What War or Boardgame are you playing?

[tkdco2]

I was trying Castle Falkenstein's duelling system, simulating a Highlander-style duel. I added rules for regenerating damage. It took forever since neither side was able to land a killing blow. I'm modifying some of the rules to make the system play a bit faster.

[stevemitchell]

Some American Revolution battles from GMT, with the Americans losing, respectively, at Rhode Island, Newport, and White Plains. Then on, or backward, to the English Civil War in the form of Power and Resolution from Compass. I played the full four-player campaign, 1642-1651. The Scots were the surprise winners, followed by Parliament, the Royalists, and the Irish. A rough time for the House of Stuart: both Prince Rupert (the King's nephew) and Prince Charles (the King's son) died in battle, and King Charles I was captured by Parliament toward the end of the game and was being carted off to the Tower.

[stevemitchell]

Forgot another good one I played recently. Legion has released a game called Invasion: Malta, which allows you to play out one of the various invasion plans the Axis devised for the island of Malta--one each for 1940, 1941, and 1942. These plans were never tried in history, but as what-ifs, they make for great gaming situations. I tried the 1940 scenario, with the Italians only (no Germans) landing by sea, supported by a small paradrop operation. The Italians built out a substantial lodgment but were unable to take enough victory hexes to claim a victory. The game also includes a bonus game on the historical German invasion of Leros in 1943, another seaborne/airborne operation, with the Germans winning this time.

[Malchor]

The British Way, campaign game round 2 and campaign of Star Wars: Imperial Assault

Recents are: Arcs, Space Corp., Gest of Robin Hood.

[stevemitchell]

I thought GMT did a great job with The British Way.

[stevemitchell]

Some Civil War battles:

I played Franklin from Worthington. This actually includes two battles, Spring Hill and Franklin, with an option to play the two games as a campaign with linking rules. I played the campaign, ending in a Union victory. Then I played Battle of Wyse Creek from Blue Panther Games, on a fairly obscure (at least to me) clash in North Carolina toward the end of the war. Another Union victory.

[Parzival]

Aug 10, 2024 11:14:29 GMT -6 stevemitchell said:

Some Civil War battles:

I played Franklin from Worthington. This actually includes two battles, Spring Hill and Franklin, with an option to play the two games as a campaign with linking rules. I played the campaign, ending in a Union victory. Then I played Battle of Wyse Creek from Blue Panther Games, on a fairly obscure (at least to me) clash in North Carolina toward the end of the war. Another Union victory.

Ah, my home digs (Franklin, that is). Not familiar with that game. I have worked up a scenario in Battle Cry, although really it focuses on the main area and less so on Fort Granger, which is probably something I should correct.

[stevemitchell]

My wife has visited the Franklin battlefield, but I have not. The Worthington game is part of their brigade-level series on Civil War battles, with previous entries covering Antietam, Shiloh, the Seven Days, and Gettysburg. l like the system, but I would say that Franklin is my least-favorite title in the series so far. Reflecting the historical situation, the Confederates don't have much chance of winning. Not much replay value, I'm afraid. It looks like the Wilderness will be the next game in the series, and I'm very much looking forward to that (not many games on the Wilderness out there).

And continuing my Civil War roll, I'm fighting at Culp's Hill right now (via Flanks of Gettysburg from Compass).

[Parzival]

Aug 10, 2024 22:23:42 GMT -6 stevemitchell said:

My wife has visited the Franklin battlefield, but I have not. The Worthington game is part of their brigade-level series on Civil War battles, with previous entries covering Antietam, Shiloh, the Seven Days, and Gettysburg. l like the system, but I would say that Franklin is my least-favorite title in the series so far. Reflecting the historical situation, the Confederates don't have much chance of winning. Not much replay value, I'm afraid. It looks like the Wilderness will be the next game in the series, and I'm very much looking forward to that (not many games on the Wilderness out there).

And continuing my Civil War roll, I'm fighting at Culp's Hill right now (via Flanks of Gettysburg from Compass).

The Confederates’ best chance of winning most likely would have been to follow Forrest’s recommendation for a flanking maneuver over the Harpeth River much earlier on. Hood also needed better reconnaissance; despite his command post on Winstead Hill, he couldn’t see over the center rise (roughly at the site of the Carter House) to Upd**e’s* Brigade in reserve— he probably thought he was facing less resistance in the center than was actually there. Would better intelligence have changed Hood’s mind? Would Forrest’s suggestion have worked? (It didn’t when finally tried, but that may have been a case of “done too late.”) Possibly not in reality, but a game should at least allow for it (ain’t fun playing a battle you can’t win, even if it’s historically valid).

