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DreadBall Is Back & Reinvented With All-Stars Coming Soon!
February 5, 2026 by brennon
Jervis Johnson, the designer behind Blood Bowl, has joined forces with Alessio Cavatore and acclaimed artist Stefan Kopinski to breathe new life into Mantic Games' Sci-Fi sports game, DreadBall. DreadBall: All-Stars is going to be smashing its way onto Kickstarter on 17th March.
Jervis Johnson // DreadBall All-Stars
DreadBall: All-Stars is being reinvented but keeping plenty of the core elements that made the game such an enticing prospect for so many tabletop gamers. You will dive into fast-paced, action-driven games packed with risky plays, all stuffed into explosive sixty-minute matches between some of the best in the mega-corporation-sponsor-sanctioned Sci-Fi sports sphere.
DreadBall: All-Stars - Gameplay // Mantic Games
Jervis Johnson said...
"I've always loved designing sports games, and with DreadBall: All-Stars, I've created a board game where the action is fast-paced and non-stop," says Jervis Johnson. "If Blood Bowl is like American Football, then All-Stars is like a full-contact version of NBA Basketball, with lots of opportunities to score, and just as many opportunities to flatten the opposition!"
...which sounds pretty cool and on brand with the style of game that DreadBall has always felt like it is. The end-to-end action sets it apart from the slower style of gameplay you get in Blood Bowl and I think revamping the game and focusing on that is a good direction to go.
DreadBall: All-Stars - Players // Mantic Games
The Kickstarter campaign for the game focuses on what has changed with this new take on DreadBall from the folks at Mantic. You can start with the four-team box, which contains an arena and everything that two players need to get playing. More pledge options will introduce additional teams, new arenas, six-player battle royale bouts, championship play and premium components.
Each of the seven teams that Mantic has worked on comes as five, pre-assembled miniatures with distinct playstyles that you can crack out of the box and start playing with immediately. That move to pre-assembled and "out-of-the-box" play feels like a good move in the right direction for the game, especially when making it approachable for new players.
Player Cards // DreadBall: All-Stars
As noted, there will also be four arenas that allow for new game modes, events and that six-player battle royale mode. The Championship Play allows for out-of-the-box tournaments alongside legacy cards to drive it. This all sounds like it's going to be hard to ignore!
You can sign up to join the Kickstarter below and watch out for its launch in the middle of March.
17th March Kickstarter // DreadBall: All-Stars
More information on the teams, the mechanics and more will be coming soon, so keep an eye out for more updates via the Mantic Games blog.
Will this get you diving back into DreadBall?
"More information on the teams, the mechanics and more will be coming soon..."
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I see the words, I read the text and loving Blood Bowl I should be excited for this or even hyped. But there is nothing. Similar to Ascendending Fate and Infinity the design language leaves me completely cold. It’s not that it’s bad it just does not trigger any “must have it” response as other minis and games do. And it feels wrong because, as said before, I do like Blood Bowl. Maybe once we see how All-Stars is played that will change. Maybe its because it looks way to much like a board game from the 90s to me. IDK. :S
nah, sometimes things just aren’t ticking all of your boxes.
and that’s ok.
It’s not like you’ve got nothing to play, isn’t it ?
I have thoughts…
A) At one point Mantic prided themselves on being the anti-GW, but are now actively promoting the old gang designing their new titles & using GW game names (did we mention BLOOD BOWL?!?) in the bargain to attract interest
B) Mantic had a KS for Dreadball, then another KS for the now forgotten Dreadball Xtreme, then another KS for Dreadball Second Edition (which Ronnie himself said never sold well at retail) and are now going back to KS again for a brand new installment, despite every other entry in the series not gaining traction via this method
C) The original hook for Dreadball was that it was faster & more intense than Blood Bowl (which was seen as not modern enough, too plodding & slow to play) but this seems to be swinging back into that pensive thinky drawn-out territory
I like the emphasis on characters this time around, which was always a problem I had with previous Dreadball (very few named characters that you gave a whit about.) So I’m hoping this succeeds, but the previous three incarnations weren’t exactly runaway successes (although if you read the blurbs this basically re-builds the game from the ground up.)
I’d say they’d be stupid to ignore someone with that kind of pedigree, especially given that they have been trying to make something similar. What’s better than talking to the one person that helped create it? He may have all sorts of insights that outsiders wouldn’t be aware of.
No sane person could create a fantasy sports game and avoid mentioning the 500 pound gorilla in the room.
Even if you don’t then everyone else will inevitably want to try and compare both.
I kind of like what I’m reading between the lines for this version. It will be interesting to see what the changes are and what this means for the existing content.
