DreddBall

Penalties are about to take on a whole new meaning in the Man Cave with Judge Joseph Dredd taking his place on the pitch as the Referee:  "Your Foul Creep - BLAM!"

Figure by Mongoose Publishing, from their kickstarter deal from last year.  I wanted to get a whole bunch but in the end settled on this one fig (I spent all my money on DreadBall!), though a whole team of judges would be fun!

DreadBall - first impressions

Jeff's hand painted Dreadball Stadium - lovely job!

At CanCon last week both Right Stuff and I got to play a Demo game at the stand being very well run by a very friendly and engaging bunch of gamers.  Thanks very much to Jeff, Jenni and Doug for putting on a fun and very friendly game!  After our demo we went home, played a few games, got a bunch of stuff wrong, re-read the rules and FAQ, and are now playing our own home league.  So after all the waiting and all the hype, what's the game actually like?

There are enough posts and articles on the specific rules mechanics so I'm going to focus on what the game feels like.  NOT Blood Bowl is my answer!  Its much faster, looser, and more unpredictable which makes many BB tactics useless (trust us, we tried...).  The rules work differently and I found that while I had almost half the number of figures on the field compared to BB, I had many more choices.  And not in a good way usually!  Being able to react quickly, take advantage of a sudden free action when it comes, or responding to the failures which pop up even when you have set it up to be unlikely is the name of the game.  A balance of Offence and Defence is of course typical in BB too, but nowhere like this.  If you just leave 2 players back to defend in DB, then you are going to be in big trouble when you do score and that ball pops out because there is not time to reset...

Figs from Jeff;'s collection, on his hand sculpted bases

The lack of a 'half' also means that the pace never slackens: no 'only 2 turns until half time so I'll just thump some people' feeling, its all go go go!  We found this lead to a very offensive spirit which saw scoring shots made nearly every turn/rush, because we have yet to work out many effective defensive strategies.  The cards add all sorts of extra options which can make the impossible plays possible with extra actions etc.  There are no rerolls but you can earn extra coaching dice which can be used to take the risk out of actions.  These are earned by currying the crowd's favour by very accurate scores, 3 and 4 point strikes, crippling or even killing players.  The end result is that it feels like you are currying the crowd's favour as opposed to having the crowd interact randomly though the kick off table like in BB.

The FAQ is a bit of a must read, especially once you have played and seen what your knowledge gaps are.  Its is a living document at the game designer's blog here: http://quirkworthy.com/2012/11/03/living-faq-dreadball/

Jeff in action at the CanCon demo table

Overall- we really like it and the ability to get a game done in just over a hour is great (we got in three games today).  The league rules seem a little light on for now but I'm sure they will develop more in time.  I can see us playing this a lot of this and cant wait for a local league to start up.

What a Rush!

After some exciting weeks the Dreadball Kickstarter journey is at an end, finally settling on an amazing total of $728,985!!!  The last 48 hrs saw some huge activity, unlocking even more great stuff, including not one but two new teams:

And new MVPs too:

Personally, I am very excited on one hand and relieved on another that this is over...for now.
These models are like some sort of drug: I know I have enough already, but I NEED these new ones!
Man Cave readers can look forward to some Dreadball related modelling and game reports in due course.

Last Hurrah for Dreadball

Only four days to go on this amazing Kickstarter.  If you've missed the last few updates, there is now yet another alien team and a few MVP funded - the elf-like Asterian team (pictured above), their MVP Mellisadra, and another Forge Father team MVP - Yurik "Painmaster" Yurikson.  And now there are also  hints about the DreadBall Mech pictured below...

The current total of $463k pledged is pretty amazing!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dreadball-the-futuristic-sports-game

EDIT: Just cracked half a million dollars! 3 days to go...

Dreadball Update

The kickstarter is going from strength to strength, almost at $340k and unlocking more teams with 10 days still to go.  Since my last post there has been extra MVPs added but most excitingly a new insectoid Alien race and now transforming Robots are about to burst onto the scene - awesome!

