f13.net

FYI. Cheap as its been so far.

I've picked it up, figured I could play some matchmaker since I've been feeling a dearth of turn-based strategy in my life. My policy of only buying things at 75% off on Steam is working well so far.

The extra races are still being sold individually? Why?

Also, is there enough of a population to get a game in BB2?

I'll let you know once I get home from work. As far as the dlc goes - it lines up with the tabletop model. Buy basic package -> collect all additional teams for a extra. Its meh.

Yes its a small niche but its active enough for there to be a variety of well run leagues to play in and to get games in the on-demand public MM bs fiesta system, though those are of dubious quality in a variety of ways obviously.

Hmm. if enough F13ers get it for a return of the league I will get it. Otherwise, dunno.

There are apparently automated (maybe? not sure) leagues now, including what eventuated into a World Cup earlier this year.

I wouldn't mind picking this up and participating in another f13 league, but have they addressed the issues that made us hate it at launch? I know they added grid view back, but what else?

Ok so all of this made it in and that seemed to cover all the complaints I could find in the BB2 thread. Beyond that lack of teams was a huge issue but they at least have a sizeable team roster now in 2 even if its missing chorfs and a few others.

All in all it would feel initially like a side grade at best until you got used to BB2 but once you do its really hard to go back to BB1's visual presentation.

Well I bought it.

It's dire, IMO. Very hard to read the pitch and icons. A step backwards.

I haven't played enough (1 game so far), but the upside is that it does seem to load faster, and run a bit a more smoothly. Icons are ok, I'd rather text skills, but I can get used to it. Pitch seems fine as well. My biggest issue at the moment is the obtuse pre-match set up screen. Fiddling with inducements and flicking back and forth between my team and the opponent's got tedious fast.

Maybe I'll get used to it. I found the icons really slow to parse, and a lot of delays in selecting and moving units around that stretched out turns.

Maybe I just haven't played any blood bowl in a while though, and I'm forgetting how bad the previous version was.

I really hate the busy card art and icons though. Everything needs to be hovered over or clicked through to extra screens to get basic info.

Ya, its a bit of a pain in the arse. I guess once one is used to icons, its quick to parse, but they need to make them pop more from the player card.

So it looks like league management has changed somewhat:

You now have the option of running a single 'league' with your choice of competitions under it - ladder, round robin single headers, and knockout cup. A double header round robin is a no go, so in a longer season you presumably have to create a second competition once the first 'round' is done.

There is a function for automated validation, and ageing can be disabled.

I'll dig around some more, but the there does not seem to be many more options than that, apart from the ability to set prizes in either 'Cyans' (their in-game currency which is used to buy skins), or something called Tournament Tickets. I do not know what these do. Also, in typical Cyanide fashion, it appears at that while Cyans can be bought for real world cashy money, a league organiser can just hand them out to winning teams. I'm sure they are not that stupid as to design a system which directly cuts away at their income, but what do I know.

 * edit:

ok so, the ticketing systems allows one to set up linked competitions.

For example, I can create a Ladder comp, the prize of which (lets say for the top 16 teams) is a Tournament Ticket. I can then create a Round Robin competition, the entry cost to which, are the tickets from the Ladder stage. After this, I can then further set up a Knockout Cup for the next eight teams, and so on. Hm.

After playing Duelyst (average game, very responsive and simple UI) for a while the UI on this is driving me insane, it's so slow.

Not to mention half the menus seem to be greyed out, and I can't find the keybindings.

After playing this a bit more I've given up. I don't know how to turn the turn timer down, and it's just very slow to play, even compared to BB1.

On sale on humble bundle store.

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/promo/focus-home-weekend/