Blood Bowl

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 18th, 2009, 7:34

I think we'll be having the problem soon where our favourite teams are reaching the 150 point cap. Hopefully we can still play in a tournament.

Post by **Joose** » September 18th, 2009, 16:45

Dog Pants wrote:I think we'll be having the problem soon where our favourite teams are reaching the 150 point cap. Hopefully we can still play in a tournament.

Reading into the League ruulz on the FUMBBL site, it looks like we could just move to the League Division and carry on. That devision is, according to the site, for "coach-run leagues and casual play", which seems to be what we want.

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 18th, 2009, 17:30

3D game arrived!

First impressions are;

You can customise your logo and colours, which is nice
3D board takes a little getting used to, but by the end of the first half of my first game I was fine with it
Computer player on medium is quite tough (I drew 1-1 against a very pass-happy human team)
Doesn't appear to cheat with the rolls, but it does seem to know the odds pretty well
Results quite nice to read, but player stats are a big wall of numbers

Post by **fabyak** » September 21st, 2009, 12:44

Right, I'm going to have to make me a team for this

Hairy Cupcake should be incoming soon

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 21st, 2009, 13:59

Yay!

Post by **fabyak** » September 21st, 2009, 14:44

A team, I now has one.
I'm most likely to be able to play this on Wednesday during the day (as my boss is out that day

)

Post by **FatherJack** » September 21st, 2009, 20:56

Dog Pants wrote:3D game arrived!

I know I asked this before, but since you now have the 3D version perhaps you can comment more specifically.

Will it teach me how to play? Imagine I'm Blue Peter-presenter thick asking how to play chess, but don't know how the pieces move. Are there scenarios I can play against the CPU that show me enough to play a fair game? Is there a wall I'll hit, where if I'm not a strategy-minded person I'll get stuck?

More generally, does the 3D version offer enough over the java version to be worth the expenditure for those already playing that?

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 21st, 2009, 21:21

Good questions.

FatherJack wrote:Will it teach me how to play? Imagine I'm Blue Peter-presenter thick asking how to play chess, but don't know how the pieces move.

There is a tutorial, but since I knew how to play I didn't look at it. Hopefully it explains the basics like turnovers and tackle zones.

FatherJack wrote:Are there scenarios I can play against the CPU that show me enough to play a fair game?

You mean to teach you the game or to have a play around? I don't know how the tutorial works yet, but the single player game can be played as a quick one-off with pre-set teams. The AI is pretty fair from what I've seen.

FatherJack wrote:Is there a wall I'll hit, where if I'm not a strategy-minded person I'll get stuck?

Can't say at the moment, as I've only played the first tournament. I can only see it getting more complicated little by little as new star players are fielded and both sides get more skills, including the weird ones. The games don't vary hugely enough to be completely baffled, but you could probably gimp your team in a campaign. In that case you'd just do badly and have to play in a less prestigious tournament.

FatherJack wrote:More generally, does the 3D version offer enough over the java version to be worth the expenditure for those already playing that?

This is the million dollar (or £25) question. It certainly looks nicer, plays faster, feels shinier. It doesn't have the faff of setting up the client and registering with FUMBBL, and of conforming to their rules. However, the game is basically the same, and is only slightly more enjoyable for the enhanced graphics and sound. I suppose the biggest benefit for me is the single player modes though, which as I've said is pretty good. Ultimately it's up to you of course, but I don't regret the £25 I paid.

The bits I've not seen yet (tutorial, real time mode, multiplayer) I'll have a play around with and add to the review.

Post by **FatherJack** » September 21st, 2009, 23:00

Dog Pants wrote:You mean to teach you the game or to have a play around? I don't know how the tutorial works yet, but the single player game can be played as a quick one-off with pre-set teams. The AI is pretty fair from what I've seen.

By 'fair', I meant 'medium' in terms of a level of ability in that it would equip me with what I needed to know to take on a CPU opponent, but also fair in terms of equality playing against a human expert - such that I would likely lose due to their experience, but not because they had benefits which weren't revealed to me during the tutorial.

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 22nd, 2009, 7:09

Well I'm playing against a medium CPU opponent in my campaign, and I've not lost a game yet. I've not lost a game against a human either (in JBBowl), so I reckon they're about on par. Hopefully the easy CPU player should be just that. There's not a great deal to know about the basic game anyway, the only advantage a more experienced player might have is more knowledge of what the skills do, and there's dozens of them. They come into the game slowly though, and there's descriptions of them in game I think.

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 22nd, 2009, 12:21

For those who buy it, there's a guide to creating custom logos here

Post by **Dog Pants** » September 27th, 2009, 14:58

Since one or two others have this as well (and hopefully a few more once the price drops), my in game name is dogpants, for the friends list.

Post by **Roman Totale** » October 1st, 2009, 21:56

Joose's Wood Elves vs my Skaven was an end to end thriller! Finished 4-3 to Joose, but crikey was it close. Spectator score at the end was 19/20. Jolly good stuff.

