ALHAMBRA
a review by Greg J. Schloesser

This must be the year of “re-makes”. We have Edel, Stein & Reich (Basari), Domaine (Löwenherz) and now Alhambra (Stimmt So). There’s probably more, too. Amazingly, all three of these remakes are very good and I actually prefer two of them over the original … and the other one is an excellent game in its own right!

I’ve always enjoyed playing Stimmt So, but on a lighter, casual level. It was never going to rise to the level of “greatness” for me, but it was one that I could play with a wide variety of folks and enjoy the experience. It was never a game, however, that I was overly excited to play. So, when I heard that the game was being re-released as Alhambra, it barely registered a “blip” on my radar screen. I had no urge to rush out and purchase a copy.

That doesn’t mean, however, that I would pass up the opportunity to play the new version! That opportunity arose back in April at Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends, where the one copy of the game available saw near constant use. I was responsible for much of that usage, as after one play, I was smitten with the new additions to the game system and played it several more times during the course of the week. In fact, I rated the game in a virtual dead-heat with Amun-Re and New England as my favorite new game of the Gathering.

The game has been given a bit more exotic setting than what was present in Stimmt So. Now, players secure the skills of master construction crews to build elaborate palaces. The crews insist, of course, in being paid in the currency of their native land, so players must make sure they have an ample amount of the four types of currency on hand. Having the most is the object, as players are richly rewarded for building the palaces with the most gardens, towers, pavilions, arcades, walls, etc.

So, in place of the stock certificates of Stimmt So, Alhambra gives us various buildings, all artistically depicted on thick cardboard tiles. The price for these buildings will vary from 2 – 14 and must be paid in the correct type of currency. Certain buildings (the towers, for instance) are inherently more valuable than others (pavilions being the least desirable). Further, many building tiles also depict walls along one or more of their edges. These walls often create placement dilemmas, but will also reward players with bonus points for contiguous exterior wall segments.

The idea is the same as in Stimmt So: collect buildings and reach majority, secondary or tertiary positions in as many different building types as possible.

In Alhambra, however, these buildings are not simply placed in rows in front of the players. Rather, there is a building aspect to the game as players must properly arrange their building tiles and “build” their palace. This is THE major difference between Alhambra and Stimmt So. Each player begins with a fountain tile and their palace grows around this fountain. Several placement restrictions must be observed when placing these tiles:

• All tiles placed must maintain access to the fountain. You see, many building tiles also depict walls along one or more of the tile edges. Care must be exercised in placing these tiles since no building can be isolated from that all-important fountain.

• All tiles must be oriented correctly; no inverted tiles allowed!

• No “holes” are allowed – all tiles must touch a previously played tile and no completely surrounded empty regions may be formed.

• The borders of adjacent tiles must match: wall to wall or no-wall to no-wall.

This aspect of the game also adds further decision-making and planning into the game system. Now, players not only must keep an eye on how a particular tile will benefit them in terms of their majority status in that building type, but they must also carefully consider if that tile will be able to be properly placed into their palace system and if it will increase their “wall” bonus. More decisions with more dilemmas – a VERY nice addition to the system!

The basic mechanics of the game remain the same. Four building tiles are drawn randomly from a bag (which is provided with the game) and placed onto a board. Beside each of the four building tile spaces is an illustration of the type of currency that must be used to purchase the tile on that space. Thus, there are four types of currency in the game: Gulden (Gilder), Denar (Dinar) and Dukaten (Ducat) and Dirham (uhh …anyone know what the English equivalent is for this one?). The currency is differentiated by illustrations, symbol and colors, so folks who have difficulty distinguishing between similar color shades can rely on the symbols or illustrations. Four currency cards are revealed and placed below the board. A large, winding score track is depicted on a separate board and is used to track the player’s scores after each of the three scoring rounds.

On a player’s turn, he has three options:

1) Take Money. A player may take any one currency card from the four face-up cards. There is another option, though, that is NOT present in Stimmt So. A player may take multiple currency cards if the sum of those cards does not tally greater than ‘5’. This is a VERY nice improvement as no longer will a player be consistently stuck with four low-valued cards on the display and be forced to take just one of those cards.

2) Purchase and Place a Building Tile. A player may purchase a building tile from the display. However, he must use the type of currency depicted beside that tile. An important caveat, however: no change! If you overpay for a tile, you get no change in return.

If, however, you pay with an EXACT amount, you are rewarded by being allowed to take another turn! You can then again execute any one of the three actions possible on your turn. And, if you opt to purchase another building tile and are able to pay with the exact amount again, you get to do it again! Building tiles are not replaced until the end of your turn, however, so eventually this “take another turn” series will end.

Any tile purchased must either be placed into your palace system immediately (following the rules outlined above), or placed onto your player mat into reserve.

