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neo_prankster

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More Techno Bowl Fun with 'Scrim...so a few weeks back, I got around to doing several things: making bases for my standees...then redesigning said bases recently, buying a case to put all my TB crap in, printing out a few more teams (the Cowb...er, Bulls and Regals, shown below, also the Jaguars Yellow Jackets and Ravens Ninjas), junking my Arena board because I realized it was too narrow...and trying out and idea I'd borrowed from the Electric Football community, interchangeable field art.  Yes, I made Rhein Fire field art despite not yet making a Rhein Fire team to go with it.  So basically just like about half of the highlights on Cookieboy's Madden Not Top 10:hockeysmiley:.  Anyway, I'd decided to play a quick half before work.  Unlike my earlier forays, here I used a solitaire deck a fella at BGG devised, and so I played as the Regals, led by QB Eagles and Mack Koi.  The Bulls' standouts are no slouches themselves, leaning on Sam Emmitt's powerful running, Roy Cakeman under center, and Dee Sandman shutting down his side of the field on defense.  To make things brief, the half ended tied at 7, with the Bulls' TD being an interception return on the first play, as a somewhat ill-advised pass wound up being picked off by a Bulls linebacker who took it to the house.

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Nearly got free, but he got chased down a few squares short of seven.

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Honestly, I was looking to hand it off to Mack Koi, but the defense was on the cusp of blowing the play up...and the Ultimate Weapon already had the ball in his hands, sooo...one abandoned RB and one juke later, touchdown Regals!

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Not the prettiest field ever, the concept needs a few tweaks, but I think it's sound.

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A strong mind gets high off success, a weak mind gets high off bull🤬

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Another post, another pixel :D this time out, I'd bought a new folding table (and also made myself a dice tower out of an old pop tarts box and duct tape), and figured I'd christen it with a battle between the Monsters (me) against the Yellow Jackets (automa).  The Monsters' playing style is predicated on a good deal of synergy (and Perry Freezer holding the periodic block party), while the Jackets are reliant on Tony Boselli Boss to clear the way on both sides of the ball, whether it's shoving fools out of the way so Fred Taylor Freddie Thunder can get loose, or creating opportunities for teammates through teamwork.

In lieu of the coin toss, I rolled a single die, which came up as the odd I'd called, and elected to go on defense first.  Initially, that looked like a good choice, as the Jackets attempted a pass that went awry, and was picked off by one of my LBs at the 35.  Since I had a certain star nearby, I decided to try something I see on Cookieboy's Madden Top 10 all the time, so I had Walter Payton Payday take a handoff shortly after the pick, and he was able to reach the endzone for the first salvo.  Monsters 7, Yellow Jackets 0.

It didn't stay that way very long, though, as the Jackets were able to hold up just long enough for Thunder to find some open space.  One evaded tackle later, tie ballgame.  Not to be outdone, I decided put the ball in Payday's hands on the next drive, and ended up reaching the Jackets' 30 in two downs, but there was only time for one more play, so I attempted a field goal, which went through to put the Monsters up 10-7 going into the locker room.

The first play of the second half, I decided to put the ball in the air.  The good news was my receiver made the catch....the bad news was that on the Jackets' tackle attempt, doubles were rolled, which meant my man coughed the ball up...only for Mike Singletary Solitary to pick it up and make it to midfield...except he'd fumble as well, a ball the Jackets would pick up at their own 45.  Solitary made up for his miscue by making the tackle that finally ended that debacle, but the damage was done, and on the next play, Thunder, under center this time, showed off some quarterbacking chops, finding one of his bigger targets for what ended up a 45 yard TD pass, and the Jackets would take their first lead, 14-10.

As the Monsters went back on offense, I figured it might be time to pass it, but with my intended deep options stuck in coverage, I decided to toss it to my guy in the flats.  Problem was, the skill check failed, which basically meant the pass ended up offline.  Even worse, it got picked off at our 15.  Adding insult to injury, the Yellow Jackets were able to toss it into the end zone to take a commanding 21-10 lead with only a little time left.  I won't lie, the below pic looked like the dagger.

