New Previews – Blood Bowl IS Returning To The Tabletop
January 3, 2016 by brennon
Forge World are handling the future of Specialist Games with Games Workshop and one of the first products to be seen is Blood Bowl. At a recent open day event they showed off some of the concept art for the teams AND more importantly also some great images of the models they've worked on so far...
Here we have both a Human and an Orc from their respective teams. The Human is based on the older sculpts for the Thrower with his arm back, getting ready for a long bomb. The Orc is a bit more modern in design with a lot more armour. I would hazard that this might even be a Black Orc Blocker.
As well as the models they showed off some of the other races in artwork form. See what you think of the scribbles below. First up we have the Humans and Orcs as we'd seen before. It looks like they are keeping their original teams (with the distinctive bird motiff for the Reikland Reavers) but with an updated look.
We also have Ogres, Dwarfs (yay!) and even some Nurgle models in these next pictures showing that they are at least thinking about bringing all of the teams back, not just a select few.
The Nurgle team is looking great, embracing the new art direction used during the End Times and Age of Sigmar. The Dwarfs too have gone through the same tweaking it seems featuring the crests that you've been seeing on the Fyreslayers.
Images From Frankie Cook - Phoenix Games
What do you think of their work so far?
"It looks like they are keeping their original teams (with the distinctive bird motiff for the Reikland Reavers) but with an updated look..."
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Too late for me. I jumped ship to Dreadball, which I actually think is a more enjoyable game; faster action and less unfortunate turn-overs due to one unlucky roll.
I would only consider returning to Blood Bowl if they changed the rules. But I doubt they’ll do that, because then it would no longer be Blood Bowl.
The models look nice though.
I couldn’t agree more. Bloodbowl remains a good game but Dreadball (while not perfect) is a great game. I hear some of the others in this genre are, too.
If GW manage to speed Bloodbowl up and get rid of a few of its annoyances, it’s worth a look (and those models look amazing!) but I’ll wait to see how it plays.
The title suggests that it was ever gone. Bloodbowl does not need Games Workshop anymore, thank you very much.
Forgeworld will have a hard time beating the likes of Willy Miniatures, Vortice Miniatures, Sukubus Studio, Meiko Miniatures, Gaspez Arts and even Impact! Miniatures.
Those 2 new sculpts are not very promising, in that regards…
Very true – but it’s back ‘officially’. I have been playing Blood Bowl sans GW for a while now, especially using FFUMBL (great program). Certainly doesn’t need GW but it’s good to see it get some proper support from Forge World who care a lot about their products.
I think the sculpts are pretty good for what’s most likely going to be inside a Starter Box for the game.
There’s plenty of gamers out there that have never played the old BB and it’s an opportunity for them to be introduced to a new game. And for diehards of the old or community created rules then there’s nothing to stop them from using those with the new minis.
And when it comes to alternate minis from other companies. Quality and value are subjective but brand visibility isn’t.
I would agree that more exposure/brand visibility will mean more, i.e. new players, and that is always a good thing. However your last sentence makes no sense (as a separate argument), since all the visibility the game currently has either comes from longtime supporters of the game who are perfectly aware of other minifacturers – they had to, since the original minis were no longer produced – or the BB video games. And people looking for BB tabletop on the internet always landed within the “alternate BB world” or got repulsed by prices and sculpts of the original minis sold… Read more »
Blood Bowl as a miniature game might have an online presence playing second fiddle to the proxies at the moment (highly debatable), but once the game is re-launched that will change very quickly. The amount of online chatter that any BB announcement generates is huge. Thanks to the PC/console games (and the PSP version before those) and the license carried by Fantasy Flight Games, the BB brand is still massive. You’ll find it every time you walk into a Gamestop, Extravision or HMV. And it’s only going to get bigger. Once FW get around to releasing the minis they’re going… Read more »
I agree that taste is taste and opinion is just that but I think your argument on competition is rather weak. How do you know online chatter it is “huge”? Perception trap much? Also, what does that mean for the number of real people wanting to buy into this? More importantly: So basically you are saying, a huge number knows about BB right now, anyway, because of FFG (BB team manager is one of my favorite card/board games, btw) and the video games, with a huge anticipation for the tabletop that is currently apparently “on hold” (because otherwise they would… Read more »
I think we do have a little evidence on what the rules might be like. Nothing set in stone, and there’s definitely some conjecture involved: There is Blood Bowl 2 from Cyanide. The game features the core rules to Blood Bowl, with a few tweaks to the rules- small changes to some rosters and minor changes to a number of skills that makes gameplay just a touch smoother. Also, the inclusion of a new roster (Brettonians). Now, if GW want to bring videogame players on board, then it would make sense for the two versions of the game to match.… Read more »
I’ve been enjoying the Crendorian Invitational Blood Bowl league and playing the PC game. Playing it with minis and real dice would be fun.
Just waiting for a lizardman team so I could paint up Little Skittles!