3) Change your Palace. You can either:

a) Move a building tile from your ‘reserve’ and place into your palace complex; OR
b) Take a building tile from your palace complex and put it into ‘reserve’; OR
c) Exchange a building tile from your reserve with one from your palace complex. The new building tile must be placed in the same location as the tile you removed.

The use of the ‘reserve’ mat does allow players to purchase building tiles that are not immediately useful or do not currently “fit” into their complex. However, it does take a full turn to get them out of reserve and into your complex. Tiles left in reserve when the game ends are worthless.

When a player completes his turn, the displayed building tiles and currency cards are replenished to four apiece. The next player then takes his turn and this process continues until a ‘scoring’ card is revealed from the currency deck.

When a scoring card is revealed (there are two mixed in the currency deck), play is temporarily halted. Players earn victory points based on their holding position in each of the six building types. In the first scoring round, only players holding the majority of a building type earn points. In the second scoring round, majority and secondary positions are scored. At game’s end (when there aren’t enough building tiles to fill the display), majority, secondary and tertiary positions are scored. The points earned escalate with each passing round and, as mentioned, some building types are more valuable than others. All of this must be kept in mind when deciding upon which buildings to purchase.

Players also earn bonuses for contiguous exterior walls during each scoring round. Each exterior tile edge that is part of this contiguous wall earns the player 1 victory point. I’ve seen several games wherein these wall lengths made the difference in determining the victor.

As mentioned, the game ends when the building display cannot be re-filled. At this point, each remaining building on the display is awarded to the player who has the most currency of the type required to purchase that building. Thus, players may wish to conserve some of their funds as the game nears an end. However, there is no guarantee as to which buildings will be remaining on the display at the game’s conclusion, so you have to get a bit lucky here. A final scoring is held and the player with the greatest total is victorious.

No doubt, the game does have a healthy dose of luck involved, particularly involving the positioning of the building tiles and the types of currency available each round. The new rule wherein you can grab multiple currency cards as long as their sum doesn’t exceed ‘5’ is VERY good and helps alleviate some of the ‘currency’ luck. Plus, these small currency values allow a player to form ‘exact’ amounts more often, thereby rewarding him with an additional turn.

There is also the frustrating – occasionally VERY frustrating – problem of having your opponents purchase the building tiles you have been planning on purchasing prior to you having the opportunity. This can happen repeatedly and cause one’s frustration level to rise precipitously. I know … it has happened to me on several occasions! Still, I accept this as part of the game and can live with it without becoming too upset!

In spite of the luck factors, there is ample opportunity for careful planning and management. There’s a LOT to analyze and consider here, but not too much to cause the game to bog down. Indeed, the game seems to move along at a fairly brisk pace and plays to completion in about 60 – 75 minutes. No doubt, with more players, a degree of control is lost, which may frustrate some folks. If this sort of thing bothers you, then I’d suggest playing the game with less people. I’ve found 4 or 5 to be the optimum amount, but could see where it would also work well with just 3 players.

The end result? In spite of my initial apathy, I’ve found Alhambra to be a delight to play and a significant improvement over Stimmt So. There’s more here to whet my appetite and elevate the game out of the “lighter” category occupied by its predecessor. Yet, the game remains one that will appeal to casual gamers as well as fanatics such as myself. Here’s another rare case of the sequel being better than the original.

Apparently, the Spiel des Jahre jury agrees with my assessment. Alhambra has just been named the recipient for this prestigious award for 2003. Kudos to Dirk Henn and Queen Games!

Greg Schloesser hosts the “Westbank Gamers,” is a founder of “Gulf Games” and is the president of “Strategy Gaming Society.”

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VOC!

a review by Darrell Hanning

In the seas of the blind, the sailor with one eye kicks butt.

Splotter Spellen, a gaming company in Arnhem, Netherlands, developed something of a cult status with Roads and Boats. After all, how many games start the players with donkeys and geese, and end with them building currency mints? Roads and Boats is a little strange, even by European standards, but should be a mandatory experience for anyone who ever has to plan projects involving time-dependencies.

VOC is the latest fare from Splotter Spellen, and has its own charming element of quirkiness. VOC is not meant as an acronym (and if treated as such, should be pronounced most carefully). Instead, it stands for Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or Dutch East Indies Company. The game puts the players in the roles of investors and sailors from Zealand, one of the competitors to Amsterdam in the seventeen years prior to the formation of the Dutch East Indies Company. The players will claim goods delivery contracts, outfit ships, and attempt to cooperate in obtaining those goods, and bringing them home.

“Attempt” and “cooperate” are very much the words of the day, in VOC. Attempt, because unlike other European games that look like it coming out of the box, this one relies in part on the dexterity and spatial perception abilities of the players. Cooperate, because like many other European games which it also resembles, without cooperation you are toast.

