Main Catalogue |  BOARD GAMES & CARD GAMES |  Games For The World |  The World Cup Board Game

The World Cup Board Game Price: £34.99 Currently unavailable. Board Game, 3-16 Players, Ages 12+ by Games for the World The World Cup Game recreates the fascination and excitement of the Football World Cup Tournament. Can you guide one of the European teams to victory after crossing thousands of miles of ocean to Uruguay in 1930; or can you repeat the triumph of Brazil in the FarEast in 2002? This is the bvoldest concept for a World Cup board game ever devised. You can play the very first World Cup tournament that took place in 1930, or the more recent World Cup tournament in 2002. Players will control the destinies of the national teams, taing them through the group stages into the knowck-out stages and hopefully to the greatest prize itself - The World Cup! The World Cup Game has a subtle mix of luck and skill. Through the play of cards each player will score goals, press attacks and shore up defenses, but fouls, offsides and penalties can thwart your strategy. All matches in each round are resolved simutaneously so a complete World Cup tournament can be played from 1 to 3 hours. The World Cup Game includes everything you need to play the 1930 ad 2002 World Cup Games: *2 Playing Boards *87 Action Cards *182 Action Tiles *74 National Flag Tiles *36 \'Plastic\' Footblls *2 White \'Blob\' Dice *2 natural \'Blob\' Dice *3 Score Sheets *1 Rules Booklet Look out for future expansions covering over World Cups of the past. Expansion Set One will include the 1934, 1938 and 2006 World Cup Games! ++++++++++++++++++++ Counter Magazine review ++++++++++++++++++++ 3-16 players, 60 minutes designed by Shaun Derrick reviewed by Alan How The World Cup season passed without the plethora of football games being produced. Indeed, in the games world you might have thought the World Cup featured Sudoko rather than the world\'s largest sports tournament such has been the support for that game. The World Cup or its presence in 2006 did at least stimulate some support and there was at least one new game around from a new designer/publisher. The premise for The World Cup Game is simple: simulate each world cup (since 1930). This game deals with two - the inaugural 1930 World Cup in Uruguay and the last completed one in South Korea and Japan. Further versions will be published including the recent 2006 World Cup in Germany. The game bears many resemblances to Australian Design Group\'s World Cup game, but mainly I suspect because in order to simulate a tournament many features have to be the same. The leagues and knockout matches both require a system to resolve them, so any game covering the World Cup has a natural similarity of feel to any other covering the same subject. Where The World Cup Game differs from ADG\'s game is in the level of detail in each game. All game information is always visible and the teams that each player guides is known from the start. The 1930 version has fewer features and fewer teams than the 2002 set, so I am focusing my comments on the 2002 competition. The 2002 World Cup was jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea, the first World Cup to feature 2 hosts. (Real) History shows that hosting confers a significant advantage and so when seeding the teams, Japan and South Korea both gained game benefits. The group matches are displayed on one of the two mounted boards, with each game clearly displayed. The 2002 World Cup format featured 32 teams in 8 groups, producing 6 matches in each group. Group A, for example has France, Uruguay, Denmark and Senegal as the teams. Each team in a match has a number of boxes into which action tiles are played. The number varies for each team, but in the group stages there is no more than four per team in a single match. Each team also has a coloured ranking with black, followed by red, blue, green, yellow and white. Action tiles are played one at a time onto any empty box starting from the inside and working to ward the national flag of that team which occupies the last box. The tiles are played by each player in turn by playing one of the 3 cards from their hand. The colour of each team is a limiting factor on the outcomes of cards. For example the best card is a `3 goal card\', but if the team that you play it on is green it only counts as 2 goals and 1 goal for a yellow or black team. The last played tile is vulnerable if it is a goal or attack (= 1/2 goal). This is exploited when someone plays a Foul or Offside card. The effect is to turn over the tile and put a goal tile of 1 lower value in the next square, thus using up two tile spaces. A defence chit can protect the previous chit or it can be used to fill in an opponent\'s space, thus reducing the chance for that team to score in that match. In all there are 11 types of tile, and the cards used to play them are of a good stock and clear enough to get straight into the game. As all 32 teams are divided amongst the players at the start of the game, there is a lot to consider. But as only one tile can be played at a time, the turns are quick and downtime is low. It would appear that a random draw of tiles might favour someone who drew out the best teams, which is surely the case, but as you can only play one tile per turn, you quickly find that you cannot get all your teams into a great position in each league and there is some group play to knock out teams that players have common non-game feelings about. For example, a Scotsman might pick on England by favouring their opponents. A games player may also pick on England by favouring other teams in the same league that they wish to get through the group stages, with the result that England\'s apparently good chances of progressing are severely reduced. Which is all part of the fun and banter going on in the game. As the leagues unravel, the league round ends when two decks of the action cards have been used and the scores from each match are considered. There is a final twist of fate because the teams have been seeded and four dice are thrown to add goals to each match in a group. The result of this roll may convert odd half goals (attack tiles) into goals if the colour of the dice reveals a spot of the matching colour of a team. The dice themselves are not evenly spread between the 6 seed colours with a strong bias towards the best ranked seeds. Two dice of the same colour also count as a goal, so losses can be turned into draws and draws into victories. The resolution is exciting and once the scores are recorded on a sheet (you\'ll need to photocopy these) the leagues are resolved and the top two teams move to the knockout stages. The pairings are all pre-set on the other board, but the tile spaces available depend on the seeded colours. The tensions heats up with only half the deck of cards used and so the chances of getting all your teams through diminish so even if you did well in the group stages your teams may be drawn against one another or you will not have sufficient turns to play good tiles on all your teams. The knockout stage can result in penalties, which means each of your initial penalties may score (2/3 chance) or miss (1/3 chance). (In the interest of game play England\'s chances are not reduced nor are Germany\'s chances increased to better reflect reality.) The penalties remain a lottery which at least lasts less time than the real life version while having similar outcomes. The quarter final and semi final stages are very similar with a quarter and then an eighth of the card deck in use. Cards are retained by players at the conclusion of each round so there is some tactical use of cards for players wishing to save up for a great result in a forthcoming round. The final uses the same number of cards as the semi final as the 3rd place match is played simultaneously. The game is entertaining, gripping and unpredictable. In my first game Japan beat Russia 5-2 while Croatia beat South Korea 5-4 for 3rd place match. While the scores of these matches were slightly on the high side the rest of the games in the whole tournament featured really acceptable score lines, including several 0-0\'s. I though this was a terrific feature as I have played many football games where the scores include 7-5\'s and 9-2\'s. The general feel of the game is exciting especially as you focus on fewer teams, probably including one of your own. While the knock out nature of the competition could result in a player not having any teams to manage, it is unlikely and the game does speed up as rounds go by. The game is longer than you might expect - my four player games have come in a shade under 3 hours, but the tension, excitement and moments of horror as your best team is knocked out are well worth the time. If you have any interest in sports games and especially football, this is a game you will want to play. I\'m waiting for the expansions to come out to replay the 2006 World Cup and of course the 1966 version. Come on England! More ...

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