All battles can be questioned and “what if-ed.” But a game should probably lean towards the “what if” side of things.

———
(* or Opd**e— spellings vary. EDIT: Oh for Pete’s sake. The name contains another word for dam, particularly one that might surround the Netherlands, in this case spelled with a “y”— the autocensor is set a bit high, y’all.  C:P )

[stevemitchell]

More from the Civil War:

Flanks of Gettysburg, from Compass Games, has two complete battles at company level, both from the second day at Gettysburg: Culp's Hill, with the Confederates attempting to storm the north end of the Union line, and Little Round Top, with the Rebs trying to go around the southern end of the line. I played Culp's Hill, which ended in a Union victory.

Then it was on to the Chancellorsville campaign, in the form of Sedgwick Attacks from Revolution Games. This is part of their regimental-level Blind Swords series. It focuses on the Battle of Salem Church. The Union won again.

[yesmar]

I currently find myself torn between The Awful Green Things From Outer Space and Tractics.

[Parzival]

Aug 18, 2024 19:24:03 GMT -6 yesmar said:

I currently find myself torn between The Awful Green Things From Outer Space and Tractics.

TAGTFOS is Tom Wham at his best. What a great game. Somewhere out there on the “interwebs” are pictures of a set with homemade figures for the crew, Awful Green Things, and the various objects/weapons. I envy that set!

[Parzival]

Was at Nashcon this past weekend, and ran two games of The Battle of Five Armies (Warmaster variant), and played Full Thrust and All Quiet on the Martian Front. Fun weekend!
Read about it on my blog: parzivalsplace.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-day-or-two-at-con.html

[stevemitchell]

Still in the Civl War: I played Revolution's Grand Havoc, covering the clash at Perryville at regimental scale. A Union victory, but only after a hard-fought battle. Another fine entry in Revolution's Blind Swords series.

[stevemitchell]

The Civil War never ends. I played Revolution's Prelude to Vicksburg, which covers the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou. Historically Sherman's men floundered in the swamps north of Vicksburg to no great effect, but in my game they managed to break through the Reb defenses and win.

[Parzival]

Bought two copies of Space Marine: The Board Game on deep clearance at Target— 70% off!

Will I play the game? Maybe. But I *will* play Space Hulk, and add these figures to the lot! (46 figures at $0.52 each! Woohoo!)

[Punkrabbitt]

OK, so I finally managed to get my second campaign game of Five Leagues From The Borderlands played. It's been a while, and I was delayed because I rolled up Campaign turns 3 (where Our Heroes simply recovered) and 4, wherein they decided to Ride Patrol again. As I was generating the various pre-game events and enemies, "Roving Fiends" came up as the enemy, and I thought it would be fun to paint up some Daemonettes from Warhammer to use. As it turns out that was a big mistake, as it took me a VERY long time.

Anyway, in the settlement of Bradfordshire of the Ruined City Of Arsmkirk, Weppi and her companions enjoyed a rare starlit night with singing faeries. This should have allowed one warband member to be "Blessed" during the game, but by the time I played I forgot all about it. They helped the Town Guard to skip out on the Upkeep costs, and made an attempt to recruit someone to replace Isabeau the Street Urchin who sadly died during the last Patrol. Finally, some connections were made and the warband gained a Story Point.



The battle itself was four turns long, and the Objective was to Secure The Area. The Unknown Enemy marker was spotted the first turn and yielded two Roving Fiends, for a total of six of them against Our Heroes five. During that first turn, Weppi and Kipor went into a ruined building and took up position in a break in the wall. Tundaline and Alaric both used the unsteady stairs to get to the second floor, and Drustan snapped off a shot with his bow that missed. Alaric took up position behind Weppi and Kipor. The Roving Fiends simply advanced towards Our Heroes.



Between the first and second turns, there was a Giant Cat Attack that caused a bit of an earthquake. Buildings already partially destroyed shook on their foundations and all trembled in fear.







Next turn, Tundaline tried to shoot her crossbow at the advancing Fiends with no effect. Four of the Fiends crashed into Weppis and Kipor, got pushed back, and Drustan picked one off with his trusty bow. Alaric, trying to be a Hero (but only a Wily Rogue) made an attack and was quickly knocked out of action for his trouble. Will he make it? Will he die? We will have to wait until after the game to find out.



