tv is better than a drawn out recreation of a made up sport. It's easy enough to add a ball element to any other game. Not being a negative nancy here, just wondering what the appeal of sports based board games is? Sell me!

Just a game, dude. Just a (slightly) different style of game. It's no more about actual sport than 40k is about actual war. While I've never served in Afghanistan, I imagine that playing Force on Force isn't much like actually being there, or even watching YouTube war footage, for that matter.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

judgedoug wrote:
/delurk

So I came to Dakka and read this thread hoping to find new information about Dreadball. Four pages and maybe four useful posts later... well, I could say that I'm once again taken aback by the sheer amount of useless noise that most of this community pours out of their gaping mouth-holes, but I'm fairly used to it by this point. Mods, please lock this thread. SS, please start the Kickstarter thread. I'd like posts in the News & Rumors section to contain information about, uhh, News & Rumors, not complaining that some company's models helmets look like another company's helmets whose helmets already look like Storm Troopers. Eurgh.

Who exactly are you again?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 scarletsquig wrote:

nkelsch wrote:

What is in the boxed game? $80 seems pretty high. How many players come in the expansion boxed teams?

Looks like 16 models, ball, pitch, cards, tokens, dice and rules. I imagine the expansion boxes will have 8 models in them, but more word on that tommorow.

Higher price I've heard is due to higher quality components this time. People weren't too happy about the thin card and B&W rules in Mantic's other games,so this one will be about $20 more expensive than Mantic's previous board games to pay for better components (proper durable pitch and colour rulebook) from the start.

Hopefully the components justify the price. They're getting into FFG and Wizards territory here with that price point, and those companies have set the bar pretty high for Miniatures/Boardgame components. That's if they're hoping to sell this to a wider audience than just Warhammer grognards.

Arguably, Mantic already includes superior miniatures to the majority of board games out there. it's just the printing and graphics side of things that needs work.

There's also a higher level of investment needed to make the miniatures for Dreadball, since it isn't just re-using KoW or Warpath models

Which is where the Kickstarter comes in -alternate sculpts, new sculpts, new teams, new special characters and cheerleaders.

I'm glad that they're starting with a high quality baseline for this, it should cut down on boring stretch goals that are just about upgrading the dice/ cards/ counters.

I for one like that they are doing a lot of the things GW did in the 1990s. Mantic has a 90s aesthetic to their miniatures that I really like. So make a sports miniatures boardgame? Sure, do that too.

People have this weird idea that anything someone else has done before is off limits or something. Human art, science, literature-- pretty much everything is about reworking the elements that are floating around in a given culture. Everything is inspired by something. Being the first in a new category doesn't mean you have the right to be the only thing in that category. And bloodbowl isn't even the first in terms of sports related boardgames. There were tons of those released in the 50s, 60s and 70s by various publishers.

I just hope that some of the kickstarter goals are additional models. I wouldn't mind the $80 price tag if there were twice as many models, or the other two teams perhaps.

yeah,
dreadball.com

Seems to have stopped counting down and started counting up... sad times.



...

and the kickstarter is live.

Panic...

 scarletsquig wrote:
Arguably, Mantic already includes superior miniatures to the majority of board games out there. it's just the printing and graphics side of things that needs work.

There's also a higher level of investment needed to make the miniatures for Dreadball, since it isn't just re-using KoW or Warpath models

Which is where the Kickstarter comes in -alternate sculpts, new sculpts, new teams, new special characters and cheerleaders.

I'm glad that they're starting with a high quality baseline for this, it should cut down on boring stretch goals that are just about upgrading the dice/ cards/ counters.

Being neither a Mantic cheerleader nor a hater, the figures for PP and DKH/expansions (I own all of them) are nice models, but suffer from being wargames miniatures rather than boardgame pieces. GW figured this out from 4th Edition 40k onwards with push-fit models, but if you compare to the stuff that FFG provide in Decent and Dust and Tannhauser everything else, Flying Frog's stuff, Claustrophobia, Wizards' various D&D games and so many others - their figures are pretty damned good. In a lot of cases better than Mantic's stuff - and certainly on a par by any standards. Except they're ready to go when you open the box, rather than a bunch of baggies filled with grey plastic. Their figures might be much better than, say, the pegs in Pandemic, but this is a boardgame that's sold on the visuals of the miniatures at least as much as the gameplay.

I'll probably be in for this KS if it looks reasonable, and so far I do like the look of the models. If the KS gives us enough models, I'll buy it based on that alone (as I did with Sedition Wars). But that's because on balance, I do like Mantic and their ethos, and also because I'm a miniatures guy. If they're trying to enter the boardgame space, and do it properly, they need to try to be on a par with FF as far as component quality goes - that goes as far as improving the physical boxes the games come in. I hope they do manage to do so. I'm also a bit dubious on the model count.

Basically, I'll probably be backing it, but if they want to compete in the same space as FFG et al, they need to match them in component quality rather than just price. Descent 2nd Ed has a US RRP of $80. That's the quality and quantity level they're competing with if they want to be taken seriously in the boardgame space, as opposed to a niche game that's just for miniatures people.
NYA MGE DBM01-1 Dreadball Futuristic Sports Game $79.99

Video is ace..

Ronnie Renton wrote:
Three years ago it was time to bring something innovative and exciting to the gameing industry. And Mantic was born!

Lol.