Paul Kian

I think I finally have a logo that feels complete. I worked really hard on the lower right quadrant, because cropping is not intuitive in Inkscape AT ALL. I decided that instead of raw flags, that I'd take elements of each flag and place them on plain colored backgrounds. I also added the flag for Sudbury on the Maple Leaf on the top left, as well as the scrolls and text of course. The only thing I'm thinking about trying to edit is curving the text in the scrolls.... it's a pain to curve text, but I'm going to watch a tutorial over the weekend and see whether it's worth the trouble. Enjoy! -PK

Oh I know, I'm being tongue-in-cheek. 😁 But you're right, that's what I like about Solitaire so much. If I absolutely hate a rule, I can amend it and no one else gets mad. It's one of the only loci of control we probably have in our lives, at least ones that won't land us in the klink or the unemployment line anyway. In some exciting news, my last order of figures and paints shipped today! I'm looking forward to finalizing my rosters and getting them ready for some repaints and Numbers. I'm currently saving up for some additional TTQBs and those GBN motors you sent me awhile ago. I should be able to order stuff in mid February (dang you rent, so inconvenient for my Football endeavors 😆).

That's a good point; I was trying to avoid having any ambiguity as to when to call the Sack and whether the QB was scrambling or not, but your idea is more realistic. I guess I'll set a Sack Timer of like 3 seconds and run the board to see whether a receiver gets loose or not and then call it at that point. I actually got the idea from Tallguy, he has a coverage sack rule of something like 3 stops and then you have to scramble, throw it away, or call it a Coverage Sack. I'm not entirely sure what the different criteria are again. Since my games will have the option to choose whether the QB is Eligible or not, I obviously only want the scramble to be legal for the Eligible ones. I also wanted to add the option to "Quick Kick" it, since punts are recoverable by either team. I know, I'm absolutely destroying the basis of football. 😆

Oh I forgot to mention, Coverage Sacks are an automatic 7 Yard Loss, unless the team is inside the 43 Yardline, in which case it is spotted at the 49 YL. 7 Yards seems to be a fair number (I was going to do 10 but that seemed a bit harsh) but if you think I should adjust it let me know. 👍

Here's a sample scoring sheet for a fictional game between the Montana Miners and the Knoxville Pioneers. It should be relatively self explanatory, but I did want to point out a couple of key things: 1) Any returns on Defense (Punts, Returned Missed Kicks, Interceptions, or Fumbles) that do not score a Defensive Touchdown will be deducted from their subsequent Offensive Drive's starting position in the First Half. In the Second Half, it will be deducted from their next Kickoff Return. If it does score, then it counts as a Drive and the Next Series begins after their PAT. I figured this would give a good incentive for the Defense without giving the new Offense ridiculously good Field Position every single time. I definitely want the Offenses to work for it as much as possible. 😁 2) Scoring Plays will be Bolded, and Turnovers will have an Asterisk (*) next to the Play Number. H = Home Team, A = Away Team, P = Play, etc. 3) Penalties and PATs count both as Plays and as Offensive Yards. Most Football Leagues (electric and IRL) wouldn't count the yards, but in my opinion if the runner has to burn up his legs or the passer has to wear out his arm, then it should still count to his credit. Consequently, negative stats like Incompletions and Turnovers during PATs also count, because I feel the same "energy usage concerns" should be considered for the Defense too....😉 4) There are 3 types of Sacks: Overload Sacks, Coverage Sacks, and Bull Rush Sacks. Up to 3 Players can receive a Sack Credit: i) Overload Sacks are credited when there are more Blitzers sent than Blockers set up in front of the Passer. Since each Defense can Blitz up to 3 Players, this can be a 3-on-2, 3-on-1, 2-on-1, or even 3-on-0, 2-on-0, or 1-on-0 if the Ineligible Players/Blockers are set up behind the Passer....not likely, but certainly possible (especially if you really screw up your tweaking 😬). ii) Coverage Sacks are credited when every Eligible Receiver is Covered, and the QB is set up as an Ineligible Receiver and thus cannot cross the Line of Scrimmage while also refusing to Punt the ball. The nearest Pass Rusher(s) get(s) the Sack Credit, and each Defender in Coverage also gets a separate Coverage Sack Credit. iii) Bull Rush Sacks are Credited when the same amount (or fewer) of Blitzers are sent as there are Blockers set up in front of the Passer (up to 3), and one or more players still sack the passer. 5) Lastly, good AND bad plays should be called out on the scoring sheet. Forced Fumbles, Missed Blocks, Broken Tackles, Intended Receivers, you name it. While I don't have one in this sample sheet, if a Blocker is straight up beaten by his Blitzer for a Bull Rush Sack, you can bet he's getting mentioned on there. 😋 Hope this helps, -PK

I've been debating on getting one of those boards and doing essentially the same thing to try and get my friend and younger cousins into the game. $40 is right in my budget for gifting too, if they do end up liking them. 😁

Also, I just picked an arbitrary number (11) of drives. It seems like a good football game is one that lets both teams get around a dozen drives each, and a bad football game ends up lopsided with one team getting a ton more drives. If 11 seems to drag on way too long, then I may cut it to 9 and see where that goes. I gave myself an out with the Mercy rule for games that appear to get way out of hand, but I also know that can inflate/deflate a lot of stats so I'm going to have to work on some formula for compensation. Otherwise, the bad team with 10,000 yards that chokes in the Red Zone will look way better than the dominant team that "Mercies" out every other game in the 5th series.

