Great review and very spot on about the rulebook and match resolution! I was two games in before I realized I was playing them incorrectly. I am glad I got the Kickstarter version as the game boards, while still huge, are multi-layered so the tokens fit into a slot and don't move around. Cheers and thanks for the great content! Always nice to see sports themed games covered.
Thanks for the review. I was curious about this one but am always a bit hesitant with Portal Games. They’ve been more miss than hit for a while now for us. I’ll look for this on sale down the road.
Portal achieved a spot on my top 5 worst publishers list. Remover when they produced innovative and interesting games like RC, Stronghold and Pret a Porter instead of reprints and incomprehensible trash? Not sure what happened but it’s a real tragedy.
Dude, if I could fly you out to Portland and host a pint or four and play this game with us, I would. Love your reviews. Hoping this one, with the bgg cheat sheet, isn’t too much of a bear to learn.
I remember some of the old computer games covering stuff like advertisers, food franchises etc. It all felt a little irrelevant to what interests football fans. CM and its later iteration Football Manager IMO focused much better on what appeals, which is invariably the players, player/youth development, scouting, and of course the matchday itself being at the heart of the game. That it became so realistic that their scouts / data business could sell that info to clubs, shows how close they get to the reality. Of course you can't get that level of complexity into a board game, so compromises have to be made, but in every game so far, it feels like they've compromised stuff that motivates fans, yet kept some rather mundane aspects like advertising boards or club doctors. What fans walk home after a game discussing the relative merits of Skoda or Pampers buying the ad space on the board near corner flag in front of the Scrote stand? So yes, still waiting for a footie game worth buying, and I think it will be a very long wait indeed.
I was very surprised by your final recommendation of a game that drove you up the wall. I love football; I am obsessed with Fantasy Football and boardgames, but I am not going near this game with the amount of faults that you'd other critics have lodged against it. I will wait for the FIFA slicked up - proper names - proper rulebook - without the luckiest and giant floppy player boards. Thanks.
It’s all we have at the moment so I’ll take it…it’s not a bad game and we’ve had fun with it. I just wish it wasn’t Portal games that published it. They’ve been responsible for some shockers recently.
Looked into this at Essen with huge excitement and anticipation. Realized I just won’t get a football game I want as a board game so I’ll stick to video games for my football fix.
Very nearly backed this when it was on Gamefound but just wasn’t convinced about the matchplay element. Seems from your review that this is indeed a major flaw. Not sure I will back another Portal game in any case after their Robinson Crusoe debacle
@@BoardGameBollocks Big box version which is mainly a reprint but with added miniatures and many more scenarios. A year overdue with no end in sight yet. I have the base game and was only upgrading but I would be well pissed off if I were a first time buyer now waiting for it when the current version could have been purchased off the shelf 2 years ago!
Great review! I've lost almost all hope for Portal to produce a game whose rulebook wasn't the shits. Have you tried The Football Game? That one is quite fun!
Have you looked at Superclub which is an independently published football game? I was skeptical about the game but ended up getting it. I was pleasantly surprised at what a good multiplayer game it is. Lots of fun even if it is a little basic graphics wise etc. Worth a look for sure. I might pick up Eleven as it’s cost is pretty good but, if not, I’m happy with Superclub.
@@BoardGameBollocks That’s fair. I still find it a lot of fun though and it’s actually interesting building your team. There is a lot of randomness though, that’s true. It’s still the best football game I’ve found so far. Perhaps one day we’ll get a true football board game. Thanks for your review.
@@BoardGameBollocks aj what I mean was the dice rolls in superclub for the matches get more in favour of strategy as your team improves. So first season let's say midfield has 12 stars and dice are 2-12 making it 50-50 luck. But season 3/4 midfield can have 20+ stars making it about a third luck. We reverse the injury mechanic so you get an injury with a high roll so a double 6 means your player got injured for exerting themselves (high score probably wins the battle but injured in the process). Also we roll a die to see how long they are injured including the current game (so a 1 means they are back for the next game)
It doesn’t seem like anything was majorly improved from Club Stories (a solo only game) which I own and like a lot, but became a bit stale and samey quickly. Often I’d rather play Time of Soccer, since that has a spatial puzzle element to make it interesting. Club Stories should’ve been remade into a heavy euro, more complex, like Football Manager video games, my opinion. Oh well. EDIT: all the ‘just’s removed.
I 100% agree with this review. I still really like the game despite its issues. I do wish there was a lot less die rolling. A euro style football manager would've been a lot more satisfying. Because then the mistakes would be on you and not the cursed dice you rolled to get a random outcome. I'd love to see Vital Lacerda take a crack at a revised edition of this.