Well it was actually Jake Thornton who wrote the initial rules for Dreadball (unless you meant Jervis did Bloodbowl), as far as I know Jervis hasn’t worked on Dreadball previously. But I think a lot of existing Dreadball players need to rein in their expectations about the Kickstarter going to be DB 2.0 compatible. Mantic’s focus of late for their games seems to be a rules “lite”, quick to play format (akin to the rework of Deadzone into Halo Flashpoint). So I’d expect it to be more of a standalone product than a version of DB 2.0. Which is ok (unless you ARE a DB 2.0 fan), however from Mantic’s viewpoint DB 2.0 did dismally at retail (and DB Extreme didn’t do that well either) so why continue down a deadend road that the majority of the gaming public isn’t interested with? As we saw with the Halo game (IP not withstanding), it was very popular and attracted a lot of casual/new players and the newer format and rules complexity seem to go down a treat. As for me I’m more of a DB 2.0 “Fanboi”, so I’ll keep my eye on the KS but probably will not be backing (as DB is playable as it is, the main issue with it is the non availability of the restic teams for existing and new players to the game). Alas Jake and Mantic split apart on not the best terms, otherwise I would have LOVED to see what Jake would have come up with given the new design brief 🙂
Mantic have employed many ex-GW writers over the years. Kings of War, arguably their most successful game, was written by Alessio Cavatore. Employing people who once designed for GW doesn’t suddenly make them the new GW. Likewise, the fact that Jervis Jonson is involved does not mean that this game will cease to be a fast paced game and become more like Bloodbowl.
I also don’t think Mantic ever declared themselves to be the “anti-GW”, they initially positioned themselves as a cheaper alternative to GW.
So did Warlord, see how that lasted (they almost cost as much as GW these days) 🙁
Just decided to sell my old dreadball, while I enjoyed it, it does not see play and the clean up needed on the models to paint is excessive. Not enough here for me to jump on a kickstarter, and the teams lack a coherent asethetic, maybe when it hits retail and I can see models in the flesh so to speak
Wild to see Jervis with Mantic now. Thought he was part of the Warlord crew.
Game itself does nothing for me unfortunately.
He’s working for all sorts of folks as a freelancer doing bits and bobs
I’ve got so many conflicting thoughts on this, my underlying one is I hope this goes well, I love Mantic and I want to see More Mantic, More Often. I enjoyed the copy of Dreadball Xtreme I picked up, great deal at £10 in the sale.
However I’d echo a few others comments, visually the minis and artwork just does nothing for me, its not bad it just doesnt feel as cohesive as Bloodbowl, and i think the very scifi board gives it a less grounded in sports feeling, its just not grabbing me and screaming must buy.
I’m sure if there to mantics modern standards and they will be great, but i’m expecting the preassembled board game PVC minis like the Halo minis to be very nice just not as good as the multipart hard plastics in bloodbowl, I’d much rather have had the lovely new archon hard plastics.
I had to groan a bit at another Kickstarter, 4th time lucky?
I think the gameplay will have to be very slick and be nailed on for a great experience otherwise i can see this adding to the long list of past dreadball games.
Anyway, I wish it all the success!
I think the Kickstarter option tells you a lot about how Mantic view this game. I think they’ve done incredibly well weening themselves off the Kickstarter business model and the vast majority of their core games is now business funded. They don’t Kickstart new armies and plastic kits anymore. But they do utilitise Kickstarter for their boardgames which are generally self contained products with no ongoing product support. So it stands to reason that this is how Mantic sees Dreadball Allstars – as an entirely standalone, self contained product with no future support. That doesn’t mean they won’t change that position in future if it’s wildly successful, but in the short term at least, I think this is very much a one-off and so a candidate for Kickstarter within what I think is Mantic’s current business model
Given how the Second Edition of Dreadball sold (both in the Kickstarter and in Retail). I think we can mark down the reason for Mantic going with Kickstarter again this time around is probably due to Mantic being “not sure” on the demand from gamers.
Kickstarter is the most powerful marketing tool in the industry, it makes perfect sense they would use it to reach the biggest possible audience.
It looks like the most polished version of Dreadball to date, with a manageable amount of product.
I’ll be backing this.
The new game is aimed at BB players more than Db ones. How many times is BB mentioned in the Youtube interview with JJ! He and the interviewers appear to have little understanding of the history of Db and current mechancis. Db isoften compared to BB as it is a sport games but everyone who plays states it is a completely different beast with different aims. I hope the things that have always made Db such a fun and exciting game are not lost.
Alternating activations sounds interesting but not if it slows play down too much. Not sure of the need for d8s over d6s. I hope the dice keep exploding as that is one of the most fun (and frustrating aspects) of the game.
I’m trying to keep an open mind, intrigued by some of it, fearing it will a long way from the game Db players love and it will get forgotten once again by Mantic