Definitely, I will make sure to make at least two copies and will upload the digital one here as well. I'm going to play a handful of exhibition games before finalizing them so it may be awhile, but the way 2022 looks there will be plenty of time. 😁

Good evening everyone, Unfortunately, I left my flash drive at work today that had my field covers and logos on them, then the sky absolutely fell out; so I most likely won't be making any updates this weekend until the snow and ice melt down or the roads are cleared. ☹️ To tide everyone over, I did draw up a set of scoring sheets for each league. They're just simple spreadsheets, but I think they reveal more differences with the leagues than the field covers. My games will be played as "Series" of Drives similar to how Innings work in Baseball. Each team can score up to 9 points per Drive, with "Drive-Enders" earning the Defense an additional point if they have room. Teams can also elect to take 1, 2, or 3 point PATs. The highest score possible is 100-99 in both Leagues. The first half will have each Team's offense begin play from the respective League starting points (Goal Line for American, 48 for International). The second half shall have kickoffs, with onside kicks as an option: both for trailing teams to attempt to deny the leading team a drive so they can catch up, and for leading teams to attempt to game manage and "run out the clock" so to speak. American League games shall consist of 10 Series of Drives, with both teams swapping orders after the end of the 5th series. If both teams are tied after the 10th series, an 11th series shall be played with the same order as the first 5 Series. If both teams are still tied following this, they will each get to take 3 free kicks from Quarterfield, Midfield, and the Goal line (aka from 12.5, 25, and 50 yards). If this does not lead to a clear victor, then the team with the most Offensive Yards is granted 1 point and the Victory. International League games shall consist of 8 Series of Drives, with both teams swapping orders after the end of the 4th series. If at the end of 8 series, the teams are within 27 points, then Extended Time shall be granted, consisting of 3 additional Series of Drives in the same order as the first 4 Series. If this does not lead to a clear victor, then the team with the most Offensive Yards is granted 1 point and the Victory. The Slaughter Line is the amount of points mathematically that a trailing team must be within to have a chance of winning. If a team leads by an amount higher than the indicated Slaughter Line, then they are automatically awarded the victory (known as a Mercy, which is recorded in addition to a Win in the standings and can be used for Tiebreakers in Playoff contention). I know that's a lot of info in a poorly laid out format, but it should make more sense once I have an actual codified rule set drafted up. I will make a separate thread once that's accomplished. 😁 Best, -PK

Good evening everyone, I have made some headway on my International League Logo design. I tried to represent each team on a single shield, which I believe I have done a pretty good job at so far. The areas are placed approximately in geographic order, with two Maple Leaves for the two Canadian teams (with a Union Jack in the top left Leaf to represent the Royals), St. Pierre's flag for the top Right, Mexico's Eagle and Snake on the Bottom Left, and the bottom Right is inhabited jointly by the two "International" Teams, since Puerto Rico and The Conch Republic are both technically part of the US. The next step for the logo is to add some medieval "scrolls" to the top and bottom to put text saying "International League" on. I also did some changes in the ESIFA logos and field covers, with more changes likely to come. Let me know what color text(s) you like; I put one of each on the updated Fields for reference. Thanks for following along! -PK

Heck yeah, I'd buy a couple if you ever started selling them! I've been window-shopping and trying to find something I could use as a trophy, but everyone seems to focus on mini-Lombardis or that weird eye-shaped College trophy instead.

Those look awesome! A metallic painted version would make a perfect trophy (not that I'm suggesting you ruin a vintage collectable by any means, of course.) 👍

Awesome sounding game, sounds like it was a good tight battle wire to wire! I prefer the Bright Red Cards (you know, like an actual Cardinal) to the modern subdued Darker Red they have now. Mixed feelings on the Lombardi Gold era Redskins, but it worked for the time I suppose, cuz there were tons of Red Jersey teams in that era. 😆 The fact that Jacoby (and many of the other Hogs for that matter) is not in the Hall of Fame is an outright shame. Joe was the archetypical 90s-2000s Left Tackle, despite playing almost entirely in the 80s: 6'7", 300lbs and could pull like a Guard and cover 3-4 Defense's Linebackers at a time when almost no one ran it. He also played in 4 Super Bowls, winning 3. If I'm not mistaken, on the play that Theismann got....well, Theismann'ed, he was off the field getting examined for injury; so it stands to reason he probably would have kept Carl Banks and Lawrence Taylor away if he was on the field that moment.

