Last night I trialled Counter Attack with a group of four friends in a pub in Leith. None of them had played the game before, but they are all football fans and three of them are regular board game players. Over the course of the evening, we played the game a couple of times, scored a few goals, rode a number of shoddy tackles and debated the ins and outs of some of the rules, all while enjoying a beer or two.
I realised a few things during the process:
- a noisy and dark pub isn’t the ideal venue for introducing a board game to a bunch of people, particularly when this game has a steep learning curve;
- the tables we played on weren’t big enough bit the somewhat bitty element of the fledgling version of the game;
- the heading rule is overpowered in favour of the attacker;
- the corner kick setup takes too long; and,
- a simplified set of rules could be created to ease in new players.
So, I have a few tweaks to make before the next grand unveiling…in two days’ time!
PS I won my match!