As my Blood Bowl painting efforts continue I managed to gee up some enthusiasm from the eldest to have a game, it was either that or 40k and he opted for the fantasy American Football. Of course I've only ever played 2nd Edition and I don't have the current 'Living Rulebook' for modern play so we stuck with what I know. In the past we just did the basic rules but I decided to up the ante and go with the advanced set and we had elves versus skaven, here's the end of my Son's first turn, no head to head shenanigans in 2nd Edition, and I never liked the kick-off rules brought back in with the Blood Bowl companion.
A number of his skaven ran upfield with his thrower hanging back completely undefended, lets just say he was very new to the game.
You don't see that every day, a three armed, be-tentacled giant mutant rat!
After some deft play and a few blocks one of his Skaven was deaded, 2 K.O.ed and 2 stunned but he'd still managed to slip through my defensive line and thrown the ball to a scuttling little rat fella - 1-0 to the skaven.
So, next round and I start off with the ball.
At the end of the first turn my elves are heading upfield, I suppose this illustrates we they all start in the middle now.
Some punishing blocks put a lot of my elves on the floor, I'm not even sure where the ball is, it seemed to bounce around that pile of flattened individuals in the middle.
I think this picture pretty much describes what happened, the catcher managed to break free for the end-zone and my thrower managed to get in a simple pass to gain a draw.
That was it, we packed up after that. I think it was a fun little game. I know the new rules have that if you fail a block, throw or tackle etc. and it's a turnover from playing Blood Bowl on the DS but I kind of enjoyed the original you get to keep on blocking, rolling armour saves next block and on and on. The new rules add more tension, any fail could be your doom but it ends up a bit more tactical, a bit more like chess. Every move has to be made with 'what will happen if I fail?' in mind and so you have to try and plan your moves in a set order. It's interesting and perhaps more of a challenge but I feel 2nd Edition is a little quicker because if you do fail so what you just make your next block. It's like in 40k when you have a target you absolutely must kill and so if one thing misses you fire at it with another until you bring it down. Could you imagine if your turn in 40k was over if a unit missed? Of course they're different game mechanics and amounts of figures involved but it's an interesting thought.