You may have already read my review of NFL Gameday (the board game; not the old PlayStation video game). While I was looking up information about that game, I stumbled upon another, slightly older, football board game called 1st & Goal. This was an un-licensed football board game from a small publisher of family-friendly games. It looked incredibly similar to NFL Gameday, except that it seemed to involve more detailed football strategy and actual dice that added randomness to the final outcome of plays.
This looked like a huge upgrade over NFL Gameday's over-simplistic, rock-paper-scissors strategy. I went online trying to find out where I can buy this game, but I didn't find it listed for sale anywhere. It wasn't listed as being in-stock at my local board games' websites, and I had never seen it on the shelves at any of those stores. Believe me, if I had seen a football board game, I would have noticed! It was out of stock on Amazon (but has apparently since come back in stock!), and it wasn't available from any of the online retailers that I commonly buy board games from.
But one online retailer had a 2nd-hand game shop that listed 1 copy in "near mint" condition. So I gambled and bought it. Thankfully, it showed up in great shape, with all the components! In fact, it even included some expansion content that I didn't have to pay for. So I got a bargain!
I was imagining making my own football board game before I knew these games existed.
Upon receiving the game and flipping through the rulebook, my first reaction was "where has this game been all my life?!" Seriously, how did this game exist for 15 years without me hearing about it? One of the reasons that I bought NFL Gameday was that I had actually been mulling the idea for Kickstarting a football board game in my head that would have worked very similar. However, NFL Gameday was actually a much simpler version of what I had envisioned. But when I saw 1st & Goal, it was almost exactly what I had imagined for my own football board game.
So, hooray! My dream football board game already exists, and I can play it!
But also, boo! Somebody else beat me to it...
But, I do have some nitpicks with this game, so maybe there's room for me to come up with some revisions and improvements. And given how hard this game was to find, and that very few people seem to know it exists, there might be plenty of room for a competing board game. So maybe I should start that Kickstarter after all...
Table-top football simulation?
One of the first things that I noticed upon opening the box is that the rule book is actually a book. It's not a big book, but it's more substantive than the 1-pager that NFL GameDay included. And to give you an idea of how much more seriously this game takes football as a sport, the last few pages of the rulebook include diagrams of all the offensive and defensive plays, and a short paragraph explaining how these plays are designed to work in real football. They aren't all accurate (and I'll talk about that later), but there is an effort made, and it is appreciated.
The back of the rulebook includes diagrams and descriptions of the included plays.
So while 1st & Goal isn't at the level of being a tabletop "simulation" game, it goes to much greater pains to model specific football concepts and strategies. A lot of these concepts are grounded firmly in now-outdated 80's and 90's West Coast philosophies -- philosophies that were already outdated when this game was initially published in 2011. That may be a point for the game, or a point against it, depending on your personal preference. If you like old-school, smash-mouth football based around the ideas of controlling the ball and playing good defense, then you'll be more inclined to like this game. If, on the other hand, you want more modern explosive, fast-paced football, then you might be a bit disappointed by the concepts that the developers decided to emphasize and how they chose to go about modeling them.
Cards and dice
The core concept of 1st & Goal is very similar to NFL GameDay. In fact, 1st & Goal was likely the direct inspiration for NFL GameDay (unless there's an even older game that I'm unaware of, which both games are copying?). Masterpiece Puzzle Co., who already had NFL licenses for puzzles and other similar products, probably saw RnR's football game, and said "let's make that, but with an NFL license, and simpler to play!"
Both teams play Offensive and Defensive cards against each other, in which each card represents a particular offensive or defensive play or concept. The cards of 1st & Goal have more granularity than NFL GameDay. Instead of playing a generic "10 yard pass", you play a "Button Hook", "Slant", or a "screen". On the other side of the ball, instead of playing a simple "Defend Pass" or "Zone Blitz" card, you actually have to choose between "Cover 2", "Cover 3", "Nickel", "Dime", "Prevent", or several variations of man and zone blitzes. Running the ball and run defense have similar variety.
The combination of offensive and defensive play card tells each player which dice to roll.
At the most basic level, 1st & Goal (just like NFL GameDay) is mostly a game about bluffing your opponent with a rock-paper-scissors style play call. 1st & Goal just obscures that a lot better by using more detailed and realistic football terminology.
