Getting Started on FUMBBL
While I am enjoying our FUMBBL league, I’ve always run into how complicated it is to get our friends started, even if they know how to play Blood Bowl! I’ve put together this article to help anyone interested in joining a league, so it will cover how to create your team, join a league, and launch the client.
Team Creation
The first step after setting up your account is creating a team. You do this BEFORE you’ve joined a league. When you log in to your FUMBBL home page, it’s going to look similar to the image above, only you won’t have any teams listed. The first thing you want to do is click “Create a new team” at the bottom of the center area.
If you’re not sure about how to set up your team at first, there is a fantastic strategy guide on the FUMBBL site.
Step 1. You will pick the rules you’d like to make the team for. Since we plan on joining a group of players we know, we’re going to go with League.
Step 2. Now the fun part about picking which race you’d like to make your team.
Step 3. After picking the race, you’ll be given a bit of information about them, if you pick that race, it will then ask for the team name you’d like to submit.
Step 4. Your team home page will look something like this, without any players, re-rolls, etc. Click the “Buy a New Player” to add players to your team.
Step 5. A pop up will appear, which is used to add and name the players you wish to have on the team. Be sure to leave extra funds aside for re-rolls.
Step 6. After adding your team members, and any re-rolls or other support staff, it’s time to submit your list for approval.
Step 7. Verify that your team is complete, and that the name is not offensive.
Step 8. You’re done! The team should now appear under your team list in the middle of your home page.
Joining a League
This step is pretty simple, give your team name to the commissioner (Admin) of the League you wish to join. They’ll pop that in, and your team will be invited. When you visit the league page, at the bottom of the list of current teams, there is a box with Invitations, click “Accept” and your team will be added to the league.
Setting Up a match
Before you can get anywhere with FUMBBL, you’re going to need to have Java 8 runtime installed. If you don’t know what that is, or if you don’t have it, you can download it from the Java website:
After installing Java, you’re ready to play! FUMBBL is built on some old tech, so you will probably have some system security warnings and settings to get through.
Next to your team on the home page is a button that says “Play”, click that button and it will download a Java file called “ffblive.jnlp”. Each time you want to launch the client, you will need to do this, even if you’re resuming a game you already started, or just re-launching the client. There’s no getting around it, just get used to it. Opening that file will probably cause a security warning on your machine, ignore it, and the client will pop up:
After it’s done loading, you’ll see your coach name, and your team name. In the blank field you can enter the name of a game you’d like to create or join. For you to play a game, you and your opponent BOTH enter the game name and hit “Create New Game”. It will ask to confirm your opponent, and launch you into the game. Now it’s up to you!
Inducements
If your team is a lower value than your opponents, you will be able to gain inducements, up to the value of the difference in teams, for free. It will automatically prompt you to purchase inducements if you are able, starting with special play cards. After the special play cards screen, you’ll get another screen to continue purchasing things like star players, extra re-rolls, etc.
Post Game Sequence
Blood Bowl Leagues are a campaign system where your players will gain experience, skills, and injuries as they play. The first thing you do in the Post Game Sequence is return to your team page, and roll for any skills for players that have earned them. Your team will be on your list with either a S (Skill) or a P (Post Game) to let you know what to do next.
S indicates that I have skills to choose for my team.
Players who have new skills have a “Skill” button next to their entry.
Clicking Skill will open a pop-up and roll which skill you get, your choices will be available in the dropdown menu.
After picking all your skill ups, you’ll be able to hire and fire players, apothecaries, cheerleaders, assistant coaches, etc. When you are finished, click the “Prepare for game” button at the bottom of your team page. Your team will not be able to be played in another match while it is in the Post Game Sequence, so you must do this to move on.
After picking skills I can retire players or hire new ones and coaching staff.
When you’re all finished, click “Ready to play” at the bottom of the screen.
Wrong Password!
Sometimes when you launch the game, you’ll receive a notification that you’ve entered the wrong password. This occurs when you try to launch a previously downloaded ffblive.jnlp file. If this happens, simply return to your FUMBBL home page and click “Play” or “Resume” next to your team name, and launch the ffblive.jnlp file it then downloads. Each ffblive.jnlp file is single-use, if you try to open the same one twice, you’ll get the Wrong Password error.
