History Maker Baseball Review

The last couple of posts have dealt with some nostalgic games from my past.  Now, we'll take a look at a game I was just introduced to - History Maker Baseball.  Let me start by saying HMB is different than any other baseball game I've ever played.  It's great at some things and doesn't do other things as well as other games on the market.

How is the game different?  Well, the primary difference is the player cards don't have tons of number on them.  The only numbers are the season the set is from, the team the player is on (for fictional sets), and the year in the trademark.  So, how do you play a game without numbers on the cards?  I'm glad you asked.  Let's find out.

Each player is rated at a position like most games.  Additionally, hitters are rated for right handed, left handed or switch hitter.  Pitchers are also rated on which hand they throw with.  There's a fielding rating for each player and a baserunning rating.  That all sounds the same as the rest of the baseball sims, right?  Here's where it changes.

Players are also given qualities.  For instance, Joe Morgan, MVP from the 1975 Reds is rated at as Semi-Champion, Semi-Slugger, and Patient.  Meanwhile, my childhood hero, Johnny Bench, is rated Semi-Hero, Semi-Slugger, Semi-Home Run King, and Semi Whiffer.  If you're like I was, you're probably wondering how can those qualities drive the game, and, oh yeah, what do you mean Semi?

These qualities are the engine that makes this game go.  To initiate an at bat, you roll three six sided dice and cross reference the result off a chart from the game book.  There are three columns in the chart.  The first is the pitcher column and it might ask if the pitcher has a certain quality or it might be blank.  If the pitcher has the quality, a result will occur.  If not or if the column is blank, you move on to the batters column and follow the same procedure.  If that doesn't produce a result, you move to the fielder column which will produce a result.

For instance, on a roll of 1-1-1, you will check the chart under the pitcher's column.  It asks if the pitcher has the ACE quality.  If so, the hitter grounds out to 3B.  If not, you check the hitter's column.  It asks if the hitter has the SCRAPPER quality.  If so, he hits a double.  If not, you check the Fielder column for the result.  For this die roll, the result is a Home Run to LF.

OK, but what about all those semi qualities?  This is a great innovation that designer Keith Avallone came up with.  Any of the qualities of players can be semi qualities meaning they are somewhere between possessing that quality and not.  So for any given at bat, if a player is semi at a given quality and the chart is asking if the player has that quality, you roll the decider die.  The decider die has three blank sides and three sides with a dot.  If you roll the dot, the player has that quality for that at bat.

I'll roll a quick at bat as an example.  We'll go back to the 1975 season and look at a World Series at bat between Joe Morgan and the Red Sox ace Luis Tiant.  The dice roll is 1-4-6 (always go from lowest die to highest).  The chart asks if Tiant has the Flash rating.  He is semi-Flash so we roll the decider die.  It comes up blank so he doesn't have the flash quality.  If he did, it would have been a strikeout since Morgan doesn't have the Good Eye quality.  Since it didn't, we go to the batter column and it says to check if Morgan has the Champion quality.  Morgan, as we stated above, is a semi-Champion.  A roll of the die indicates he is a Champion for this at bat at and as a result bloops a single into left field.  Had the decider come up no, we would move to the fielder column which would result in a ground out to 2B.

One aspect of this game that I love is the Game Day feature.  Each day before the start of the game, you need to determine the teams' mood and chemistry for the game.  The roll is dependant on the teams' success over the previous game or games.  Next, you determine based on your prior game (or games) who each team's hot and cold batter is.  This can come up in the game and can help players on a hot streak or hurt those that are slumping.  Finally, you check the message board.  This is done based on your team's mood.  A team in a stormy mood might get bad news while a team in  a sunny mood will likely get good news.  Very cool feature.

There are multiple charts in the game book that affect the game besides the main play chart.  You might be directed to the Infield Drama or Outfield Drama chart in which a player's fielding quality will be checked and will impact the result.  Similarly, Plate drama tends to look at pitcher and catcher qualities.  The Baseball Right Now chart looks at the batter/pitcher to see if they are hot or cold either as a result of the Game Day decision or the result of the prior at bat.  There's a player experience chart and team chemistry chart that impacts the game.  Finally, there are ballpark,umpire, and rare play charts.  So much good stuff.

