Superclub: playing football manager at your dining table
4-4-2024
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
In Superclub, you have to manage a football club and lead it to fame and glory. Armed with cards and dice, you can turn a provincial club into a champion. However, the game’s only fun if six people are playing.
Between quartets, Tipp-Kick and Subbuteo, many attempts have been made to bring football to the living room table. The board game Superclub’s having another shot at it. With the basic game, two to four people aged twelve and over can manage the fortunes of a fictitious club and compete for championships. The first team to earn 100 points or win the Supercup wins. Getting a team line-up right is just as important as expanding training facilities and infrastructure and maintaining your scouting network.
Real stars and fictional starlets
At the start of the game, players need to be drafted. Each team starts from scratch and is put together using randomly drawn face-up player cards. This is where you decide what you need – a striker with few stars but a lot of potential? A mediocre defender who uses synergies with my other defenders?
The first round of the game decides who’ll be playing in my ranks. Thanks to expansion packs for the game, you can even include players from the German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga or individual top clubs. Unfortunately, these aren’t included in the basic game, which is you have to spend extra money if you want non-fictional players to choose from. The players in the basic game are called Walter, Melnyk or Soares and all have the same illustrated head on the card instead of a photo. A little variety in the illustrations would’ve been nice.
Source: Simon Balissat
Once you’ve put the team together, you can pop players in my manager folder and move them around between the bench and the line-up. Before the season starts, I make investments and train my players. Should I expand the training grounds, to prepare players faster in future? Or should I invest in a stadium so there’s more money coming in? Scouts go out to find promising young players and my staff gives me opportunities to upgrade the defence, midfield or strikers. You can’t do everything at once, but always have to pick two actions you wish to take before the season starts.
The transfer window closes shortly before the start of the season and you can bid for coveted players in an auction. As these players are uncovered at random, there’s a good chance you’ll end up with a lousy one. Tough luck. At least you saved some money.
Source: Simon Balissat
Let the league begin
Once the season begins, transfers are no longer possible. Finally, the time has come to play football! I line up my goalkeeper, defence, midfield and forwards, required to use at least three defenders, two midfielders and two strikers. A total of eleven players have to be on the pitch. This allows for the rather exotic tactical option of a 3-3-4 formation. I have to play against another team, always according to the same principle. First up it’s the midfielders against each other, then the strikers of the winning team against the defence of the losing team. If the game’s a draw, the losing team gets to attack the winning team.
The players in the line-up decide who has the advantage. You then add up the depicted stars, add any bonuses for synergies or assistant coaches and determine the base strength. Then there’s the luck factor of two dice, which are added at the end. The higher number wins.
Source: Simon Balissat
The game mechanics are trying to combine tactical skill with a pinch of luck, and this works quite well. The game’s really simple, so it’s easy to understand. Bonuses come into play at a later stage. They make the duels more unpredictable. However, the first season’s quite monotonous, as everyone around the table always plays with their best possible line-up anyway. It’s only during the course of the game that duels pick up speed because the first players get injured or boosters come into play. This can easily take 90 minutes. In other words, Superclub is an activitiy that will take up a whole evening.
The biggest problem with the game is that it’s the most fun when six people are playing. In this scenario, each of the six rounds involves people physically sitting around the board playing against each other. In any other set-up, you have to simulate games that are decided solely by the luck of the dice.
Unfortunately, the basic game only comes with the game material for four teams. Again, you have to invest in two more teams to enjoy the full scope of the game. And buying two additional teams cost more than the basic game itself. If you want to add a few packages with real players too, you’re looking at another 100 francs. For all my love of football, this just isn’t worth it to me.
In a nutshell
Entertaining, but half-baked
At its core, Superclub’s got a lot right: the mix of offseason and season makes for an exciting game and allows for different strategies. Drawing your team by lot at the start is exciting, and match days are kept simple at first, but become a lot more tactical as the game progresses. I particularly like the game materials with its manager folders. They’re great to keep an overview of your team and prevent chaos.
Sadly, the basic game’s incomplete. You need six teams, which means six physical players, if you want to avoid simulating match days. However, the basic game only includes four teams. I’m also missing real players, as they’d have me more emotionally involved. Imagine your favourite player being snatched up by another team right before your eyes. However, this can be changed if you’re willing to pay for it.
All in all, I’d only recommend Superclub to die-hard football fans who are willing to splurge on game extensions and planning on playing with six players.
Pro
- Different phases make things exciting
- Many tactical options towards the end of the game
- Good mix between luck of the dice and tactics
- Playing strategically is possible and rewarded
- Great game materials, especially the manager folders
Contra
- The game’s made for six people, so fewer players means more random chance
- To put together six teams, I needed to invest in two extra sets to go with the basic game
- It takes more than 90 minutes for the game to really get going
Simon Balissat
Teamleader Editorial
Simon.Balissat@digitecgalaxus.chWhen I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.