If you’re not familiar with Dreadball it’s the second most
popular sport of the future (I briefly mention the most popular here), although
the Dreadball propaganda would have you believe otherwise! Dreadball is
published by Mantic Games and is set in the same universe as their Warpath
Miniatures Wargame.
The Fluff
In packed out arenas the length and breadth of the galaxy, teams
of six on-field players try to launch a metal ball at around 200kph into
targets in the opposing teams half. Skilled ‘strikers’ dart deftly between
tackles to make game winning plays with seconds to spare, while bruising ‘guards’
land crushing blows on any opponents foolish enough to come within reach. It is
a game of skill, speed, and violence and is loved the galaxy over for the
guaranteed excitement it offers.
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| My Forge Fathers, arrayed before their adoring home fans |
Overview
In the real world, players take the role of coaches and choose
one of four races from which to select their team (Mantic have already
announced they will be releasing more races). Starting teams consist of 8
players (six on-field and two substitutes) and for the most part there are three
different roles. Those roles are Striker, Jack and Guard.
Strikers are most likely to score but can’t tackle
opponents.
Guards are excellent at landing crippling tackles but cannot
pick up the ball.
Jacks can handle the ball and tackle opponents but are less
effective than the dedicated positions of Striker and Guard.
Using dice to determine the outcome of player actions the
coaches move their players attempting to score more than their opponent before
the game ends. If you’ve played Bloodbowl from Games Workshop you’ll be
familiar with the general concept, but let me stress this is not Bloodbowl. It’s
not even close when you get into it, and any comparisons you may have heard are
only at face-value.
The Teams
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| This Forge Father Jack finds himself uncharacteristically up-field |
The Teams currently consist of the following:
The Forge Fathers (my favourites, as they’re space dwarfs!)
The Forge Fathers are strong and powerful but relatively
slow. They excel at battering their opponents until a gap appears in their
defences.
The Veermyn (Roughly human sized rat-men)
These guys are as quick as lightning; however, they seem to
struggle with the more skilful aspects of the game. They may miss a lot of
their shots, but they have the speed to get to the ball and recover.
The Humans (erm…Human sized human-men)
Humans are humans, apparently being human makes us average.
I have a bit of a problem with this concept generally, but that’s another rant
for another day. In Dreadball, humans are the typical jack of all trades,
master of none.
The Orx (Whether it’s spelt Orks, or Orcs or Orx, we’re
probably familiar with these green-skinned fellows)
Orx teams comprise of both Orx and Goblins, the Orx are
powerful guards and the goblins nippy little Jacks. Using these two in harmony
is the path to victory for these guys.
Overall, the teams seem fairly well balanced at the moment.
I play Forge Fathers mostly, but in our little gaming group we’ve played games
with and against all the starter races and while each has its own strengths and
weaknesses (or averages if you’re human), in general a more skilled player will
usually win. I have some concerns over how balance will remain when Mantic
releases the new races, because if they’re to make them interesting enough for
people to buy they’ve got to be different, and there’s only so many ways in which
different can be balanced. Still, as it is now, if you know your team’s strengths
and weaknesses you’ve a good chance of winning.
Mechanics
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| A Forge Fathers Guard spots his next victim |
I get the impression from the fluff, speed is what makes
this game so popular in the future, with the crowds constantly feeling as
though just about anything could happen next. Mantic have done a good job of capturing
this spirit with some clever game mechanics.
Firstly, when someone scores the teams do not reset
position, as in a kick-off in Football. Instead, another ball is simply
launched into the middle of the pitch and the game continues from there. This
means coaches constantly have to keep moving players around the pitch and
considering the merits of committing that extra man to the attack.
Secondly, rather than keep track of the score of each team,
Dreadball uses the difference in score. So if one team scores a point they go one-up,
if the other team scored next, rather than being 1-1 the score would be 0 or ‘no
difference’. As soon as one team pulls seven points ahead the game ends,
regardless of how many turns are left. Now might be a good time to mention that
it is possible for a team to score up to four points with one throw (although
this is quite hard), so if you’re not careful this game can be over quickly.
Thirdly, is the way coaches can move their players. At the
start of your turn, each coach gets five tokens. These tokens are spent to
activate a player and perform an action with them, such as run and shoot,
tackle (known as a ‘Slam’), pass etc. A player can have two action tokens spent
on them a turn and so can perform several actions per turn. However, with six
players and only five tokens, there’s always a decision to be made every turn
about which player to move or whether to go for that second ‘Slam’.
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| A Forge Father Striker closing in on another strike! |
Summary
In closing I’d say that Dreadball is a really interesting
game. It is inevitably going to be compared to Bloodbowl but that is an article
in its own right. All I would say on the topic, is this game is very different to
Bloodbowl. Yes, at face-value Dreadball is a miniatures sports game and so is
Bloodbowl, but that’s really where any similarity ends as the core mechanics
are entirely different.
Being a miniatures game you’ll notice I’ve talked little
about the miniatures themselves, this should tell you all you need to know
about how engrossing and interesting the game itself is. If somebody gave me
cardboard circles to play this game with, I’d still enjoy it. The fact that I get
some quite lovely detailed miniatures is a significant bonus!
In closing, Dreadball is a game played with dice that
manages to put the emphasis on playing skill. Sure there’s some luck involved
but, with clever design, this is far less important than almost any other
miniatures game I’ve played. It is a miniatures sports game that could almost
be played as a competitive sport.
Anyone who hasn’t tried Dreadball yet, get yourself down to
your FLGS and ask about it.
I'll See you in the arena’s folks.
As always, comments and questions are welcomed.
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