Dreadball Arena – A Review

Posted by Phil on May 20, 2013

Whilst at Salute this year I stopped off at good friend of The Shell Case, Amera Plastic Mouldings. I’ve always been a fan of the company as they produce great looking terrain at prices that won’t make you begrudge paying it. And as scenery is often the last thing on a gamer’s mind, that’s a very important quality.

As I chatted with Andrew and Jane my attention was drawn to a massive piece of plastic with a sign on it that said ‘Dreadball Arena available to pre-order’. I immediately turned to Neil of The Chaps who was patiently waiting for me to finish prattling. He too had spotted it and was wearing the same silly grin on his face that I had. I uttered one word:

‘Halves?’

Neil, having been gripped by Dreadball fever by playing games with me, had just spunked his last £50 on a set at the Mantic stand and so was just as excited at the prospect of (a) having our own Dreadball arena and (b) not having to pay for it until after pay-day.

So we placed our order and all we had to do was wait…

Last Thursday I got a text from my wife saying ‘You’ve had a MASSIVE box arrive in the post. What have you ordered NOW?!’ Needless to say I unperturbed by my wife’s scorn, being rather use to it by now, and hugely excited that the Arena had arrived in time for the game of Dreadball I had arranged with Neil the following night.

So, what do you get for your £25? Well…a lot of plastic… (Dreadball board and giant chocolate buttons not included)

The look of the thing is the perfect amount of sci-fi. The temptation would have been to do something overly complicated and a bit mental, but instead Amera has focussed on keeping it functional whilst still looking completely awesome. And the nice thing is that the detailing it does have means you can go as mental or not as you like with the paint job.

And speaking of paint jobs. As Neil and I got increasingly into the game we concluded that the only thing for it was to buy another arena and paint one up in my team colours – the Lark Industries Iron Men – and the other in his – the Halsey Tech Spartans. Needless to say there was much giddiness and searching on the interwebs for places that sold metallic spray paint.

I love how much excitement having the arena brings to the game. It just makes the game grander. Somehow more immersive and fun. I suspect the plastic is laced with magic.

It’s a solid bit of kit too. It’s vacuum formed plastic like all of Amera‘s stuff but the design and size means that you don’t feel like you have to be precious with it which is good, especially as were you to play a league it’d see a fair bit of use. The only thing to be careful of is choosing the correct spray. You’ll need something hard-wearing as lifting boards out and throwing dice against it will need to chipping otherwise. And, thinking about it, because of the material it’s made of, you can quite easily decorate it with LEDS or ambient lighting. Which would be way cool.

The tiers mean that you can put spare/dead models out-of-the-way as well as have you coach models looking eagerly on. As the range expands, or if you have particularly deep pockets, you can have you bleachers packed with crowds. Although if you look around you can probably find some models that suit.

My only grumble, and it’s not even a fault just more of an idea that we had during play, is that the arena could also do with being an aid to play in that middle of each side could have a recess to keep the deck of Dreadball cards and/or a tray to put your action tokens in as you use them. To be fair it would detract from the authenticity of the arena but it’d be very convenient.

I absolutely bloody love the arena. It’s a total non-essential but makes the game just better. You can’t help but get captivated by that stadium atmosphere. And amusingly enough my iPhone fit in the recess that’s meant to look like the Jumbovision which means that you can bust out some appropriate tunes whilst you play. It’s also light weight and easy to store whilst being tough enough to take the punishment of regular use. And considering all of that £25 is an absolute bargain.

Dreadball Pelgar Mystics – A Review

Posted by Phil on May 1, 2013

The first my Dreadball Season 2 articles I take a look at the Pelgar Mystics, the Judwan team featured in the all new Dreadball: Season 2. The Judwans are the space hippies of the Dreadball universe boycotting the usual tactic of kicking in faces and instead try to out play their opponent. Had I read the rules first I may have just opted for another team, rather flying in the face of my usual style of crump things and run through the hole they leave.

That said, never let it be said I’m not up for a challenge.

So, a new Season in the life of Dreadball, does it mean a new standard of models? Well…no. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still cool and there’s some nice detailing but Mantic seem to holding steady on their ’3 model variants and that’s your lot’ line. Which is fine providing you know that going in.