The third and fourth turns were really just the Roving Fiends going back and forth with Weppi and Kipor. At the end of turn four, there was only one Fiend left and it was removed due to a Morale roll. Our Heroes held the field and saved the day!





After the game (always my favorite part!) Alaric turned out to have just broken his weapon and played dead (very Rogue-like.) The Roving Fiends had enough gold ornaments to sell for a total of 8 gold coins. And there was news of someone important needing adventurers. We have two campaign turns to travel to a new wilderness location to accept a Quest. Weppi says they need to get a little more skilled before they go about just accepting quests from strangers. Seems legit to me.

[Punkrabbitt]

OK, so I had my third game of "A Tale Of Two Tortles," which might now be a bit misnamed as you will see later. I decided that after two games of just Riding Patrol it was time to confront the Duskling Menace head-on, and see if we could take down those nasty little yet surprisingly tough and stringy goblins. But before we went off and faced that madness, there was some time spent in town doing the basic upkeep of life stuff.



To start with, there was a Renowned Scholar in town, but Weppi said to forget him, we ain't studying, we're gonna help the town guard and recruit some new blood. And new blood is what we got! With some gold coin spent, Yammel, another Tortle, joined the warband. At this point it must be said that I made some really appropriate Tortle rules instead of just using the Dwaf rules, and so Yammel would be the first one to start with these new rules. Weppi and Kipor were switched to the new rules at this time as well, but since this was effectively a roster change, I spent a Story Point for each of them to switch. Two new basic weapons were bought, one for Yammel and one to replace Weppi's, which had broken last adventure. Also some light armor for Yammel was purchased.



Now here's a thing: when I recruited Yammel for the warband, I was very excited because Reapr has just released the Spikeshell Anti-Paladin miniature, and I thought it would go great with the Spikeshell Warrior miniatures that I used for Weppi and Kipor. When it arrived through the mail, it was almost double the size of the other two. So now this BIG Tortle is going to be the Weppi miniature, and the previous Weppi will be the Yammel miniature.



And so we ventured off the combat the Duskling Menace, with the full intention of kicking goblin ass all the way out of Armskirk (the ruined city in which we are adventuring, for those of you that are new to this story.) We found where the goblins had been, and went looking to see if we could find any evidence of their sinister plans.



While we were searching, we ran into some Mist-clad goblins, led by a sergeant. Seven of them, including their leader, two with bows. More likely though, they had been watching us and thought this was a good point for an ambush. Their bowmen were flanking to the north, so Kipor and Aalric decided to move through the cover to get the drop on them. Weppi, Yammel, Drustan, and Tundaline went southwards to try to engage the bulk of the Dusklings.



Tundaline was able to get one shot off with her crossbow, felling one of the goblins, before the smelly creatures were upon them. In the course of the ensuing melees, both Tundaline and Drustan were felled by the foul vermin before Weppi and Yammel finally defeated or drove away the remainder. Of the two archers, Kipor killed one and the other fled; a total of three goblins fled tis fight, showing their generally low morale and disorganization.



You know how when you get a new freshly painted miniature that you are feeling great about, and the first time you field it there is terrible luck for it? I fully expected that to be the case with the new Weppi miniature, but she was a BEAST during this game. She accounted for three of the enemy, including their sergeant. That was 75% of the total kills. So I'm pretty excited about that.



After the dust cleared, it was time to take stock of the outcome. Tundaline and Drustan were both down, but survived. They would be out for a few game turns each recovering from their injuries. There was a Ferret's Drink potion recovered, as well as 3 Gold coins. For the game Meta, there was a gain of 5 Adventure Points and 3 Story points (2 from the scenario objective and one from the "Letter From A Friends" News Travels result.) 4 Adventure points were spent to make an Adventure Milestone check, and a roll of 3 means the Duskling Menace has been reduced by one point.



Anyway, I had a great time and I am happy to share it with y'all.

[rredmond]

Wow, it looks amazing!

[stevemitchell]

But it needs more cats. . . .

[Punkrabbitt]

Sept 23, 2024 8:19:19 GMT -6 rredmond said:

Wow, it looks amazing!

Thank you!

[Punkrabbitt]

Sept 23, 2024 9:53:26 GMT -6 stevemitchell said:

But it needs more cats. . . .

