Alright Boyz, 'ere we go... WAAAAAAGGGGHHH!!! (The Blood Bowl Impressions Thread)
 

Wow, nice announcement from Focus today.

The emails offering pre-downloads were supposed to get out yesterday, but they were delayed (the game was supposed to be allowed to play starting Thursday evening).. so they gave us this instead:

Blood Bowl • View topic - About pre-downlaod!

Hello everyone,

After reporting all your demands concerning the pre-download of Blood Bowl, here’s what your favorite Goblinette brought you back from the locker room! It was tough to find these information… I had to pay some bugmans for my team-mates, bribe the referee and even hire one or two wizards… but in the end, I got these precious answers!

You have a been a lot of fans to pre-order the game, that is why in order to skip endless queues , we decided to start sending important e-mails on the 24th of June midnight (Paris time).
In these e-mails, you will find a link to download the game and an activation key. If you were among the first ones to pre-order the game, you will be among the first ones to receive it! Waves of 500 e-mails will be sent every hour, so you will be able to download, install and play Blood Bowl as soon as your e-mail arrives.

Have a nice evening and thank you everyone for being that patient.

So, starting in about.. five-six hours, the download AND activation keys will be sent out. I can't wait.. so I decided to create this thread :)

I can't wait to read the reviews and reactions. I will probably pick this up next week. Between work obligations and other things, I really wont have any time to play until then.

This will be my reward for all that hard work.

I'm also really hoping that this game turns out good. I really loved the first Blood Bowl PC game. If that version had league play and a career mode I would probably still be playing it.

I'm looking forward to some impressions. If they are good, I'll be picking it up soon to play you all.

I can say this from the Beta, without breaking NDA. The game was pretty much flawless.. and the number 1 problem, rage quitters, can probably be solved by playing in private leagues.

I'll be just as interested to see how the single player version plays, since I've already played the MP in the beta..

I didn't get around to preordering until yesterday. So I'll have to wait impatiently throughout the day to see when I get my email.

it's five hundred per hour (and it may start 24 hours from now, there's confusion on what midnight the 24th means).. so if there's 10,000 preorders, that's 20 hours.

Great, now I get to wait even more impatiently.

holy shit, this game looks fantastic. whats sys requirements for this bad boy?

Here's the Mininum

OS: WINDOWS XP SP2 / VISTA SP1
PROCESSOR: PENTIUM4 2.4GHZ / ATHLONXP 2400+
RAM MEMORY: 1 GB (XP) / 2 GB (VISTA)
3D GRAPHICS CARD: 128 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 2.0 COMPATIBLE (NVIDIA GEFORCE 6600 / ATI RADEON X700 OR HIGHER)*
DVD-ROM: 2X DRIVE
HARD DISK SPACE: 3 GB
SOUND CARD: DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE
INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR ONLINE GAME
* INTEL, SIS AND VIA/S3G GRAPHICS CONTROLLERS NON-SUPPORTED

Recommended

WINDOWS XP SP2/VISTA
CORE2DUO/ATHLON64 X2 PROCESSOR
2 GB OF RAM MEMORY
256 MB 100% DIRECTX 9 AND SHADERS 2.0 SUPPORT COMPATIBLE GRAPHICS CARD
(NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800/ATI RADEON HD 3850)
2X DVDROM DRIVE
3 GB HARD DISK SPACE
DIRECTX 9 COMPATIBLE SOUND CARD
INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED FOR ONLINE GAME

thanks foz, I couldn't find it. Thats not nearly as bad as I thought it was gonna be, sweet!

Since I rarely have time to play a full game against a real person online, I'm going to wait and see how the ai look.

Update from Jessica:

In order to sum up: the emails will send today Thursday the 25th at midnight.
More than 500emails/hours will be send at midnight.
All people who have ordered will have the email Thursday don't worry!
All people will be able to play at the release date!

P.S: sorry for my bad english ;)

So Tonight (6:00 or 7:00 PM Eastern is midnight Paris time) through tommorrow is the day.

I'll wait for solo career impressions, but this seems a secure purchase unless it's messed up.

Good news: I got my download link!!! YAY

Bad News: I'm stuck here for four more hours; GDMFAHSOB!!!!!! (it's an acronym. you fill it out)

Got my link. Downloading now.

Oh man I purposely made my self stop following threads on this game when it was announced because I didn't want to get hyped and wait endlessly and now it's completely snuck up on me. I thought it was coming late this year.

