The new Blood Bowl edition going up for pre order is doing more than dropping two cool teams.
It is pairing the Bretonnian nobles and Tomb Kings grinders with a 200 page hardback that actually lets you run leagues, matched play, drafts, and one off exhibition games without digging through old books. So if you want your club night to restart with the new season, this box is the starter pistol. Everything we have seen says this is a refinement rather than a rewrite, so returning coaches will find it familiar, only cleaner.
The fun part is the Star Players. Sixteen make it into the main rulebook, which is plenty to give leagues some personality right away. But Games Workshop are honest here. There are way more than sixteen stars in circulation, and they clearly did not want to leave players hanging, so the rest are going up on Warhammer Community as free downloads and they are fully legal for third season games. That means your favourite weirdo star is not dead. It also means Spike! Journal is going to keep feeding more of them into the game over time, so collecting or painting stars stays part of the hobby.
Because this is a new edition, a few stars have had their rules nudged to match the updated system, so coaches are told to download the file and check how their legends changed before game night. That is smart, because the Bretonnian and Tomb Kings teams both reward tighter play, and having inducements that actually fit the new balance will make leagues healthier. Altogether it feels like a launch aimed at both veterans and new coaches. You get a big box, two flavourful teams, a proper rulebook, and a living pool of Star Player rules that will keep growing. Time to repaint the dugouts.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
