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[AlStar]

I'm very far from being experienced in blood bowl (mostly only know the basics), but i have been rather impressed by the AI in the AIBowl application i linked to, not only because it was kicking my sorry bottom a lot but because it was also using the tactics actual people use a lot in that game (like that famous "cage" )  .

I think the AI strength is also helped by how Blood Bowl is very dice based with how pure luck can easily destroy a well built strategy or transform your poor tactical knowledge into near legendary touchdowns

The trick in Bloodbowl is to embrace the dice - basically, structure your turn so that bad dice can't kill you.

Start the turn with everything that doesn't require a roll; like standing up and basic movement (without GFIs, moving out of control zones, etc.). Then you move on to important, low-risk things - picking up the ball with a high-dex player (in good weather), or tackles where you've got a massive strength advantage; dodging with elves, moving that requires GFIs, etc.

Then, and only then, do you start the 2d or 1d tackles, crazy passes, moving through control zones, etc.

Occasionally you'll still run into situations were you roll triple-skulls, rerolled into triple-skulls; and that's just Bloodbowl... but at least you're not starting your turn hitting with a 1d with someone who doesn't have block.

[nenjin]

Yep. Safe moves first, uncertain moves last. There's absolutely a process flow to playing BB that has to be learned.

...except by the AI on PC, who will Go For It with their first move, fail, and injure their own player in the process.

[delphonso]

In my first match, which was on the board, I fell down on a Go For It and stunned my only runner near the ball. Since it was the last turn, I grabbed a goblin and threw it at the ball in the off chance I could recover and score a touchdown. Rolled poorly and failed the reroll as well. The troll spiked the goblin into the ground - killing him outright.

It was then that I fell in love with this game.

[askovdk]

Returnal for PS5 has just had a great free update, that adds two player coop and a 'gauntlet' tower (which include new lore).
https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10000176

I've come to the realization, that Returnal is one of the few games I play just for the enjoyment of playing! :-)
It's so darn hard, that I'm still only in the 3rd of 5(?) biomes, but the gameplay and gunplay is so satisfying, that I don't really mind my lack of progression, as each (failed) run is so good.
Even with Elden Ring I can't escape the feeling, that my actions are partly 'work' to advance my abilities to eventually complete the game.

[dragdeler]

That demon tilt they had on epic a while back is a pretty cool pinball game. You're supposed to nudge to accelerate the ball, or shoot curveballs, can't spam it ad nauseum, but you're supposed to do it a lot, the table doesn't tilt.


I'm peculiar about pinball I like it a lot but not all tables, this might be my new favourite... Pokemon pinball and judge dredd pinball and space cadet are cool sure, and I generally prefer pinball with balls that feel light, but there is something to be said about 1440p 144hz pinball and I feel like the nudging mechanics is teaching me to play well, instead of just juggling the ball up for as long as I can.

Went from 5m games, to 70m games, and at this point i regularly crack 200 million points.

[Robsoie]

AI Bowl

Started well with my Human team vs AI Orc team, linemen were blocking successfully with some nice dice rolls, even managed to nearly kill an Orc on a double attack, then my thrower picked up the ball
I then moved some teammates to build my cage and started to move, hoping for some good dice rolls.

Spoiler: But the AI wasn't willing (click to show/hide)

The orcs and knocked out my guys, broke two of them (one was the ball carrier) , took the ball, built its own cage and continuously knocked down what was left of my guys trying to go block them (sad that standing up to move when on the ground cut half your move range)

Damn , so many skulls in those dices

[delphonso]

I played against their wood elves who slipped around all my Lizardmen and built a cage every turn after I managed to knock the ball out of their slippery little hands. End result was 3-0 wood elf victory...

[AlStar]

Lizardmen are a team that greatly appreciates getting a couple levels of experience. Their Sauruses are terrors when they've gotten block and tackle going, but are prone to KO'ing themselves on both-down rolls early on.

Against a low-armor, high-value team like wood elves, all it takes is one good hit, then a skink boot to the neck to even out the field.

[delphonso]

I rolled a random skill on one of my Saurus - he got Frenzy which I feel is an amazing get. Block would be greatly appreciated. I hired an apothecary as well - because I've lost at least one player every game (also, one saurus -ma and another with niggling injury). I need to figure out the tactics a bit more because by half-time, I'm usually down about 4 players. Clearly not a good way to...win a game.

