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https://www.warhammer-community.com...lood-bowl-returns-for-a-new-season-of-mayhem/

 

Is Blood Bowl really a game that needed a new edition? I mean, don't get me wrong, I can be prone to asking that about a number of games when I feel the rules were a sweet spot anyway... but Blood Bowl?

I haven't played since the edition before the last, so can anybody tell me how much, if anything, changed between Season 1 and Season 2?

 

I have no clue. I don't really follow Blood Bowl at all (other than the Chaos Dwarf release of course). Nice to see the Tomb Kings get updated.

 

FINALLY, great to see the Bretonnian and Tomb King teams make it to the gridiron! Sounds like they were waiting for Old World to return them to the proper wargaming world before doing the same in Blood Bowl.

I also don't follow the game either other than model releases so don't know whether it really needed a new Edition or not, but it's GW so we probably shouldn't be surprised. And the new teams are both great (and certainly better than the Imperial Nobility one that featured in the previous box set), so it's certainly worth it for that at least.

 

With them in the mix there aren't that many left to get to. High Elves are still missing and I'm not sure if they will ever revisit the Slann team?

I wonder if they will ever release a Tzeentch and Slaanesh team to go alongside the already existing Khorne and Nurgle. Maybe Cathay?

 

Which team do you like better @Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl ? Any chance you will collect either of them?

Any chance that the new box will get you to jump on board?

 

Given how old the previous edition is I wouldn't be surprised if "new edition" really just means a a new box with fancy new art and running spellcheck on the rulebook. Update some jokes so the kids still find it funny, maybe clean up a confusing rule or two, that sorta thing. I doubt it'll be similar in scope to say a AoS or 40K edition.

 

I can certainly see a Cathay team coming now that they're in TOW, and yes, it's odd to see High Elves missing from the mix when they've been a fan-favourite faction in Warhammer Fantasy for a good while. And as they do have Khorne and Nurgle teams as you've pointed out, I can certainly see Tzeentch and Slaanesh teams being added too, alongside a Kislev team once the faction makes its debut in TOW. And of course, being an aspiring Beastlord, I'd also like to see a pure Beastmen team come out, as, though they are present in the Chaos Chosen team, they have yet to have their time under the gaze of Morrsleib without at least one Chaos Warrior trying to steal their thunder.

As for the Slann team, as fun as it would be, I doubt it - that was a relic of pre-5th Edition Lizardmen where the Slann were the faction that the Lizardmen are now - the Aztec/Mayan warrior race protecting ancient temples against the forces of Chaos, before they were retconned to being limited to just a few surviving ancient members of their kind.

Spoiler: Not to mention that they are technically already in the game, at least in spirit

However, with Gnomes back in the setting, I can easily see GW exploring some other niche races of the Warhammer World in the same way - Fimir, Snakemen of Khuresh (hell, we already have one Snakeman character in the Amazon team, it'd be good to see their not-Asian cousins get some love too)... maybe even a K'daai team playing independently of their Dawi-Zharr masters

I like the Bretonnian and Tomb King teams equally. While they and a few others (Dwarfs, Gnomes, the Greenskin teams, Skaven, perhaps Lizardmen) all appeal to me, I think I shall continue to focus on TOW and older editions of 40K for now.

 

Given enough time, it could happen, but I see it as a much lower priority on GW's part. The Chaos Chosen team is already predominantly Beastmen with only a little sprinkling of WoC mixed in. (probably why I'm not particularly fond of that team)

I'm inclined to agree.

I'd prefer if they added some Fireborn to the existing Chaos Dwarfs roster... maybe as a big guy to replace the minotaur? As a solo team, they'd have to have add a bunch of new positonals. You've got Fireborn to start as a big guy, but the Destroyer is way to large. It's another team that I wouldn't bet on.

I think the Lizardmen (at least as far as GW models go, I know there are 3rd party alternatives) are abysmal. Such an ugly looking team, no where near their AoS counterparts in terms of sculpt quality. The skinks look disproportionate with their large heads and eyes, while the Saurus, on top of being generally ugly, look like they are wearing some Lustrian equivalent of dental braces.

