Another one of the old Specialist Games I’m a big fan of is Blood Bowl. I own three teams: My own primary teams is Dwarfs. But I also have the two teams that came with the third edition starter set (Humans and Orcs), which I use when I demonstrate the game to people. There is a good reference card and the teams are quite straightforward and evenly matched.

About Blood Bowl

For those who don’t know, Blood Bowl is a two-player boardgame version of Rugby (sort-of). Both players take control of a team, and the ultimate goal is to score more touchdowns than the enemy. However, this being Warhammer from the 80s, a large amount of wackiness and violence is involved. A lot of teams (like my Dwarfs) are of the opinion that the easiest way to get across the field is putting all opposing players in the hospital first. Then there are the funny side effects like the fans invading the pitch, goblins on pogo sticks, etc. A skill-progression system exists so you can grow and improve your team after games, allowing you to play larger leagues.

Human team

This is one of the two teams that came with the third edition starter set. Two blitzers, two catchers, two throwers and eight linemen (the set came with six, so I must have picked up two more somewhere along the way).

I painted these using the ‘How to paint’ leaflet that came with the box, which meant they became Reikland Reavers. This was fine, as I hardly ever paint blue, so it was a nice change. Bases were done in a classic 80s/90s Goblin Green. Another thing I did was put small magnets in each base, and a piece of metal in each of my balls. This allows me to click the ball on the model that’s carrying it. Unfortunately, I’ve found that the static grass interferes with this a bit, so it isn’t perfect.