The Cold Gods: Blood Bowl II Adds Norse For Free

I thoroughly enjoyed Blood Bowl II [official site]. A huge part of that enjoyment comes from the base rules of Blood Bowl itself, which create a tactical game so compact - in both duration and fieldspace - that it's almost claustrophobic. The slightest error can lead to a turnover and a defeat, and the riskiest plays occasionally see the entire run of play overturned in a moment. No matter how solid the foundations are, I'd always like to see more teams. The latest addition, the Norse, were free to everyone who already owned the game (on PC) before their release a couple of days ago. The next three teams will follow the same principle.

The Norse are a classic Troll-type team. They like to dish out damage but can't take a great deal of punishment from their opponents - and they have actual trolls. Yhetees, in fact.

The Norse DLC pack includes new types of players, including the Ulfwerener. These werewolves encourage damage-dealing plays with their high Strength and their brutal Frenzy skill. The Norse Big Guy is the Yhetee, a vicious Snow Troll with Claws built for shredding high armoured players. Finally, two Star Players are joining the Norse: Icepelt Hammerblow, Yhetee, and Wilhelm Chaney, Ulfwerener.

Icepelt Hammerblow is the best name I'll see today. Mr and Mrs Hammerblow no doubt fired up the same Norse Random Name Generator that their ancestors have been using for generations. "Icepelt", it chundered onto the birth certificate, and there was much rejoicing and quaffing of mead. Wilhelm Chaney, meanwhile, is simply Dick Cheney's vowel-swapping brother from the northlands.

There are three more free races on the way. Keep in mind that these, like the Norse, are only free if you buy the game before they're released. The next races are Undead, Necromantic and Nurgle, but no release dates have been given yet.

For Undead, think the strong, silent type. Slow, shambling and solid. For Necromantic, it's the opposite. They're still drawn from the dark/dead side of the pool, but they're faster, flimsier and take a little more practice to get to grips with.

Nurgle are basically living wounds.