1st and Goal scores a TOUCHDOWN !

Even though Football Season is drawing to a close, the fun and excitement doesn't have to end.  Sports games are a tricky undertaking... they easily slip into a statistics fest, dry simulations.  1st and Goal avoids this pitfall by embracing the spirit of game of Football without the baggage that a sports game generally carries.  You are coaching the team, calling the plays.... there are no individual players to worry about.

R & R Games has produced a boardgame with simple, yet satisfying rules.  The mechanics are straightforward, the game components are high quality. There is a sturdy board, which is magnetized so your downs marker and ball can't be jostled out of place.  The cards are quality glossy cardstock.  The dice are nice and big, with inset sides to protect the numbered stickers on each side.  The rulebook is full of color examples and provides some optional rules to add to the flavor.  Recognizing that not all players will have the same grasp of the strategies involved, they even include a section explaining the Offensive and Defensive plays and their uses.

The easiest way to explain the game is to go through a sample play, so without further ado...

Player A has the ball, and is the Offense, Player B will be Defense.  Each will select a play from a hand of 8 cards.  Revealed simultaneously, the cards will be cross indexed to find what dice will be used for the play:

Here the Offense gets the Red and Green Die, plus the Play Die... Defense always gets the Black Defense Die.   Player A gains 18 yards, while Player B pushes him back 5... for a net gain of 13 yards... possible First Down!
But the Play Die indicates there may be a penalty on the play... this will either be confirmed or disregarded by the throw of a Referee Die... Player A better hope its not on him!




Time for the half is tracked by the amount of cards in the Offense Deck, with Running Plays causing an extra card to be burned off that deck to account for the clock running.  Once the Deck is gone, the half is over!

Selecting your play is as much a psychological exercise  as it is dependent upon real football strategy.  Reading your opponent, or faking them out is a part of that decision-making process.

The game comes with a generic team, which both players share, and it plays well enough right out of the box.  At about $30, its a worthy investment.  What brings out the true potential in this game is the expansions.  Each expansion provides 4 teams worth of dice and represents a division for about $15.  That works out to $3.50 a team!  These teams each have unique sets of numbers on their dice to represent strengths and weaknesses in their Running and Passing games as well as their Defense.

Ah, the dice...  each Die, including those in the base game, are blank six siders and a sticker sheet which must be applied to each side.  A steady hand and patience will serve you well here.  And take the IOGre's advice... don't do all the expansions at one sitting...

Especially with the expansions, this is one game with LOTS of replayability.  The IOGre has played with Football fans and people who didn't know Dick Butkus from a butt-kicking, and so far it has been unanimous. This game is flat out fun.

1st and Goal is from R&R games: http://www.rnrgames.com/