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It wound up taking the last three plays to do it, but this time as a receiver, Payday put the Monsters on his back, and on the last timed play, he made a Jackets defender miss a tackle, and took advantage to get in the endzone, which made the score 21-17.  I figured one thing, something similar was working for the AAF, why not test out an "onside play" idea here?  Though normally, there's no getting a first down in Techno Bowl, in this case, I figured this called for an exception, that the onside play would need to reach the 50 in order to keep the ball.  Once again, though, Walt Payday was puttin the team on his back doe, making a catch at the 45, then taking it all the way for the walkoff touchdown...

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The thrill of victory, as Payday is carried off the field...

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...and the agony of defeat, as a stunned Jacket wonders how it all went wrong

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I figure I might flesh this onside play idea out a bit, but unlike the AAF, I'll be playing this week :D  (too soon?)

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A strong mind gets high off success, a weak mind gets high off bull🤬

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  • 1 month later...

Ready for more pixelated football?  No?  Too bad 😛 

You know those times when a play starts out great....but then disaster strikes?  Happened to me in the second half of a solo play between the Trucks (Bucs, me) and the Regals (Eagles, automa).  So going into this play, a combination of an early safety and a pass that ended up going all the way gave the Trucks a 9-0 lead, and I was trying to put the game on ice, so I figured I'd hand it off to Al Stop (Mike Alstott).  His 3 skill rating, while making him very slow, also makes him VERY hard to bring down, for reference; combined with his skills, Block +1 and Shove, I figured I'd be able to chew a little clock before Al went down.  Starting from the Trucks' own 15, I sent a couple receivers down field as decoys, then gave it to Stop.  None of the Regals' stronger players were anywhere near him, so in a scene reminiscent of Tecmo Bo, I basically spammed Shove all the way to the Regals' 15...but then I guess he ran out of steam, as one more Shove failed.  Worse, the dice roll wound up being doubles...which meant a fumble.

The ensuing bounce was within reach of the Ultimate Weapon himself, the legendary Q.B. Eagles, and with his speed, some help from his friends, and probably at least one juke, Eagles took the fumble to the house to make it 9-7.  Exactly what I'd been trying to avoid.

I held onto the lead and won 23-14, but damn if that play didn't almost completely swing the momentum the Regals' way.  Fortunately, they had issues with the AAF-style onside try (my own house rule, which I'm still kinda tweaking), going 0 for 2 and even giving up a touchdown on one.

 

Honestly, I really wish I hadn't lost the scoresheet to the epic 28-all tie I'd played a few weeks back between the Ankhs (Saints) and Falchions (guess).  Flat out track meet, man.

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  • 1 year later...

It's been a while, and I figured I'd revisit my interchangeable end zones idea.  Incorporating that blue putty Loctite sells didn't look all that good and wrecks an unlaminated field, so I went back to the drawing board.

Among the many images I've saved are some Cubeecraft sports figures I've never gotten around to printing, but they gave me the idea of copying the tabs used in lieu of adhesives, and modifying them.  The slots that go on the field became small green lines, which were meant as a guide to make thin slits in certain areas.  For the most part, the folds are more obvious than the slits are.

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And then, time to see if my idea would actually work.  I happened to open an old Lions concept, so they're my example.  Here's the goods...

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...and here's how it looks in action...

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Still working out a few kinks, but I feel I'm on the right track.

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  • 2 years later...

IMG-20220529-132001128.jpg It's been a while...I've gone through cardstock, experimented, failed a lot, and stumbled on the right track.  I used to post at NHL modding forums despite not being a modder, guess I've been the tabletop equivalent ever since I crossed paths with Techno Bowl.