The board appears to be the reproduction of a period map, of the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, ranging from Saudi Arabia to New Guinea. On this map there are ten ports at which various goods are available. The fundamental object of the game is to get the proper goods back to Middelburg, Zealand, fulfill those contracts you have claimed, and in doing so make more money than the other players, by the end of the game. The main obstacle in this is the concept that you cannot navigate the seas without the cooperation of the other players. This reminds me of a similar concept found in Die Hanse, one of the first of the “Euro-style” games I bought.

One of the most humorous situations I have observed in recent years is the pitting of the average American gamer against a European game system requiring player cooperation. This dichotomy of philosophies is probably no more pronounced than in the case of American wargamers – and particularly young wargamers – confronted with the unpalatable task of (gasp!) cooperating. In this, RPGers probably have something of an advantage, if you can get them to play this game at all. They, at least, are accustomed to “traveling” in “hearty bands”, at least until such point that they think they can stab each other in the back, and run with the dragon’s treasure. But I have yet to see a game in which cooperation is crucial to the degree it is in VOC!

In addition to the game board, you’ll find beginner and advanced rules, 10 wood cubes each in 5 colors (representing players’ merchants and sailors), goods markers, contract year markers, money markers (thankfully of different sizes for each denomination) warehouse markers, contract cards, a high-quality, fine-point, erasable marker, and four little wipe-off boards that make the game so deliciously different.

On the game board, there are holding boxes for the contents of four merchant ships – the Woestduyn, the Liefde, the Hart, and De Maen. Not exactly Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, but these brave vessels are all you get. (They do have one advantage over other ships, however, in that when they sink, they’re available again on the next turn!) The Woestduyn and Liefde are navigated on the two wipe-off boards showing the western half of the game map. The Hart and De Maen are likewise restricted to the eastern half of the game map, shown on their respective wipe-off boards.

In the basic game, sailors and merchants are assigned by the color-coded squares found on each ship's holding box. In the advanced game, the players are given more freedom in assigning their personnel. Either way, there will be a row of sailors along the top of a ship’s holding box, and a row of merchants along the bottom. The leftmost player cube in the sailor row is the Captain of the ship. The leftmost player cube in the merchant row has the first option to pick up goods in a port.

Once a ship is “outfitted” with crew and merchants (or, in the advanced game, when the Captain feels he has enough men on board), the fun begins.

The Captain of a ship is given the wipe-off board for that ship, and the erasable pen. He places the pen at a start bar marked near the bottom (or “south” end) of the board, and closes his eyes. (Yes, you heard me right, he closes his eyes.) He then has the responsibility of blindly drawing a course on the map to one or more of the ports, without intersecting a coastline (crash) or going off the map. How does he do this you ask? Well, for every sailor on the ship that another player has, that player may call out a direction once. This direction can be one and only one word, from the list of “East”, “West”, “North”, “South”, or “Stop”. So, if Fred is the Captain, and Kevin has two sailors on board, and Patricia has two sailors on board, then Fred will draw the ship’s course with his eyes closed, and Kevin and Patricia will each be able to call out directions on two occasions. Fred can choose to stop drawing anytime he wishes – and this is almost always a prudent thing to do.

Considering the plethora of islands found in the west Pacific, this blind-but-slightly-informed navigation routine means ships can and will run aground – particularly for those new to the game. Whenever a ship does run aground, the left-most sailor on board (aka, the Captain) falls off, and the piece is returned to the owner. If this happens enough, the last sailor on board will fall off, and the ship sinks, taking all the merchants (and any goods they may have) to the bottom. As players gain experience with this exercise, they’ll learn such things as drawing more slowly, so people can help them better, and also learn to stop on their own sometime shortly after the last assistance is provided.

Provided a ship reaches one of the circles depicting a port on the ship’s navigation board, then the ship is considered to arrive at that port. It’s even possible for a Captain to manage to draw to more than one port on a turn, though I’ve personally only seen that happen once. Once the Captain stops drawing, merchants on board the ship obtain commodities from any ports reached during that move, starting with the first port reached, and with the left-most merchant on the ship. Each merchant can only “carry” one good back to Zealand, and may not exchange for a different good at a subsequent port, so a player must choose carefully. Alternatively, players are free to discuss trades, such as I’ll take tea back for you, if you’ll trade it for pepper when (if) this ship gets home.

Once the Captain has “turned the ship around” and is heading home, he must strive to cross a “bar” drawn near the bottom of the navigation board. This bar crosses less than half the width of the board, so beginners may wish to assume that the bar crosses the entire board, at least for the first few games.

In the advanced game, there is a year marker for each turn (1585-1602) in the game. When a player claims a contract, he must use one of the available year markers in doing so. If another player believes he can deliver the contract sooner, than he or she is free to snap up the contract from the current holder, and place an earlier year’s marker on it. (Kind of like Name That Tune.) So, if things are looking good for your own contract, it probably behooves you to “upgrade” your claim to an earlier year of fulfillment.