Still - it's very addictive, and fits into my lunch break at work...so...get back in there, lizardboys.

[Aoi]

Exactly what version of Blood Bowl are people playing here? (Specifically, the screenshot of Robsoie's looks like it might actually run well enough to be entertaining on my travel laptop...)

[delphonso]

Robsoie is using AIBowl, which I think is with the rules active during its last update in 2014.

FUMBBL's java client is lightweight enough to run on my laptop as well (which is pretty weak) - though unless you're playing versus yourself, you'll need a constant internet connection. FUMBBL mostly uses the BB2020 rules - however there are some leagues that are older versions (mostly for people who have had their teams on FUMBBL for like...10 years)

Let me know if you want to play - I'm still learning and am happy to lose as long as I get to throw goblins occasionally.

[Aoi]

Robsoie is using AIBowl, which I think is with the rules active during its last update in 2014.

Let me know if you want to play - I'm still learning and am happy to lose as long as I get to throw goblins occasionally.

Ahahaha... travel wifi... this connection thoroughly falls onto the 'dys-' side of the 'functional' spectrum. Ran a speed test two days ago and was getting .02mbps downstream, 1.1mbps upstream (!?)... and 1200ms latency. Which also kind of ignored the factor that a bunch of stuff was just not working at all.

[Robsoie]

from what i understand the AIBowl is "LR5B" rules, apparently it's several versions old backward in comparison to current revision of the rules.
And the AIBowl program does not seem to have those team value/inducement things as you can't manage team value, and so none can buy some advantage  or star player (though you can edit manually all the teams rosters by editing the html files located in ...\AIBowl\teams\  ).

What's interesting with AIBowl is that you can set both the opponent to AI instead of playing against it (or against yourself) , and because the bot know to play much better than i do, after watching Orcs vs Humans, i noticed the result were very different from when i was playing as humans (and getting half my team taken out by the much stronger orcs) teaching me some stuff i was really overlooking (especially how you shouldn't really look for melee fight as a human against the orcs, as their players are better at that than humans, most of the time avoid to follow up when ou pushed back an orc as a human as it's a recipe to get destroyed next turn by a few orcs pilling up on you, let the orcs move so only the one using blitz will be able to directly attack ).

It's no wonder that this Grod AI has won the 1st AI tournament they did and placed 2nd on all the other that followed, when watching it playing against itself you can see it's -very- good at knowing when it should risk a dodge, when to avoid attacking or when to do so, how to defend and how to place its players for increasing its attacks.

I often avoid risking a move in a player zone of control as most of the time i get my guy punched and lose my turn, but after watching the AI sometime doing it, it looks like taking the risk can lead to massive good results (or break your attempt completely, but in the case of my human attempt considering how stronger the orcs are in an equal block, maybe it's the best chance humans have sometime).

[delphonso]

LRB5 is Living Rule Book 5, I think the most recent before the current edition(2020) was LRB6 (2016). The core game rules are the same, but team values have changed a lot. Passing plays, for example, are basically non-existent in BB2020. Too risky for the value, but useful in a real desperate moment.

Stunties(such as goblins, halflings and skinks) are reliable dodgers out of enemy control zones. I also matched Grodbot against itself and tried to learn a thing or two. It's good for getting the sense of how to defend a ball and how to crack open a cage, though quite a bit of that is helped by skills, which are all different in the current ruleset.

And yeah, you'd have to edit the htmls to simulate earnings and team progression. Because the rules are different as well, it's unfortunately impossible to export your current fumbbl team to it.

[Jopax]

Anyone here check out ORX?

It's a neat blending of various things, mainly a defence game with a good dose of Carcassonne and some rogue-lite and deck building stuff thrown in. It has a free demo that has a sizeable chunk of gameplay in it and should give you a good insight into how the final thing should play.

I really enjoyed what was there, the mashup works quite nicely with you building out your board with roads and villages and using castles as defenses, they also seem to be planning on having different factions (so far there's only one) with possibly wildly different styles of play, since the special of the Runesmiths is basically having spells that permanently buff your castles in various ways and some buildings that support that style of play, so having a faction without that stuff should change stuff up considerably.

Also the art style is really really cool, it's not really pixel art but it's close to it I'd say, very reminiscent of an actual boardgame with painted pieces and tokens. Does chug a bit in terms of performance in the later stages when you have a shitton of enemies spawning, but that might be tied to playing at higher speeds, not sure.