It looks fantastic but I'm still a little leery of Cyanide. I liked Chaos League that they did, but the AI was absolutely atrocious and it didn't have any longevity. Now apparently that's gone with the career mode but I'll wait and see on the AI.

Expect some reviews from the board here soon! This gets a real full release on Friday right? It's just a day or two early for the pre-order crowd?

If you order it now, you get it now.

Download is complete.

I'm going in. If I don't come back in 48 hours.. don't come looking for me. Send a team of halfling chefs in to keep me fed.

And three hours (and four games later) I am utterly hooked on this game. It is so much fun. The game is appropriately smashy.. the rats were down to 3 players on the pitch at the end of the game (had one at the end of one drive).

I faced off against a Dwarf team in the first round of the playoffs in the first tournament, and they brought out a secret weapon, with the inducement money they had..

Wait.. did I say a SECRET weapon?

How about a not-so-secret weapon...

This thing..



The good thing, is it's only on for one drive.

The bad news was, since it was two dwarf teams, who um.. aren't too fast.. and we were evenly matched.. it was on the field for the whole first half.

Ow.

We did end up winning though :)

I'm buying a new computer in a couple weeks, and this looks like my first game purchase for it.

SirFozzie, do you suggest Real Time or Turn based play?

Turnbased, but that's because I'm a Blood Bowl board game player.

I'd say once you get up to speed, Real Time could be used

How deep is the career/franchise mode?

Went ahead and bought this. I haven't even downloaded it yet but will do so tonight. I hear their servers are pretty fast so hopefully it won't take long.

Never played Blood Bowl but always wanted to. I assume the turn based mode is truly that in this game? I ask because Chaos League was basically real time with autopause. Is this an IGOUGO system or more like a Combat Mission style simulteanous plotting of turns and then running them?

I'd definitely be up for trying a multiplayer game this weekend but I can't promise to be at all competitvem :) I will need to read up to even decide on a team to be.

It has both modes, a real turn based one exactly like the tabletop game and a real time one. For what i'm reading at different forums, the turn based one is pleasing the tabletop fans, that is a very good sign. The real time mode is reported to be messy, but i guess most of us prefer the turn based one.

I noticed there's a PSP and DS version of this game? Are those released as well? I'm thinking PSP is a better option for me because I'm not sure my laptop has the specs to run the PC version.

2 gigs of memory? man, I'm behind the times.

Not till September, as is the 360 version and the boxed/Steam PC version.

How is the electronic delivery service? It was not a name I recognized when I went to check out their site.

It's a good service, from what I could tell, the download file is in three bits (plus a 1MB executable).

I believe the download service is the same I used for Armed Assault 2 a week or so ago and it seemed solid. Its more restrictive than something like Steam or Impulse of course but it is legit.

As for multiplayer I think I read there is replays is this true? One thing I learned to love was replays of games and even more the shoutcasts people would do of the games. This would be perfect for that and I'd love it to see some strategies used.

Be a blast if you could spectate live also. That could lead to some annoyances but would obviously be lockable. Itd be fun to watch some games unfold live.

Going to download the rulebook they posted tonight and try to go through it some. Nice they made that available.

Disappointed that I read it looks like the time clock is forced on even in SP? Seems an odd choice and a turn off for new peope. I'd like to really sit back and think for a while. Having not even played the game yet I can't complain though as it might be more than enough time.

I have seen that complaint elsewhere. I do think it's really odd and completely unnecessary for a single player game. I have to imagine that it's something they'd fix in a first patch. Given that the Beta was only multiplayer (correct?) I can sort of see how it slipped through.

That's a weird "feature" -- is there a way to pause the game at least, so you can leave the computer and come back to it later?

Ok, I've put a minor amount of time in now. I started off doing the tutorials which are borderline useless. They give you the extreme basics of the game, nothing beyond that.

I fired up a game picking a 1000 point Human team and facing a 1000 point Goblin team. Not really sure why I picked either, but I assumed Humans were a middle of the road, do everything ok but nothing spectacular type race like they are in most games so would therefore let me try out everything. I picked Goblins for the opponent because hey, Goblins usually suck.

The first few turns were a mess. I had absolutely no idea what was happening. There was a lot of camera spinning and movement, and two giant Trolls massacring my guys. Instantly regretted my purchase.

