4th Street Hockey ezv - Information Page

How to Play the Game!

4th Street Hockey "ezv" ("easy version") is the "little brother" of 4th Street Hockey v3.  While maintaining many of the same concepts such as puck movement and defensive play, the game moves along much more quickly and focuses predominately on goal-scoring.  A game can be played in about 75 minutes, even while using the advanced options.

Players come in two types; skaters and goalies. An example of each is displayed below.

 

The symbols and colors drive game play.  Moving the puck relies on the symbols, whereas scoring goals is dependent upon the colors.

Play results are found by:

  • Finding a “puck-action” using one of 6 available play cards based upon common strategies.  Puck actions consist of advancing the puck, dumping, clearing, icing, and shooting.
  • Determining a player “matchup”, if applicable. That is, a one-on-one battle between the skills of the player in possession of the puck and the player defending him.  Most matchups are resolved simply by comparing two differently colored six-sided dice.
  • Reading the result of the play off the player who won the matchup.

Four dice are used to play 4th Street Hockey ezv:

  • one d20, used to set puck actions and puck locations
  • one black d6, used to identify player matchups
  • one blue d6, used for the "blue" (home) team to determine matchup winners
  • one red d6, used for the "red" (visiting) team to determine matchup winners
  • the red and blue d6 are also combined to read results off player cards

Skaters are identified by number, corresponding to the black d6:

  • 1 = left wing (L)
  • 2 = center (C)
  • 3 = right wing (R)
  • 4 = left defenseman (D)
  • 5 = right defenseman (D)
  • 6 = 6th skater (when pulling the goalie)

For example, on an "advance" puck action, a matchup may occur between the puck handler and the right wing on the other team.  The matchup, decided by the red and and blue d6 in conjunction with the skater's "advance" rating and the defender's "defense" rating, might turn out to be a "," which indicates that the puckhandler passes successfully to teammate identified by the black d6 in order to move the puck up a section of the ice toward the opponent's goal.  This result would have only been found if the puckhandler won his matchup; had the defensive player won, the result may have been something else, such as "," a tremendous, bone-jarring hit that resulted in a loose puck and an injury to the skater.

Scoring a goal is a matter of

  1. moving the puck to an area of the ice which gives a reasonable scoring opportunity,
  2. getting a shot off without it being blocked by a defender,
  3. painting that shot in correct location to get by a goalie.

In ezv, this is done with a simple color-matching system:  if the shot quality on a skater matches the color found on a goalie, a goal is scored.  If not, a rebound or freeze occurs.

The Rink

Moving the puck around the rink takes a lot of skill and determination...along with a little luck.  The rink is mapped out according to scoring difficulty, with "gold" shaded areas having a smaller likelihood of scoring chances as "blue."  The area shaded "red" is the the most likely to yield a score; and the most difficult to maneuver to!

Forechecking

In order to prevent the other team from easily moving the puck up the ice, and in order to create more turnover possibilities in the opponent’s end (and thereby causing more scoring possibilities), you may place forecheckers in your offensive end when the other team is in possession of the puck in that end.

The defensive team chooses how many forecheckers to place by putting tokens on the game board in the strip next to their offensive (attacking) zone. Only  forwards (center, left wing, right wing, extra attacker) may be placed in the other player’s defensive zone. The other players are assumed to be in the neutral/defensive zone. Placing too many forecheckers has the disadvantage of creating scoring opportunities for your opponent if they are able to move the puck in to your end of the ice.

After being placed, a team’s forecheckers may not be moved again until one of the following happens:

1. the offensive team relinquishes continuous control of the puck
2. after the offensive team takes a shot

 

Puck Actions

A set of 6 play cards influences the type of offense your team will run.  The "Normal - Even Strength" play card is pictured below:

 

The left side of the card is used with the d20 to determine what type of puck action the puck handler will take.  The right side gives little reminders of what to do for each action.

Details Cards

Another set of 6 cards gives more detailed instructions on what to do for each puck action, including information of how to handle man-advantage situations.

Movement Cards
Puck movement is a critical piece of the ezv game.  The puck movement symbols used in the game, "," each have a card illustrating where to move the puck from each section or zone on the ice.

Identifying Matchups

Identifying the participant(s) in a matchup is done predominately with the black 6-sided “polyhedral” die.  For example, if a puck handler has control of the puck in his defensive zone and a black d6 roll of “2” comes up, the defense’s center is involved in the play if he was present (in this case, as a forechecker in the defensive zone). If the player identified by the black d6 is not in the same zone as the puck, then the result of the play is automatically read from the puck-handler’s ratings (the offensive player is “unopposed”).

Scoring

Let's imagine that the puck has been moved to the point on the ice illustrated below, and is in possession of former WHA New England Whaler John French, our skater shown previously.

The puck is in a blue-shaded region, and French's coach rolls the dice.  French will take the shot with the following dice roll:

The black roll of "4" recognizes the defender as #4, the left defenseman, who is now a potential shot blocker.

Playing position #4 for the Minnesota Fighting Saints is John Arbour, who has a shot block ("bk") rating of "1" as shown below:

Had both the red and blue dice been less than or equal to his shot block rating, French's shot would have been blocked.  As this is not the case, let's track down what kind of shot quality French's laser was.  If we look under the blu "4" and across from the red "2" in the "shoot" section of French's card, we see the panel is painted red, as shown below.
The dice are now rolled again to see if the goalie can make a save on this blistering shot. 
For now, we ignore the d20 and the black d6 and cross-reference the blue and red dice rolls on our goalie's card, Minnesota Fighting Saint Mike Curran.  We'll use the "Blue" section of his card, since the shot was from one of the blue sections on the ice as shown previously.
The color matches...GOAL!!!  Had the 2 colors not matched (disregarding the color white, which never leads to a score), no goal would have scored and we would use the "Rebound" section on Curran to find out who ends up with possession.