The included sand timer is a minute long, this can be used when battling against a time-wasting manager, you turn it over and if your opponent doesn't finish their movements within the minute then they lose the rest of the action. Following the movement phase you may now choose to take another movement phase or take a pass or shoot action. g. a shot would take the attackers Shooting value versus the keepers Saving value) and the duel is when the dice get rolled, each being 12-sided but numbered from 1 to 6, giving a more football like feel to them than regular six sided dice. If you imagine ‘Subbuteo’ without the flicking, ‘Football Manager’ without the keyboard and ‘Risk’ without the horses you’ll be most of the way to imagining ‘Counter Attack’. It’s such a great feeling, trying to work out what your opponent is planning whilst you are trying to get a defender in position to steal a ball and have to second guess what may happen all while keeping your goal protected.

The rule book is comprehensive and has extremely helpful examples of play at the rear as well as some ideas for shorter games.for a defending save if the goalkeeper moved during Step 1 of the snapshot and the saving hex is still 2 or 3 spaces away. Intendiamo dire che, come già detto per l’atto titoli con lo stesso tema, ogni tifoso è anche un po’ allenatore. Fast players with high dribbling can make super wingers, while tough tackling players with high heading are certain to feature in defence…but it’s up to you with Counter Attack: play them wherever suits your strategy. Now the goalkeeper rolls against his HANDLING skill, looking to roll under to save and hold onto the ball. You can never head the ball twice in a row, and can follow this action up with a movement phase (except for players involved in the heading challenge), a quick first-time pass, a 'hoof it' long pass, or a shot if within range.

This is a duel between your DRIBBLING and the defender's TACKLING, but the defender gets a +1 bonus for their roll.

Moving your players, prepping runs and lining up passes takes quite a while only for one dice roll to unravel your best laid plans with an interception or successful tackle. If the shooting check fails then any defenders may attempt to block the shot before it reaches the goal, a roll of 1 means the shot is off target, but the defending players still roll for blocks first. If you successfully save then move to the target hex to collect the ball, and move the player from the occupied hex one space away, moving any other players 1 space as needed.

The centre of the loose ball direction will always be from the centre of the incident, so the hex the pass was supposed to land on, or from a defender who has challenged for a tackle or header for example. You and your opponent are opposing team managers in direct control of what your players do every minute of the game. If no other defender can get in line with or past the tackle hex this movement phase then the fouling defender will be termed as the last man. This is important as you will be relying on the numbers printed on each counter to link to your drafted team. A tie will result in a loose ball, but any players involved in the headed challenge cannot stop the ball and it moves one space further if necessary.

Colin, the creator, has somehow managed to translate almost every aspect of football into dice rolls, hexes and player attributes!