They were so misbehaved before I even finished setting up that I had to lock them away for this game 😔

[stevemitchell]

I finished my grand tour of the Civil War by playing Shiloh: The First Day from Revolution Games. This is the latest, and largest, regimental-level game in the Blind Swords series. Hard-fought on both sides, but ending in a Union victory.

[hamurai]

I discovered Relicblade earlier this week, grabbed some Print-and-Play stuff yesterday and played a couple of rounds with proxy miniatures. I'd love to get some of the original models, but they seem to be pretty much sold out everywhere, and ebay only has big bundles....

Anyway, Relicblade has a couple of this I love, especially: small unit cards. Each unit's stats fit on a standard-sized game card and building a warband is quick and easy. You can upgrade your units with special abilities, weapons, equipment, and you can upgrade spell-casters with different spells (which must fit the "class"). Dice are only d6, and I like the idea that units have several dice each round which they can use for different abilities, that reminds me of Confrontation/Cadwallon RPG, which I really liked.

Playing on a 2x2 area is unusual to me, and there's not much room to maneuver the units, which seemed unfair to some - the dwarf illusionist especially, who doesn't have any ability to damage the enemy apart from improvised strikes. He's not too sturdy either, so he was pretty much trying to kite the enemy a lot and hide behind terrain. I loved his crowd control aspects, though! The illusionary horror he can summon really helped win the game by rooting the enemy and preventing them from taking objectives.
On the other hand, the melee fighters were in the thick of the action quickly and combat is really quite deadly in Relicblade - a single hit from the big fighters often dealt instant KO.

Relicblade is quick and easy to learn, which I really like. The deadly combat meant that my first games only lasted 1 or 2 rounds until all units from one warband were down. The dodge action is a real life-saver in this game and it's something one should use often.
I'll be playing more games soon. At the moment, I'm unsure if Relicblade has enough for me to come back to it regularly, and if it's enough for me to get more PnP content from the shop.

[Punkrabbitt]

OK, so I went ahead and played out Campaign Turn 6 of A Tale Of Three Tortles. It was going to be a bit risky, since both Tudaline and Drustan were currently down healing from their injuries. But, maybe some in-town activity could help out a bit, no?

Anyway, during the Local Events phase, a kindly old person packed us lunch and the warband now had one Rations. We spent our in-town time helping the Town Guard and dragging Drustan to the Healer, who got him back on his feet and ready to adventure again. Hey, how about that! We also bought some light armor for Kipor and had a chance to buy a sneaky sneaky little throwing knife, but we passed that one up.



Now, we were following up some reports that those pesky Duskling goblins were up to no good in the vicinity of The Crossing. And so huppty huppty ho we went a-travelling towards The Crossing. But along the way, something strange happened. Strange Troops, to be precise. A defensive battle was then fought against these swarthy strangers with their curved swords, zebra shields, and crested helms...



We started well enough, Seizing The Initiative and advancing towards the enemy. Drustan, newly on his feet, took up a defensive position behind a fence to get some good bow shots at them. Alas, his first shot went wide and the zebra-shielded enemies were upon them. Yammel made a good showing and felled his first opponent, but Alaric was not so lucky, coming off worse for wear in his first engagement and was now wounded. Weppi and Kipor both pushed their opponents back, but the fight was still on.



Things started to turn ugly for Our Heroes. Drustan was taken down by the enemy bowmen. Alaric and Kipor were felled by those curved swords. And while Weppi was holding her own, she too was now wounded. She managed to kill one of the attackers, but she was still toe-to-toe with another.



With more bad luck, the enemy reacted faster than Our Heroes could attack. Yammel went down, leaving Weppi alone to confront two remaining swordsmen and two archers. Is this how our story is going to end? NO! Weppi killed her assailant and then turned her rust-hued eyes towards her next targets.



The remaining enemy swordsman rushed towards Weppi and was promptly cut down for her efforts. Both archers shot at her, but failed to hit anything but her thick shell. And then she lunged, bringing one of the archers down beneath her cyclopean weapon (really, have you seen the size of that thing?) The last archer decided it just wasn't worth it, and promptly fled the scene. Weppi stood alone amongst the bodies of her trusted friends and the dead foreigners.

