Chaos League
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| Chaos League | |
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| Developer(s) | Cyanide Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Digital Jesters Focus Home Interactive |
| Latest version | 1.7 (December 15, 2004) |
| Release date(s) | August 8, 2004 (EU) March 8, 2005 (US) |
| Genre(s) | Real Time Strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | PEGI: 12+ |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
Chaos League is a real time strategy fantasy based sports game developed by Cyanide Studios and published by Digital Jesters in 2004. The game is viewed by some to be based on the table top Games Workshop Blood Bowl franchise with many references including style of characters and names of certain skills within both games. The game has also spawned an expansion entitled "Sudden Death" in 2005. The game features traditional fantasy elements like mythical races and magic but includes many comedy values like comical character and commentary styling. The game has received a cult, if not small, fan base online in Western Europe, mostly France and is one of the more well known Cyanide titles.
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[edit] Player Positions
A team can hire up to 15 players (9 per team on the pitch during the match) with a choice of player positions, each one with their own skills, looks and game style. However not all positions are available for all teams. For example, Receivers are not available to Dwarves and Linebackers are not available to Wood Elves.
- Lineman - Physical players, injures Quarterback more easily.
- Receiver - Fast runners and good at catching the ball, can make a feint against a Runningback more easily.
- Linebacker - Offence force, injures a Bigfoot more easily.
- Quarterback - Ball passers, inflicts feinting penalty on a receiver.
- Runningback - All round player, stronger with ball with armour bonus against Linebacker.
- Bigfoot - Special brutal fighters, protection penalty on a Lineman (one per team, except Goblins who have a wider choice).
- Champion - Unique players in many ways, mostly on their race's special skill.
[edit] Races
Chaos League featured 9 races, all the traditional fantasy style classes similar to that of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons. Teams have specific Bigfoots they are allowed and, potentially, restrictions on the positions they are allowed to choose from.
- Humans - All round players with the skill to adapt their personal play against other teams.
- Bigfoot: Ogre
- Restrictions: No Linebackers
- Dark Elves - Skilled in the arts of magic and can handle the ball very well, yet are weak in fighting.
- Bigfoot: Dark Ent
- Restrictions: No Linebackers
- Wood Elves - Better at handling the ball than Dark Elves but not a skilled with magic, they are also weak in fighting.
- Bigfoot: Ent
- Restrictions: No Linebackers
- Orcs - Aggressive players backed up with some magic but are much slower and handle the ball less well.
- Bigfoot: Troll
- Restrictions: No Runningbacks
- Dwarves - Very slow, poor at magic and terrible at handling the ball, however are the strongest and best fighters in the game.
- Bigfoot: Elder Dwarf
- Restrictions: No Receivers
- Goblins - Very small and weak but are slippery characters, plus can hire multiple bigfoot monster players.
- Bigfoot: Minotaur, GoboRider (x2)
- Restrictions: No Linebackers, Runningbacks or Quarterbacks
- Barbarians - Like humans but better a fighting yet more vulnerable defence.
- Bigfoot: Hunter
- Restrictions: No Runningbacks
- Undead - Wider player choice to vary speed and strength depending of position choices.
- Bigfoot: None, Linebackers stronger.
- Restrictions: No Receivers
- Praetorians - Wolf men. The best at long distance running and are fair handling the ball but incredibly weak.
- Bigfoot: Balgor
- Restrictions: No Linebackers
- Mercenaries - A round up of weak linemen from all of the above races varying play.
- Bigfoot: None
- Restrictions: None
The following races are included in the Sudden Death expansion pack.
- Gnomes - Slow and stumpy yet use heavy steam powered machine walkers to for their advantage.
- Bigfoot: Machine
- Restrictions: No Linebackers or Runningbacks
- Damned - Demons. Use black magic for fighting situations rather than playing passing games.
- Bigfoot: Demon
- Restrictions: No Receivers or Runningbacks
- Cicturas - Lizardmen. Weak yet slippery players who use projectile poisons and bites to wear down foes.
- Bigfoot: Cicturi
- Restrictions: No Receivers or Runningbacks
[edit] Modding
The main basis for the game's cult like status came from the vast chance to mod many aspects of the games [1] like custom team logos or pitch design. However the more popular modding aspect came from player skins and costumes which was a simple matter of rendering character pallets in the game's software files. Changing character models was accomplished by only a very view and even then it was mostly swapping of player templates.
[edit] Blood Bowl Connections
The majority of Chaos League fans also prefer the Games Workshop table top game Blood Bowl, also a fantasy parody of American Football. Despite the obvious connections to the style of the game itself, both being violent fantasy sports, even minor similarities were noticeable to Blood Bowl fans. Most notable were the recurring skills in both like "Mighty Blow", "Bulldoze" and "Projectile". Even during a loading menu in after games, a well known red sun with an Orc face, usually found on Games Workshop inks can be seen in the background.
Games Workshop has announced that Cyanide Studios now have a licence to create computer games based on Blood Bowl, and that "Any differences between Games Workshop and Cyanide have been amicably settled for an undisclosed sum, and as part of the settlement the Chaos League title has been assigned to Games Workshop".[2]