Anyway, let me explain what you're seeing.  Normally, I basically steal ideas from what electric football guys are doing; in this case, though, I'd thought about modern Madden's ability to mix and match uniform parts and ended up working out a way to somewhat replicate that with cardstock minis.  Given I make these slightly larger than 3/4", I figured something that was two pieces would be more manageable than something three-piece...and I'd printed this Bears set before I'd heard anything about an orange helmet.  You can see the various combinations available to me above, and I'd thrown in the mythical orange pants for the hell of it, so 9 combos (I didn't make the throwbacks, though I'd make those with my older one-piece setup because who does mixing and matching with throwbacks?).  I found myself surprisingly attracted to this look...

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I'm still not satisfied with my board, but what else is new? 😄 I'm getting closer to where I want it, though... won't bore y'all with the details right now, but I finally figured out a good way to do what I've been aiming for.

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  • 2 months later...

Been doing some more tinkering...and I managed to create a back view, for one thing.  Also figured out it's possible to create a mulit-page PDF in Inkscape now.  Made some tweaks to the player figure (the helmet was slightly oblong, mainly) and tested it out with a Falcons set.  Figured the once-worn color rush set would be a good one to show off in an impromptu huddle.  Well, that and I forgot to change the regular red and white figures' skin tones to what you see here, so CR red it is.  As you see, I managed to get logos on the helmet 😎

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Got a Saints set printed off last night, complete with field art.  As per usual, I can't get no satisfaction with my board, but I'm much closer than I used to be.  As I mentioned in the last post, I figured out a good way to enable interchangeable field art...first, what led to this in the first place: I've been using rolls of laminate on my boards for some time, and at first, I'd used what I could find at Walmart, which worked pretty well, and I could even use poster tape to stick stuff on.  The only hangup I had was it's glare, which I would have no issue with were this trying to replicate a sheet of ice or a basketball court.  At some point, I found a different brand of laminate at Hobby Lobby, and have been using that since.  The matte finish is perfect for what I want, but there's an issue with this one too: it doesn't play well with anything stickier than painter's tape.  A lot of scrapped ideas later, I hit on the idea of clear 'tracks' to slide midfield and 25 yard line logos into.  The end zones are basically covered with elongated card sleeves.  Also placed tracks on the 20 yard lines so the board can be converted for a Superb Owl. 

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Dealing with a bird infestation

 

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The end zone, my home, the one place I live

 

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I has map, now needs compass

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In sports gaming, there lies a subset known as quick play, which is mainly used in conjunction with a full featured game like Strat or APBA.  They can be as simplistic as just rolling for a final score, or they can be beefier affairs that can stand alone just as easily as they can supplement other games.

Fast Drive Football is one such a offering that was created to work with Plaay Games' Second Season (while mimicking its baseball brother, History Maker Baseball, as teams are rated) but can stand alone, to the point that you can create a fictional league relatively quickly, and I'm intending to pre-play the upcoming wild card round, starting with Chargers @ Jaguars.

 

Bolts 7-10-0-14---31

Jags 0-17-14-7---38

 

This was a pretty even matchup, both teams had some traits that could serve them well but also some drawbacks that could screw them over, but basically the Jags scored last in a game that easily could have gone into overtime.

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The TLDR version of the rest of my pre-play:

Cowboys and Bucs punt a lot, Dak tosses winning TD, Dallas 24 Tampa 17

In a close one that was a game of runs, the Seahawks took a 17-10 lead into the half but can't do much of anything in the second half, 49ers win 31-23

Vikings have a hot 3rd quarter where they score 20 en route to a 40-16 win over the Giants

Much like Cobra Kai, the Bengals struck first and struck hard, never trailing as they beat the Ravens 33-13

Took a while for the Bills offense to wake up, but it did in time to take a 10-3 halftime lead, holding on to oust the Dolphins 23-17.

 

And just for the heck of it, figured I'd go waaaay back...back into time to replay two games from the last week of the 1968 season: Vikings at Eagles and Packers at Bears, the results of which would decide the NFL Central champion-Chicago had won both of their games against Minnesota, and both teams entered Week 14 at 7-6, so the Vikes needed to win and for the Bears to lose or tie.  IRL, the Vikings edged a terrible Eagles team 24-17, while the Bears couldn't take advantage of the Packers being down to their 3rd string QB and basically being a shell of their former selves, and a furious comeback fell short, losing 28-27.

