The Second Season Edition of Blood Bowl is out in the wild, and coaches across the Old World have been recruiting their teams and hitting the gridiron in search of glory – or simply to cause as much mayhem and bodily injury as possible.*
As always with a new season, there have been a few questions relating to the game, along with some queries about specific interactions, and we’re here to set the record straight! We caught up with the Chief Herald of Nuffle, Jay Clare, to give you the low-down on these sorts of updates and let you know how often you can see them in the future!
Jay: Some good news for Blood Bowl fans – the nature of our FAQs is changing! For this new season, and from now on, we in the Blood Bowl rules team want to keep a close eye on how the game is progressing within the wider community. As such, we feel that providing regular updates to the game will help us ensure that everything stays balanced and fun for players around the world.
We’ll be moving to the same tried and tested style of FAQ schedule we use for the likes of Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. This means that there will be two updates a year – in May and November – so that we can ensure every player has the best Blood Bowl experience possible!
Each update will contain the Designer’s Commentary and an Errata section.
The Designer’s Commentary answers a series of questions posed to the rules team. These are presented in a question and answer format, and they help settle any debates around specific rules.**
The Errata contains any changes or tweaks to the rules to clarify them or make them work as intended.
We also thought we’d take some time to quickly discuss some of the changes and clarifications we’ve made in this update. Let’s take a look.
Armour Value Reductions
Probably the most important change is in the wording for characteristic reductions, particularly surrounding Armour Value. Currently, if a player suffers an injury that would affect their Armour Value, it increases the target number – which actually makes them tougher!
This wasn’t the intention, so we have reworded this section to clarify that when an injury affects a player’s Armour Value, the target number goes down by one. No more trying to get your players injured in the hope of a boosted Armour Value!
Re-rolls
In the past, a team was only ever allowed to use one team re-roll per turn – this is no longer the case! Teams are now able to use as many team re-rolls as they wish. Be careful, as using them up early on could leave you struggling for the rest of the half. This change allows coaches the option to save up their re-rolls for one really important play late on. Remember, though, you can never re-roll a re-roll.
Wildly Inaccurate Passes
If a Pass action is modified to a 1, but not a natural 1, then it’s a wildly inaccurate pass. But what happens if it’s modified below 1? We’ve clarified this to explain that if the Pass action is modified below 1, then it’s still a wildly inaccurate pass.
Inducements and Current Team Value
We noticed that there was some confusion surrounding whether or not the value of Inducements was added to a team’s value when working out the Current Team Value (CTV) to determine which team is the Underdog. The answer to this is yes, Inducements will be added to that value, then whichever team has the lower CTV can attempt to pray to Nuffle for his support in the match!
These are just a few of the clarifications in this update, and we’re confident that they will help make your games of Blood Bowl smoother and lead to even more exciting games! If you have any other questions or queries regarding Blood Bowl, send them to bloodbowlfaq@gwplc.com for consideration in our next update. We’ll see you in May!
Thanks, Jay! To download the latest Blood Bowl Designer’s Commentary and Errata, head on over to the FAQs and Errata page now to download the free PDFs.
This seems like a good time to mention that we’ve also updated the Team of Legends PDF and created a printer-friendly version of the Team Roster. Download them and get your game on!
* Though in this game, glory and violence aren’t exactly mutually exclusive.
** You’re certainly still welcome to duke it out on the pitch in time-honoured Blood Bowl tradition.