Curt

Oh definitely Bob, definitely that is the plan to try out all suggestions in my season 19 and whittle them down to a good balance which will take some serious time but just to add more confusion, I have 2 more ideas to add to the long list. I don't incorporate changes during my playoffs. Changes have to be "proven" during regular season games. Playing catch-up from COVID-19 delays as fast as possible, I'm now done with my season 18 playoff games and my season 18 Superbowl will have my New York Giants facing my Minnesota Vikings. Once that game is done and season 19 begins [and its conclusion is due by Christmas this year if possible], I will add 2 more items geared to home-field advantage for "review" purposes. I noticed sometimes a ball carrier starts to veer on a wide arc and although forward progress may be stopped at any time to avoid yardage loss, a yard may be lost by the time the power is shut off and he actually comes to a complete stop if that makes sense? So, I'm going to "test" giving the home team the furthest yard gained and the visitor the actual stopping point, similar to what nefgm.org calls electric slide. I love that term. 🙂 My second home-field advantage test is also related to electric slide. In my most recent games, I noticed that sometimes the electric slide takes my quarterback over the line of scrimmage. As it has been and will be for Superbowl 18, once past the line of scrimmage, a pass is no longer an option. However, I'm going to allow the home team to "ignore the electric slide" over the line of scrimmage and attempt a pass if the quarterback is not yet down. Does that make sense? I know all this is a complete mess, but what a lovely mess it is! Don't you just love it? 🙂 I can't wait to get on to season 19 but rushing my Superbowl 18 is not an option either. Blessings to all, Curt

Oh definitely agreed ya'll. More great ideas, thanks. 🙂 I haven't tried any of them yet honestly. Thanks to COVID-19, I got behind in my season-per-calendar-year schedule. I should complete season 19 by the end of this year if I were on task. However, and still playing catch-up as fast as possible, I have 4 more games left to play in my playoff structure for season 18. I do not try any adjustments during my playoffs because it seems right not to change anything for post-season games that did not show up in regular season games if that makes sense. When season 18 is completely done, visitors for season 19 yes and unfortunately, are in for a real shock. Plans are to start the first game with all of the aforementioned disadvantages for visitors and then for as many games as needed, slowly weed out and sort them to create the best acceptable balance for future games with the best home-field advantage as possible. Does that make sense? So, regrettably, it may take quite a long while to find the right combination of allowances for games with realistic home-field advantages, sorry. Blessings, Curt

Ok, here I am in the middle of yet another game. I had this thought about one of my much earlier boards. I submit this one on the previous comment "You think “out of the box” and I hope you continue to share your thoughts." One of my earlier boards was much smaller than my Ultimate board. The vibration control was in the corner of one of the endzones. While I do not have this issue with my Ultimate board, I noticed that closer to the vibration control, the field buzzed a little stronger and the players moved a little faster. Now this would take some serious experimentation to foster a "reasonable" home field advantage. Once the desirable vibration level is found, the better of the vibration levels could be used for the home team when they are on offense and a slightly lesser vibration level could be used for the visiting team when they are on offense. Does that make sense? Honestly, I think this has been my favorite topic of all since it is always on my ever-so-slowly moving mind. You all are so incredibly fabulous for being so patient with me. Thank you very much and the best of blessings to all of you, Curt. 🙂

Sorry ya'll, here's another late, late, late thought that occurred to me while playing [as that is when most thoughts present themselves. Are you sick of me now? :)]. I allow tackles from any angle. Sometime a ball carrier gets hit really quickly and the momentum gains him an extra yard before he comes to a complete stop. I've always likened that to the extra effort I've seen NFL players give each time they carry the ball. To add yet another slight advantage to the home team. Should that happen, the home team would be given that extra yardage whereas the visiting team would have the ball spotted at the point of contact. Does that make sense? Blessings, Curt.

It's close to 3:00 a.m. here in the Dallas, Texas area and I woke up with this thought based on the quotes below regarding 2-point conversions: "I think I will have to back up the 2 point conversion next season. It was too easy to get it from the 2 yard line". "A lot of coaches, including myself, do this from the 5 yard line." Here's yet another late thought regarding 2-point conversions. I really don't pay attention to my success rate and mine are made from the 2-yard line. But, if it really is easier from the 2-yard line than from the 5-yard line, you might consider this. To further promote home field advantage, your home team can attempt their 2-point conversions from the 2-yard line and your visiting team would have to attempt theirs from the 5-yard line. Does that make sense? I hope I'm not meddling too much. Good luck with your solitaire leagues. Blessings to all [and good night 🙂], Curt

Wow, thanks guys. I learn so much from all of you guys myself. I too have been influenced on how to run my league by other commentors. What a great community the EF world is. Ya'll are the greatest! 🙂

