American football, chess, mathematics and fantasy violence make for unlikely partners, but sport'n'guts strategyfest Blood Bowl somehow unites them. The cult-ish Games Workshop tabletop game is over two decades old and even made it to the PC back in 1995. This release aims to recreate the turn-based board game using the current iteration of the rules (known as 'Living Rulebook 5.0') and also provide a real-time mode similar to that of Chaos League, a previous game by developers Cyanide.
Don't be fooled into thinking this is a sports title in anything other than external appearance though. The heart of the game is about as strategic as it gets - grids, simulated dice rolls and a multitude of special skills abound. Coaches select their side from one of the eight fantasy races available (more about them in a moment) and have sixteen turns (eight per half) to carry the ball into the opposition endzone. On the way, it's traditional to rupture the vital organs of every player that gets in your way. Blood Bowl, you see, is at least two parts violence to one part skillful play.
Almost every action in the game, be it throwing a block on the line of scrimmage or attempting to dodge deftly out of the range of hairy ogre hands, requires a simulated dice roll. Failure in any of these rolls leads to an instant 'turnover' which can leave your team in a sorry state to deal with opposition movements. A lot of the strategy, therefore, comes down to playing the odds. Actions that can be performed without touching the dice (like any movement outside of enemy 'tackle zones' or standing up downed players) should always be undertaken first. Any subsequent actions - even easy ones - should be approached with the expectation that they may go horribly, horribly wrong.
No matter how carefully you plan your moves to keep probability in your favour, the Blood Bowl dice can always screw you over. Say it's the final turn of the game, and your superstar player is just one square away from a winning touchdown. To push himself that extra space he needs to pass a simple 'go for it' roll: two or more on a six sided die. Calamity! He falls over his own bootlaces, crashes to the floor, spills the ball and his ankle explodes. Now you've only drawn the game and will be missing a key player for the next match. Worse, the injury is so bad that his statistics (and hence, performance) will be permanently affected. Many new players will find this 'randomness' offputting, but it is possible, through clever strategy and calculation, to minimise the chance of falling victim to the dastardly dice. Master this, as well as the specifics of your preferred team, and you're well on the way to becoming an intelligent coach.
As mentioned, the different races present in the game all demand a different strategy to play well (and also to counter effectively.) This adds a decent amount of replayability, because managing a Wood Elf team (quick, but fragile) is completely different to managing an Orc one (big and bashy.) Options like the Lizardmen offer a neat halfway-house as they possess both strong and agile players, and can also strike terror in the heart of David Icke. 'Present in the game' is relevant, because tabletop Blood Bowl actually features many more than the eight teams included here. As Dark Elves appear fleetingly in the recent launch trailer for this title (and in some of the in-game artwork), it seems pretty likely they'll be along shortly. Whether they'll be joined by the Undead, Amazons, Norse, Halflings or any of the other missing races is unknown. It perhaps depends upon how long it takes to code the nifty animations present for each individual model, which result in elves who constantly preen themselves and beastmen who bellow at every touchdown. A further excellent touch is the way that certain players (like the rodent Skaven) are able to gain mutations like extra arms and heads which appear on their models during play. As they play more games, all players progress in talent - that is, if they can survive.
In single player, the AI is relatively competent in handling the different sides. When it plays as a team lacking in agility, it will tend to form a 'cage' of players around the ball carrier (a well known Blood Bowl tactic) and attempt to gradually steamroller downfield. As faster teams, it will utilise runners and get behind your lines. It's somewhat less effective at attempting moves in a safe order, often trying a risky (but ultimately pointless) block rather than stomping on your breakaway. There's a sense, too, that its patterns of play may become rather predictable after a few cup and league competitions.
To its credit, the game knows this - and even recommends in the manual that once you've got the measure of the AI on the hardest difficulty setting, you're ready to tackle some online play. This can be a bit of a lottery, due to the extremes of joy and annoyance inherent to the game. Across the table, face to face with friends, dreadful luck can be laughed off (even if it is through gritted teeth.) A chatbox has none of this human interaction, which seems to elevate the competitive stakes to absurd levels. Don't be too surprised if you come across players who 'accidentally' disconnect (with no penalty) like giant babies if their star player dies. Obnoxious power-gaming freaks are also a hazard. Taking on actual people can be really rewarding though, as it presents a far wider range of strategic variety - so perhaps the ideal solution is to run a small, private league with players you can trust to stay reasonably honest and civil.
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