Discuss Fantasy football-style board games - GW's Blood Bowl, Impact!'s Elfball, Privateer Press' Grind, Heresy's Deathball, etc. THIS IS NOT AN NFL FANTASY FOOTBALL SITE!
Zombie wrote:4th was great, better than 3rd. And even if you don't agree with that, you've still got to respect how it put BB back on the map when it was falling into oblivion.
I dont think that 'oblivion' is quite a fair term for the state of BB at the time when 4th ed. came out. My players (in the league I mentioned previously) were all still avid BB gamers and were happy to use the 3rd ed. rules.
And lastly I dont think that 3rd ed. games degenerate into fouling competitions. Only one player Ive seen, and incidently whowas in the league, was obsessed with commiting as many fouls as he could get away with.
I was pretty lucky - left BB for uni at 3rd edition, and when I came back they were onto LRB, so I missed out on 4th ed which was, by all accounts, naff
WraithNeon: I dont think that 'oblivion' is quite a fair term for the state of BB at the time when 4th ed. came out. My players (in the league I mentioned previously) were all still avid BB gamers and were happy to use the 3rd ed. rules.
Very true. My current league has been running for 5 years, and made the switch over to LRB after it came out and I joined. Before this, they were happily using 3rd ed - which will degenerate into fouling competitions unless it is somehow checked.
Well, if your players want to beat each other up more in fouling competitons than play a decent game of BB then I suggest you get out Necromunda, 40K or Fantasy battle! When theyre tired of creating pot plant holders out of each-others skulls then wheel out BB once more!
The point is that under 3rd ed (especially vanilla), it was strategically unsound not to foul every turn! If that doesn't show there was a problem, nothing will!
It is well known that in the UK, most coaches tend to play like gentlemen and in the US, people will do anything to win. That's why Jervis released 3rd ed with this big whole in it, and that's probably part of the reason why you didn't see a problem in your league.
Zombie wrote:It is well known that in the UK, most coaches tend to play like gentlemen and in the US, people will do anything to win. That's why Jervis released 3rd ed with this big whole in it, and that's probably part of the reason why you didn't see a problem in your league.
Well, I guess youre right! But I feel that the statement that you need to foul at every opportunity doesnt hold up under scrutiny. Consider that if you want to try to commit a foul on each of your turns 1) you have to plan it for around the end of you turn, which in of itself is difficult if youre playing to the 2 minute rule; and 2) the more fouls you attempt the more you risk undermining your own team by getting players sent off and losing team turns (it only takes a couple of bad throws).
thats madness, i play for a whole overall time limit, sometimes you get double 1 on the first thing you do, while other turns you might want to use the extra thinking time you would have lost on that.
... But this was in original 3rd edition, when you could reroll whether the ref spotted you and there was no IGMEOY. This made an enormous difference in the odds of being thrown off, and it was very much in your favor to foul every turn. Really good coaches would set up the blitz, take their two die blocks and then drop the foul. BB 3rd ed was a whole different game.
WraithNeon wrote:I dont think that 'oblivion' is quite a fair term for the state of BB at the time when 4th ed. came out.
I didn't say it was its state; i said it was its direction. Blood Bowl sites were closing one by one, leagues were becoming less numerous every year and coaches too.
You know what they say, even bad publicity is better than no publicity.
WraithNeon wrote:1) you have to plan it for around the end of you turn, which in of itself is difficult if youre playing to the 2 minute rule
The rule is 4 minutes, ample enough time unless you get a turnover first of course.
WraithNeon wrote:2) the more fouls you attempt the more you risk undermining your own team by getting players sent off and losing team turns (it only takes a couple of bad throws).
Yeah, but without IGMEOY (vanilla 3rd ed really sucked for that), you'd get rid rid of more opposition players through fouling than you'd lose through ejection!
Played 1srt ed a couple of times, played a lot of 2nd, a few 3rd, missed out on 4th completely, and started again with LRB.
I sticking with LRB as my no. 1.
Reason:''
Currently an ex-Blood Bowl coach, most likely to be found dying to Armoured Skeletons in the frozen ruins of Felstad, or bleeding into the arena sands of Rome or burning rubber for Mars' entertainment.
With the addition of IGMEOY and Sigurd's Injury rule 3rd Ed was very balanced and a joy to play IMO.
2nd Ed was surely the most bloody of the Blood Bowl versions. When I look back at the game reports I wrote of the 2ed Ed leagues, I realised that deaths were very common - probably on average one per game with some games have 4/5 deaths. This would never happen today (except on a very rare and unlucky day).
I can't remember enough about my 1st Ed games to recall the casualty rates.
But I do now prefer the LRB as the best version of BB. Certainly the most ballanced and does not take 4 or 5 hours to finish a game!
Reason:''
Jonathan Merry
Da Leeg Commissioner, Shaka Shield and SA Open Organiser
I'm sure that my league's record for most deaths caused in one game will not be equalled in the LRB. It was before my time in the group, but one player inflicted 6 deaths in a game.
Well, if your players want to beat each other up more in fouling competitons than play a decent game of BB then I suggest you get out Necromunda, 40K or Fantasy battle! When theyre tired of creating pot plant holders out of each-others skulls then wheel out BB once more! 
But I feel that the statement that you need to foul at every opportunity doesnt hold up under scrutiny. Consider that if you want to try to commit a foul on each of your turns 1) you have to plan it for around the end of you turn, which in of itself is difficult if youre playing to the 2 minute rule; and 2) the more fouls you attempt the more you risk undermining your own team by getting players sent off and losing team turns (it only takes a couple of bad throws). 
