That’s just a yellow ref!

Today I sat down with Clarence “Bibali2000” MacIntyre, the newest member of the Blood Bowl development team to discuss upcoming rules changes. Look out for future posts on new weather conditions, fan clubs and stadium enhancements. But today, let’s look at one of our favourite topics… fouling!

Camelchops: “I’ve heard some changes are afoot with regards introduction of cards into fouling”

Bibali: “Yes, for a long time fouling was seen as a high variance play with easy to calculate risk/reward benefits. In 2020, changing guard, sneaky git and introducing arguing the call all strengthened fouling. This has disproportionately benefited the guard heavy teams like dwarfs and chaos dwarfs, rather than improving the low cost linemen teams like goblins and halflings, as was our plan. Its changed the whole meta. We have been looking for a balancing mechanic to make fouling beneficial for all and are pleased to announce a new card system.”

“The new rules are quite simple really; if you roll a double when fouling a player but do not remove them from the field of play then instead of instant ejection the player receives a yellow card. Two yellows and you are off. Any removal causing foul still is auto-ejected as previously. Yellow or red cards can be argued as usual.”

Camelchops: “Simple. However, surely that will just further benefit fouling teams more.”

Bibali: “Actually, it is more nuanced than it seems. Fouling high armour teams always seemed too risky without sufficient assists. In our play testing, top players with elves or other traditional non-fouling teams have calculated it is beneficial for them to lay the boot in. In particular, fouls vs teams with thick skull like dwarfs and chaos dwarfs, due to the lower chance of removal, where it was even less worth fouling, is now worth a shot.”

Camelchops: “what about orange cards?”

Bibali: “Ah yes, this is still in play testing but I can give you a little taste. As rugby has introduced orange cards, we thought it might be interesting to put in a special rule to match. Somewhere between a red and a yellow, the orange card is specifically used when fouling a thick skull player – if you KO the thick skull and should be ejected, instead you are temporarily removed from the pitch until the player recovers from being knocked out. Practically it is a little hard to keep track of, but we are recommending putting both players in the same dugout as a simple fix. Still in testing, but so far we like the effect on game play.”

So there you have it folks. Will bloodbowl actually become foul-ball or will this little wrinkle democratise the noble art of kicking someone when they are down? Let’s just say, I won’t be lying down anytime soon. Especially if playing Dusher1 or Chorfling.