Now I need money to buy more doods. Useless apothecary

Post by **Joose** » October 1st, 2009, 22:06

Roman Totale wrote:Joose's Wood Elves vs my Skaven was an end to end thriller! Finished 4-3 to Joose, but crikey was it close. Spectator score at the end was 19/20. Jolly good stuff.

Now I need money to buy more doods. Useless apothecary

Was a cracker of a game, damn close too. My first win in this version of the game! woo!

Anery · Post by **Anery** » October 2nd, 2009, 7:33

Not sure what they are playing at, the price for the game is yo-yo-ing faster than Madonnas knickers in the 80's. Started out at £25 then shot down to £16 (whilst I wasn't looking the bastards) then up to £19 (still not looking) then up to £30 and now it is back to £25. Gah, I'm not buying the 3D version until it comes down to less than 20.

In the meantime does anybody fancy what I can only refer to loosely as a "game" (skills? I has none, tactics? nope, knowledge of how to play the game? err...) and will probably end up in a blood bath (a fucking gobbo killed one of my orcs - A GOBBO!) Sometime around Saturday night?

Post by **Roman Totale** » October 2nd, 2009, 10:09

Message to Fabbles - sorry, my PC spazzed out just as I got your message about not having the "proper" version.

Also, Anery - hang your head in shame that a gobbo killed one of your orcs. Gobbo bastards!

Post by **FatherJack** » October 3rd, 2009, 0:51

Dog Pants wrote:Computer player on medium is quite tough (I drew 1-1 against a very pass-happy human team)
Doesn't appear to cheat with the rolls, but it does seem to know the odds pretty well

I'm still getting thrashed on easy. The CPU might know the odds (which obviously I don't) but it feels like it's very lucky.

It seems to manage things I wouldn't dream of trying, its skink pushed back my biggest one and another ran past nearly every player. Mine always fall over at the first one. Its elves managed a similar run and a super-long pass through half my team, which just didn't happen when I played as them - they all just got flattened immediately.

I guess it might help if I read the manual, but I kind of thought 'easy' would be. At the moment I don't really know what chances I have of doing stuff, or even what the rolls I keep failing are out of - a STR vs STR comparison of characters in a tackle seems to mean jack shit.

Post by **fabyak** » October 3rd, 2009, 8:26

Roman Totale wrote:Message to Fabbles - sorry, my PC spazzed out just as I got your message about not having the "proper" version.

Also, Anery - hang your head in shame that a gobbo killed one of your orcs. Gobbo bastards!

No problem, it must have been shocked that anyone was still using the Java version

Post by **Roman Totale** » October 3rd, 2009, 10:31

FatherJack wrote: I'm still getting thrashed on easy.

I've been playing on Medium and got my arse handed to me on most occasions as Chaos. They can hit hard but that's about it. Playing against other teams just opened me up like a tin of sardines.

I then decided to switch to a more agile team with the Skavens. Early results were promising as I won my first match. Still ended up bottom of the league though. Entered another league, got some better results, but still didn't qualify.

Whilst all that sounds a bit futile, the good thing is that throughout those whuppings you get to level your players up with some rather nifty skills. Now my Skaven runners not only have Dodge (avoid tackle zones easier) but also Pro (re-roll any failed actions for free) and Sure Hands (which means you can lob the ball at them and they've got a better chance of catching it/picking it up off the ground first time).

With all these skills in place I managed to win the 3rd league after a very difficult game against some Lizardmen.

From my limited knowledge, this is what I have observed about the different races:

Chaos

Hit hard but that's about all they do. Not much diversity. When I bought a Chaos Warrior he seems to have a penchant for constantly rolling red skulls

Skaven

Very fast. Can run long distances and slip between opposition lines. Not as strong as other races, can easily take a beating.

Wood Elves

Similar to Skaven but better at passing and more expensive to replace players.

Dwarves

Slow but very, very sturdy. AI tactics seem to be that when they have the ball, they surround the player with a wall of Dwarves - it is very difficult to get the ball off them like this, especially if you have a physically weaker team. I have found the best approach is to get as many nimble players close to the ball carrier as possible (without falling over) for the team mate bonus, then risk a Blitz with one of your tougher players.

Humans

All round players. They can adapt easily if one of their front runners is taken out. Not really much else to say about them.

Orcs

Never played against them! No idea what they're like.

Lizardmen

Bastarding cupcake bags the lot of them! Probably the most overpowered race in the game. The Skinks are the runners - they can move very fast/far and slip past opposition players with disgusting ease. Because they are so fast and nimble they will surround the ball carrier with team mates to make it more difficult to Blitz. They are very fragile, but you've got to be able to hit them first. Oh yes, then they've got Sauruses. Bit bastard lizards that act as blockers - very strong. Cunts.

Post by **Roman Totale** » October 3rd, 2009, 17:30

Urgh, just played my first game against Orks. Match ended 1-1 however I ended up with:

5 badly injured
2 dead
1 KOed

Makes life interesting when the only players you can field have to go in the scrummage line.