Contracts can also be fulfilled by cooperating players, and the profits split per whatever they agreed upon. Indeed, one viable strategy for the game is to pursue sharing of contracts with multiple players (though not too many with any one player), as this insures that multiple players will have a vested interest in the success of the pertinent voyage or voyages.

What contracts are not claimed by the players are snapped up by “Amsterdam” – a space on the game board representing Zealand’s main competition during this period. Whatever contracts Amsterdam claims, Amsterdam completes, and their contracts are totaled at the end of the game. It is therefore conceivable that “Amsterdam” defeats all the players.

The other difference in the advanced game is that players are not required to outfit ships based on the color-coding of the sailor and merchant boxes. The ship needn’t be completely manned to leave port, either. This adds an element to the game which is welcome in that it seems more consistent with the theme – your fortune being more dependent on mustering sufficient enthusiasm in others to co-sponsor the endeavor.

VOC! has a different feel than even most European games, thanks to the party-game-atmosphere, blind-drawing element. Not everyone will appreciate this element, and if you find yourself amidst a pack of uncooperative gamers, the overall impression of the game can be on the negative side. VOC! revolves around this concept, and if the game has a failing, it is perhaps a lack of other elements to augment the experience. In an eerily appropriate comparison, Reiner Knizia’s Merchants of Amsterdam has the Dutch auction clock providing an element of dexterity and levity, yet there are plenty of other considerations to occupy the players – enough that some dispense with the clock-based auction mechanism altogether. VOC! is perhaps too dependent upon its gimmick. I suspect it will be a game with a small but faithful following. I, for one, am willing to play it at a moment’s notice, but I know that some of my fellow gamers who have tried it are not of the same mind.

And if VOC! sounds to you like great fun when served with alcohol, just remember – friends don’t let friends draw drunk.

Darrell Hanning is a network engineer for a government entity, and lives in Jacksonville, Florida. When he isn't working or sleeping, he can often be found playing a strategy game or designing one, with much more success at playing than designing.

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Sharon the Shipper tries to teach the Boulder Games' Llamas to use a Waterhose.

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THE LAST CRUSADE THE BATTLE OF NICOPOLIS (1396)
a promotional piece provided by BSO Games

THE LAST CRUSADE is BSO’s continuation of its series of medieval battles, including SIMON SAYS, THE LAST RAID and LONGBOW. THE LAST CRUSADE is another of BSO’s gifts (granted, you pay for this gift) to the gamer who enjoys playing solitaire, to see what happened in these famous battles and why … and whether or not you could have changed that outcome.

At Nicopolis, the Christians, led by a strong contingent of French and Burgundian men-at-arms, got together with Hungarians, Wallachians and Transylvanians, all under King Sigismund, to stop the Ottomans from spreading north from Contanstinople, and to push them back into Asia. The Ottomans, seeking to establish their frontier on the Danube, were led by Sheik Bayazid I, known as Yildirim, or The Thunderbolt. The Ottoman army was just short of its peak, and contained some of the best heavy cavalry in the world.

The battle is an almost entirely mounted one, except for a strong contingent of the soon-to-be-famous Ottoman Janissary foot. It features light cavalry, armed with both bow and crossbow, plus troops from almost every army the Balkans could offer. It also features the infamous French inability to do anything but charge, immediately and straight ahead, at whatever lay in their path. At Nicopolis, if they had coordinated such a charge with Sigismund’s Hungarians, it might have worked. As it were, it was the last battle fought against the “infidels” by a joint army of Christian Crusaders.

THE LAST CRUSADE is designed for quick learning and easy play. Game rules are 5 pages, there are no “turns” - play is continual - and combat resolution is a single die roll. Play time is about 2 hours.

Each game of THE LAST CRUSADE includes Rules/Charts, one sheet of Mike Lemick designed, beautifully colorful cut-and-paste counters, and a marvelous Bill Ramsay, computer-drawn battlefield map (in 2 sections).

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Talking with "El Cheapo"

an interview with Cheapass Games creator James Ernest

What has surprised you the most since you started Cheapass games?

How unpredictable success can be. I expected some of my best-selling titles to be nothing; I also expected some of my favorite games to do much better. Because of the sheer number of games I produce I'm uniquely qualified to be baffled by what sells and what doesn't. Every game project runs a gauntlet of marketing, timing, luck, and quality before it becomes a failure or a success. I control some of those factors, but I can't control them all.

What is the philosophy behind the creation of your new line of Hip Pocket games?

