Battle ball board game instructions

Popular in Australia, kids love this one and get nice and sweaty. Try it out! Hello, Looks like a great game! Question is this……….. Especially since most of the opposing team will have their back to the baseline players from the other team. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Pete. Hey pete i had the kids that were out and on the baseline throw non-dominant over hand. That made it a little harder and more safe.

Yes the players from the baseline can throw and hence why Battleball is a degree game and the spot you stand on the court becomes tactical and dependent upon where the balls are at the time. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Battleball is kind of a peculiar game. While the game features quite a bit of strategy, it was made by Milton Bradley a company not generally considered for their strategic board games.

After having played quite a few football games, I have to say that Battleball is the best football game that I have yet to play. While at times it feels more like rugby or soccer, I think Battleball does a really good job simulating football.

Being a big fan of football I appreciate that fact since too many football games feel like a traditional game that had a football theme pasted on.

While Battleball might be a little intimidating and take a while to fully understand, after you get used to it the game is easy to play. This is why I think Battleball could work really well introducing children or new gamers into minatures games. The developer Stephen Baker known for HeroQuest, Heroscape, and Battle Masters put some real effort into the game in order to make it feel like a real football game.

Players familiar with the game Blood Bowl may see a lot of similarities between that game and Battleball. While I have never played Blood Bowl I can see the similarities. As a whole Battleball seems like a simpler version of Blood Bowl.

On the positive side, Battleball is considerably cheaper than Blood Bowl which is really expensive due to being out of print. While most of the game involves rolling the dice and moving your players around the field, the dice themselves are where I think the game does a good job simulating football. Each team pretty much has three different types of players. You have the fast running backs that move really fast and are good at catching the ball and receiving hand offs.

The running backs are really weak though and will lose almost every tackle attempt. On the other end of the spectrum are the tackles that move really slow but are a force when it comes to tackling other players. Finally you have your linebackers, safeties and linemen that are a combination of the other two groups. What I love about the dice is that they are used in order to accentuate each players strengths and weaknesses.

The running back uses a 20 sided dice that lets them move much quicker. The dice also helps with hand offs harder to match another dice when there are 20 different options and receiving can throw the ball farther since you can roll higher with a 20 sided dice. The 20 sided die will work against you in tackle attempts though since you are much more likely to roll a higher number than your opponent and thus will lose the tackle.

You could build a wall of blockers in front of the ball carrier in order to clear a path to the end zone. You could also try to sneak a running back down the sideline in order to throw a deep pass and score a quick touchdown. This gets me to the passing game which while optional is highly recommended.

The passing game in general is really well done. I like how the game made it easier for running backs to catch the ball rather that tackles. In addition the game does a good job making shorter passes easier to complete than longer passes. While Battleball has quite a bit of strategy, strategy will rarely make a big difference in who ultimately wins.

While a tactical error can give a player an advantage see my first touchdown below , if two evenly matched players are playing one another whoever rolls better will win the game. While you can read the specifics below, in the game I played I had to have had the worst luck rolling the dice while my brother had some of the best luck that you could possibly have. I would regularly always roll one of the highest numbers possible bad for tackling while my opponent would almost always roll one of the lowest numbers possible.

The problem comes from losing your strong players early in the round. Your heavy tackle in particular is key and is the most powerful player in the game. Unless you roll poorly like I did the heavy tackle will win a majority of tackle attempts.

Once you lose your two tackles, the other team can pretty easily start rampaging through the rest of your players since they will have a significant advantage in every matchup. This problem can get even worse due to significant injuries. I like the idea behind significant injuries since it does do a good job simulating injuries in the game of football but it could be devastating to a team if they lose one of their tackles or multiple players in the first half. A numbers advantage is huge in Battleball and losing a player in the first half could be huge.

If you lose a couple players in the first half you will have a very hard time winning the game. Next to the luck the second biggest problem I had with Battleball is that the player who has the ball is at a significant advantage in my opinion. This actually does a good job simulating present day football. The offensive team has an advantage since they know what they are trying to do and also have a lot more flexibility in changing their plan based on what the defense does.

If the defense ends up attacking one side of the field the offense can either use a running back to run around the side of the defense or catch a deep pass. The player can then be on a straight path to the end zone. Meanwhile the defense is usually forced into playing a prevent defense. While they can take a risk and attack one side of the field, they could be easily burned if they are too aggressive.

The defensive player is usually better off having their players spread out in order to prevent an easy touchdown. In the game of Battelball you are the Coach of one of the world's finest future football teams.

Lead your team to victory by being the first to score two touchdowns. Please keep in mind that the official Battleball rules and instructions could be different depending on the game version you have. The rules below are some of the exact directions that came in the original packaging.

Battleball Rules.