Blood Bowl Download (1995 Board Game)

This computer adaptation of Games Workshop's board game brings a fictitious and violent sport to life. The Champions of Death, The Underworld Creepers and The Elfheim Eagles are among the tough sides contesting single matches or a full league.

In each match you give the orders and watch your players act them out. Pitch invasions and referee bribes are among the features on offer. After successful matches they will receive new powers at random, although the special cards from later versions of the board game are not present here.

If you have come to look at this game, chances are you're a fan of the boardgame itself. So am I. Blood Bowl is one of the best board games ever to be made. This is your chance to play the same game on your PC. The teams you control are the most famous teams in the Warhammer universe; Underworld Creepers, The Gouged Eye, and Dwarf Giants to name a few. You take on the role of the coach and it is your duty to bring your team the golden trophy.

At least this is the idea. Unfortunately, the game doesn't live up to the high standards of the board game. The first drawback you will notice is that you no longer use the Special Cards (Dirty Tricks, Magic Items & Random Events). As you can probably imagine, the game is not the same without these... Personally I miss the Magic Helmet the most. The actual playing is exactly the same as you are used to; it is turnbased and will require tactical thinking. You must plan every move carefully. When the game comes to an end and all the Star Player Points (SPP) have been given out, you may want to give your players new abilities. Sorry, you can't. The game engine chooses these for you automatically (and randomly, it seems). You may have a Blocker, who would benefit the most from gaining the Block or Mighty Blow skill, but suddenly he will have Sure Hands the next time you see him. The only way you can influence your players is by buying Star Players like Hafklem Skuttlespike or Griff Oberwald.

So is there nothing good about this game? Well, yes in a way. Hard-core fanatics of the board-game will not enjoy the game as they will feel they are not allowed to make any decisions regarding their own teams, but those who are just after some mindless fun in a fantasy world will find this game to be interesting and new. (How many turnbased football games do you know of?) What really bugs me about the game is that the producers decided to put in badly made voices and even place themselves as Starplayers in the game. They used up a lot of valuable disk-space on this. Disk-space that should've been used for the Special Cards and a list to choose new skills from.

Bad producers... next time, try to take an assignment seriously and cover all aspects in the game, not just some. The game would and should have recieved 5 points had it been a true copy, whereas this only scores a 3. I would still play the game, but not over a game of real Blood Bowl with a friend the old fashioned way.

For the game to work you need to install it on C:Blood and run it through DOSBox.

You will also note that the playbacks don't work. Just press ESC and all is fine.

This is a faithful adaptation of Games Workshop's board game of the same name. Being probably the only turn-based fantasy football game (think D&D meets Monday Night Football), Blood Bowl is unique. The rules of the board game are implemented well; it is a complex turn-based tactical sport simulation with many nuances, and you must plan every move carefully. The game itself is a lot of fun, especially because the players-- being fantasy creatures-- often have special powers or traits that you can put to good use. Unfortunately, the murky graphics and confusing interface mar the solid game engine. The AI could also use improvements, but overall, it's still a commendable effort that is great for fans of the board game who cannot find friends to play against.

This game is based on the famous fantasy board game. Blood Bowl is another version of American football. All though there are a few differences. Instead of normal human players you can also use orcs, skeletons, elves, dwarves, halflings, dark elves and other races.

It's allowed to attack the other players (and even kill if necessary). Other than that it's pretty much like normal American football where you have to get the ball down on the opposite's goal line. The controls in the game is a bit hard to get use to, but once you know them it gets easier.

The graphics are ok and the sound as well. The developers of this game have managed to turn the board game into a very good PC game.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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