More importantly, however, is that the result of the play is not explicitly and solely defined by the combination of offensive and defensive cards. Instead, the combination of cards played will tell both the offense and defensive player how many dice to roll. Different colored offensive dice will have different numbers printed on them. Simple run plays will generally have dice with single-digit values, while a down-field pass will have dice with values in multiples of 5 or 10. The defense also gets its own black die, with negative numbers printed on it, which reduces the total yardage gained by the offense's roll.
This adds a lot more variety, and some randomness to play results. That rock/paper/scissors relationship is still present, to a degree, but rock/paper/scissors is not the end-all-be-all of strategy. And the dice mean that the ball will move by any number of yards in a single play, rather than just in multiples of 5. So this game does include the concept of playing a relatively safe, conservative, run play that might only gain 2 or 3 yards. Or it might get tackled in the backfield for a 1 yard loss if the offense rolls poorly and defense gets a good roll.
It's 4th & short in easy field goal range!
Are you going for it, or taking the points?
This creates exciting and intriguing decisions that are simply impossible to generate in NFL GameDay. It might be 3rd & 2, and as a defense, you'll have to decide if you want to go all-in on stopping an otherwise easy run conversion, but leave yourself vulnerable to a pass down the field; or do you want to be more conservative and let the dice decide whether your opponent gets the first down? Maybe you make the stop, and now the opponent has 4th & 2 in field goal range, and they now have to decide whether to go for it or take the relatively easy points.
Or you can be backed up to your own 1 or 2 yardline and have to carefully call a play to avoid a safety. These situations, and more, are all possible in 1st & Goal!
There's also a few extra dice that get rolled on every play that represent a referee and other random events that can happen on the field. These dice can trigger penalties on either the offense or defense, which may cancel the result of the play. Or it can cause a broken play that results in zero yards, or worse yet, a turnover.
There's also a "Breakaway" symbol which requires all offensive and defensive dice to be re-rolled, and for the re-roll total to be added to the original total for a bigger gain. This can even repeat if another Breakaway result comes up in the re-roll. So almost any play, even a simple Fullback dive, can turn into a huge play or a score.
Even special teams has some meaningful risk/reward decisions for players! The game includes the option for an onside kick, fake field goals and punts, fair catches, and the offense can even choose to attempt a risky line drive punt that has a higher chance of a fumbled return or a block.
All of this extra granularity, immersion, and excitement doesn't significantly impact the pacing or flow of the game either. It does add a little bit of overall time, but a game of 1st & Goal still moves along at a quick pace and can still be played in under 2 hours. It's also all easy to understand and doesn't require much extra explanation.
A Breakaway roll can turn a short gain into a big play, or maybe even an instant score!
Timeout!
"Clock management" is also considerably improved over NFL GameDay. Or I guess, since this game came out earlier, it's more accurate to say that NFL GameDay totally screwed up 1st & Goal's simple, yet effective clock mechanics.
Again, just like in NFL GameDay, the game clock is represented by the number of cards in the offensive play deck. If either offense has zero cards left to play, the half ends. Where this game differs, is that the timeouts actually make both strategic sense and thematic sense, in that they actually stop the game clock. In this game, calling a timeout forces both teams to choose to either shuffle their hand into the draw deck and re-draw (which doesn't run any time off the clock), or they can choose to pull a card out of the discard pile and add it to their hand (which effectively puts more time on the clock).
Better yet, 1st & Goal has a mechanic in which the offense can dictate the pace of the game by choosing to deliberately run down the clock. After every run play that does not result in a score or turnover, the offense discards (or "burns") the top card from the offensive draw deck -- effectively running out the clock. This burn does not automatically happen on a pass play, but the offense can choose to burn the top card after a completed pass as well (as long as it isn't a score or turnover). This can be used as a way of trying to force the defense into burning its timeouts if the offense is playing with a lead late in the half.
The offense can "burn" cards to run out the clock, and timeouts can actually be used to put more time on the clock.
This much more closely mimics real football clock-management strategy. And it does so with simple, and elegant rules that are easy to understand and execute. Why the hell did Masterpiece Puzzle Co. change this when they made NFL GameDay? What were they thinking?!
Questionable coaching
If it isn't obvious by now, I really like what 1st & Goal is trying to do. It understands the appeal of football much more than its imitator NFL GameDay. It's deeper and more strategically rich, without sacrificing much of the elegance and streamlined play. But it still isn't a perfect game, nor is it a perfect representation of football.
