-
Sean Torrens
United States
Myrtle Beach
South Carolina
-
NOTE: For information on me as a gamer and my background, check out the blog post entitled Reviewer Background
I've been a huge fan of tabletop Blood Bowl since playing third edition in the mid to late 90's. I was deeply into Warhammer Quest at that time and figured that even if I didn't like the game, I could reuse the figures from it. The ongoing nature of the matches and the ability to build and expand a team, with each match having significant lasting consequences on that team were very addictive. It felt alive.
I liked the board game so much that I immediately bought the PC version when it was released and have since sold the tabletop version. All the tabletop options and teams are now incorporated into it, and it does all the "mathy" stuff. Immense speed gain in this format.
I was very intrigued when I saw they were releasing a card game format of Blood Bowl. I picked up a copy as soon as it was released.
So what did I think about Blood Bowl: Team Manager - The Card Game before I played it?
Prior view of the Sports Theme: ( ) I'm not a sports fan, by any derivation of the word. I rarely try sports-themed games since the subject doesn't hold much interest. If I do try one it's because I've liked games similar to it, or that I had read enough about it to know I would probably enjoy myself.
Some prior experience with Sports Theme: Electric Football (3), Mille Borne (5), Pitchcar (6), Formula De (6.5), Battleball (6.5), Bisikle (6.5), Car Wars (7), Blood Bowl (7), Formula D (7.5), Long Shot (9)
Prior view of the Fantasy Theme: ( ) I've been involved in the Fantasy theme since learning D&D back in 1978. Dungeon was my first Fantasy-themed board game, Talisman was big in college and Warhammer Quest after graduation. I've only recently gotten tired of killing orcs and really focused on other genres to explore (Western-themed games are a big draw for me now, pun intended). Wrath of Ashardalon recently brought back a bit of the desire to strap on a virtual sword and spurred me to additionally purchase Legend of Drizzt.
Some prior experience with Fantasy Theme: Dungeon (4), Talisman (4.5), Tomb (7), Fist of Dragonstones (7), Small World (7), Defenders of the Realm (8), DungeonQuest (8), Wrath of Ashardalon (8), Runewars (8.25), Warhammer Quest (9)
Prior view of the category of Card Games: ( ) I was one of the first local adopters of Magic: The Gathering and fell in love with it for many years until the tournament scene and the types of players it brought out finally turned me away. I also realized that spending my money on one game wasn't as satisfying as all the board games I could buy instead since so many new great new games were being released every year. I left card games behind, keeping only a couple CCGs and focused more on board games. I pick up an occasional card game that doesn't require buying more cards and the recent 'Living Card Game' hotness seems like a good mix of my old and new play styles but nothing from it has grabbed my attention yet.
Some prior category with Card Games: Lord of the Rings: The Card Game (5), Young Jedi (5), Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game (5), Armorica (6), Guillotine (6.5), Bohnanza (6.5), Rowboat (7), Magic: The Gathering (8), Star Wars CCG (8.5), Deadlands: Doomtown (10)
Prior view of the mechanism of Hand Management: () One of my favorite cards from Star Wars CCG was 'Limited Resources' and that card title defines this category so well. How can I best use what I have to get to my goal? Short term goals are this turn only, long term goals an be game-long choices. Using what you have dealt to you and making the best situation out of it is fun to me because of the variability it allows from turn to turn and game to game. 'One Uber-Strategy' will also not work every time as long as there is balance within the cards.
Some prior experience with Hand Management: Summoner Wars (5.5), Get Bit! (6), Neuroshima Hex (6.75), Founding Fathers (7), Race For The Galaxy (7), Cuba (7.5), Cosmic Encounter (7.5), Twilight Struggle (8), Balloon Cup (8.5), El Grande (8.5)
Review of Blood Bowl: Team Manager - The Card Game
Components: ( ) Fantasy Flight never disappoints with components. This game is no exception. The cardboard tokens in the game are good for what they represent and the rest being cards for team and upgrades. I 'pimped my copy' by adding a bag for the cheating tokens and will try to get little footballs to replace the tokens that come with it.
Artwork/Layout: () The actual artwork was mostly new pieces to me; the only reuse I saw was for the linemen cards as this art is used in the intro screens for the PC game to represent each team. The character art is very vibrant with lots of good action shots. There is no artwork on either the team and staff upgrades and the 'highlight reel' cards are mostly the same art template, with the only changing section being the bottom 1/3 of the card (rewards).
Theme: ( ) This game nails the theme on the head with a spikey football and then piledrives it into the end zone.
When I tried to tell non-gamers that I was reading the rules to a fantasy football game, they give one of two reactions:
A) They are turned off because their husband or boyfriend does that thing every year and they are already sick of hearing how some quarterback lost them 30 points in the league
OR
B) They get excited that you like fantasy football too so they proceed to tell you how the guy they were playing last week lost 30 points on his quarterback, winning them the match.
In both instances, when I explained these teams are truly fantasy and have Ratmen, Orcs, Treemen, Dwarves, Wood Elves and Ogres the puzzled look is the same. That's pretty awesome.
This game totally captures the feel of its predecessors. You can picture each highlight reel as it takes shape and the tournaments add a whole new level of fun to each round when they come up.
Rulebook/Player Aids: () The rulebook is pretty well written and only took one read-through to get the gist of. Some of the speed of picking up the rules comes from the examples, but some has to also have come from my familiarity with the game system it is derived from. I've taught BBTM to both non-Blood Bowlers and non-gamers (who happen to like American rules football) and no one seemed to have trouble grasping it. There are no player aids but I'm not sure what it could have. Maybe a small player mat for players to put cards and upgrades on with a brief turn overview and scoring breakdown? I'm sure we will see something on The Geek very soon.
Gameplay: () Game play is very smooth and I get genuinely excited when drawing multiple cards for rewards as to what player I can draft or if I can get that Team Wizard or Apothocary to help out with future weeks. I was initially disappointed that the 'season' would be over after 5 weeks, but the game hits the 'time investment you want to put into a game like this' mark right at that point. Easy to play, and easy to teach.
Overall Rating: () This game is FUN. One drawback of the board game version of Blood Bowl is that it can only accommodate two players at a time. The box for BBTM says 2-4 players but our first game we played with 5, no problem. It scales very well. Six teams come in the base game (you know this thing is ripe for expansions, there are 20 teams in the latest PC game). The only thing we had to add was a couple 10 sided dice for the 5th player to track fans with. I don't think I'd go as far to play with 6 as the game would just get too long. I've played with 3 and 4 players as well and it was fun every time. It scales very well. Overall, I think this is one of the best purchases I've made all year!
|
|
!