It all turned around when I saw the option to turn off the automatic camera. Now it wasn't jarring and I could zoom out a bit and take a good look at things. A couple turns later I had a semblance of an idea what was happening and a turn or so after that I was having a blast. I'm really boggled by the strategic options available. I can't wait to delve into differing formations and setting up the equivalent of plays.

I had a really good game(albeit extremely ugly). We went back and forth for most of the first half, I was injuring a lot of their guys but the ball was stuck at midfield when eventually they caught me off guard by having one of the trolls pick up a Goblin and launch him past my last defender, and all the sudden I was down 1-0. It stayed that way through the half and most of the 2nd half before I was able to get some good blocks on the right flank and ended up with a great pass and lots of open field to tie the game up. Ended up a draw, which I was more than happy with.

Was extremely fun and I was using extremely rudimentary tactics, and a lot of stalling actions. Think for my first campaign I'd like a smashmouth defensive style team. Dwarves best option for this? I initially thought I'd like to play the Elves and a real wide open game but now I think I'd get massacred. Tough guys seem like a good learner.

You pretty much described my initial experience perfectly. Its really hard to describe to someone that hasn't played yet the endless amounts of strategy that's here. And, yes, my first tip to anyone playing the game is immediately turn off the auto-camera.

FWIW, the strategy threads I've read on the blood bowl forums say that Wood Elves are a popular pick for beginners in multiplayer because they're really hard to defend against unless you have a good grasp of what's going on.

Atopec/Calis, could you turn off the timer or is there at least an option to make your turns last longer? (What's the limit? 2 minutes?)

You can increase the time limit up to 8 minutes.

I was concerned about this, but it's not a huge deal I'm finding out. It defaults to 4 minutes and that's more than enough time for even someone like me who is a bit lost and messing around. I still want it gone because I do find myself especially in turn-based games moving around the house to do things between turns, and if you're not paying attention you'll be out a turn. Hopefully it's fixed soon.

Just finished up a 2nd game this time as Dwarves versus the same Goblin team. Definitely went better overall. I ended up winning 2-0 and really dominated more than the score shows. They never really were threatening and I spent a lot of time just beating the crap out of them. I ended up with a lot of guys in the penalty box, but that didn't seem to matter much. They still couldn't stop my Dwarven Flying Wedge.

I tried a few turns of a Wood Elf vs. Human match before and was lost again. Humans got the ball first and I was completely baffled as to how to stop them. They seemed to have the upper hand with strength and I was actually impressed with the AI's setup. They formed a great protective barrier and moved forward in a good fashion. The Goblins seem a bit more helter skelter, and I get the feeling that they're probably the worst race. They have some really neat special deals like when the guy got launched half the field and when one of the chainsawed one of my Dwarves somehow, but I'm not sure what their playstyle is yet.

Thinking I might end up trying every race once in a one off match before moving on to a campaign.

I think someone else asked, but can you pause? I don't care if it stops me from being able to look at units or really plan, but it would be nice if I could do that so I could go to the washroom or answer a phone call.

In single player you can. I haven't played a multiplayer game yet.

Awesome, don't care about MP, gonna buy now :)

Couple things to add; the tutorial isn't all that deep, but its broken up into 6 parts, doesn't take too long to get through, and is informative. The manual is also top-notch - its worth a quick read.

Got the chance to play quite a bit this evening including a couple LAN games against a friend and this game is amazing. Everything I had hoped it would be.

You guys suck at impressions. :p I guess you either work for a living or can't tear yourself away from the game.

I have never played Blood Bowl but the game has always intrigued me. This particular game especially interests me but the $50 price tag keeps me from pulling the trigger until I see some more about the game. So, any more thoughts/impressions?

I've never played BB either, although I have played 40k. I've now played 1.5 matches of BB, and I think I really like it! I really, really suck though. I'm playing on easy with straight 1000 point matches using pre-configured teams, and so far I have yet to score a touchdown. In fact, I haven't even sniffed one. Hopefully I can figure out how the heck to move the ball successfully, but aside from that, the game is a blast!

Oh, and I'm strictly playing the Classic mode, I have no interest in the Blitz stuff.

Its really hard to describe it, honestly. I'll do my best and if there's any specific questions I can try to answer.

It 100% nails the board game in a way I didn't think was possible. So much so that the actual blood bowl rulebook works as a better manual than the manual that came with the game.

