Football Tactics

BanzaiCat · December 14, 2015, 08:55:58 PM

...sorry, this is a soccer game, not American football. :)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/375530/

This caught my eye tonight and I watched a couple of play videos...it looked right up my alley. Very light but there's management aspects to it where you control your lineup, train your players, position them on the field, hire staff, upgrade your stadium, and on and on. You can start with a bottom-feeder club and try to get them up to the Premier League, or start with an existing club.

If you start a new club you get to pick the country it's from (and there's a lot of choices to make, including 'Murica, though I don't know how the U.S. fits in with the Premier League unless there's some dev witchcraft involved, or just my own ignorance as to how the "football" system works - likely the latter).

I played around a little with Football Manager on my iPad, which was an enjoyable enough experience, but this one lets me actually play the games themselves. The games are not arcadey or fast-paced; they're turn-based. Each side gets three turns to do something before the other team gets to go. Passing is one turn, moving with the ball is one turn, shooting a goal is one turn, and so on. Each player is rated in...I think...four stats, and if you try to do something like pass a ball past a defender, the game does a quick calculation based on the passer's Pass rating and the defender's Defend rating, and then I think there's some randomness involved too as I've seen a couple of suck-ass passers get it past a good defender...but not always. The gameplay is enjoyable and the games do not last long (I think each turn advances the clock two minutes).

I played about seven games tonight, in about an hour's time. I lost a couple, tied one, and won three or four. I bought a forward off the Transfers to replace a forward that got injured (his name is Shine, and he has a bald head - lol). Twice I've won a game at the very last turn before the match ended, so it goes down to the wire pretty nicely...though if you go down a couple of goals it's nearly impossible to catch up again given how quickly games play.

Not my image, just one off the 'net for you to view:

If you start with a low-end team you're going to play with some sucky players, but your players gain experience with each game (ones that do well gain more experience), and you can hire assistant coaches that add extra experience to certain players (midfielders, goalkeepers, etc.).

Of course, to advance towards the Premier league, you need to finish in the top tier of your own league, and right now I'm pretty back and forth. I think my team is in 4th place despite some wins, though I got my way there the long way (won my first game, was in first place, tied and lost, dropped to 8th, won a couple more, advanced to 4th - could be wrong on specifics, should have taken some screenshots).

It's an Early Access game on Steam, but it definitely feels like a finished product. If you are interested in English football and are looking for something that won't take a tremendous amount of time to learn (I jumped right in; there's a short tutorial at the beginning which teaches you all you need to know about gameplay, but management is a bit deeper and has more of a learning curve IMO), check it out. It's also 15% off right now.

FarAway Sooner · December 15, 2015, 12:16:37 AM

As a long-time footie player myself, I tried the demo here and played for quite a long time. As you suggest, the strategic side is a bit deeper (in addition to improving your players, you want to upgrade your stadium and build up a loyal fan base, so you can make enough $$ to start hiring far better (and more expensive) players). I haven't spent much time playing with that, but overall found the game very enjoyable for a quick 30-minute romp when I didn't want to worry about getting sucked into a game for 3 hours instead of going to bed!

Steam Reviews are very positive. The turn-based nature of the game makes it very enjoyable for me. It may struggle with replayability eventually, but for the price, it's not a problem at all!

BanzaiCat · December 15, 2015, 06:25:46 AM

There's definitely a lot of turn-based tactical moves to make here. With only three moves per turn you don't have a lot of options to move guys around to make a goal. Also, the game's players can react automatically to a shot on goal (defenders move one space to get in the way - but it does this automatically for your own players, too).

As far as I can tell, there's only solo and Hotseat play; I didn't notice any online MP play, though since this is an early access game I wonder if that might be something they include before the game is completed, officially.

FlickJax · December 15, 2015, 07:28:44 AM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on December 15, 2015, 06:25:46 AM
There's definitely a lot of turn-based tactical moves to make here. With only three moves per turn you don't have a lot of options to move guys around to make a goal. Also, the game's players can react automatically to a shot on goal (defenders move one space to get in the way - but it does this automatically for your own players, too).

As far as I can tell, there's only solo and Hotseat play; I didn't notice any online MP play, though since this is an early access game I wonder if that might be something they include before the game is completed, officially.

yeah looks a little limited at present, especially corners.

FarAway Sooner · December 15, 2015, 09:50:58 AM

How much can you really do on corners, though? 8)

(slightly rhetorical question, but your options for movement and ball placement are admittedly much more limited than any other set play in the game)

DennisS · December 15, 2015, 11:00:52 AM

Odd to see this post. I have been playing this game a LOT. I went from the lowest league, up to the Premier league, over about a dozen seasons. I was just relegated, after my first (only) season in the Premier League.

