Rules Do most people use the Special Play cards?

MiniWarGaming

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We're about to start our next Blood Bowl league here at MiniWarGaming, and boy is there a lot to figure out!

My main question is this - do most seasoned Blood Bowl players who are playing the "new" Blood Bowl rules from Games Workshop normally use the Special Play cards?

Since we're filming this and posting it on YouTube, I want to make sure we do what the Blood Bowl community would expect.

Thanks!

Matthew
 

Supa

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Hey there. Warm welcome to the forums! :)

I personally wouldn't use the special play cards, and if I am aware avoiding them seems to be the popular option. They do not seem to be exactly balanced, even with GW setting the prices for each deck. The idea of using cards is fun though.
 

cjblackburn

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I believe they work fine as an inducement you just need to pick a system. However my TT league looked at them in 2016 and the ones in the starter box were basically a 50k deck and a 100k deck with no distinction. We didn’t want to give the newer coaches another handicap so no free cards.
 

Thor

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We also do not use them in the league I play in either. Nobody is a fan of them.
 

Gallows Bait

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I'm not a fan either I have to say. Many Bloodbowl players look to improve by managing risk, that's the biggest measure of skill that leads to winning, alongside learning to plan ahead.

Introducing something so random adds a another significant variance to the game that players cannot control through their own skills. In my experience players find the randomness of the dice frustrating enough, let alone having to deal with dozens of unknown effects from cards.

As a result I think it would make it harder for new players to see the worth of investing their time in a game that they may perceive as just being down to random chance.
 

burning_phoneix

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I've only ever seen them used to play one off silly matches. They're very unbalanced and mess with the normal flow of the game.

Also, I hope Dave is on these blood bowl videos!

Edit: Wait, I just noticed this was first posted back in may so the videos should be up on the channel.
 

Jorgen_CAB

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In general I understand why some people don't like the cards. Personally I think they are essential to the game... as they disrupt the game flow which is the point of them. Anything that disrupt the traditional 2-1 grind or stalling is a plus in my book. The new cards are fairly good and since you always get to draw two and keep one there is a good chance you get one card you can have good use for. They certainly is worth 100.000 GP as the underdog in the new rule set. I usually find that a card and a keg is better than a wizard now and it also is more fun, the wizard is mainly a dice roll while the cards can easily tie into a games strategy.

In my opinion the cards is not worse than a wizard in term of being unfair or sometimes swingy in a game.

If you are playing in a tournament I would understand why these cards is not used as that could be quite unfair. But when you play in a league setting then it is mostly about fun and anything that makes the game more open ended and not tend to end in draws makes the game more fun in the end. In a league setting it also tend to average out in the end in terms of luck anyway as you play the same people and team over and over several times.
 
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