Blood Bowl!

GJK · July 11, 2013, 10:29:44 AM

You've got to describe that incredible play that you made from my fumble down by your goal line. That was pretty incredible. What were the final odds of pulling that one off?

And welcome to Grogheads! :)

BanzaiCat · August 01, 2013, 06:39:55 AM

I love what you did here, GJK. I played WAY too much BB back in the early 90s and BB and DB are both very dear to me. This set up looks great!

Man I miss BB. :) Any more AARs on your BB games and I would love to read 'em.

The PC game sucks, though, IMO, and I was very disappointed that Dungeon Bowl was released without an AI component - but as bad as the AI is for the PC BB game, I can understand completely why they did that. Pretty sad, actually.

GJK · August 01, 2013, 07:37:05 AM

Thanks and sure, I'll take some pics of my next game and give a write up on it. The group met last night actually but I didn't attend but most likely will next Wednesday.

The PC game is fine if you have nobody to play the table top version with but otherwise, who wouldn't rather play with mini's and actually roll the dice?

em2nought · August 04, 2013, 11:02:57 PM

Looks like the board should vibrate. ;)

BanzaiCat · August 05, 2013, 06:51:12 AM

I had one of those. Got it in 1985 or 86 - it was the Bears and the Patriots. On that board, though, both teams played about as well as the Cowboys. (Zing!)

GJK · August 05, 2013, 08:39:08 AM

I had a Tudor Electric Football set when I was a kid in the 70's. My dad purchased (via mail order) several pre-painted NFL teams for it. I actually looked for a set for my son for Christmas but the new "re-issue" is a cheap mostly plastic thing that pales in comparison to the original version. I did see a number of 70's version on ebay but they weren't cheap and the bidding was fierce. I sure wish that I or my parents had saved that copy that I had!

KyzBP · August 20, 2013, 01:34:31 PM

Quote from: GJK on August 05, 2013, 08:39:08 AM
I had a Tudor Electric Football set when I was a kid in the 70's. My dad purchased (via mail order) several pre-painted NFL teams for it. I actually looked for a set for my son for Christmas but the new "re-issue" is a cheap mostly plastic thing that pales in comparison to the original version. I did see a number of 70's version on ebay but they weren't cheap and the bidding was fierce. I sure wish that I or my parents had saved that copy that I had!

GJK- You can still get the boards and Offical College Teams here. http://www.tudorgames.com/electric-football.html/
They lost the NFL license a few years ago which is too bad because the quality of the players was excellent. The new board you saw was made by a different company and the quality sucked but they hold the NFL license.

My cousin and I had a 20 team league that we ran from when we were about 12 until we were in our early 30's. Work and families eventually took over. I still have the boards and all 80 teams (Home and Away, Offense and Defense). If you ever have any questions on Electric Football let me know.

Back to Blood Bowl; what are the "must have" components for someone just getting started?

GJK · August 20, 2013, 05:44:18 PM

That's some good info re: Electric Football. I'll go check out the website. I know that I've seen some of the old NFL pre-painted teams on ebay. It was a decent stadium that I was wanting (without blowing my sons college fund to get it).

Regarding Blood Bowl, you can get started with the last edition boardgame that came out (3rd Edition). It comes with everything that you need to play (but with only two teams; humans and orcs). The latest edition of the rulebook is available as a free download from www.games-workshop.com so if you do get a copy of the 3rd edition game, chunk that rulebook and use the ones that you download.

Noble Knight has a copy of it for $85.00 http://tinyurl.com/ko296jo
You can order it directly from Games Workshop (see above link, navigate to the "specialty games" section once you've selected your country on the site). It's $82.50 there but shipping could be outrageous depending on where you live (they are UK based).

I found my copy in excellent condition for $50 at Half Price Books in the "collectables" section. That's what got me started on all of this.

If you do get in to it, you can grab other teams from ebay or 3rd party manufacturers. Comixinious, Impact Mini's, several make good teams. Just Google for "purchase blood bowl miniatures" and you'll hit on several links.

