Literal Fantasy Football: Getting Started in Blood Bowl in 2025

Football season is upon us here in the land down under, and while some of us are involved in our own fantasy football leagues or tipping comp, have you ever wondered what literal fantasy football would be like? May I introduce you to a game that is older than me, Blood Bowl.

Blood Bowl was first released in 1986 by Games Workshop as a tongue-in-cheek play on American Football, but it has since seen six tabletop editions, four video game adaptations, and, somehow, a graphic novel. The latest edition, titled Second Season Edition is the best ruleset so far and is the ruleset you’ll see played at your local Vault Games.

But now for the real question you’re asking, how do you begin playing?

Selecting a Team

First you need to know who you want to play. To start with, you should identify what style of play you’re interested in as teams in Blood Bowl can be broken down into three different categories: Finesse (or Agi, short for Agility); Bash; or Stunty.

Finesse teams typically play a faster style of game, focusing on dodging out of dangerous situations and tearing their way down the field to score quickly. The downside though? They’re fragile. The strength score of an Agi-focused team is typically lower than the Bash teams, and the most agile of players are lower still, so getting caught with a block from your opponent can end with the ball carrier on the ground and the ball in the air.

The Wood Elves, Elven Union, Amazons and Dark Elves teams will play the passing game, getting the ball down the field to an unmarked runner who can then capitalise on their speed and dodge abilities to make it around opposing players and to the end zone. The Skaven on the other hand focus on getting the ball to their Gutter Runners, the fastest players in the game, who can exploit any opening in the enemy line to get behind with the ball and well on their way to scoring.

Bash teams do just that; beat the opposing side into submission then walking the ball into the end zone. They have a higher strength than other teams, which means blocking with them has a better chance to down the opponent (higher strength = more dice to choose from when you roll a block). It also means lower strength opponents need to spend a little more resources on getting your players on the ground instead of running or protecting the ball.

Khorne, Dwarves, Chaos Chosen, Chaos Dwarves, Norse; these are all teams that enter the field with a strength or skill advantage when it comes to throwing blocks against your opponent. Either keep the opponent’s ball handlers on the ground, or knock out enough players that your opponent can’t even set up a minimum team for the next drive of the game. And while most teams have a strategy that they play towards, the Nurgle team is one of the few that focus on slowing down your opponent by making it harder for opposing players to pick up or pass around the ball if they’re near, and capitalising on the turnovers that result from someone dropping the ball.

And finally, you have Stunty teams, teams named so because their base players all have a skill called Stunty. The players in these teams are small, easy-to-hit, and can be sent off the field to the medical tent much faster than your normal Blood Bowl players… but they’re also cheap. Each Stunty team has its own little gimmick and, while it can be difficult to actually win some games with them, they can be a lot of fun if you don’t take the game, or yourself, too seriously.

Goblins play dirty, with a range of special players with secret weapons to give them an advantage on the field, and access to half-price referee bribes to convince them to look the other way when the chainsaw comes out. Halflings may not be the fastest players, but the two Treemen that can join the team can reliably pick them up and throw them down the other end of the field, either with the ball to score, or as an artillery piece into an opposing team’s ball carrier. Snotlings overwhelm the opposing team with numbers, sneaking extra players (and secret weapons) onto the pitch every drive. Ogres themselves may not have Stunty, but the many gnoblars around them that they throw (or, in one case, kick) down the field mean they can flood the pitch with annoying distractions, at least until the big guys end up failing a bonehead roll at the start of their turn and then do nothing. And while the smaller skinks in the Lizardmen team can run across the field quickly, they're paper in comparison to the big Saurus Blockers that typically make up the other half of the team (making the Lizardmen more of a hybrid Bash/Stunty team depending on how you build your roster)

Getting the Gear

Now that the hard part is over, the next step is getting the gear you need to play the game. You’ll need the following:

• Your Team
• A Rulebook
• A Pitch & Dugout Set
• Template for passing, scatter, and throw-in
• A Blood Bowl Dice Set

If you’re joining a local community (like the one here at Vault Games), there’s a pretty good chance that everything but your team will be available to borrow so you can start playing once you’ve built your team, and acquire the rest as time goes on.

If you want to kick off your own community or play at home, you could get all of these individually except for the templates (as, apart from a short moment at the end of the last edition, Games Workshop don’t sell the templates separately) but, given the individual pricing for each item, it’s more worthwhile grabbing the Second Season Edition Box. By the time you get a Pitch set, a Rulebook, and two sets of Dice, you’re essentially getting two teams (Imperial Nobility and Black Orks), two star players (Griff Oberwald and Varag Ghoul-Chewer), two big guys (An Ogre and Trained Troll), and two referee miniatures to decorate your game space or use as special game pieces if you wish for free.