Back in 1986, designer Jervis Johnson had the creative idea of creating a fantasy sport board game based on American Football, but without the violence. That game became the Blood Bowl, and its blend of strategy, comedy, and brutality has sustained it across multiple versions to this day. But despite its dizzying premise, it’s actually quite a dangerous game that takes some time to learn and play. enter Blitz Bowl, a much smaller, faster game based on the same idea although mechanically it is very different from its big brother. Blitz Bowl: Ultimate Edition is the third edition, but can it survive its final payoff?
What’s in the box?
This is a Game Workshop game, one of the main attractions is the included plastic miniatures. They formed two teams of six players each: some heroic and devious, rat-like Skaven. As we’ve come to expect from the publisher, the metrics are top-notch, interesting with detail and dynamic. However, Skaven is quite fragile and even experienced modelers can break a tail or two during assembly. Care and a very sharp craft knife is required.
Along with the figures, there are some plastic balls and a coin and a marker for each team. The game takes place on a two-sided game board, giving you a choice of course with various obstacles to play around with. One side has a single starting space for the ball, while the other side has two: a roll of the dice determines which ball the ball bounces from.
“
Rounding off the contents is a deck of cards, a custom number of dice, a range gauge, and per-team stats cards that you can make in the game. This extends beyond the two included in the entire Games Workshop universe, running from Orcs to Ogres. You can buy six more teams for some factions, for others you will have to buy the full twelve blood bowls and select the six groups you want to use. All cards are of good quality and decorated with featured art or painted miniatures.
Rules and how it plays
During your turn, you can perform three actions, split between the players as you see fit, as long as no model does the same action twice. The actions available to you depend on whether the shape is “marked” – that is, there is an opposing pattern in an adjacent square – or not. Unmarked numbers can freely run, throw the ball or make a short movement in two squares to mark the opponent. Marked characters can only attack one member of the opposing team, request a roll of the dice, or step out a single square.
If you read that carefully, you’ll realize that this means running players cannot move into the square next to opposing team members. It also means that you usually do all three actions during your turn to attack an enemy: run to cover the group, mark to move adjacent, and finally block action to perform the attack. These two aspects are important to the game’s strategy and action economy. You need to place your players in the middle of the field to try to stop runs into your end zone where the points are scored. You also need to be careful with your tackles because if you fail you will have a chance to get a tackle on an action.
The player who scores the goal by bringing the ball into the opponent’s end of the field wins four points for their team and is taken off the field in celebration. It takes a special reserve action to bring them back, like players injured in a fight for the ball. But there’s no reset of the pitch: a new ball pops up in the middle and play continues even though you’re a player or more. At first, this can lead to a lot of rush on the finish, especially when many players are injured or celebrating. With experience, you’ll learn to step back, assemble a defense, and make more strategic plays.
Goals are not the only source of points in Blitz Bowl, however. Always have three cards next to the board that will get you between 0 and three bonus points for completing specific actions. Such as injuring an opponent or completing a risky pass. What is the point of a card with a value of zero, you may ask? Because in addition to points, the cards have a playable reverse effect. It could be a roll of the dice or even an extra action. So winning a prize is a double prize that improves both your score and your selections. These cards are also game timers: when they run out, the game is over.
Between them, playing position, managing cards and rolling the dice hit a beautiful sweet spot between strategy, the strategy and excitement of random dice rolling. This is a game that rewards good players, whether it’s planning to keep your script formation together or figuring out ways to loop the cards along with moving the ball forward. before. At the same time, it’s also a game that rewards risky decisions that lead to moments of suspense, whether it’s placing a warm-up to take down a defender or stringing cards in a final line to the line. destination. And it only takes an hour or so to play.
“
In this respect, the Blitz Bowl really recreates the feel of a sports game better than its big brother Blood Bowl. With a full twelve-player addition and more complex “spinning” mechanics, the latter takes longer in each turn and longer to play overall. It’s more like a game of chess with dice than any kind of ball game. In contrast, the Blitz Bowl is light and fun, filled with last-minute matches and matches going all the way to the final goal, just like you want to feel the best of football.
What’s new in Ultimate Edition?
Owners of one or both previous versions of the game may be wondering what’s new here. Especially since it’s the same team of people, we’ve seen both of those boxes, making this feel a bit similar. The good news is that the changes are mostly positive, thanks in part to the unusual step of engaging the fan base in the design via the The Crush podcast. The rules are mostly the same but with a few rough edges smoothed out. Having new stats for all teams will help balance the issues. And finally, the deck has undergone a complete overhaul to encourage more active, active play.
Where to buy