Yeah, the match play is pretty inexcusable--especially when it comes to resolution. I actually had a lot of fun with the rest of the game, but I just felt like I was completely guessing (not in an educated way) when placing my guys. Also, I am cool with random dice rolls in a lot of games, but when it came to determining the other matches and how many points they gained, I just got mad. Technically, every team could get 3 points every game. I wish there was a better way to do a match-up system for the AI teams. Roll a die for each team...the one with the higher roll gets 3, and the other gets 0. If they tie, they get 1. It feels like a lot of extra work though.
A SLEUG with a footy veneer and a multitude of boring mechanisms. We enjoy “Wembley” (1952) for sixty minutes of mindless fun for up to eight players. Yes I’ll take mindless over boring any day.
Thanks for the review! The game does seem like a bit of a hot mess, but that wouldn't stop me from giving it a go. I'm still trying to find a copy of Counter Attack to get my fix. Do you support a club, or just watch the odd game for fun?
Thanks for the review. Considered backing this, enjoy footie, don't love it. Game play sounds good, rule book sounds shocking. I may wait to see it on the used market.
Feel the same as yo mate, takes too long to set up, hogs the table, has a fiddly match system, an for me I hate the base game transfer area, prefer to split players up by position an have me pick of 3, especially as I've got all the expansions, but like yo said, there ay nowt like this on the market
Random injuries i dont agree with your assessment. Its thematic. You can lose a player in real life at any time. Look at michael Owen 😂 if you want to play a good footy manager game try time of soccer.
Great review and very spot on about the rulebook and match resolution! I was two games in before I realized I was playing them incorrectly. I am glad I got the Kickstarter version as the game boards, while still huge, are multi-layered so the tokens fit into a slot and don't move around. Cheers and thanks for the great content! Always nice to see sports themed games covered.
Thanks for the review. I was curious about this one but am always a bit hesitant with Portal Games. They’ve been more miss than hit for a while now for us. I’ll look for this on sale down the road.
Portal achieved a spot on my top 5 worst publishers list.
Remover when they produced innovative and interesting games like RC, Stronghold and Pret a Porter instead of reprints and incomprehensible trash?
Not sure what happened but it’s a real tragedy.
Dude, if I could fly you out to Portland and host a pint or four and play this game with us, I would. Love your reviews. Hoping this one, with the bgg cheat sheet, isn’t too much of a bear to learn.
Good luck 😬
Be cool to see you review Superclub, that footy game actually looks a lot of fun
Nice review! Wasn't sure if Alex Fischer the Director was based on you or Jason Statham! :-)
I’m his stunt double
I remember some of the old computer games covering stuff like advertisers, food franchises etc. It all felt a little irrelevant to what interests football fans. CM and its later iteration Football Manager IMO focused much better on what appeals, which is invariably the players, player/youth development, scouting, and of course the matchday itself being at the heart of the game. That it became so realistic that their scouts / data business could sell that info to clubs, shows how close they get to the reality.
Of course you can't get that level of complexity into a board game, so compromises have to be made, but in every game so far, it feels like they've compromised stuff that motivates fans, yet kept some rather mundane aspects like advertising boards or club doctors. What fans walk home after a game discussing the relative merits of Skoda or Pampers buying the ad space on the board near corner flag in front of the Scrote stand?
So yes, still waiting for a footie game worth buying, and I think it will be a very long wait indeed.
Ultimate Soccer Manager…what a load of crap
I was very surprised by your final recommendation of a game that drove you up the wall. I love football; I am obsessed with Fantasy Football and boardgames, but I am not going near this game with the amount of faults that you'd other critics have lodged against it. I will wait for the FIFA slicked up - proper names - proper rulebook - without the luckiest and giant floppy player boards. Thanks.
It’s all we have at the moment so I’ll take it…it’s not a bad game and we’ve had fun with it. I just wish it wasn’t Portal games that published it.
They’ve been responsible for some shockers recently.
Looked into this at Essen with huge excitement and anticipation. Realized I just won’t get a football game I want as a board game so I’ll stick to video games for my football fix.
Very nearly backed this when it was on Gamefound but just wasn’t convinced about the matchplay element. Seems from your review that this is indeed a major flaw. Not sure I will back another Portal game in any case after their Robinson Crusoe debacle
What happened with RC? How can you screw up a game that’s already in print…beggars belief.
@@BoardGameBollocks Big box version which is mainly a reprint but with added miniatures and many more scenarios. A year overdue with no end in sight yet. I have the base game and was only upgrading but I would be well pissed off if I were a first time buyer now waiting for it when the current version could have been purchased off the shelf 2 years ago!
