RUGBY LEAGUE BREAKOUT

WHAT EMAIL WAS INVENTED FOR

3  PLAYERS & SQUADS

3.1  YOUR SQUAD   Each team has a squad of exactly 22 players. Any time you sign a new player you must release another one to make room, and any time you want to release a player you must sign someone to replace him. Each player has a squad number and players are always identified in your orders by their squad numbers.

3.2  PLAYER POSITIONS   Each player is classified as one of nine types according to the position he plays. The different positions are identified by two-letter codes, as follows:-

Note: Player positions cannot be changed at present, even between positions which are often swapped in real life. This might be changed at a later date.

3.3  YOUR TEAM   The players numbered 1 to 13 in your squad are your team, numbered in the usual manner. These are the guys that actually play in each game. The positions for each squad number are as follows:-

3.4  RESERVES   The players numbered 14 to 22 in your squad are your reserves. You have one reserve player for each different position. They play no part in the game except that they may be swapped in and out of your team between turns. Player movements are restricted to reserve players (if you want to trade or replace a player from your actual team you must first swap him into your reserves). The positions for each squad number are as follows:-

3.5  SWAP ACTION   The SWAP action is used to swap players between different positions in your squad. You can only swap players that play the same position. The cost is 1 LP for each action. This action takes effect at the end of the turn, after the games are played (you cannot change who is in your team during the run-up to the game: your opponent knows which players you're fielding when he writes his game plan, just as you know his).

Enter "SWAP" in the action box and the squad numbers of the two players in the squad number and amount boxes.

Example:  ACTION [ SWAP ]    SQUAD NUM [ 13 ]    AMOUNT [ 22 ]    OTHER [ not used ]

This action would swap the loose forward in your team with the loose forward in your reserves.

3.6  SKILLS   Each player is rated with a value of 0 to 15 in each of five skills. These are Power, Speed, Handling, Tackling and Kicking. When you need to indicate a skill in your orders these are abbreviated to the three of four letter codes shown below.

3.7  PLAYER VALUES   The "value" of a player (in LPs) is the sum of all his skills, plus his potential. This is the minimum number of LPs for which he can be signed (you'll often have to pay more if other coaches want the same player) and also determines how many LPs you get if/when you release him (you get half his value, rounded down, when he's released but you get the other half, rounded up, if another team signs him later).

3.8  POTENTIAL   Potential is an extra "skill" that doesn't do anything in the game except that it gets converted to extra skills by coaching (see 3.10) or by the end of season routine (see next paragraph). It's important when you use it for coaching because you get to choose which skills you coach (the rest of the time you have to make do with whichever skills the player has got).

Note: In this game you can coach players who have no potential. It's more expensive, but it is allowed.

3.9  AGE   Players are aged anything from 17 up. Players aged 30 and above lose skills at the end of each season (two speed and one of each of the others, but none go below zero). Players aged below 30 that have any potential lose one potential but increase another skill (chosen at random among skills they've already got) by two.

Note: Players age by one year each season. It doesn't really need saying, does it?

3.10  COACHING ACTION   You can use the COACH action to increase the skills of your players. If the player has potential then the cost is 1 LP and one potential, and if he has no potential then the cost is 2 LPs. His chosen skill increases by one.

Enter "COACH" in the action box, the squad number of the player is the squad number box and the code for the skill (see 3.6) in the "other" box.

Example:  ACTION [ COACH ]    SQUAD NUM [ 9 ]    AMOUNT [ not used ]    OTHER [ POW ]

This action would increase the POWER skill of your hooker by one.

Note: This is an important action. It allows you to develop the strengths of your team/squad much more quickly and to put the new strengths exactly where you want them.

3.11  PLAYER NAMES   Player names should be appropriate for the team, and match current or recent real life players. Names are assigned to players at the start of the game, but you can change them around during play. When you trade or sign players the player name stays with the same squad number even though it now belongs to a different player. Many coaches prefer to rename players when this happens, but it's entirely up to you whether you do or not.

There's a RENAME section in the turnsheet you can use to change the name of a player in your squad. Give the squad number of the player in the number box, and his new name in the name boxes. If you want to swap the names of two players over then use the NAMES action instead (see next).

Example:   SQUAD NUM [ 9 ]    SURNAME [ BLOGGS ]    FORENAME [ FRED ]

This action renames your hooker to be "Fred Bloggs".

Note: Player names are entirely cosmetic. They have no effect on the game itself, but nearly everyone prefers to see players with sensible names in the right teams with reasonably similar skills to real life.

3.12  NAMES ACTION   The NAMES action is used to swap the names of two players in your squad. The names are swapped over but the rest of the player data stays the same (ie. attached to the same squad numbers). This action is provided to help you to attach player names to the appropriate players (so that players have the same or similar player types and skills to their real life counterparts) because swapping names around with the rename section is slow and awkward.

Enter "NAMES" in the action box and the squad numbers of the players in the squad number and amount boxes.

Example:  ACTION [ NAMES ]    SQUAD NUM [ 10 ]    AMOUNT [ 12 ]    OTHER [ not used ]

This action would swap the names of one or your props with one of your second rowers.

Note: You can swap the names of the players even though you can't swap their positions (because the point is to help you give your team the right "look" and "feel" and it doesn't actually change the game play).