A "cheap" way would be to download the rules from GW, then make your own field (aka "pitch" in the game). You can find pictures of the full field on boardgamegeek.com so you'll know exactly how many squares to make in the grid and where to put the lines. Each square should fit a 28mm miniature. I used 29mm as my size for each square, which is what the boardgame uses. The game comes with a passing ruler and and template for ball bounces but you don't need those; either make your own or there are pdf's of playaids available on boardgamegeek including a diagram showing passing distances.

Comixininous has the footballs (http://www.comixininos.com/blood-bowl-accesories/balones.html) and teams. I thought about getting one of these, but you can get a mini travel BB set at comixininos: http://www.comixininos.com/blood-bowl-accesories/travel-magnetic-mini-bb.html along with magnetic mini-mini's to play on it for fairly cheap. That might be a good route to go.

KyzBP · August 21, 2013, 06:51:15 AM

Quote from: GJK on August 20, 2013, 05:44:18 PM
That's some good info re: Electric Football. I'll go check out the website. I know that I've seen some of the old NFL pre-painted teams on ebay. It was a decent stadium that I was wanting (without blowing my sons college fund to get it).

Regarding Blood Bowl, you can get started with the last edition boardgame that came out (3rd Edition). It comes with everything that you need to play (but with only two teams; humans and orcs). The latest edition of the rulebook is available as a free download from www.games-workshop.com so if you do get a copy of the 3rd edition game, chunk that rulebook and use the ones that you download.

Noble Knight has a copy of it for $85.00 http://tinyurl.com/ko296jo
You can order it directly from Games Workshop (see above link, navigate to the "specialty games" section once you've selected your country on the site). It's $82.50 there but shipping could be outrageous depending on where you live (they are UK based).

I found my copy in excellent condition for $50 at Half Price Books in the "collectables" section. That's what got me started on all of this.

If you do get in to it, you can grab other teams from ebay or 3rd party manufacturers. Comixinious, Impact Mini's, several make good teams. Just Google for "purchase blood bowl miniatures" and you'll hit on several links.

A "cheap" way would be to download the rules from GW, then make your own field (aka "pitch" in the game). You can find pictures of the full field on boardgamegeek.com so you'll know exactly how many squares to make in the grid and where to put the lines. Each square should fit a 28mm miniature. I used 29mm as my size for each square, which is what the boardgame uses. The game comes with a passing ruler and and template for ball bounces but you don't need those; either make your own or there are pdf's of playaids available on boardgamegeek including a diagram showing passing distances.

Comixininous has the footballs (http://www.comixininos.com/blood-bowl-accesories/balones.html) and teams. I thought about getting one of these, but you can get a mini travel BB set at comixininos: http://www.comixininos.com/blood-bowl-accesories/travel-magnetic-mini-bb.html along with magnetic mini-mini's to play on it for fairly cheap. That might be a good route to go.

That was some great advice/info GJK. It seems like buying the game new might be just as cost efficient as going the DYI route though. I was pricing out teams and they seem to go for around $50. If a new game already comes with 2 teams then the rest is gravy. I'm really intrigued though. I would love to build a stadium for it.

As far as teams go what Races do you prefer? In the PC game I usually have a Dwarven team. I like their simple, head down, run forward style. Trying to find an opponent is going to be the hard part until my 4 year old son gets older.

For Electric Football; Look at Tudor/Miggle's high end board (Model 620). It has the largest playing surface although it comes with unpainted teams. They sell NFL "colored" teams without any logos. You can find the logos on ebay. If you don't need a higher end board, I have a few of the lower end boards laying around. I could send you one for the cost of shipping. Let me know and thanks for the BB help.

BanzaiCat · August 21, 2013, 06:59:03 AM

Great info, GJK.

There's tons of resources out there for the DIY BB'er.

If you want to see someone go ALL out, check this out: http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1446-bloodbowl-pitch

You'll see lots of good photos as he builds everything from scratch.

BanzaiCat · August 21, 2013, 07:26:27 AM

Here's an even better one.

http://onyxworkshop.wordpress.com/blood-bowl/blood-bowl-pitch-vikings-stadium/

This is the route I'd want to go - add a ton of portable creativity to a homemade pitch and make it as fun to look at as play on.