The detail is better and sharper on the Mystics compared to the Marauder team and they do a pretty good job with the heads in terms of detail. Unfortunately mould lines run over all their heads and faces so meticulous filing is in order. But, because of the type of plastic Mantic uses they come away with minimal effort. Which is just as well really.

As a concept it’s nice to see a faction that has its roots in classic science fiction but with Mantic’s own twist.

Equally in game terms they more like the greys from X-Files than from Independence Day. The entire team is made up of Strikers so if you like a punchy gang, forget it. But they are quick – movement 5, with speed and skill rolls of 3+ and 4+ respectively. So all in all a pretty nippy bunch of buggers.

They also get Long Arms and Feint (Misdirect) which means they not only can throw the ball further than everyone else – and having a whole team that can is pretty tough to deal with – but they can pretty much dance around any bugger that tries to stop them. More over they get to turn any would be attackers in another direction which means their threat zones are pointing the other way. And that means the Judwans can run about the place with impunity. And that means scoring.

Although what’s a tad unfair, considering how massively tactically you have to play with the Judwans, is you don’t get bonus points when you score. So you can only score a maximum or 1 or 3 points, depending on the zone. It strikes me as a tad harsh considering how easily they’ll get their faces kicked in so every play will be a close run thing.

But I suppose the cocktail of speed, long throws and feints is quite potent. That said an MVP (or two) will be an essential purchase especially if you’re in a league as the Judwans simply won’t have the durability required when going up against teams more interested in the manging of faces than the scoring of strikes. In fact I’d probably try to take an MVP straight out the gate the points are available as you’re only allowed 6 players in your starting team so the team will be two players light. Which is a steep hill to climb on top of the other restrictions.

The Judwans quite clearly fall into the ‘experienced’ gamer column for Dreadball but that’s fine because they present a genuine tactical challenge that some players will find very rewarding in cracking. Against certain teams, like the Veer-mym that can match their speed they’ll have a tough match. Equally the Forge Fathers for their strength. But what it’ll be is entertaining. Which is kinda what Dreadball is all about.

The Pelgar Mystics are available from Firestorm Games priced £13.49. This time requires the Season 2 expansion book available from Firestorm Games priced £8.99.

New Dreadball Teams Revealed

Posted by Phil on April 1, 2013

Two of the teams for Dreadball Season 2 have finally been put up on the Mantic website.

First up we have the Corporation Void Sirens…

The Void Sirens are one of the better-known all-female teams with a long and illustrious history. They have, at one time or another, beaten most of the top teams, and they are always worth watching on the tri-vid. The roster relies on their Jacks and their training focus on Running Interference. This, together with an extensive additional coaching schedule, enables them to react swiftly to opposing plays, and makes the Sirens very tricky to predict. Any offensive drive needs to punch a much bigger hole than usual to guarantee a way past the Siren’s nimble Jacks.

Next the Judwan Pelgar Mystics…

The Judwan are a placid, calm and peaceful race and the tiny number of Judwanese teams play an odd game of DreadBall. They have neither Guards nor Jacks and never try to damage their opponents; they simply outplay them. A Judwan Striker needs no glove to catch or throw the ball, instead using his long, lithe arms and slender fingers to launch the ball with as much or more speed as other races. Their games are fast and often surprising, with a tendency to end suddenly in a 7-point landslide.

Dreadball Season 2

Posted by Phil on March 16, 2013

That’s right sports fans, the next wave of Dreadball stuff is here and includes a supplement with a rather sexy, rendered, cover…

Although it’s great to see new shizzle coming out for a game that I’m really quite taken with – and £9.99 RRP for a supplementary book isn’t bad I really hope they don’t start churning out books every few months as it’ll get old real quick. But for now, it all looks rather groovy. The book includes:

With a host of new models, new mechanics and exciting abilities, the Season 2 Rulebook takes DreadBall to new heights and expands your gameplay experience. Featuring brand new photography as well as a dedicated FAQ section, the Season 2 Rulebook is a must-have for any DreadBall fan.