When I started Cheapass Games, I wanted Kill Doctor Lucky to be a $4 game. That wasn't possible, because of the basic expense of printing it. After starting the James Ernest line, which has games priced as high as $15 (gasp!), people told me that I was straying too far from the "cheapass" roots. This wasn't true; I was still producing cheaper games. But I wanted to create a line of even cheaper-than-cheapass games, and Hip Pocket was the solution. The packaging is bare-bones, the cards are cheap, the artwork is nice but inexpensive, and I can produce these games in small runs with alarming economy.

The other feature that distinguishes Hip Pocket Games from my other lines is their focus on abstract strategy, rather than funny stories. Games like The Very Clever Pipe Game didn't fit well into the Cheapass line, but they are great as Hip Pocket games. I hope gamers who are really into strategy games will learn to see that Hip Pocket has a different set of values. It remains to be seen.

What games serve as inspiration for you?

I learned a lot from Magic: the Gathering and Richard Garfield. During the first few months after Magic's release, I edited a digest of mtg-l, which was the Magic: the Gathering newsgroup, so I got to read more about Magic (from the player's perspective) than just about any sane person should. I also re-wrote the Magic rulebook for Wizards of the Coast four times between 1993 and 1996. One of my first game designs was a CCG for Wizards in early 1994 (they didn't print it), and I worked on several other games in that period hoping to find work as a game designer at Wizards. Those games became the first-generation Cheapass Games.

I grew up playing traditional family games like Monopoly, Scrabble, Uno, and Yahtzee. As a high schooler I played hundreds of hours of Dungeons and Dragons, and I was in a home-brewed miniatures game every Saturday. I like classic video games and computer games, as well as all varieties of casino games. I play Poker for real live money.

What changes have you noticed in the gaming industry since Cheapass has come to the market?

Well, in the 'cheap' category there's more competition now. The under-$10 game was virtually dead when I started Cheapass Games in 1996, but my apparent success essentially game permission for companies like Placebo, Crunchy Frog, and a dozen others to start selling cheap little games in ziplock bags. (Or start over. I don't claim to be the first....)

The fad in 1996 was still Collectible Card Games, which have become a much smaller category in 2003. There are still a few big players, but not every company is falling over themselves trying to get a new CCG to market. These days the fads are different but the behavior is the same: someone takes a chance on a really good idea, and when they succeed, everyone lines up to look just like them.

What’s your favorite Cheapass game? Why?

Diceland has to be my favorite creation. It pains me that the first edition, Deep White Sea, was recently overlooked for an Origins Award nomination. I'm also a big fan of Deadwood. In the Hip Pocket line, the Very Clever Pipe Game is still my favorite. I'm exceptionally good at it, so watch out.

Without a doubt, Diceland is an original idea – both cosmetically and in terms of mechanics. What went into the design and creation of the game?

In 1996, when Cheapass Games was just getting started, a friend of mine asked me to write a collectible dice game. With Dragon Dice as my only reference point, I decided that I wanted a game with more legible dice. I created a game called Zodiac, which played with sets of custom 8-sided dice (3 dice make a character). These dice were labeled with numbers 0 through 9 in a mixed-up order. Your low die might be 0-1-1-2-3-4-5-5, your high die might be 6-6-6-7-8-9-9-9, or something like that. The game had roughly the same mechanics as Dogfight, which is available in Chief Herman's Holiday Fun Pack.

A week later, I showed him the game. By this point he'd changed his mind and decided he didn't want a dice game, he wanted to own a bar. I now had a custom dice game and absolutely no budget to produce it. This happens a lot, by the way.

In 1998 I took the basic Zodiac concept, a character made of dice, and applied it to a game that could fit on coasters. This was a project for the flagship Wizards of the Coast game store in Seattle. They were opening a game-themed restaurant called Dalmuti's. They didn't buy that idea, so in 1999 I published it as Button Men.

In 2000, Wizards of the Coast asked me to create a game they could put in fast food kids' meals, like Happy Meals. I took another look at Zodiac and hit on the idea of die-cutting paper dice out of the box. (I think by this point, Happy Meals were already coming in paper bags, not cardboard boxes, but I digress). Wizards basically told me "thanks, but no thanks" and I had another leftover game. By this point I was interested in producing a paper Zodiac myself. In this version, each character was represented by a single die, not a set of three, and printing the dice on cardboard gave me ample room for game details, and even artwork, while still being much more legible than plastic dice.

I spent a year designing just the Diceland game mechanics, and another working on packaging and fine-tuning the game. In Spring 2002 I released Deep White Sea after more than 5 years of intermittent design work. And now I've spent the better part of five months creating the next three expansions, which will go to press soon.

Can you tell us more about your relationship with Digital Eel? Are you planning further collaborations with them?

Digital Eel came to me in late 2001 with a computer game called Plasmaworm, wondering if I'd be interested in publishing it. I said it sounded good to me, so we worked together to figure out how to do it. They followed that game up with Strange Adventures in Infinite Space, which has been remarkably successful for us, considering that software isn't our core market. Digital Eel is developing another game now, which I know almost nothing about. In fact, I'm going over there this afternoon to see it for the first time....

