The Underworld Denizens are an interesting choice for Blood Bowl 3’s new faction because, well, they’re not all that new. Half the team comes from the Skaven side, and half are the stuntier end of the Orc roster. Of course, this combination of foul beasts plays quite differently from either of its parent rosters – and really comes alive in league play when they get access to mutations – but, according to developer Cyanide, the main reason for choosing Underworld Denizens for the Blood Bowl 3’s second season was to counter Dwarves.

“Dwarves were my nightmare last season,” says the game’s brand manager, Clément Nicolin. I don’t let on that they’re my nightmare every season. The vertically challenged team has always been a dominant force in Games Workshop’s fantasy football game thanks to their high strength and armour, offering little counterplay.

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“We actually expect [the Underworld Denizens] will be a very competitive faction this season in the current state of the ladder,” Clément continues. “The game is currently a bit dominated by the Dwarves. I think that the Denizens have some good arguments against them because we know that the dwarves don't like to be on the ground, they don't like to lose players, so this can be a nice counter to them.”

Blood Bowl 3 is hamstrung by the fact that it can’t balance its teams. This is very unusual for a competitive game, but developer Cyanide Studios is beholden to the balance updates that Games Workshop publishes for its tabletop sibling. So instead of nerfing Dwarves as they may wish to, Cyanide adds a faction that counters them.

“Perhaps the problem is that we cannot nerf or anything because we are reproducing the board game as it is – it's really in the hands of Games Workshop to balance it,” Nicolin says. “So we can do something with the rest of the factions we have in terms of adding one or another team, but it's just a small factor compared to the team itself.”

However, Underworld Denizens have their own merits, too. While their roster is mostly stolen from other factions, they have fewer positional options (just one Gutter Runner as opposed to Skaven’s four) and easy access to Mutations. Levelling up can quickly buff your players by affording them Tentacles to halt opposing ratmen from skipping through your defensive line, or granting them a Monstrous Mouth that better keeps hold of the ball. Underworld Denizens are made for league play, something which Cyanide has focused on improving a lot this season.

As well as the spectator option and the ability to view replays, which will launch halfway through the season (Nicolin believes this will be a great boon for content creators and players wanting to commentate over big matches), Cyanide is putting more tools into the hands of league organisers.

“One of the things we will be adding during the season is the league administration tool,” Nicolin explains. “We give it to league administrators that are running tabletop [leagues] as well on [Blood Bowl 2] on the transition into Blood Bowl 3. We already gave a first trial version to some administrators, we wanted them to try the tool so we can have feedback on it.

Nicolin calls this “an important moment for the game,” adding in a requested feature that Blood Bowl 2 already made available.

While random kick off matches are brutal fun (Nicolin managed to injure seven of my players in our mirror match), Blood Bowl truly comes alive in league play. It’s where you start to tell stories with your players, upgrade them when they score touchdowns, and form deeper bonds with your team. It has a more cautious approach, as, if your player dies – as they regularly do when punched by a Troll – you lose all their upgrades when you recruit a replacement.

It’s interesting that Nicolin notes Cyanide is still in a transitional stage between Blood Bowl 2 and its sequel. Blood Bowl 2 has nearly as many monthly players on Steam (134.2 compared to 3’s 151.9), and many of the additions in Season 2 were notable omissions from the base game. Players may finally commit to the migration with this update, as Cyanide has also worked hard on fixing stability issues since launch. With Season Finals on the cards to offer a route into competitive play and a Team Value cap of two million gold, the ranked ladder has never looked healthier. It helps that we now have a decent counter to Dwarves, too.

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