For one thing, there are a few places where I feel the developers of 1st & Goal got some of their "football knowledge" wrong. Or maybe it's just outdated. One of the biggest examples of this is that, in the game, Cover 3 defense is considered a "Pass Defense" that is weak against the run. In modern football, Cover 3 usually involves one safety moving down into the box (closer to the line of scrimmage) to play a medium zone coverage or run support. The other safety then falls into deep middle-field coverage to take away Post routes or bracket deep dig routes. This make Cover 3 a mostly balanced defensive scheme that is effective at both run defense and intermediate pass defense, but is vulnerable to play action and to deep throws (especially down the seams). This is in contrast to Cover 2 or Cover 4 schemes, that back both safeties off into deep zones.
Cover 3 is mis-categorized as a "Pass Defense"
that is weak against runs.
I can kind of understand how a layman might make this mistake. After all, Cover 3 has 3 defenders assigned to deep zones, instead of just 2, like in a Cover 2. So surely, having more deep zone defenders must mean it's better at defending the pass than a Cover 2, right? That makes a certain amount of intuitive sense. To complicate matters, football is a nuanced and complicated sport, and there are actually defenses that have Cover 3 schemes that line up both safeties deep and/or roll them both into deep third coverages specifically to defend the pass. But that is an exception to the general rule.
For a game that is trying to present "basic" football strategies to a casual audience, it's disappointing that they would get the basics like this so wrong. If this were just a matter of poor flavor text, that would be one thing, but this mistaken understanding of football coverages manifests in the mechanics pretty severely. Not only is Cover 3 not good against the run in 1st & Goal, it is actually one of the worst defenses that you can play against the run. Against a simple, Halfback Dive, Cover 3 allows the offense to roll 3 offensive dice against the defense's 1 die. Compare this to Cover 2, which gives the offense 1 die for the same Halfback Dive. Or the "Short Run Defense", which gives the offense zero dice against the defense's 2 dice.
Now, to be completely fair, the Cover 2 defense is technically labeled as "Cover 2 Spy", which is better against the run than a pure Cover 2 or a Tampa 2. The spying linebacker won't drop back as deep, and will likely be able to react more quickly to a handoff, since he has his eyes on the QB. So the balanced nature of Cover 2 Spy is somewhat justified. But Cover 3 giving up 3 dice to the offense just seems absurd! If this were Cover 4, then sure, this might make sense; but not for Cover 3.
There are other, more minor, examples of this kind of misunderstanding of general football concepts throughout the play designs. But Cover 3 was, by far, the most egregious and obvious.
Dime and Prevent defenses do not allow the
offense to roll any dice on a pass play!
Defense wins championships
Circling back to that "Short Run Defense" card that I mentioned: I really don't like how some defensive cards do not permit the offense to roll any dice at all. On the other end of the spectrum from Short Run Defense giving zero dice against almost all run plays, the Dime and Prevent give the offense zero dice for almost all passing plays. This is particularly problematic, because if the offense is in a position where it has to throw deep to have a chance at a late comeback, then simply sitting back in a Dime or Prevent D will make it literally impossible for the offense to gain yards. Outside of a defensive penalty, or an optional rule in which consecutive Breakaway rolls gives the offense an automatic touchdown, the Dime and Prevent seem overpowered in the situations in which you would use them.
This is somewhat offset by the fact that the plays you can call are dependent on the luck of a card draw. If you don't draw any Prevent or Dime cards, then you can't play them against an obvious passing attempt. Well, unless you can call a timeout and fish a Dime or Prevent card out of the discard deck.
Nevertheless, I really don't think that there should ever be situations in which the offense does not roll any dice. Even against the perfect defense, the offense should still roll at least 1 weak die and have a chance at gaining yards on a check-down.
There's also plenty of play concepts that are completely missing. There are no Play Action passes and no Read Option or Triple Option (though there is a play labeled "Run-Pass Option", even though there's no actual rules for the offense to decide whether they want to run on that play or pass). So this is far from a "simulation" of real football.
The equipment manager fumbled again
The components for 1st & Goal are generally solid. The board is magnetic, with a magnetic football token and First Down chain. The field is even divided up into 4 lanes that are used to track down, instead of having to rely on a plastic marker on the scoreboard.
