Liquid Defense (a possible answer to the A11?)

[Paul Kian]

Hi all,

After many discussions of the A11 Offense in the past few weeks, I tasked myself with coming up with a couple of possible Defensive equivalent/counter formations. The main criteria is that the formations had to obfuscate who is actually Blitzing or Covering without having to make tons of major pre-snap motions and adjustments. I also decided to keep at least 1 true "Lineman", as while the New England 0-4-7 looked cool, I feel it was kind of cheating (not to mention overselling on the pass).

However, I also think that these formations would be great for Electric Football (A11 or otherwise), since on the face of it there's little to no difference between figures and capabilities compared to the specialized capabilities of flesh-and-blood Linebackers, Safeties, Corners, and D-Linemen.

Therefore, I present the "Liquid" series of Defenses- one for a 4-3 configured scheme, and another for a 3-4 configured scheme. The spacings are a bit exaggerated, but I may revise them later and put up an Offense for reference.

Let me know what you think, if there's any suggestions or modifications you can think of, etc.

-PK

[Paul Kian]

First, the 4-3 Liquid:

[Paul Kian]

Next, the 3-4 Liquid:

[nefgm.org]

Very Cool!!, Will have to try them out. 

[Paul Kian]

1 hour ago, nefgm.org said:

Very Cool!!, Will have to try them out.

Let me know how they work out for you. The main thing is to make sure you swap around the OLBs, PRs, and CLs for Blitzes and Coverages respectfully. Otherwise it's basically a 4-3 or 3-4 with standing DEs, and no one will be confused at all. 😆

[nefgm.org]

Maybe these will help to illustrate what you are explaining.

          

Edited December 14, 2020 by nefgm.org

[Paul Kian]

1 hour ago, nefgm.org said:

Maybe these will help to illustrate what you are explaining.

PERFECT! That's exactly what I was trying to diagram.

I hope to try these out and make some tweaks as I go. I'm getting a full sized board and at least two 11 man teams together after the holidays. The first Offense I test them out against will obviously be the A11. 😁

 

[nefgm.org]

35 minutes ago, Paul Kian said:

PERFECT! That's exactly what I was trying to diagram.

I hope to try these out and make some tweaks as I go. I'm getting a full sized board and at least two 11 man teams together after the holidays. The first Offense I test them out against will obviously be the A11. 😁

 

Cool. I ran a coupe of scrimmage plays with this offensive set up against the 2 defenses and with my multi stop-"read and react"  style of play, they worked pretty well. The 2 teams and gameboard used in this illustration are 2 Tudor Haiti Repro Figure teams (HT-11-W and HT-11-R) with Tudor Pro Line Double Clip Rookie and TTC Bases. The figures are weighted with a mixture of HandiTak Adhesive Putty and Tungsten putty commonly used to weight Pinewood Derby cars. Each figure is weighted to approximately 4.0 grams. The gameboard is a custom build 30" x 60" 24ga metal vinyl field covered playing surface with a 52 1/4" x 23 1/4" playing field area. It also has 2 electro magnetic motors mounted underneath the gameboard placed offset to each other in the center of each 20 yard line. Plenty of room to spread out both the offense and defense. The scale of the playing field is 7/16" = 1 yard. I keep this set up mostly for demonstration purposes, but, I have used it, in the past, for playing some of my solitaire league games on.          

[Paul Kian]

7 hours ago, nefgm.org said:

Cool. I ran a coupe of scrimmage plays with this offensive set up against the 2 defenses and with my multi stop-"read and react"  style of play, they worked pretty well. The 2 teams and gameboard used in this illustration are 2 Tudor Haiti Repro Figure teams (HT-11-W and HT-11-R) with Tudor Pro Line Double Clip Rookie and TTC Bases. The figures are weighted with a mixture of HandiTak Adhesive Putty and Tungsten putty commonly used to weight Pinewood Derby cars. Each figure is weighted to approximately 4.0 grams. The gameboard is a custom build 30" x 60" 24ga metal vinyl field covered playing surface with a 52 1/4" x 23 1/4" playing field area. It also has 2 electro magnetic motors mounted underneath the gameboard placed offset to each other in the center of each 20 yard line. Plenty of room to spread out both the offense and defense. The scale of the playing field is 7/16" = 1 yard. I keep this set up mostly for demonstration purposes, but, I have used it, in the past, for playing some of my solitaire league games on. 

Wow, that's a sweet looking board! Unfortunately I am going to be stuck with a stock 2' x 4' field for now - eventually I will try to make a monster though. 😁

I am making a 42" x 18" (5/8" per yard - this makes Regular figs 6'2" and Bigmen around 6'6") 50 yard field out of 24 gauge galvanized steel and some 2x4s. The last things I'm waiting on for that one are some motors and a field cover - I'm not sure if I should just drop the $80+ bucks on a Tudor 2 motor rig or try to wire my own with those motors that go in video game controllers. 🤔

[nefgm.org]

I think I would just get the Tudor setup. They seem to work pretty good. 

[zak99b5]

That’s an interesting defensive scheme. I will definitely try it out. Looks to be pretty versatile. 

Only tweak I would think of making in the 2-5-4 would be is setting the two DLs closer so each gets a piece of the center to take away the QB sneak. 

[Paul Kian]

2 hours ago, zak99b5 said:

That’s an interesting defensive scheme. I will definitely try it out. Looks to be pretty versatile. 

Only tweak I would think of making in the 2-5-4 would be is setting the two DLs closer so each gets a piece of the center to take away the QB sneak. 

Good idea, line them up right at both A Gaps between the Guards and Center. You could also leave it like NEFGM has it and cheat up the MLB to within a yard or two of the back of the OLBs/PR/CL baseplates (I'm going to colloquially call them all "Edge Rushers" going forward 😆), especially if the MLB has a good balance of strength and speed in his base.

Another aspect of this formation that I don't think I explicitly outlined before, is that it also allows you to throw out Nickel and Dime packages without having to actually set up a Nickel or Dime. You can start out like this, then in your pre snap adjustment start sliding LBs and a couple Edge Rushers into the seams for coverage.

[Paul Kian]

I've also been kicking around the idea, at least on the 3-4 Liquid, of giving ALL the Linebacker positions some sort of nickname, besides the typical Sam Mike Will Jack name schemes. Since the formation is meant to be flexible and makes a lot of pre-snap and on-the-fly adjustments, Strong and Weak side aren't quite as important as Left and Right side. What do you guys think about that?

Edited December 19, 2020 by Paul Kian