Through one quarter, Manning has the Broncos up 9-3
Paging Geoff Giordano… Paging Geoff Giordano.
When Tom Zuppa and I both asked what everyone was getting at APBA’s Black Friday Deals sale, there was a lot of responses. Well, my package from APBA Black Friday arrived yesterday. I ordered the APBA Basic Football which came with the 2013 Denver, Seattle, Florida and Auburn teams.
Today I took some time to unpackage the game, put the teams in their envelopes and read over the rules. Of course, I took some time to look over the cards, too.
I did have enough time to play about one half between Denver and Seattle. Keep in mind, I haven’t played APBA Football for probably 20 years. For the most part though, the cards haven’t changed too much. The boards are familiar too but with some enhancements and game changes mostly to reflect changes in the game of football itself.
Playing the game was slow, of course. It HAD been a while. I still like the booklet format for the game (similar to the baseball game). Playing APBA Football though, requires you to change pages often to look up penalties, returns, etc. More so than the baseball game which granted I also have mostly memorized. I did appreciate that the Football booklet’s pages are color tabbed for easy lookup. I’m still working on the distribution method for receivers etc. for solo players by the way.
The APBA Football game is a very different game played solo compared to playing to face-to-face. Even in the old days, I haven’t played Football F-T-F much but I can imagine it being quite a strategy match. With head to head, offensive coaches call the plays and defensive coaches can affect the outcome by keying on players and choosing the right defense. Playing solo, one can adapt by using the appropriate defenses. I remember with the old game, I would even use one die for each play to help choose the defense (geared towards the most appropriate defense) so there would be a bit of randomization.
To me, playing any APBA sports game is a lot about the stats. I had fun recreating my old school method of tracking passing, rushing, receiving and other stats. I failed miserably but I also learned from my mistakes. Football so different than baseball where we essentially keep two kinds of stats, hitting and pitching. I would want to keep track of sack totals, punts and punt receiving, interceptions and returns, kickoff returns and of course, scoring.
In the short time I played, I had fun overall. Now that I’ve had a practice run, I may play a full game and report back. I would probably have more fun with teams that I recognize. I’m the first to admit that I just don’t follow the NFL these days. I either need to start following the it more or buy some past NFL sets. Also, I know that the college football has been in demand from a lot of APBA people but honestly, I probably won’t even touch the Florida and Auburn teams.
If anyone is interested in APBA Football, definitely check out APBA Football Club’s Geoff Giordano’s unpackaging video he posted on YouTube. You get a concise idea of what is included in the game and what the game booklet looks like.
I also got the APBA football game on Black Friday. I use the master game from early 1980s and the large boards are my preference. I also bought the 1999 set from EBAY, and that was the year APBA experimented with only printing cards for players that touched te ball to keep costs down. Now I can see why that experiment failed as as there is a dark background on the game boards and on the cards that make it almost impossible to read except by a magnifying glass. That is an idea that the Gameco should reconsider at least as an option, except use a white background. I have not looked at the modern boards but I noticed that the 1999 board is missing the interception return chart, or maybe I could not read it for the dark backgrounds. I will still use my large 1981 boards, but I would rip apart those spiral ring notebooks if I was to use the modern game and laminate them to be used as stand alone boards like God intended.
Great buy, Tom! Solo or FTF, APBA Football continues to amaze us with how rewarding it is. Then there’s the whole compatibility issue, pre- and post-1982 season. Simple solution, other than the Tabletop Sports compatibility charts: Play a pre-1982 team using its charts vs. a post-1982 team using its charts.
We recently competed in the NCFL’s first online football tourney (finished No. 2 with the 2007 Patriots to Mike McCune’s 1989 Forty-Niners in a 30-24 contest). While head-to-head is a great experience, I find the solo contests equally drama-filled. Case in point: Game 3 of our “Silver Series” between the 1973 Cowboys at 1973 Raiders; 13-12 win for Dallas using my solitaire method of shuffling a deck of 10 play cards to call offense while also calling the defense without prejudice. Have some videos on our YouTube channel of that and will post another now that I’m sometimes inserted a “trick play” card into the deck to get Roger Staubach a scramble here and there.
Highly worthwhile to buy some of the pre-1982 sets and a copy of that game again; we’ve been promised new 1965, ’70 and ’75 season sets for the master game, but who knows if/when/etc. Would be happy to Skype a game with you!
Geoff,
I’m definitely going to check out your channel a lot more now. I have a point of reference now :)
Let me get used to the game and I’ll get back to you about Skyping. Sounds fun.
thanks!
Tom
I like(d) the old style large boards and have never tried the small spiral ring play boards that APBA now has for both football and baseball. I did obtain the 1999 season and game from EBAY and noticed the dark background colors or the play boards in the spiral rings that is almost impossible to read without the white background. But here is a simple question, what is to prevent us from tearing that spiral rings off and playing the game the old style with some boards/sheets in our lap, one north of the game board, one on a chair to my left and one on the chair to my right as God intended? Of course now with an extra strength magnifying glass handy to read the results?
Point well taken, Mel. I’m just afraid that the loose boards would slip around and get lost. I do love the spiral for baseball and would probably get used to it with the football game as well.
I am attempting to play APBA football-solo-for the first time. I am having great difficulty in following the instructions. I live in SE Michigan. Anyone close by that could tutor me ?
If anyone needs tutoring on the game of APBA Football, Greg Barath’s 101-level videos are a great place to start for the contemporary versions of the game; his site is oguard62.net. For older boards, you can check us out at the ABPA Football Club on YouTube or shoot us an email at . As with any game or pursuit, start small. Just pick an offensive play, roll a basic allocation to call the defense, and forget all the nickel, dime, 3WR, 2TE, blitz and ground game stuff. Play it simple a few games. As you play it simply, you will get the feel of how APBA works to create a football experience, and the master rules will also come to you instinctively. Advanced rules are essentially a lot of two lines up or down to affect outcomes.