SEASON 2 EXPANDS YOUR DREADBALL EXPERIENCE WITH:

64 Page A4 Full Colour Rulebook
4 New Teams
9 famous
MVPs
Cheerleaders
Coaches
Talk Tactics FAQ
League Play
New Abilities

There’s also a host of lovely new teams including the Corporatoin Void Sirens as well as Robots (which look fricking sweet), Judwans and Z’zors. There’s also a bunch of new MVPs although there’s no model photographs of anything yet, which is a shame, but as and when they get put up I’ll post them.

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Board!

Posted by Phil on February 14, 2013

So a thought occurred to me last night as Neil (of The Chaps) and I played quite possibly the most nail-biting game of Dreadball, or any game, that I’ve ever played. The thought was this: board games are awesome.

I don’t know why this comes as a surprise to me seeing as I cut my wargaming teeth at the age of 7 on Hero Quest and Space Crusade. Even now I still remember the thrill of excitement when I opened the box and read the rules and set up my first dungeon. Even now, almost 24 years later I look at the artwork and still feel that spark of wonderment.

Of course, by today’s standards; the models are shit. I mean spectacularly. But you know what? Back there and back then they were the most incredible things I’d ever seen and it took me on a life long journey of boards, armies and dice that I’ll never trade and never forget.

But back to the present. Ish. As I say, it was the monthly games night and Neil and I were playing the Dreadball game to end all Dreadball games that went down to the last rush and the last dice throw that won me the game. Next to us Ian and Jeremy were playing Memoir ’44 another, by pure chance, hex based game.

What made it so good was that we all got to sit around a single table – a barrier of munch separating the boards – the games were hugely fun, were over in under two hours and didn’t require an hour either side to set up and tidy away. Now, I’m not opposed to a tabletop game. Of course I’m not, I have two full companies of Ultramarines for crying out loud. I’m all for boards, crammed with scenery, hundreds of models and dozens of dice. But board games have their place too. Even over a skirmish game which still requires faff and time to set up.

I suppose my thought is this – a board game, if well written, can have a tremendous amount of variety and diverse outcomes all wrapped up in a relatively restrictive setting. Let’s go back to Hero Quest. The outcome of a quest was determined as much by the people playing and the routes their heroes took as it did the dice being rolled, the objective or the beasties they had to face.

This thought has run in parallel with a couple of others I’ve been having recently. The first is that time for me is about to come in extremely short supply. At least for the next few months. The second is that I have so much shit, I don’t know what to do with it when I do find myself with a rare window of free time. And the third is that for some of it I just don’t care enough. No matter how awesome a range of models is or how good a game can be potentially, if it’s hours of debate over badly written rules or page flicking because the book was compiled by a room full of retarded monkeys then what’s the point? It’s meant to be fun, after all.

As wargamers we invest a huge amount of time and effort into our hobby so the return absolutely has to be there and I’ve begun to wonder if there is a strong enough one for certain games that I collect and play. This isn’t to say that’ll jack them in. At least not yet. But it does mean that I’m going to start looking at games that give me a better return on the investment I make both financially and my time.

My recent forays in to boardgames like Last Night on Earth, Guards Guards, Dreadball and observing Memoir ’44 has presented me with a new and relatively inexpensive avenue to enjoy a game with my mates that doesn’t require a huge outlay for any of us. Granted there is a sliding scale. Level 7 by Privateer Press and Super Dungeon Explore are around the £40 and £65 respectively but both are still relatively inexpensive games that still retain their roots in wargaming. But with the likes of Halo Risk out and Mass Effect Risk on the way it’s hard not to have one’s heard turned by the more conventional wargame.

This isn’t to say that I’m hanging up my tape measure or anything like that but it’s an avenue of wargaming that needs far greater exploration and far greater attention paid because, when time is short, a board game allows you the opportunity to play a game and often allows the entire group to game together especially with the likes of Level 7, Zombicide, the soon to be released Warhammer 40,000: Relic by Fantasy Flight and the recently announced Firefly the Game from Gale Force 9 .

I’m still madly in love with Mordheim. 40k is still my jam and Godslayer has me and The Chaps so hot and hard we can barely look each other in the eye, but you know what? I have room in my heart and in my cupboard for a couple of boardgames. And when it’s a school night and everyone needs to be in bed by eleven, I think something like Level 7 or Dreadball fits the bill nicely.

