I'm reviewing these books a little out of order, mostly because I'm picking them up out of order and then I'm reading them out of order too. I've got 2 and 3 with 6 on the way. I started out with Kick-Off and that’s mostly the rules we've been playing over the last couple of months. We've been incorporating the abilities of the teams and the new rules and it's all been going very well. After picking up the Extra Time pack we've decided the Cup Competition will be played using the card deck and refbot and then probably bring them into the league for the next season. Having already restarted our league due to the influx of new teams means we really need to just plough through.
Season Four delivers some cool teams, particularly the Sphyr who have a neat backstory and a cool look. The Hobgoblins are amusing given their general standing in the gameworld and both the second type of Dwarf and the Rebel team are solid entries too. I can see the Rebel team indeed being difficult to play with given the variety in the starting line up.
MVPs feature some interesting characters with the two clawed assassin 'The Fixer' being an obvious favourite but nothing beats 'The Escavator' which is just nuts, I keep wanting to watch Total Recall while looking at its pictures and I will definitely scream Screw You at the top of my lungs if I ever pick him up (Driller rule should have been called Screw You).
New rules include the cheerleaders (meh on first reading), assistant coaches (nice) and fans (urrggh). I don't know if it's my cynicism of thinking it's the desire to flog more models but I don't like the idea of fans getting onto the pitch. There's enough going on without another random element being introduced. What attracted us to Dreadball was that it was not complicated or overly burdened. You can muller a game in thirty minutes to an hour. Having ranted all that, there's no reason to expect it doesn't work, I haven't played it with fans yet, but my initial reaction is not positive. Hey, what do I know, I only got a refbot a fortnight ago, I'm an amateur.
Artwork throughout is of good quality, if a bit sparse (hey I'm a sucker for 2D artwork) but the miniature photos are terrific.
While I have the electronic copies of season 1-3 and will probably get 3-6 for the convenience of searching, you can't beat the feel of a physical book and season 4 is good quality and well laid out.