Good morning ladies and gentle-dudes. Sick of me yet? A couple more really late-night thoughts. Official NFL and EFL rules allow a touchdown to be awarded if a ball carrier breaks the plane of the goal line. I require a ball carrier to break the plane of the end zone. Official NFL and EFL rules can be applied to just the home team here and your visitors can follow "my" rule for touchdowns [safeties, and first downs too]to elicit another slight home field advantage. Here is another suggestion. I consider myself pro-offense. If there is a "fuzzy" play I cannot prove one way or another, I default to a call that benefits the offense. Put a different way, my offense takes all pushes. So let's say an onside kick is made and players need to run for the ball. First one to it is the ball carrier and may continue until tackled, out of bounds or scores a touchdown. But let's further say opposing players reach the ball at the same time. For me, whoever would be offense [receiving team] gets the ball at that spot. For yet another little bit of home-field advantage, your home team would be awarded the ball. Does that make sense? I'm sorry I'm so slow in these things but thank you all so very much for being patient with me these past years. Blessings, Curt

And here is another late thought as I am playing a game right now. Normally, and even with my ultimate sized game board, I do not round up half yards. So, let's say a team has a first down on their own 40 and needs to get to midfield for the first down. For me if either team only makes it to the 49 and a half, they face a second and 1 from their 49 yard line. Now to foster home field advantage, you can round up half yards for your home team and your visitors will just be out of luck. Just another thought that comes to mind when it might have served better had it been thought of sooner. Sorry. Blessings to all, Curt

Here's a late,late thought, sorry. I have more than enough bases to load 3 full games. I try to get all the bases to run as far and as straight as possible. I have the Houston Oilers with the current 32 NFL teams for a total of 33 teams making for 11 divisions of 3 teams. I load the first 3 games and after the first game, take those bases, shuffle them and load game 4 in no particular base assignment. They are shuffled like that every third game and at the end of each regular season round. While this eliminates as much bias as possible, I do allow tweaking for time-outs. I also shuffle them for each round in my 12 team, tiered playoff structure. But here is my suggestion for you. It depends on how many bases you have. Let's say for example you have 11 bases that can run over 20 yards straight and 11 that only go 10 yards. You can give your home team a larger amount of bases that run longer than your visitors for somewhat of an advantage but you really have to find the right solution for yourself so I am probably not much help here, sorry. Blessings anyway and good luck, Curt

Well, honestly, I have no regrets for any of my teams. Not being able to match or mix the right shade of Testor enamels for Miami or Jacksonville, I discovered oil-based paint, although the truest to those colors didn't stick well to the plastic and rather than try fingernail polish, I just ordered those teams as pre-painted. I first start with a gloss white undercoat all over. On a whim, I painted my home Raiders black and chrome but trying to keep things more realistic went back to black and silver not too long ago. One day, I really need to learn how to post pictures and stuff. I like how all my teams that required 5 stripes on sleeves and socks turned out. The hardest part for me were some of the helmet logos. The three hardest were my retro Patriots, my Tennessee Titans, and my Dallas Cowboys. For the Patriots, I started a blue line near the bottom left-hand corner of the helmet, slanted the line up near the center top of the helmet but leaving enough room for helmet stripes, then a slanted line to the bottom right-hand corner. Three small red dots at the apex and each corner made for a satisfactory "crouching patriot" logo. Nested different sized and colored dots with a "tail" for flames did pretty well for my Titans. Last is the star of the Cowboys. Like all my teams, I'm happy with how the helmet stripes look but I'm proud of the star too. I used a very fine detail brush [as always]. A centered blue line starts halfway up the helmet going near to the top leaving enough room for the stripes. Then at the base of that line, a diagonal up to the left, a diagonal up to the right, then a diagonal down to the left and a diagonal down to the right completes what I think is a pretty good-looking star. Of course, everything takes practice. Hope everyone finds solutions for their needs. Blessings, Curt

I use a single dice for my 6 defensive formations but here is offense. I use 2 decks of poker cards, both of which have a red and black joker plus an extra card that is designed to "keep the deck in play" if a card gets lost or damaged for a total of what I call 6 specialty cards. Aces through 7's are designated running plays. Black 8's are 5 yard penalties against the defense. Red 8's are 5 yard penalties against the offense. 9's through Queens are pass plays. Red and Black Kings are 10 yard penalties against the offense and defense. The remaining 6 cards involve 15 yard penalties against the offense and defense, a 5 yard penalty with automatic first down in favor of the offense, turnover to the defense at line of scrimmage and automatic touchdowns for either the offense or the defense. I shuffle them for each possession during the game. Not sure if that helps. I hope you find what works perfectly for you, good luck. Blessings, Curt

Oh true that...Nature calls trump all other calls! [especially old diabetics like me]. Loved this too, thanks. 🙂

Love and prayers to his friends and family.

