I share a how to play and review the TCG-styled fantasy baseball game Clutch Baseball from Clutch Hobbies.
Note: This was the first episode of The Daily Dope I ever prerecorded, since I didn’t want to go on vacation for a week and leave folks without ANY new shows until April 1st.
05:13 An overview of gameplay and review of Clutch Baseball
54:19 Final thoughts and review score
Clutch Baseball is an interesting game although one where the price point really leaves it out in the cold. The gameplay in itself is entertaining, if somewhat abstracted in some strange ways and relatively complex in others. The simulation level of Clutch Baseball falls into an area where very casual fans will find it overwhelming and die hards frustratingly unrealistic. I'm sure some folks will enjoy the TCG and deck building nature of roster construction and the strategy card decks but I feel other much less expensive baseball board games model our national pastime far more realistically.
Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...
Clutch Baseball is an interesting game although one where the price point really leaves it out in the cold. The gameplay in itself is entertaining, if somewhat abstracted in some strange ways and relatively complex in others. The simulation level of Clutch Baseball falls into an area where very casual fans will find it overwhelming and die hards frustratingly unrealistic. I'm sure some folks will enjoy the TCG and deck building nature of roster construction and the strategy card decks but I feel other much less expensive baseball board games model our national pastime far more realistically.
Interesting to see a perspective from outside what I’d consider the game’s core community and player base. Clutch is heavily modeled after MLB Showdown, which Wizards of the Coast produced from 2000-2005. A lot of us who have strongly supported Clutch are people who played and loved Showdown back then and are glad to finally have a spiritual successor that has largely improved on that game and gives us current players.
I completely understand digging the game. There are just some aspects of the real sport which Clutch really presents in an abstracted way which I’m not keen on. Plus at the price point, I feel Strat-O-Matic is a far better deal as well as baseball simulation. Clutch Baseball certainly is fun but wouldn’t be my go to as far as simming the National Pastime.
2 Comments
Interesting to see a perspective from outside what I’d consider the game’s core community and player base. Clutch is heavily modeled after MLB Showdown, which Wizards of the Coast produced from 2000-2005. A lot of us who have strongly supported Clutch are people who played and loved Showdown back then and are glad to finally have a spiritual successor that has largely improved on that game and gives us current players.
I completely understand digging the game. There are just some aspects of the real sport which Clutch really presents in an abstracted way which I’m not keen on. Plus at the price point, I feel Strat-O-Matic is a far better deal as well as baseball simulation. Clutch Baseball certainly is fun but wouldn’t be my go to as far as simming the National Pastime.