Figured I'd get Minny-Philly over with, and man did the 68 Eagles suck (the Vikes must've caught the Eagles on a good day IRL).  Until a field goal midway through the 2nd, they either punted or threw picks, and to add insult to injury they threw two straight pick sixes in the first quarter.  It was 17-3 at the half, and Minnesota won 31-9.

 

Over in Chicago, the Bears took a 14-3 lead into the 2nd quarter, but then Green Bay scored 21 unanswered points, and it would have been 28 if time hadn't run out in the first half.  The Bears managed to cross the goal line late in the game, but their hail Mary was knocked down to seal the end of their season, losing 24-21. 

 

And now a TLDR review: if you wanna feel like you're coaching, Fast Drive Football's not the game to scratch that itch.  FDF is more like you're watching a game unfold, but much faster than real life.  In similar fashion to Gridzone, which I downloaded when it was free but have yet to play, there's a module in place enabling you to create your own league from scratch, recently improved with a module enabling injuries and improvements in-season.  I figure one thing, there's a good chance you'll come away from a game feeling like you'd just watched on TV. 

For the curious, LINK.

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I'm probably gonna preplay the real matchups sometime next week, but for the hell of it I'll finish the one I started, starting with Bengals at Bills.  This one started like a house on fire, Cincy ran it in for the first tally, only for the Bills to take the ensuing kickoff to the house...the first quarter was almost more eventful than it had any right to be, ending 21-10 Buffalo.  The Bills were up 38-17 at one point, before the Bengals tried to roar back, scoring two TDs in the fourth, and then they recovered the onside kick.  Unfortunately for Cincy, they'd let the Bills get a field goal in between their scores, and the last drive ended with a Buffalo INT.  It ended 41-31, but as mentioned, wasn't that close.

Niners-Vikings was a bit of a snoozer, San Francisco dominated mostly through defense, as the Vikes could only muster 10 points, not helped by a pair of missed kicks in the first half.  Appropriately enough, the last score of the game was a safety for the Niners, making it SF 25, Minnesota 10.

Jags-Chiefs surprised me for how slow it started...it was pretty much a punt fest interspersed with a Jaguar field goal, and so little time was coming off the clock I found myself wishing the quarter would just end already (not kidding).  The two teams would trade touchdowns, and the half ended 10-7 Jax.  Third quarter went pretty quickly, and the Jags took a 17-10 lead into the fourth.  The 4th was to interceptions what the 1st quarter was to punts, with three drives ending in picks...including Jacksonville's last drive, which would definitely land imaginary Doug Pedersen on imaginary Dumb Decisions, as that INT would be returned for the game tying touchdown.  Going into overtime, the Chiefs got a TD run on their possession to make it 24-17, and then the game ended when Jax fumbled the ensuing kickoff...I could imagine Arrowhead going crazy and the Jags walking to the tunnel wondering what happened...

Last was Boys-Birds, where the Eagles came out kinda flat.  The good news was that they scored five times...the bad news was all five were field goals, and the Cowboys rode strong second and third quarters to a 30-15 win.  Not gonna lie, I imagined Eagle fans booing Philly's last field goal.

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  • 5 months later...

Dusting off the 1968 replay with the AFL West battles that would determine whether the Raiders or Chiefs would win the division outright or need a tiebreaker game...TLDR version: Raiders blew the Bolts the eff out, Chiefs had a slightly tougher time with the Broncos.

Summaries: Raiders 56, Chargers 24... Oakland's offense basically ran circles around the Bolts like they owed them money... wasn't even San Diego miscues, the Raiders were just too good right now

Chiefs 31, Broncos 16...a tale of two halves: the first half saw Denver keeping it close, and actually leading briefly, as they went into halftime down 17-14.  The second half was all Chiefs, as the only score Denver managed was a safety early in the 4th.

