Interview – James Hewitt Talks DreadBall Ultimate

Back to Top

---

#1 – The DreadBall Ultimate Pitch

Hi James.

Many thanks for the interview. DreadBall Ultimate is about to ship, allowing you people to play DreadBall with 2 Balls (!), up to 6 teams and – of course – the new DreadBall Giants!

Let’s start with the multi-player! The Ultimate arena is a huge three-way pitch.

How is playing on the Ultimate Pitch different from regular DreadBall? Will each player still get 5 actions, or is it played differently? Can you still end a game with a “landslide”?

Good question!

It’s all a bit different, to make sure that things don’t get bogged down. Each team gets 3 actions per Rush, and only 5 players in the arena – legally, at least – rather than 6. This means you really have to think carefully about how you’re going to spend your actions!

However, to balance this out, each player also gets a free DreadBall Card per Round so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to use Special Moves.

Speaking of Rounds, that’s worth explaining, too. Rather than a fixed turn sequence, the game is split into seven Rounds. During a Round, each team takes a Rush, in an order determined by drawing counters at random. This order changes each Round. That means that each player still gets seven Rushes, but not in a fixed order. There are a few cards in the new Ultimate Deck that let you skip the random selection and take your turn when you want to – these are massively useful, as you can make sure you get your turn when you’re in the best position to go for a Strike!

Scoring’s a bit different, too. Strikes are worth 1, 2 or 3 points (no four-pointers!).

It is worth noting that scores are not based around difference between two teams like we’re all used to. Instead, each team has its own tracker that goes from 0 to 7. Yes, you still get a Landslide if you hit 7 points!

As you make Strikes, your score goes up, but as others make Strikes in your Home Zone, your score goes down. That means that teams can gang up on a player who’s getting ahead – and you have to plan carefully to overcome this.

---

How will a multi-player game play with 4 or 5 players, who don’t split up nicely on the three-way pitch?

Although it might look like a three-way pitch, it’s actually a six-way! Let me explain.

The Ultimate Arena is made up of three Arms, each of which is split into two Home Zones.

Each Home Zone contains a Strike Zone, and there’s a Shared Strike Zone, which the two teams in each Arm share. Even in a three-player game, you only set up in your Home Zone – you don’t get the whole Arm. Any unused Home Zones are deactivated and their Strike Zones aren’t used.

Teams can’t score in their own Shared Strike Zone, but they can score in the Home Strike Zone of the team they’re sharing an Arm with! That means if you’re sharing an arm with someone, not only are you setting up right in each other’s faces, you’re also able to score a low-point Strike really quickly if the ball comes your way!

However, the team you’re sharing with has all the same advantages. Basically, this means it all levels out – there are advantages and disadvantages to both having an Arm to yourself and sharing one with an opponent.

With that in mind, a four or five player game works perfectly!

Back to Top

---

#2 – DreadBall GIANTS

Of course, another big addition are the new DreadBall Giants!

Will these Giants only play on the new Ultimate Pitch, or will the Season 3 rulebook include rules for fielding them in a regular 2-player game of DreadBall too?

Giants (or GIANTS, as we call them in the rulebook!) are MVPs (Most Valuable Players) just like any other – they just have a whole host of new rules! As such, they can be hired by a team whether you’re playing DreadBall Ultimate or the regular, two-player variety!

---

So Giants are hired to your team like MVPs?

Yes indeed – just the same as regular MVPs. They just tend to cost more! (When you make Buzzcut look small, you can charge whatever you like…)

All the mechanics are the same, they just get added to the roster of existing MVPs, so you can either spend your Underdog Bonus or spare Megacredits to bid for them by auction in a League or Exhibition Match.

I know that a lot of League Sponsors like to use a limited list of MVPs to make bidding more competitive, especially if there are only a few players, in which case this just gives them some more options.

---

Which one is your personal favourite of the new DreadBall Giants?

Hard to say – I love them all, really! That said, if I had to pick, I’d say Alpha Simian. What’s not to like about a huge, intelligent ape in the DreadBall arena?

Also, background-wise, he’s a massive show-off, and I like that in a DreadBall player. He also features in one of the pieces of short fiction I wrote for the rulebook, which gives you a player’s-eye view of what it’s like to come up against a Giant for the first time…

Back to Top

---

#3 – Playing DreadBall Ultimate

DreadBall Ultimate also includes new cards! Will these cards be mixed with the regular DreadBall cards, or do you have to use one or the other?

It’s a separate deck that’s designed for use with the Ultimate arena.

There are a lot of familiar cards in there – Special Moves are more or less the same (with a few additional thrown in for Giants!), and some of the Events are the same, but there are tweaks to make them work for more than two players.

Also, as I mentioned before, there are some all-new cards, which let you take advantage of some of the situations you’ll come across in Ultimate you’d never see in a regular game.

So, to give you the short version of the answer, you’ll only ever need to use one deck or the other!

---

Does a multi-player DreadBall game last longer than a normal DreadBall game?

The game usually takes a little longer than a regular DreadBall game, depending on the number of players and their skill level. That’s fine, though – Ultimate is meant to be a grand spectacle, the sort of thing that you’d see at the end of a League or on a special occasion.

It’s not the kind of DreadBall you’ll find yourself playing all the time! (I like to think that there’s a GCPS (Global Co-Prosperity Sphere) equivalent of the Superbowl at Thanksgiving, where citizens gather round with their families to eat a huge meal and watch the Ultimate game…)

---

Final Question!

As you surely played a few games of DreadBall Ultimate, what did you enjoy most about DreadBall Ultimate, over and above “normal” DreadBall?

I’d have to say the fact that I can get more players involved at once! I’m a big fan of board gaming in general, and the social aspect – getting a group of friends over for a meal and a game – is one of the main reasons for that.

Although I’ve got a fair few DreadBall players in my gaming group, it’s never a game we’ve brought out to play on one of these evenings, because it’s always been for two players only. Yes, we could have played multiple games at once, but that’s a whole difference experience.

Now we can all sit around the same board, make and break alliances at a moment’s notice, backstab each other like crazy and share in the awesome, hilarious moments that always crop up in DreadBall, I can see it becoming a regular at our gaming table.

Back to Top

---