DreadBall: Review

Mantic Games is known for having excellent, playable, exciting and easy-to-learn tabletop games. DreadBall is a futuristic version of the known sports Rugby/Football. But how well goes the transition to tabletop?

What is DreadBall

DreadBall is a fast paced, futuristic miniatures game played by 2 teams on a hexagonal board.

During a total of 14 turns (or rushes), 7 for each player, you try to score as many points as possible in strike zones in your opponents half. To do this, you have 5 actions in each rush to move a miniature, slam an opponent or handle the ball. Those actions can be completed by any of your 6 players with the help of a dice roll, and you as the coach can have some action cards in your hand to help your team even more.

How is the game played

You start by choosing a team. Each team can have up to 3 different types of players.  The striker, a specialist in handling the ball. The Guard, best at slamming the bejeebus out of the other team, and the Jack, an alround type of player. Not good, not bad. Each team consists of about 8 characters, of which 6 can be fielded at any moment. Using your 5 actions, you can manage your team into scoring in one of the 3 zones. Depending on the zone, those are worth 1 to 3 points, with special hexes providing an extra point. Next to scoring, you can always try to smack the other team up so only you survive.
Each action you perform is controlled by dice. The roll of your dice, versus those of your opponent decide the outcome of your action. Rolling twice as much as your opponent not only means a succes, but usually more devastating consequences. And to make it even better, you can re-roll all 6'es! (Unfortunately, so can your opponent :))
Scoring makes the ball respawn, causing the action to be non-stop. This makes for very interesting tactics, since going all out, means leaving your part of the field undefended. The game ends when there's a point difference of 7, or the 14 rushes are finished.

How many teams are available

At the moment 12 teams are available through the website. These go from the default humans to inhuman stone-like insects. Each team has a default roster, but can be completed by different MVC players, though those mostly become available when playing leagues.

How much does this cost me

Starting with DreadBall is really cheap. Starting at about € 35.00 you can get into the game with the Kickoff version. This version contains everything you need to play the game together with a friend and find out if the game is something for you, and can best be compared to the purchase of a boardgame for 2 players, and certainly as fun. Once you decide you love this game, you'll quickly get more teams, which cost about € 20.00 per team or upgrade your game for league play. All this, is at great value if this is the game for you, especially if you find enough friends to start some tournaments!

Final words

Dreadball is a great game, it provides you and a friend with easy to learn, fast and exciting action. The dice add a dimension of chance to the game, and the optional cards make things go even faster. All this makes for a great game to play with friends, be it a tournament or single meet-ups. When getting more into the game, you'll find out there is even a way to play with up to 6 players on 1 court. Though I haven't had the opportunity, it does look like great fun!


Since last night, Mantic has completed their last succesfull Kickstarter on the game "DreadBall Xtreme". This will be an even more hectic game based on this excellent game. (which we'll be enjoying later this year!)