Would handoffs fundamentally alter how the game works?

mattwakeman · Would handoffs fundamentally alter how the game works?

Playing a few test games on VASSL at the moment and I can feel the grinding of gears in my head as I keep on trying to play it like BlubbleBowl (even though I used to play with the simultaneous turn option rules) which is all part of the fun.

But something cropped up in one game and made me wonder what the game would be like if an activated player who was not in possession of the ball at the start of their turn was allowed to run past the player with the ball and take it off them. Obviously you would have modifiers on both players involved. But I was just wondering if this would favour the quicker teams too much or it was something that was considered and rejected early in the design process.

Just thinking out loud really because I would prefer to see a rule like this to speed up the game (if it does indeed need it) rather than something like being able to move two players at a time which seems to tip the odds alarmingly far.

GalakStarscraper · Re: Would handoffs fundamentally alter how the game works?

mattwakeman

I actually agree that the current rules (especially the change to get-ups) have made the game much quicker and free flowing and I was really basing that comment more on the reports that are still cropping up that people are finding the game taking a long time to play. It still is for me at the moment but that is as much learning how to play the rules as well as learning how to play the game (if that makes sense).

I know that moving one player at a time and not being able to move the next turn is a huge part of the strategy but I am used to rules in which the ball is not the sole possession of the player who has it but is more the teams and players are able to simply take it away and move it on. But if it is too much for too little a gain then fair enough, as I said, just thinking out loud.

GalakStarscraper

mattwakeman

Didn't realise that he was still on 4.9! In that case you can forget the speed argument part of what I am saying. Just out of interest though, were hand-offs ever something that you had thought about including? One of the things about Eball that is so different to the other game is that it is much more about movement both of player and ball. The grinding cage has no part to play here (which is a good thing imo) so it seemed a natural progression to me that hand-offs would simply encourage even more movement.

GalakStarscraper

I understand what you are saying but one of the biggest complaints I get from the board game community about Elfball is that it is rules heavy.

It would add a lot of rules to the game in order to explain that you can take the ball from other players.

Does it make the flow more ... yes I think it does ... however I think one of the biggest things it would do other than add a decent amount of rules is mess with the ability to mark players in the game. The problem with the running hand-off is it removes the value of committing a player to mark the ball handler since another player can just sweep past and get the ball on the free side of the ball handler.

In essense ... in my opinion ... it sacrifices game strategy for game speed.

Galak

mattwakeman

That does make sense. Of course my first thought on reading your comments is, 'well hey, only allow hand-offs when neither player is being marked by anybody' but straight away I can see that opens up more rules and more hassle. I am amazed though that people actually think that EBall is rules heavy

I remember trying (and that really was the operative word) to play games like Star Fleet Battles and ASL where the rule books would break your foot if you dropped it on them!

Would handoffs fundamentally alter how the game works?

Re: Would handoffs fundamentally alter how the game works?