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[Greg F]

I had a solitaire league for 10 years when I was a kid.  Thinking very seriously about buying an ultimate board and resuming it.  Any suggestions on boards, players and rules are would be appreciated.  🙂

[nefgm.org]

Welcome to the Forums. The ultimate game board would be a very good board to get back into the hobby with. Visit   Rules – The National Electric Football Game Museum (nefgm.org) for various basic rule sets, league and tournament rules and solitaire rules 

[NO Dave]

You've come to the right place! So, the first thing is, pick your teams for your league. 

If you want some great deals, start here for figures - https://tudorgames.com/customs/customize-figures/pre-painted-figures.html

For bases, start here - https://tudorgames.com/bases/rookie-bases.html

For a field, go here- https://tudorgames.com/ultimate-electric-football-black.html 

For a good set of starter rules, check here - https://www.tudorgames.com/downloads/Tudor_Games_Electric_Football_9000_Series_Assembly_Rules_FINAL-M.pdf

Have fun!

NO Dave

 

 

 

 

[Coach Shawn]

Yes, the Tudor’s Ultimate board is great!   I would have a hard time going back to a smaller board.

 

[Curt]

Hope I'm not too late. The links No Dave gave you pretty much are what I have. I use a stopwatch to time my games including timeouts and two-minute-warnings. Go with the Ultimate board and you will find it is named correctly!

Knowing it will take you time to build a league you may like to know that I have 33 teams, the current NFL teams and the Houston Oilers from days past, both in Home and Away jerseys. My first season began with the teams in alphabetical order. They are divided into 11 divisions of 3 teams. Each team plays their division teams twice, once at home and once away. They are then ranked 1-33 for the next season first by win-loss record, if tied, then by total points scored. If they are still tied, then the ranking continues to total points allowed. Only twice in 17 seasons have 2 teams tied in all three categories and I used the same criteria found in their previous season etc. to break that tie. 

The regular 4 game season is followed by a tiered 12 team playoff structure with the top 4 division winners earning a "bye" where the wildcard or best of the 2nd place teams visits the 11th place division winner. The winner of that game visits the 4th place division winner. The 9th and 10th place division winners meet for that winner to visit the 3rd place division winner and I think you can figure out the rest of the playoff structure from there. A whole season for me takes about a calendar year to complete.

I try to remove as much control out of the game as possible, but I'll get to that in a second. One season, my Philadelphia Eagles, San Diego Chargers, and Tennessee Titans ended up in the same division and at the end of that season, ended up in a higher ranked but still the same division! Philadelphia won division both times too, kewl! Here's how I try to remove control from the game.

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.  I try to eliminate control over the bases too.

I have enough bases to "load" 3 full games. I try to get them all to run as far and straight as possible. I load the 1st 3 games. After the first game, I shuffle their bases then load game number 4 etc. through each game until "round 1" is complete. I then shuffle all the bases and load the 1st 3 games of round 2 and do likewise for all 4 rounds of the regular season. I then load the 1st 3 games of the playoffs and treat the game between the 5th and 6th place division winners like game 4 of a regular round. I then shuffle all the bases through each of the remaining games of the playoffs through its Superbowl. While I do try to leave bases "untouched", I allow bases to be tweaked with each timeout if needed.

While this works perfectly for me, You have to discover what works best for you. Hope this helps. Welcome and enjoy! Curt.

[nefgm.org]

Curt, thanks for sharing this information. Very interesting concept. 

[Curt]

You are welcome and just fyi on game control, I failed to mention while I use cards for offense, I have 6 defensive formations determined by the roll of a dice, sorry.

[Bob Davis]

Very interesting set up Curt. How many seasons have you played and who has won your Super Bowl each season? 

[Curt]

Sorry for the long delay.

I've had 17 seasons with the following Superbowl winners: 1. Atlanta Falcons 2. San Francisco 49ers 3. Washington Redskins 4. New York Giants 5. New Orleans Saints 6. San Francisco 49ers 7. Oakland Raiders 8. New Orleans Saints 9. New York Giants 10. Arizona Cardinals 11. Detroit Lions 12. Chicago Bears 13. Kansas City Chiefs 14. Green Bay Packers 15. New Orleans Saints 16. Chicago Bears 17. Philadelphia Eagles

Having started in 2005 with this setup and sometimes my nephew, who happens to live next door and joins me whenever possible with whatever game is being played at the time, we are now in the first round of season 18 [thanks to COVID-19 delays] although we should be near the playoffs in season 19 but we'll "catch up" eventually.

The Buffalo Bills are the only team waiting to get their first division win but if not this season, it will be soon, I hope. 

[Bob Davis]

Thanks Curt! 

[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

[Bob Davis]

Glad your Bills finally got their division title! My Bills, an expansion team in their third season are still looking for their first win. Two 0-3 seasons and 0-2 so far this current season. The Broncos, an expansion team that came into the league the same season as the Bills are currently the defending Super Bowl champs. Quite the contrast.

[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

[Bob Davis]

I too like the statistical and historical aspect of Electric Football!