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Main Catalogue | Board Games & Card Games | Ghenos Games | Rugby World

Rugby World

Price: £44.99

RRP - £48.99

***PLEASE NOTE: Due to the excessive weight of this item we are having to charge extra p&p to ship to addresses outside the UK, which will be added before your order is charged. Overseas orders will be charged at cost - we will contact you to agree this before charging/shipping.

Board Game; 2-8 Players by Ghenos Rugby World is the latest Ghenos Games board game, conceived to introduce you to this, the most fascinating of sports games. The game consists of 15 players grounding the ball over the goal line at the opponent\'s end of the field. The trick, however, is that in advancing the players can only pass the ball backwards! The 15 defending players can either make a tackle, to prevent their opponents from advancing, or try to capture the ball. In true Ghenos Games style, the level of simulation is extremely high, allowing you to experience the scrum, ruck and lineout, and to run, kick, pass and tackle in an attempt to score tries and drop kicks. Choose to play for one of the 16 leading national teams, in your very own Rugby World Cup. Every team comes with special cards featuring names and characteristics from its Rugby tradition. Rugby enthusiasts will enjoy the thrill of the leading international matches that this game reproduces, while beginners will discover a whole new world, learning to share in the famous motto that states that rugby \'is a game for gentlemen in all classes, but for no bad sportsman in any class\'. ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 2+ players, 45-60 minutes designed by Alfredo Genovese reviewed by John Humphries Having been a keen player and later supporter of rugby union since my far off school days, I have played most if not all of the board, card and table versions of this sport. So it was with eager anticipation that I awaited the arrival of Rugby World. There will be the obvious comparisons by rugby board gamers between this game and CrashTackle which was introduced to us some six or seven years ago. Rugby World is a big game, from the eight piece, 38\' (98cms) by 27\' (69cms) board to the 96 page rule book. However, don\'t let the latter put you off, the English rules only occupy the first 20 pages, the rest being devoted to Italian, French and German translations and a multi-language appendix. The board is marked out as a rugby pitch together with a grid of squared intersections. Components are supplied for 16 national teams: England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Fiji, Samoa, Japan, Canada, USA and Germany. I\'m sure that the last named has only been included in an attempt to boost sales of the game in that country. Germany is not renowned for its rugby union team and only ranked 26th in the world in 2007. The components for each team comprise 15 cardboard figures in team colours, 15 cardboard tokens and 4 special cards. In addition there are 30 plastic stands for the figures, a ball and a d6 and a d12. Printed on each figure card are 3 strengths related to that figure; Force, Speed and Passing. Some figures also have a K which means that they are recognised kickers. For some strange reason the rules state that the game can be played by up to 8 people, 4 on each side. I can just imagine the utter chaos that would be created by 8 hands trying to manoeuvre 30 playing figures. No, in reality Rugby World is a 2-player game. It is worth mentioning that the translation of the rules is not as clear as it might be and sometimes forwards are confused with backs and attackers become forwarders. The rules also assume that the reader will have a reasonable knowledge of the laws of rugby union as some aspects of the sport are not dealt with in any detail. Unsurprisingly, players take alternate turns. During his turn the player can perform up to 4 of all or any of the following actions: Running (with or without the ball); Kicking (the ball not the opponent) and Tackling the ball carrier. Also up to 3 of the actions can be `free plays\' which means moving a figure by hand onto any desired intersections on the pitch. However, there are restrictions to this as we shall see later. In addition during a turn any number of passes can be made before the 4th action. So let\'s have a look at these actions in more detail. Running employs the same vector movement mechanism as used with the publisher\'s car racing game Bolide. From a standing start a figure is moved 1 or 2 intersections forward in a straight line, orthogonally or diagonally. A counter is then placed the same number of intersections and in the same direction, forward of the figure. On the next turn that figure can be moved into any of the 25 intersections surrounding the counter. Each turn the figure can increase or decrease its speed by 1 or 2 intersections up to the maximum Speed printed on the card figure. There are four types of kick in Rugby World, a field kick, a dropped goal attempt, a conversion and a penalty kick. When a player elects to field kick, he has the choice of a short, mid or long kick. Having chosen, he rolls the d12 and consults the chart to find the distance kicked. Whilst recognised kickers get to decide on which intersection to place the ball, non-kickers have the ball placed for them by their opponent. The ball carrier can pass the ball up to that number of intersections as shown by the P number on the figure. The rules state that the ball must only be passed backwards. However, we have modified that rule as I shall explain later. The defender can tackle by manoeuvering up to 3 figures onto the 3 intersections in front of the ball carrier. The outcome will depend on whether there are 1, 2 or 3 defenders in position. With just 1 defender, the attacker can attempt to break through the tackle by comparing the Force numbers on each figure and rolling the d12, or attempt to avoid the tackle by comparing the two Speed numbers and using