Warhammer Community posted The 2023 Season in Review article looking at what has been released during the year. There has also been talk on different Blood Bowl podcasts about the slowing down in releases and, that we only got one team this year.
Too much or not enough?
Looking at the Warhammer Community article, this year Games Workshop managed to produce:
- Matched Play Guide
- Gutter Bowl
- 1 team - Vampires
- 12 Star Players (13 if you count Dribl and Drull separately)
- 1 big guy- Vargheist
Now, looking at this in black and white, one team released in a whole year, sounds a bit underwhelming. I know lots of hobbyists who think that this release rate is too slow. But is it? I started to compare Games Workshop's productivity with my own across the year. I haven't finished either my Norse or Amazon team yet, and obviously haven't played any games with them therefore.
I do know that I'm not the fastest when it comes to making progress, and my hobbying is a bit erratic, so to get good idea of my productivity looking at a longer span of time would be better. Taking a retrospective on what I've done since the 2020 edition drop seems like a good amount of time to get an average. (Side note- I would really like if they did NOT drop a new edition now! If they drop a new edition every 4th year, we are forever chasing, trying to get all the teams up to the new edition and I already have two sets of team cards and stuff. I'd prefer them to concentrate on bringing out teams of legends and whatever will replace Slann. Then there are plenty of secret league a teams at fumbbl for inspiration. Side not to the side note- the fluff mentions the Southstorm Squids team! Would be troublesome to bring them on to grass pitches so they might have to stay in the sea but it would be cool to have some more rules and info on them.)
What have I managed to do?
Anyway... since 2020 release I am happy to say I've done the following:
Made a bit of progress on my custom converted goblin team.
Converted, assembled, primed and painted a test model for my Black Orc team and troll. To be green or not to be green, that is the question now...
I've finished 3 Coaches and some other bits and bobs
I was really going for it with painting my Chaos Dwarfs but I just got stumped with the orange, I couldn't get it to pop like I wanted. I watched several videos but still couldn't get what I wanted. It took the air out of me a bit and it got left.
2 Snotling teams +4/8 big guys
Some conversions, assembly and started painting my Khorne team + big guy. It was a similar story here, I was going for it full steam ahead. The colour shift paints where a bit trouble some but I think it was my worry about all the skin that was the main factor well life outside the hobby had a major impact on stumping hobby time but yeah I believe I need to face my fears on painting the skin because I got a ogre team to paint as well...
Started work on home made dungeon bowl tiles
My Human team is more or less all assembled, including the resin booster and big guy, I just need to decide if I'm going to convert the 2016 team to be the 'Bad Bay Hackers' or the use the 3rd edition team. I believe the 2016 team will be easier to convert due to the posing used, and I will just pick a nice, easy colour scheme to paint up the 3rd edition team.
Once again, I made a great start and hit the ground running when I started work on the Norse team. I got it assembled, including the big guy and two star players, but life caught up with me before I managed to get to painting. Planning on a blue and yellow colour scheme.
Plenty of greenstuff sculpting projects on the go, notably the Chaos Dwarf Minotaur (He had feet before, I mean come on guys...) and token.
I've tried to do a lot of de-spruing and cleaning off mold lines. Above, you see the started plastic Amazon team. I've also cleaned up the metal 4th edition Amazon team, the Shambling Undead team, the Necromantic Horror team, the Wood Elves team, the Nurgle team, the Imperial Nobility, the Vampire team and probably some other stuff. They are all bagged up waiting for their time to come.
Started to assemble the Skaven team and their team booster. I have some other Skavens out for some conversions and thought I would divide them between the Skaven team and the Underworld Denizens team.
I've cleaned and assembled quite a lot of star players and cheerleaders and other stuff from Forge World. Skrorg Snowpelt, Ivar Eriksson, Lord Borak the Despoiler (Sub-Assembled, face-shield left for post painting assembly), Rumbelow Sheepskin (his reins broke of so had to give him some greenstuff reins) Black Gobbo and Grombrindad, to mention a few.
And of course, let's not forget my blood bowl spreadsheet project has been ongoing for several years. I might post some wip stuff from it.
Slow and steady wins the race?
If I’m being generous with counting, adding up the progress of several of the unfinished teams, that would be about 5 teams since the drop of 2020, an average of 1.2 teams finished per year. So, if Games Workshop were to stick to their current release rate, I would have a chance to catch up (in 125years).
I don’t think Games Workshop is going to stick to this slow release schedule, I think the current slow rate is due to many factors but I wouldn’t be opposed to it, if it was structured and expected/reliable. I hope that my situation with allow me to increase my hobby time and turn out some more teams.
My work, health and home life have all been in flux the last couple of years so, some routine with hobby in it would be nice. I wish everyone a happy, healthy new year with with plenty of time to do the things you love!
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