AFL West tiebreaker: Raiders 24, Chiefs 12...KC threw four interceptions.  Hard to win when you constantly give the ball away.

NFL Divisional Round: Colts 34, Vikings 17...and it wasn't even as close as the final would suggest.  Baltimore was in complete control, with the Vikes trailing 34-7 midway through the fourth before some too little too late efforts.

Cowboys 28, Browns 21...from the tail end of the first quarter to midway through the second, Dallas exploded for 21 of their 28 points with back to back touchdown runs and a kickoff returned for a score.  Cleveland got within 7 midway through the 4th, however in spite of two Cowboy turnovers, the Browns couldn't capitalize and fell just short.

1968 NFL Championship Game: Colts 19, Cowboys 17...both teams combined for four interceptions in the 1st quarter, and very rarely did either team take advantage of great field position.  Dallas' late touchdown brought them within two, but they couldn't recover the onside kick, allowing the Colts to run the clock out and punch their ticket to Miami.

1968 AFL Championship Game: Raiders 34, Jets 28 (OT)...the offenses started out red hot, as the opening quarter ended with the Jets leading 21-13, but then the defenses solidified on both sides, culminating in a defensive struggle that saw both the 2nd and 3rd quarters go scoreless.  The Raiders finally found the end zone again in the fourth, tying the game on a 2 point conversion, after which the teams traded touchdown runs to end regulation at 28-all.  The Jets won the coin toss, but their lengthy drive ended with a missed field goal, which Oakland couldn't capitalize on, as they were forced to punt, but pinned New York deep in it's own territory.  The Raiders won on a pick six, enabling them to make a return trip to Miami.

So I will soon give you an alternate Super Bowl III: the Oakland Raiders vs the Baltimore Colts.

Funny thing nobody will give a damn about but me: the Colts-Cowboys game seemed to drag on despite ending in regulation...and damn game took up more rows on the score sheet than the Jets-Raiders game that had more scoring and went into overtime.

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  • 5 months later...

"Soon" in my world is apparently six months 🤣. Anyways, the alternate Super Bowl III from the Orange Bowl in sunny Miami...in the blue corner, the champions of the National Football League, the Baltimore Colts!

And in the black corner, the champions of the American Football League, the Oakland Raiders!

1st Quarter: after trading punts, the Colts struck first with a TD run, only for the Raiders to match them after a lengthy drive with a short pass.  The Colts were driving down the field as the quarter came to an end, tied 7-7.

2nd quarter: Baltimore opened the 2nd frame with another score, going ahead 14-7, and then both teams traded interceptions.  After chewing up almost five minutes of clock, Oakland managed to find the end zone again, tying things up just before the end of the half.  Raiders 14, Colts 14 at halftime.

3rd quarter: the Raiders took their first lead of the game after capping the opening drive of the 2nd half with a touchdown run, only for Baltimore to take to the air and tie it up one more time.  However, the Colts couldn't take the lead back as they missed a field goal just before the end of the quarter.  But wait-Oakland fumbled to end the quarter, and the Colts recovered with great field position!

4th quarter: Unfortunately for the Blue & White, they couldn't take advantage of the opportunity and were forced to punt it away.  The Raiders, on the other hand, had a golden opportunity themselves after a great punt return, and cashed in with the go-ahead touchdown to go ahead 28-21.  Oakland's defense was able to hold the Colts off, even after Baltimore converted on 4th down with around 3 minutes left but were kept out of the end zone.  The Raiders couldn't chew quite enough time to avoid punting one last time, but the Colts only had enough time to attempt a lateral-filled desperation play that was unsuccessful, and the Oakland Raiders became the first AFL member to claim the pro football World Championship.

(Disclaimer: I normally wouldn't use "World Champions" but I figure a writer of the period would have)

 

Honestly, this felt like a very even matchup.  This game easily could have gone into overtime...hell, the Colts could have been the ones winning by a touchdown if one or two things had happened differently.

 

I bought and downloaded Sherco Grand Slam a while ago but haven't found the time to play, I think I'll take a stab at that next.  Hopefully.  Not 100% sure.

