UFM: Football Highlights

UFM: Football Highlights is the first game of the series of board games about the football (soccer) club management.

It's about the best moments of football matches.

You are the manager of one of the two underdog (mediocre) clubs which eager to be real glory hunters.

In the game, you have to determine the formation of footballers on the field, give instructions to players, strengthen the team by newcomers, learn and use new formations. There are referees, red cards, injuries, penalties, substitutions and everything is like in real football.

You have to rise from mediocre team to the winner of the first UFM trophy - Underdogs Cup.

Game components are divided into 5 envelopes. In each of those is the card of the referee appointed for the upcoming match, new or additional components, as well as brief rules on how to use them. The scenario and rules will become more complicated with the growth of your experience. In the final you have to fight for the Underdogs Cup.

In first envelope you get team with 15 players and the most popular formation 4-4-2. Each player has attack and defend skills. There are also cards "match events" and referee card. Every referee has own preferences. First one is loyal. There are in the game different referees: strict, very strict, unfair, undecided, etc.

You don't need to play full match. Instead of it you have to play 3 attacks, named "highlights", in every time of match. "Highlight" is finished when goal scored or team lost the ball. All footballers lay face down in starting formation and attacking manager choose one of them and open his card. Defending manager choose one of his players and open his card in front of attacking player. Then they roll dices (d10) and add result to attack and defend accordingly to their players. After each "highlight" you have to open "match event" card. And make all actions from it. Every effect of "match events" depends on the referee of the match.

In the next envelopes you get "team instructions" cards which helps to affect actions at the field and to decrease random.

After completing the scenario with Underdogs Cup, you will get more freedom to act. You can open the last envelope with additional formations, referees, and game currency. For this money you can buy your own players. There will be also stickers to improve skills of your players and tournament cards for playing your own tournaments.

Underdog - the weakest of two or more rivals. Literally meaning is "lower dog". The term arose by the end of the XIX century in the US during the dog fights. Often losing dog usually lies next to the paws of the winner or literally under it. The more surprising thing was its unexpected victory over a strong opponent.

—description from the publisher