Recommend me a good baseball 'board game'

Okay, so my brother and I are playing a World Series using Sportsclix 2005. I've always thought Sportsclix was a great game that was hideously underrated and sadly mismarketed. The clicking concept was great for players; getting tired, or getting hot, clicking and changing performance as a game wears on is great.

I've played some other baseball games; Harry's Grand Slam and MLB Showdown. Both have their limitations...Sportsclix pretty much replaced Showdown completely for me, and Harry's is a fun, light game but it never attempts to "simulate" real baseball.


I want to try a good, meaty, but not overly complex baseball game. Something where I get to make choices like pitch type, how someone's going to take an at-bat, keeping track of player performance, something that handles player 'streaks' or 'going cold'. I want to manage my team and track every play. I want there to be lots of possibilities for things to happen with every at-bat.


Sell me on something. I could probably just live off of Sportsclix, but I want something more complex, and the limitation of figures is a big crimp in style.

I can tell you that Pizza Box Baseball is not what you're looking for. The only real choices in that game are when to swap out your pitcher and a very simple binary choice for how to pitch and how to bat. I'm admittedly not a baseball fan, but there didn't seem like much to this one.

-MMM

Octavian wrote:

I can tell you that Pizza Box Baseball is not what you're looking for. The only real choices in that game are when to swap out your pitcher and a very simple binary choice for how to pitch and how to bat. I'm admittedly not a baseball fan, but there didn't seem like much to this one.

-MMM

Yeah man...I got that impression too. We really like Pizza Box Football--we just played AFC Championships (Indianapolis beat the Patriots), the NFC Championships (Giants beat the Bears) and finally the explosive BROTHER-VERSUS-BROTHER matchup the networks would have killed to have already...where the Giants beat the Colts, woo-hoo! (For me, I was playing the Giants.)

Have you tried Replay Baseball? http://replaybb.com/BBPages/BBProductDescriptions/BBGameProdDescr.htm

I've never played it, so I don't know if it's the kind of thing you're looking for. But their football game (actually designed by someone else, but then acquired by the company when the designer got out of the business) is pure awesome. Simple to play, runs very smoothly, yet rich in detail, with every player accounted for, and it actually feels like real football. So maybe the same thing applies to their baseball game as well.

Bullwinkle wrote:

Have you tried Replay Baseball? http://replaybb.com/BBPages/BBProductDescriptions/BBGameProdDescr.htm

I've never played it, so I don't know if it's the kind of thing you're looking for. But their football game (actually designed by someone else, but then acquired by the company when the designer got out of the business) is pure awesome. Simple to play, runs very smoothly, yet rich in detail, with every player accounted for, and it actually feels like real football. So maybe the same thing applies to their baseball game as well.

That looks pretty interesting, but besides choosing teams and the occasional base-running decision, almost looks like it plays itself--like a step down from Pizza Box Football, even (where both players feed input into the subsequent dice rolling, and that gives those dice certain meaning.)


What is the main one? Strat-o-Matic? That one has always scared me. Anybody with any experience on that one?

Ken B. wrote:

What is the main one? Strat-o-Matic? That one has always scared me. Anybody with any experience on that one?

I've played some Strat-o-Matic --- back in the 80s and now again with my son. Not a ton of games--but it can be pretty straight forward--roll the dice, check the card, move around the board, steal, bunt, etc....pretty cool actually. I just wish I had held onto my 1986 set with the 1986 Mets--man, I'd love to have that season again.

A good computer sim--in fact, the best, in my opinion---can use historical seasons (with some uploading) is Out of the Park Baseball (now Out of the Park Baseball 10). You can have minor leagues, players that you focus upon, develop, put into the lineup. You can autoplay and act more like a GM or you can play game by game, pitch by pitch, too. You can mix it up.

And, finally, I have a question for you, Ken: MLB 2005 is superior to 2004? And if I want to play, how to go about it? Ebay seems to have unopened packs (that means like a collectible, right)?

Sportsclix was the closest I ever came to playing a clix based game of any type. If they had marketed it properly I think they could have had a great game. Unfortunately they pissed it all away.

-Will

Merkles wrote:

Ken B. wrote:

What is the main one? Strat-o-Matic? That one has always scared me. Anybody with any experience on that one?

I've played some Strat-o-Matic --- back in the 80s and now again with my son. Not a ton of games--but it can be pretty straight forward--roll the dice, check the card, move around the board, steal, bunt, etc....pretty cool actually. I just wish I had held onto my 1986 set with the 1986 Mets--man, I'd love to have that season again.

A good computer sim--in fact, the best, in my opinion---can use historical seasons (with some uploading) is Out of the Park Baseball (now Out of the Park Baseball 10). You can have minor leagues, players that you focus upon, develop, put into the lineup. You can autoplay and act more like a GM or you can play game by game, pitch by pitch, too. You can mix it up.

And, finally, I have a question for you, Ken: MLB 2005 is superior to 2004? And if I want to play, how to go about it? Ebay seems to have unopened packs (that means like a collectible, right)?

I played Strat-o-Matic for about 6 years between '84 and '90. We played the advanced game, which was a straight dice-rolling stat-based affair. We basically kept a classic baseball scorebook to track the games. It's fun but it's for numbers-heads--the choices are largely strategic [who to play and pitch; lineups; etc.] versus tactical [don't pick pitches, but you could decide on bunts, steals, fielding shifts and a few other things].

Games like this [and there's another great one that a guy we knew in Wisconsin developed that's still on the scene--the name escapes me at the moment], are fun but computers are simply better at doing all the numbers work. Unfortunately, it's not for those looking for light fun; they're simulations...

[One of my highschool league-mates actually has turned Strat-o into a lifetime affair--he writes about fantasy baseball online for a living these days. This was the same guy who, literally, broke into a friend's house--jimmied the lock on a basement window and crawled through--the night before our draft so that he could pre-scout the cards. He was always a bit of a handjob, so this wasn't exactly unexpected for him. For the rest of us, on the other hand, "pre-draft scouting reports" consisted of assessing the intoxicating effects of varying brands of Canadian whiskey, particularly in combination with certain English and German beers. That particular year, my first round draft pick was "Canadian Hunter over ice backed by Paulaner lager." That was a good season...]

Have you tried the SI Baseball Strategy from Avalon Hill?
Basically you have a roster of players of different skill levels (both in terms of offense and defense). When you pitch-hit players lay down a card from their hand - for the pitcher it will be things like fastball; slider; curve; pitch-out...etc. For the hitter it's things like bunt; power swing; contact...etc. (don't quote me on the exact cards it has been a while since I've looked at the game). Also the better a player is the more cards they have to pick from, for example the Ace pitcher may have seven cards while your fourth or fifth starter may only have four or five. Same thing with batter, the more power they have or the better their career average opens more options for them.

Once both players have their cards played face down, they are flipped and the pitch type is compared to the type of swing picked by the batter on a matrix and that gives you your result.

In terms of stats you'd have to keep track of everything by hand so if you know how to keep score in a baseball game that'll help keep track of everything for you. I haven't done this myself but I've heard of people getting together with a few sets and having drafts for the different player cards and conducting full 162 game seasons keeping track of thier players.

I don't know if it will offer you the gaming excitement, but if you know the rules of baseball and know some basic strategy it may be worth looking into if you're looking for a deeper baseball game. I will warn you it may be a bit dry though.

LvT

Thanks, LVT! That actually sounds EXACTLY like something I'm looking for! I'll have to track down a copy.

I've got a copy sitting around (can't find anyone who is serious enough about running a team). Take a look at the game and if you are interested I'm sure we could get something worked out.

LvT