The new Blood Bowl Vampire team are swooping into pre-orders this weekend, so Warhammer Community caught up with Gavin, one of the designers who refreshed the range after so long on the sidelines.
Warhammer Community: The Vampire team is a fan(g) favourite among Blood Bowl enthusiasts. What was it like to breathe new un-life into such a heavily anticipated squad?
Gavin: It was a real team effort. Usually, one designer will take a Blood Bowl team from start to finish, with input feedback from the others. In this project, however, the bulk of the design work was done by my colleague Nicolas, while I tackled the Thralls. I love what Nico has done with the Vampires, through their posing and attitudes he was able to convey a strong feeling of them being both predatory, blood-hungry hunters as well as sports stars.
WarCom: The Vampires and their Thralls are visually distinct, yet they still feel part of the same team. How did you ensure that the two player types had a unified look?
Gavin: It was difficult to tie the two together – Vampires are supernatural beings whereas the Thralls are regular folk much like you and I. It eventually came down to focusing on a few features that were shared between the two, such as tassets, belt buckles, and boots. By ensuring the design of these elements was consistent across the team, it helped to subtly tie them together.
While many elements are similar, we also wanted to ensure that some differences remained between them. For example, though the Thralls and their Vampire masters share the same armour and billowing shirts, the Thralls’ attire is in far worse condition than the flawless, unmarred garb of the Vampires.
WarCom: Speaking of billowing shirts, how did you settle on this particular look for the team?
Gavin: It was all about combining the existing Vampire aesthetic with classic sports attire – which was not as simple as it sounds! Thankfully, the large faceted shapes that are so synonymous with the Vampires' design language combine nicely with the kind of protective padding you would expect to find on the gridiron. This led us to the impressive, batwing-like shoulder pads that you see on each of the Vampires.
The Thralls were an interesting challenge. If you look at how wide they are in the shoulder, their build would suggest that they were once large and muscular sports players. However, the emaciating effect of repeated blood loss has taken its toll upon these walking blood bags, and so their clothes now hang loosely from their drained frames and their limbs appear long and gangly rather than strong and muscular.
WarCom: What was the most enjoyable part of the project?
Gavin: Designing the Vargling ball! Though it is quite cruel to use the poor beastie as a ball, I am sure the little nipper will get plenty of biting done throughout a match!
WarCom: Which member of the team is your favourite?
Gavin: I think it would be the Thrall holding the bat, or perhaps even the bat itself! I also have a soft spot for the ball carried by the two bats – it turns out that sculpting bats is great fun!
WarCom: How are you going to paint your Vampire Team?
Gavin: I am really tempted to try and paint mine in a sepia monotone scheme to make them look like they have walked straight out of an old movie!
Thanks Gavin! The Vampires are primed and ready to spring from their coffins and score some tremendous touchdowns this Saturday, when you can pre-order these baroque blitzers.