Galak's Review of the rules in his boxed set
Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:29 pm
Okay ... I only post this as its own topic since I wrote a very great deal of the last rulebook.
I've read through the 2 rulebooks in my package that come to me yesterday. And wanted to give my thoughts.
Overall ... I like it. This was the treatment we really all wished that BB was going to get when it turned 20 years old in 2007 or 25 years old in 2012. I'm impressed by what I see in the box and if Andy Hoare reads this ... damn great job mate.
The new league rules ... I actually like them. There is tactics and strategies definitely to be explored there in keeping a team together if you carry it over season to season. It will not be for some but the fixes I see in the league rules and getting rid of the nightmare that was the old petty cash system ... I can stand behind. The new minis I like also and everything looks good visually.
That said ... reading through everything ... I've spotted 7 items that really bother me ... but that's not so bad for a game as complex as BB. But there are 7 and I wanted to list them. If I had the ability to ... I would have loved to buy Andy a pint and debate these 7 heavily before they were put in the rules.
Revised by Galak on December 1. I really am down to just 3 things that really need addressed.
1) Treasury is part of TV
The more I discuss the way inducements are going to work ... the more I feel that Gold needs to be part of team value. Since Gold can be used at any time if desired to effect the outcome of a game ... its a resource to the team to effect how powerful the team is and as such that should be recognized in the team value. Otherwise ... you allow the overdog to become a super overdog very easily against a team that has been getting beaten up and is spending its gold as it gets it to rebuild in season.
2) Piling On
There were several good ways to deal with this. The errata version is not one of them. Making it a team re-roll and moving it Optional is just in my opinion deleting the skill without stepping up to the table and deleting it (like we did Razor Sharp Claws)
Move the skill to work like Paul Gegg suggested where you can only use it if a Defender Down result is chosen for the block result.
3) The Special Play cards.
I really like bringing the Special Play cards back in as part of the game. My league used them for a long time in every game and it was always a cool part of the game. HOWEVER ... the two decks in the box. One is a 50,000 deck and the other is a 200,000 deck. Saying the players can choose between them for all their draws. Who in their right mind is not going to draw all their cards from Miscellaneous Mayhem? They needed to do the costs of the cards on the front of them like the original rulebook and then in the rules you are given an amount of funds for cards that you can draw. For the base rules ... 1=50k, 2-4=100k, 5=150k, 6=200k and allow them to spend that on cards. For league rules, you could have definitely done something to set aside an allocation of resources for the cards for both players that could be added to through inducements. I am baffled that a 50k deck and a 200k deck were the two chosen to put in the box set.
These 3 really need addressed in my opinion with Death Zone #2
MINOR POINTS:
1) Errata still needed
How the Passing Range ruler works and how Wrestle works.
2) Weeping Blades and Monsterous Mouth
Neither skill is broken. But its the fact that rulebook space was used to put in two new skills that are really just fluff and done to match up to miniature design. Miniatures should not create rules bloat. So I have no issues with the skills ... just why they were made in the first place. Delete Weeping Blades and change Monsterous Mouth for that star to let him have Sure Hands and Catch (even if that is a bit more than that skill offers) and you'd have been fine (heck Sure Hands might have made the Star actually have a decent use reason on a Nurgle team). So rules bloat based on miniatures design is in my opinion an incorrect path.
3) 5 documents to know the rules. 2 printed (BB & DZ) and 3 online (Teams of Legend, FAQ and Errata). When you go to Bloodbowl.com ... you don't see any of these 3 on the front page. They are buried behind dots in the Downloads section. 5 documents to get the rules right is asking for confusion. The online extras should be one document and that document should be part of the first dot of the downloads section of the Bloodbowl.com front page.
And seriously ... that's it. Errata happens so I'll not get excited for that. The pitch size had a reason even if it is tournament unfriendly. So those 2 items do not make the list for me. Overall .... I like what I see. I'd like it a lot more if the above were addressed.
I've read through the 2 rulebooks in my package that come to me yesterday. And wanted to give my thoughts.
Overall ... I like it. This was the treatment we really all wished that BB was going to get when it turned 20 years old in 2007 or 25 years old in 2012. I'm impressed by what I see in the box and if Andy Hoare reads this ... damn great job mate.
The new league rules ... I actually like them. There is tactics and strategies definitely to be explored there in keeping a team together if you carry it over season to season. It will not be for some but the fixes I see in the league rules and getting rid of the nightmare that was the old petty cash system ... I can stand behind. The new minis I like also and everything looks good visually.
That said ... reading through everything ... I've spotted 7 items that really bother me ... but that's not so bad for a game as complex as BB. But there are 7 and I wanted to list them. If I had the ability to ... I would have loved to buy Andy a pint and debate these 7 heavily before they were put in the rules.
Revised by Galak on December 1. I really am down to just 3 things that really need addressed.
1) Treasury is part of TV
The more I discuss the way inducements are going to work ... the more I feel that Gold needs to be part of team value. Since Gold can be used at any time if desired to effect the outcome of a game ... its a resource to the team to effect how powerful the team is and as such that should be recognized in the team value. Otherwise ... you allow the overdog to become a super overdog very easily against a team that has been getting beaten up and is spending its gold as it gets it to rebuild in season.
2) Piling On
There were several good ways to deal with this. The errata version is not one of them. Making it a team re-roll and moving it Optional is just in my opinion deleting the skill without stepping up to the table and deleting it (like we did Razor Sharp Claws)
Move the skill to work like Paul Gegg suggested where you can only use it if a Defender Down result is chosen for the block result.
3) The Special Play cards.
I really like bringing the Special Play cards back in as part of the game. My league used them for a long time in every game and it was always a cool part of the game. HOWEVER ... the two decks in the box. One is a 50,000 deck and the other is a 200,000 deck. Saying the players can choose between them for all their draws. Who in their right mind is not going to draw all their cards from Miscellaneous Mayhem? They needed to do the costs of the cards on the front of them like the original rulebook and then in the rules you are given an amount of funds for cards that you can draw. For the base rules ... 1=50k, 2-4=100k, 5=150k, 6=200k and allow them to spend that on cards. For league rules, you could have definitely done something to set aside an allocation of resources for the cards for both players that could be added to through inducements. I am baffled that a 50k deck and a 200k deck were the two chosen to put in the box set.
These 3 really need addressed in my opinion with Death Zone #2
MINOR POINTS:
1) Errata still needed
How the Passing Range ruler works and how Wrestle works.
2) Weeping Blades and Monsterous Mouth
Neither skill is broken. But its the fact that rulebook space was used to put in two new skills that are really just fluff and done to match up to miniature design. Miniatures should not create rules bloat. So I have no issues with the skills ... just why they were made in the first place. Delete Weeping Blades and change Monsterous Mouth for that star to let him have Sure Hands and Catch (even if that is a bit more than that skill offers) and you'd have been fine (heck Sure Hands might have made the Star actually have a decent use reason on a Nurgle team). So rules bloat based on miniatures design is in my opinion an incorrect path.
3) 5 documents to know the rules. 2 printed (BB & DZ) and 3 online (Teams of Legend, FAQ and Errata). When you go to Bloodbowl.com ... you don't see any of these 3 on the front page. They are buried behind dots in the Downloads section. 5 documents to get the rules right is asking for confusion. The online extras should be one document and that document should be part of the first dot of the downloads section of the Bloodbowl.com front page.
And seriously ... that's it. Errata happens so I'll not get excited for that. The pitch size had a reason even if it is tournament unfriendly. So those 2 items do not make the list for me. Overall .... I like what I see. I'd like it a lot more if the above were addressed.