2013: Stock Car Racing America, Race 6

April 14th, 2013: the Reliable Rental Car 500 @ Texas National Motor Raceway.

Race results:

I believe Pete MacAtee’s win from 42nd place may be the farthest back in the field that a winner has come from.

Current standings:

Ray Bob Walker maintains his points lead as Parnell Drake slips back to 3rd place, while Joey Wilson leap frogs to 2nd place.

Next: the Southern 600 @ Southern Super Speedway.

Stay tuned!

HMH: PT Practice Game

I randomly chose 2 coaches and 2 dozen players from PLAAY’s 75 All-Time Great Set and played a game.

The Teams:

Team Popovich (Gregg Popovich, Coach)
Starters:
Steph Curry
Michael Jordan
Scottie Pippen
Lebron James
Nate Thurmond

Bench:
Nate Archibald
Oscar Robertson
Paul Arizin
Rick Barry
Paul Pierce
Moses Malone
Willis Reed

Team Daly (Chuck Daly, Coach)
Starters:
Gary Payton
Ray Allen
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Elgin Baylor
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Bench:
Bob Cousy
Jason Kidd
Sam Jones
Dave Debusschere
Dolph Schayes
Bob McAdoo
Robert Parish

Final Score:

Team Popovich 163
Team Daly 108

Team Daly started off leading the game early, but then a switch was flipped and Team Popovich dominated both offensively and defensively, leading by as much as 70+ at one point.

This is the first basketball game that I really enjoy playing, mostly due to the way the PLAAY engine works.

I may keep these two teams intact, and randomly assign the rest of the set to teams and run a round robin tournament.

As if I didn’t have more than enough sports replays running.

Stay tuned!

Hoops Revisited

After watching a play-through video, I see a lot of mistakes I made during that first game of Highlight Maker Hoops Prime Time.

So I’ll have to replay that one game I played between Cleveland and Boston.  I’ll call the first one a practice game.

In the meantime,  I’m going to run another practice game using the NBA 75th anniversary set, two teams of randomly picked players and coaches.

Stay tuned!

NBL: Games 1 & 2

Last game played with basic Highlight Maker Hoops:

New York Guard @ Chicago Express

Express 118
Guard 103

First game played with Highlight Maker Hoops Prime Time:

Cleveland Nets @ Boston Commons

Commons 94
Nets 86

I’m sure I made some mistakes while learning how to play the new game, like inbounds after a time out and when to award free throws.

I’ll figure it out.

Upcoming Games:

St. Louis Bombers @ Cincinnati Royals
Denver Dynamos @ Tulsa Bandits
San Francisco Pioneers @ Phoenix Sunset
Kansas City Knights @ Los Angeles Stars

Stay tuned!

Highlight Maker Hoops Prime Time: The NBL

Soon.

I could never get my head wrapped around any tabletop basketball game, until PLAAY Games came out with Highlight Maker Hoops in 2022.  It’s a quick-play basket ball game, akin to their Express series of games, which are scaled down versions of their full-play games.

From right out of the box I was able to play a couple of games, eventually replaying the Warriors-Celtics 2022 Finals series, where the Warriors won in 6 games, I think.  For some reason I don’t think I documented that series on this site.

Earlier last week I played a game using their fictional basketball league, BLAM (Basketball League of America), which I have renamed the NBL (National Basketball League).  The Chicago Express defeated the visiting New York Guard 118-103.

PLAAY has released a full-play version of Highlight Maker Hoops called Prime Time.  It arrived yesterday and I plan to continue the NBL season with the new expansion.

On tap for tonight: the Cleveland Nets visit the Boston Commons.

I should do what I’ve seen other tabletop gamers have done, use AI to create logos for my fictional sports teams.

Stay tuned!

1983: Elway’s Rookie Season, Game 2: Baltimore

September 11th, 1983

Final Score:

Colts 57
Broncos 14

This is really a fun game, despite the time involved and the fact that my Broncos got their asses handed to them.

Even with a new scoresheet, I don’t feel that I’m keeping accurate stats, hence the final score only.

I’ll try better in the next game, which is:

The home opener vs. the Philadelphia Eagles.

Stay tuned!

Digital Diamond Baseball

The Boardgame Companion for this game just makes the tabletop experience feel so much better.

Between the player pictures and the (generic) play-by-play, I find it a better experience than scoring by hand (arthritis prevents me from doing that) or using another electronic scoring aid like BallScore.

BallScore served me well for over 10 years, and I’ll probably continue using it for the 1917 and 1921 replays, because those seasons are not available in DDB.  If they ever do, though, I may completely switch over to DDB.

Stay tuned!