Blood Bowl 3 Single Player Campaign

[EastCoast]

The Cyanide Version of Blood Bowl has always had a player vs. AI option as well as a solo player campaign. I have done the near impossible and managed to win the Blood Bowl in each version! (Whoa Whoa! It's a joke, fellas. Seriously, you can stop sharpening the pitchforks.) I will say that I find single player relaxing and I do sometimes partake in a game when I just want a little quiet "me time" in the Blood Bowl universe. It is of course far too easy, but there are worse ways to spend an hour.

In terms of the single player offerings we've seen so far Chaos Edition was my favorite, but that was mostly due to what I felt was a better UI experience. The controls were more intuitive for me and the camera angles were superior. Also, although an objectively prettier game, Blood Bowl II has some other annoyances such as big guys being too big (easy to miss someone behind them), wonkier pathing, etc. However, the one advantage Blood Bowl II had was the built in campaign was a lot of fun.

You got to resurrect the floundering Reikland Reavers. Unlocking Mighty Zug, Griff Oberwald, and then eventually Bob Bifford. The story had all the zany elements, corrupt owners, thumb breaking ogres, that have always made me love the Blood Bowl setting and universe. I think one of the draws of the BB2016 re-launch and BB2020 ruleset is the GW clearly "leans in" to the chaotic universe. Based on Blood Bowl II's campaign clearly Cyanide/Nacon are more than willing to play along.

That brings us to Blood Bowl 3. What does the single player campaign have in store for us? Will Nacon build from the Blood Bowl II story campaign? It looks like the answer is definitively, "yes!".

Blood Bowl 3 Campaign Trailer

It looks like you will engage in a "Clash of Sponsorships" for this one. Dealing with the nastiest denizens of Blood Bowl to fight for the sponsorships of Nurgle King, Cabalvision, Corsair Cruises, Orcidas, Bugman's Beer, and Block & Dodgers. How this competition manifests itself isn't quite clear yet. Do you have to play as Orcs to get the coveted Orcidas sponsorship before swapping to Skaven to earn the Block & Dodgers sponsorship? Or is it a cup format where you knock off the representative team, Do you take down Griff and the Reikland Reavers to knock Cabalvision out of the Cup? I must confess, I'm intrigued.

Here's a dubbed interview with Yoann Drulhe the Lead Cinematic artist for the game and the co-writer of the Campaign that answers some of those questions.
Yoann Druhle Campaign Interview

It looks like your campaign will be based on the sponsorship you choose. For example if you take Orcidas, you will play through some linked matches before finally taking on (I'm guessing) Varag Ghoulchewer's Orcs (or maybe Black Orcs) in the final. I like the idea of playing through 6 potential campaigns, hopefully each one will have enough games to feel like a true Cup tournament. I must confess the Corsair's sponsorship complete with Kraken attack on the field mid game looks like a lot of fun. Speaking of sponsorships, time for a commercial break!

Thirsty?
Bored?

Of course no discussion of single player is complete without talking about the AI. Past iterations of the AI have all been pretty substandard and not very challenging for any veteran coach. I'm going to be optimistic here. A lot of the AI already exists from prior iterations, so I don't think there needs to be a ground up re-write. I would also argue that past iterations of the AI would have been passable if only the game developers had managed to implement an "urgency" to the AI at then end of each half. Alas, Turn 7 was always treated like Turn 2. At the very least if Nacon can somehow pull this off we'd be looking at a significant improvements.

So, how about it, folks? What sponsorship are you all going to chase first?