I received a nice surprise in the mail today, a DreadBall Foam Kit from Battle Foam. The kit contains 2 foam trays, each of which will fit in the Dreadball box and old the contents of the base set. I was a bit dissappointed that both didn’t fit in the box, but what I did was put one in the box and one in the lid.

The foam is excellent quality, and there’s even a harder foam on the bottom to keep the trays stable. One of the trays can fit the Dreadball cards and minis, while the other is strictly for minis. As you can see in my picture I’ve got 4 different teams, dice, cards, counters, and extra 3D printed hex bases stored with room to spare.

The DreadBall Foam Kit is $37.99, but is a great deal for people like me who are horrible at cutting their own foam storage solutions. The fact that both don’t fit in the box isn’t much of an issue, since I’m sure I can find a better case to put these in. I’m just glad my minis aren’t bouncing around loose anymore!

A DreadBall Foam Kit for Game Box was sent free for review by Battle Foam.

• Comments Off on Second Look — Battle Foam DreadBall Foam Kit

With the recent release of Season 4 for Dreadball, Mantic is currently hard at work on Seasons 5 and 6. Just knowing there’s two more seasons on the way is exciting enough, but Mantic has released some stats and rules for the new Crystallan team coming in Season 6. They’re hoping to get fans to test them out and help them finalize everything.

The PDF that has everything you need can be found  right here.They’re a really interesting team that are more powerful closer together on the pitch.

I’ve barely caught up with Season 2 and Season 3 stuff, so I really need to get on the ball!

• Comments Off on DreadBall Season 6 Crystallan Team Stats and Rules Playtesting

New products for Dreadball this month! Mantic Games has announced the release of 2 new teams, and a 3rd All-Star MVP pack. The 2 new teams, The Nemion Oceanics: Sphyr Team and the allion Roses: Hobgoblin Team, both come with 10 amazing-looking miniatures. The new All-Star MVP pack contains 3 new MVPs to round out your teams.

Of course with new teams and MVPs we’ll see a Season 4 Rulebook. The new book contains:

• 48 Pages
• Stats and background for four new teams – the Sphyr, the Rebs, the Hobgoblins, and the Brokkrs.
• Stats and background for 7 famous MVPs
• Expanded rules for Fans, Coaches and Cheerleaders
• A new achievement system to push your players a step further
• A host of new abilities and MVPs to add to your games.

Notice how 2 more teams were listed in that description? I can’t wait to see what they’re going to look like.

Each new team will cost and the MVP pack will cost $29.99, while the Season 4 rulebook will be $24.99.

• Comments Off on New DreadBall Products from Mantic Games

Come December you’ll be able to mix your love of Mars Attacks and Dreadball with the brand-new Red Planets Martian team for the best damn sports game there is. The team is currently available for preorder, and costs $20. Included in the package will be:

• 4 Martian Jacks
• 2 Martian Guards
• 2 Martian Strikers
• 2 Martian Dead Bodies
• 10 Clear Transparent Helmets
• 10 Clear Plastic Hex Bases
• 1 Mantic Point
• 1 Mantic Carry Case with Foam
• Rules for playing the team in DreadBall

I’m really interested to see how they play in the game.

• Comments Off on Mars Attacks Dreadball Team

I must preface this post by stating, with full intensity and sincerity, that I am by no means a sports fan. Most of my knowledge of sports comes from the fact that my kids play them, and the GFL series of books by Scott Sigler.

That being said, Dreadball has fast become one of my favorite games.

Miniatures? Check. Violence? Check. Sports?

Check?

Yup. Check.

In Dreadball you’re coaching a team of intergalactic sports players who’s goal is to get the weapons-grade ball into one of 3 scoring zones on the opponent’s side of the pitch. You’ve got 3 player types: Strikers, Jacks, and Guards. Strikers can run the ball. Jacks can run the ball and dole out hits. Guards can only hit. Your team is built of these 3 types of players, though only 6 can be on the field at once. The others are benched, waiting for another player to be switched out, injured or killed to come in to the game. There’s also rules for MVPs and Giants, but that’s a bit beyond the scope of the basic set.

Players take turns over the course of Rushes, each taking 5 actions each before the Rush counter is moved up and the opposing player takes their turn. Players run, pass, smash, and push their way towards goals. Everything is dice based, and actions can fail, succeed, or double, which gives you special actions that be taken. Through all this you’ve got fans to please, and a ref that can be caught off guard if you feel you want to cheat a bit. The rules can get pretty in-depth, though not in a complicated manner. You can peek at them here.

Something about this game just clicked with me right off the bat. I’ve already pre-ordered a new pitch, and am planning on getting some more teams, and the corresponding rulebooks for those teams. One of these days I’ll get my teams painted.

The game is much more accessible than a game like Bloodbowl, which may be why it scratches the right itch for me. It’s a sci-fi, customizable sports game that doesn’t take too much time or money to get into.

A copy of Dreadball was provided free for review by Mantic Games.

• 2 Comments

I’m a huge fan of Dreadball, as you’ll soon see in my upcoming Second Look of the game. Mantic has currently sold out of its run of the game, and will be reprinting it with a Limited Edition version. Dreadball: Azure Forest will contain a special, Azure Forest pitch, as well as A’teo Adyssi, a Metal Azure Forest MVP mini. They’ll also be selling a Mega Bundle, as well as a very limited supply of stand-alone, Azure Forest pitches.

I, for one, have already pre-ordered my new pitch.

• Comments Off on Limited Edition Dreadball: Azure Forest

StoneBlade Entertainment

The creators of Ascension Chronicle Of The Godslayer have just put a new electronic CCG for the PC and iOS devices called SolForge. The game is a line-based battle CCG with Richard Garfield on the design team. It’s free-to-play, but you can purchase more cards and tournament vouchers as in-app purchases. I was able to fool around with it for a bit, and even try a draft tournament out. It’s very solid, with great art and gameplay. As you use cards they’re discarded, leveled up, and eventually brought back into your hand later. Combining this deck-building mechanic with traditional CCG play is a great combination.

Mantic Games

One of my favorite games at the show that I saw was DreadBall from Mantic Games. DreadBall is a sci-fi sports games where players are trying to get a 200mph, weapons-grade ball into one of three goals. There’s a bunch of teams available to purchase and play, and an in-depth set of rules that can scale up or down depending on how complex you want the game to be.

There’s a couple ways to get into the game. There’s the base set, or you can buy one of the rulebooks and a few teams to get started.

I’m by no means a sports fan, but I can’t deny how much fun I had demoing this one.

Mayfair Games

Mayfair had a few things to show, but most has been seen before. What new game I did get to see and demo was Mad City. It’s a light game where you’re drawing 9 random tiles from a bag and trying to group the colors of the city pieces together to score the largest chains before the minute sand-timer runs out. There’s also bonuses for large parks and the longest road. It almost feels like speed Carcassonne where you’re only scoring the farmers. A single round plays and scores in 2-3 minutes, which makes this a great filler game.

• Comments Off on Pax East 2014: Part 2