Dreadball Midgard Delvers – A Review

Posted by Phil on February 8, 2013

Okay, okay I admit it; I’m a fan.

My third review on Dreadball, by Mantic, I decided that as the Skaven in Space got some love, then the Dwarves in Space, aka the Squats Forge Fathers, should get the same.

I refer, of course, to the Midgard Delvers. Which sounds like a gay bar near an airport somewhere.

I’m pleased to say that my enthusiasm for the game hasn’t dwindled with repeat playing and with each game I decipher the shonky rules a little better to the point that I pretty much know what I’m doing. This is a good thing. I’ve discovered though, without MVPs to spice things up the teams are a little bit restrictive in the way they play. Or, at least, without making life hard for yourself.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As depending on the opposition it will make for some extremely violent/quick and therefore fun games, I guess the lesson is; play to your strengths. Or hire the people who have others.

But on to the Forge Fathers.

These models are cool. They’re imposing and dynamically posed. Obviously, as with all the other Dreadball teams, there’s only 3 models repeated but it’s one of those things that you’ll just have to accept if you want to play Dreadball and don’t want to convert your entire team. Space Marines (pause for trade mark jokes) minus the shoulder pads and guns have been floated as an alternative to the human team.

I think the thing that makes the Forge Fathers work, like the humans, is that the players are enclosed in armour. They don’t have any facial features so similar or identical models don’t impact quite so much as it does with the Marauders and Veer-myn. The Forge Fathers do look like they’re going to kick seven shades of silly and then walk the ball to the hole.

The Forge Fathers kind of feel like the end result of lessons learned with the other teams, especially some of the woeful poses and shonky plugin arms. The Striker models have a separate leg just like those of the Veer-myn but unlike the Veer-myn they slot together quite nicely. The pose is a little weird – like they’re tip-toeing almost – but that could just be me. Some of the hands come on sprues but I’m not clear why but I suppose there’s something to be said for variety. Shame it’s more of a token than actual variety.

Cast wise they’re also the best I’ve seen from the range with the bits of flash not in stupid places which makes a positive change and certainly makes it quicker to build. Thrown in very few, if any mould lines, and sensible design and they’re nice and quick to build. Huzzah.

In game terms, as one would expect of any Dwarf model from any IP, they are stocky, broad, armoured like a tank and look like they can hit as hard as one. These guys are nasty in fight, but slow. Both the Guards and Jacks will beat the living shit out of anything they’re allowed to reach with a strength of 3+. They can form a fighting wedge that’ll allow their utterly clumsy strikers get to a strike zone. If a Forge Father finds themselves in a position where they have to evade, dodge or dash it will end very very badly with a speed roll of 5+.

It rather suggests that the way to win with Forge Fathers is to present a solid wall of muscle and armour along the touch-line and once the ball is in play, pound the living daylights out of any opposing team member that comes your way and then slowly push the line forward before dropping in a 4 point play on the final rush. It’s not subtle, it utterly lacks finesse but the Forge Fathers don’t strike me as a bunch that would really give a toss one way or the other providing they walked away with the win.

Interestingly Forge Fathers are the team that you’d really have to play to your strengths with. At the rate at which they’d mang faces the likes of the Veer-myn would need to cheat left right and centre to stand a hope in hell’s chance of beating them. Legging it and hoping for the best would be…unpleasant. That said, as soon as you were able to buckle or break the Forge Father line you could easily out pace them.

The Forge Father’s represent a challenging but exciting team to use in Dreadball. The models look cool and go together well. The faceless nature of them makes the team feel less like duplicates and more like uniformed team mates which only helps with the duplication of models issue. And actually just kinda makes them look nails.

The Midgard Delvers are available from Firestorm Games priced 13.49.

Dreadball Skittersneak Stealers – A Review

Posted by Phil on January 23, 2013

What up sports fans, it’s Phil bringing you the low down on the Skittersneak Stealers.

Okay, enough of that.

But it is time for the review of the Veer-myn team for Dreadball that I reviewed just a few short days ago. I’ve been rather taken with Dreadball and it seemed like a rather sensible progression of the first review to follow it up by looking at one of the other teams available. So I opted for the Skaven in Space aka the Veer-myn Skittersneak Stealers.

