Blood Bowl Revisited

My gaming group has decided to start a small league, currently we are up to our second round of the league and I have failed to win a game! Still, undaunted I shall press on with my human team. I have however just finished painting my Orc team – “The Meckleburg Chunderers” and might have a go with them shortly. I have also been working on a Hafling team that I have called “The Buywater Fakarwee”. I expect no real success with this particular team but playing them has been an astounding amount of fun.

For those unfamiliar with Blood Bowl it is a stylized cross of American football and extreme full contact martial arts. The ball is only of minor concern in the game as the real effort lays in putting as many of your opponents team in hospital. Games Workshop released the original version of Blood Bowl in the mid 1980’s and has been played continually since, having multiple versions and most resently Games Workshop re-released it in 2016.

I have revisited the past with this and the game play is still as fun as ever. Dropping the ball or tripping over your own feet as you dash to the end line is very common and playing it with my friends is a constant source of entertainment. I have a huge laugh when I play it and have as much fun loosing as wining a game, its a bit odd like that. Unfortunately there are a couple of individuals that take it way to seriously (to be honest they do this with most things) and that is why I decided to build a Halfling team. As it is extremely difficult to win with it I play this particular team for laughs, even if my opponent does not. Perhaps a bit churlish but Bloodbowl should be played for fun not for keeps. One of my favourite tactics with this particular team I have called the Hopefull Cannonball. To explain, Halfling team members are called Hopefulls and they all have a skill called “The Right Stuff” this allows them to be thrown by another team mate who is large enough to throw them. In essence you can target an opposing team member and attempt to hit them with a thrown Halfling. If hit both go down, very useful when you can’t catch an opponent with the ball!

My human team and my orc team are by Black Scorpion and the Halflings are by Games Workshop. Half the fun is coming up with silly names for the teams, for example a friend of mine has a Dwarf team called the “Short Blacks” which is a play on the great New Zealand rugby team “The All Blacks”. Once I have finished my current Halfling team I will post photos of them.