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.
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.
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.
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.
More Warhammer goodies
- See all Warhammer deals at Amazon
- DK Warhammer 40K The Ultimate Guide:
$45$23.50 at Amazon - Blood Bowl Second Season Edition:
$168$142.80 at Amazon
For more tabletop goodies, why not check out the best board games or the best tabletop RPGs?
