Olde Worlde BBQ Sauce (Rumbleslam)

[jetengine]

I don't like Bloodbowl.

I'd like to, it seems fun. Lots of puns (about a sport I don't get or play but a good pun is still great), some great miniatures and an incredibly supportive and die hard fanbase. Sadly the rules bore me immensely. It's slow, grindy and  you either go fast or hitty which kind of kills the 'each faction is different' thing when it defaults immensely. The slowness was what really killed me. Dear sweet Nuffle it just dragged. So I was quite surprised when another Sports themed board game arrived and gave me everything I wanted. It's fast, it's brutal and it gets to the point. It's also about Professional Wrestling which I used to be a big fan of during the late Attitude to mid 2000's era so I get most of the puns.

Made by TTcombat my FLGS sold me on it only for players to shrivel up due to hobby butterfly syndrome, a switch to card games and a big release (maybe 8th ed 40k ?). Either way its had something of a renaissance at my FLGS and I've been painting bits up.

The starter set is a really good deal, for about £30 you get two teams (Humans and Orcs), the rules, the cards for the teams, dice, tokens and a Ring mat. Here's the Orc team, my Smashin Bashas.



Like all Wrestling though you have your grunts and then your superstars, the Superstars have better abilities and stats etc. They also tend to be pop culture or Wrestling references as to be expected. This guy is so obvious the TTCombat description doesn't even try to joke about it and gets 'emselves ready for some Gunamania.

[Johnno]

Im really interested in Rumbleslam!
Have been following it for some time

[jambo1]

Have looked at the game and it does seem great fun, like the figures too, may dip a toe myself!!

[Inkpaduta]

I also got the game and liked it. Bought a number of figures.
However, I will say there are some holes in the rules and on the player
cards that could use some explaining. Certain wrestlers have abilities
that you don't seem to be able to use much if at all.
But, I still really enjoy playing.

[jetengine]

Next team up, the Midland Marauders. Very simple paint scheme but it counter balances the Orks quite well.



Meanwhile the human teams gained a new superstar in the form o-

"OOOOOOOH YEEEEAH!"

[Gailbraithe]

This game looks interesting, but I'm curious as to how much the miniatures actually come into it.  When your "battlefield" is a square ring that's only a 10 x 10 grid, do you really even need models?

Also, from your previous comments, it sounds like each player runs their own stable of wrestlers?  Is that correct?

[Cait Sidhe]

This game looks interesting, but I'm curious as to how much the miniatures actually come into it.  When your "battlefield" is a square ring that's only a 10 x 10 grid, do you really even need models?

Why do you need models for any miniatures game at all? Tokens, Standees etc will all work just fine... If you like think of it more as a tactical board game.

Also, from your previous comments, it sounds like each player runs their own stable of wrestlers?  Is that correct?

Not exactly you build teams to points values like in other games. There are specific casinos the wrestlers belong to and you get a slight bonus for using wrestlers from the same casino, but there's no real restriction.

[Gailbraithe]

Why do you need models for any miniatures game at all? Tokens, Standees etc will all work just fine... If you like think of it more as a tactical board game.

Well, not to go into a whole digression, but there seems to me to be a significant difference between a battle between 20-40 models on a board full of terrain and two models moving around a 10x10 grid with no LOS blocking terrain. 

Like sure, you could replace any set of models with bobbins, but if you've got 20 bobbins in your force telling bobbin #1 from bobbin #2 is a hassle and having detailed miniatures makes it clear which unit is what with a glance.   When you've only got one unit on the "battlefield," it takes a...special sort of mind to get confused about which bobbin is which.

Not exactly you build teams to points values like in other games. There are specific casinos the wrestlers belong to and you get a slight bonus for using wrestlers from the same casino, but there's no real restriction.

Does your entire team wrestle at once?  Are there not solo matches?

[Cait Sidhe]

Does your entire team wrestle at once?  Are there not solo matches?

You could play a 1v1 (like with superstars) but the game by default is set up as team vs team rumbles.