This game is extremely fun to play.  I was worried I wouldn't like this game as I'm a bit of a simulationist and I didn't see how qualities could accurately simulate a game.  And, to be honest, I still don't think this game would be as statistically accurate as most others on the market, but this game doesn't attempt to recreate a past history but to create a new history if that makes sense.  The results should be close enough that it will pass the sniff test, but you shouldn't expect to have players do exactly what they did in real life.

Where this game truly shines for me is the fictional card set.  Keith has created a fictional card set so that you can create your own universe.  I've created my own league using the twelve team fictional set I bought from Plaay.com along with the card creation instructions (yes he sells this for a very small fee so you can create your own cards).  I've created a league of the six largest cities without an MLB team in California (where I'm from) against the six largest cities in the rest of the US without a team.  I plan to play a season and then "advance" my players.  Some will retire, some will get better, some worse, and new players will be called up from the minors.

Why a fictional universe?  There are no expectations tied to player cards.  I don't have to concern myself with statistical accuracy.  I don't have to decide if I'm using as played lineups or not.  My players and teams will grow and change.  But most importantly, it's a blast.  It's a completely different experience than playing Statis Pro or Strat-O-Matic.

So what's my verdict?  This game is a home run all the way.  No doubt about it.  I'm not sure there's a funner game of baseball out there.  I personally wouldn't use HMB to replay a MLB season, but for fictional leagues, History Maker Baseball is the top dog in my book.

Statis Pro Basketball Reviewed

If you read my last post, you will see I started playing Statis Pro Baseball as a Freshman in college. Well, after discovering Statis Pro Baseball, I heard there was also a Statis Pro Basketball.  Being almost as big a basketball nut as a baseball fan, I decided to spend some of my hard earned money to get this game.

Unlike Statis Pro Baseball, I never was part of a Statis Pro Basketball league.  But that doesn't mean I didn't have fun with the game.  On the contrary.  I played this game a ton.  I played with at least four different people from my dorm.  One friend and I started a replay of the season.  Unfortunately we never finished it, but we had a blast.

Well, after cleaning out my garage, I found my old copy and it was pretty beat up, but everything was there.  I decided to play a game to see if the game was like I remembered.

Statis Pro Basketball, like it's baseball counterpart, is driven by a fast action deck.  The game flows quickly and is probably the fastest tabletop basketball game I've played.  Everything runs quickly and smoothly, but it feels like it's simulating most of the results well.  If you are coaching a team with outstanding rebounders, but poor defenders, you will find yourself yelling at your players to play some defense so you can take advantage of your rebounding.

I replayed an early season game between the Knicks and Celtics from 1988 and was pleased with the result.  The Knicks won 109-100.  The score was a bit low, but there was probably a good reason for that.

Each team had a starter injured.  Robert Parrish and Johnny Newman both got hurt and are also scheduled to miss their next games.  Additionally, Trent Tucker and Danny Ainge got into a fight and were ejected.  Finally, there is also a mechanic that forces you to sometimes rest players for the remainder of the period.  That occurred four times including twice right at the beginning of a quarter.  There were a lot of minutes played by subs.  I love these rules, however the amount of roster juggling I had to do to play this game was extreme.  I'm going to chalk this up to chance and say it won't happen anywhere near this bad usually.

There is a home field advantage chart that allows you to ignore or change certain results depending on how strong your team's home court advantage is.  It seems like a good innovation that allows teams to have records more reflective of how they actually played at home and on the road.  Every once in a while there's a team that actually performs better on the road, however, so maybe they should have home and road ratings to balance things out for the road warriors.  Overall, I'm a fan of this mechanic regardless.

What would I change?  Well, I'm not a huge fan of the stamina rules.  It's based on shots attempted.  So if you have a guy that is gunning because the FAC deck keeps calling his number, you might have to sit him a lot longer than he'd regularly have to sit.  I much prefer a minute based fatigue system such as the one in Strat-o-Matic.

