Warhammer: Blood Bowl is Blood Bowl 3.5 rather than a whole new game, but based on the beta it's definitely an upgrade

It's a small thing, but being able to save and quit when I'm playing against the AI is a definite improvement in Warhammer: Blood Bowl. Though matches didn't take a huge amount of time in Blood Bowl 3, there were still nights where I'd find myself with 40 minutes before I should really go to bed thinking I can squeeze another game in, and then realizing too late I absolutely cannot.

A bigger change in Warhammer: Blood Bowl, though one that also makes it easier to squeeze in another match, is Rumble Mode. Based on the tabletop format called Sevens, it's a shrunk-down seven-a-side version of Blood Bowl played on a smaller pitch, inspired by 40K in 40 Minutes and Rugby Sevens. Each half has six turns instead of eight and rerolls cost twice as much, making failure much more common—and since a failed action results in a turnover in Blood Bowl, that speeds up play as well.

Rumble Mode isn't exactly the same as Sevens, though I'm playing the beta so details are subject to change. It doesn't have the Desperate Measures inducements, for instance, and you don't have to make one of your linemen a veteran (who is slower, but can reroll a few specific actions). But it still plays faster, and shakes up the tactics in interesting ways.

There's no line of scrimmage for a start. Instead of having to put three players on the frontline where they'll be biffing or being biffed from the outset, there's a no man's land between both teams. That means fragile teams aren't potentially down three players on turn one, which would be even more disastrous with only seven on the pitch.

The smaller pitch makes slow players less of a liability, and the expensiveness of rerolls means skills that let you reroll, like Dodge, get even better. My beloved Halfling team finally has a place to thrive, especially since their Halfling Master Chef can steal precious rerolls from opponents.

You can learn to play Rumble Mode easily since the first chapter of the campaign, carried over from Blood Bowl 3, now defaults to it. The three beginner games you play as default Ussingen Rookies have become seven-a-side, which makes the second match against Chaos Chosen a bit more challenging—getting the assists you need on those Strength 4 Chosen felt trickier to me.

From there you can opt to play the rest of the campaign in either Rumble Mode or as traditional matches, and Rumble Mode is also available in Eternal League, competitions, friendlies, and basically everywhere. It'll be interesting to see how popular it ends up being.

I don't know if I'm hallucinating, but the AI seems better at handling the reduced scope of these smaller matches. Improving the infamously dopey AI is an aim of Warhammer: Blood Bowl, and while I've only had a few days with this beta it does seem a little better. It still throws the occasional ill-advised block—the skink who took on a mummy must have been feeling real lucky that day—but at least it picks the best block die when it has a choice. I even saw it attempt a pass instead of defaulting to a cage around the ball carrier no matter which team it's playing.

I'll need more time with the playtest version to compare, but my first impression is that the AI is slightly less bad, even if it sometimes attempts a risky play before doing something safe like standing up a prone player. Which, admittedly, I'm guilty of in the heat of the moment too.

As well as Rumble Mode, Warhammer: Blood Bowl incorporates the tabletop game's third season rules update. I'm a big fan of the way it punishes stalling, with bored audience members throwing rocks at players who could score but elect not to, and rewards you with a bonus 10 grand at the end of a match if you don't stall.

The new Secure the Ball action lets you pick up the ball on a 2+ if you sacrifice the rest of that player's activation to do it, while the passing rules have been updated to get rid of Wildly Inaccurate results as well as deflections, both changes that encourage actually playing the ball instead of just lining up two teams and hitting each other until the bell rings.

The way Most Valuable Players are selected is different too—instead of a completely random player on your team earning bonus Star Player Points, only the six players you nominate (four in Rumble Mode) can potentially earn MVP. It means you're not punished for having spares on your bench by having them soak up Star Player Points you'd rather see go to someone more useful.

It's still the same Blood Bowl, but with some interesting tweaks. Changes that affect the balance or play out over the course of a tournament, like the Hatred trait players can gain after being injured, will take more time to judge, but I'm positive about the rules update so far.

Other positives in Warhammer: Blood Bowl are a landing page with tiles that can be personalized so you can leap right into whichever mode or ongoing competition you've put a pin in, and a player advancement screen that highlights which three skills other players tend to buy in this situation, with percentages for each. Is everyone else picking Guard for their mummies? Yeah, pretty much. It'll save me alt-tabbing out to see what the internet recommends when I'm playing a new team.

The beta doesn't include either of the new teams coming to Warhammer: Blood Bowl, so I haven't had a chance to try the Tomb Kings or Bretonnians. It also doesn't have the shop or season pass, so how that'll be implemented—and if there are changes to how teams are monetized—remains to be seen.

Warhammer: Blood Bowl's playtest will be available to the public from October 7 on Steam. The full release is scheduled to be out by the end of the year.