Its very overwhelming at first. I had only played blood bowl a couple times many years ago so I wasn't very familiar with the rules and my frustrations mostly came from not understanding why certain things were happening. Once I found a link to the official blood bowl rulebook and read through it the game simply became a blast to play.

I play Turn-based blitz mode, fwiw.

This game shines in multiplayer. Even if you're not a big multiplayer fan I'd suggest trying it out. SirFozzie can correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe leagues allow you to play multiple seasons with players that will retire, there's contracts (although the contract portion of the game isn't deep at all), there are stats, and an assortment of other things.

I just started playing through the single player campaign. Thus far its fun and challenging. Your players gain experience and levels along with the team increasing fan support just as they do in multiplayer except there doesn't seem to be contracts or retirement from what I see (could be wrong). You can also export your team from the campaign into multiplayer.

Each race plays very different from one another and the AI makes good use of the races abilities. It never feels like you're just playing a standard AI team. Play against dwarves and they're never going to throw the ball but instead will run the ball down your throat. Wood Elves on the other hand are going to avoid fights and try and throw the ball all over the field. Goblins are just entirely different from anything else and something you have to see to understand. Chaos will try to injure all your players. And so on and so on.

My tips are: Play through the tutorials, then glance through the manual (its not many pages, but very informative), and then reference the core rulebook for even better understanding.

http://www.bloodbowlonline.com/LivingRulebook5.pdf

Also, if you're struggling with tactics the official forms has a strategies forum that has a thread for each race plus a ton of other info.

I'm having a blast with the campaign in blitz mode. This game fulfills many of my old-school gaming needs:

• turn-based, grid-based 'combat'
• ability to name characters after my friends (or not-so-friends)
• players gain experience, injuries and skills...and die, across the campaign
• sports management fun

$50 is a lot of cash, and it definitely still feels like an indy game in some aesthetic respects (sounds, slim commentary, long load times), but most importantly it obviously does everything it is meant to do perfectly.

Very minor complaint: the logic for picking the team's MVP at the end of the game is way broken...seemingly the least valuable player wins every time, and I sure would like those SPPs to go to my good players that are actually working. Also, minor spoil/cheat/bug:

That's as intended and follows the traditional rules. The MVP is entirely random and more of a joke and a way of handing out some free xp to a player than anything else.

In the board game at the end of a match you simply roll the dice to assign the MVP.

Ahhh..I guess that makes 'sense', or something close to it. At least I can stop worry about it. I'm going back in for more now! I thought I'd picked everything up realatively well after half-a-dozen games or so, but I guess I'd just gotten adept at kicking slow dwarven ass, and the gotdamn rats are skatting and be-bopping all over me.

How long does it take to play a multiplayer game?

damn rats just scored on me in one turn and like three total moves. Unlickily, I kicked off out of bounds, giving it to their thrower at midfield. They had one runner with a boosted movement of 11 (ouch), so after a single block from a linemen at the line of scrimmage, the thrower ran up and handed off to the pumped-up runner, who dodged one guy and took it right in from the line of scrimmage, for an easy score in like 20 seconds.

I'm confused... people are mentioning 'turn-based Blitz mode'. I thought Blitz was real time? If it's turn-based, what's the difference between it and Classic?

From the manual:


When you select blitz mode you can choose real time or turn based.

So very tempted to plunk down the cash for this.

Jeez, I just assumed that meant it was all real time. So basically Blitz just gives you a bunch of options, rather than being forced to play with the basic rules? That's cool.

Oh, and I just got my first victory! I took an Orc team and ravaged some poor Lizardmen 2-0. I think it might be time for me to look into starting a campaign (or whatever, I still don't fully understand the different 'franchise modes', for lack of a better term).

I think Blitz mode adds a little more to the campaign also. I think it adds actual player contracts and the equivalent of aging.

I started my first campaign last night and picked Orcs. I think this was a pretty solid choice for a beginner. They seem to be incredibly tough, but they still have some mobility and I even a bit of a passing game.

First game was against a human team and I really controlled the field. The Black Orcs I think it is with 4 strength were really pushing their lineman around. I got greedy when I had a clear touchdown towards the end of the first half and kept my guy right outside the endzone while I battered the human team. I misjudged though and one of the humans got up and tackled him, and I watched the half end with the ball sitting in the endzone. Lesson learned there.

