So, for those who don't know, Blood Bowl is the game of fantasy football. That is, fantasy as in there are elves and orcs and beastmen running around on the field. Based on Games Workshop's miniature/board game hybrid, Blood Bowl Team Manager is sort of the fantasy football game of fantasy football. Instead of controlling the actions of individual athletes on the field, players commit cards representing athletes to highlight cards (1 for each player) during each week of the season. Each week there are also special events that effect play and sometimes tournaments which function as sort of extra highlights that all teams can play on simultaneously. Each highlight can support two opposing teams, and the team with the most star power on one side of a highlight wins a reward printed in the center of the card, though both teams also receive a reward just for showing up. Rewards include fans (VPs), team-specific upgrades that give you static bonuses, star player cards and coaching staff upgrades that give you special abilities usable once per week. The goal of the game is to end the season with the most fans.

Each team (there are 6 in the game) has 12 athletes on it who play various positions including linemen, blitzers, throwers, blockers, and sometimes monsters like trolls and ogres. Each athlete has a Star Power attribute when standing, a Star Power attribute when tackled, and might have a number of icons that indicate which skills they have (tackle, cheat, sprint, or pass). They might also have a special ability written in text on their card. When an athlete is comitted to a highlight they resolve their icons in order, so they might cheat first and take a cheat token and then throw a tackle against an opposing athlete on the other side of the highlight, or they might pass which moves the ball (adding two star power to the team who possesses it) closer to their side of the highlight. The icons are all pretty useful, though I found that tackle and pass were a bit more useful than cheat and sprint.

Fans of the original will appreciate the tackle mechanics, which are resolved with special tackle dice that are very similar to those used in the miniature game except that star power doubles as strength in this game. Tackled players have lower star power, drop the ball if they're the ball carrier, have blanked text boxes and are removed from the pitch as casualties if tackled again. Including dice in the game introduces some variance and makes for some great upsets when your favorable tackle sometimes winds up knocking your own athlete down and reducing your team's starpower for the highlight. I thought the ball passing mechanic was nicely done, and makes for some great swings where your ball carrier can get tackled, returning the ball to midfield, and then the opposing player can play a thrower with the pass icon out of their hand to gain possession and the extra star power the ball gives. Even linemen, who are generally the worst players on each team come in handy with their ability to take a hit for another player, thus protecting your precious ball carriers. Cheating is a swingy mechanic that places a cheat token on the athlete that resolves when the highlight is being scored, and sometimes adds star power or fans, but can also get your athlete ejected from the game. Sprinting allows you to draw an athlete from your team deck and discard one from your hand, effectively letting you cycle linemen and other weak atheletes out of your hand in favor of strong blitzers, monsters and star players.

Each round players will usually draw and commit a total of 6 athletes split between two different highlights, though occasionally you might find yourself playing for more highlights. There is a lot of decision making here, as sometimes you will not be sure how committed your opponents are to winning a particular highlight until it is too late, and you might find out that you should have played more or better athletes to try and secure one highlight instead of spreading yourself too thin between two. After all players have committed their athletes, each highlight is scored and rewards are distributed, then a new week starts with new highlights. Play continues for 5 weeks and at the end of the season the team with the most fans wins.

Blood Bowl Team Manager is an absolute blast to play for newcomers and fans of the miniature game alike. The designers have managed to include a great assortment of teams which feel very different in play style and include Humans, Wood Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Chaos and Skaven. The game is quick to learn but very challenging, and you will find yourself having to make tough decisions each turn. Play is quick, taking about an hour per game once you've got it all figured out. I expect that the great variety in teams, star players and upgrade cards along with the variance introduced by the tackle dice, special event and highlight decks will give this game great replay value. The production value was very nice, with excellent artwork and high build quality throughout, though I could have done without the tiny upgrade cards. I spent most of my free time at Gen Con playing this game and I highly recommend it to anyone who is even remotely curious about it. There isn't a lot that I didn't like, though I can see where some might not enjoy the variance in tackles and special events.

On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a solid 8.5, which is relatively close to some of my favorite games including Shogun, Puerto Rico and Command's and Colors: Ancients, which I would score above a 9. At an MSRP of $35, this is a game you can't afford not to buy.