DC League -- Season 5

After wrapping up baseball, I'll be switching over to soccer on my Evercade. Up next is Season 5 of the league set in my Druid Cycle campaign world. Perhaps megastar Agrippa will finally get that elusive championship!

DC Season 4 Awards

I've come to the end of the fourth campaign of my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer. The Imperials finished in first place with the best regular season in league history (9-3-2). They were led by superstar striker Agrippa, whose 10 goals tied with Camedyr of the Defenders for the league lead; as such, these two gentlemen will share the Scoring Championship award. In a season of good-but-not-great performances by scorers and goalkeepers alike, the League MVP trophy goes to the Golden Dragons' Donnan, the best defender in the game. Donnan played top-notch defense in front of his keeper and also chipped in 4 goals (only one other defender in the league had as many as 2). Next up -- the playoffs!

Three Nations Kick-Off

Hockey's 4 Nations Face-Off has been a delight to watch over the past couple of weeks. It got me thinking that I might run a similar tournament in Sensible Soccer using the players from my Druid Cycle league. Thus far, each player has suited up for one of eight teams from cities across the three major human nations (the Kingdom of Teyrnas, the Empire of Troya Nova, and the Southern Principalities) of this campaign world. Why not have a best-on-best tournament that would allow the players to represent their respective homelands? Perhaps I'll set something up for after the completion of Season 4. It's an intriguing idea, and at the very least, it would be fun to see a stacked Troya Novan lineup with superstar rivals Belisarius of the Paladins and Agrippa of the Imperials playing side-by-side for the first time.

DC League Season 4

Sensible Soccer is one of my favorite retro games on Evercade, and lately I've been using it to play through a fourth season of my Druid Cycle soccer league. This league must take place in some sort of alternate version of the Druid Cycle campaign setting, however, or perhaps is set at some point in the future, because, as the PCs know quite well, it's not all fun and games on the continent of First Home these days. The looming threat of war hangs like a storm-cloud over the continent, and it seems inevitable that there will come a day when differences will be settled not on the soccer pitch, but on the battlefield.

DC Season 3

I've been having so much fun with my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer that I've started Season 3 well ahead of schedule. Two new squads join the league as expansion teams, bringing us up to eight total franchises across the three main human nations of this campaign world. 

Team Name	City	Nation	Season Joined
Defenders	Caer Eurfryn	Teyrnas	3rd
Gauntlets	Riverton	Southern Principalities	2nd
Golden Dragons	Prifddinas	Teyrnas	1st
Imperials	Troya Nova	Troya Nova	1st
Navigators	Liminia	Troya Nova	3rd
Paladins	Troya Nova	Troya Nova	1st
Pioneers	Prospect	Southern Principalities	2nd
Racers	Riverton	Southern Principalities	1st

The Paladins won the coveted Thaler Cup in Season 1, followed by the Golden Dragons in Season 2. Who will claim this year's prize?

DC Season 2

Shortly after completing the first, I moved right in to a second season of my Druid Cycle league in Sensible Soccer. Two new teams have joined the mix -- the Riverton Gauntlets and the Prospect Pioneers -- giving us six franchises in all. To accommodate the larger number of teams, the regular season increased from 6 games per team to 10 games per team.

For the second straight year, the Troya Nova Paladins and Prifddinas Golden Dragons finished first and second, respectively, while the expansion Pioneers and the Troya Nova Imperials claimed playoff spots as the third- and fourth-ranked teams. Both of Riverton's franchises brought up the rear, with the Gauntlets squeaking past the hapless Racers. Among individual performers, Belisarius of the Paladins led the way with an astounding 10 goals in 10 games, followed by Agrippa of the Imperials with 8 and Niall of the Dragons with 7. 

The first-round playoff pairings will be really compelling. In one matchup, the two teams based in the sprawling metropolis of Troya Nova will duke it out for a spot in the finals. The Paladins had the league's best offense (2.40 goals per game) and best defense (1.30 goals against per game), but the Imperials were surprisingly stingy as well, with only 1.50 goals allowed per match. If superstar striker Agrippa can work his magic, the Imperials might just upset the defending champions. In the other first-round contest, the Dragons have a nightmare matchup against the expansion Pioneers, who went 2-0-0 against the Prifddinas side during the regular season, outscoring them by a total of 7-1. The Pios don't have a star of Niall's caliber, but they come at you with a balanced and relentless attack; forwards Remi, Josias, and Vico each had 4 goals, and the slick Siriano led all the league's midfielders with 3 tallies. 