2nd game was against Dwarves. Talk about a grind. This was a brutal and ugly game. No one ever made it off midfield for the entire first half and most of the 2nd. Eventually late in the 2nd half I was able to overload the right side of the field and managed a risky long pass that was caught and got the win. Did I mention how I love Orc Blitzers?

Loving this game. I leveled up my first two guys also. I'm still not sure what are the best skill paths to go with and how to manage that. Think I went with Block on my Black Orc because that seems like a great one for anyone, especially your trench guys. My Blitzer I went with Sure Hands, thinking he'll be the center of my offense for a while and I did have some troubles in the first two games with not picking up the ball.

Fantastic game.

I am buying this game July 1.

I just wanted to give a shout out to Sir Fozzie for this thread. This game had flown under my radar and I'm supremely enjoying it. Thanks man.

I can't wait that long.

Downloading.

Oh the only downside I see now, is that there aren't any Chaos Dwarves. I love my Centaurs.

Downloaded. 2-0 so far in campaign mode. This is fun stuff.

I was looking forward to gettiong this and playing it single player but $50 for basically a indy game and a download only with limited DRM? No fucking way! I will wait three months until a ptch or two comes out and the price has dropped to $30.

YEAH YOU SHOW EM

Whatever asshat

Please tell me this isn't true. A good WE team is a tough team to face, but you have to develop the team correctly or you will have major problems down the road.

I would say Orcs or Humans are good starting races.

I was talking to KWhit. :(

Yeah, having played Skaven, sometimes your MVP is the rat on the sideline that is busy fathering more rats for the next game.

Oh shit sorry boss:(:devil:

Well to be fair this doesn't feel like an Indy game to me. It feels just as polished if not moreso than most major releases I play on the PC. I'm definitely going to get my $50 worth out of it for sure.

I can see being in doubt about the download. I'd have preferred the Steam version but not enough to warrant waiting until September. I feel pretty safe having it downloaded and burnt to DVD. I definitely don't see a price drop in a couple months, because I can't imagine they'd do that before the Steam release. There could be one for the holidays though.

I've put 6 games into an Orc campaign and I'm absolutely loving it. Is starting to shine even more now that a few of my guys are levelling up and I'm able to begin specializing a bit and see some players stand out.

I've had great success as far as my record. I'm 5-1 so far, but of those 5 wins 3 have been won on the last turn or in extra time so I'm by no means steamrolling people. The one loss was me being a little silly and trying for some fancy passing against a Human team and paying the price.

I wonder as I plot out my team more, are the big guys considered a must? Think for the Orcs it's a troll. I haven't bought one yet and I'm not in a big hurry to. The way my team stands now I think the downside to the Troll outweighs the benefits to me. Maybe I'm underestimating them, but I'm liking my setup as is now. I'm using 4 Black Orcs, 4 Blitzers, 2 Linemen, and a Thrower. I'll replace the thrower with a lineman on occasion depending on the situation. Seems to give me decent mobility and good power.

I feel like my guys aren't levelling up as quick as the computer teams though and I'm wondering if I'm falling behind. I've only had maybe 4 or 5 guys hit level 2, and I'm seeing a lot of the computer teams now that seem to have almost the entire team with 3+ skills.

Would love to try a multiplayer match against an FOFC'er. I'm still incredibly noobish so not sure I'd be a good match, but I'd love to learn a little more from the more experienced players and I'm sure I am picking up bad habits playing the CPU.

I bought this last night and am having a blast with it. It's been a good week for game releases. I'll second Calis in that I think this game is more polished than many other major studio releases.

I'm also questioning the Wood Elves as a good beginner race. I'm a noob (played years ago, but don't remember jack) and I've tried a few One off games with the WE's. I love their agility and dodging but they are really very fragile. I'm thinking about starting a campaign with either humans or orcs which seem a bit more balanced to me.

Are you in blitz mode, and if so have you been taking advantage of the 'offseason' (the time BEFORE you play the first game in a tournament), when you can attempt to purchase experienced players? If you save up all your cash from one tournament, and don't blow it on incentives and the like, you can pick up a couple more experienced players before your next tournament.

Also, I don't know if it's just me being stupid, but I did not realize that the 're-rolls' and 'apothecary re-rolls' you buy before match set-up are persistent through your career and NOT one-use...IOW if you have 2 re-rolls that means you can use 2 re-rolls every half of every every game. For the longest time I was being super stingy with those things, assuming that once I used them I would have to buy them again (and they ain't cheap), but now that I realize they're persistent, it's obviously changed my strategy a ton and made things a little easier.

