I really like tabletop sports games, they can be super quick, tactically deep, and for some reason playing a game about little dudesmen who’re playing a game feels cooler to me than playing a game about little dudesmen having a scrap. Plus, we’re spoiled at the moment for options: Dreadball, Bloodbowl, Guildball, Kaosball, Aristeia to name some that come to mind…
I wouldn’t like to be that Judwan right now…
I’ve only played the former two on that list, and let me say categorically that I prefer Dreadball. That’s not to say Bloodbowl is bad (I know you’ll still write angry things at me, it’s OK I forgive you) but rather it has a couple of big failings that Dreadball 2.0 cleans up. Let me explain with the power of Excel:
| Bloodbowl | Dreadball | |
| Game Duration | Surprisingly slow, particularly for newbies. Expect over 2h | Quick, even for noobs. Expect about 1h – 1h30 |
| Turn Duration | You have 11 players to move around, and things like evasions and supports take time to work out. However, if you mess up, your turn is over very quickly 😉 | With only 6 players to activate, this is less of a task. Plus the rules around evading and support are cleaner and much quicker to resolve |
| RNG Punishment Factor | Very high, you make one mistake and your go is over. This can be really frustrating to some folks | Your go is only over if you lose control of the ball. Meaning failed tackles and the like can be overcome |
| Rules Depth | Very high. Lots of scope for tactics and strategy | Very high. Lots of scope for tactics and strategy |
| Rules Simplicity | Pretty complicated, tonnnes of special rules that you need to understand | Very simple recurring mechanic to resolve most events, still some special rules but much less to contend with |
| A Typical Game? | It varies depending on the teams involved, but it’s not uncommon to spend most of the game bunched up in the centre of the pitch in a stalemate until someone gets a lucky roll | Again, varies by team, but games are typically fast paced with action all over the pitch, and lots of cool pass play linked up to strikes |
| Official Models | Beautiful, but not all teams have official models. | Mixed bag, older ones are crap (but workable), newer ones are looking much nicer |
| Official Support | The NAF – quasi official support body that does a great job. Bloodbowl also has an official app which last time I checked was OK, but not great. | Mantic have an official website for managing global team rankings and finding tournaments etc |
A busy Bloodbowl Match in action
Some of the biggest reasons I hear people say that they don’t like Bloodbowl are the RNG frustrations with losing their turn, or the game because of one bad roll, and then the sheer length of a game (Yes I know you vets can finish up a game in like 7 minutes…) and both those legitimate gripes are just not an issue with Dreadball.
Yes, Dreadball is still a dice game, but more often than not, a bad roll won’t cost you your turn. Plus a game for newbies can be played in about an hour and a half, whereas Bloodbowl for newbies has taken my group about 4 hours!
If I had to sum them both up with cheap clichés: Bloodbowl is difficult to learn and difficult to master. Dreadball is easy to learn, and difficult to master.
Hopefully this piece encourages a few more of you guys to give Dreadball a go, I hope so – I really think you’re missing out. But if not, and you want to stick with Bloodbowl – that’s cool, I get it.
Anyway, let me know what you think
Jimmi
Jimmi Waz 'Ere 
Nice writeup! I wrote a pretty extensive comparison (in 3 parts!) between the two awhile back: https://doubledowndice.wordpress.com/2018/02/05/dreadball-vs-blood-bowl/
I like your Excel sheet comparison, tidies things up nicely. I think you are spot on, with the length and complexity of Blood Bowl. Though I did find the Dreadball rulebook to be a pain when it came to small ambiguities and rules lookup.
I also found the teams to be lacking the depth of Blood Bowl teams. The stats were so close and generic, that I felt like I was playing a BB Human team vs another BB Human team.
I could have probably lived with all that, but the minis and poor handling of the Kickstarter overall really turned me off on Dreadball. Definitely a negative factor, that I mention in my comparison.
I’ll be interested to hear more as you get some games in with Dreadball 2.0 and show off some minis. 🙂
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I agree with your criticism of DB1, but DB2 has introduced an additional stat, and variable armour which has sorted the team variance issues 🙂
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That’s good news! What’s the new stat?
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Agility 🙂
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Hi thanks for posting thhis
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