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Oh wow, I did not realise this thread was here, this is my world!!! The quick play games fit my current lifestyle a little better, although once my kids are a little older I can see myself getting into a longer play hockey or soccer game. To further speed it up, I often develop excel sheets that can do much of it.

 

Not a huge football fan, but Fast Drive Football (which Discrim mentioned earlier) is so fun and has great customisation- the fictional league creation/maintenance is so smooth and feels realistic, especially when you get into some of the user created charts, you have a nice little self-contained fictional universe.

 

Stone Mountain Press has three fun games (well, there's more but I've only played three) of note- Gridzone which is ostensibly a 7-on-7 football game, he's starting towards putting together NFL seasons but it is also designed for fictional league play, also with methods of going through the offseason. The game has no special teams, scoring is based on how far up the field a team progresses, based on skills of individual players and charts.

 

Dice United is a beautiful soccer quick-play simulation, you get the experience of watching highlights on Match of the Day or the MLS Wrap-Up show, and there's lots of seasons (and a guide explaining how to rate any season you can find on FBRef). Stone Cold Hockey uses a very similar engine but uses it for hockey, and it's also a wonderful game with a lot of seasons that plays through pretty fast but still gives you the feel of watching highlights. Both games have a book for fictional team creation/season progress.

 

Shoot-Out Hockey is a really good quick play game without much chart referencing, which is a nice feature- you can play with dice or fast action cards. It doesn't "backfill" the stats like many replay games, when you take a shot you know it's (X) player taking it, which is fun for a quick play game.

 

The Beautiful Game is a very famous soccer simulation in this world where you can play any season ever with some quick math, this is a very fun game that sometimes feels a little more random than Dice United, but to me its' best feature is, similar to Shoot-Out is it doesn't feel like you're "backfilling" results, which is to say that when you flip a card for an attack you get some flavour text to set up and then roll dice to resolve, whereas in the Dice United/Stone Cold engine it's more like "Team A is on the attack, will they score or not?"

 

Rugby World and World of Rugby League take the two rugby codes and put them into the Beautiful Game engine. I'm a big League guy, and WoRL scratches that itch.

 

Finally I'll shout out Precision Sports Games who also have a fun Rugby League game, along with Aussie Rules and Rugby Union games. These are all the ones I play, although Dice United and Fast Drive Football are the big two for me right now.

 

I'd add that I started out in MLB Showdown as well, and as a result (and of course my baseball team being killed off in 2004) I feel like I've had trouble ever getting into any other baseball game. Showdown Bot is a cool site though that makes cards from any player in Baseball Reference! NFL and NBA Showdown were really wonky games- NFL's barcode reader was broken year one, which killed any momentum the game could have built, and while they fixed it by year two, the damage was done.

 

Wizards of the Coast also made a soccer game Football Champions which I tried SO HARD to get into, and I have so many cards (if I was willing to ship them to Italy, I could apparently make some good money), but just never quite worked for me as a game. I literally busted it out last week for my once every year or so attempt to like this game and it just doesn't work for me. Feels too stunted.

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On 12/4/2023 at 8:24 AM, LaGrandeOrange said:

Wizards of the Coast also made a soccer game Football Champions which I tried SO HARD to get into, and I have so many cards (if I was willing to ship them to Italy, I could apparently make some good money), but just never quite worked for me as a game. I literally busted it out last week for my once every year or so attempt to like this game and it just doesn't work for me. Feels too stunted.

Sounds similar to this game I've taken a few peeks at, I forget the title at the moment but it mostly features historic players, clubs and national teams. (edit: Time Vault Soccer's the name)

The "God I want to like this game but...ugh" experience is also a familiar one (mostly Pizza Box Football but also Strat-o-Matic and to some extent MLB SportsClix)...and I occasionally fall into the Showdown Bot rabbit hole...speaking of which, I think I'll check out Ben Joyce's card today.

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  • 3 months later...

