Solo Subbuteo 101

Firstly, apologies for the long delay between posts, sometimes life just gets in the way, and things have been a little manic since December. But like all thing’s, situations have a tendency at some point to slow down and return to what we consider normal levels, and that seems to be the case for me at this juncture. So, this time around I thought I’d discuss the humble set pieces, which as you are aware are quite frequent in miniature as they are in real life. Every game of football has its share of corners, throw ins, free and goal kicks, as well as the odd penalty. Subbuteo games are no different whether playing a live opponent or solo, set pieces will ultimately play their part. Setting The Narrative For the purpose of the discussion let’s assume a few things; Firstly, you’re attempting to play to some flavour of Subbuteo rules, I know the variations are plentiful, so for simplicity’s sake let’s take the mid 70’s as a starting point, I may err ...

How many solo players reset the play during games, better known to many I would imagine as a back. I’ve heard many misconceptions and misinterpretations from players, ranging from backs are only used in Competition and Tournaments, to that they never appeared in the Subbuteo rules until the 80’s. Surprisingly You may already know or you may be surprised to learn that the “back” has been part of the game since the 40’s, it was used as a way to stop deliberate fouls by the defence when using whatever blocking rule was in use at any particular time. Whether it was intentionally included to curb deliberate fouls I have no idea. But if not it certainly goes some way to addressing that possibility. During the late 40’s and early 50’s when only two blocks were allowed, any defensive misdemeanor had the ball replaced to the attackers advantage. Later as we enter into the 60’s when blocking flicks were allowed in blocks of 3, saw the inclusion of reset...

  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 ...

Just over 12 Months ago, I posted about some new rules I was implementing with regards to my solo play. These were mainly centered around the way I would administer blocking flicks. Well 12 months on nothing has really changed in that respect, but I did try one or two things which like all things worked on paper but quickly became dismissed as I felt that there was no actual benefit in game play. Nevertheless things have changed over that 12 month period in other ways This month I thought I’d briefly go through my rule-book explaining my thoughts on why I choose the methods I do, in an attempt to show why I do what I do, and why I feel it works for me. It’s all well and good people like myself sharing or suggesting ideas, but sometimes they are easily dismissed because the recipient just doesn’t understand why it’s been suggested in the first place. So the following is a brief insight into my rules, an attempt by me to show my working out rather than the results, t...