During the course of this Travel Encounter, I used three Story Points to keep Weppi on her feet. That was half of everything we have. Kipor took a light wound and will be out for a turn to recover. Drustan was moderately wounded and will be out for six turns. Alaric and Yammel were both just knocked out. Alaric has a winning streak of recovering after the battle! The Strange Troops had some furs that will be sold for 4 Gold Marks when we get to The Crossing, and Alaric was able to find some partial armor and a helmet to help him out in future skirmishes.

The real catch here is that this wasn't even the main battle. There are still the Dusklings out there in wait to attack The Crossing, and only Our Heroes can stop them before they do. Can we do it with just three of us? Maybe there is an Old Friend in the area who could help...

TO BE CONTINUED

[Punkrabbitt]

The Story thus far: Weppi, Yammel, and Alaric are the only members of the Warband still on their feet after a savage encounter with Strange Warriors. While Our Heroes were victorious and held the field, the injured were sent back to Mirefield for rest and recovery. There was just one problem: those evil Duskling goblins were still en route to attack The Crossing, and must be stopped!



Musing about the possibilities of success or defeat, Weppi wondered to herself, "what about old friends?" She had known people in Armskirk before the Destruction. Perhaps, just maybe... she let out her loudest Tortle Throat Rumble Calling, and a while later Galdan, a human Noble she had known, was ready to help out. And so Our Heroes set out to once again beat down hard on the Duskling threat.



But first things first, right? Weppi wanted to get an idea of how things had changed near The Crossing since the Destruction. Plumes of smoke were a good start to the investigation. As they approached the burning buildings, through the smoke could be seen goblins! Blood streaks already on their skin, they hadn't quite noticed Weppi and her companions yet.



On the first turn, we Seized The Initiative (and I promptly forgot and played the first turn without it!) The goblin Blood-streaked Band advanced, one of their archers taking a position in the upper level of a building (not the usual AI, but it made sense.) Our Heroes decided to move as a group and go around a building to flank the goblins.





The second turn saw the Duskling archers shooting ineffectively, but the warriors did contact Weppi and her friends. They were pushed back for their efforts, and one was now wounded, but Our Heroes had held their line.



Turn three saw some more ineffective archery and a swirling melee that left two goblins dead and Galdan down, while Weppi and Alaric had picked up some wounds. Weppi had also burned a Story Point to re-roll a damage roll against one of the now-dead Dusklings. One of the goblins thought better of the fight and fled the scene. At about this time I realized that I had never determined the Scouting Objectives, so between turns I marked the two objectives with dice.



In Turn four, Weppi had the realization that the fires would need to be Scouted before more goblins arrived, She pushed her companions to kill the goblins quickly and promptly killed the one that lunged to attack her. One of the goblin archers felled Alaric, but Yammel pushed forward and killed that archer. Weppi ran to a stack of detritus to search for clues to the fire. The final Duskling archer decided that there was no winning this fight and followed his fleeing companion.



Turn five saw Weppi use a point of Will to quickly move to the next Scouting location, and thereby secure the Objective as well as Hold The Field. A quick look showed that Alaric had once again been Knocked Out (a real winning streak on that one,) and Galdan, while down, had only suffered a broken weapon.



Searching the filthy goblin Dusklings afterward, they acquired a Rangers Cloak and enough furs to sell in The Crossing for three Gold Marks. At The Crossing, news had come that the Gnawling Horde had grown their Camp nearby to a Hideout, and they were building their strength to take over the ruined city of Armskirk.

[stevemitchell]

Zeppelin Raider is a solitaire wargame from Compass Games. You command a German Zeppelin in World War One, with the goal of scouting the North Sea for the British fleet, or else bombing targets in England. The game system represents such things as mechanical breakdowns (which seem to happen a lot), the weather (often poor), and British resistance in the form of fighters and anti-aircraft fire. I ran two campaigns, a dismal failure with my first Kommandant, and a glorious triumph with my second.

[Malchor]

Lat game was Undaunted 2200 Callisto, one before that was Arcs.

[Parzival]

Inspired by my vaunted Vandy Commodores (and not the hapless I-no-longer-associate-with-you Titans), I broke out my (American) football board games: BattleBall and Blitz Bowl.

BattleBall is a Hasbro game from about a decade or so back with two fully painted (and stickered) science-fantasy teams facing each other over a stylized standard American football field (known to true fans as “the gridiron”). It’s a fairly basic game, with a clever movement/combat mechanic. You play two “halves” which consist of trying to either get the ball into the opposing endzone OR injuring every member of the opposing team. (Whenever two opposing team members meet on the field, a “tackle” occurs. The loser of the tackle is “injured” and carted off the field, leaving a “carnage” marker behind. If they’re injured badly enough, they do not return in the second half.) First player to achieve two touchdowns wins. (A touchdowns is automatically assumed if all opposing figures have been “injured” and removed.)

