Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I haven’t actually played much Blood Bowl since finishing off the Skaven Blighters’ season, but I’m pleased to hear that Cyanide have finally released the long-promised Dark Elves patch for the game. You may remember that they were unlocked in the game by some modders around release, before being swiftly patched out. Still – good to finally see the bad guys back in play. You can get the patch from here and see their intro video below…
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This is sad, but not unexpected. FUMBLL have received a (fairly reasonably phrased) cease-or-desist letter from Games Workshop. FUMBBL has been the long-running online java bloodbowl client thingy, and been the premier way to play Blood Bowl for years. In fact, even now after the release of Cyanide’s game, if you don’t care about any of the bells and whistles – I actually think they do add something to the experience – it does a better job of simulating the game (Including all the teams, showing the maths better, etc). Of course, that FUMBBL is such a good league system, it does beg the question why Cyanide didn’t just copy it wholesale, y’know? Its timing is particularly bad for RPS forumites, as their league is just coming to the close. The question that’s on everyone’s lips is “why now?”. As in, they’ve been ignoring it until now. What pushed them to make the move?

For the last month, The RPS Cup has been fought. Against seven brave (or at least psychotically deranged) teams, I’ve lead my plucky underempiredogs – The Skaven Blighters. It produced seven match reports which try to illustrate exactly what it is to play Blood Bowl. That being, a mixture of triumph and failure – both of the coaches, and of the developers. You’ll find them all below…
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It’s on.
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There will be blood.
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Just finished writing up the penultimate Blood Bowl match report, which I’ll be posting tomorrow, but I found myself reading Mat Kumar’s piece on his reservations on Blood Bowl. The Caledonian Chaos Warrior is a bit of a dice-head on the quiet, but he’s found himself frustrated…

“Now, I wish I could say I picked up Blood Bowl and it’s everything I’ve dreamed of and more, but it’s really not. Blood Bowl, on the PC, brushes so close to perfection that it’s driving me utterly bonkers.”

A lot of people have been turned on by the match reports, despite me really trying to talk about the interface problems too. I think, just a a matter of balance, it’s worth linking to Mat’s piece which really stresses them – and not just because he’s terribly nice about my journals. Go read.

Now things get tricky.
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Violence, treachery, controversy, cheese-on-cocktail sticks. You can be sure of all of the above if you put two teams of Skaven on the same Blood Bowl pitch. We got it all, but doubled up on the controversy and left the cheesy nibbles behind.
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This match report will be brought to you by the phrase “GFI fail”. But more on that later. Much more.
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Orcs and Goblins. Skin of green. Surly. Violent. They’re the same, surely?
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