Club Stories (2017)

Club Stories is a scenario based tactical board game in which a story is told. Your story. You are an unknown football (soccer) expert like everyone else. But you got the chance to run a club. A very small club, of course. But hey, you got to start at the bottom.

Club Stories is a game for 1 or 2 players. You play solo or co-op. You try to defeat the 5 different scenarios in the right order. Every next scenario has its own story. If you win it, you move on to the next scenario. You may move on to a bigger club. Of course you can also replay the scenario‘s to defeat your high score and reach higher levels of professionalism.

The goal of every scenario is to reach a certain level. In the 1st scenario you have to reach the level of unexperienced professional manager. If you earn enough manager points during season (respect) you win the scenario. But every scenario has different season goals. Reaching these goals, may help you earn the manager points. For example, In the 1st scenario you try to prevend relegation, in the 2nd you try to get rid of all the corruption and in the 5th scenario you want to finish your new stadium in time.

The game is played over 8-10 rounds, depending on which scenario you play. Every turn you use 6 dice to plan your actions. There is a realistic push-your-luck system in the game which fits to the theme very well. You can push your chance up to 100%.

Your turn always starts with a board meeting. Your 3 board members will make a decision about a dilemma. Choose your board members well, because they have different opinions about a football club. You may want to attend the meeting and use your dice to influence decisions. After this, you plan your actions. Hire players, staff, send scouts to watch opponents or players, train tactics, hire a sponsor, etc.

You try to keep the markers on the 4 tracks on the board (income, fitness, morale and popularity) as high as possible. Otherwise, bad things may happen. For example, if your morale is low, your players may get suspended more often. After planning your actions, you choose tactics, select your team and play the match. If your form is high, you may end up high in the league. But bigger clubs will be intested in your players more often. Can you convince them to stay? There is a lot going on in Club Stories.