Football, Tactics & Glory

Sometimes I read a review so incredibly wrongheaded that it just gets the fingers moving on the keyboard.
The base version of this game is maybe not the best sports game, and maybe not the best tactics game, but is definitely the best sports tactics game that I have ever played and is easily worth paying full price for, ignoring the fact I see it on sale about once a month for the price of a bottled water at a gas station.
The expansions are high quality and transformative and make the game even better, but are not for a second required to enjoy playing the game. Selling 3 high quality expansions over 8 years to help support continued development of an unfortunately niche indie game is not greedy, it's called paying the bills of people who work for a living.
But the devs ARE very greedy. I remember I found a bug in one of my saves and I emailed the dev team with my game logs, and the patch was pushed to steam the next day. They will stop at nothing to make sure this game they have spent nearly a decade developing is a fantastic experience that is worth your time and worth your support. Absolute avarice on their part.
Venting aside, I will say that in terms of crossover appeal, if you aren't instantly sold on this game because of one of the two main genres, I think that tactics gamers should 100% give it a try even if they don't really get sports. I'm a bit more hesitant to recommend it to people who play nothing but football manager or OOTP. There is a demo though so you don't have to take my word for it.
Technical wise, never had a single issue with on that end, as a turn based tactics game it's an absolute great choice for the Steam Deck.

As a fan of Xcom2 I really enjoyed this game. Fun game with surprising amount of depth. I normally don't review games but I feel like the developers put a lot of love into the game. After playing 15 seasons in one save file on the newest DLC my game crashed. Within 24 of emailing them, the developers had fixed the crash. Hard difficulty can be really punishing, but it makes winning feel much more rewarding.

Oh Football Tactics and Glory, how I love thee.
When I was younger I would spend days and days on football management games - then I became a grown up and suddenly I didn't have those hours to spare.
When I discovered FT&G I thought my prayers were answered - something with that similar sense of achievement but much less of a time-hog, something bitesize and suitable for short sessions around adult responsibilities.
That was 1000 hours ago. I cannot think of a game that pound-for-pound has given me more value.
The closest comparison I can think of is that moment in X:Com, you've one turn left, you need to kill the last alien, there's no obvious solution, then you think of some elaborate strategy, blow a hole in the wall for your sniper, and roll the dice on a kill-shot. Only instead of doming an alien to save the world, you're pulling off a diving header against Ipswich to secure the title in the last seconds of the season.
On top of that the developers are highly engaged, responding to questions and feedback with remarkable frequency given their geographic situation, and the new DLC looks like a massive QoL update.

Football, Tactics & Glory scratched an itch I didn't know I had — I'm not even a huge football fan, but the turn-based tactical layer hooked me immediately, giving that satisfying XCOM-style feeling of planning out moves and watching them pay off. The management loop between matches is just deep enough to stay engaging without drowning you in spreadsheets like Football Manager does, and watching your homegrown players develop their specializations and skills over multiple seasons is genuinely rewarding. Fair warning though: the early game can be brutal and the RNG will occasionally cost you a match you felt you deserved to win, so going in with patience and taking the time to learn the special abilities through the built-in tests makes a huge difference. It's not a perfect game — the grind can feel repetitive in the mid-seasons and the AI doesn't always adapt well to your strategies — but for the price, especially on sale, it delivers an absurd amount of content and that dangerous 'just one more match' quality that has kept me up way too late. Recommended, especially if you enjoy tactical games and want something genuinely unique.

FTG is both an amazing soccer game and fantastic turn based strategy game. There are too many good things to talk about in one review to prevent it from being overly lengthy, but a few highlights are as follows.

- Very deep football immersion. There are many positions players can play that have real world game feel, and the skills players can develop offer a lot of strategical depth.

- Team management is very deep. You can develop your manager and team in a lot of different ways that have strengths and weaknesses.

- League variety of diverse and broad. You can play in all of the major leagues which contain tournaments specific to their continent.

- DLC: there are 3 now which expand the game in meaningful ways and are definitely worth the price.

The only reason you might not buy it is if you aren't a fan of football. If you like turn based games but not football, you may not like the theme. If you want more of a real time soccer game, this also may not be for you; however, it "feels" very much like soccer so at least give it a try. As soon as I played the demo, I was hooked.

X-Com Football. Amazing.
You pretty much need the DLC's for the full experience, so might be better waiting for sales, unless you are feeling generous, and/or are loaded.
If you like Turn/Team based Strategy/RPG games, and Football, you will probably enjoy this game, too.

This is what I want out of a Sports Game! I play a few sport manager games; Most Bore me (ADHD). I LOVE STRATEGY games, not ones with paperwork .. I want to develop players, trade, sell, draft, and watch them grow. I want to tweek in some way Tactics of players during or before games .. then be able to watch them play .. I want to see the GAME watch how they perform. I don't like when "ALL" the games are simulated. Let me take part in the game or watch them play and tweek during half time; I've watched a team be down 3-0 at half to come back and win 4-5 after half time "Tweeks" to players and game planning!! you don't get that excitement looking at the stats of a game that's been SIMULATED and you didn't get to watch it or take part !!! This game does all that for me and I LOVE IT !!! Was not sure about it being "TURN" based; so played the DEMO and fell in love at the depth it had and the strategy behind it. Hooked me and I don't play any other sports game now lol; no regrets !