How do you approach playtesting your games?

It depends on the game. I have a group of playtesters who meet every Wednesday to work on new games. This is how most of the new games get tested. Sometimes, with big games like Diceland, I take the game to a few conventions to road-test it with a fresh audience. Some games are so small that I can playtest them myself. I recently made a game called Board Game Project #55, which I wrote in the morning, played by myself in the afternoon, played with the group in the evening, and sent to press the next morning. This is in sharp contrast to the 5-year development cycle on Diceland. :)

What future projects should Cheapass fans look for in the near future?

I hate to announce games too far in advance, because I've been wrong before. I can definitely announce Diceland: Space, which is two different sets of 25 dice, and Diceland: Ogre, based on Steve Jackson's Ogre. Diceland: Ogre has a very cool giant die for the Ogre. Another Diceland pack, called "Extra Space" is shipping in August. This is just an 8-die starter pack containing ships from the Light Speed card game.

Hip Pocket editions of Cheapass originals Safari Jack and Starbase Jeff are coming out this summer, as well as a new Cheapass board game called One False Step for Mankind, which is a complex (by our standards) game about gold rush towns racing to the moon. A new Hip Pocket Game called TimeLine will be introduced as part of a Gen Con puzzle event in August, and I expect a couple more Hip Pocket Games to come out before the end of the year.

I'm collaborating with Phil Foglio on a card game called Venus Needs Men, which may be out this Fall, and I have a couple new Cheapass titles I'd also like to release in the fall: Jacob Marley, Esquire (an economic game) and Chief Herman's Next Big Thing, a collection of 24 new original games including Board Game Project #55.

We are also working on the most expensive James Ernest game to date, but I won't say more about that one until I'm sure. :)

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Racing Board Games
13 brief reviews by Henry Vogel

I love racing games. I’m not sure why, but I do. Particular favorites are auto racing, covered here, and horse racing. Perhaps that is simply because there are more auto and horse racing games available than any other type. Auto racing, though, seems to have far and away the largest number of different games available. The biggest problem with auto racing is that people who are auto racing fans rather than gamers design many of the games. These game designers usually end up designing only one game and, many times, publish it themselves. As one who has dealt with self publishing (though comic books rather than games), I certainly respect those who believe in their game enough to go to the considerable trouble of publishing it themselves. The question is, how many of these self-published games are, from a gamer’s point of view, worth buying? All of this will be, obviously, my opinion. I’ll add my rating, using a 1 to 10 scale, at the end of each review. Here’s a list of the games that will be covered:

Stock car racing:
STOCK CAR RACING CHAMPIONSHIP CARD GAME DAYTONA 500
REAL ACTION STOCKCAR CHAMPIONSHIP
BUMPER-TO-BUMPER
DAYTONA CHALLENGE
DICE CAR
NASCAR CHAMPIONS

Formula One:
DAS MOTORSPORTSPIEL (aka DTM HOCKENHEIM)
MOTORCHAMP
FORMULA DE’
FORMULA MOTOR RACING
TOP RACE

Other:
LUNATIX LOOP
CARABANDE

STOCK CAR RACING CHAMPIONSHIP CARD GAME
Players: 4+
Publisher: McGartlin (self-published)
Web: www.racingames.com

I’m going to go over several games in this overview, but this one is far and away the best of the bunch. While the game is not complicated to play, there are enough details that a description of play would take more space than I want to get into right now.

Cutting to the chase -- or the pass, actually -- the heart of the game centers on the action of passing other cars. To pass the car in front of him, a player must play one of several Action cards that allow passing. Some of these cards provide an advantage to the passing car while some provide an advantage the car being passed. The player whose car is about to be passed may play a Response card to attempt to stop the challenging car from passing him. One of the Response cards, the Challenge, is settled by using a 3-digit number printed on the top of each card in the driver deck. The player who plays the card with the highest 3-digit number, including any modifications from the Action card, wins the challenge. Players may choose a card from their hand or take potluck by drawing the top card in their draw pile. The decision as to which card to play for the 3 digit number is not as straight forward as it sounds. You must consider the value of the card text on the card (use the card for the 3 digit number or save it to play later for the card text?), the number of cards your opponent has in his hand and just how important it is for you to win the challenge at this point in the game. Hotly contested pass attempts lead to lots of hootin' and hollerin' -- always a good thing, in my opinion. It is this passing system that really sets the game apart, putting the game's emphasis right where it should be (as opposed to most racing games where cars pass each other without any real action).