The playoffs begin later this week!

Paladins Claim the Thaler Cup!

Donated by Thaler, the wealthiest merchant in the Druid Cycle campaign world, the Thaler Cup will be awarded to the winner of my fantasy soccer league each season. In this first campaign, the first-place Paladins duked it out with the second-place Golden Dragons for the inaugural Thaler Cup.

The championship game was scoreless through a full 90 minutes of play. The Dragons' keeper, Morcan, was phenomenal, as he kept his team in the game despite a 17-2 shot advantage for the Paladins during regulation time. In extra time, however, Gratian and Apollonius both scored to give the Paladins a 2-0 victory. (In keeping with soccer's FIFA World Cup, I'm using full periods of extra time and not a sudden-death "golden goal" rule.) The Paladins have won the first title, but the Golden Dragons have proven themselves to be a powerhouse as well. Looking forward to Season 2 and the addition of two expansion teams, bringing us up to six franchises.

First One in the Books!

With only four teams, and with each team playing their opponents only twice, the first season of my Druid Cycle soccer league (a custom league in Sensible Soccer) is already in the books. The Paladins paced the circuit with a 5-0-1 record. These lay brothers of Mithras led the league with 3.00 goals per game, and tied for the best goals-against average with 0.83 per game. In the championship game, they'll host the second-place Golden Dragons, who went 3-1-2. The Imperials (1-4-1) and the Racers (0-4-2) both have a long way to go before they're ready to compete for a title. 

For the individual awards, forwards Agrippa of the Imperials and Niall of the Golden Dragons tied for the league lead in goals with 6 apiece, so they'll share that trophy. The League MVP award goes to midfielder Nicephorus of the Paladins, who contributed top-notch offense (5 goals) as well as elite defense; he was arguably the main reason why the Paladins allowed a league-low 5.83 shots against per game. 

Next up, the championship match between the Paladins and the Golden Dragons!

DC League

Next on my Sensible Soccer agenda is a league set in the Druid Cycle campaign world. I'm going to start small, with just four teams representing the three largest human cities in that setting: the Paladins and Imperials (Troya Nova), Racers (Riverton), and Golden Dragons (Prifddinas). That should be a manageable undertaking for the inaugural season, but I already have plans to expand the league with four new teams (a second franchise in Riverton along with three other cities) starting in Season 2. 

Evercade Hall of Fame

Adding up all the games on all the carts, I probably have upwards of 200 retro games I can play on my Evercade systems. Of those games, I've completed probably about two dozen. Of those two dozen, only a select few merit inclusion in my new Evercade Hall of Fame -- games so awesome or so memorable that they rank among my favorite video games of all time, regardless of the era or system. 

Here is the inaugural class of Hall of Famers, presented in alphabetical order:

• Brave Battle Saga
• Captain Commando 
• Dragon View (Drakkhen II)
• Drakkhen
• Final Fight
• Flashback 
• Sensible Soccer

What's likely to be the next entry in the EHOF? Well, the first three Tomb Raider titles come out for Evercade in July...

Meet the Argos Achaians!

I had a lot of fun with a custom Sensible Soccer team featuring my childhood buddies from Horseheads. Although we lost our first World Cup tournament in the finals, we roared back the next time around to claim the Cup! For my next fantasy soccer experience, I'm going a bit further back in time...all the way to the Trojan War! Achilles, Odysseus, Ajax (the Greater and the Lesser) and all their companions from the Iliad will take the soccer world by storm as the Argos Achaians!

A Sensible Obsession

Sensible Soccer is pretty much my new obsession. I have a huge list of custom teams, games, tournaments, and leagues in mind. One idea I'd love to explore is to create a soccer league based on the major human cities of the Druid Cycle campaign setting. Perhaps even a famous NPC or two might show up on the rosters! In the short term, however, I'm working on a Team USA -- complete with my 8-bit approximation of their real-life 2024 home and away kit -- populated by my neighborhood buddies from when I was a kid. Can't wait for my friends and I to start on the road to a World Cup!

Sensible Soccer

Sensible Soccer -- named for the company, although the game is pretty sensible too -- may just be one of the most perfect sports games I've ever played. I picked up an out-of-print Evercade cartridge basically just to get this game, and it hasn't disappointed. It's infinitely customizable and the gameplay is intuitive and fun. I foresee many, many tournaments and leagues in my future...