This is a documentation for Board Game Arena: play board games online !
Gamehelpbreakawayfootball
Breakaway Football is a card game simulation of American Football. You are the coach of a football team, calling offensive and defensive plays against your opponent, to guide your team to gridiron victory. Call the perfect play to help your offense breakaway for a big gain... or to enable your defense to breakaway into the backfield and sack the quarterback.
The Field
The game is played on a 100-yard field, but there are a few special rules to keep in mind.
In Breakaway Football, the ball moves 5 yards at a time. So the ball cannot ever be on the 22-yard line or the 36-yard line. It can only be on the 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. And you can only gain or lose yards in multiples of 5. Because of this, the game often uses "lines" rather than yards to describe gains and losses. 1 line = 5 yards, 2 lines = 10 yards, etc. You'll see line values used like this on your play cards, and on the Game Day cards.
Another big difference: in regular football, you need to make 10 yards for a first down. In Breakaway Football, there are specific locations on the field ("milestones") that you need to reach in order to get a first down. These are the 50-yard line; both 20-yard lines; and both goal lines. So, if you're starting a drive on your own 20, your down and distance is "1st & 30" and you'll have four downs to make it to midfield for a first down. And once you reach midfield, you will then need to make it to your opponent's 20 for your next first down. This is a conceptual shift from the football you're used to, but you'll see that it works very well in the context of this game.
One last detail: when you are on your opponent's 15 or 10, you are not allowed to run a Long Pass play; and from your opponent's 5, you can't run a Long or a Medium Pass play. If you use one of those plays in the restricted zone, you will incur a 5-yard penalty and replay the down.
Calling Plays
You have a deck of 25 cards: 15 for offense, 10 for defense. Each card has two plays on it. When you call a play, its card is placed face down onto your Play Call slot, with your chosen play touching the game board. You can stick with that play, or you can call an audible to use the other play on that card, by rotating the card in the slot so the alternate play touches the board.
The Snap
When both teams finalize their plays, the cards are revealed. On a normal matchup, the base play value is determined by subtracting the defense strength from the offense strength, according to the play type (run or pass). Then a Game Day card is drawn to modify the play. If the Game Day event type does not match the play type (run or pass) it has no effect. But if the play types match, the Game Day event will modify the play by adding or subtracting yardage, creating a turnover, calling a penalty, or awarding a touchdown.
Challenge Flags
In a normal play matchup, a challenge flag may be used to nullify a Game Day event. This can help you avoid some especially disastrous outcomes, like turnovers in the red zone or long touchdown plays against your D. Each team starts the game with two challenge flags. If a team has no challenge flags left and they are tied or losing, they can recover a challenge flag by achieving a Breakaway.
Breakaway Matchups
Some combinations of offense and defense plays create Breakaways, either for the offense or the defense. These matchups are shown in the Offense and Defense matchup tables located on the game board. For example, Power Run vs. Man-to-Man creates an Offense Breakaway, and Power Run vs. Tight Run creates a Defense Breakaway. Breakaway matchups are played a little differently than normal matchups. For one thing, breakaway plays cannot be negated by a challenge flag.
In a Defense Breakaway, the base play value is 0. Then, the defense draws a Game Day card, and may choose to apply either its play event or its defense breakaway value shown in the upper left corner of the card. The final play result is calculated according to which option is chosen.
In an Offense Breakaway, the base play value is calculated normally, except that its minimum value is 1. Then, the offense draws a Game Day card, and may choose either the Game Day event or the offense breakaway value shown in the upper right corner of the card. But that's not all: offense breakaways continue until there is a touchdown (goal line reached), a tackle ('0' value), or a turnover (football icon.) Until then, the offense keeps drawing Game Day cards and adding the offense breakaway corner value to the play result.
The Clock
Game time is tracked according to the number of Offense cards in hand.
Both teams start the first quarter with 15 Offense cards. When you play an Offense card, it is discarded after the play is resolved. (Defense cards are kept and may be used again.) You can think of this as a minute of game time going by.
When the ball changes possession, before the receiving team begins its drive, it must discard Offense cards to match the number of cards the other team has.
When an offense plays the last card from its hand, the quarter will end once that play has been successfully resolved (unless there's a penalty that replays the down.)
When a quarter ends, both teams get their 15 offense cards back at the start of the next quarter.
Timeouts
Timeouts extend the game. When either team calls time out, the Offense chooses one of their discarded Offense play cards to put back into their hand.
Timeout may be called anytime BEFORE the offense runs its last play.
Each team starts each half with three timeouts, and starts overtime with two timeouts.
Scoring
The rules for scoring (TDs, Field Goals, Safeties, etc.) are pretty much the same as in real football. If you reach the other team's goal line, you have "broken the plane" and scored a touchdown (6 points.) Then you can kick the Point After, or Go For Two. Either of those is an untimed down, so you can run it even if you scored the TD with the last card of a half. On a 2-point conversion try, you're allowed to use any of your legal Offense plays (the zone restriction against Long Passes still applies), so your discarded play cards are made available for you to choose from along with your cards still in hand.
Field Goal range for most teams extends to the opponent's 45, but some teams may have "special abilities" that enable longer field goals. The farther away you are, the lower the chance you'll make it.
Team Special Abilities
Each team has its own characteristics (playbooks that are run-heavy, pass-heavy, or balanced) and its own special abilities. For example, the Maulers can call a "Hard Count" once per game, to draw the opposing defense offside and benefit from an automatic 5-yard penalty. They can also eat up the clock on their drives by discarding an extra play card on every first down. The Fire have an elite kick return unit that often gives them better field position on kickoff and punt returns. Each team has its own play style, strengths, and weaknesses.
Go Team!
That should be enough to get you started. For more details, you can read the complete rules or play the tutorial. Now let's play some football!