GJK · August 21, 2013, 08:13:09 AM

I think that Impact Miniatures is starting to come out with a line of plastic (resin) teams for fantasy football for $35 which is somewhat reasonable. I haven't seen them yet so can't vouch for quality but our league recently placed a group order so I should start to see them in games soon.

As for teams - I like Dwarves, they're tough little buggers. I'm currently playing a human team with an ogre. It's a good, well balanced team. I have a couple of elvin (elven?) teams that my son has played. They're fast and can pass which is neat but they are brittle. Orcs are fun to bash with but they are slow and can't handle the ball all too well. I actually recently picked up a chaos dwarf team that I need to paint. I'm anxious to play them.

Agreed - probably get the full boxed game and then you can add on to it with other teams and then if you get the itch, make a pitch! :) That was as fun as actually playing the game for me.

Re: electric football. I may take you up on that offer. My memories of E.F. was a cool looking field, cool looking painted figures but then the plays were those figures going ever which way but the direction that you wanted them to go and with half of them falling over. Surely it was my technique. Does it actually "play" semi-close to a real football game?

KyzBP · August 21, 2013, 08:50:28 AM

Banzi- That Viking stadium is amazing. It didn't look too expensive to build either.

GJK- I've started watching Ebay for BB items. The last time I did this I bought just about every large lot of Electric Football Teams I could find. Once I was done ogling them, I ended up reselling the the teams separately and making enough profit to start a D&D Mini's collection (which my wife loves to play and beat me at ;D).

What do most players prefer; the lead figures or resin? Are the resin miniatures on par with D&D Minis? They look about the same scale. I could totally see myself getting into this but would have no idea where to find opponents.

The EF game plays as chaotic as you remember. However, some people have really jumped in and now "tweak" the bases so that they'll do just about whatever they want them to do. They've also come up with some pretty cool passing systems. The custom boards/stadiums are incredible. There are still very vibrant leagues all around the country and a roving convention takes place once a year. I'll post some links to stuff later if you're interested.

Keep the Blood Bowl stuff coming!

GJK · August 21, 2013, 10:23:35 AM

The only difference that I see between the lead and resin figures are the weight. It's nice picking up "weighty" figures but the resin ones look just as good (and paint better I think). I've picked up quite a few teams on ebay and haven't lost a left arm doing it (yet). You can get full teams for under $50 and even for much less.

As for opponents - I had no idea that I would ever play the boardgame version with anybody other than my son. On a whim, I googled "blood bowl league, austin texas" and lo and behold found that there is a league here. They play every Wednesday and have a summer tournament and "open" play. You might be surprised. Also, if not Blood Bowl specific leagues, see if there's a hobby store nearby that hosts Magic and/or WH40K games. Chances are, if they play WH40K there, then some of them have played BB and would not be opposed to joining in on a game should you break out your copy of the game.

EF: Yes! If you have some stuff, please share. Football season is just about to get going and so I know my son will be interested in gaming some football stuff. We've tried a few football boardgames but they didn't interest him too much. We play Madden Football but his fast reflexes will beat my slow reflexes every time. EF might be the right fit; especially since he enjoys playing with "miniatures".

By the way, that painted human team on the first page of this thread that are in the pictures are the stock humans that come with the boardgame. I haven't painted a model or miniature in YEARS but I think those came out ok. They were fairly easy to paint (albeit with reading glasses on, a magnifying glass and a very thin paint brush!).

GJK · August 21, 2013, 10:31:56 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on August 21, 2013, 07:26:27 AM
Here's an even better one.

http://onyxworkshop.wordpress.com/blood-bowl/blood-bowl-pitch-vikings-stadium/

This is the route I'd want to go - add a ton of portable creativity to a homemade pitch and make it as fun to look at as play on.

That Viking stadium is pretty amazing! He used the same styrofoam blocks that I used it looks like. Check out the image gallery at boardgamegeek.com, there's some nice stadiums in there as well:

http://boardgamegeek.com/images/boardgame/712/blood-bowl-third-edition