Yeah I tried the Elves and I think it was a tough go for a noobie. It's a lot easier to grasp bashing the hell out of people rather than keeping distance and making sure you're not mauled. I'm finding the Orcs to be the perfect balance for me, but I think I will try Humans next campaign to have a little more open of an offense. I'm liking passing, and while the Orcs have some good throwers they don't have anyone who can catch it. Maybe investing in Goblins would help with that, not sure.

The Orcs, Dwarves, and Humans in that order seem like the easiest races to start with to me so far.

The Wood Elves seemed tough, and Chaos seemed extremely tough to me the gameI played with them. I read that Chaos really shines after they level up so maybe that's it, but they were a real challenge with a 1000 point team.

I just ran into that Dwarven Steamroller in my last game. Man that's nasty.

I'm actually in classic mode right now. I thought I'd start out with the most basic and move up from there. Not sure there's an equivalent there, at least I haven't seen it yet.

Not a big concern. I seem to be competitive still total value-wise and am not having trouble yet, but I hope I don't run into that further down the road. I think I'm keeping up now by having more rerolls and the apothecary that a lot of teams lack.

Chaos are very hard to play to start out with. You need to invest in quite a few rerolls or they just frustrating.

Wood Elves are popular against noobs in multiplayer because they're really hard to defend against, but the AI is smart enough to defend them well so its hard to play them in the campaign as your first race.

You guys finally convinced me to buy it but... just checked and wow, 50€ that is like $71 so i think i'll pass by now.

Does anyone have any basic tactics on how to play this game? I've played a few games now and lost at least 3-0 in every one. I just can't seem to hold the ball long enough to actually get anything going on Offense. I actually achieved the impossible in my last game by actually managing to get the ball out of my own half!

When I do lose the ball the other team, on easy, seemingly throw the ball and rush around no problems and run to the end zone. If I try a simple pass however, even with my thrower, I just fumble it all over the place. This game is infuriatingly difficult, and with the tutorial being about as helpful as a map without names I'm at a loss as to basic tactics to keep possession and score a TD.

I've instantly regretted the purchase already.

Here's the strengths and weaknesses for each race:

Blood Bowl • View topic - Races Described - Team Picking Guide For New Players


Here's the strategy threads for each of the races.

Dwarves:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Dwarves Tactics, Strategies and Builds

Lizardmen:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Lizardman Tactics, Strategy and Builds

Skaven:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Skaven Tactics, Strategy and Builds

Wood Elf:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Wood Elf Tactic Strategy and Build

Orc:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Orc Tactics, Strategy, and Builds

Chaos:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Chaos Tactics, Strategies and Builds

Goblins:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Goblin Tactics, Strategies and Builds

Human:
Blood Bowl • View topic - Human Tactic, Strategy and Build



Here's the official rulebook pdf. It actually makes a better manual than the one that comes with the game:

http://www.bloodbowlonline.com/LivingRulebook5.pdf

I just bought this game, even though I've never played Blood Bowl in any form before. Oh, boy.

Uhh so the download version is 50€ ($70) but the DVD version that will be available in Europe on July 2nd will cost 37€ ($50)

WTF? a downloadable version way more expensive than the physical one?

I'll wait the extra week for the DVD version then.

Its really hard to give just basic strategy tips because the races play so differently. If you're building a team and playing against AI I'd avoid Wood Elves to start. I'd suggest Orcs (fairly well balanced) or Dwarves (just don't throw the ball...ever...).

When buying your players, just get 11. Spend the rest of your money getting 2-3 rerolls and some fan factor. They're more valuable than an extra lineman.

Reading over the basic rules for when players can help with blocks (along with the rules on other players helping with blocks), how what you need to roll is calculated, and other basics was a HUGE help for me. Almost all of my frustrations disappeared once I understood why things were happening and how I could push the random factors in my favor.

Biggest basic tip that helped me out is really paying attention to the order you do things. Make sure to do the free non-roll stuff before going to the "gimme" rolls and do the dicey stuff at the end.

Too many times I did something stupid first and wasted my entire turn.

Key to ball control definitely depends on race but with the Orcs or a tough team it is definitely patience. There are no downs so the only rush are the ends of halves. Don't leave your carrier exposed. Always have guys proetcting him and all lanes to him covered. Move slowly and wait for a hole.