Some people may be disappointed at the way the current race situation is displayed. Each Driver Deck has a car printed on the back of the cards (there are 12 different colors available) and one card is simply placed face down on the table to represent your car. The other "cars" are lined up to show the current race standing. The designers encourage players to get small, 1/64 scale die cast cars to use in place of the cards. I whole-heartedly agree with this recommendation. I picked up a package of 5 cars at the local Wal-Mart for about $5 just to get started. Of course, I then spent $10 to get MY car -- a 1/64 replica of Jeff Gordon's Star Wars Episode One car. None of the people I've played with have been disappointed with the static display and some of them have even bought their own 1/64 scale cars just to have one available when they play the game with me.

As I said in the beginning, this is simply the best car racing game I've played. It surpassed my previous favorite DAS MOTORSPORTSPIELE (or DTM HOCKENHEIM as it's also known) and easily outdistances the current fave car racing game, FORMULA DE’. It manages to be both a fun game and a fair simulation of NASCAR racing. The single biggest problem with this game is actually getting a copy. One can order it through McGartlin's web, but from experience I can say that this can prove very frustrating. Be prepared to wait several months, perhaps longer, if you go this route. Otherwise, your only chance is to find a store that has copies in stock. It's a pity this is such a hard game to get hold of because it is truly excellent and worth the trouble required to find it. Rating: 10

DAYTONA 500
Players: 2 to 4, though all 6 cars are in each race
Publisher: Milton Bradley (out of print)

Though this is out of print, Milton Bradley sold about 150,000 copies of the game. You can almost always find one or more copies for sale on eBay, usually for well under $20. I have no idea how much the game cost originally, but it’s definitely worth the normal price you’d pay for it off of eBay.

This is an adaptation, by Wolfgang Kramer (an anomaly in this list – a man who is a game designer first and foremost), of his game called, I believe, NIKKI LAUDA’S FORMULA ONE. The same game system is used for TOP RACE (see below) and DETROIT/CLEVELAND GRAND PRIX. The basic idea is simple yet yields plenty of interesting decisions for players. Each player is dealt a hand of cards. Each card shows anywhere from one to all six of the cars in the race. Next to each car is a number from one to six. When a card is played, a car that is shown on the card is moved a number of spaces equal to the number next to the car. For example, a card might show the black car with a six, the blue car with a four and the red car with a two. The black car would be moved six spaces, then the blue car four spaces and finally the red car two spaces. The interesting part is that the player who plays the card moves the cars, even the cars the player does not own. As a matter of fact, unless a player is dealt an astounding hand, he won’t have sufficient movement points to get his car across the finish line without this kind of help from other players.

Before the race begins, the six cars are auctioned off in random order. Players bid based on the cards in their hand. Careful consideration has to be given here as the bidding can easily reach a level where the car must win for the owner to show any real profit from the race. The player who wins the auction also gets to add a card to his hand that moves the car he just bought nine spaces. Once all the cars have been auctioned, play starts with the player who bought the first car in the auction. Play continues until all the cars have crossed the finish line or none of the players have cards left. Note that each player only continues to play while he has cars in the race. Because of this, the last place car may not complete the race, meaning no prize money for the owner of that car. The final complication in the game revolves around the two turns on the track. All cars must begin and end their movement in the inside lane of the turn. The “passing lane” is composed of half-length spaces, meaning that it takes twice as many spaces to pass a car as normal. The curves provide the best opportunity to get rid of cards with high movement numbers for cars you don’t own. At the best, it may be impossible to move the car at all. At worst, at least some of the movement points will be used up getting around other cars.

Daytona 500 is an excellent game, one I believe any race fan would want to own. Rating: 8

REAL ACTION STOCKCAR CHAMPIONSHIP (RASC)
Players: 2+
Publisher: Real Action Games (self published)
Web: www.realaction.com

For a self-published game, the components are really quite nice. The game board is well mounted, large and double sided, with a track on each side of the board. The only chart required is printed on the board, as is an area for tracking the number of laps run. Game play is straightforward and easy to learn. The game uses an interesting dice mechanic unlike any other I’ve seen. Each of the six-sided dice (there are four dice, total) has the following on its six sides: Min, Max, TI (Track Incident), +1 and +2. I believe the +1 appears twice. Each of the tracks is rated with a minimum and maximum movement. The “super speedway” in the game is rated with a minimum speed of 15 and a maximum of 18. Players roll two, three or four dice – their choice – then select the single best result from any one of the dice. If +1 or +2 are rolled, the number is added to the minimum movement. A roll of Min results in moving the minimum while Max results in moving the maximum. For example, if a player rolls four dice and gets Min, +1, +1, and Max, the player would obviously select Max and move his car 18 spaces. If two of the dice rolled result in TI, the player must roll two standard six sided dice and consult the Track Incident table. Track incidents result in anything from reduced movement for a turn to being out of the race. So, the choice comes down to the number of dice to roll. Rolling more dice increases your chances of getting a good result as well as increasing your chance of rolling TI on two dice.