Thank you, thank you, and again Thank you! 🙂 I would have to rewrite my will and hope my wife could get things to you as well as many other details that would need to be worked out but here's what I'm thinking, now that I have your address. I love road trips. When I should reach the day I can no longer play, hopefully I will at least be able to orchestrate a road trip from the Dallas Texas area to you. I'm not in a hurry for Electric Football to end but like many, I want my hobby to continue to be enjoyed by other enthusiasts as I have loved it. A few examples of hobbies that ended without my being able to pass them on include having had a model railroad consisting of 7 engines, over 30 cars and a multiple train track layout on a 4' X 8' board that all got sold when it was no longer a possibility to continue with that. Now arthritis prevents me from playing guitar and so I'm in the process of working out details to ship it to my brother who restores old guitars. That is sad in that I played for 40 years, having done it all yet not really interested in learning to play blues slide. I read, wrote [about 4 dozen songs -no hits], taught, played, and recorded professionally but only locally so no famous connections anywhere [except my Uncle Jeff went to college with John Denver, yippee skip.] Chris if anyone can be made famous from electric football, my bet is on you sir. I just want to play as long as I can and the rest of future details will have to wait, sorry guys. 🙂

Thanks Chris. Honestly, I'm blessed. I guess God just isn't ready to take me home yet. That means more Electric Football...WAY KEWL! Here's a small tip on your Cowboys painting. I ordered the dark jersey set which has a blue star decal on its helmets which looks good. I apologize I cannot post pictures. I really have to learn how to do that. I hand painted my white jersey Cowboys. My stripes look good but I'm proud of the star too. I used a very fine detail brush. A blue line starts halfway up the helmet going near to the top but leaving enough room for the stripes. Then at the base of that line, a diagonal up to the left, a diagonal up to the right, then a diagonal down to the left and a diagonal down to the right completes a pretty good looking star. Just a thought. Blessings, Curt

True that gentle-dudes. I share the same sentiment. May none of our times be cut short. I have found the same friends and family joy in these forums. The Electric Football world has gotten me through some tough times. There are many players I would love to trade e-mails with but I'm not sure how that would work. Regrettably, I am severely technology challenged and cannot produce pictures of my own on a no-text flip phone. I would have to get my wife to do all that for me. If illness takes me before the end of June, [or whenever it becomes impossible to play] then my hobby needs a place to go to. My nephew plays with me once in a while but like posted above, no one shares the same enthusiasm as mine. I've looked at "donate" before but 1, do not see an address? and 2, with 33 home and away teams plus an ultimate sized board, accessories etc., shipping all of it somewhere might be a problem. Guessing I just sparked some thoughts... I'll be 60 at the end of June which will be my 50th anniversary playing Electric Football. [health issue example, Arthritis prevents me from playing guitar now so I'll have to figure out how to ship my guitar to my brother who restores old guitars]. Instead of looking at myself as a medical mess, consider that I have been through 3 strokes, 2 major heart surgeries, and have a benign tumor behind my right ear that is 1.5 cm wide. I'm a walking, talking, Electric Football playing miracle and will continue to play as long as I'm able. Since the future is not guaranteed, I make no promises about anything except that I love this hobby and hope to one day pass it on to someone who will love it just as much. Those details will have to come much later, sorry. Hope this was not a waste of anyone's time. Blessings to all. 🙂 Curt

I love everybody's painting comments and of course I am way late to the party. 🙂 Stripes are very difficult to replicate. The most I can do is 5 stripes. But some helmet emblems are really difficult too. Some teams just warrant buying pre-painted figures. While I am proud of how my retro Patriots and my Tennessee Titan helmet logos turned out, I could never duplicate the Baltimore Ravens so I'm glad the pre-painted helmet decal is as accurate as it is. Same with my Washington Redskins and a few other teams. I have some really fine detail paint brushes but I'm not that good. I'm keeping my pre-painted Indian head logo. I take no offense to the term Redskin. My wife's heritage is full blooded Cherokee so I have no desire to update my Washington team to the Commanders, but I do like the Commanders name. The only other painting issue I have found is the correct shade for a team. Take my retro Tampa Bay Buccaneers for example. I use Testor enamel paints. If 5 drops of bright yellow are mixed with 1 drop of bright orange, the color turns out pretty close and the formula is now set if touch up or replacements are needed. Miami and Jacksonville are too hard for me mix so I bought the pre-painted teams for their home and away teams. As Greg said, it takes practice, practice, practice, practice, and more practice. I've been practicing for almost 50 years now. I plan on announcing that anniversary when it comes later this year. I hope ya'll enjoyed this post and that I didn't waste anyone's time or ruffle anyone's feathers. Good luck to everyone's painting efforts. Blessings, Curt

