Talk Fantasy Football

What was the site that allowed you to play blood bowl online? Is it still up? Any news on a possible new version? WHY DOESN'T GW PULL THEIR HEADS OUT and produce a program (or set up a site) to be packaged with the OFFICIAL 4th ed.-whenever that comes out. I think an online way to play the game would help boost interest and sales.

You could try these:

http://www.olbbl.com/bbirc - Play via IRC.

http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/rlokers/bbtool - Play via email.

http://www.bloodbowlinternet.com - Appears offline at the mo - but worth keeping an eye on.

Alternately you could keep an eye on my web site http://www.deekimber.btinternet.co.uk. I am developing a version using Edition 3 rules to play online. In time it will be updated to Edition 4 - but only after Edition 3 is finished.

Tommy316:
GW will never create a web based BB game and maintain it for the following business reasons:
1) Other people like the OLBBL (online-IRC) and Ronald Lokers game (e-mail) have already done it and don't charge to play.
2) Building and maintaining a web site for online BB play would require an additional staff something GW will never pay to have ANY fanatic game have. (Remember Fanatic only has like 6 to 8 employees total).
3) Setting up an online site costs GW outlay with no way to show the profit. Difficult to prove that online gaming makes you want to go buy the minis.
4) GW realies heavily on players meeting and playing with actually minis. If I'm playing BB, maybe my friend will invite to play him in Mordheim/Warmaster/40k etc after my match and I like the game and start buying it as well.

So why doesn't GW set up an on-line BB site, it simply not a good business decision.

Galak
(who does business analysis work for a living)

I kinda figured all that- but was just hoping GW would do something for the faithful followers. Wish they would come out with an updated version of the PC game- something that you could input stats and play online.They've got Warhammer games for the PC- but I guess that's a stronger title for GW.
Thanks for the site information- JT

Speaking of PBEM, are there any leagues out there besides the MBBL and the PBEMBBL? I'd join the MBBL but I'm really not into all the extra teams and house rules (no offense Galak).

No offense taken at all, Anthony.

But why does having a few extra teams hurt the enjoyement of playing the game? All the normal GW teams are there.

As for house rules, I'm basically plain 4th edition pretty much out of the box without OSPA (heck the PBEMBBL is still playing 3rd ed.) The house rules are limited mostly to the Grab Bag special play cards and on-pitch spellcasters. Otherwise its straight 4th or am I missing something.

Again no offense taken, but whenever someone has said I have too many house rules and I ask what house rules they don't like, I never get any feedback. I actually have more GW based teams in the league than Net based teams so the odds are during a season, you'll play mostly GW teams, and I've really worked many many hours to make any new teams have rules that are as simple as possible to understand if you get a Net team as an opponent.

I really would like to know more about what you don't like, you can even e-mail directly at tom.anders@us.pwcglobal.com if you want to take this off the discussion list (although this is the one for web sites so it should be okay). I'm not trying to talk you into joining, but so far I'm getting really good feedback on the league and if I can directly address your concerns about my league, I'd love to do so. Heck, if you want, you could enter one team and pull out after one match if the league still isn't your taste. Don't know why I'm asking for more work when I already spend about 20 hours a week running the league. There are some other PBeM leagues, but I'm guessing that there aren't that many as they are VERY time consuming to run. The league commish of the PBEMBBL warned me about this (as in are you sure you want to do this???!!!) (based on the amount of time he knows that he puts into his).

Oh well, Anthony if you would be willing and can give me some more details about what you don't like that would be appreciated and cool.

Firstly, I think it's great you gather all this stuff into one place so if people desire they can add it to the game. I am more of a purist though, so it's just my personal taste to keep to the core rules. Things like the multi-level Apothecaries don't really add much to the game in my opinion, the think I like about BB is that it's simple (well, maybe with all the rule books out now it's a bit confusing! ).

Your site really is a great resource and I appreciate the work you put into it, don't let any of our preferences make you think that the extra rules don't have any value.

That said, I'll be a good sport and try out your PBEM league if you have any openings!

There are always openings it just how long you have to wait to play.

A league season lasts 7 to 8 months. I use a weighted program to assign matches for each round of the tournament. There are 5 preseason rounds and then 3 playoff rounds for the top 8 teams and 2 playoff rounds for everyone else. The coaches are giving 4 weeks to play each round before the next one starts.