Now I have to get something out-of-the-way because it’s just daft, and typos has been a hot topic lately. On the back of the box it states it contains 8 Marauders. Well it doesn’t. It contains Veer-myn. And there was 10 of them. Now I’ve asked Mantic if the box is meant to contain 8 Veer-myn or 10, but they didn’t respond. So for now we’ll just say that the box will contain between 8 and 10 Veer-myn. Not Marauders.

But as we’re on the subject of the box, it’s actually brilliant for the simple fact that it resembles a VHS box and it’s presented like the Skittersneak Stealers‘ best bits of the season, which is just superb. It’s a simple touch but a very nice one and the box is deep enough that you can keep your fully built team in it which is immensely handy for storage and transport. For the younger readers VHS are the things that existed before Blu-rays and DVDs that used reels of tape. And you know, you young whipper snappers with your MP3s and your drugs.

But on to the models themselves. Which are a bit of a disappointment. Not because of the detail which is fine. In fact the Guards are actually pretty cool. It’s the poses of the strikers which make up 80% of the team which are peculiar but worst of all, the striker that leans forwards, with a hand flat to the floor, doesn’t go together properly. At all. I had to bend the ankle of every one of them to fit the arms in place. Once they’re built they’re fine, and they hold together well. The reason being that all the key cut pegs and holes are actually much tidier than the human and marauder teams you get in the box set. The casting quality is also very good with hard any mould lines.

But as has been discussed many times before, the models are gaming standard. But they do the job and do the job well enough. And with a descent paint job – from what I’ve seen – they look the part. They’re let down by the larger gas masks on one of the strikers which make them look very front heavy. But you know what, Dreadball isn’t about the models it’s about the game so, frankly, fuck it.

In game terms, the Skittersneak Stealers are a slippery bunch of bastards. The fastest and most agile team going, but with all the skill of a retarded monkey. So on the one hand they’ll be running some quick plays and are more than capable of making a strike in a single Rush. However, because of the aforementioned similarity between them and dimwitted apes they’ll struggle to make a Strike at range which means playing the long game and going for 1 points scores over 3.

Trying to play it any other way and you’ll find yourself being out played despite actually being the quicker team. And because the Veer-myn don’t have Jacks to bolster defence, if the opposition get the break on you or you fumble the ball – which will be often with a Skill of 5+ – you’ll struggle to regain the initiative. That said, if some crumping and/or face manging is required the Veer-myn Guards are big, mean and make things go splat. Opponents will have to go Guard to Guard to stand any chance of resisting an aggressive Rush or to punch a hole for their own.

The Veer-myn are hugely fun. Their mix of speed, and agility but lack of skill makes them unpredictable to use and to play against. Their Guards are big, mean and make faces go squish. But basically they make for a fantastically fun game and I’m already itching to get back on the field.

The Veer-myn Skittersneak Stealers are available from Firestorm Games priced £13.49

Dreadball Season 2

Posted by Phil on January 16, 2013

With my review done and a rare blossom of excitement for a new game swelling in my chest I thought I’d take a look at some of the Season 2 concepts that are floating around the interwebs and it’s all looking rather groovy. Although Mantic are brave to rip off Transformers. Hasbro tend to sue people more readily than GW…

The Robots can…ahem…transform to take on different roles. The Zzor are bred to play in their position, which is a neat idea. The Judwan are…grey and the Sirens have boobs.

Robots

Zzor

Judwan

Corporation Sirens

Corporation Goalie

And as an added bonus stuff that’s allegedly being lined up for season 3…

Asterians

Convicts

Dreadball – A Review

Posted by Phil on January 14, 2013

That’s right sports fans, it’s time for Dreadball. Or as some may choose to call it…Blood Bowl in Space. Or Speedball 3…

Never let it be said that Mantic are afraid of running with a good idea. But seeing as Jake Thornton penned this particular game it rather seems like he ran out of GW HQ with it and hoped no one would notice. Something Mantic seem to be making a habit of. Project Pandora, that I reviewed back in May last year, was a reworking of Space Hulk with non-brand Imperial Guard and Skaven in Space. Also written by Jake Thornton. But, to be fair, it was pretty good.