Great review! I've lost almost all hope for Portal to produce a game whose rulebook wasn't the shits. Have you tried The Football Game? That one is quite fun!
I haven’t mate. I heard it’s a bunch of die rolls.
Have you looked at Superclub which is an independently published football game? I was skeptical about the game but ended up getting it. I was pleasantly surprised at what a good multiplayer game it is. Lots of fun even if it is a little basic graphics wise etc. Worth a look for sure.
I might pick up Eleven as it’s cost is pretty good but, if not, I’m happy with Superclub.
Yes. It’s based on randomness. One of the things I detest about eleven.
@@BoardGameBollocks That’s fair. I still find it a lot of fun though and it’s actually interesting building your team. There is a lot of randomness though, that’s true. It’s still the best football game I’ve found so far. Perhaps one day we’ll get a true football board game.
Thanks for your review.
@@BoardGameBollocks yeah but as you progress through superclub the randomness reduces.
It gets worse actually as you build up the tokens that take your best players out.
@@BoardGameBollocks aj what I mean was the dice rolls in superclub for the matches get more in favour of strategy as your team improves. So first season let's say midfield has 12 stars and dice are 2-12 making it 50-50 luck. But season 3/4 midfield can have 20+ stars making it about a third luck. We reverse the injury mechanic so you get an injury with a high roll so a double 6 means your player got injured for exerting themselves (high score probably wins the battle but injured in the process). Also we roll a die to see how long they are injured including the current game (so a 1 means they are back for the next game)
It doesn’t seem like anything was majorly improved from Club Stories (a solo only game) which I own and like a lot, but became a bit stale and samey quickly. Often I’d rather play Time of Soccer, since that has a spatial puzzle element to make it interesting. Club Stories should’ve been remade into a heavy euro, more complex, like Football Manager video games, my opinion. Oh well.
EDIT: all the ‘just’s removed.
Looks like a cool game, truly, despite not being a fan of the sport. Another cool video
I 100% agree with this review. I still really like the game despite its issues. I do wish there was a lot less die rolling. A euro style football manager would've been a lot more satisfying. Because then the mistakes would be on you and not the cursed dice you rolled to get a random outcome. I'd love to see Vital Lacerda take a crack at a revised edition of this.
Yeah, the match play is pretty inexcusable--especially when it comes to resolution. I actually had a lot of fun with the rest of the game, but I just felt like I was completely guessing (not in an educated way) when placing my guys. Also, I am cool with random dice rolls in a lot of games, but when it came to determining the other matches and how many points they gained, I just got mad. Technically, every team could get 3 points every game. I wish there was a better way to do a match-up system for the AI teams. Roll a die for each team...the one with the higher roll gets 3, and the other gets 0. If they tie, they get 1. It feels like a lot of extra work though.
A SLEUG with a footy veneer and a multitude of boring mechanisms.
We enjoy “Wembley” (1952) for sixty minutes of mindless fun for up to eight players. Yes I’ll take mindless over boring any day.
We have Wembley. My kids say it smells of mothballs and old ladies…not sure how they know what moth balls smell like.
Do you know if the expansions add anything worthwhile or fix any of the issues you mentioned?
I’ve looked at them and they don’t fix anything. They just add more stuff. The international players is the one I’d probably grab at some point.
Thanks for the review! The game does seem like a bit of a hot mess, but that wouldn't stop me from giving it a go. I'm still trying to find a copy of Counter Attack to get my fix.
Do you support a club, or just watch the odd game for fun?
Pompey
Counter attack is amazing, and its on tabletopia if you ever want to mess with it.
I’ve been told it’s just a bunch of random die rolls so didn’t bother with it.
Counter attack is fantastic
Thanks for the review. Considered backing this, enjoy footie, don't love it. Game play sounds good, rule book sounds shocking. I may wait to see it on the used market.
Vinnie jones reviews board games? Sign me up! 😂
Feel the same as yo mate, takes too long to set up, hogs the table, has a fiddly match system, an for me I hate the base game transfer area, prefer to split players up by position an have me pick of 3, especially as I've got all the expansions, but like yo said, there ay nowt like this on the market
Random injuries i dont agree with your assessment. Its thematic. You can lose a player in real life at any time. Look at michael Owen 😂 if you want to play a good footy manager game try time of soccer.
Owen got injured because he compressed a whole career into a few short years.
@BoardGameBollocks and then he rolled a 1 over and over again
Not sure how that’s thematic but hey ho
@@BoardGameBollocks because at any time during a match.. you could potentially get fly kicked by Eric cantona and die
@chadvader974 May as well roll a die for everything then
Looks a faff.
Not quite that bad