New Edition rumors seem to be true

[Colin]

After having a good look through the rulebook and the contents of the box, I have one gripe. The Imperial Nobility team has listed on their team list, 0-2 Noble Blitzers, but none are included in the box, WTF! They include a star player (Griff) and ogre mini, but no blitzers (a regular part of the team lineup). It's not like you can use regular humans for the missing minis as they wouldn't fit in (not all covered with feathers).
I'm wondering what GW plans to do about this?

[Steam Ball]

After having a good look through the rulebook and the contents of the box, I have one gripe. The Imperial Nobility team has listed on their team list, 0-2 Noble Blitzers, but none are included in the box, WTF! They include a star player (Griff) and ogre mini, but no blitzers (a regular part of the team lineup). It's not like you can use regular humans for the missing minis as they wouldn't fit in (not all covered with feathers).
I'm wondering what GW plans to do about this?

Ball in hand 2 throwers.
Two feathers in helmet 4 lines.
Feather in shoulder shield 4 bodyguards.
Guess what are the 2 miniatures not pictured in the book under the roster. Foot up, four feathers in helmet... aah, yes, cheerleaders.

[sann0638]

For info, I've redone my "how to play BB" video for the 2nd Season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hABk6H588g

[sann0638]

Blitzers are included, but it's not obvious which ones they are! Back to base colours, I think...

[Colin]

Blitzers are included, but it's not obvious which ones they are! Back to base colours, I think...

I'm not sure what you mean by that. What I am saying, is there aren't any noble blitzer minis included in the Imperial Nobility sprue that comes in the game box (which, as far as I know, is the only way to get these minis (ie, buying the box set).
To be clear, the game comes with 2 team sprues for the Nobles. Each one contains; one Imperial Thrower, 2 different Bodyguards, and 3 different Imperial Retainer Linemen. So that gives you 12 players, and none of them are Noble Blitzers. I wish they had subbed one of the linemen minis for a blitzer, then you would've had 2 blitzers and 4 linemen. Ah well, what can you do?

[Colin]

OK, I went back to the BB website, where they show the different minis for each position. The seem to have mistakenly labeled the blitzer as Lineman 2, as that mini looks like the same one shown as the blitzer on the BB website. Make sense, as he is in a running position and the other linemen are more static.
My bad, didn't realise that there was a printing error. Should've went back to the BB website to get a closer look at the Noble team much sooner than now. I apologise if I sound rude in my previous posts.

[sann0638]

Ah, that's good to know - I don't have the box, and it's not at all obvious from the pictures which is which!

[Darkson]

What is the pitch size (both in squares and dimension) of the new pitch compared to BB2016? Is it the same?

[Papa Sebco]

What is the pitch size (both in squares and dimension) of the new pitch compared to BB2016? Is it the same?

I don't have it yet so can't be sure at 100% but I saw an unboxing video and they said it was the same size as BB 2016 pitch.

[Colin]

What is the pitch size (both in squares and dimension) of the new pitch compared to BB2016? Is it the same?

I don't have it yet so can't be sure at 100% but I saw an unboxing video and they said it was the same size as BB 2016 pitch.

I didn't count squares or anything like that, but it looks the same size to me as well (that's from taking it out of the box and unfolding it).

[odinsgrandson]

I like that the reams now have the tiers written right there on the roster, along with some relevant team rules, and the leagues (which seem to just be key words- I'm guessing they'll trigger some stadium effects or something).

The special rule says which Star Players you can hire.

I can't figure out why the High Elves are listed as a Tier 2 team. That has got to be a typo, right?

Pro Elves are Tier 2 and I think High elves are worse now even with the extra pip of Armour. Both the Catchers and Blitzers are one worse at passing. Thrower now has two weak skills. Safe Throw is no longer very safe! It now only cancels a natural 1 rather than a modified 1. Cloud Burster is the other half of old Safe Throw and now makes opponent re-roll rather than the Thrower making the dice roll (which you could your team re-roll on).

Pro elves are tier 2? This seems so strange to me because I've not seen any elves do anything but dominate under my command (despite being less than completely optimal in their skill choices). And I've seen plenty of other players dominate with them as well. Sure, I wish that I could have another two blitzers on the team, but they seem fine without it.

I guess the changes to throwing will probably affect them the most (with a close second for Skaven) since we've all gotten used to using a plain old lineman as the thrower, but now we'll want a proper dedicated thrower from the start. Still, I expect High Elves to be a strong team that doesn't have the glaring flaws that Khemri or Vampires have.

(I think it should be noted that the armor values weren't bumped up universally. While it looks that way, it is really because the statlines are now expressed in target numbers- so an armor value of 7 is now expressed as an 8+ roll).

[Steam Ball]

since we've all gotten used to using a plain old lineman as the thrower

Develop a line as thrower? Throwers in CRP/BB16 tend to cost less or the same than the line+skills, and have Pass in singles, making them more realiable as rookies and cheaper long term in throwing related tasks. So if you throw, they were a good thing, and even if not, too (the cheaper Leader reroll).

Now, throwing, with previous or new rules... hey, now you can get double fumbles. Better plan how to avoid throwing even more than before.

[Lyracian]

(I think it should be noted that the armor values weren't bumped up universally. While it looks that way, it is really because the statlines are now expressed in target numbers- so an armor value of 7 is now expressed as an 8+ roll).

I think you have misread my post. I was talking about High Elves having an extra point of Armour not that writing the old AV 7 as 8+ was an increase.

High Elves are terrible because Passing is harder and both their Throwers two skills together is still weaker than the old Safe Throw.

[TopsyKretts]

Did we need a new edition? Did anyone want a new edition? Who asked for new teams? Sure, there are some pros like shaking things up, adding some improvements, rebalance ++.

But very little discussion about the cons? We lose a ton of content in the transition from BB2016 to BB2020:
- 18 Team specific balls
- 24 Stadiums
- 19 Weather/pitch tables
- 3 Kick-off tables
- 6 Referees
- Countless Star Players (White Dwarf & Black Gobbo are dumbed down) including the possibility to have them rostered
- 9 (In)Famous Coaching Staff (they kept Bugman, but he's dumbed down and simplified)
- 9 wizards
- 7 Sponsorships
- 144 Special Play cards (including 3 play variants), most of the "new" 48 cards are reprints of old cards
- 39 Match Events
- 2 cup rewards
- 20 Hall of Fame teams

And no book will ever be "complete" with all teams, as they only ever print the teams re-released since 2016. And instead of completing unreleased teams, we get brand new teams instead.

You may argue that a lot of the content now lost is filler and bloated. But why did we get that in the first place then? And if it's only filler content, why are GW continuing from scratch with piling on more junk on the new edition? New pitch rules, new star players, new cards, content shattered across card packs, white dwarf articles, warcom pdfs.

Looks to me like GW is trying to sell the same sheet in different wrapping? Is this good for the game? Do we need a hard reset every 4 years to add fresh recruits?

[chimera57]

No we don't need a hard reset but this is the GW business model. When I heard they were doing a new edition my heart sank. GW's history with new editions is shocking bit people put up with it. People even brought the snotting's Spike! in full knowledge that it would be out of date before they'd even painted the figures.

Having said all that, and despite myself I find that I'm actually quite liking the new edition. The separation of passing and agility is something I've always thought necessary. I don't like some of the team changes, the Underworld change purely to fit in the current sprews and breaks some peoples teams and the almost blanket addition of animosity to Orcs might move them away from being a good beginners team.