Blood Bowl Team Manager (BBTM) is a card game based on the Game's Workshop Blood Bowl IP. This is a game of American Football played with Fantasy Races and all their weird and wonderful abilities. In this game, you are fighting for the most fans over a season.
BBTM is a light deckbuilder, where your deck represents your players. You play them at different fields to try and win that field and gain some bonus'. Even if you lose, you still get some benefits. In fact, one of the major strategy points in the game is figuring out which games you can lose and be happy with whatever lesser benefits you have.
Like most Games Workshop games, there is quite allot of chance in this game. From penalty tokens that range from fans (or victory points) to the player being sent off to tackling effects and the special abilities you can get (and when you actually draw them, which makes a huge difference). Expansions to this game tend to increase the randomness (with the corrupt referee, foul cards that can cripple, etc.).
The randomness is quite unfortunate, because it is not a short game. There is also a bit of a downtime problem, as analysis paralysis can easily slip into people's turns. However, the core mechanisms are quite fun. The combination of deckbuilding, balancing your rewards and what you fight for, and choosing who to play against at what fields is intriguing. Trying to play your race to its strengths is also fun.
It is also unfortunately no longer in print currently. At the moment the base set is still relatively easy to find. This game reminds me allot of Smash Up! but slightly less refined. The arbitrary randomness combined with the long play time hold this back from the classic status, unfortunately, but it is still worth playing most of the time.
3.5 out of 5 waffle bowls.
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