Dreadball Season 3 – Beta Sneak Peak!
Mantic show the beta rules for Dreadball Season 3! It’s time to look at the four new teams headed your way.
Dreadball Season 3 is currently in beta testing, and Mantic are happily showing off their playtesting rules and the models for the first time
Season 3 is set to include 4 new teams, and most excitingly rules for multiplayer pitches (3-6 teams on one pitch!) and the giant multi-hex models. It promises to be a much bigger expansion to the game than Season 2 was.
All the info so far for Season 3 is the new teams;
– The Teratons – A race of giant reptiles that can teleport!
– The Nameless – A Cthulu like race made of a shed ton of tentacles
– The Asterions – A unhand race of cheating scumbags
– The Zee’s – A group of identical monkey clones
At the time of writing we have beta rules for them all, but only model pics for the first three. The Zees models are still an unknown at this point.
The Teratons.
These guys are most similar to the FF in teams. 3+ strength but 5+ speed. However they have a move of 5, already making them better than FF in that respect. However they only have access to Jacks and Guards so won’t find it easy to score. Their ace in the hole though….is the ability to teleport. They can teleport 4 hexes in stead of a normal move AND if anyone is slammed in the back they can teleport as a free move to avoid. So its either slam them in the front and get a 3+ slam back, or go in their back and they get a free move to escape you
The Nameless
Cthulu-lite. Anyone whos played Dreadball likely knows the MVP John Doe. These guys are more of his species. Their most interesting feature is that while they have no Jacks, they have two different types of guards. They have John Doe like guards with an average stat line but the GOTCHA! rule, but they also have “hitty” guards, guys with 3+ strength, CFAT and Steady who monopolise on you losing so many dice from the supporting guards. This double teaming is going to hurt. Their strikers also have a move of 6, and A Safe Pair of Hands, making them good at the passing game.
The Asterions
A no good race of cheats, liars and general douchebags. Its been remarked in my club that playing Asterions is not a good way to make friends. At their core, Asterions are similar to Judwan. 3+ speed, 4+ skill, 5+ strength but with a move of 6. Where the differ is their special rules. Strikers and Jacks have “Fragile” meaning they always fail 1 more armour save than you roll (similar to a reverse CFAT). The Guards all have “Dirty Tricks” allowing them to once a game call a foul against someone even if they didn’t foul, and make them test to be sent off. The Jacks all have the ability to dive, voluntarily falling over and making a player near them make a ref roll. Combine this team with good ref placement and the right special events, its possible to have the entire opposing team sent off of the pitch without them able to do anything. Enemy got an awesome MVP or player? Just call a foul on them. Even if the ref is no where to be seen you’ve got a 50% chance of getting them off the pitch for a few turns. And as Dirty Tricks is now done not as an action but at any time….
The Zee’s
The Zees boil down to a team of monkey clones with no order. A team of only Jacks they have a lot of unique rules. “Monkey Business” means as a team they can’t buy coaching dice, instead rolling once for every one of their rushes. On a 1-3 they get that many coaching dice PER RUSH. So theoretically they could get 21 coaching dice per game….or they could get zero. “Runaround” lets you run 2 players for one action. “It Wasn’t Me” allows you to get away with murder. Almost literally. Any foul can be nominated onto any other player, even the obvious ones, so long as they’re within 3 hexes (basically the ref is a space racist and can’t tell the players apart). If the players its nominated on is far from the ref it obeys normal rules for dice and ref checks. Then if the player is sent off, they get a 3 dice 3+ check. Every success negates one turn sent off. So it can be very hard to get a Zee sent off. And with a 3+ speed they’re hard to kill. Just a strength and skill of 5+ on a team of jacks will limit their potential.
Season 3 will also feature rules for multi-hex models such as the nameless one, and the Walker bot from the Kickstarter, as well as rules for multiplayer games that can see up to 6 teams on the pitch, but those are still underwraps for now.
Season 3 is shaping up to be interesting. I think I’ll be definitely be picking up a Teratons team, and am considering a Nameless team as well….Just a reminder – these rules are all in beta and will be subject to some playtesting. Mantic are big fans of feedback, so download the rules, give them a play and send them your thoughts!
