Counter Attack: the football board game

Product Information

It would probably cost millions to officially licence players and teams but nothing is stopping a community from making it’s own and the Counter Attack community has been VERY busy. With a little imagination you can picture your players doing pretty much anything that happens, or has ever happened in a game of football.

For a throw-in a movement action is used rather than player repositioning so the timer will keep running. To put offside simply in game terms, any time a ball is played to another player on your team who is level with your hex or behind you there is no problem. Roll against the referee's LENIENCY, if you roll under he sides with the defending manager, otherwise he will side with the attacking manager. Passing - Following a movement phase or successfully tackling an opponent you may take a pass action, with a standard pass, high pass or long pass.The goalkeeper can attempt to save the shot if it is in his saving range, this is his current hex or diving up to three hexes away parallel to the goal line. A failed nutmeg counts as a successful tackle for the defender, and a roll of a 1 for the defender is still a foul. The centre of the loose ball direction will always be from the centre of the incident, so the hex the pass was supposed to land on, or from a defender who has challenged for a tackle or header for example. Playing out a simulated match and having different players and attributes means every game is different and you plan accordingly depending on which players you have.

Shooting - There are three types of shot actions you can take, headed shots as described above, which have the shortest range. It all depends on your strategy and tactics, based on the skills of the players you draft at the beginning of the game. Often it will be listed like SHOOTING check 11+ or 6, which means they roll a dice and add their shooting stat value to the number, and either need a total of 11 or higher to succeed, or just need to roll a 6 on the dice to succeed, no matter what the total is.And goalkeepers have an almost completely different set of skills tailored to their one role in the match. Nutmegs - During your movement phase you can attempt a nutmeg on an opposing defender, you need to have at least two hexes of move remaining as you cannot finish on an opponent's hex, and it allows you to move to any space directly behind the opponent. The throw in has a range of a header, it can either be thrown to a player’s head, where a header must follow, or it can be thrown to feet or an empty hex, treat it as a standard pass with the reduced range for interceptions and follow up actions.

A delightful Easter Egg on the back of the board is the inclusion of various team set ups, one of which is the great PES Master League team, I’d recognise Ximelez and Castolo anywhere! If no other defender can get in line with or past the tackle hex this movement phase then the fouling defender will be termed as the last man. If the loose ball enters a valid player's hex then they take possession of the ball, for the attacking team either continue a Movement Phase if you were already in one, otherwise you must either begin a Movement phase or you may take a snapshot if you are in range.Longer passes can be attempted but their accuracy is determined by a player’s ‘ high pass ’ statistic combined with a dice roll.

This is a duel between the defender's TACKLING and the attacker's DRIBBLING, the winning player taking or keeping possession of the ball and optionally moving to any adjacent hex to the opposing player.

Free Kick - The attacker chooses the player to take the kick and moves them with the ball to the spot of the foul, the defender moves any opponent within 2 hexes of the ball 2 clear hexes away. It doesn’t matter about the dice if you have moved past a defender and that defender is focused on stopping someone else or you manage to get through and put a ball right where you want it so that you can knock a goal in. This has a double effect, first displaying the maximum range the ball can reach with the action, and secondly the ball is always assumed to travel in a straight line, so the ball counter can be moved along the centre line to determine which hexes and player's ZOI it may travel through. A snapshot can also be taken in the middle of a movement phase as an action, if your player with the ball has taken the ball inside the penalty area or is already inside it. The rule book is comprehensive and has extremely helpful examples of play at the rear as well as some ideas for shorter games.