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Fantasy Footbrawl
I have never really been that interested in football. Growing up, I always thought it was boring, and the games took SO LONG, so it was never something that held my attention for too long. As I've grown up, I have developed an appreciation for the sport, but if I'm being completely honest, it's more of a kind of sociological camouflage. Something that will allow me to blend in on Thanksgiving or Sundays spent with my in-laws in order to have relatively normal conversations with my family or other people around the world without the feeling of being the freakish outsider that plagued me through childhood.
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| "Yeah... Uh-huh... I also think the Raiders are having a bad season..." |
That's not to say I don't "Get It". I understand the appeal of rooting for your team and the thrill of competition, but if I wanted that, I'd usually turn to basketball or mixed martial arts in my adult years.
But, there was one kind of football game that intrigued me, and it did so from a very young age...
Mutant League Football came out for the Sega Genesis came out when I was 10 years old, and it was everything I wanted the NFL to be! It was fun, silly, violent, and featured things that were actually interesting to nerdy little kid, like trolls, robots, and skeletons! And you know what? The gameplay was VERY GOOD because it was based on an ACTUAL FOOTBALL GAME (Madden '93)! Mutant League is the reason I understand the game of football.
I never lost that love of Mutant League Football, and as I've grown up and began developing my love of tabletop games, one game has always intrigued me: Blood Bowl. It's football-like with orcs and humans and elves, and it has AMAZING miniatures:
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| Thanks to Mike's Meeple, Paul, for letting me PAINT all these awesome guys... |
But the thing about Blood Bowl is that it's kind of fiddly. The rules are a little more complex than I'd like to see, and a single game lasts anywhere between two to three HOURS. That's as long as an ACTUAL FOOTBALL GAME! Fast forward to 2018 and Games Workshop has released Blitz Bowl, a spin off of Blood Bowl which claims to have streamlined mechanics and play within 30 minutes to an hour... Those are some big promises to fit into a relatively small box...
Forward Progression
Just like its predecessor, Blitz Bowl is a two player football style skirmish game where Players take their teams of Blitzers, Linemen, Catchers, and Throwers and try to score as many points as possible by running the ball into their endzone.
This is done by assigning your team three actions, such as Running, Marking the Opposing Team, Throwing the Ball, or even tackling another figure. Each member of your team has their own unique statistics and sometimes special abilities, that are designed to help them score touchdowns to win the game.
This is done by assigning your team three actions, such as Running, Marking the Opposing Team, Throwing the Ball, or even tackling another figure. Each member of your team has their own unique statistics and sometimes special abilities, that are designed to help them score touchdowns to win the game.
Well, that's not entirely true.
Yes, you're trying to maneuver the ball down the pitch, and yes, you win by scoring touchdowns and points, but there's another way to score points in Blitz Bowl.
These are the Challenge Cards:
They reward you with a certain number of points if you complete the requirements listed on the cards, such as hitting someone on the other team so hard they're knocked down, or completing a difficult pass. So, if you REALLY want to win the game, you can't just play, you have to play with FLAIR!
While this definitely provides another way of winning the game, the Challenge Cards also serve another purpose. They're double sided, and their reverse side has one of these Bonus Plays on them:
You collect these when you complete the Challenge, and they have powerful single use effects like re-rolling dice, spawning another ball, or even switching which team is assigned to which endzone!
These challenge cards are what truly separate Blitz Bowl from Blood Bowl. In Blood Bowl, your only option is to move the ball down the field in hopes of a touchdown, but in Blitz Bowl you can almost ignore that way of scoring points in favor of completing the Challenges. In fact, if you complete three Challenges on your turn, you get an ADDITIONAL 3 Points!
Yes, this is a great gameplay addition, but it even makes THEMATIC sense, as the Blitz Bowl is designed as a tryout game for the big time Blood Bowl league, so both teams are trying to impress as much as possible!
These are the Challenge Cards:
They reward you with a certain number of points if you complete the requirements listed on the cards, such as hitting someone on the other team so hard they're knocked down, or completing a difficult pass. So, if you REALLY want to win the game, you can't just play, you have to play with FLAIR!
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| Not quite the kind of Flair I was talking about... |
While this definitely provides another way of winning the game, the Challenge Cards also serve another purpose. They're double sided, and their reverse side has one of these Bonus Plays on them:
You collect these when you complete the Challenge, and they have powerful single use effects like re-rolling dice, spawning another ball, or even switching which team is assigned to which endzone!
These challenge cards are what truly separate Blitz Bowl from Blood Bowl. In Blood Bowl, your only option is to move the ball down the field in hopes of a touchdown, but in Blitz Bowl you can almost ignore that way of scoring points in favor of completing the Challenges. In fact, if you complete three Challenges on your turn, you get an ADDITIONAL 3 Points!
Yes, this is a great gameplay addition, but it even makes THEMATIC sense, as the Blitz Bowl is designed as a tryout game for the big time Blood Bowl league, so both teams are trying to impress as much as possible!
Athletic Supporter
The components for Blitz Bowl are great. The miniatures are nice and chunky, and I'm pretty sure that they're the EXACT same molds from Blood Bowl, which is very cool, and all the models are different poses even if they're the same position on the team. That's very nice, however, it can be a little confusing for telling which models are which position.
I will say that all of the figures in the game come unassembled and on sprues. This means that you won't be able to just bust this game open and play with your friends as soon as you get this. Each team took me about an hour to assemble, and while they are "Push to Fit" (no glue required) I still recommend using glue during the assembly.
What is FANTASTIC about Blitz Bowl, however, is that this game may come with the models for two teams, the Humans and Orcs, but it comes with the Team Cards for another FIVE: Elves, Chaos, Goblins, Dwarves, and Skaven!
If you already have these teams for Blood Bowl or purchase them, they are fully compatible, or you could just play with proxy figures, because each of these ADDITIONAL teams play VERY differently than the Humans and Orcs.
But It!, Try It!, or Fly It!
I really like this game. Blitz Bowl boils everything down to the core factors that made its big brother, Blood Bowl, a phenomenon, but in a much more palatable form. Gone are the two to two and a half hour games heavy tactical games, where everything can go out the window with a bad die roll, replaced with a 30 to 40 minute casual experience that you could easily enjoy with someone just getting into the hobby of tactical games.
Everything has been reduced down for ease of consumption, and I'll be honest, that may turn some people off, but not me. I can honestly say that after playing Blitz Bowl, I will not be going back to Blood Bowl. It's just a better game, through and through, with more options to win and a lower point of entry/learning curve. I REALLY hope that Games Workshop continues to support it, because it's worth it.
The Verdict...?
BUY IT!
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