Take Me Out To The Ballpark...

When Nick and I don't have anything planned for our games' evenings, our usual 'go to' game is Sportsclix - Wizkids' ill-fated clicky baseball game, which failed to take off in the home of baseball (the USA) and barely registered over here at all.

For a long time we played with just the basic set, but Nick managed to snag a load of booster packs of extra figures on eBay some months ago, and so last night we played our first game with a wide range of possible players.

A basic knowledge of the sport helps, and that's what I have, but Nick is a regular viewer of Channel 5's coverage, as well as watching streaming videos of matches 'live' from MLB.com. Also, as a music industry accountant, he has a head for all the statistics that might as well be hieroglyphics to me (even though they do hold some sort of hypnotic charm!)

I suspect the game requires some modicum of skill to master, but I like the fact that you can play quite happily relying just on the luck of the dice you select. For me, it's about 75% luck and 25% educated guess work - kinda like my approach to Formula De.

Each team gets a choice of two dice, depending on whether batting or pitching, then the resulting two symbols (the dice have a selection of symbols, rather than numbers, weighted according to which die you choose) rolled by both players dictate the outcome by cross-referencing the clicky-wheel on either the batter or pitcher's base.

Successful results mean your players improve - by clicking the wheel forward, thus heightening their chances of further successes.

My fantasy team never really got into their stride on Wednesday night, while Nick's pitcher (Curt Schilling) was on fire. I was cursed with a particularly clumsy player (Tim Salmon) who repeated missed crucial catches, and a pitcher who failed to impress (Randy Johnson).

We were shut out 3-0 by the top of the ninth innings.

Nick worked out the game stats (and I believe him), for those of you who understand these things:

Runs Hits Errors
Tim - 0 - 6 - 0
Nick - 3 - 7 - 0

Pitchers:

Schilling (1-0) IP: 9 H: 6 ER: 0 BB:2 K:11
Johnson (0-1) IP: 9 H: 7 ER: 3 BB:2 K:8