Don't you just love seeing how statistics develop? My favorite was where one season, the Tennessee Titans, San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles all ended up in the same division as I rank my 33 teams by Win-Loss, then Total Points scored and if needed Total points allowed. Only twice in 17 seasons have a previous season's statistics been needed to decide a tie breaker. Anyway, the following season, the Tennessee Titans, San Diego Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles all ended up in the same division again! It was a higher ranked division but a neat way for things to work out. Philadelphia won that division both times. Way Kewl...! While my Bills took 18 years to finally win their first division even though there are 11 division winners per season, patience pays off. Congratulations to your Broncos and best of luck to your Bills. Their time is coming! Blessings, Curt

Hey there nefgm.org! I'm a little late to this party, sorry, but I just had this thought [took me long enough 🙂 ], since you have 5 defenses. Everyone has to play the way that is best for them so nothing is meant to imply anything is in need of changing. I like your setup but my idea for you for removing a little bit of bias is to use a single dice on defense where 1-5 could be the 5 formations you have and say for example, a 6 would be the defense of your choice to match the offensive play. I have 6 defensive formations that allow a couple of players to be turned in certain directions to cover pass or run depending on what offensive play card was drawn. Anyway, it was just a late thought. Hope I did not ruffle anyone's feathers. Blessings, Curt.

Well, I'm weird in that I don't know what my offense or defense formations are going to look like ahead of time. I combat bias on both ends of the plays in that I use cards from 2 poker decks for offensive plays, penalties, and turnovers and 1 out of 6 possible defenses is determined by the roll of a dice. Beyond that, I am not much help to you, sorry. 😞 Good luck on finding the perfect solution for yourself. Blessings, Curt

Well, maybe a relevance would be that Electric Football is my "addiction". I play a quarter a day when home and the game is usually on my mind when I'm not at home. I've been playing actually since 1973. As some of you may know, my first professional game was my favorite San Francisco 49ers being thumped by the Buffalo Bills. In my last 17 seasons where my solitaire league had grown to 33 teams, Buffalo remained the only team yet to win their division. That is no longer the case, yippee skip! Those of you who also may be familiar with some of my earlier posts know I do everything I can to remove as much control as possible from the game allowing the teams to "really" play each other. Also, while I consider myself pro-offense when playing, I do not play favorites with my teams. Today proved all of it. Finally, here near the end of season 18, the Buffalo Bills took their division and they did so by a mild thumping of 20 points to 6 points over my favorite San Francisco 49ers. Good for them but not my niners. Hope this was not a waste of anyone's time but thought some of you might enjoy this. Blessings, Curt

Did any of these replies answer your question? There may be more replies than those shown here. — Electric Football Nation To continue a bit, I'm interested in hearing from as many who will talk about their specialties for the game. Mine come from play space necessity. To make room for a homeless person now living with us [in conjunction with LifePath], I had to squeeze my hobby space into the same room that my wife and I share as office space. While it has its differences from "regular" electric football, it is still dynamic and lots of fun. Because I only care if an end score is believable, I allow far more liberty with Field Goals and the like. These are the things that make the game unique for me and I would like to hear more what makes their setup unique from each solo player. Hope this helps. Blessings, Curt

Right there with everybody else. With the many orders I've placed over the years, their customer service has been excellent every time. Tudor Games Rocks! 🙂

You are most welcome Bob, glad you liked it. It all comes down to how many teams a person wants and what kind of schedule is desired. When I reached 24 teams for my league, I realized I could achieve my one goal in playing a season within a calendar year, but I could not resolve my other desire to balance out an even number of home and away games for each team. To further complicate things, my brother visited in 2004 from Seattle. He is a much bigger hobby enthusiast than I am. He rebuilds old guitars and old motorcycles for fun in his garage/workshop. A box of Testor enamel paints and many detail brushes sit on my desk. My hobby space takes up my wife's and my office window space, plus, the oversized Samsonite hard-shell brief case which holds all my 33 teams in snack size Ziploc baggies, all the rest of the accessories like baggies of footballs [mixed for each pass or kick], bases, goalposts, cards, stopwatch, yard-markers, etc. and the top section with its partitions has my still-in-use scoreboard from my previous game, my printed rule set, records of the previous seasons and of course the record sheet for the current season. The same schedule issue arose after he sent me enough white figures to complete the 32 current teams. But then his overzealous mind started reeling with "You've got to get all the teams in all their various color combinations from past, present, and even the whacky Thursday Night Football like the total fluorescent green of the Seahawks". I politely refused as I like what I have all my teams in. My nephew showed me how adding the Houston Oilers, making 33 teams, gives me a balanced 2-each home and away game season with my playoff structure still being able to be completed in a calendar year. But again, that all leads back to you. How many teams do you really want? What kind of schedule do you wish to follow, including playoff structure? While what I have works perfectly for me, you have to find out what works best for you. Blessings, Curt

Way Kewl, thanks for all that. Blessings, Curt.