Cage Match!

Cage Match! The MMA Fight Game is the tabletop game of head-to-head, mixed martial arts combat, and it is available for purchase!  Step into the cage!

Buy it now at Amazon!

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See what they’re saying

“Cage Match is an excellent MMA board game.”
– Connor Marble, Hit the Table Games

“They did it. They’ve managed to put so much into this game, yet it’s so simple!”
– William, The Hungry Gamer

“Does a great job of capturing the flavor of a quick, back-and-forth fight. Blows are often vicious, and matches are short and sweet. There is a satisfying mix of different elements at play that combine into a good fighting game.”
– Casual Game Revolution

“If you want a quick 2-player game that has some interesting decision space, where you’re trying to out-think your opponent, check out Cage Match!”
– Jason, the Board Game Mechanics

“I’ll give it 2 thumbs up.”
– Graham, Board Crazy Games

 

About the game

Styles makes fights!  Control a mixed martial arts fighter from a variety of backgrounds, from boxing to freestyle wrestling to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.  Defeat your opponent by knock out or submission.  Secretly select your move, gain focus and then spend it on power moves.  Every move has a counter and it might come down to a roll of the dice.  Step into the cage with Cage Match!

Cage Match! is a 2-player tabletop game for ages 14 and up that takes 5-15 minutes.  It has been tested hundreds of times with adults, children, MMA fans, non-fight fans, gamers and non-gamers.  It’s fast-moving, it’s strategic, and it’s fun.

Discuss the game directly with the designer

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About the designer

John Lash has been designing games since he was 10 years old, but since 2003 he has been best known as “Roman the Epic Duels guy” for creating add-on materials for the game Star Wars Epic Duels and leading the community around the game, and later adding on materials for Unmatched.  This is primarily his blog, and it has been in existence in some form since 2007 or so.  Over the past several years, friends have been encouraging him to apply his talents towards something original.  Cage Match! is the first design being published, but there’s more where that came from.

About Geektopia Games

We are the publishers of Cage Match! and this is our first game.  We’ve been creating add-on materials and full expansions for Epic Duels since 2003,  reviewing games since 2016 and playing games since the 1980s.  Collectively, we have a wide variety of business experiences including marketing and finance, and including industries such as consumer package goods and toys & games.

All images and materials are owned by Geektopia Games.

See our other original games.

If you want to know more about our backgrounds, see all of our LinkedIn profiles.

18 comments

  1. James says:

    How are the heavyweights progressing? Let me know if you need playtesters.

    From a design aspect – how did you balance each fighter? Did you have a vague formula or apply values to combos and moves? I am asking because I am really into boxing and would like to make some boxers that fit in Cage Match. Some single discipline fighters would be cool to emulate the OG UFC (ninja vs Capoeira… etc.). Kicking around some ideas for WCW and WWE professional wrestlers. If you plan to do any of these let me know and I’ll back-off and leave it to the professionals.

    Love the game, keep it up.

    • roman says:

      Hi James, thanks so much for your enthusiastic support of Cage Match! And for stopping by the blog.

      As for the Heavy Weights, I’m working on it 😉 I have some ideas set up already. For right now, Cage Match has a long way to go to be successful enough for a second printing and an expansion, and we have another game, Fearsome Wilderness, coming soon, but we will get there.

      To answer your question about damage values: If you think of it this way, you can spend 2 focus and have a head punch (Hook) do 7 head damage. So, your special move needs to be a bit better than that or it isn’t worth it. If it costs 2 focus, it should do more than 7 damage or have a dice bonus, otherwise your move is no better than your opponent’s Hook . It’s a little trickier with the ground moves, basically 2 focus lets you reduce the need to win 2 dice rolls to 1, or 2 focus should give you more than the typical +2 dice bonus. Make sense?

      If you do create some fan fighters, please post them to BGG. I’ll reply to your post there as well but without the detail.

      • sal herrera says:

        So submission attempts always require 2 winning dice rolls to gain submission? (except for special submissions )
        Also is Nayeli Robles special #2 supposed to be limb lock submission or is that a misprint?

        • roman says:

          Hi Sal, thanks for your interest. I never actually caught that typo regarding Nayeli, thanks for pointing that out. It should say “Attempt Choke” instead of “Attempt Limb Lock”.

          • Sal says:

            Thanks for the reply!
            I am really loving this game and hope for some expansions in the future.

  2. Aiha says:

    Cage Match!: The MMA Fight Game

    How do you deliver products to Thailand?

    Vfi Asia or Fedex ?

    retailer and Distributor discount 50% or more ?

    What is the minimum order?

    How much is the shipping cost for Thailand?

    • roman says:

      Hi and thanks for your interest. We’d have to arrange a one-off sale to Thailand. I will contact you via your email address.

    • roman says:

      Hi James. Thanks for asking, but it doesn’t look likely. We have some other projects going right now. Maybe we can do some fan-made stuff.

      • James Reynolds says:

        Fair enough. The not really a need for heavy weights since weight classes are represented on the Hit Point chart and really just for flavor and game length.

        I guess, just new fighters is the only thing needed. With time, my first idea was just to gender swap the existing, tested, fighters to allow for larger tournaments.

        You mention doing some fan made stuff, are there any art files or design philosophies you would care to share with the fans?

        Did you guys have any formula or pattern that you used to create the individual moves and combos?

        Would you be willing to share any clunky/unused fighters or moves/combos, either online or offline, that fans could print-and-play? Possibly the Advanced Mode that you mentioned in a design diary post.

        I can’t wait to check out what you do with Wizard Biscuits & Wizard Bags since the first game I designed at 11 or 12 was Knight Ball, a rules variation of croquet. I love this type of game design – simple and fun.

        Thanks for your time

        • roman says:

          So, if you look at the Hook, it does 3 damage. Anyone can add 2 focus, and do a hook for up to 7 damage. So, if a special move is going to be a Hook, and it’s going to cost 2 focus, it really needs to do at least 8 damage (if not 9) or there’s nothing “special” about it, it’s just a Hook that anyone can do.

          So that’s really the formula: Pick your move (Hook, Round Kick, etc.) and give it a fun name, start with 2 focus and give it just a little more damage than what the standard move with 2 focus would do to make it special. From there you can play with it, maybe increase the dice and/or damage, or throw in a fun “critical hit” like Kentaro’s Whirlwind Kick, we probably need more of those.

          For the ground moves it’s all a bit trickier, but again, anyone can use 1 focus and add +1 to their dice, so a special move needs to be just a tick better than that. I felt like there were more submission moves to explore in an expansion.

          One clear idea I had for a heavyweight is a Chuck Lidell type. His special ability is +2 to all Jabs, which is so devastating against ground types that I’d only give him one special, a big Hook of some sort.

  3. James says:

    Would you be willing to share any clunky/unused fighters or moves/combos, either online or offline, that fans could print-and-play?

    • roman says:

      Hi James, thanks so much for your interest. I’ve been meaning to respond to your prior comment. Yes, I can share some of those ideas. There is a bit of a formula to the power moves I can share as well. Just a bit busy right now.

      As for Wizard Bags & Biscuits, thanks for your interest in that as well. However, we will likely be announcing another project shortly.

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