A few weeks ago I was idle listening to the #fumbbl channel and two guys were discussing the new rule set and how much better the old lrb4 ruleset was in comparison to the lrb6 new ruleset. I've been playing lrb6 on fumbbl since the beta started, and haven't played a single game on lrb4 ever since, so as you can imagine I'm a big fan of the new ruleset. Back then I decided not to get involved in the conversation, but it has been bugging me ever since so I decided to write a (rather long) blog entry about it.

So, why lrb6 is so much better then lrb4:

a)Fouling. The biggest change I guess was the nerf of the dirty player skill and bringing back the old referee rule instead of the "eye of the referee"-rule. I really like that. Back in lrb4 the rules favored a playstyle with lots of fouling, especially the first turn each half was usually entirely dedicated to separating and fouling a key opposition player, and that with only minimal risk of getting send off. I really hated that, it felt like you only started playing bloodbowl at the second turn and before you played some odd game called foulbowl. I say "eye" and old dirty player skill: good riddance, it wasn't fun or interesting, and now we can actually focus on playing the ball or block the shit out of the opponent.

b)Skills. I like the new skills like wrestle, fend, grab or juggernaut. They have their uses for certain players, are well balanced and add new dimensions to the game. There are also a few new race specific skills like titchy, decay or nurgle's rot, and they have been great as well. There is/have been huge discussions about the new claw and pilling on skills. I don't really want to go into this discussion, I find the combo mildly annoying, but I think that bashy teams need a combo like this to work, and if I look at my own teams, my bashy nurgle team has lost 1/3 games, and my darkelves have lost 1/8 games, so the combo is hardly a sure win strategy. What I really! liked about the new skills, which I believe has not been noticed much, are two other skills that have been reworked: stunty and off-for-a-bite. The new version of the skills greatly reduce the number of dead/seriously injured players you suffer each game, thus making building up both stunty and vampire teams far more fun and less frustrating then they used to be. I've been playing an underworld team for a while now and it's really a huge difference.

c)Teams. So we got three new teams: underworld, chaos pact and slann. I played the first two and they are both well balanced and fun to play. Also a few team rosters changed. I played nurgle in lrb4 and in lrb6, and I had to retire my lrb4 nurgle team simply because with no regen and no apo, I suffered so many injuries that over time I would either have to retire half the team or give away huge inducements. New nurgle far better balanced in that regard and alot more fun. Same goes to necros, werewolves with regen are so much better then knowing that two of your key players have a very low expiration date. So while I enjoy the new teams and the small changes to the old ones, there are two occasions where teams really drew the short straw. One is Ogres. Ogres used to be a solid team in lrb4, tough but not really successful. Now, in lrb6 they suck big time. Not only is the team limited to six ogres, making 2/3 of the team not ogres (it is now actually a stunty team), they also turned the goblin players on the team into snotling. Now goblins are far from good players, but they are ok, they are decent. Snotlings, fucking snotlings! are only good for one thing, and that is giving spp to the other team when their ugly little skulls get smashed in. But hey, you can decide on which square you want your snotling player to bleed out, great! isnt it? Seriously, I both salute and pity the coaches that try to play the pile of shit that is the new ogre roster. The other team that got the short stick is Khemri. In lrb4 khemri teams, with lots of cheap players with only general access, relied heavily on fouling the other team. The new fouling rules already hit the khemri hard, but to add insult to injury they replaced the cornerstone of the team, the mummies, with "tomb guardians". That is a major downgrade, not because of decay, with av9 and regen that negative trait hardly matters, but taking away mighty blow from these players means that it will take forever for them to start skilling and then their skill progression will be far slower then of their undead counterparts: getting to those 16 spp you want for mighty blow and guard is just painful. So you get four big guys without mb, and a rest of the team that is neither fast, strong, tough or agile. And what the hell is up with that: you get ag2 throwers, which is already bad, but how could whatever lich-priest raising the team think it would be a smart idea to raise the throwers, but leave the catchers in their sarcophagus? Seriously though, I think the rule commission went to far with nerfing those two rosters and they badly need an overhaul.

So I conclude, besides those two team roster that need fixing, I think lrb6, compared to lrb4, is by far the superior, interesting, well-balanced and fun ruleset, and while I understand people prefer lrb4 for nostalgic reasons, there is very little ground to support the notion that lrb4 is even close to equal to the new ruleset.