Run Chase is a simulation of One-Day cricket. You are the coach of a One-Day Cricket side, taking your team through the league season.
In Run Chase we try to make the game work the same way as in real life, with realistic decisions to be made about team management and on-field captaincy. The choices you make are the same as you’d have to make in real life. Sometimes you’ll have to make tough decisions, whether to sign better players or invest your finances to improve future income.
In addition to the management decisions about signing and releasing players you’ve also got to shuffle your lineup from game to game. You’ve pitch and weather conditions to contend with, as well as players losing form. You have to decide when to use your bowlers, and set scoring targets for your batters.
Your objective is to win the league. There are eighteen teams in the league divided into three divisions (six teams in each) and you play each team in your division home and away. At the end of the season there is promotion and relegation to the other divisions. During each turn you play one game.
Your squad always consists of exactly twenty-four players. You may have any mix of batters, bowlers, wicket-keepers and all-rounders, but you’ll need to keep a reasonable balance since al but two of your players will be in action every week (there’s a 2nd XI competition as well as the main league).
The basic abilities of players are expressed in terms of “class” from 4th (worst) up to 1st (normally the best) and “international” or “world class” (even better). Your batting and bowling classes are only a fraction of the information stored for each player and are not always the key factors in determining their performances.
Different styles of play and personalities are expressed as “adds”, which are additional strengths that apply according to the strategy being employed at the time (players with attacking “adds” are more effective if they’re playing in an attacking strategy for example).
Each bowler has a set of bowling strengths, which will be a combination of pace, bounce, seam, swing, flight, turn, speed and variation. Each batsman has a similar set of batting weaknesses. These together with the pitch conditions, determine the balance between the bat and the ball. If the bowling strengths and pitch conditions match the weaknesses of the batsmen then the run rate drops and the wicket rate rises.
Players are also rated for the various fielding abilities, ground-fielding, deep-fielding, slip catching and so forth which adds a further factor in determining team success.
For each game you select eleven players for your 1st XI game and eleven of the remainder are selected to play in the 2nd XI competition.
For the first innings of the match the batting and bowling sides each set a target for the innings score, as well as determining the “shape” of the scoring (whether you start fast and then consolidate, cruise along throughout the innings or start slowly and hope to keep wickets in hand and accelerate later in the innings). For the second innings of the match the target is already determined (overhauling the team that batted first) but the shapes again come into play.
In addition for each innings the batting side gives a wicket limit at certain stages of the innings. If these are exceeded (i.e. they’ve lost too many wickets too early) then the batsmen will dig in and defend until your instructions release them to continue the attack. This will conserve wickets, but also reduce the run rate.
These targets and limits will be based upon a number of factors – the pitch and weather conditions, the strengths and abilities of your players and those of your opponents. Your aim is to set your players a target which the opposition cannot outscore, not to just go out and try to score 300.
You also make choices for the order in which your bowlers will appear, with alternatives and conditions for those bowlers to be replaced if they concede too many runs. Similarly you have options to promote aggressive or defensive batsmen in the order if the situation requires it.
Batting and bowling strategies (defend, cruise and attack) are chosen each over according to a combination of your instructions (run rates and wicket limits), the state of the game and the abilities of your players.
Most of your instructions are in the form of standing orders, which remain in force from game to game. This means that you only need to write orders each game for those parts of your instructions that you want to change. Instructions that you don’t want to change remain the same as in your last game.
When you first start you will probably spend some time working out how to write instructions so that your team reacts to different situations the way you want. After that it gets easier, although you’ll want to make changes to your selection and instructions each week according to the changes in the pitch and weather conditions, the strengths and weaknesses of each opponent and the form and fitness of your players.
In addition to the “game-day” decisions described above you’ve also got to make squad decisions and financial decisions during each turn. You can sign players from the free-agent list and release existing players, or scout the local leagues looking for promising youngsters. You’ve got to be continually looking to sign and develop younger players to bring them through to your 1st XI.
Each team has a limited income per turn, so you cannot accumulate a wage bill too high. You may find that a veteran player simply isn’t worth what he wants, and you can get better value for money with another player.
You may also choose to “coach” players, converting their potential (“the ability to improve”) into better abilities. This costs finances as well as the players’ potential (each player has limited potential).
At the end of each season younger players may convert good form and potential to increases in basic abilities, while older players may convert poor form into permanent decline. Teams continue into the following season but the end of season changes can often dramatically change a team’s balance.
Each turn you’ll receive up to a dozen pages of reports: a full squad listing, including player abilities, form and averages, an over by over account of the game you played along wiuth scorecards from all the others played in your league that turn and a report of the league tables, free agent list and news.
All reports are sent either by email or via the post – you can play whichever way you wish. Email is the preferred option, and means your game results will be with you within minutes of the games being played.
There are a number of games of Run Chase already running in the UK. All run with two week deadlines (so you’ve fourteen days between turns). We have positions available in most of these games that will allow you to start play immediately (as in real-life, you take over a team and try to turn their fortunes around).
Turnfees in Run Chase are £27.00 for ten and £48.00 for twenty.
To join Run Chase please email Danny McConnell with your team preferences (the more the better, real-life County Championship teams) then we’ll be able to get you started in a game even more quickly. Just quote the FREESTART option and your setup and first two turns are free.