Breaking The Mould

 

I’m probably a kind of traditionalist when it comes to Subbuteo, especially when it comes to equipment and rules. We probably all have our favourite player types, and would rather play to rules from a certain era of their evolution. For me that was and still is the late 60’s until the early 80’s. There were 3 main player types each requiring their own particular technique to play to the generally accepted rules of that time.

Box set rules at the beginning of that era differed to the competitive scene, but by the end of it they more or less mirrored each other.

Solo Players Use What They Know

When it comes to solo none of us are tied to any kind of convention, we probably all have our favourite equipment, and have adapted familiar rules to suit our needs. I’ll go as far here as to say that we are all probably traditionalists in our own right. Subbuteo in all it’s forms has what can be described as a core set of rules that are the backbone of all the different iterations, and these core rules probably appear in the majority of solo players rules. However there are a small minority of players that have broken the mould, to such an extent that no way could the rules they’ve devised be considered Subbuteo in the traditional sense.

Same Equipment, Different Game

I have always since getting into the solo game, enjoyed talking to and reading about how other solo players go about their business. The innovations they bring, how they tackle different aspects of the game and adapt them to solo play. You can learn so much from others, try out new things, get new ideas from a different perspective. There will never be a one size fits all, we don’t do this to be conventional we do it for sheer pleasure.

When I first heard about the Westford method of solo play I was intrigued. So I obtained a copy of the guy’s rules to hopefully learn more. I found them interesting, they were innovative, and seem a long way from the traditional rules that I grew up with. To call them Subbuteo to me was a bit like calling rounders, baseball. Initial thoughts apart I wanted to know more, like how and why it was conceived and the whole motivation behind the system. So I contacted the designer Martyn Kemp in the hope of finding out a little more.

 

 Introducing Martyn Kemp

To understand or even evaluate Martyn’s method, it’s probably a good idea to understand a little about the guy, and how his method came about in the first place. He kindly agreed to furnish me with some details of his Subbuteo journey and the inspiration behind his method of solo play.

His Subbuteo journey to date is an interesting one in itself, an expat now living in Australia, who at a young age took his love of Subbuteo with him to the Oceanic region when his family emigrated. Whilst down under he began formulating a solo system after becoming bored with trying to play solo with purely Subbuteo rules. So he began to integrate his love of Subbuteo with the soccer board game Soccerboss.

By the early 90’s he ran a local league of 8 players but unfortunately interest waned after only it’s 3rd season, so Martyn continued to develop his Westford Solo Subbuteo system, which he still plays and has continued to develop up to the present day, His full story can be found  (here)

Martyn also has a Facebook page,dedicated to the system which I’ve also linked to (here)

What Is Soccerboss

Before I delve any further into Martyn’s method, I have to admit I knew absolutely nothing about the game Soccerboss which is intergrated closely into his system. So I had to do a little research just to understand what it was.

Apparently the game came from Ariel Games, which was the same stable as the Wembley game, a diced simulation of the FA Cup, a game I am very familiar with as I had a copy in my youth. Soccerboss however came a little later, and somehow passed me by. The game itself was also a diced based board game in which the players represented a manager of a team as they embarked on a season, trying to win the League and Cup for their particular charge. The mechanics of the game I’m still unsure about, but I’m sure all would reveal itself as I read through Martyn’s Solo rules, or at least that was the plan.

The Westford Solo Subbuteo Method

On receipt of the rules that Martyn kindly sent me, I read them through to see what they were all about, and how a boardgame became to be integrated with Subbuteo.

An introductory explanation may be needed here so I’ll quote straight from the horses mouth so to speak.

“Solo Subbuteo can be employed as practice for matches against others, in online competition or as a valid stand-alone expression of the hobby we all enjoy. In my view the aim of the solo Subbuteo player is not to 'win' but to play to the best of his/her ability for each team, it’s an opportunity to achieve a reasonably realistic simulation of football; the entertainment, tactics and drama, resulting in a believable scoreline and the feeling of having witnessed, or even having participated in a ‘proper match’.

