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What are the best SPORTS board games?
Interesting comment. I've never had a sports game (well except for VCR College Bowl). I think football or baseball would be at the top of my list but I'd be open to any sport that is the topic of a fun game. So fortress ameritrashers- which sports games do you like the best?
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Baseball:
Harry's Grandslam Baseball: Super-light game, less strategy than I'd like, but it's cheap and is a good filler.
MLB Sportsclix: The 2005 edition is much easier to play. You should be able to find some deals on the figs as the game was not a tremendous success. This is my favorite.
MLB Showdown: Not nearly as strategic. Lots of overhead in adding up 5,000 point teams and weird rules. But even so, it still can be fun. Has some weird rules quirks. If you can find the All-Star boxed set they released several years ago, it's an incredible deal that's full of big name, powerful players and if you play them against each other expect to light up the scoreboard (I think the last time we played with this set the score was 11-8 or something like that.)
Football:
Card Football: This is a weird game that sometimes I enjoy, sometimes I get frustrated with. But it's football mixed with poker. Very affordable, has a decent football feel. Nice bits for the price, and you can play a full game in a little over an hour.
NFL Showdown: The 2003 edition is the way to go here, because it has the electric scanner that works better. This game has you building a team much like MLB showdown, then scanning your plays into an electronic reader. The game will then ask you to scan the key players for the play, and determine the outcome. It's not a bad game but it might require some more intense football knowledge to play well (what plays to call and when, how to build your team, etc). The game is no longer made so it can be gotten cheaply.
Battleball: Futuristic football game. Was on clearance everywhere, and lots of people have it for trade because they assumed it would be the next Epic Duels (it wasn't.) Super-nice pre-painted minis, a very large board, and a great little dicefest football/rugby style game. Has passing, heavy vs light players, injuries. Great system in that faster guys roll bigger dice and can move much faster(wide receivers roll d20s versus Tackles with d6s) but when the time comes for a tackle, it's the LOW number that wins (so a tackle most of the time should pancake a wide receiver if he can get his hands on him.)
Those are the ones I like, just off the top of my head.
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These are the four systems which interested me, each was applied to the two sports:
Baseball Strategy - Football Strategy
Stasis Pro Baseball - Stasis Pro Football
Sports Illustrated Baseball - Sports Illustrated Football (Paydirt)
Strat-o-Matic Baseball - Strat-o-Matic Football
(I put those eight in a private geeklist once, maybe you can view it too: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/25180 .)
Some of these are still in print and others not.
Unfortunately each of these system has its raving fans who cheer for the system they like and trash the others. Apparently and unfortunately there is no such thing as a best Baseball/Football game. I'd like to try all of these eventually though.
A friend of mine has Baseball Strategy, but we haven't played yet, mainly because there's an inconsistency between the rule book and the cards. Otherwise the game looks fun and although being simple, it features a distinct amount of strategy.
I certainly can't recommend Pizza Box Football.
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- Michael Barnes
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The game can handle 2-16 players and you play a full historical World Cup tournament. Depending on the year you're playing, the format differs and the skill level of the teams is different. It's basically a "play a card, draw a card" game and what you do is play cards to put tiles down in these boxes for each team- Attack, goal or goals, defense, fouls, etc. All the matches in the knockout rounds, semifinals, etc. are played simultaneously and any player can play to any match- so the idea is that the really strong teams get ganged up on to hopefully get them out. There's actually a lot of table talk and kind of weird diplomacy. Players generally get a couple of teams to manage so even if you get stuck with the crappy ones you've got a couple of shots at the cup. It all comes down to a one-on-one match between the top two teams. It's extremely dramatic, very simple and straightforward, and an absolute blast to play.
Downside? $60. Expansions $20 each (and there's three). But worth every penny.
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- southernman
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I do have one sports game come to think of it - it's a family type cricket game on a green felt pitch with figures for players and two moveable figures; one to actually bowl a ball at the other, and the other to hit the ball back to score runs. Played it a couple of times with my lad but gave up after all the pastings I got.
Battleball is quite fun, but unfortunately the minis guys at our club had given me a few lessons in Bloodbowl prior so it did come across a lot lighter than it should have.
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Michael, that sound like a neat game. I'll check that out.
One weird game that I just don't know enough about is that GRIDIRON FOOTBALL. It's like a combination of football and chess where you actually play out every play. Looks neat but sounds like it could take an entire day to play. Nice looking production, though, and very few football games give you the "right down to the actual play" feel.
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- Michael Barnes
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Seriously folks, this game is awesome. It's the best game I've played all year, and I've taken it to every game night since I bought it. It looks cool too, the board is like a wallboard tracking the games.
It'd be an _awesome_ drinking game...I'm convinced that it's designed to be playable while drunk too. There's no stats and very few mechanics so it's also one of the most accessible games I've played in a while.
I have a moral quandary, because I really want it to take Gameshark GOTY but it's a 2006 release...
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Give me the skinny, Mike--how does it play with 3? How long does it run based on number of players?
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- Michael Barnes
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It plays great with 3- but you'll probably want to do one of the smaller tourneys like Uruguay 1930. It can be kind of tough when you've got five or six teams. See, every team in the tournament is played...so if it's a 16-team tournament and you've got 4 players, everybody gets 4 teams. If you've got 8 players, everybody gets 2. And so on. The tournaments have different ranges that sort of accomodate different numbers better so the game is hugely scaleable- 2 players is even great with the small Cups. The base game has the 2002 and 1930 tournaments, so you have pretty much the whole range of players covered by both.
The game is about an hour and some change long. No matter how many you play with, it seems like. Since all the matches are simultaneous and a turn is PACDAC (OMG!!! NEW GAMING TERM!!!), there's not much downtime and turns cycle really fast.
If I were using a rating system with absolutely no meaning whatsoever and no foundation on anything other than armchair internet punditry and politics, I'd give it a 10 no doubt.
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BLUE LINE HOCKEY is cool, if a bit dry.
REGATTA was too boring for me, but folks that actually sail think it's the shit.
SPEED CIRCUIT is -really cool-, F1 back in ye olden tymes.
There are others too, mentioned in a Classic AT thread somewhere. I prefer the 3M versions to the Avalon Hill ones because the 3M ones really show off the plastic my having the box unfold to be the board.
I play STREETSOCCER almost constantly on yourturnmyturn.com. Quick game, with swingy moments. Rolling 6's is so fucking dynamite in that game.
I put that WORLD CUP GAME in my Math Trade lists a couple of times and never lucked out. Now I'll never get it, because Barnes is jerking up the price.
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- southernman
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