There are a few other aspects that Strat-o-Matic did better than Statis Pro.  First and foremost, there's not a system in place to get the ball to your highest volume shooters.  On occasion you get to choose who gets the ball, but there's no mechanism in place that gets the ball to your shooters.  Second, the assist system is practically non-existent.  The rules as written will get you nowhere near the number of assists the players actually made.  Finally the only distinction between shot types is two or three point shot.  There's no differentiating between outside shots, inside shots or penetration.

Even with these flaws, the game is still a ton of fun to play.  If I was going to teach someone how to play a tabletop basketball game, I'd pull out Statis Pro.  It's easy to play and much quicker than some other games.  The Home Field Advantage mechanic actually gives the home coach some extra strategic choices to make.  Additionally it will make teaching other basketball games a bit easier.  It's not a slam dunk or a three pointer - just a nice soft mid range jumper.

Statis Pro Baseball Review

Statis Pro Baseball brings back many fond memories for me.  It really catapulted my involvement in the table top sports hobby.  I started playing Statis Pro Baseball my Freshman year in college.  My buddy was joining a league and asked me if I'd be interested.  Of course!  Well, little did I know then, that I would still be playing in these leagues almost thirty years later.

So how does Statis Pro hold up in today's world?  Would I still join a Statis Pro league?  What's good about the game and what would I change?  Let's examine these questions.

The first thing I noticed about Statis Pro Baseball upon playing the game again is how cool the mechanics are for pitchers.  Each pitcher is given a PB rating which is used to determine whether the result of each plate appearance will be read off the pitcher's card or the hitter's card.  Additionally, prior to entering the game each pitcher makes a check to see if he's got good stuff, poor stuff or average stuff.  I'm a huge fan of the PB rating as well as the concept that pitcher's sometimes have a little extra and other times are just a bit off.  Score a HR for Statis Pro on this area.

You also immediately notice there are no dice!  The game's engine is a Fast Action deck.  This FAC deck lends itself to a quick resolution of games once you get the hang of the game.  I can knock out a game of Statis Pro quicker than I can with any other tabletop baseball game I've played and I credit the FAC deck with a lot of that.  Not quite a homer as randomizing cards is not as simple as randomizing dice rolls, however I love the speed.  Give them a triple for this innovation.

The other thing I love about this game is it is fun.  The game might not be as statistically accurate as other games and it does feel a bit dated, but the game is still a blast to play.  This would probably be my go-to game if I was trying to introduce someone new to the hobby.  The game is easy to learn and is mostly intuitive.  To me it's much funner to play Statis Pro with someone that playing it solitaire.  Perhaps that is because I cut my teeth on this game and always played it with others.  Fun factor is a solid double.

Now a game of baseball is not complete without some outs.  Statis Pro makes quite a few outs.  As I said before the game feels a bit dated and there are some rules that feel pasted on.

How is the game dated?  Well, there are no lefty/righty splits or ballpark effects.  Both are practically required for a baseball game I'm going to play.  Statis Pro includes a simplistic lefty/righty rule, but it's the same for everyone.  There are no hitters that crush lefties or one out lefty relievers.  I really miss that depth if I'm playing a season or a tournament.  The lack of ballpark effects is also disappointing to me.  I want the Padres to play completely different in Colorado than they do at home.  I don't get that.  For me this is a strikeout.

I'm also not very enthusiastic with how some of the strategies available to managers are implemented in the game.  The base stealing system doesn't include any way to differentiate between how well pitcher's hold runners on base.  It's a minor quibble, but a quibble nonetheless.  Bunting for a hit seemed like it was a bit too good.  Of course, maybe that's because there was a guy in my league in college that abused that and the hit and run.  Oh, the hit and run.  That chart needs some major help.  A great hit and run man is extremely valuable in Statis Pro as the hit and run chart is very kind to him.  I'll give this a groundout since much of this stuff is fixable with a couple tweaks.

Overall, I'd rate Statis Pro as a solid single.  It's a quick, fun game that will always remain in my collection and have a soft spot in my heart.  This game is my game of choice when I'm teaching someone how to play tabletop baseball because it's simple, elegant and quick.  There are some people that still sell Statis Pro cards online so you can continue to play the game with today's players.  Some of those people have even included lefty righty splits which is a huge plus for me.  I haven't tried these out so I can't speak to the quality of the cards.  Regardless, I recommend everyone at least play Statis Pro once and yes I would join a Statis Pro Face to Face league in a heartbeat.  Have you played Statis Pro?  What are your thoughts on the game?