However, the great popularity of this project is causing the Mnatci biys some concern that they wont be able to get everything out for Christmas, so they have now capped the number of Jack and Striker! packages that are available - better get in quick!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dreadball-the-futuristic-sports-game

You might also be interested in this 'first impressions' post about the game at the Blog Shades of Chaos
http://www.shadesofchaos.com/2012/09/dreadball-1st-impressions.html?m=1

Dreadball Core Rules

Are now available for a sneak peak - check them out and push a few figs around a hex grid to see if you like them!  Find them here

Dreadball Designer Interview

This week saw the podcast "Meeples and Miniatures" release episodes 93 and 94 which have interviews with the Dreadball game designer Jake Thornton and Chris Palmer from Mantic Games respectively.  While somewhat lengthy, I found them very interesting - particualrly Jake's background with GW and the steps he went to during game design to deliberately make DreadBall play differently to Blood Bowl.  Well worth checking out.  Check it out here

And as if that weren't enough, check out the concept art for the next expansion team, the Judwan aliens - sweet!

Now at $230k and growing with 16 days still to go.  This is now what you get in the Striker! package:

Dreadball Video

OK, I have been harping on about this a bit lately, but that's because its so cool!
Firstly, check out the awesome original sculpts of the figure range here

Then watch this video of the gameplay


Then check out these latest figures being sculpted - wicked!

DreadBall Update

The DreadBall kickstarter is almost at $180k and going great guns with 21 days still to go! I think the rate of pledges will probably tail off now but I'm sure it will crack 200k.

The latest Mantic podcast (episode 4) also has a bit more detail about where the game came from but as it was recorded prior to the kickstarter going live some of it is a little dated.  You can find it on iTunes.

There have been a few updates about what that means for the future of the game, but at that level there will be another 2 MVP figs as well as the new female player figs added to the Striker! level.  Have a look here and here for more detail.  Also check out the designer's blog here.

Essentially it looks like the rate of support will be sufficient to build all the currently planned stuff.  After that, at 200k support, Mantic plan to develop...

Season 2 introduces the next wave of teams, MVPs and other exciting personalities to DreadBall pitches across the galaxy! With 4 new teams, many new MVPs, coaches, cheerleaders, and more, there's something for everyone. All of the above comes in a brand new expansion rulebook so you can take your leagues to a new level.

so it looks like DreadBall will go from strength to strength and be a supported game line - Awesome!

EDIT: The stretch goals for the Enforcer and Buzzcut MVPs have now been met and the total stands at $195k!!!

DreadBall - More Info

 There is a bunch of info up at Boardgame geek (here) now explaining the rules and gameplay in more detail, for those interested.  In the meantime the Kickstarter is almost at $150k now and about to unlock another MVP player, the alien "Number 88" pictured above.  Go on- you know you want to!

DreadBall - we're in!

If you've heard about this new Kickstarter project, you wont be surprised to hear that Right Stuff and I are pledged up! If you've not heard of it, DreadBall is a new SciFi sports game by Mantic Games

From what I've read it will be a very different game to Blood Bowl - and teams will have actions points and a maximum of 2 actions per players.  The game doesn't reset after each play either so it sound more like Basketball or Ice Hockey than Rugby/Gridiron that Blood Bowl mimics.  There are four initial teams - Humans, Orx, Forge Fathers (aka Dwarves) and Veer-Men (Skaven/Ratmen) with another four planned for the future.

Now of course that are those who claim this is just a rip-off of BB and to be honest I dont know one way or another.  It sounds different enough to be a great companion game and a change of pace.  Plus the minis are cool so how can you go wrong? But make your own mind up by having a look at the info on the following links

DreadBall Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/dreadball-the-futuristic-sports-game

Official website here: http://www.dreadball.com/

There are some playtester notes by the Frontline Gamer here: http://thefrontlinegamer.blogspot.com/2012/08/i-can-talk-about-dreadball-now.html

and also a review here: http://jonathanpeace.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/review-dreadball-gameplay.html

BTW We are pledged for the Striker! package, which includes all these goodies :-)