Blitz Bowl: And It Turned Into A Blood Bowl Blitz... Blood Bowl Blitz...

Yes, there is a difference between Blood Bowl and Blitz Bowl but it fit the lyrics.  And as for the differences?  Well, that's what this is all about!

That said, in full disclosure I haven't played Blood Bowl since the 1st edition.  I've often thought about picking it up again, but it's always felt like one of those games that you really need to be part of league to get the most out of it.  Even with that in mind, I once again decided to take a look at it and found it just as tempting as ever.

The concept just sounds hilarious to me.  Fantasy races meeting on the field of "battle"?  Just love the concept but as I started digging more into the recent edition I quickly encountered my long time enemy; time.  The reviews that I saw said that a game of Blood Bowl typically takes two to three hours to play.  If a game is fun, then that isn't much of an issue, but finding a block of time that vast to sit down and play a game...  it's just not so easy anymore.  Life, ya know?

And that's when I stumbled across Blitz Bowl.

With an official play time of 30 to 60 minutes, that's a lot easier to fit into life as we know it and having finally been able to play a game...  yeah, I'm glad that I went for the Blitz instead of the Blood.

With only three stats for each figure plus possibly a special rules, the rules are very easy to get your head around.  And it also doesn't feel like it's just trying to be a fantasy version of football.  There are enough differences that I really enjoyed the game play because it felt like I was playing something different, if that makes sense.  The miniatures are really nice as well.  All of these are multi-piece plastic minis from Games Workshop with their own unique sculpts and they live up to their normal reputation for quality.  I mean really, you can say all you want about the company and their games, but they do still make some very nice miniatures.

Only a few turns in and the stunties are already kicking my butt!

As for the game that we played, my friend Deuces took the dwarves (since they were blue... he likes the color blue...) while I fielded the humans.  Well, "fielded" might be too strong a word but he stomped me into the ground with a sudden death win (a sudden death win happens as soon as you are beating your opponent by 10 or more points).  And even though he royally trounced me, I'm really looking forward to getting this one to the table again in the future.  It's a great mix of sports, strategy, mayhem, and wackiness that puts it solidly in my wheelhouse to have a good time, and I'm already looking at purchasing more teams to get trounced with!  More on this one in the future, but until next time...