Anyone play Strat-o-Matic Football?

[Grim.Reaper]

I'm still curious to see if it's more than just picking the right play to call at the right time and getting a good dice result or not. 

Not sure what you mean....the game does allow a full season replay which entails playing out the entire season...while your doing that, you setup team strategy, make roster changes, have injuries, decide lineups, depth charts, etc...during an actual game, you do choose your offensive/defensive play, but there is more than just the play itself....you choose formation type, play call, primary target, and alignment of your players.  The game results are largely based on the "player cards" which have each player rated for various things....basically the game's secret sauce in what makes it good in the eyes of the fans.

If your looking for career play type features, then this is not that game....has no trading, multiple years, progression, training camps, etc.

Me?  No, I don't care for career play type features.  You keep bringing that up as if though you feel that you need to defend this game because it doesn't have that.  :) 

Good to know that you have some decisions to make during a game.  I'm used to NFL Strategy and Pizza Box Football (yes, lightweight games for sure) that present nothing more than "pick a play and roll the dice, get your outcome".  Good that there's different personalities and their skills on the teams.  So I gather that if you have a star running back, you can gear your play calling decisions towards getting him more touches than you might normally see a HB get.  Question on the play selection though - can you make adjustments or is the formation dependent upon the play called?  You mentioned being able to change formations and alignments- how does that work in the game?

A lot of people who mention the game missing features is usually referring to the fact it doesn't have career-like features so wasn't real sure what you meant by if there was anything more than picking plays...most times when season replay games are discussed, the discussion turns into it lacking career management so I was thinking you were meaning that, but good to know that you have an open mind to season replay as well:)

The player and team ratings dictate how players should be used and what type of offensive and defensive you should call.  If you have a strong RB and a good offensive line, then yes you will see the benefit of a good running game.  If you have good receivers and a good QB, you'll be able to have a good passing attack.  So absolutely you can play to the strength and weaknesses of each team.

General a sequence for a defensive play goes something like.....

1) Make any substitutions you want (optional)
2) Choose the defensive formation (3-4, 4-4, dime, etc.)
3) Choose a general strategy....key on the run, pass, blitz, etc.
4) You can also key on certain players (a specific RB if you think they'll get the ball)
5) You can move your defensive backfield around to overload a certain zone if you want (i.e. you think a pass going to certain side of field, move a safety up for a running play, etc.)

ActionPC football even provides greater depth of making play choices, sometimes overwhelming you with the options if your not used to it.

[Grim.Reaper]

If you were playing with others you could add that on as we did with Statis-Pro football. I imagine Stratomatic sells card sets separately for seasons right? IIRC they used to for baseball at least.

So new set of cards come out, people get the updated cards for their players and then hold a draft for players that are available.

Don't mind me, I keep thinking about the boardgame, not the computer game.

Strat's products are actually along the same lines, whether board or PC game...they have both. You can get updated cards for your board game and with the PC game you buy seasons which are basically just electronic cards.

[GJK]

Cool - thanks for the info.  This is actually sounding quite intriguing...I might look at picking up a copy myself.  My brother has it as you know and with me and you - who knows, maybe we could get a little league going with any others that pick it up here.

[Grim.Reaper]

I still haven't picked this version up yet, but likely will over the weekend....we'll see.  I also got Madden (early access) and I have to say so far looking very good.

[vyshka]

I wish the guys that used to be at Dynamix would get together and do a kickstarter for a Front Page Sports reboot.

[Grim.Reaper]

Ended up buying this weekend...so far so good....had a great game, although Pitt lost to those Patriots!  I was actually winning until they drove down the field in the closing moments of the game.

[Capn Darwin]

I wish the guys that used to be at Dynamix would get together and do a kickstarter for a Front Page Sports reboot.

It would get my money in an instant.  O0

[Grim.Reaper]

I wish the guys that used to be at Dynamix would get together and do a kickstarter for a Front Page Sports reboot.

It would get my money in an instant.  O0

It would have been great if they kept up with the series, no telling how evolved it could have been, assuming EA didn't out them out of business just like all other sports titles:)

I also wonder how it would have stood up in the test of time....sure, was a great game back in the 90's, limited competition and PC sport game excitement on the rise, just like there was great wargames from SSI and such.  Could it have matched the presentation of Madden, while sill delivering a good simulation?  In the end, there just is not enough of us strategy/sim people on the PC who play football games like this....otherwise we would see a lot of competition in this space but we don't and likely will ever....our biggest hope might be the football game OOTP is looking to put out, but I am starting to lose faith that will ever happen with the replacement developer who took over for the original developer who has health issues.

I know this will be met with boos, but the latest Madden this year is pretty impressive after playing early access for a few days.  Will some warts likely show up, probably...but seems to be the best version yet where the actual gameplay is pretty solid, stats seem reasonable, commentary is outstanding (will be updated throughout the year with fresh content).  Now of course that is on a console and no doubt I really wish they would release on a PC...but gotta take what you can get:)