This review, however, will focus on only the base game – which has been played both multiplayer and solo here since bringing it home in October. If you squint real hard, you can see the thematic justification behind this; fans don’t like turmoil on the board, they want a club governed by a stable one. Dale, 1 game against the first solo scenario), I am ecstatic that I backed the game with all the goodies (I think the improved components will fix Dale’s issue with the icons).

This list has wallet-sized and wallet-friendly games; games for the first timer and for friends who have been playing for years.There are clues on the back of the opponent’s card, letting you know where they are strong and weak, so it’s not like going into a fight with a blindfold on. Additionally, while the player mats representing your stadium, the pitch, and the managerial offices are nice, it would have been nicer if they were made out of cardboard rather than thin plastic sheets.

Despite its length (still about 60-75 minutes for me), this is possibly my most played game since coming home from SPIEL 2022. Firstly, there are two decks of players – Youngsters and Regular players – with their Untrained side up. The cards representing the opponents you play against didn’t match the color of the shields, so it was unnecessarily confusing when you were trying to find the correct shield to move up the table.

There is no interaction between participants beyond taking turns drafting players and trainers from a public market. To start out the week, you’ll spend three days (turns) taking actions to improve your club – hiring players, improving facilities, employing staff members or seeking out advertising sponsors. The helicopter view allows Eleven to abstract away some details of the matches in favor of the whole business venture idea. The stadium board starts mostly empty, though a few sponsor spaces are pre-printed filled in on the board. Each of these cards gives some special abilities as well as a colored dice chart which shows how they will vote on events.

Eleven was a huge success during the crowdfunding campaign, gaining nearly 4,000 backers on Gamefound. Eleven’s clean engine-building is tempered by several things that are completely out of your control. Which is another point worth mentioning: You do not need to know anything about football to enjoy this game. Getting a macro view of running a club, in the Monday and Tuesday through Thursday actions, is a good time in Eleven. If you enjoy what I’m doing and want to support my efforts, please consider dropping off a tip at my Ko-Fi or supporting me on Patreon.But not only the players are important in the club, don’t forget the 16 Director cards, 36 Staff cards , 36 Sponsor cards and 36 Board Meeting cards . Eleven does just this, providing engaging stories full of flourishes such as struggling for sponsors, developing players, and witnessing the development and evolution of a football club under your influence, even if there’s a large cloud of chaos looming over each decision. There’s plenty of depth and nuance as to how you apply the various effects, but the iconography throughout is excellent, so accomplishing what you want to is down to whether your tactics work, not because you didn’t understand what a certain card or effect did.

Then play one Tactic Card of your choice from your hand and place the Jersey markers in the 9 Play Zones on the Match board according to it. Much like the mess of stuff lying around, Eleven is a bit of a rules hog, particularly around the Matchday rules, which we will get to. So, if you have an overwhelming majority of attacking players, if you put them in the right places, they can score goals.Each player gets three boards to represent their club (stadium board, club director board, match board). As per the Euro standard, each of these has a level of income per round, and each can be boosted with the correct staff. Each of the three card displays is updated by discarding the rightmost card and refilling the display from the deck . It is important to remember that you generally don’t change the orientation of your shirts (offense/defense) unless there is a specific action that allows for this.