Blood Bowl is one of Games Workshop’s most beloved fantasy games, being a parody of both fantasy sports games and the fantasy genre itself. It has a fabulous setting, picturing a world where Orcs, Elves and so on battle each other on the pitch rather than the theatre of war. Blitz Bowl Ultimate Edition is Blood Bowl’s little brother, a shorter, spikier game that has a lot of the charm, but very different rules.
On the surface, Blitz Bowl looks like a smaller version of its big brother. It’s a game about fantasy creatures playing a version of Gridiron/Rugby, with each team trying to score touch-downs.
It’s all set in the same sports obsessed world and the box contains Human and Skaven (Ratmen) models that you’d find in a Blood Bowl box. (We get twelve models in total, six for each side.) However where-as Blood Bowl is all about tactically pushing your luck and the constant back and forth of chasing the bowl, Blitz Bowl is a shorter, more brutal brawl in which the ball becomes one of many components in a symphony of chaos. The basic vibe of the core game is here, but compressed into a much simpler and quicker to play game. The tempo is a little slower, but the game plays so much faster so you don’t notice.
One of the game innovations is challenge cards; essentially acts of daring do that your team can try to achieve on the pitch. Pull enough of these off quickly enough and you’ll win the game, but good luck with that. The best tactic is always to try and beat up your opponents. The sneaky Skaven side is a surprisingly well balanced against the Humans (who are basic all-rounders).
This is very much intended as an introduction to Warhammer games in general, and Blood Bowl in particular; the box has cards for teams you don’t get in the box and the advanced rules talk about Trolls, Orgres and Tree-Men, models you’ll need to pick up separately.
This is a fun two-player game to play whilst waiting for a games session to start, and a great addition to a Blood Bowl fan’s collection.
Thanks to Games Workshop and their @WarComTeam for supplying the game for our review.