There are two divisions in the league (just so that one coach could have two teams in the league if he wanted). However the divisions are very different in composition as coaches were allowed to pick which division a team played in as teams were added to the league (so many teams did not play in the 1st round and some not even the second).
Division A has 25 teams in it (with the
following stats):
17 games played
51 touchdowns scored (3 per game ave.)
71 casualties inflicted (4.2 per game ave.)

Division B has 20 teams in it (with the following stats):
22 games played
68 touchdowns scored (3.09 per game ave.)
104 casualties inflicted (4.7 per game ave.)

So Division B is a little more lively.

Unfortunately, Division B has already started round 3, so a new player would have to wait until around September 10th to have a team join this division.

HOWEVER, Division A is starting the 3rd round this Saturday. So Anthony, just go to this web site to see all the rules for entering (Under to Join) and the software that you need to download as I alter Ronald's ini files so that the game automatically handles most of our few house rules (The Software needed to play).

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/La ... Rules.html

Just e-mail me your team roster (it can just be typed into an e-mail, nothing fancy like Team Tracker output required) with the other information I need in how to join and you'll be included in the 3rd round of Division A. I keep track of everyone's team roster and set up all the matches (ie weather, niggles, drawing cards, etc.) to significantly cut down on possible areas for cheating. As for cheating in my league, I've removed one coach already, and have overturned 4 matches in favor of the loser due to cheating, so don't worry about it (Ronald's software is very good at detecting cheaters). Also I check e-mail all the time, so if a "house rule" confuses you at all, please e-mail as I tend to respond with a couple hours to all league questions (as long as I'm awake.)

I look forward to having you join the league, Anthony ..... and like I said if you find out that you don't enjoy my league feel free to leave after the league after your game is over (one coach already left because he decided he really needed beer, pretzels, and conversation to enjoy BB).

Oh, and on the upgradable apothecaries ... no one has taken one yet and I don't expect a lot of them in the near future since I modified several of the special play cards to allow the opponent to target the apothecary (like Better Offer and Assassin). Makes spending the extra money on one a much more difficult decision.

Sorry to everyone for the long post.

Sorry Anthony, I forgot one of the important things. Not to rush you, but if you could get a roster to me tomorrow please do, if you want to join before September as I am planning on assigning all the 3rd round match-ups for Division A on Saturday morning.

Thanks

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: GalakStarscraper on 2001-08-10 02:05 ]</font>

Actually I will be out of the country for two weeks starting next week so I can wait for the September opening. I'll send you a roster soon anyways.

OK, I'm in! Expect a roster from me too, but, like Anthony, I'm going away so September'll suit me better as well.
I'll resist the temptation to go VERY ally abusive just to experiment in pushing the boundaries!
I'm having problems downloading the tool. I keep getting 'error during transfer' and then 'this site does not support transfer resumes'. I'm using Go!Zilla. Any suggestions?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Deathwing on 2001-08-10 13:15 ]</font>

Cool! I have resisted to do the ally thing as well as much as it pains me to do so I am playing Norse though, and this version seems a lot harder then the standard GW roster.

Are you trying to download the MBBL version of the PBEM tool? I got it yesterday and it worked fine for me.

Two things:

Deathwing:
If you cannot download the zipped file off my website, let me know via e-mail and I'll email it to you as an attachment.

Anthony:
Why do you think the Norse team is more difficult to play? It the 4th edition team roster, its just that the Catchers have Dauntless like they did when the team was first published in CJ #10 ( http://www.geocities.com/tanders001/BBM ... Norse.html ) and I raised their price slightly to reflect the merge of CJ10+4E. Does the 90k Catcher make the team more difficult?

Still can't get it. Dunno why, 16 attempts and the most I got was 57%. Anyway, I've mailed you Tom, thanks.
OK, next question. This is gonna be my first experience of PBEM, so it may take a few turns to get used to the system. Can I in effect play myself to get used to it, or do I jump in feet first?
BTW, I'm intending to play Chaos (WITHOUT Gutter Runners or Dark Elf Throwers ), although pointy-eared leaf eating pansies are tempting with Wardancers and no OSPA!!

By harder I meant they look tougher physically not harder to play.
_________________
Anthony :: http://www.tbbf.org

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Anthony_TBBF on 2001-08-10 20:46 ]</font>