First thing i notice, substancially larger bases. This is a good thing, but i suspect that this will make the new models very hard to use easily on the existing pitches
True. Bigger bases will need a bigger pitch and a bigger throwing template (or a different throwing mechanic).
I love Blood Bowl – one of the best games ever! Both minis look very nice, very nice indeed and i’m sure i’ll be tempted.
Two questions. Price and availability. Is it going to be a ‘game’ or another limited edition waste-of-time?
Anybody know if they have fiddled with the rules?
I don’t think there’s been any word on that. I tend to agree with @bucketknight that it could do with an update, though it has such a loyal following that making changes could alienate the current player base.
I agree – a GOOD update wouldn’t be bad…
Those first sculpts look great!
GW will sell a lot of BB boxes when it releases later this year.
If support and not limited edition that is .. you cant do dreadfleet and assassinorum too many times without people noticing
Rumours say that the base game 2 extra teams is in the pipeline. Orcs and Humies in the base game, and then Dwarfs and Nurgle.
It’s my belief the GW probably have learned something from former mistakes and that these “new” specialist games will get the proper support they deserve.
Hope thats the case along with reasonable pricing, and of course Necromunda 🙂 I also think its a mistake not to adapt these new rules to the age they are released in … stuff has happened since GW was the only big player on the market. A smart move was putting alternating activations into Calth imo, something i hope will creep into 40k (30k?) as well.
@lasse – I hope and suspect you’re right. GW can’t have been blind to their increasing challenges no matter how important it is that they deny them in official statements. I think the only point in re-releasing Specialist Games is to make an effort to do them well and try to win back old fans as well as generate new ones by producing quality products that receive decent support. @hatamoto – Amen to that! The main reason I gave up on 40K was not price but the archaic and frustrating rules. (Although it was nice to have an excuse to… Read more »
Were Dreadfleet or Assassinorum limited edition? I bought the former in a shop years after it was released and the latter is still available on the GW website.
Dreadfleet wasnt that easy to sell i think and assassinorum is probably still available for the same reason
@irredeemable – @hatamoto is right. Both are/were limited edition although neither sold particularly well. Online discounters were almost giving the former away before I heard that GW recalled what stock they still had in shops and pulped the remainder.
I think Assassinorum did much better, if only because for a while it was the only way to get assassin miniatures (that were very nice). It’s not very available now, although I think there are still copies floating around some shops.
execution force is still cheaper than buying the assassins separately even at gw list price…
I loved the unpredictability of bb when I was younger, but seeing your plans fail on the first roll two three times in a row makes the game more frustrating than fun. I jumped to dreadball a few years back too – and I agree, it’s a far better game system. Plus the new bb sculpts are kind of meh.
For what purpose? There’s quite a few fantasy handegg games on the market right now, some very good apparently. It’s literally GW hoping to cash in on blind nostalgia..and like Star Wars, Star Trek and all the other awful reboots of the last 5 years, I bet they’ll win big time.
but how many of those alternatives are available in shops or places that might attract new players ?
GW won’t have to put a lot of effort into marketing the new release, especially if they manage to link it to the pc version (even a simple banner/message inside that game would do).
If I hadn’t been visiting sites like BoW I might not have heard about any competing products.
Let’s hope they do rules based on the living rulebook and do not make another ‘improved’ ruleset like with AoS…
As soon as I heard GW was bringing back specialists games I figured they would hit Blood Bowl early. Unfortunately I think they will push hard on nostalgia and this will be low hanging fruit for them to get out of the door. I expect the game to be updated visually but rules to be left largely unchanged from the last edition. It will be a nostalgia trip. I do think that Blood Bowl is still quite playable and that its reliance on blind luck is a matter of taste. That said, the game has established competition these days so… Read more »
Blind luck will not win you any BB matches, you’re pretty likely to lose (getting crushed) if you’re playing against a player that’s more skilled then you. Well, that’s my experience.
…try playing ‘blind luck’ against Skaven and you will be eaten alive. Especially against me!
@unclejimmy: I knew you’d be a skaven player… Just like me! 😉
Blind luck won’t win you a game of Blood Bowl. Period. There are fundamental mechanics you need to learn and apply. Between two equally skilled players though, dice roll often decide who wins (if you don’t play with a timer to increase the stress level).
There are random things in Blood Bowl- but in my experience the coach who plays better wins the game, with few exceptions. A lot of that is risk management in Blood Bowl- and a lot goes wrong for both players during the game. Blood Bowl is essentially a game about reacting to bad situations, and turning them around. I love it because I have to make critical decisions pretty much every turn of the game. There are a couple points where I’d prefer a tiny bit less randomness (like some of the extreme results on the kick off table) and… Read more »
No I agree, it is a tactical game and player skill matters. A skilled opponent will usually beat a lucky one.
On the other hand a single bad dice roll can end your turn immediately which frustrates some players as their grand strategy can rapidly fall apart with a couple of bad rolls. Fail your first roll two turns in a row and whatever plan you had is likely falling apart entirely. It can happen.
