Heresy & Heroes

Oh, GW, you do know how to make me happy. Only the other day, I was thinking that I hadn’t played Blood Bowl in far too long (stupid global pandemic) and that maybe it was a good time to put a new team together. As an Orc player, I like teams that hit hard and only really worry about the ball when there are no faces to smash – you can check out Da Mighty Redz if you’d like to take a look at my regular squad.

So I was delighted when Games Workshop saw fit to send me all the brand new Khorne goodies for me to review this week here on the blog. And boy do they look great!

I mean, how good does that all look!? This is absolutely perfect for me and easily one of the most exciting packages I’ve had delivered this week. As ever, the presentation of these products is perfect. The dice look great, the illustrations and design are top notch – nothing to disapprove of when we’re judging the look of these products while the cellophane is still on them, so let’s dive deeper and take a look at what’s inside the boxes, after a short piece of tactical analysis.

I love the look of how this team plays. All that frenzy! They are a team for people who like to hit hard and often, but the frenzy on the lower strength players balances this side out and forces the coach to think tactically because that can go wrong fast. So they’re not just a wild swing team, but they can be if you want to trust Nuffle (may he be praised) with your fortune. A fine addition to the game. Now let’s get into those boxes!

I love these card packs. All the recent ones have been winners and this is no exception. I like being able to see my roster in card form and the basic player stat cards are great. Judging by those numbers, I am definitely going to be wanting a Bloodspawn for this team – what a beast! Akhorne is a charming touch, but I think Max Spleenripper is my preferred star player of the two. The special play cards are gloriously thematic, and while there are some strong and/or intriguing choices in there, if I had one minor complaint about this deck, it’s that some of them just felt a little underwhelming. Still great, but I wasn’t seeing anything in there that I’d be desperate to draw before a game. But I’m not a good Blood Bowl player (stupid dice), merely a passionate one, so what do I know? It’s usually after I say something like that that someone finds something completely game-breaking that I missed so I’m hoping that’s true here too.

I think Spike! magazine might just be one of my favourite things about the modern Blood Bowl era. getting an entire mini-publication devoted to a team works really nicely, and it beats having to wait for a book including several teams’ updates, so the more of these journals the better. Like usual, this is a solid issue with plenty to get your teeth (or claws or horns) into, and just enough flavour to inspire one to get on with building and painting the Khorne team.

I loved that my camera picked out Morg N Thorg’s face when I was taking the above photo – kudos to the illustrator there. It’s a good selection of Star Players, and while I like Mr Spleenripper, as I was once, very briefly, the voice of Lord Borak, I think I might have to pick him up for this team. Love that guy.

In a way, I think the pitch might be my favourite part of this set. These pitches have come on leaps and bounds, and while I still enjoy my very old pitch, I will be using this for my Khorne games for sure. The finish on the pitch is lovely, it’s nice to have the double sided option, and the slim dugouts are a huge win for someone like me who likes playing Blood Bowl in a pub where table space is at a premium. I will probably be using the blood-drenched side more because (and this is another minor criticism), I find it almost impossible to find the squares on the skull side, and my eyes are pretty sharp. But hey, you couldn’t not have a skull side for a Khorne team, but I just wish it was easier to pick out the square markers on it. So blood-drenched side it is!

Ok, the transfers are a nice touch. I don’t use the things myself, but I really appreciate those being included here. If you want good pictures of the sprues, go look at the ones on the GW site – they’ve got fantastically good photographers working there so I’m not trying to compete with that. You’ll have seen all of the pictures on Warhammer Community by now, so I won’t linger on this too long, but unsurprisingly, these all look great – I can’t wait to get started.

Now, I’ll be honest with you, when I heard there was going to be a Khorne team in Blood Bowl, I was pretty cold on the idea. A Nurgle team works because Nurgle has an inherent sense of humour to it as a concept, and Blood Bowl is a game that is all about fun and jokes. The hyper-violence of Khorne didn’t seem to fit to my mind back then, but as I was flicking through Spike! and looking at the cards and kit, I got a lot more into the idea. And little things like Akhorne, the Spike! illustrations, and even the wording on some of the cards really help to lift Khorne into the Blood Bowl dimension and give them a funnier edge that they typically lack. They’re still hyper-violent, but you can sprinkle it with enough silliness to make it work in this setting, and we, as players, can help add the final touches to it all with how we paint and name our teams.

So it works, and that’s great. But that leads me to my next point – Slaanesh and Tzeentch teams; when GW? When!? 😉

Overall, this is a great release and if you love a few games on the Gridiron, and you play Blood Bowl like a maniac like I do, then I think you’re going to love this set. Spike! is a great read, the cards a very helpful, the pitch set is fantastic (though with the caveat that the skull side is not the easiest to see the squares on), and the team itself is a triumph. Blood Bowl for the Blood Bowl God!

And as ever, have a wonderful weekend and week ahead full of fantastic hobby. Until next time, dear reader, onwards!