Its overwhelming at first but if you read a little and understand the mechanics it will click. Let me reiterate shutting off the auto camera. That caused me the most problems.

My first game went well. As one of the higher-value orc teams, I managed a 1-1 draw with a lower dwarf team on easy level. At least it allowed me to figure out the interface a little bit. The game seems to run a little sluggishly on my machine, even though I've turned the graphics options down a bit, but I still like the game. I'm looking forward to starting a campaign.

I have swapped to real time now and am fairing much better. Thrashed the 1000 point Humans 3-0 with the 1000 point Orcs. I don't think I'm patient enough for the Turn-based game.

my basic tips, after much losing and learning would be:

In general, blocking (and almost everything else) will be tougher for every enemy adjacent to you, or easier for every friend adjacent to you (in blocking this is reflected by the number of dice involved in a block, team up on enemies to get more dice, try to avoid any 'red' rolls). So, figure out what you're critical moves are going to be first (usually attacking ball carriers, picking up the ball), and then setup your own players to assist, and block enemies out of that area before attempting those critical moves, which should therefore usually be saved towards the end of the turn. Trying to pick up the ball immediately, and failing, will end your turn with your other 10 players unmoved and likely out of position.

When making those critical moves, use the player with appropriate skills/attributes. High agility to pick up the ball, catch, and dodge out of tackle zones. High strength to block. High movement for ball carriers. Throwers have a skill to pick-up the ball better, catchers get a bonus for catching, blitzers can block better, etc. You can easily identify who can do what by highlighting a player and checking the indicator in the lower right, and both players' skills are shown during a block. Additionally, whenever you throw or pick up the ball, it will show you the roll required, so don't just glaze over that.

Do everything that WON'T require a roll of the dice (AKA unimpeded movement, that shows up as a completely green path) BEFORE you attempt ANY roll of the dice, as even the most lopsided roll can result in a turnover and the end of your turn leaving you out of position.

Pick your blitz well. You only get one 'blitz', (AKA a block from a player who has moved) per turn, so make sure to pick it well, and set it up properly. Whenever possible block with an adjacent, unmoved player, and save your blitz for the critical move of the turn. If you have a player adjacent to an enemy, have another player move next to the enemy and then attack with the unmoved player, rather than blitzing with moving player.

With or without the ball, it's always best to put bodies adjacent to all of your opponents players, so that they will have to dodge at least once if they want to move, and if they don't move you'll be in position to block them the next round without blitzing, and you'll also be in position to interfere with passes. Never leave any opposing player uncovered on your side of the field, knock 'em down or put a body (or two) next to them. NEVER end the turn with your ball carrier adjacent to an enemy player.

With the ball, IMO passing should be more of a last resort for the beginner, as it involves too many rolls compared to simply running the ball with a fast player. To maintain possession, surround the ball carrier with best blocking characters, so that your opposition has to block or dodge multiple times before they can even reach the ball carrier...rather than moving your ball carrier his max distance and leaving him alone in the field, move your players as a block, keeping them surrounding your ball carrier, which might cut your movement in half, but you'll be MUCH more likely to keep hold of the ball. Think of a set-up like this:

--X--
X---X
--B--
X---X
--X--

or

--X--
-XBX-
--X--

|-X
|B-
|-X

Where X = friend, B = ball carrier, - = empty space, and | = sideline.

In all of the above examples, anyone trying to get to the ball carrier is going to have to pass through several threatened spaces in order to even try and block the ball carrier, and no matter what they will have to blitz to do so, so they'll only get one shot at best. Obviously you need more friends for better protection, but even a couple helpers can block effectively, and even one guy is leagues better than nothing. Although the middle option might look more sturdy and protective, consider that an enemy who successfully blocks one of the surrounding players will then move adjacent to the ball carrier, whereas keeping things more spread out actually requires more dodges and blocks.

Take the TD immediately if you can get it. IOW if you have a player in range to score a TD, don't dilly and make a couple blocks first, hoping to add insult to injury or whatever, any roll can fail, resulting in a turnover and turning a certain score into disappointment, so take the points.

Maybe some help?

I'm downloading now. Not sure what I want to start out with but I liike to be different....How are the Lizardmen?

I'm sure someone with more knowledge will have a lot more to say to me, but from what little I've seen they're an interesting team. One of the more advanced ones to play. The Skints I think it is you start with are incredibly weak, but it sounds like the benefit is you're really wide open in how you level them up, whereas a lot of the other races obviously have more defined roles for certain positions.