Either you accept this as being part of the game, or it turns you off it.
I would love to get into Blood Bowl because I loved the Old World.
Just hope GW releases this as a “game”, without the mindset of them being a miniature boutique that gives a shit about good rule making.
I would surprise me if they’re not going to “update” the fluff to fit the AoS realms.
Orruk teams anyone?
No, no indication of that.
All things signs points towards it being set in the good olde Old World.
I thought they might do this but it looks like they probably won’t. I actually think they should have updated the setting to try and build up AoS.
I’ve been looking forward to this since it was announced and those sculpts look great. I never played the original game (my loss) but I’ve been honing my skills with BB2 on the PS4.
Nice to see a Nurgle team featuring early on as well. Always my deity of choice!
If Forge World does Mordheim, I might be interested.
I have some strong nostalgia for this and will be hard pressed not to buy it. But why. I can’t really say. Having had the misfortune of residing in the American west … Utah, Nevada, Washington state, etc. I have never had a chance to really experience well run Bloodbowl. Out of the box it is a really old school (not in a good way) fantasy chess game with a ton of random stuff. Classic, really quirky and with tons of personality … yes of course … I loved reading about it in WD/old school GW publications. Every time our… Read more »
Is there any news on whether these miniatures are going to be resin (this is Forge World after all) or plastic (like the previous edition of the game)?
And how about the other teams that will be released outside of the main box?
I don’t know if there has been any news but my prediction is the teams in the box will be plastic.
That’d be what I expect but it did occur to me that if it’s being produced by Forge World that might not be a correct assumption…
We will soon see I guess!
I would speculate the starter set contents much like the horus heresy one would be plastic and that they will do other teams in resin.
Another bit of information from the warhammer weekend detailed a new structure for Forge World. Essentially it’s being split into 3 teams: The Forge World guys working on the usual 40k, 30k and Age og Sigma stuff they do now The Specialist Games Division working on things like Bloodbowl A Lord of the Rings team. Each team will have a manager/team leader and 3 developers. For the time being miniatures will be designed by the teams but produced by the main Ganes Workshop company in Plastic however in th3 future this may change because there is also rumours that FW… Read more »
I think the new models look excellent myself. GW releasing a new set can only be a good thing with introducing more players. I know there is a lot of support from companies on the internet who keep BB ticking along (I’ve bought models and boards from them), but I doubt they actually increase the player base. There’s no reason to think that GW won’t update the rules to the current living rules (these are the ones that are used for the computer game). The orc base size being larger doesn’t necessarily indicate the board will increase in size. You… Read more »
I agree with you. I’d like to try Deadball sometime as I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, but the aesthetic doesn’t appeal to me either.
It doesn’t look like GW will be updating Blood Bowl to the new AoS setting and you’re right, it did always take place in a kind of parrallel universe. Long may it continue!
I’ve similar feelings towards Dreadball myself. None of the minis have jumped out at me in terms of quality. And I know a lot of people don’t mind that too much for rank & file armies, the price-point being the deciding factor for them. But if I’m playing a game where I’m likely to be fielding less than 20 minis then expense isn’t nearly as much of a factor. And with small model counts I’ll have time to paint them properly so I want the best sculpts I can get.
This will be a good thing for the league I’m apart of. I really do hope they streamline the rules so games go faster, but still have room for your team to grow through experience like the old rules had.
@manpug: Agreed… Faster play and streamlined rules is what we need to give BB a new start! I’ve been organizing seasons but the guys I play with think that 3 games a day is a bit too much…
Just hope my 6 teams can be used as proxies for whatever new teams they create for the game (if they do).
I’m not really sure where there is room to potentially streamline the rules. I have seen beach blood bowl fields on some sites, which look to have smaller pitches and most likely involve smaller teams, so there is probably a set of rules out there. A turn shouldn’t last more than 2 mins (this is in the rules I’m sure) before you take into account a turnover. 32 turns in total, so 64 mins? Probably another 10 mins to sort out all the post match stuff? I guess realistically, you’re looking at an hour and a half per game. How… Read more »
Eh…guild ball is getting hot in New England right now…so IF I was jumping into fantasy football that would be the one.
Too me GB looks like more like a skirmish game battle game, not a sports game.
Played my first ever game of Guild Ball yesterday and enjoyed it immensely and it wasn’t all about killing the opponent there was some soccer involved as well.
It is a sports game, but its game play has very little in common with Blood Bowl, DreadBall, or other games of that ilk. Whilst it shares a theme with them, its mechanics are closer in spirit to the likes of Warmachine and Malifaux.
I’m going to be selling off my painted Undead team and unpainted Skaven team to get into Guild Ball. The new BB models do look good though.
I already have Blood Bowl and I was planning on replacing my metal orc team with converted plastic 40k Orks. I might hold out for the new BB and see if it’s any good. If the components are nice enough and the price isn’t too ridiculous, I’ll be buying a copy for sure.