The weirdest ever Warhammer game is back with a new edition, and I think you need to see this

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Blood Bowl third season is on the way later this year, bringing fantasy football back to the table

A knight with antlers on his helmet carries a ball while running as skeleton players look on
(Image credit: Warhammer Community)

Warhammer publisher Games Workshop has some wonderfully bizarre games in its back-catalogue, but few are weirder than a fantasy football league where orcs, knights, the undead, and more try to score goals while beating the crap out of each other. This most honorable sport will soon be introduced to a fresh generation of players, because Blood Bowl is getting a new edition.

Revealed by surprise, Blood Bowl Third Season will kick off at some point later in 2025. It'll launch with a new core box featuring two teams (the game's first Bretonnian squad, facing off against skeletal Tomb Kings), the full rules, accessories, and everything else needed to play this quirky Warhammer football game where foul-play is most definitely allowed.

Prepare for kick-off

The Dwarves take on the Orcs in Blitz Bowl.

(Image credit: Future)

Wanna get some practice in ahead of third season's launch later this year? A range of teams are available via the likes of Amazon, and the smaller, more streamlined Blitz Bowl: Ultimate Edition (which we enjoyed in our review) is currently $49.99 at Barnes & Noble. If you'd rather delve into the grim darkness of the far future, though, DK's Warhammer 40K The Ultimate Guide is $23.50 at Amazon rather than $45.

It also seems to be less of an overhaul and more a refinement in terms of mechanics. More specifically, the Warhammer Community announcement post notes that the rules have been "exhaustively rewritten for clarity" to provide a smoother experience at the table. This has been attributed to Third Season being "written by Blood Bowl fanatics for Blood Bowl fanatics," and probably explains the new status markers being introduced that should make it much easier to tell what state your players are in during matches. There's even a new ball token for your models to stand on and indicate that they've got possession.

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Along with being one of the more offbeat Warhammer projects, Blood Bowl is also one of the oldest – it first appeared in 1986. And even though this version is called 'Third Season,' it's not necessarily the third edition either; technically speaking, this is actually the seventh edition overall and is the third we've received since Blood Bowl's 2016 revival.

Knightly players face off against skeletons on a desert-themed football pitch

(Image credit: Warhammer Community)

Even though it shares factions with the Warhammer world (or the Old World, to be precise), this takes place in a slightly different version of the universe that's much more comical. This allows for brilliantly absurd squads like gnomes with geese and many tongue-in-cheek references to real-world brands, teams, and companies. As an example, the supposed god of this realm is Nuffle – a play on 'NFL.'

We don't have a precise release date for Blood Bowl's Third Season yet, but apparently more info will be dropping in the not-so-distant future.

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Benjamin Abbott
Benjamin Abbott
Tabletop & Merch Editor

I've been writing about games in one form or another since 2012, but these days you'll find me managing GamesRadar+'s tabletop gaming and toy coverage (I spend my time here handling everything from board game reviews to the latest Lego news). I've also been obsessed with Warhammer since the 1990s, and love nothing more than running tabletop RPGs like D&D as a Dungeon Master.

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