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Trials and tribulations of following interests when getting 'past it'.

Friday 19 January 2018

Hutt Hutt - and not a Jabba in sight... More Gridiron action....


Check the Kickstarter out - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2013971464/fourth-quarter-football-gridiron-miniature-game/comments

Morning Sports fans... It's Short and Folk here again to bring you the best of last nights action...
And what action it was JB as the Oakwood Raiders visited the Long Avenue Rams for the inaugural Conference Week Bowl.

It was another visit from my long suffering gaming pal Shaun Mc, this time to play Fourth Quarter Football. Another football US style game which has just smashed its Kickstarter target in a matter of days and is well into the stretch goals. I am lucky enough to be a kind of playtester and have enough of the official kit to be able to play the base game. Apparently this was the first ever game where the designer wasn't overseeing the game, obviously it was Shaun's first game and only really my second proper game. It is a testament to the rules that it went so smoothly - although we did have Andrew at the other end of FB messenger if needed, Kudos goes to the game play in that Shaun picked it up so quick and it ran intuitively. A caveat on the pictures - the pitch and my players are the official FQF ones but because I had undercoated (or am painting) all 14 up as one team Shaun had to use some Electric Football custom figures and I added a figure to the down marker and timer as well as the goals I made some time back.  Also obviously all the cards are not the final products.


Excitement from the third quarter - aka as me showing Shaun how the stuff works!

We join the action in the Fourth Quarter after a tight first three which saw the Rams leading by one point and the Raiders on their 25 after losing 5 yards on their first play.

Obviously (spoiler in the name) FQF has the action starting in the fourth quarter. This is a great mechanic as you can spend 90-120 minutes playing fairly detailed downs and actually feel like you get a game finished. Also means no abstraction of yardage/downs like in Techno Ball which kind of plays like flag. Again it uses 7 players a side as a base mainly because of ease of game play (time wise) and the ground scale. Again I see it as you are using the 7 players crucial to the play at that time and representing the area of influence around the line of scrimmage of a couple of players. There will be options to play games with more figures but apparently it takes more time - don't worry we will give it a go real soon. 



Coach McTague then tried a sweep around the right but the FB was stopped in his tracks as he failed to ram through the gap.
At this point JB I presumed it was going to be a very long maiden night for the rookie coach...

Shaun's QB was sacked on the first play by a blitz from the Line Backer. Sacking isn't done on the tackle stat but the sack stat and is essentially harder to do. I see this as being because the QB isn't intent on running through or round the tackler and not losing yards but rather self preservation and may duck and dive any way. Just being near him puts minus scores on passes etc.  But I rolled well :)
So on second down he ran a sweep.  A lack of blocking and poor evasion rolls soon put paid to that though and it was 3rd and about 12...



It didn't look good on the next down Marschall as the Rams seemed to have all the receivers covered and a blitz coming!

Yes JB it looked as if a sack party from the Rams LBs was the order of the day.

Shaun couldn't catch a break. my cover rolls were all spot on while his OL was underperforming giving me too many options for him to cover. Plus my sack rolls seemed to be on fire as I was rolling 10 plus every time. 

Well JB it seems like it was desperation time...
Wasn't going to happen Marschall - that coverage looked tight man... And there was the blitz again, and why not!



Corner back was all over that Split End but it looked like McTagues had the cajones to go for it. 



Holy crap on a cracker JB I'll never know how he caught it... 

Shaun had a Long Bomb card in his hand and used it... Was still a tough throw though but unfortunately I hadn't managed to double cover the SE like I wanted to, first time the dice turned, although it wouldn't be the last!  Although you need to factor in a number of things to the throw it becomes very quick and easy - the QB needed 7 to make the pass on target. There was however a minus three for the QB throwing to that zone (not his preferred side and a fair distance) added to this was a minus three for the receiver being covered. The saving grace was the pass play gave +3 to this zone (all these are easily seen on the stat and play card) and the SE gave a +2 as well. Shaun rolled a 4,4 and the plus five took it to 13 and the minus 6 back to 7 - he just got it on target and it was hauled in by the SE who was then thankfully tackled by the other defensive back moving in. Reading the above may make it seem complicated but in reality the cards make it very easy and quick. 



With 15 yards to go JB it didn't look too promising when the Split End slipped, the Flanker was covered and yet another blitz was on the way, McTague was finding it hard to keep those LBs away - although we always knew it left the backfield pretty open...
It's Jones' way though Marschall - all or nothing, all or nothing.. And this time it was everything, another trip to the ice bath for the QB !