I got one of those super tank printers back in the summer and have barely used it...such is life.  Anyway, figured I'd play one of the many games I've downloaded but had yet to actually play.

Highlight Maker Baseball, not to be confused for History Maker Baseball, is another of Soren Narnia's offerings, and it's unusual in that the vast majority of baseball games simulate every plate appearance.  Highlight Maker doesn't, instead using an inning launch table to either get through scoreless half innings or pick things up with the batting team in a promising position, and from there you go through different batter tables until the side is retired or a result is the last key moment of the inning.  Also unusual is that it differentiates between the two teams, but not individual athletes, a trait shared with Fast Inning Baseball, which I know of but have yet to try (so if you wonder why I don't say any player names, that's why).

I don't play series very often, but figured I'd give it a shot, so I pitted the Orioles against the Rangers, live from Arlington.  In game 1, the first key moment came up in the top of the 3rd, with two out but men on the corners...the first batter I rolled for drew a walk, and the next batter singled in a run, but Texas was able to get out of the inning afterwards, and then the Rangers tied the game at 1 with a single scoring a man from third.  Baltimore scored again in the 4th, but Texas would respond in the 5th.  Entering with two outs and a man on first, the runner stole second on a play so close the Orioles manager ran out to argue, to no avail.  The runner would then score on a single to once again tie the game at 2-2.

In the top of the 6th, the Orioles put some distance between themselves and the Rangers with a 3-run bomb, only for Texas to respond with 3 runs of their own to maintain the tie ballgame, 5-5 at this point.  The 7th inning was not so lucky for the batters, as the Orioles struck out with the bases loaded, while the Rangers grounded out with a man on second, but the O's would draw final blood in the 8th via a solo homer.  The Rangers managed a double in the 9th, but couldn't get the runner home, so game 1 ended Baltimore 6, Texas 5.

Game 2 had fewer moments, though they mostly favored Baltimore, beginning in the first inning, where the O's loaded the bases with one away.  To the Rangers' credit, they only gave up one run on a wild pitch, though not much happened until the top of the 4th.  The Orioles were able to get a man on first all the way home, making it 2-0.  After a homer made it 3-0, Texas finally got a run across on a 6th inning fielder's choice, as Baltimore tried for the double play but could only get the force at 2nd.

The Rangers were able to keep it within striking distance, surviving a bases loaded scare in the 7th and throwing out a runner at home in the 9th, but their comeback attempt was hampered by a double play.  A subsequent triple gave them some hope, which was dashed with a groundout to end the game, Orioles 3, Rangers 1.

On getaway day, the Orioles didn't wait, they homered to start the proceedings.  The Rangers responded in the 2nd with a sac fly, but Baltimore hit a 2-run homer in the 3rd, a lead they would never relinquish.  Texas responded in the bottom half with an RBI single to make it 3-2, but that's as close as they would get, as after two more Oriole home runs sandwiching a 5th inning Rangers score, it would be Baltimore 5, Texas 3 to start the 7th inning.  A 3 run bomb didn't make things any easier for the Rangers, who now trailed 8-3.

In the bottom of the 9th, Texas led off with a home run, but the side was otherwise retired to give the Orioles the sweep.

 

Gotta say, this was a novel experience.  For the most part, if you don't really feel like making any decisions for either side and just want to spectate, this one's for you, about the only decisions I made were whether to have the infield in or not, and whether or not either team should trot out an Ace pitcher, which I did for Texas in game 2 and the Orioles in game 3...the Rangers might have had a better shot at avoiding the sweep if I'd chosen differently.

No guarantees, but I might pull the trigger on the soccer management game Eleven in the near future.

  • Applause 1

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A strong mind gets high off success, a weak mind gets high off bull🤬

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Me either, I've read through a few times but have yet to feel compelled to try it, but since I saw Soren Narnia named I figured I'd mention it.

 

Fast Inning Baseball is a treat, as someone who likes these quicker playing games. I do think some of the means for rating hitters is a little wonky, but I haven't decided on anything better.

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