A football manager board game that simulates the development and running of a club, complete with match days and league tables. This game can be played solo, where you are given a scenario objective by your board to complete, or competitively which is more based on the victory points you can earn from your club development and success. It is largely a card based game, and a blend of euro mechanics plus some dice rolling, and involves some engine building.
The game components from the kickstarter are really nice, there are wooden tokens, thick side boards, plastic shirts to represent your team board and many decks of cards, and the addition of the playmat in this case was a worthwhile outlay for a solo player as it sets out the available cards neatly in front of you. The game does take up quite a large table presence, and set up initially takes a little learning, however the mechanics of playing the six round season becomes really easy to remember very quickly. The card decks are certainly sufficient to provide different combinations to appear each time your play.
You are given the task to run a whole club, supported by your directors, and it is up to you to hire staff, recruit and train players while building up your stadium infrastructure. The balance every turn is to earn resources which include the money you need to play your bills, recruit players or develop your stadium, gain fans which help you with income on match day but can also help to mitigate dice rolls. Then strength enables you to play your best players on match day, and finally extra actions undertaken using your staff or directors. Victory points are earnt from achieving objectives, combining staff sets or building a great stadium, alongside your youth player development, and then your teams final league position. Your pool of available upgrades such as staff, players and sponsors will be random each game, which gives you the challenge of working with what is available, and the mini personalities and effects of your players help to make them come alive.
At the end of each week you will undertake a match weekend, which is a neat mix of reading a brief scout report, and then setting up your team to defend against the opposition shots while making goal scoring attempts yourself. It is undertaken via a grid system, comparing opposition zones against your own, and it works really well, giving you enough information to make some decisions but also keeping you guessing too. Opponent teams have four cards which are randomly selected from to ensure you don’t automatically learn the teams just from their name. Given the aim to provide the simulating of a game result without simply rolling dice, i really enjoyed how this worked. After the match there will be a consequence rolled from a table, and then other teams league points are rolled separately using coloured dice that represent their relative strength, and whilst this does bring some randomness to the game, it is a decent workable mechanic that is quick and easy.
This is a great game if you like football, resource management or have enjoyed computer manager games. Whilst it can be argued that a board game can never come close to the depth of the computerised experience, it does do a good job of allowing you to build your club, improve your team and try to complete an objective, or go for a ranking based on your victory points. I really enjoy the game, and it keeps me coming back for one more go to see what will happen with the combination of cards that come out. The mix of scenarios are an excellent idea and also different enough to ensure you will not always focus on the same areas. The game after repeated plays remains quite light as an engine builder compared to many euro games, and I would like to see even more depth to be added, more than what is achieved from the various expansions. However, this is the most engaging football board game i have found, and as a solo game it really shines.
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Expansions
There are expansions you can add to enhance or change the gameplay and a modular in approach in that you can add individually to your game (my additions highlighted green = own, blue = part owned, red = not purchased) :
Solo Campaign
A set of scenarios which form a managerial campaign. For anyone who wants to make this one of their main solo games this is a great addition. There are six solo scenarios included in the core box, but this extra box just adds to the whole experience. This expansions is in my opinion the best one to get.
Unexpected Events & Stadium Expansion
These two box expansions are built around adding variety to your core box. The events box has extra weekly news events to add variety and can throw spanners into your plans, plus a matchday event pack which have player effects on your team each week. The stadium expansion takes your club infrastructure building to another level. These are easy additions if you have played the core set to a level of familiarity.
International Players & International Cup Competition
Adding in new players to purchase, and tactics with an international flavour, the players expansion is one that will appeal as it relates to the match day, and you tend to like your purchased stars who come with mini personalities or game effects. The international competition adds in a mid week knockout match to your game, and although this sounds great it may be a little unbalanced requiring some house rules.
Playmat
For a solo player in particular, this is a useful item, it looks great and sets out your board of cards in a neat and organised fashion. Whilst it is really not essential, it is very nice to have.