Cleaning Out My Closet

Well, actually I was cleaning out my closet and my garage and I came across a number of games that I want to give a go.  I still have a lot more stuff to go through so hopefully I'll find more - especially since I seem to be missing at least a little bit from everything.  We had a fire a few years ago and a company came in and moved everything out that wasn't destroyed and after our home was restored, moved everything back in.  Well, I never unpacked some of the stuff including most all of my sports games.

Here's what I came across:

Strat-o-matic Baseball 1995 and 1996 - missing the rules and the charts.  I know I have those somewhere unless they were destroyed in the fire - a distinct possibility.  I have no idea what projects I was working on at the time.

Strat-o-matic Basketball 1988/89 and 1995/96 Basketball - missing the fast action deck.  I think I've seen that one somewhere.  Hoping to find it in the next few days.

APBA Pro Football 1996 - Unfortunately complete.  This game in this form is not the kind of game I'm looking for.  There aren't enough players to have a full complement of backups.  The receiver cards seem like a complete waste as do the defensive cards.  Perhaps the game is a bit more in depth now or the Master Game fixes some of the problems, but I played through a quarter and it's really not my cup of tea.

Strat-o-matic Pro Football 1986 - No idea how I got this.  I wouldn't have purchased it in 1986, so I'm guessing I found it a few years later in a store.  Anyhow, I also ran a quarter of this and was disappointed with how fumbles were handled.  It seems that all ball-carriers have the same fumble rate!  That should be an easy fix and one I hope Strat has already remedied.

Dynasty League Baseball 1993 - missing the rules and charts.  I'm really hoping to find those since this might be my favorite baseball game.

Statis Pro Basketball 1988-89 - looks like it's complete!  I really had fun with this in college until I discovered Strat basketball at which point this was rarely played.  Might just play a nostalgia game or two, but I can't see doing a complete replay since Strat just does it better.

Statis Pro Baseball 1988 - also complete!  I really liked how Statis Pro had a PB rating for pitchers that determined if the result would be read of the pitcher's card or the hitter's card.  Again, I don't see doing a full replay without a better platoon system, but I could see introducing my son to sports gaming with this one.  It's fun.

Hot Corner Baseball 1992 - Looks like all I'm missing are the rules.  I don't recall much about this game at all and would love to give it a go, but I can't find the rules.  The company appears to have gone out of business and I can't find a copy of the rules online anywhere.  Anyone play this game or know where I can get a copy of the rules?  I have the charts (at least I think I have them all).

I also found my rules for Pursue the Pennant Baseball including charts for three years.  I can't find the cards or box however.  I'm hoping all the missing stuff is in a box somewhere and I find it in the next couple of weeks.  I know I have at least one other baseball game, but I can't remember what it's called.

Here's what I have my eye on that I haven't tried yet:
Replay Baseball
Replay Basketball
Second Season Pro Football
History Maker Baseball
Hockey Blast
Hockey Bones
Titlebout Boxing (when the new edition comes out)

There are also a number of computer titles I'm interested in trying out.

And as usual, I plan to review all titles here as well as update the site with progress on my replays and other projects.  What games am I missing that I should definitely try?

National Pastime Next Generation Reviewed

I recently came across a free tabletop baseball game called National Pastime Next Generation and downloaded the rules along with the 1975 player cards.  Amazingly the game is based on National Pastime which was created in 1931 (although I'm sure there have been many tweaks).  This game does not feel like a game older than my father.  It incorporates park effect and left/righty matchups.  So what's the verdict?

The game is fun.  I played APBA baseball once in the mid 70's until my friend's brother found out we were using his game, but I've also investigated APBA for possible purchase since then.  I've also played Baseball for Windows when it came out.  This game is very reminiscent of APBA.

You select your starting lineups and pitchers and away you go.  Play begins with the roll of two six sided dice.  The dice are not added together but instead read as two separate digits.  This roll is then referenced on the batter's card giving you a number between 1 and 45.  These numbers are then cross-referenced off of the appropriate chart.  There are charts for each possible baserunner situation.  The chart will tell you the result of the play.

