Blood Bowl App Review

I'm a sucker for the Games Workshop IP, especially for opportunities to play short and entertaining games while I'm waiting for other things.  One things that I have noticed with a lot of the games, however, is that they tend to be two dimensional with very little development in the game and not a lot to do after the initial controls are learned.  I know that this is pretty common for App games, but it is still hard to swallow when you enjoy the world so much and want more options.  

Over my years in the hobby I have heard a lot about Blood Bowl and how it was one of the best games that GW ever released.  I also read a lot of blog posts about people running the games still and categorizing it as one of the more fun and wacky opportunities in the Warhammer IP.  So, when I found out about the Blood Bowl App I decided I had to try it out.  I believe it costs $4.99 in the app store but don' quote me on that.

So, below are some of the screenshots of a campaign I have been running for the past little while.  There are a lot of options of how to play, whether you want to do a quick match, a campaign, or a set of games depending on how long you want to stick with your team.  I figured that if I was gonna put the effort into developing a team I would want them to be around for the long hall father than just one game.  Below you can see my team as it currently stands including rank (you start at 1 and gain experience to level up) as well as stats and your value (how much each player is worth with their upgrades and skills).

In addition to the players you can also purchase things like coaches, cheerleaders, re-rolls, and apothecaries (very important), to aid and change the flow of the game.  Some of them have small effects but others can be quite consequential.  

Here is the 'loading' screen where you see the race you are facing (I'm the ork teams and misspelled "Squig" as "Squid").  At the bottom you see the special things they have purchased, your relative prestige (measured by the stars), and you value.

The following are some screenshots from within the game including the coin toss.

Kick-off which includes setting your formation, choosing your personnel, and resolving any possible extra-game opportunities granted by chance or the craziness of the game.

Here you can see an in-game shot where my opponent has the ball and has knocked out a number of my players.  Let me tell you that I play on "easy" and it is an extremely difficult game to master.

So what about the game?  I find it extremely enjoyable and have wasted probably too much time playing it instead of doing hobby stuff.

If you decide to start playing the game I'll give you a little advice.  First, don't quite too early, it is an extremely difficult game at the beginning because it is based directly off the board game (including the rolling and selection of dice).  I actually almost stopped playing the game until I decided to look up some of the help articles about the game so that I could learn how to play it, manage my players, and develop the skills of the team.  I would suggest checking this site out and if you really want to you can read the entire pdf of the rulebook which I haven't done but would probably really help.  Those pages really helped me out and made the game increasingly interesting and fun to play.  

The only downsides of the game are the complicated nature (which like I said in the beginning of this post, I actually really wanted) and the fact that right now you can only play the human and orc teams.  However, from what I understand there is DLC coming along so you can play many different factions and enjoy yourself.

Overall I would say this is a 4.5/5 and you should definitely spend the five bucks and enjoy yourself.

New Airbrush

So today a wonderful little gift arrived in the mail from that wonderful place called Amazon.  A few days ago someone on the Facebook group Warhammer for Grown-Ups said that Amazon had a great deal on Badger Sotar 20/20.  I read through some of the reviews saying it was a great airbrush, perfect for fine detail, and many people said that it was like all other well made and well supported Badger products.  I'm really happy with how quickly the airbrush arrived and especially that since I bought the last one on Amazon it was 90% off!  I've heard of other people getting these deals but it's the first time I've ever gotten one.  

Like many have already said, the Sotars 20/20 does not come with a hard case like many other badger airbrushes, but the cardboard box it arrives in is sturdy and adequate.  As you can tell from the picture above, it comes with an extra needle, a few other replacement parts, and all the tools you need to take apart and clean the airbrush.  I actually think the replacement needle might be a different gauge so that you can change out the thickness of paint you can use in the gun.  I'm not completely certain, though, as I haven't had the chance to switch out the needles and compare the spray patterns.The main reason I got an additional airbrush was to do very targeted pre-shading and highlighting on models without bleeding into areas I didn't want to affect.  The Patriot 105 is a great airbrush but I couldn't figure out a way to make really thin and consistent lines so let's see if the Sotar 20/20 can help!

In the picture above you can see that the 20/20 ends with an additional nut that has numbers circling it dash marks periodically.  This is the coolest feature of the 20/20 so far.  What you do is screw this nut in all the way and it completely locks the two-stage trigger from pulling back and sending any paint through the airbrush.  Then, as you unscrew the nut pictured above you slowly allow the trigger to move more and more, making your spray pattern larger.  This is great because if you are going to make a lot of lines the same thickness you can simply set this nut at say 1.5 and pull the trigger back all the way knowing that every line will be the exact same thickness.  I know that if I were a better airbrusher it wouldn't matter but for a beginner this is awesome.  You can even adjust it as you go so you can switch from a 1.5 to a 3.0 in two seconds. You can see the effects below.

This picture shows you the consistency and control available to you while using this airbrush.  I was amazed at how simple it was and how it made putting paint where I wanted it to go so much easier and quicker.  With the detail available there are a few things I've noticed that are different than my Patriot 105.  First, the paint dries on the needle tip a lot more quickly.  I think this may be because I need to thin out the paint more and also turn up the PSI on my compressor a little more but I haven't tested that out yet.  However, I did learn that if I use the two step trigger to stop the paint and then stop the air, rather than just letting off the trigger completely, it did help.  This may be something that people already know, but I've never seen the tip to let the trigger push all the way forward before letting off the air so I thought I would include it.

Overall, after one day I really like this airbrush.  As a beginner it is simple to use and really gives me a lot of control.  The one downside is that it doesn't come with good instructions about the airbrush itself. However, my Patriot 105 didn't come with good instructions either so it must be a Badger thing.  Would I recommend paying $400 for the airbrush?  Probably not unless you are going to be using it for your job.  However, right now on Amazon it is 80% off and will likely keep being reduced.  For that price I would definitely recommend you purchase it if you want to do more detailed airbrushing and don't trust your own ability to maintain consistent, small lines.