Games Workshop’s new Blood Bowl is out this month

16 years after the fourth edition of Blood Bowl was released and 30 years after the game first appeared, Games Workshop’s tabletop sports wargame is getting a new edition.

Blood Bowl’s new edition (simply referred to as 'Blood Bowl 2016') has been known about for a while, with drips of information leaking out of conventions, but now the publisher has announced that the game’s new box set will be released this month, on November 25th to be exact.

Pre-orders open tomorrow, November 12th, and will allow you to stump up cash for the starter set, which includes 12 plastic miniatures for each of the human and orc teams, plus everything needed to start playing, such as tokens, dice, templates, cards and a rulebook.

The pack also comes with a double-sided pitch, with a human field on one side and the orc version on the other.

Games Workshop has already confirmed it will bring more teams to the game, such as the skaven, elf, nurgle and dwarf races. Pre-orders for the first add-on, Dead Zone: Season One, which adds rulesets for the extra races, will open the same time as those for the base game. 

It’s sure to be good news for anyone who’s been hanging on for a new version of the American football-meets-Warhammer classic, as well as any newcomers looking to try it out for the first time.

What will be interesting to see is how the rivalry between Blood Bowl and Steamforged’s relatively fresh-faced sports-wargame rival Guild Ball heats up following the news – both are due for release on the same day and are clearly aiming at the same untapped audience. Guild Ball’s Kick Off! starter set will cost £50, while Blood Bowl will be the slightly pricier of the two at £65.