Counter Attack: the football board game

Product Information

If your opponent dribbles in and out from the box several times during one move you get to move one hex every time they do.

Counter Attack has a sleek and simple box design, complete with The Football Strategy Game subtitle on the front, smaller than the standard Kallax fitting box but not too big for what it needs to be. Because dice play a large part in Counter Attack there is an element of luck and admittedly when a couple of rolls go against you in succession you do want to flip the table but overall the game is well-balanced.I managed to pick up a few expansion player packs for Counter Attack too, got home and played a game, and then convinced a friend to pick up the remaining player packs the next day as I was already hooked and could tell I would be needing them. Available for Counter Attack are extra international teams to purchase, these give national squads such as Japan or Nigeria, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

The referee makes the final decision, for any issues that cannot be agreed on, such as whether the ball moves through a hex that looks on the edge of its path or so on, the referee can be consulted to decide for you. Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. 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. If you imagine ‘Subbuteo’ without the flicking, ‘Football Manager’ without the keyboard and ‘Risk’ without the horses you’ll be most of the way to imagining ‘Counter Attack’. Sometimes the game feels less like a game of football, there are less moments of teams playing the ball around the midfield, but the strategic options are varied, a high pass to a player in space, a long pass for a high defence with your high pace striker ready to out-sprint the left back, shooting against a keeper out of position, so many options!While Counter Attack was designed to be played face to face, it is possible to play your friends online if you can’t meet up. When you are haring down the wing with a fast player who has a poor dribbling stat and a defender is closing you down but there is no obvious cross yet because you were slow getting forward is so frustrating and exciting, that feeling you get when you watch your favourite team closing in on goal, it’s that, but it could last minutes while the play is working itself out as you are waiting to see where the other player is positioning his players and you are trying to figure out what to do now. It is not just a football board game, it’s an incredible interpretation of a sport in a strategy format. There are two transparent sticks for measuring if and how passes can be made, a box for holding the player cards and the player cards themselves, more on those shortly. Firstly, we started playing by laying out a 4-4-2 or 4-3-2-1 or any other formation we wanted to try and instead we now keep our formations but keep a flatter line than a traditional football match because we feel we can get players where we need them faster this way.

Now the goalkeeper rolls against his HANDLING skill, looking to roll under to save and hold onto the ball. The middle-sized deck of purple backed cards are the goalkeepers, lay them out face down and each manager takes two for their squad. The attacker cannot move any players to a hex within the 6-yard box and next to the opposing goalkeeper, the defender cannot move within 2 hexes of the corner flag. The goalkeeper also gets some free movements, if the ball enters the penalty area from an opposing player's action, such as a high pass which has a destination in the box, or a player dribbling into the area, then you may move 1 space, this move happens as soon as the ball enters the box, so if it is due to an opponent dribbling you move 1 space as soon as they move onto a hex for the penalty area, then they finish their move. Longer passes can be attempted but their accuracy is determined by a player’s ‘ high pass ’ statistic combined with a dice roll.From the resulting set-piece, a cross was sent into my centre back (number 4) who sent a header crashing in at the back post. A failed nutmeg counts as a successful tackle for the defender, and a roll of a 1 for the defender is still a foul. This required a DRIBBLING check of 9+, and a successful control follow up actions as if you just won a tackle, move, standard/high/long pass or take a snapshot. Was so excited to get this game, l played with my brother against my 9 year old daughter and his 8 year old son to help us all understand the rules. 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.