The Gnomes look pretty cool though. I like their cute little animal friends.

 

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the Lizardmen team (hence the 'perhaps')... it's more out of loyalty towards a classic and favourite faction (not to mention loyalty towards this forum) that I even mentioned them. The Skinks look like they've had a few too many rounds of tequila and the Saurus punching poses look goofy (though if those poses were changed and the helmets removed of the 'brace' like frontispieces they'd look all right). The Blood Bowl Saurus do seem to have avoided having the fat feet and overly-ripped chests of their AoS counterparts, but... the poses are still so cheesy.

I'd certainly still go with any of the other preferred teams I mentioned above over the Lizardmen team if I had to choose one.

I honestly really like the Gnome team. I liked the original 3rd Edition Gnome concept to begin with (being a smaller cousin of Dwarfs, sharing their hatred of Greenskins and often living amongst them, but getting pissed whenever someone called them a Dwarf), and the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay lore surrounding them (which the Blood Bowl team has used elements of) really did a good job in developing them into something very unique and more detached from their stockier relations, playing off a lot of the themes of 'The Little People' and various small sprites and tricksters from a number of different mythologies. Then Blood Bowl went and brought back the first Warhammer Gnomes for nigh-on over 30 years and perfectly combined aesthetics of both in the models (much like, funnily enough, the Chaos Dwarf team combining the Big Hat and Legion of Azgorh aesthetics well). The lovely little animal models you can add to different bases (and even add to the team as players in their own right in the case of the foxes) are just the icing on the cake. As far as (very) Little People in Warhammer go, I infinitely prefer them to Halflings (who've been overdone by many fantasy IPs of late and are just parodies of Tolkien Hobbits, very often with far less of the likable traits of the latter - in Warhammer's case it's a wonder the entire race haven't just become thralls of Slaanesh).

Hell, I published a whole 8th Edition army list for Gnomes over on EEFL for the fun of it before TOW arrived, and will certainly create a revised version for the latter game and publish that one too. They certainly deserve more publicity.

 

If you had to choose one, I'm guessing it would be Dwarfs. You do love your Dwarfs, and they are a very cool team.

Those foxes are my favourite models on the team. So good.

To be honest, I never even knew that Gnomes existed in the Warhammer lore until the Blood Bowl drop.

 

They turned up in WFRP 4e a few years ago as well.

 

I snipped off the mouthguards almost immediately when I got mine. One less obstacle to paint, anyway.

As for the rest of it, the Blood Bowl minis for the team pre-date the warrior redesign for AoS, and in service of a game that not only requires them to be able to somehow lay on their back and front (representing being Prone and Stunned, respectively) but also doesn't, and shouldn't, take itself seriously. It's fine if they're still not to your liking, but they're not worth comparing to AoS.

 

Same. I saw those things and had my clippers in hand before I even knew what I was doing. I have no regrets.

 

I see. I've never touched Warhammer Roleplay (or any roleplay game), so that would explain why they were such a surprise for me.

Fair enough. Just not my cup of tea. I even like the old WHFB aesthetic better, even though I'm not particularly a fan of them either.

 

Maybe in the future when they deliver the all Beastmen team!

 

Yep, I think you've got me there

The Dwarf team are certainly a lovely set of models, taking a nice lot of design cues from the Ironbreakers and Slayers. I would probably be quite predictable and go with a classic matchup of Dwarfs vs either Greenskins or Skaven, and then perhaps some fun auxiliary teams like Gnomes and Snotlings on the side.

I can understand why, they were one of the races dropped in Warhammer Fantasy's first big shift from 3rd to 4th in the early 90s. To be honest I only first found out about them when I picked up a 3rd Edition rulebook from a charity shop for pennies out of curiosity a good few years ago... and it's great to see them make a well-deserved return. The long droopy beards on the male Gnomes in the team are a nice nod back to when they were more Dwarf-like in those days...

 

That makes sense, that's way before my time. Nice find at the charity shop!