Ideas For My Planned League

[Orleanian In Exile]

So I continue to turn over in my mind just what sort of solitaire league I'll end up running and how to shape the season and championships.

For now, I'm inclining toward a 16-team NFL setup in an 11-game season, which gives me a good measure of control over the total number of games through the year. These would be the "old" NFL teams plus the 50s and 60s NFL/NFC expansion clubs arranged in two divisions (North and South). However, this "pro" league would have a college twist: a ranking system based on Brian McAtee's Quality Champions system to decide the six qualifiers for the three championship games to end the season with: an NFL National Championship (#1 v. #2), a Continental Championship (#3 v. #5), and an Interstate Championship (#4 v. #6). This makes the performance of the whole league through the season the deciding mechanism and pits the teams which not only had the best records but also faced the tougher or weaker teams through the year into their appropriate postseason slots.

I'm still toying with the idea of allowing regulation games to end in ties (which would put some interesting english on the rankings) or incorporating an overtime system which is a compromise between the NCAA multiple possession and the NFL sudden-death. In OT, each team would get a possession to score, starting from midfield. However, to win, the other team must outscore its opponent. There can be no tying the game again to extend OT. If the one team kicks a FG, the other team must score a TD. If the one team scored a TD and the other team then manages to do so, it must go for a two-point conversion to either win with eight or lose with six. If one team turns over the ball and its opponent scores, the first team will get one more possession to go for the win, with a second turnover here resulting in sudden-death. If neither team scores on their possessions, however, the game does end in a tie —unless its a championship game, in which case there must be a winner.

[eflfanatic]

The only advice I can offer is don't over think it and make it to complicated. Keep it simple. An 11 game season with 16 teams is a lot of games to play. How many games do you plan on playing per week or day? How long will games last? I try to keep mine with in 2 -3 hours, one game per day, sometimes two on weekends. Don't let it dominate your life.

Mainly though, do what you want, keep it interesting, and just enjoy playing the game. Thats what solitaire is all about. You're plan does sound good. Keep us informed.

[RavennaAl]

Yep, solitaire has it's own set of "give and takes" that requires some planning. There's the "do I make my games short so I can get more games in or long so that they are more 'life-like' decision" and the "do I play a short schedule with a lot of teams so I can get the season done quickly or a longer season with less teams so that the standings reflect which teams are truely better"?

My experience from my last season are this:

I liked the longer games (20 plays per quarter) because it gave both teams plenty of time to move the ball and gave each game the feeling of it being a real game. I think it also helped avoid tie games because there were more possesions by each team. Sometimes a team will start out slow and then catch fire. A short game would be doom for such a team, whereas in a longer game they can come from behind and pull it out, which makes it exciting to watch. The down side was that they take about 3 hours to play. I was able to get one game in during the week, playing 1 quarter each night and one game in on the weekends. As such, my 10 'week' season really took about 25 weeks to play, including the playoffs.

With 8 teams, I played a 10 week schedule. It was nice in that it was long enough for the teams to really sort themselves out as to who were the better teams and who weren't. The drawback was that around the 7 'week' mark I was getting antsy to just get the season over with so I could have the playoffs.

I left ties as that, I only had one during the season out of 40 games.

Anyone who wants to start a solitaire season should really sit down and think about whether or not they have the stamina to finish it. 16 teams and 11 game season is 88 games plus the 3 playoff games making it 91. Whew, that's a lot of games no matter how you look at it.

I've noticed several guys posting here that they have started their seasons, some several months ago, but very few posting that their seasons have finished. It can start out great, but as the games mount up it can change from being fun to being a chore. Try to find the best compromise between having a game that is too short or too long, and the same with the length of your season. Again, it's just my Best of luck with your season, and be sure to post results as you go along.

Oh..., and go LA Rams

[Lindyhopper49]

I am finishing up the teams that will be in my league and working on building a new bigger home for the whole deal.

I am thinking that I will only fully play through one game per week and I will do a short form (winner gains more yards/ winner scores more) for the rest of the games.

I was thinking that I would only play through the games as my fav team but I think that would give them a bit of an unfair advantage.

[the french guy]

My personal plans to play solitaire is to play only one team on regular season, one team in playoff, and one team in bowl/cup/whatever, and find a system to decide all the other teams results. I don't want to be "spectator" of the game.

I explain : imagine 8 teams, each one playing against all other teams. So "my" team should play 8 games. I will play "real" on that team side, and roll (charts, dices, etc...) "computer" team coaching decisions (I have to study all the documentation we can find here or in Tweak mag about solitaire rules).

On each game, I will note all the important stats of my team and the opponent ones too. It will give me a chart of each "computer" (don't know how I should call them) team : one will be good in O, the other one in D, etc, etc...

that stats will give each team a bonus or malus in diferent aspects of the game, so I will be able to "draw" each team attributes. Then, I'll be able to roll the games, using attributes as modificators for the results. Add other modificators (playing at home, etc...) I should be able to virtually play each round of the season quite fast, focusing myself on my own team.

What do you think about that system ? I think I'll adapt it to a arena football system, so I'll be able to use a more convinient board (small), less figures (cheaper) and obtain fast action and turn overs.

Concerning the passing play, I believe I'll use the TTQB on my side, and passing sticks on the "computer" side.

[eflfanatic]

I have toyed with it a few times myself. One other thing I have thought about doing with a college league is to have an 8 team conference league(with my favorite SEC teams) and another 6 - 8 team BCS league (with my favorite BCS teams) and play a round robin season of games with the SEC to determine an SEC Champion and then play a double elimination tournament to determine a BCS winner and have the BCS winner play the SEC Champion for the National Titile.

There are just so many possibilities and things you can do with a solitaire league to keep one interested in playing and enjoying this game.

[Orleanian In Exile]

Well... I'm already doing five-month seasons with my solo tabletop baseball leagues (24-game schedules for 12 teams, which works out to 144 total for the regular season, plus a handicap-elimination championship tournament which in 2009 went to 8 games), so playing a game a day should wrap my MF season in three months. Sixteen teams over 11 weeks is about the maximum I figure I could handle and keep it from consuming a huge chunk of personal time. I'm going with fast games because I can't afford 2-4 hour contests, but my recent Playtest League experiments have yielded satisfactory results within the limits I was aiming for. I've been steadily working on this plan for several months. What's waiting now is repainting the teams I've got on hand and ordering enough figures to round out the league.

[eflfanatic]

Just keep us informed of the progress and results.