There were two major difficulties I had playing solo Subbuteo; both teams always played the same way tactically and, like most of us, goalkeeping. Some years ago I integrated Subbuteo with another favourite, the Soccerboss boardgame, to add a team management element alongside a variable team ranking system. This translated onto the playing surface by the number of movement flicks taken by the attacking and defending teams at intervals during play, thereby introducing simulation of differences between teams in pace, positioning and skill.The subsequent refinement of this movement capability and the introduction of other elements, has resulted in the necessity for differing tactical approaches and added a satisfying level of realism and unpredictability to my solo play.

Goalkeeping is probably the most difficult aspect of solo Subbuteo. I abandoned the ‘left hand v right hand’ method some years ago and am not a fan of artificial barriers or ‘non-Subbuteo’ equipment on the pitch. I now use free-standing ‘keepers which the ball must miss completely in order to score a goal. I find a ‘keeper with no rod better aesthetically, and more versatile in defence, but he can sometimes be caught out of position, with dire consequences. I particularly enjoy the ability of the ‘keeper to gain possession of the ball, after he has ‘saved’ a shot, enabling him to launch quick counter-attacks from the edge of his own penalty area.

The following rules have been written with the assumption that the reader is familiar with both the Basic Rules of Subbuteo and Laws of Association Football. It is still essentially a ‘work in progress’ and probably always will be, but extensive play-testing, additions and refinements over the past five years mean the tinkering has reduced to such a degree that I can offer this latest version with some degree of confidence”.

My Take On the System

Martyn’s system revolves firstly around the dice and the mechanism found in the Soccerboss boardgame. By rolling these dice the rankings and fortunes of the various teams have a bearing on the results attained throughout the season as not all games appear to be played on the baize.

On the baize itself the dice also have an effect on the teams playing by way of extra flicks, these extra flicks are determined by rolling a particular coloured dice dependent on the ranking or level of an individual team at that particular time in the season. So obviously the score on the dice is more favourable to the higher that the team is ranked, or whether playing at home etc.

These movement flicks (if I’ve got this right) happen after every 3rd touch of the ball irrespective of possession, so teams at this point may be able to flick up to the number of players that were determined by dice before Kick Off, and it appears that there is a maximum of 4 and a minimum of 0 depending on which dice a team is allowed to roll.

So in practice and probably I’m taking the worst case scenario here one team could end up with 4 flicks whilst it’s opponent may get 0.

The Movement flicks seem to be used for defensive and offensive purposes as necessary, so the more of these flicks a team has the greater the possible advantage it has over it’s opponent.

Conclusions

From a personal point of view, I find the system a bit too ‘gamey’ for my liking. But saying that it is in no way trying to be disrespectful to Martyn, solo play is an individual pursuit, no matter how we go about things.

Trying to make a like for like comparison between different flavours of solo rules is almost impossible we all have our own ideas and expectations. It’s up to the individual to assess if the ideas of others can be of use in any way.

The Westford system appears to be a well thought out simulation of football on the tabletop. It’s a system that obviously Martyn has nurtured from his own perceptions of football in general, It has a high level of attention to detail, and I feel as is, or with a little individual tweaking, has the potential to appeal to a fair few solo players who like the idea of applying an advantage in games on the tabletop.

I would like to thank Martyn for sharing his system with me, and allowing me to share it with you.

That’s a very brief synopsis from my point of view, to go into more detail at this time is not really possible or fair without play testing the system. I have put a copy of his up to date rules with Martyn’s kind permission on the  Downloads Page  of the blog for anyone who wants to evaluate the system further. If you wish to ask him questions I’m sure Martyn will oblige through the  Westford Solo Subbuteo Facebook Page 

However you decide to flick

Keep on Flicking

Ian