So what of Dreadball, the futuristic sports game? I have to admit that I was very much in the camp of people who thought it was Blood Bowl in Space. And seeing as there are Orks, sorry Orx, and Veer-myn, I and the rest of the camp can be forgiven.

However, where it differs is that Dreadball’s emphasis is more on the sport element rather than the krumping element. Some may see this as a bad thing but it’s actually not and I’ll explain more why in later. First of all; what do you get in the box?

Well a very pretty board, a deck of cards, some counters, some dice, two teams – human and Orx – some balls (ahem) and a very lovely looking rulebook. And why shouldn’t it be lovely considering it was the result of a very very successful Kickstart campaign. It’s something I’ve written about before and I won’t rant about it here, but Mantic clearly went to great lengths to either spend the money or make it look like they spent the money. The rulebook is very nice to look at. Gloss cover, silk pages, lots of lovely graphic design. But it’s badly written with typos all over the place, padded to shit – it could have easily been half the thickness – and doesn’t have useful things like a summary of play in it. I had to read the rules twice to fully understand them and there aren’t that many of them. This is very poor form considering Mantic raised over £450,000 from a £12,000 Kickstart.

The models equally are the half way house between economy of production and quality. The human models are actually really cool, I like them a lot. All three of them. Because all you get is multiples. The Orx are a bit poor and again there is only 3 unique designs. For the cost of the game and the fact that it had the investment it did I really do feel Mantic could have done more. That said, they’re not bad-looking and the simplistic design means that even unpainted you can identify the player classes at a glance.

Those gripes aside I absolutely bloody love Dreadball. No really.

It’s so joyously tactical and fast paced. And once you wrap your head around the two principles that 1. it isn’t always about manging people in the face and 2. you need to lay up your plays so they come off a Rush or two down the road then you’ll love it. Speaking of Rushes – which are basically turns – you only get 7 a piece which means the game can be over a bit quick. It’s not necessarily a bad thing as it means you can get a couple of games in of an evening.

Actions are limited to 5 per Rush and, depending on which player you activate those actions vary. Equally, as those actions are performed modifiers add or subtract dice without modifying the dice roll. Both very effectively represent the speed with which the action is unfolding in the thrilling world of Dreadball.

The other nice touch is scoring. It’s the first to 7 points, but it’s worked out by points difference rather than a conventional score. It means that victory can be snatched from your grasp by a cunning and daring play, dragging a points difference of, say +6 to +3 at a crucial point meaning you have to rebuild your lead all over again. And because the ball is fired from the centre line straight after a Strike is scored teams that over extend can find themselves flat-footed and racing to regain the initiative. As I say, it’s very very tactical.

As I mentioned, the manging is not the focus of the game – it’s far more akin to real life American Football where ‘Slams’ are like blocks in that they’re designed to knock down or otherwise prevent your opponent’s players from preventing your team from making a play for the Slam Hexes. That’s not to say that manging doesn’t occur but it’s quite hard to pull off. But at least you can commit a healthy variety of fouls to keep things interesting. Including distracting the utterly pointless Ref model. Which you can move about the board but it feels like busy work. And during a play test we just didn’t bother and it had very little impact on the game.

For all my misgivings about Mantic using Kickstart and the cut corners in production the game is brilliant fun. It’s slick and, once you decipher the rules, is huge amounts of fun to play. The book also includes rules for leagues, new abilities, MVPs and, rather coolly corporate sponsors so it has genuine replay value.

Mantic gets a lot a lot of flack for the obvious parallels between their products and those of other developers, some of it well deserved, however Dreadball is a very different animal from Blood Bowl and if I’m honest, I prefer it. It’s awesome.

Dreadball is available from Firestorm Games priced £42.49

Dreadball Gameplay video

Posted by Phil on September 11, 2012

Reblogged from The Wargaming Monkey:

So after all the hype, all the promise and all the people begging Mantic for a game-play video, fret not.

IT IS HERE. I was lucky enough to spend a few hours with the guys running through a few demo games on Sunday (And bragging about it on twitter :-D) and I had a lot of fun with it. So now it is out, what a re you waiting for?