DreadBall: First impressions

Playing some DreadBall I must say this game totally blew my socks off. I've been playing Bloodbowl for some time now, but this cannot compare to the dynamic properties of DreadBall. Let me walk you through some of my games..

Quick info

DreadBall is played on a hexagonal board. 2 teams contest against each other to score the most points. Each team consists of 3 possible types of players, being Strikers, Jack's or Guards. Read more in my Review.

Game setup

I've received the "DreadBall KickOff" box, thanks to the kind people of Mantic, and I must say, I was genuinly impressed by the content. Not only can 2 teams of 8 figures be found (some minor assembly required, it took me about 20 minutes?), the game board, all the dice you'll need and some tokens. You receive a booklet with the needed rules and all the actions your models can make. This is about the content of your average boardgame, but the detail that was put in both the board, card, and especially the models do show the quality of your product.

Once I've read through the booklet it quickly became obvious I'd need some help remembering all the possible actions I could make, so I quickly searched online and found a great quick reference on the Mantic Forum(this game has a great fan base). Then I quickly sprooced up those miniatures, gave them a basecoat, a front side for clarity and all was ready for our first game(s).

Playing the game

Rolling off to see who gets first turn has become that obvious, and this is no different. You roll off, and the winner decides who is the home team, and who is visiting. The home team then deploys 6 players on the field. (leaving 2 on the bench). Those players must be placed on your half, behind the yellow line. Once you're done, your opponent gets to position his players. Once everyone is on the field, the ball gets thrown in the field from one of the two sides. It moves a number of spaces equal to a dice roll, and the game is off. (Throwing a 6 makes the ball scatter! This even makes it possible for your opponent to catch the ball AND if they're really lucky even make a run for it)

Next the active player gets to make 5 actions. these can be move and try to pick up the ball, or move to smack another player. In the box, you have 2 teams. A human, and an orc team. This means you actually have two strategies going on at the same time. Those orcs try to bash in the puny humans, while the humans try to scurry away and score before they get their heads bashed in. And both do an equal good job (most of the times). The most default tactic is doing some damage by smashing the players closest to the ball, then trying to grab the ball and getting away with it. 

Aaaand Action!

Making actions in DreadBall is a very satisfying thing. You get 3 dice, and then add/subtract modifiers to do your roll. Depending on the action, and the number of successes, you see what happens. Example time!

My Guard tries to Slam my opponent's Jack. I declare my action and make my move. My opponent can choose to Dodge, or to Slam Back and chooses to Dodge. I get 3 dice + 1 die because I'm a Guard + 1 die because I ran to my opponent. So I get 5 dice to roll (on a 4+). My opponent gets 3 dice to dodge. No added bonusses for Jacks(on a 3+) I roll 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 4 getting 1 success. My opponent gets 3 - 4 - 6, and a 1 (you can reroll all 6'es!). Meaning he has 3 successes. Because he has more than twice my successes, he gets to move 1 hex for free. which he uses to get away from my Guard's threat zones.

Another example is the Strikers. Throwing a ball is a risky business in DreadBall, unless you're a Striker, or really lucky. Throwing is a two-part process, firstly you throw the ball, secondly you have to catch the ball. 

Throwing is a dice test (# dice is based on the distance thrown) (+1 if you're a Striker), and catching is done with the successes of your throw! So my Striker throws the ball using 2 dice (+1 as striker) and scores a 2 - 4 - 5. That's 2 successes. Now I have to catch it (with my other Striker) using 2 dice(being my successes of the throw) (+ 1 because it's a Striker). I get a 2 - 2 - 6, and a 4! meaning I have 2 successes on the catch. Thanks to the second success, I also get an extra move (or throw), bringing my Striker even deeper in enemy territory! As you can read, doubles can be really fun.

Scoooooorrrreeee

Scoring is done in one of the 3 score zones. First one granting you 1 point, the furthest 3 points. With an extra bonus hex at the end of each zone granting you a bonus point when you score. Of course I'm doing all I can to score in that magical 4-point hex! But scoring isn't the end of it. Where in BloodBowl the teams reset, reserves are summoned, .. in DreadBall the game continues! Yes, you score, your Rush has ended, and a new ball is automatically launched into the playing field (Sucks for that Jack standing in the way of that ball!).

This does presented me with a problem, since most of my players were allready comprimised, or on the outskirts of the playing field, and now it was my opponent's turn. Without wasting any time, my scoring Strikers were the target of the big orcs. The orcs came in and Slammed one of my Strikers. They had 5 dice (3 + 1 for Guard + 1 for Run) and scored 3 - 3 - 4 - 4 - 6 and 6 and 4! meaning a whopping 7 successes! I tried to dodge and got 2 successes. So he successfully slams me down and I get to take an armour test. Again, you have 3 dice to make that test (even for 2 test.). Since I've dodged 2, I still have to save 5 damage with 3 dice, which I fluff.. There goes one of my Strikers. The other Striker was targetted next, but survived taking 3 damage. It is placed in Recovery, and has to sit out my 3 next turns. This just goes to show how quickly things can change. I kept focussing on scoring but soon found myself without players still walking around, while my opponent was so busy smashing me down he forgot the game does ultimately end in points!

Tournament

Being a single match-up, we didn't pay too much attention to concequense. Dreadball does lend itself, next to the single match-up to the tournament scene, where you and your friends start entire leagues with even the possibility of upgrading your players, buying new ones or even attracting specific MVP players to your team. I'll be certainly looking into starting a league and keeping you all posted on the outcome!