This IS a simple soccer game. The strategy isn't in playing the game, but in designing your team..training, spending money, allocating resources. For what it's worth, this is a pretty darned good game, and gets better the more you play.

Philippe · December 15, 2015, 11:42:50 AM

The demo is also a lot of fun.

BanzaiCat · December 15, 2015, 12:07:23 PM

FWIW, I think soccer is the singular most boring thing to watch on Earth (right up there with golf and tennis).

Now, PLAYING it is decidedly different, but watching it, I just don't get it.

That said, ever since learning a little more about the English Premier League and how it works with promoting and demoting organizations...I find that structure fascinating. Funny that there was an ultra-violent football game for the Xbox (the original black box) back in the day where you ran a football franchise that could get promoted from lower leagues to higher ones and I remember thinking how cool that was. Fast forward to a year or so ago and imagine me discovering my severe ignorance on this topic, but educating myself as best I could.

I liked playing Football Manager 2014 on my iPad but I think the full-scale game on the PC would be too much detail for me. This game is absolutely perfect in scale and scope for me.

FlickJax · December 15, 2015, 12:19:27 PM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on December 15, 2015, 12:07:23 PM
FWIW, I think soccer is the singular most boring thing to watch on Earth (right up there with golf and tennis).

Now, PLAYING it is decidedly different, but watching it, I just don't get it.

That said, ever since learning a little more about the English Premier League and how it works with promoting and demoting organizations...I find that structure fascinating. Funny that there was an ultra-violent football game for the Xbox (the original black box) back in the day where you ran a football franchise that could get promoted from lower leagues to higher ones and I remember thinking how cool that was. Fast forward to a year or so ago and imagine me discovering my severe ignorance on this topic, but educating myself as best I could.

I liked playing Football Manager 2014 on my iPad but I think the full-scale game on the PC would be too much detail for me. This game is absolutely perfect in scale and scope for me.

Soccer boring have you watched American Football or Baseball (can of worms well and truly opened)

Here in UK we live for our local footie teams....Up the Saints :)

BanzaiCat · December 15, 2015, 12:34:34 PM

I'm not disparaging you at all for liking soccer (though I WILL make jokes from time to time, as you are welcome to as well).

American Baseball is right up there on the boring scale too, at least for me. Football (ours, not yours) has started to wear thin on me. I just don't get into games like I used to. Too many commercials kind of kills it for me...they take far more breaks these days than they did, say, 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30 years ago. And I absolutely hate commercials with a passion.

Like I said, I can't stand watching soccer, but I can appreciate your appreciation for it. I like the structure and how it works, but I don't think I could get into watching it or backing Manchester U or Arsenal or some other UK (or any other country's) team.

FlickJax · December 15, 2015, 02:18:41 PM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on December 15, 2015, 12:34:34 PM
I'm not disparaging you at all for liking soccer (though I WILL make jokes from time to time, as you are welcome to as well).

American Baseball is right up there on the boring scale too, at least for me. Football (ours, not yours) has started to wear thin on me. I just don't get into games like I used to. Too many commercials kind of kills it for me...they take far more breaks these days than they did, say, 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30 years ago. And I absolutely hate commercials with a passion.

Like I said, I can't stand watching soccer, but I can appreciate your appreciation for it. I like the structure and how it works, but I don't think I could get into watching it or backing Manchester U or Arsenal or some other UK (or any other country's) team.

I too like American footie but wish there was less stoppages, Always liked Green Bay for some reason....

BanzaiCat · December 15, 2015, 03:00:22 PM

Thank God you're not a Dallas Cowboy's fan. "America's Team" is really anything but. Green Bay fits the bill better than that IMO. Hell, a fookin' Moscow NFL franchise would be more American than Dallas.

TacticalWargames · December 15, 2015, 04:21:17 PM

I quite enjoy it.

KyzBP · December 15, 2015, 04:47:32 PM

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on December 15, 2015, 12:07:23 PM
That said, ever since learning a little more about the English Premier League and how it works with promoting and demoting organizations...I find that structure fascinating.

That is the thing I love about English Soccer. Like you, I get bored quick with watching soccer but I don't know of a series I've logged more time on than CM/FM.

I think U.S. College Football would be even better if the teams/schools were set up in a tier system, like the English system. Seven or Eight 15 team divisions. Promotion/Relegation battles would be WAY better than 98% of the current bowl games.

I think you've sold me on trying this game by the way. O0