It comes up occasionally as to “which is better”, Cyanide’s Blood Bowl or Fumbbl.  As a fan of both, I am going to do my best to give a neutral comparison, mostly by giving the positive elements of each version.

Fumbbl

Hosted at fumbbl.com, Fumbbl is free to play, and needs Java installed. All games are organised on the site, and are largely grouped into Ranked (choose who to play using a Gamefinder), Blackbox (say you want to play, then get scheduled) and League (a private league).  You can control the game using the mouse or the keyboard.  As shown, the play is 2D, side-to-side.  If either player gets disconnected for any reason, the match can be restarted from the position it got to.  Concessions and disconnections are monitored by the admin staff.

• There is a lot of functionality such as marking players’ skills, saving setups for teams, changing portraits of the players and marking team logos on the pitch.
• There are a lot of leagues to be joined, including ones for rookies and ones for particular timezones.
• There is a unique set of teams played in a division called Stunty League including Chaos Halflings, Gnoblars etc, as well as the Simyin Ape team which is available to Fumbbl leagues.
• Matches can be easily spectated, with the spectators able to text-chat to each other and generate sound effects such as cheering and booing, which the players can hear.
• There are regular official tournaments, and access to lots of statistics.
• Some of the cards are available, and the ruleset is fully compliant with CRP, including some of the skills being optional to use (e.g. dodge, stand firm, diving tackle, pass).
• There is a complete set of stars for each team.

Cyanide

“Cyanide” is the generic name for the PC version of Blood Bowl, which has gone through various editions including Legendary, Dark Elf and finally Chaos Edition, which introduced the Khorne team.  It boasts a fun set of 3D graphics, including “cut-scenes” for touchdowns, injuries, crowd pushes and so on, as well as computer-generated commentary.  There is a large selection of public and private leagues.  The public ones include the matchmaking leagues of Auld World and Naggaroth, where you play against whoever is “spinning” at the same time as you, but a lot of players choose to join a private league, as in these disconnections and concessions are monitored.

• Private leagues often use “out-of-game” websites which use the files generated by the game to put together the statistics for a league.  These websites are where the community feel of the game is found, and as they are independent of the game you can choose one which suits you.
• There are various hacks available for the game which allow you to add different skins to the players and cheerleaders.
• You can spectate games and chat to other spectators.
• You can choose various camera angles (end-on, side-on etc) to find the one that suits you.
• And a big one, you can play against the computer!

Cyanide are currently working on Blood Bowl 2, and I will add details for this when it is released.

I may add a table format soon, comparing each element.