Blood Bowl is a new type of sports game base on Warhammer 40,000 strategy games. Humans, Orcs and many other monsters battle on the field in pure violence to pass the goal line. All rules are meant to be broken and even cheating, gambling, potions and killing the opposing team is permitted. Who will win? The team left standing...



Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Blood Bowl in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Steam version of Blood Bowl. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

Try SteamPlay before using this guide as Valve now uses a fork of Wine called Proton and should run most Windows games.

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 18.3 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.12
Wine: 3.0

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"


Look for the Wine Version: 3.0
Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right


Click Next

Downloading Wine


Extracting

Downloading Gecko


Installed


Wine 3.0 is installed and you can close this window

Downloading Steam

Go To: http://www.steampowered.com
Click Install Steam


Do not click "Install Steam Now"
It will automatically install Linux Steam
Select Windows Steam instead
click "Windows" under the green button


Navigate to your desktop
Click Save


PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install


Click "install a non-listed program"


Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next


Name your virtual drive: bloodbowl
No spaces
Click Next


Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next


Select Wine 3.0
Click Next


Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next


Configure Wine

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply


Graphics Tab
Check: Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
Click Ok


PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following libraries:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_d3dx10
• POL_Install_tahoma
• POL_Install_vcrun2005
• POL_Install_vcrun2008
• POL_Install_vcrun2010

Click Next


Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Steam

Click Browse


Navigate to your desktop
Select: SteamSetup.exe
Click Open


Click Next

Click Next

Check: I accept the license...
Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Click Install

Click Finish

Updating Steam

Click the "X" to close Steam login


PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select Steam.exe
Click Next


Name your shortcut: Blood Bowl
Click Next


Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next


PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure


General Tab
Arguments: -no-dwrite -no-cef-sandbox
This fixes any missing font problems and the Store problem (Windows needs to be set as Windows XP)


Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of wine

Display Tab
Video Memory Size: Select the size of Memory your video card/chip uses


Close Configure

Launching Steam

Select Blood Bowl
Click Run


Note: Click debug to see errors and bugs

Click "Login to existing account"


Login


Find Blood Bowl in your Steam Library
Click Install


Uncheck "Create desktop shortcut"
Uncheck "Create start menu shortcut"
Click Next


Click Finish
Wait for Blood Bowl to download


Click Play


Note: Upon launch, you may have to press a key on the keyboard due to a black screen

Optimization

Click "Extras & Settings"
Click Options


Adjust:

• Resolution
• Refresh Frequency
• Enable Fur
• Enable Grass
• Enable Glow
• Texture Details
• Shadows Quality
• Pitch Details Level
• Multisampling
• Anisotropy
• Shadows Version

Click Save


Conclusion:
Blood Bowl ran perfectly without any performance issues on my GTX 1060. When I ran the tutorial I experienced some UI and controlls issues, but during an actual game, it ran fine. Also when the game is launched it may wait at a black screen, but you can bypass it by pressing keys on the keyboard. Same with the options menu, it may appear to not load, but pressing some keys will allow it to continue.

Screenshots: