The draft is fun and is the start of the game though not a part of the 90 minutes of match time. You deal four keeper cards face down and select one each. Next, you deal 4 player cards face up and taking it in turns you take one until they are gone, then you deal four more, switch the player who chooses first and continue until you have 15 outfield players each. What we liked about the matches and set-up was the way we both used our teams. I would often play someone in defence who had great pace because I would be thinking about putting them in the way of passes whereas my son wanted to put the same player in midfield to bring the ball forward. There is no included timer for match length but its pretty simple nowadays to use a phone or connected device to time 90 minutes and once you have something set up you begin by drafting your team.

Now you need to assign your players to their position. This can take some time and is also an excellent part of the game which, when I read the rules, felt could be frustrating however, I am yet to be in a position where I cannot put together a team with players in appropriate positions.

Popular Content

Although the action on the board is very fluid, the pace of play itself is slower and deliberate as players consider all their options. The game includes sand timers you can use to limit the amount of time spent on each decision, and I think it’ll take players a little while to become comfortable enough with the game and their decisions before fitting into the stated 90-minute runtime – the length of a normal football match.

There are also two sand timers, four red card and yellow card tokens, injury tokens for an advanced rule used in tournaments and two card tokens that match each team and two card tokens for the ball. I have no idea what these are for and can only assume they are to replace your tokens if you lose them. Any player who suffers a second injury cannot continue and play must be stopped for a set piece so they can be substituted. A second yellow card gives a player a red card and they will then be sent off and the counter removed from the board for the rest of the game. Further movement phase situations explained later are dribbling around the goalkeeper, and nutmegs on the defender. You will need a printer, laminator and a corner clipper but if you get those things you will be able to play YOUR team, you could choose players from all over the world because board gamers are something special. That felt like a bad way to solve the issue and that a better way should be implemented however, when a similar situation happened in reverse I do remember thinking it was a good and just system.When you link passes and moves together and outwit an opponent to get a shot off you do want to jump up and shout and I find my heart rate rising as I am about to pull off a ruse, casually chatting about nothing in particular when my mind is screaming “PLEASE DON’T NOTICE, PLEASE DON’T NOTICE”. Longevity Throw-in - Choose a player to take the throw and place them on the edge hex where the ball went out of play. Take a movement phase, then you may take a second movement phase if you want. The throw in has a range of a header, it can either be thrown to a player’s head, where a header must follow, or it can be thrown to feet or an empty hex, treat it as a standard pass with the reduced range for interceptions and follow up actions. When defending your mind races “is he trying to make me think he is going to strike from there or is he actually going to strike from here and make me think he is trying to strike from there or is it a bluff and really he is….. “ A tie results in a loose ball as normal, however you still need to roll for it as normal even if the direction is behind the goalkeeper, the ball may still go out of play but there is a chance it could result in a goal! I do not want to go into an explanation of the rules which I am very tempted to do as I still feel I need to refer to the manual when making some moves. The game is simple but complicated, a lot like football and we have made a lot of mistakes.

Even though he considers Caledonian Thistle a football team, Colin has managed to take a football match and break it down into its fundamental parts and put it on the table. Tactical Highs The managerial part is perfect, drafting your own team is fun and challenging, and when you score with a tactic you build for, is amazing! for a defending save if the goalkeeper moved during Step 1 of the snapshot and the saving hex is still 2 or 3 spaces away. In Season 3, 27% of Cup matches saw teams of lower divisions advancing over stronger opponents. The final featured a team from the 5th league!!This is where anything can happen, teams are drawn without restrictions fighting their way to the final. Each player counter occupies the hex they are in, and no other players can move through or share their hex, the player also has a Zone Of Influence on the 6 adjacent hexes around them (ZOI for short), where they can make attempts on the ball but other player counters can move through and stop in. We also tried to secure and play players with pace, pace was king, but have found that whilst it’s important for movement, especially on the wing, accurate passing is the true ruler. A good High Pass will get the ball where you want it avoiding other players’ zones of influence. This is an area around each player. Dices are the engine of the game, cannot hide that, but what in football could be predict with perfection? They are always related to player statistics, so could happen that a weak player in heading could win an aerial battle, but it will not happen so often, as it have to be! A big thank you to Matthew Kato for stepping up to bring his sports expertise to this week's column.

Now that you've got enough down to play the game lets add all the little gritty bits that cover specific situations or rules that don't come up much.Take your spot in Season 4 by expressing interest in the #0-s4-general channel of our Discord Server.