The various football player “positions” determine what die is rolled for a figure— d6 d10, d12, d20. (Special heavy tackles roll 2d6 and choose the best, but ties cause them to “malfunction”.) The die determines the number of spaces a figure can move (higher being obviously better), or in a tackle situation who wins the tackle (in which case one wants to roll lower than the opponent). So obviously the fleeter figures are at high risk of being tackled and injured, while the hardier fellows are reduced to a lumbering movement. In the standard game, only one figure is moved per turn for each side. I borrow from a fan-made “Advanced” set of rules that three figures may be moved per side, which produces more effective blocking opportunities. (A figure must stop and attempt a tackle if it moves adjacent to an opposing figure— even if holding the ball.) Rules include hand-offs, passing, “interceptions” and fumbles. Alas, kicks and kick-offs are not part of the game.

It’s simple, plays very quickly, and with the three-figure activation rule in place, feels a lot like actual football (if a bit more brutal). Alas OOP, but you can probably find it on eBay.

Blitz Bowl is from GW, and is basically an “arena football” variant of the popular Blood Bowl game. Play is fairly straightforward (and honestly not unlike Battle Ball), though the game adds “Challenge Cards” which are bonuses a coach (i.e., the actual player) can claim if he fulfills the action listed on the card. These boost your score and give you advantages you can use going forward. My jury is out on these as to whether they “feel like football,” but they can be fun.
Otherwise, a team can perform three actions per turn, which may be divided among multiple “players.” Actions are:
Run (a set number of spaces),
Mark (move two spaces to be adjacent to an opposing figure),
Block (if Marked: roll a die to see if you Knock Down, Shove, “Ka-runch,” or miss your opponent)
Sidestep (move away from an adjacent Marking foe)
Throw (a pass)
Stand Up (if having been Knocked Down)
OR alternately bring a figure back in play from the dugout— a “Reserve” action.

Each team only has 6 figures on the field at any time (sometimes less), so this doesn’t quite feel as much like football, but it’s also a slugfest, with fairly rapid results. It’s not quite as quick to resolve as Battle Ball, but that’s because the winning values and game end requirements are high— you must score at least 10 points more than the opponent to end the game and claim victory, OR cycle completely through the deck of Challenge Cards, which also forces the game to end. Each Touchdown is worth 3 points, but the Challenge cards boost scores to keep the game going (or end it quickly, depending).
Rules for fumbles exist (and can happen frequently). Again, no kicking or kick-off rules.

This weekend I ran through both games. Honestly, I like Battle Ball better, as being easy to play and quick to complete. But Blitz Bowl is also a good game— it just requires a little more attention in play (not a bad thing). As stated, the former is OOP, but Blitz Bowl is currently sold by GW, in America through the Barnes & Noble bookstore chain. A box contains two full teams, and additional teams can be purchased. There’s a Human team, an Orc team (the two in my set), a Skaven (ratmen) team, a Dwarf team, and an Amazon team (the women, not the web store). Each team has different abilities, so they don’t play the same. Unlike most GW money-grab products, this game is complete in the box with two teams. You don’t need any expansions to play, and you can’t buy “killer” units to put you unfairly on top. You get what you’ve got. I like that. So far GW has released multiple “seasons” of boxed sets, pairing different foes. And of course, if you wind up duplicating a team, you can see how “twin” teams can play off against each other.

And yes, my human Blitz Bowl team is gonna wind up being painted Black and Gold. Go ‘Dores!

[hamurai]

Good summary, Parzival !

I never had the chance to try Battleball, but I've got the last 3 Blitz Bowl boxed sets at home and enjoy playing. The game got me into Blood Bowl, although Blitz Bowl plays a lot quicker and more boardgame-y (less rules, the special cards...) than Blood Bowl, which often feels more like a push-your-luck skirmish game. I enjoy both, although I'm getting to play Blood Bowl more often these days (the local league a friend and I started last year really helps!).

Blitz Bowl is popular with the people who enjoy the painting aspect of the GW minis for Blood Bowl, but who don't like Blood Bowl itself. They get a team box, split it, get painting and if they want, they can play Blitz Bowl with their half.