Hi,
Recently I've been playing quite a lot of Blood Bowl but simply matchmaking matches. I've been meaning to play in a league for some time now and then I thought, why not a board 8 league?
For those of you who don't know what Blood Bowl is I'll give you this link seeing as this is one of the best introductions to the game I've come across:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/09/07/the-rps-cup-blood-bowl-campaign-diary-intro/
All in all it's a turnbased board game based on [American] football that is incredibly violent, has rpg elements, you level-up your guys, features 23 races/teams. It's built for league-play and is remarkably balanced for a game with so many options. Moreover, it's loads of fun and it's easy to get attached to your guys (or gals) which clashes with the violent nature of the game creating loads of tension and excitement.
A lot of that comes from that it's a dice-based game and rolling a one means that the action fails, usually resulting in your guy getting on the ground, or worse, in the injury-box, and more importantly ending your turn. As you can fail your first (and thus last) action of your turn, your really need to manage risks and always plan so that even if it fails, you're still in a good position. This doesn't mean that the game is all about who gets the luckiest rolls. Prioritizing your moves make up a big part of the game, e.g. moving your guys first (no chance of failing that) before attempting the riskier things like blocking, dodging or passing as well as knowing the odds and choosing the skills that you think will be most useful on your guys. That said, there will be some games where the dice are completely against you (or in your favour).
Interested? Good. If we can get some people together we could form a (small) league and start a season. If we can get enough people, I'll make a new topic explaining all the specifics of joining, etc., don't worry.
In the meantime I should probably give a quick word about Fumbbl (http://fumbbl.com/).
As I mentioned in the topic title, it's free, all you need to do is register an account. Then you're as good to go. The client itself is Java based, shouldn't be a problem for anyone, I guess. It's easy to use.
Reading the rules might not be a bad thing however.
You can find them here: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1310002_BB_Complete_Blood_Bowl_Rulebook.pdf
Don't be intimidated by the amount of pages, 3/4 of them are just background fluff.
Now, perhaps you're thinking: "Won't I get completely slaughtered if some blood bowl veterans join the league while I'm a complete newbie?"
The answer is: "Yes." To counter that, it's probably best for those who've already played it (myself included) to pick one of the weaker teams (stunty) like Halflings.
Also, you can play some matches on fumbbl to learn the game. The best way to do that would probably be joining this group, which is specifically designed for new(er) players to play matches against experienced coaches who'll give advice. (http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=group&op=view&group=1140) Or just playing some matches on the matchmaking service there.
Finally here are some good sites for tactics and information about the races.
http://bbtactics.com/
http://fumbbl.com/help:LRB6RaceStrategy
Anyone interested?
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I'm but a simple companion in the pack of gurus whereof SuperNiceDog is the pack leader!