A few thoughts on how to teach your offspring Blood Bowl. My credentials to start with – I believe Dementor (my 2nd son) was the youngest ever NAF player when he played at the age of 8, and Enderman (the eldest) is aiming to be the youngest to complete the 24, having played 12 of them in 14 tournaments at the age of 11, and with ARBBL pick n mix in a couple of weeks he will have played 14 by the time he hits 12! Zoe is currently 6, and just played her first game of 7s.
I started playing board games with them before they could count, and playing counting games as soon as they could (snakes and ladders, where they had a d8 and I had a d6). My favourite photo is of Alex (Dementor) sitting on a potty playing chess with me.
We started BB at about age 6. I did not mention strength, agility, go for its, kick off events or fouls. Everyone had the same strength and agility 3. We did use assists (bringing in a friend) and we used 4 positionals, each shown with a base colour. Everyone had AV8.
- Blitzers had move 7 and Block.
- Throwers had move 6, Pass and Sure Hands.
- Catchers had move 8 and Catch.
- Linemen had move 6.
We had one reroll per turn, plus the reroll skills as shown, so turnovers were rare. I gave them lots of chances, and lots of coaching.
After they picked up the basics and could play games through, they started playing on Cyanide’s BB1 and quickly picked up the rest of the skills and then starting working on tactics. They have both played on Fumbbl, with Linus’s first game being against Spartako, one of the best coaches in the world.
I have played Linus (Enderman) 4 times in NAF tournaments and he has taken 2 draws off me so far. I’ve beaten Dementor once. In the last tournament (Exebowl) I finished on the same points as both of them, as I got a win, and one got a win and the other two draws.
They play a lot against each other, as they have lots of time available and a ready opponent. I own all the teams, so they quite happily swap between the teams, and know the stats of the Star Players better than I do…
Next job is to set a club up at school (I’m a secondary teacher), but time is always short!
My daughter is interested is starting. Need to arrange a training session…
Cool! Zoe would love a girl to play with!
Think you should have taught me this way and then maybe I’d have a clue what was going on.
My daughter is a little younger than yours, but also keen to play…
I’ve just started with something simple, goforit races.
Am thinking of expanding this by adding fouls and blitzes.
Then sevens
My little girl is a couple months short of 2yo so BB still is in the far horizon, but i would love to introduce her to board games asap… I wonder if you could share what board games have you played with your kids “before they could count”, and while at it, what “counting games as soon as they could”, aside the mentioned Snakes and Ladders.
Cheers,
A.
Hi Alberto! Candyland is an interesting one, it’s based on colour – they move based on what colour card they draw. Matching games in general are good, like pairs basically. Plus you can use other ways of randomising move – drawing counters from a bag. You can also play things like “rock-paper-scissors” to get the general idea 🙂