Three years on FUMBBL and I'd never played Black Box. I started in Ranked to train myself for entering the Table Top scene. After getting my head around the rules I pretty much abandoned FUMBBL. Ranked didn't seem to have much purpose.

Then I discovered SWL, and League play and then was back in a big way. I'd always thought of Box as the crack cocaine of FUMBBL. Didn't want to dabble my toes in that pool. Might get addicted. Chalk up thousands of games and burn out. So I resisted.

So what drew me in?

A Racial Belts post and the notion that all I'd need to do was show up. Play 16 games with an unpopular race, win lose or draw, get me some BLING.
Time zones is another thing. I wake up earlier than the rest of the house, easily enough time in my Saturday morning for an early game of Blood Bowl. And my morning (NZ) is pretty much prime time for the Euro Zone. A good chance to play coaches from around the world.

Of course there were the worries. Box is full of minmaxers. Box is full of killers. Box is full of nasty ultra competitive $#%&s. Box has no racial variety. And the crack cocaine thing.... anyway I'd be strong willed, just play my Saturday and Sunday morning games I wouldn't be drawn into a cycle of utter dependency.

So I made my Zon team and leapt into Box



First thing I noticed was the no variety thing seemed to be a myth. In my first 14 games I played 13 races. I also seemed to be meeting heaps of friendly coaches from many different countries so I started to collect flags "Passport Stamps"

By my 16th game I'd played coaches from 13 nations.

But what about the other worries?
Box is full of minmaxers - faced one. Not the most enjoyable game, I got owned. But not enough to put me off
Box is full of nasty ultra competitive $#%&s - only one coach I'd describe as thoroughly unpleasant. But in hindsight I'll be generous and put it down to him having a bad day. Hot on the heels of the minmaxer it did have me consider dropping the Box experiment
Box is full of killers. - one ultra killer team. It hurt, but I enjoyed the experience
the crack cocaine thing - well I guess 27 games in 2 months is a tad over 1 or 2 games a weekend. Not addicted though

And I didn't even get close to the BLING.

But on the whole I've found Box to be very enjoyable. I've noticed a bit on animosity towards mono-activators, can't say I give a shit about this. I may be a filthy mono-activator so feel free to shout at me, previously I was a non-activator, is mono really worse than this? :P

Haven't played on Box for about two weeks. Had someone not show up to a game (buggered off to a Ranked game instead), which pissed me off somewhat - missed out on an evasive Spanish flag.

But it's December, a new 2 month sprint window.... maybe I'll bring a 2nd team. Double my chances of winning some BLING. I'm not addicted... really I'm not. :)