On the following down I truly thought there was no way through for them Marschall, again the secondary had them covered well...

The difference here JB was the OL had finally decided to get up off their asses and do their job, McTague must have given them a rollicking...

Indeed fortunes changed on an excellent roll for the OL on the first phase of the play. In FQF the line roll to see how well they do their job in the seconds after the hike - Shaun had been rolling average up til this point, meaning his line had been performing average. BUT a natural 

12 changed that. On a pass action Line roll a natural 12 (6,6) gave a 'fantastic snap' allowing two DL to be engaged and the QB a plus one on the throw roll. THEN on the pass to the receiver, who was covered by one player and had another next to them (which I was hoping would slow them down by making the evade roll awkward) saw Shaun play a middle slant - this meant he had a +1 from the flanker in that zone, (from play card) +1 for the flanker liking to catch in that zone (from player card) and +2 (from QB card) as it was a preferred side and zone. Overall plus 4 and an extra from the snap - +5 total. Receiver was covered -3 but I had the LB not in same zone but adjacent for -1 for a total of -4. Shaun rolled an 10 (take no notice of dice in photo) +5, -4 for an 11 over all. Now this is 4 over the target of 7 which is good (base mechanic to remember in the game is +4 over target something good happens, -4 under target something bad happens, natural 12 something very good happens and natural 2 something very bad happens). On a pass +4 the receiver gets a free one square move - in this case INTO THE ENDZONE!

Seemed to be against the run of play JB and we both thought the Rams would come out strong again and after all a TD would give them the lead again, and time would then be against the Raiders....

That's what we thought Marschall, that's what we thought.



Incomplete pass on what should have been a bread and butter catch JB - it was then that the rot set in I think...
I agree Marschall it seemed to set the trend...

 Quick slant and then a first and sit to the tight end saw the rams marching up the field...
But JB they stalled on a couple and time was running out as they needed two scores...






Slow march was no good as I needed to score as the clock marched on...I had been keeping my Long Bomb play card for such an occasion. In the base game one has a deck of plays which are drawn from, a hand of 3 sees one card going on the play slot, one on the audible (which  you can swap to after the lines are set - also where trick plays go) slot and one to be kept. After the play has finished the one you used is discarded, the one you didn't into the redraw pile and you draw back up to three. This adds a deck building and management mechanic into the game although there will, I believe, be options for open play books and limited open play books for the purists. Anyway it was time for the bomb!


 It seemed the Rams had pulled one out the bag Marschall... as soon as it left the hand though it looked a little wobbly...

Yeh JB good idea but the final execution let them down and as it bobbled it looked like the pick was on...and what a pick it turned out to be!

Yeh it seemed I had done it, but the modified pass roll saw it a an Inaccurate Throw (4 under target score) meaning my receiver had a chance to catch it still, but he didn't as he was being covered well. Then the next closest player can try and catch it and Shaun's corner back DID !!!! Interception. 





Then the race was on... you can't activate the same player in consecutive phases and my QB tried to head him off, obviously guilt ridden!




Honestly my Ipad ran out of juice at this stage .... but needless to say my QB was blocked and although my defensive back did catch up as I used the fatigue mechanic to push him - the same mechanic made his tackle less effective and the game effectively ended on a 100 yard Pick Six... Obviously I let Shaun win to get hime to play again cough cough...












A brilliant, fun game which took us about 2 1/2 hours but that included a curry break and Shaun learning the rules! Post match talk turned to a comparison with Techno Bowl (which Shaun really enjoys playing). The games are different beasts - while TnB can't be fobbed off as just a football 'like game' there are a lot of things that are abstracted and make it feel more like playing flag football, don't get me wrong I love the game. BUT FQF feels a lot more like football, you need to call the plays and stick too them, you can improvise and there are mechanics and rules for scrambling etc but if you are forced or choose to deviate from the play you shouldn't expect a very high success rate. Just like real pitch action you do it when there is no real choice. Obviously, I haven't access to ALL the rules for player skills etc and we are playing the BASE game but I hope you can see how fun it is... I can't wait to get all the rules for team progression etc etc. More telling is I think Shaun decided that this was going to be the game we would be playing to get our Paydirt fix...  

Pass on the details of the KS as there isn't much time left and I WANT those final stretch goals LOL

2 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. No worries - there may well be more soon and possibly the 3rd in the series 'Livestream' in a couple of weeks.

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