Just like with NFL GameDay, my biggest complaint with the components is the clear plastic discs that are used for scoreboard tracking. These discs can be difficult to see, especially under certain lighting conditions. They can also be easily shifted accidentally. A player with loose-fitting long sleeves, or with long hair, leaning over the board can easily brush one of the discs and move them. It has happened in every match I've played.
The clear plastic score-keeping discs can be hard to see, and are easily shifted during play.
Why weren't magnetic pieces used for the scoreboard, the same as the football and First Down marker? Dials and sliders probably would have been difficult to make work, but I could easily have seen a hollowed-out magnetic square being used in the place of the discs. That way, the tracker sticks to the board and is difficult to accidentally move, and it still allows visibility.
Also just like NFL GameDay, a 30-second "Play Clock" hourglass, combined with a "Delay Of Game" rule, might have been worth including. The deeper strategy and more difficult decision-making required to play this game (compared to NFL GameDay) means its more common for a player to be indecisive at selecting a play. A 30-second play clock feels more necessary here.
More teams, more dice
The pre-owned copy of the game that I bought also happened to include 4 sets of expansion dice. This game has 32 expansion packs, each pack is a set of custom dice for one of the 32 make-believe teams in the "league". Each team's dice has slightly different numbers printed on it (compared to the same die from the base game), which changes the expected yards to gain on any given play.
Some teams might have higher numbers on the red and brown dice, which translates to a better running game. Other teams may have bigger numbers on the blue and green dice, which translates to a more explosive passing attack. While still other teams might have bigger numbers on the black Defensive Die, meaning that their elite defense will more severely limit the yards that an opposing offense can gain. These different numbers also affect special teams play, as changes to these dice can also influence how far a kicker or punter can kick, or the expected value of a kick or punt return roll.
Expansion packs provide team-specific dice with different numbers (including negative numbers on Offensive dice).
What's really crazy is that some of the team-specific offensive dice can have negative numbers on them too. This can lead to boring and frustrating outcomes in which an offense just cannot move the ball, or kick a field goal, to save their lives, no matter how good their play-calling is. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the Play and Referee Dice, having custom offensive and defensive dice means that expansion teams cannot be more or less likely to commit turnovers or penalties.
I don't really care for how these expansion dice are designed. It kind of exposes some issues with the overall design of the dice, such as the fact that special teams play is decided by rolling Offensive Dice, instead of by having dedicated dice for special teams. And it also doesn't necessarily create variety in how different teams actually play the game. They still draw the same plays from the same decks; they just get slightly different results. Personally, I would prefer if expansions provided new offensive and defensive play cards, in order to provide more variety in playbook designs. But whatever. I doubt that I'll ever play with the expansion dice much.
Room for improvement
Nitpicks aside, I love this game and what it's trying to do. It might be my fourth or fifth favorite board game now. I can't believe this slipped under my radar for 15 years!
I'm also planning on experimenting with using the rules and cards from 1st & Goal with the board and team end zones from NFL GameDay. This would create a hybrid game that combines the deeper strategy and more realistic rules of 1st & Goal, with the NFL theming of GameDay, and bring this game one step closer to truly being the "ultimate football board game".
And given that I do still have those lingering complaints and nitpicks, there is actually room for me to still consider designing a football board game of my own...
WHAT I LIKE
- A football board game!
- Simple to learn and play
- Quick and easy setup and tear-down
- Moderately-detailed football strategy
- Includes meaningful decisions on special teams
- Outcome of plays have a luck component
- Incorporates abstract clock-management
- Magnetic football and 1st down marker reduce accidental movement
- Final scores are reasonably realistic
WHAT I DON'T LIKE
- Clear plastic chips used for score-keeping
- Situational defenses can be OP
- Some play concepts don't accurately resemble their real-life counterparts
- Some football rules and strategies are overlooked or omitted
- Game rules are not entirely consistent
1st & Goal, by RnR Games.
FINAL GRADE: A-
Manufacturer(s): R&R Games.
Lead Designer(s): Stephen Glenn
Artist(s): Scott Fleenor, Matthan Heiselt, Jennifer Vargas
Original release: 2011
MSRP: $30 USD
Player(s): 2-4 players (best with 2 or 4)
Age Recommendation: 14 years old and up
Game Length: 2 hours
Official site: rnrgames.com/1st-goal