After nothing but screenshots, Cyanide has finally unveiled the first gameplay trailer for Blood Bowl. The first part of the teaser is animated, but towards the end we get to see what the game is looking like in action. There's even cheerleaders! ... I hope there aren't any Orc cheerleaders ...

I've been excited for Blood Bowl ever since first hearing of the game. I'm not much of a sports fan, but how can anyone resist playing something like this? It's a football game where you can play as monsters and beat each other up! That's a total win formula if you ask me. 

Be sure to check out the PR after the jump detailing just how deep Blood Bowl is actually going to be. Among the details is this interesting bit that your football stars will age, retire and even die. Truly awesome indeed.  

A brutal team sport unfolding in a parallel fantasy world based on Warhammer and American football, Blood Bowl invites gamers to form a team of players from such races as: Orcs, Elves, Humans, Dwarfs and many other fantasy creatures, and launch themselves into battle in the bloodiest of arenas. This strategy sports game combines a fine balance of tactics and bone crunching action!

Developed by the French studio Cyanide, the video game adaptation of Blood Bowl has all of the characteristics of a traditional ball game, and so it allows you to develop actual tactics and strategies before and during matches.

Playable in turn-based or real-time modes, the single-player experience allows the player to manage a team throughout an entire season of Blood Bowl, through the Old World of Warhammer. The team will evolve over the course of victories, experience gained and awards won. With its immense depth, the game can almost be considered as a management game, from managing the popularity and sponsorship of players to the purchase and sale of players, as well as their aging, retirement and even death.

In multiplayer, the player will be able to throw down a challenge to other Blood Bowl players and participate in large tournaments on the Internet in order to climb the official ranks