Pretty quick team overall but a little on the weak side.

Can't help with much else as I haven't tried them yet or even played against them. It might not be the best team to start out with, but they all seem pretty balanced so go for it!

Whatever asshat

:) yup I am the asshat on that one.

Hrm, Lizzies are definitely not an easy team to learn on. I started a championship and bought a team consisting of:

1 krox (big guy)
6 Saurus (blocking blitzing types)
4 Skinks (worthless sacks of goo)

I've lost to Humans (4-0), Dwarves (2-0), and ORcs (1-0 on the last fucking play)

I tied another lizard team 1-1

leveled up the Krox already, I use him as a battering ram. The skinks I keep to the sides/rear/ deep downfield to randomly be available to support the saurus or snag a loose ball.

Don;t try to pass with lizards.


JUST DON"T DAMNIT.


but it is kinda fun, though my machine is definitely slow running the game =(.

I am thinking about picking this up, but am worried about the same thing. How much RAM are you running (I have 2 GB) and what type of video card?

It whats holding me back too. I was in the beta and it was just on the verge of unplayable for me. If anything, id be playing turn based only, real time was out of the question. My PC is really old, 1gig of ram, p4 2.6 and a NVIDIA 6800 xt (agp). sigh.

If it was just slightly passable for me, sounds like you should be ok, BYU. Unless your vid card has no shader support.

While I was playing around I played a half as lizardmen. My memory of that game is that the other team scored quickly ( my inexperience ) then my skint failing the ball pickup roll 4 times. He was alone in my half and still couldn't get the thing.

I decided to play a team with a sure handed player. I've enjoyed the game lots better since. :)

I have a Radeon 9800 that meets minimum specs, so I will probably have to tone down graphics a bit, oh well, in turn based it should be ok.

That's the same issue I ran into when I tried Chaos. I spent over half the game trying to pick up the ball it seemed like.

I did start another campaign as Wood Elves and now that I have a better grasp of the game it's going a lot differently. Really enjoying it. Almost polar opposite from my Orc team, but man it was fun in my first game at the end of the half seeing one of my Catchers dodge 2 tackles, pick up a loose ball, dodge another tackle and make it to the endzone to score. Good times.

Defense is tough though. I'm still not entirely sure what's the best method to take with them. Right now I'm just trying to build a wall around them almost and make them come to me. I try to keep everyone more than a square away when possible so I only have one guy getting hammered a turn, but that doesn't always work out for me. They end up keeping the ball for most of the half. I guess that's the balance though, because it only takes about 2 turns for the Elves to go the length of the field when they have the ball.

Seem to be leveling up a bit better as well since I can get some more points from passes.

Oh, and I haven't seen it mentioned and I just discovered it but their is a strategy guide pdf in the manual folder. I've just glanced at it but it has information on how to use the players of the various races and a strategy section for match play.

[edit] I think it was a good read. It cleared up some stuff for me and the part where it describes how to set up situations and access the risk was very helpful. I know why a lot of my block situations were failing.

I have a T7200 @ 2.o mghz machine with a Radeon 1300 video card. Probably well below the standards for this game. It plays slow but it plays so I'm ok with it.

Just had a Woof Elf vs. Skaven match in my campaign and that's something else all together. It was like a whole different game. I now have officially learned to hate Gutter Runners. Sure you can knock the crap out of them, but man do they move! I got burnt several times by them. I was only able to eke out a draw, and we had a pretty epic last couple turns with us each lobbing up hail maries basically, and if either one could have caught it that was game. Instead we both ended up throwing interceptions, so hey...there's 2 easy skill points.

Wardancer has definitely moved up to my favorite unit in the game so far. They are just all around guys. Anyone know what the majority of people specialize them in? I checked in the Woof Elf thread linked earlier and couldn't find much. I'm right now looking at them as almost throwers, giving both of them Sure Hands to start with. I really don't know where to go with them from there though.

So many options.

Do not give them sure hands. WDs are not throwers. Also, to make sure you develop the team properly, do not rely on them early. WDs can take strip ball as a skill, which makes them turnover machines. You can also give them tackle to get those guys that have dodge, side step works well, and pray for box cars. A +1 ST WD is a gift from Nuffle. A +1 AG WD isn't far behind.

A +ST or AG WD is an abomination and must be fouled to death. Repeatedly.