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This review is for people who know Blood Bowl. I think Dungeon Bowl is a sibling for those who like BB and want to ad some chaotic fun to the basic rules. If you don’t know ether go to Blood Bowl and get an idea of what this is about. Dungeon Bowl is easy playable with the 2nd and the 3rd edition rules. There are only slight differences in gameplay.
The game is basically Blood Bowl in a dungeon. You play with plastic miniatures (a dwarves and an elves team comes with the box) or lead minis available in a huge variety by Games Workshop. Painting those models ad flavour to the game but is not necessary. The board consists of 6 dungeon sections (10,6x7 inch) which can be put together at your own taste (examples provided) and two endzones. The sections are all different and show floors and walls. There are a lot possible combinations how to create a dungeon and thus leading to a great replay value. Inside the dungeon markers for treasure chests are placed. These chests contain ether the ball(s) or a trap. Then the dungeon is spiced up with traps and teleporters and doors (only 2nd ed.).
The board and the counters are of thin cardboard. The fields are big enough to support a standing player, but barely for laying ones. Brawls with a couple of standing and prone minis can lead to confusion about the correct position. The plastic miniatures are a little dull, the lead teams are far more detailed. The game comes with two `spike` balls and the range rulers known from Blood Bowl.
The teams start with a selection of 6 players in their own endzone. The other players will be teleported into the dungeon one per turn. The first objective is to find the ball. It is hidden in one of the treasure chests. You have to position a player next to one and open it. For this you draw a counter out of a cup. The cup contain as many counters as chests are in the dungeon. On one counter is the ball symbol. You got the ball! On the others is the explosion symbol. You faced a chest trap and are knocked over. Only one chest can be opened per turn by a team. Once the ball is found the objective is to score in the enemy touchdown zone. . The ball cannot be thrown as far as above the surface, only quick and short passes are allowed. But you can throw the ball at a wall and hope for it to bounce in the right direction. The first touchdown ends the game.
There are quite a few things that ad more chaos to the mayhem. First the traps. Players are bound to fall into traps and get hurt. And especially in the 3rd ed. pushing into traps is a feared tactic and often used as a thread. So, these traps make a passage more dangerous or more easy to defend. The teleporters throughout the dungeon ad the possibility of shortcuts but also the dangers of a `chain reaction` when players are teleported on a teleporter already containing a player forcing this player to teleport further. If you teleport to the number you are standing on the player is `lost in space`. In the 3rd ed. wandering monsters are included as an option.
The basic encounter dwarves vs. elves face the tactical flavour of agility and speed against staying power and durability. But this changes as you chose the team of your liking.
The game is much more chaotic than Blood Bowl. To the luck element in blocking the luck with teleporters and treasure traps is added. The game is therefore sometimes very unpredictable and less strategic. With BB you can stick to a tactic and it rewards teamplay with touchdowns. In DB your players will have to act more on their own. The team may be spreaded through the whole dungeon. It is often not easy to move the player with the right skills to the dungeon section where he is needed as quick as wanted. For this it is wise to leave a rearguard at your endzone. A rush via teleporter can come by surprise. Often followed by the shouting “to the teleporters” when the defending team struggles to get home. A strict passing game is nearly impossible, running is the tactic of choice. But a last throw into the heavily defended endzone can save the day. It is fun to see the hot spot is rolling through the dungeon. The situations can shift fast, especially when playing with more than two players. As the teams have different qualities and drawbacks it is importend to reflect this in the dungeon building. A huge dungeon is for dwarves a hindrance but tight passages might be defended too easily.
My opinion about this game has grown over many years. I think I will never play this again in the basic set except for introduction. But what I loved about this game is the possibility to include house rules very easy. At DB multiplayer is a must. We often play with 3 people and two balls but we also had a game with 6 people. The dungeon can easily be expanded with scanned/printed dungeon sections or floor plans from other games (e.g. Advanced Heroquest). We often have some special guys defending a room containing chests. Wandering monsters and a variety of traps are common. Sometimes the whole dungeon has a story. Next time we will play in a `haunted mansion`. The games are linked in a kind of tournament using the skill system, money and modified injury/dug-out rules.
For me this game is not what you get, but what you make out of it. Be creative!
Games Workshop released the Dungeon Bowl Compendium with the rules for the 3rd ed. including new floorplans. Some people mentioned a link for free download, i added to the link section. If you want to try this game I would recommend to get the Compendium instead of the old Dungeon Bowl. The fields are bigger and the artwork is more up to date and it is cheaper. The only things you need extra are teams, ball, dice and range ruler.
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- Last edited Tue May 17, 2005 11:37 am (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Sun May 8, 2005 2:48 pm
