PLAYED FOR YOU

Helvetia Cup

Dragons Vs. MANIACS

Soccer is boring, soccer with dragons is better! You train a soccer team in a fantasy setting that has astonishing similarities to Switzerland, and you play single matches or championships. A team is made up from a goalkeeper, four outfield players, two replacement players and the trainer, you can either impersonate the Dragons from Basela or the Maniacs from Valé.

You get interested already when unpacking the game, because you find a two-page rule for the family game and a 24 pages booklet with rules for the so called geek version; so I restrict myself to presenting the family version here.

In general the standard soccer rules apply and the winner is the team that scored the most goals after 90 minutes. In case of a tie there is a penalty shootout. The set-up is done after randomly determining the first attacker, according to the rules. In each phase of a round there are player relocation and action phase.

In the relocation phase of a round you move players, in the action phase you acquire the ball for a pass or a shot at the goal: then the defending team becomes the attacking team and a relocation phase follows; the timer marker is moved to the next red time square. After a goal trainers can substitute players and the game continues with the basic setup. A game lasts the virtual 90 minutes of a standard game with two runs of the timer along the time track.

Helvetia Cup provides fantastic fantasy fun based on real soccer rules and thus a felicitous sport simulation, and all this is done with a wink and a glance at Switzerland, in its family version this is really a family game!

Players: 2

Age: 6

Time: 45+

Designer: Frank Crittin, Grégoire Largey

Art: Lorenzo Mastroianni, Olivier Debons

Price: ca. 58 Euro

Publisher: Helvetia Games 2012

Web: www.helvetia-games.ch

Genre: Sports simulation

Users: For families

Special: 2 players

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr it

In-game text: no

Comments:

Two rules for family and expert versions

Very beautiful components including painted miniatures

Well-written rules

Compares to:

Other ball game simulations in a fantasy setting

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 1

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0