Tudor Games produces this official National Football League game of football strategy. It comes in a big 15" x 18" x 2" box, with the rules printed inside the box lid. It carries the matrix system of Avalon Hill's FOOTBALL STRATEGY to its logical fulfillment. A 3" x 9" miniature football field is used to show position of the ball by means of a sliding clear plastic bridge with red scrimmage line and white football symbol which, in turn, can slide sideways along the bridge to show the ball to be on the right hash mark, left hash mark or center of the field.

Dials with numbers showing through fixed windows are provided to keep track of score, down, quarter, and minutes and seconds remaining. But the heart of the system is a set of plastic, 3 1/2" x 8 1/4". play cards for offensive and defensive plays. The offensive player secretly selects an offensive play card while his opponent secretly chooses a defense card.

Both cards are then inserted in the "strategy programmer" with the defense card on top This will allow certain numbers on the offensive play card to show through transparent windows in the defense card along side the slot holding the 2 cards is a long rod with one large and one small plastic bead that can slide along the rod, which has coil springs at each end. The larger bead is divided into black and white halves. When the large bead is pushed against one of the springs and released it slides back and forth randomly and where the dividing line between white and black stops will indicate, on the adjacent play cards, which possible result of the combination of plays to use.

This will show yards lost or gained, which hash mark to move the ball to, and such things as incomplete or intercepted passes, fumbles ' etc.

There are special cards for kickoffs, punts, field goals, etc. The "probabilty selector" is devised in such a way that different spaces where it can stop represent 5% 10%, 20%, 25% and 40%. Single or combinations of percentages combined with 3 possible results for each percentage area (1 for each hash-mark starting position) gives 15 possible realistic results for each play against each defense.

This allows you to determine not only the odds of success or failure of a play against a particular defense (or vice-versa) but also the odds on long or short gains, losses, interceptions, etc. When the cards are removed they automatically advance the clock the appropriate amount. This can be overridden by use of a "time-out" knob.

In addition to the rules of the game in the box lid (the rules of NFL football are not included) you get a 4 1/4" x 7 1/2" 36-page NFL playbook which diagrams and explains all the plays and defenses so you can make intelligent selections.

There are 12 defenses and 34 offensive plays (not counting punt, kick-off, etc.) provided, all based on actual NFL usage. The real pro-fcotball fan, especially the newly converted, will find this playbook extreme ly informative, and it will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the real games you watch.

The major advantages of this game over A.H.'s FOOTBALL STRATEGY are, more plays, the playbook, and especially the hashmarks devise. A good quarterback always has to consider the position of the ball relative to the left and right hash marks, and decide whether to run to the "wide side", pass to the "close side" etc. This, coupled with the NFL unbalanced line (1 split End and 1 tight End with Flanker Back) provides a lot of the strategy of pro football not even considered in the Avalon Hill game.

The one major drawback to NFL STRATEGY is the $20.00 price. It has been around since 1972 (but has rules updated to the 1974 changes in goal posts, etc.) and should be available in hobby shops, game stores and some department and discount stores (where you might save on the $20 price).

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