So, now that we have the basics out of the way, how does the game hold up?

Well, I think the results are fairly accurate and the game really is fun to play.  I'm getting quicker now and don't need to access the chart for every result (although I still need to check the chart more often than not).  I plan to continue my replay of the '75 season and will publish results here from time to time.

So, what do I wish were different about the game?  Well, first, I'm disappointed the lefty/righty matchups only work for pitchers.  I see that a complete redesign of the card would be required to include lefty/righty hitter results, but I enjoy having my right handed pinch hitter that can mash lefties.  I don't get that with NPNG.

My biggest complaint, however, is how base stealing is handled.  Bunting, hit and runs, positioning of the infielders, pinch hitting, and removing a pitcher are all strategy decisions in the hand of the manager.  The same cannot be said of base stealing.  Base stealing is built into the card which leads to a number of issues in my opinion.

First, good armed catchers are worthless.  I'm a Reds fan (hence my wanting to replay 1975) and was looking forward to playing with Johnny Bench.  Well, Johnny might was well be me behind the plate because his rocket arm makes zero difference.  I want teams to steal less frequently and less successfully vs the Reds, but in my first game Bench allowed 3 SB.

Second, obviously if catchers don't impact the running game, neither do pitchers.  Some pitchers biggest weakness was the propensity to give up stolen bases.  For instance, when Greg Maddux won his four consecutive Cy Young awards, he was terrible at holding baserunners.  In this system, Maddux will be even more dominant as walks and singles don't become doubles.

Third, and most troubling, there is no looking at game situation in determining whether the baserunner steals a base.  Generally if the game is not close, teams don't steal bases.  They still will with this game.  But more importantly, players will attempt stolen bases even if the situation doesn't call for it.  I've only played about ten games so far and yet I've had a very extreme case in which the stolen base rules gave a very unrealistic result.  The Cardinals were tied in the bottom of the 9th with two outs and a man on first.  Lou Brock laces a single moving the runner to third and immediately gets thrown out stealing second.  Lou Brock is one of the all-time great basestealers and would realize his run meant absolutely nothing in that situation.  There's no way he would have attempted that stolen base.

Despite my frustration with the stolen base system and the lack of platoon splits for hitters, I still strongly recommend this game.  First off, it's completely free.  Second, it's very fun.  Third, the results seem very realistic.  Follow along as I post replay results here and we'll see how strong those results are.

Legends of Boxing - New Fighter Career

As I mentioned in my prior post, I'm going to start a new fighter for the game Legends of Boxing.  I'm using the Career Campaign Add-on plus some randomizers from the web to create my fighter.

First, I Googled a random name generator and grabbed a random name for my fighter.  Meet Neal Burns.  I found another site that gives random heights and weights and determined Neal is 5'9" and 161 pounds.  Looks like Mr. Burns is a Super Middleweight.  Since 10% of the population is left handed, I rolled two ten sided dice to determine a percentage and Neal is right-handed.  Finally, I found a site that randomly generates a city and found out Neal is from Boise, ID.  None of this stuff is actually important for the game, but I figured it would be fun.

Now to the meat of my fighter - his stats.  Neal is a Physical fighter.  Fighters are rated in 12 categories with most of the ratings being from 1 to 10.  Each fighter is given a control rating vs both types of fighters.  Neal's control rating vs other physical fighters is 6 and vs tactical fighters is 5.  His defense rating is 2 (uh oh), power is 5, durability of 7, chin is 2 (double ouch), cut of 6, will of 9, and with 6 TKO points.  He's got a -3 finisher rating, a dirty foul rating, and 23 endurance.

Finally, there are four modes of fighting: Elusive, Outside, Inside, and Pressure.  Neal never uses the elusive mode.  He spends the majority of his time fighting Outside or Pressuring his opponent.  He occasionally fights inside.  His primary punch is the straight and his secondary punch is an uppercut.  I decided to start Neal out at the age of 18.