the d12. Facing 2 defenders the attacker can pass the ball but using only half his Passing numbers rounded down. With 3 defenders the attacker must release the ball by placing it on the intersection behind him. The defending team can then call for a Ruck (a sort of mini-scrum). The one-on-one tackler can call a Hard Tackle in which case the Force numbers are compared and the d12 rolled. If the die score is 10, 11 or 12, the tackler has fouled resulting in a penalty to the attacker. Any other die score means that the tackler gains possession of the ball. When the ball crosses the side lines, the result is a lineout and the games designer has handled this rather neatly. Both players place 5 of their forward figures in parallel lines between the 5 and 15 metre lines. The player who will throw in the ball then chooses a number between 1 and 5, indicates this uppermost on the d12 which he covers with his hand. The opponent then tries to guess the number, if he is right, his player receives the ball, otherwise the attacker retains it. Contravening certain rules results in a scrum. Each player places his forwards, facing each other in a 3-2-3 formation. The ball is placed in the attacker\'s pack and he can then either move it out to his scrum half, or call for a shove, whereby the total Force numbers of each pack are compared and the d12 again comes into play. Upon winning the shove, the whole pack moved forward one intersection. The defending team may then carry out a shove and so on until either the ball leaves the scrum or a scrum collapses. Each player also receives 4 cards which can each be used once per game. The cards only contain a word or two, or the name of a famous player from that country. It is then necessary to look at the appendix in the rule book to discover the benefit of each card. These can range from blocking the opponent\'s free moves for a number of turns to increasing the speed of a figure for one action. Fouls and other transgressions of the laws are notoriously difficult to replicate in a board game. The designer attempts to do this with rules about obstructions and offsides. However, in all the games that I have played, nobody has ever found themselves in an obstructive or offside position. As a result we have tweaked and added to the rules in an attempt to increase the realism. For example; the rules say that the ball must be passed backwards. However, the laws of rugby union state that the ball must not be passed forwards. Thus lateral passes are quite legal. So if a player in Rugby World wishes to attempt a lateral pass, he will also roll the d12 and if a 10, 11 or 12 is scored, the pass is deemed to have gone forwards, resulting in a scrum from where the pass was made. We have also clarified and simplified the scrum and introduced an offside into the rucks and mauls, clarified how and when 22 metre drop outs take place and how to handle field kicks taken outside the 22m line and which go directly into touch. The rules suggest two ways of ending the game. The first is to play the traditional two halves of 40 minutes each. The second is to play eight `possessions\'. A `possession\' being from the time a team takes possession of the ball until it loses it. The rules state that one way of ending a `possession\' is after 7 tackles have been made, at which time a scrum is awarded to the opposing team. I think that at this stage the developer was confusing Rugby Union and Rugby League for in the latter sport, possession changes after 6 tackles. The sole purpose of the d6 is to keep a record of the number of tackles (on the die face) and the number of `possessions\' along a track on the board. So how does the game play? The vector movement is OK in motor racing where every piece is more or less moving in the same direction. However, it does not really work with two large groups of pieces moving in opposite directions. In theory there could be 30 figures and as many as 30 counters on the board at the same time. We soon found that figures were standing on opponent\'s counters, opposing counters were on the same intersection and it was quite difficult to remember who had moved when and to where. Also the ability to have 3 `free moves\' per turn rather makes a mockery of the movement system. So we abandoned that method and devised a much more straightforward and, I believe, realistic movement of figures and ignoring the counters. Initially players took some time in deciding and carrying out their actions. However, we have overcome this problem by introducing a 1 minute sand timer. Now players must complete their 4 actions within 60 seconds or lose any they have not taken. This has certainly streamlined each match and we find that 20 turns per half gives us a game lasting around 45 minutes. It would have been good to have more plastic stands as the card figures have to be taken on and off those supplied when you want to play different teams and the cards will become frayed. Rather than clip the plastic ball to the figures, we use a card ball in which the figure stands. Also a players\' aid would be very useful to remind players of the technical aspects of the game. To help new players gain a quick grasp of the rules and mechanics of Rugby World, I recommend that you start with the 7-a-side version. The rules are identical to the full game but teams only comprise 3 forwards and 4 backs thus making it simpler for the newcomer. So to summarise, we start with the bones of a decent game and by adding some flesh in the form of modifications and tweaks and combining some elements of Rugby World with those of CrashTackle, we end up with a very playable replication of rugby union. It is also very simple to adapt the game for rugby league. However, the game is highly unlikely to appeal to anyone who has not played or has no interest in rugby of either code.

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Main Catalogue | Board Games & Card Games | Ghenos Games | Rugby World

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