Olé!

Olé! is an incredibly deep game based on very simple rules. You manage a soccer team and have to choose formations and tactics, choose the players' skills and positions. But that's not all – during the matches you must chose when players must play their positions, timing it right so they're most effective. And you must do it carefully so as not to get them all fatigued.

Soccer fan with a flag.

The combination of the elements that compose your team allows for incredible variations and numerous strategies, and you'll need them if you hope to win the tournament. The game can be played alone or with all your friends. If you are into soccer, you're going to love this game. And if you're not, you're still going to love this game, but will also learn a lot about the world's favorite sport.

Olé! can be played by one or more players, but you'll need one game set for every two players. A tournament should take about 1 to 2 hours, depending on the difficulty of the selected teams. The game rules are easy enough to be understood by children, although to master the game does take time and effort.

This game contains a rules cheat sheet. If you find it is not enough, the links below will let download a full manual version, which is also foldable and so that you can keep it in your box.

Cheat sheet

In Olé! you lead a soccer team, and your object is to establish your leadership in a tournament. You play a series of matches in which choose form ations, tactics and skills, building up your team to become unrivaled.

the cards

Olé uses three types of main cards, described below.

1. Formation cards tell you how many men you may have on each zo ne, and how strong each of your zones are. You can only have one active for mation in a match, but you can break it.

2. Tactic cards often add modifiers to your zone strengths, b ut may also let you perform special actions. You can only have one active tactic at a time, but you may change it during a match.

3. Skill cards represent the talents of players in a specific zone. They mainly add modifiers to your actions. You may have as many skills in a zon e as you have men.

Besides the main cards, Olé! also use a set of team cards. They are used for two things: first to represent the teams when pairing for a new ro und and, second, they carry information useful for extra teams. We call 'extra' a t eam that has no human controller, in which case the information on the card allows you to play against it as a puzzle.

The game's four kind of cards

Setting up the game

Each player gets a board and 10 men, which are the pieces that represent players.

They must choose a team card to represent their own team. You should also add some extra teams to your tournaments - they are ranked from very easy to hard, so choose wisely.

Place 8 revealed cards on the table. Before drawing cards, make sure there's always at least 8 revealed cards. If there aren't, reveal some cards until there are 8.

Players draw 4 cards each.

Players set up their teams, assigning a formation and s tactic (if they have them), attaching skill cards and choosing positions for the men.

For every round of matches, shuffle the team cards and place them in pairs. This defines who's playing against whom for that round.

Basic structure of a match

A match is divided in 4 'plays', which are real chances to score. If after the 4 plays the game is tied, a fifth and final play take place.

Each play begins with midfield checks. The player who scores highest gets to attack, but if its a tie, then no one attacks and you go on to the next play.

If one does win the midfield check, then he gets to roll an attack check against his opponent's defense check. He scores a goal if he gets a higher result than the defender.

At the end of the last play, whoever scored more goals wins. If it's a tie, no one wins.

Structure of a Play

What can you do
during a play

You may activate positions before rolling zone checks and, in some cases, after it. You can't, however, activate positions in between the rolls of the players.

What can you do
between plays

You can break your formation, change your tactic and your skills. You can also move your men to new positions, so you have healthy players in the right places.

How to win

You must be the player with most victories and, at the same time, have at least three victories. If two players reach three victories at the same round, for example, then they must reach 4 victories to win, and so on.

How to roll a zone check

Roll two dice and add the result to the zone strength. The opponent also makes a roll, and you get to attack or to score if you reach a higher result.

If you roll double 5s, you do a 'critical roll': you automatically win unless your opponent also rolls a critical. In that case, it's a tie, no matter the original zone strengths.

How to activate a position

You must have a healthy man on it. You then roll two dice and if you get at least a 7 (the roll's 'difficulty') you succeed – the effect listed for that position takes place and lasts until the end of the play

Each player may only try to activate a position once in a match. At the end of the turn he did it, whether he succeeded or not, he becomes fatigued (and is placed lying down).

Rebounds and counterattacks

A rebound is an opportunity to attack again immediately after you failed an attack and a counterattack is an opportunity to attack immediately after you successfully defended. Rebounds and counterattacks do not count as new plays.

Rebounds have precedence over counterattacks, meaning that a counterattack will only happen after the opponent have finished his rebounds.

Free kicks

Instead of a regular attack, sometimes you're allowed to take a free kick. Instead of rolling zone checks, you only roll two dice against difficulty 7 (no bonuses or penalties apply). If you succeed, you score a goal. If you don't, players still can try for rebounds and counterattacks

Free kicks

Instead of a regular attack, sometimes you're allowed to take a free kick. Instead of rolling zone checks, you only roll two dice against difficulty 7 (no bonuses or penalties apply). If you succeed, you score a goal. If you don't, players still can try for rebounds and counterattacks.

Playing against extra teams

When facing extra teams, you should look on their cards for their zone strengths in order to roll zone checks. Extra teams activate no positions and use no tactics, but instead have passive special powers that you must take into account.

Extra teams can't win tournaments, so you don't have to keep track of their victories. You also don't have to play off matches between extra teams.