Blood Bowl Team Manager

"The ball is in the air, its going long...long...long. Oh! No! the reciever has been smashed into the ground and his head is now rolling across the pitch. What a game to end the season on Jim."

And so ends another Blood Bowl season.

Blood Bowl Team Manager the card game by Fantasy Flight Games brings the fun of Blood Bowl to your home in an easy to manage and understand format, and whats good is it isn't a collectable card game. That said it cries out for an expansion and i certainly hope one comes along in the not too distant future.

Players take the part of a team manager in a Blood Bowl season, the race you get, is drawn at random from a pool that has. Humans (Reikland reavers), Dwarf (Grudgebearers), Wood elves (Athelorn avengers), Skaven (Skavenblight scramblers), Orcs (Gouged eye) and Chaos (Chaos allstars). This way the game is fresh to each player each time and you need to think what tactics are best for each team. OK you don't not really but some teams are better at cheating than others and this may or may not be an advantage.
A season is run over 5 (game) weeks and each manager has to gain as many fans as possible over this period to win the game. Now that is the only part of the game i dont like. Why say you need to win fans, your a Blood Bowl team you already have 1000s of fans from your race. I think it should have been called what it is "points" after all that is how most gamers will think of it. to win you need points, plain and simple. OK whinge over.
As the game progresses you can draft star players and these will help to win points (Fans) and ultimatley the game, you also get the chance to win upgrades, either team upgrades or staff upgrades. Then its time to see who has become Spike Magazines manager of the year and the winner of the game. You may win the Blood Bowl but you may not become the game winner so keep that in mind as you play to accumulate Fans (points).

The game pieces are of a high standard and logical, as is the game itself there are no stupid rules that make you scratch your head and think "WHAT!!! does that mean". It's a game for 2 - 4 players and plays different with the different amount of players you have, so thats a good thing. It takes about 60 - 90 minutes to play through a season maybe a little less with 2 players.

All in all a good fun game, that has fans crying out for an expansion. I really really want to play the Undead, and Dark Elves. The warhammer world is rich in races so here's hoping more make it to the Blood Bowl Leagues.

A very healthy 8/10