Rumbleslam - a Review

The contents of the starter boxed set shown straight from the box.

Rumbleslam is the game of fantasy wrestling produced by TT Combat. I begin my review of the basic boxed set with the blurb about the basic starter set taken from the webstore -

Welcome to the ring! The spotlights are on, the confetti cannons are loaded, and the mages have had their staffs taken away. The world of Rumbleslam awaits!

The original game of fantasy wrestling is coming to a table top near you. Join in on fast paced high action gaming as goblins jump off the turnbuckles, dark elves bounce from the ropes, and dwarfs pick up werewolves to throw out of the ring!

This boxed game contains everything a budding sponsor needs to start their Rumbleslam career.

Two teams are included – the stalwart Heavy Pounders consist of a Halfling Brawler, Halfling Grappler, Human Brawler, Human Grappler, and a mighty Ogre. Meanwhile in the other corner are the unrelenting Green Bruisers – a Goblin Brawler, Goblin Grappler, Orc Brawler, Orc Grappler, and unshakable Troll. Each wrestler comes with its own character profile card. These cards show each wrestler's innate abilities, and moves they can perform, from basic clotheslines to the formidable Blue Thunder. All miniatures are supplied unpainted and unassembled with a clear acrylic base. Note that clear acrylic bases may have a coloured peelable protective film.

The box contains a 12”x12” soft mat ring with 104 squares for wreaking mayhem, ropes to bounce off and turnbuckles to leap from.

With 5 Copper dice, 5 Silver dice, and 4 Gold dice, wrestlers can brawl their way to victory, and 2 Crowd dice allow your wrestlers to rally the crowd behind them to perform mind-blowing special moves. Note that because the dice are screen printed the symbols may wear with frequent use. To protect against this, a light spray coat of varnish will stop any fading of the symbols.

The box also includes 40 acrylic counters for each special status in the game, as well as 16 acrylic Crowd Pleaser tokens to help keep track of your wrestlers' attempts at wooing the audience.

And of course the box includes the 64-page Rumbleslam rulebook. Containing all the information needed to play the game, including background information, team building rules, and a miniatures gallery.

What are you waiting for? There's no better time to jump in the ring and start your path to superstardom!

The box contents shown on my dining room table with the two teams fully painted.

I wasn't aware of this game until recently when I was browsing the TT Combat webstore but as soon as I saw it, I was intrigued by it. I was a big fan of what used to be the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), which later became the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). I am not a sports fan at all, (some may argue that wrestling isn't a sport but show business) but I found this a whole load of cheesy fun and the idea of adopting the wrestling format so that fantasy races could take part was, I thought, inspired.

The rules are easy to learn and a game usually lasts for five turns that can take from 30 to 90 minutes depending on the number of fighters involved. In Rumbleslam, teams are owned by casinos, paid for with cold hard Dosh, paid for by you, the sponsor. When hiring your team, you and your opponent have to spend the same amount of Dosh. The casinos and their wrestling teams are -

1. Kaiser's Palace. The Heavy Pounders (Humans, Halflings and Ogres) and Runic Thunder (Dwarves).
2. Gomorrah. The Deadly Divas (Female Humans and Female Ogres) and the Twisted Shadows (Female Dark Elves, Shadowlings and Gorgons).
3. Rolling Bones. The Cryptborn Nightmares (Undead) and the Green Bruisers (Orcs, Goblins and Trolls).
4. The Forest Soul. The Cold Bloods (Lizardmen) and the Timber Fists (Amazonians, Sprites and Treemen).
5. The Feral Den. The Furry Fury (Ratlings) and the Raging Beasts (Barbarians, Goatmen and Minotaurs).

In addition are the Free Agents, individual superstars who can be hired by any team, although they often favour one team over the others. Rather than explain how the rules work here I'll explain them when I run through a batrep between the two starter teams very soon.

 Here are the Green Bruisers ...

...and their opponents, the Heavy Pounders.
Please note that the figures are huge. A human stands roughly 40mm tall! Now this may be a problem to those of you who moan about scale-creep. But my argument is, if the figures are only ever going to be used in Rumbleslam, as mine most likely will, then does it matter how tall they are? I felt the same way about the figures for Rum and Bones. With the figures being so tall, the detail on them is exceptional. They are cast in resin and some come in multiple parts. They also come with clear plastic circular bases either 25mm or 50mm in diameter. I do not like these at all. I am not a fan of these transparent acrylic bases. I stuck my figures on MDF bases appropriate to the size of the figure. So the Goblins and Halflings are on 20mm diameter bases, the humans on 25mm diameter bases, the Orcs on 30mm diameter bases, the Ogre on a 40mm diameter base and the Troll on a 50mm diameter base.

The MDF ring in its unpainted form. Mine will be painted.

At present, I only have the two starter box teams but I have bought a couple of superstars for each of them, and I'll show them next time. The teams I am most interested in playing are the Cryptborn Nightmares, simply because of my love of all things undead, and the Twisted Shadows (sexy Dark Elves). I have placed an order for both teams, and I'll showcase them as soon as I paint them. They'll be going straight to the front of my painting queue. To be honest, I like all of the teams and the Free Agents. In time, I'd like to get all of the figures available for this game.
I have also ordered the Rumbleslam Deluxe Ring, which is a laser-cut MDF board of the ring and which looks most impressive. See the picture to the right.

I do realise that this is very much a niche game and it certainly won't appeal to those of you who don't like wrestling. But for me, it is a guilty pleasure and one I look forward to playing many times. The Rumbleslam starter boxed set costs £45.00 from the TT Combat webstore, see here - https://ttcombat.com/collections/rumbleslam/products/rumbleslam-starter-box
But if you shop around, you can find it cheaper on other webstores. For example, Element Games are only charging £40.50 for it. See here - http://elementgames.co.uk/wargames-and-miniatures/cult-steampunk-other-miniatures-games/rumbleslam/2-player-starter-box