My thoughts exactly. The brass masks look way too big, and while I'm far from a stickler for 100% accuracy I still don't like the look of borrowing-older-brother's helmet that they give off either. Considering there's only 3 (as of last count) sizes of figure heads (4 if you count the TTQB, but he's already rocking a uni-bar), you'd think Tudor would make plastic masks that conform perfectly to the curvature of their own figures. Then again it's all just a logistics nightmare right now so I can't entirely blame them. I'm debating on whether to even give my current set facemasks at all, since their faces already look beaten in. Adds character, and saves me money/time/paint. 😁

Wow, those look great! I especially like the facemasks, just straight up painted on instead of finicking with brass. 🏈

Oh yeah, I actually prefer the AFL championship games, at least the ones I've seen from that period. Prettier Uniforms, and the 60s Raiders and Jets really were almost 10 years ahead of what 70s football eventually became.

Oh I get the sentiment, the Pack is my second/third favorite team behind the Panthers (I'll possibly pull for the Skins/whatever they're going to be called again if Snyder ever sells them....that January 3rd fan rail collapse was the final straw 😒). I just know that after watching a bunch of the 60s Packers Championship games on the NFL network over the years that most of them were snoozers where they led basically the entire game. The other Champions had more dynamic games for the most part....then again this is after 30-50+ years of hindsight and reflection from a 31 year old judging games older than his parents, so YMMV and all that jazz. I could also be thinking of some 70s Super Bowls as well and getting them mixed up. 😁

I'll take the Bears winning over what typically happened during that period, which was basically Packers winning every other year in a blowout. I like Bart and the Boys, but man that would get pretty old (kind of like the Patriots/Brady winning just about every other year lol.) Funnily enough, the Vikings actually won a championship the last year (1969-70) before the Super Bowl became a thing. If only they could have carried that into the 70s, it would have been a totally different league.

Oh yeah, I'm going whole hog. Granted, a lot of the stuff at the end is more for if I decide to start filming/streaming games. It obviously won't affect game play so I can still play games in the meantime. Knowing me, I'll never be completely satisfied and this will be an ongoing and ever-expanding project.... I really should have been a marketing major in college. 😆

That's kind of my theory as well, if Miami's Defense doesn't break their foot off in the Offense early then it's probably going to be more like LSU 35+ and Miami 21. I don't particularly remember Miami being a comeback team, Dorsey was definitely a game manager type QB hence why he was a pretty good QBs coach in the NFL (maybe he still is). Like I said before, it all depends on the way the passing game (and passing game ruleset for that matter) goes. If it favors the run game and the secondary, it's going to be a tight Miami victory. If it favors passing, roll on Tigers. 👍

Depending on the ruleset, I have Miami 24, LSU 14. I believe this was the season Miami had an absolute beast of a Defense, whereas LSU had a "the best Defense is a Great Offense" type team in '19. I wasn't a huge college sports follower around those times though so I could be backwards. 🤔

My remaining to-do List: - Order Blue TTC Bases (Forgot to order with the teams; since there's a delay with shipping anyway I'll just order next weekend) - Order 6 more TTQBs (already have 12) - Order Field Covers - Order Tudor Motors, Ultimate Converter, and Controllers (already have my own wiring, power supply, and cabling) - Buy & Cut Plexiglass, Angled Brackets, Small Machine Screws, and possibly netting for End Zones - Buy & Cut Lumber for Frame - Wire up LED Lights for Penalties, Time-Outs, Made/Missed FGs (Optional) - Order Refs, Coaches, and etc. Sideline Figures (Optional)

Just a quick update, I finalized and ordered my remaining teams. I updated the spreadsheet with the final names and colors, split them into International and American Divisions within the two Leagues, and I added a column for the base figures I'll be using. Some teams will be bone-stock, others I will repaint a few parts here and there but will keep the rest of the figure the same color. One dilemma I have is I'm not sure if I will paint the TTQBs from the top-up for each team, leave them plain except for number decals, or do a hybrid approach of painting only the Helmets and putting numbers on but leaving them blank otherwise. (I know to avoid painting the legs as that gums up the kicking action). I really don't like having separate QB figures that I have to take off the board and swap each time I need to pass, so my goal is to keep the TTQB on the board at all times. It doesn't fit my scale field super well (a 1.5" TTQB is like 7' tall lol), but I'll make due for now. I tried to order some Plexi earlier but it's out of stock until after the big snow storm we're expecting this weekend. I'll try to get some next weekend if all goes well. Until next time, -PK

That's a really good point, the bases probably have more to do with player performance than the figure itself, within reason of course. I'm looking forward to that game as well, as I really don't hear anyone talk about any good classic Bears/Vikes match ups (then again I was born in 1990 and they've both been mediocre-to-terrible since the late 80s, outside of a couple fluke seasons here and there) so this will be a good mix from the usual games. 👍

Is that QB....not wearing a chin strap? Man, the uni-bar facemask is a total Chad move in and of itself, but no strap just makes him even more bad....butt, lol. As far as what throwback I'd like to see, while I'm 99% certain it would be impossible to get licensed anymore and would just bring controversy if it did, I really liked the classic "Spear-skins" unis that they used to wear as a throwback option every now and then. Not entirely sure when it was actually the standard uniform come to think of it. 🤔