The coaches

Every decision in a match is a coach's: who moves, who blocks, when to pass, when to foul, when to stall.

Styles. Each coach has a style: balanced, bash, cautious, dirty, passing or sporting. A style weighs what the coach values: touchdowns, casualties, safety, the clock. Two coaches with the same team play it differently.

Planning a turn. Before each turn, the coach builds a few candidate plans: a blitz on the carrier, a cage around the ball, a pass to a receiver in space, a hand-off to set up a score. It values each by the chance of winning it leaves, and plays the best, step by step, rolling as it goes.

Playbooks. A coach's playbook holds the plays it knows, and how likely it is to reach for a pass depends on its team's race and roster as well as its style.

Learning. Over a season, coaches learn from their matches, scout an opponent before they meet again, and copy what has worked against them. A league can switch this off.