His first fight was against Benjamin West of Colorado Springs, CO.  The regional matches are scheduled for four rounds.  Benjamin is a tactical fighter with pretty good defense and decent power. His endurance is a bit low which could come into play even in a four round bout.

Round 1: Neal is feeling excited over his first professional fight and immediately pressures Benjamin who is fighting Outside.  Neal immediately lands a hard Cross, followed by a scoring straight.  Both fighters trade punches for a bit then West lands a jab.  Some more even exchanges followed by a hook by West, then a hook by Burns and finally another hook by West at the bell.  A close round that is scored 8-7 which all three judges give the round to Neal 10-9!

Round 2:  Both fighters maintain their modes from the first round. This round doesn't go nearly so well for our new boxer although things look like they're going to be good as the usually clean fighting West is warned for a minor foul.  This is followed by a period of blocked and missed punches before Burns lands a scoring straight.  Some more blocks and misses and West lands a devastating straight followed by a scoring cross.  Burns recovers a bit and there's an even flurry of strong scoring blows from both fighters.  West manages to regain control at the end of the round scoring a Cross and a nice hook.  West wins the round 9 points to 3 and all 3 judges agree.  West 10-9 on all cards.

Round 3:  Once again, both fighters maintain their starting modes.  This pivotal round gets started with Burns landing a nice uppercut, followed by a cross by West, and finally a combination by Burns.  Both fighters juke and move a bit before Burns lands a straight.  After an even exchange in which both fighter score, Burns lands a nice cross.  Most of the final minute both fighters just Juke and move.  Burns wins this round 7-2 and two of the three judges see it that way.  Somehow Judge #2 scores the round for West.

Round 4:  Neal continues to pressure and West is fighting elusively.  Going into the round, West is starting to feel the effects of fatigue.  Burns comes right out and scores a straight, then West does a good job of making Burns miss on an uppercut, followed by Burns scoring a nice straight.  After an even exchange, Neal lands a hook followed by a strong straight at which point the ref stops the right with Burns winning by TKO at 1:56 of the 4th round.

Very cool.  Expect to see further recaps as Neal Burns attempts to climb the ranks of the Supper Middleweights.

Legends of Boxing Review

I came across this game yesterday and was immediately brought back to my Junior High years back in the early 80's.  My dad had a game called Title Bout which was a boxing simulation game.  I'd seen it in the game closet, but I'd never seen my dad play it.  Well, one day, I was "sick" and stayed home from school.  I asked my dad if I could play Title Bout and he said that's fine as long as I didn't expect him to play with me.

I devoured the rules and set out to replay a match of Muhammed Ali vs Sonny Liston.  The rules were poorly written, but they seemed to capture the feel of boxing.  I think I ran three matches over the course of that day.  I played a bit more, but my Junior High attention span quickly gravitated to something else.

Well, yesterday when I heard of Legends of Boxing, I figured I had to give it a shot especially when I heard the price!  The game is completely free.  There's a 10 page rule "book", four pages of various charts, a scoresheet, and a few optional downloads.  The game can be played with either dice or a downloadable FAC deck.

There is an optional download called the Fighter Ratings Workbook that has over 1450 fighter ratings plus automates the scoresheet process.  It also allows you to print fighter cards.  I haven't even delved into that yet because one of the other downloads caught my interest - the Career Campaign Add-on.

With this Add-on, you can create your own fighter and take him through a career.  Rules are given for generating your fighter's stats and there are rules for creating the opponents for your fighter.  Your fighter starts off fighting regionally and if successful, will move up to fight nationally.  If your fighter competes favorably on the national level, he will then fight internationally.  Check back later and you can follow my fighter's progress though the ranks.

Overall, this game is a great deal of fun and seems to capture the feel of boxing.  A quick check of the boxers rated in the Fighter Ratings Workbooks looks like the fighters are pretty well done.  The game focuses more on simulating matches than strategic decision making.  That said the game is very fun.  You could run a heavyweight tournament to see who is the best heavyweight of all time.  Or you can replay some of you favorite fights.  It's absolutely free to download and I highly recommend this game to anyone interested in boxing games.

Legends of Boxing can be downloaded at http://legendsofboxing.tabletop-sports.com/lob_home.htm