Beer Boars are back. Technically they’re arriving in Blood Bowl 3 for the first time, but they’ve been a mainstay of my tabletop Norse roster since they were released in 2022. I’ve been waiting for them to make the transition to the polygon platform for nearly as long, campaigning to associate producer Rémi Gallois every time I’ve interviewed him.
Whether developer Cyanide Studio has listened to my drunken calls or Norse was just next on the list, I caught up with Gallois over a chaotic Norse vs Norse matchup ahead of the team’s release.
Boar, Boar, Boar
Since Games Workshop’s 2022 rework, the Norse have been a beard-toting, beer-loving band of barbarians. You can see why I’ve got such an affinity for them. Cyanide keeps up this end of the bargain (albeit with slightly less of a focus on pints than their tabletop counterparts), adding in plentiful customisation options through its seasonal Blood Pass. The designs are lovely, the punches are brutal, but none of them hold a candle on the pigs.
Beer Boars are the unofficial mascots of the Norse team. The Gnomes can keep their badgers and geese, the Halflings can have their squirrels. All I need is a boar with a keg of hearty ale strapped to its back. You can take two of these little fellas in your Norse roster, and they’re great.
As well as their aura that grants nearby teammates a chance to automatically jump back up from being knocked down, these hairy pigs have brilliant animations, have stunty and dodge to nip through any gaps, and are generally an auto-include on your roster, for the cute factor if not their ability in-game.
Warning: You will have to watch your adorable hog get punched, kicked, and potentially killed. If your opponent fouls your Beer Boar though, report them to me and I’ll sort them out.
Blood Bowl 3 Season 7 Improvements
As always, Cyanide has a laundry list of patch notes to accompany the new season and roster. There’s a new Arena Mode, which finally adds a tier list system to balance different rosters (and hopefully encourage players to pick up a stunty team).
50 more levels have been added to the manager progression; there’s an option to view both teams’ rosters mid-match, complete with abilities and star player points; draws no longer count as losses in your team stats; you can see stats and available star players for a team in menus before starting a match; and you can also queue in two different leagues at once. Cyanide has also made a conscious effort to add more non-male profile icons and manager titles in order to “attract a more diverse playerbase.”
Detractors will say that many of these updates should have been available at launch, but at least the developer is listening to the community and slowly rolling out quality of life improvements each season. The second best time is always now.
One thing that hasn’t gone to plan is the Eternal League, a mode aimed for solo players who don’t want to engage with the game’s main PvP focus, which has been delayed until Season 8 as it wasn’t up to the standard the developers were happy with.
These incremental updates will be music to the ears of Blood Bowl 3’s dedicated fans, but it’s the Norse team that will attract newcomers or reinvigorate casual players. More specifically, it’s the Beer Boars that will bring us back. Welcome to the frenzyfest.
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