RASC is also one of only two games that take into account the fact that there is more to passing the car in front of you than simply having the faster car (the McGartlin card game is the other). In RASC, you must stop moving your car when it pulls next to a car that started the turn ahead of it in the race. After all players have taken their turn, these contested positions are resolved by having each player roll a 10-sided die. High number wins. Track position is taken into account in some places in the way of spaces with negative numbers in them. The numbers, either –1 or –2, are combined with the movement roll as well as a roll for passing.

The cars that come with the game are rather nice looking plastic stock cars in 10 different colors. The game board is designed to allow 1/144 scale die cast cars to be used, which really improves the look of the game. I have a bunch of these little cars but, unfortunately, they are no longer in production. The next best thing would be to pick up some of the Micro Machines stock cars and use them. They’re a bit bigger than 1/144 scale, but they fit the spaces just fine.

Overall, RASC is a pretty good little game. It’s easy to teach and play and is an excellent intro racing game for young players. It also works well for older players looking for a light racing game. My son, who is five, enjoys playing the game with me (and I can use it to build some early math skills – something most race games are good for). The biggest problem I see is that the decision-making is relatively minimal and success at passing is entirely random. The creator of the game is currently working on advanced rules to add more detail to the game. I’m looking forward to the release of those rules, as I believe the game needs that extra detail. The simplicity of the system also lends itself to the easy addition of house rules. Rating: 6

BUMPER-TO-BUMPER
Players: 2 to 10
Publisher: A Work of Art (self published)

This is another dice driven stock car racing game, though it has some interesting decisions available to the players. On his turn, a player may choose to roll two dice (regular six siders) and move that many spaces, to take six, meaning to move your car six spaces without rolling or to draft the car in front of you, which allows you to move the same distance as the car in front of you moves. Drafting must be declared before the player controlling the car ahead of you announces whether he’s going to roll the dice or take six. If a player rolls snake eyes, he must roll again using a table printed on the board. The table includes very high movement (moving 13 to 16 spaces) and the normal array of bad things, including crashing out of the race. If a car crashes out of the race, it takes out every car that ends its move in the row of spaces directly in front, behind and next to the car that crashed. Passing, as with most games, is simply a result of moving more spaces than the car you are passing. As with RASC, the board is designed for 1/144 scale cars (it even comes with the same plastic cars that come with RASC).
This is another good intro game for younger players but also works well for older players looking for a light racing game. I think the publisher of this game has gone out of business. At the very least, their web site no longer exists. Rating: 6

DAYTONA CHALLENGE
Players: 2 to 10
Publisher: Whalen2

This game was first released as a three-dimensional game board with high-banked turns, grandstands and all sort of other great eye candy. I got that one when Boulder Games was closing out their stock. The price was down to just under $50 from a starting point of $120. What did I get for my $50? Basically, I got a great toy for my son. As a game, it’s got about as many decisions to be made as CANDYLAND.

Game play is very simple. You spin a spinner to determine your “qualifying speed.” You roll a single, 10-sided die to determine how far you move. The die has the numbers 7, 8 and 9 – each appearing three times – on it as well as one “C” (for card). If you roll 7, that’s how far you move. If you roll C, you draw a card and do what it tells you to do. Sometimes, you get to draw a card and save it to play later. These cards either add to or max out your movement on the turn you play the card. In other words, choosing when to play one of the “save” cards – if you get one – is the only real “choice” you have during the game. The game was marketed as a “racing collectible” rather than a game and it’s obvious why. Don’t waste your money unless you want another track for RASC or Bumper-to-Bumper. Whalen2 seems to have gone out of business, too. They used to have a web site, but it’s gone. Rating: 2 (entirely because of the components)

DICE CAR
Players: 2 to 10
Publisher: Table Top Racing
Web: www.dicecar.com

I just got this game and haven’t had a chance to play it yet. However, it looks like it’s pretty much another dice fest. Roll three standard six sided dice and move the total of the dice. If two dice come up the same number, your car can change lanes twice during the turn. If you roll triples, you can change lanes three times. A successful pit stop yields a card that may be saved and used whenever the player wishes. The cards tend to do bad things to other cars or allow you to move extra spaces, change lanes or draft the car in front of you. The board is really a large, felt mat with a track drawn on it. It’s scaled for 1/64 scale cars, which players provide themselves. I applaud the choice of scale as 1/64 scale cars are easy to find and not all that expensive. From a gamer’s point of view, though, there’s just not that much “game” to be found here. Rating: 2

NASCAR CHAMPIONS
Players: 2 to 5
Publisher: Milton Bradley (out of print)

You could call this game DAYTONA 500 Lite. It’s got the idea of car ownership and has some interesting card based options that allow you to “sponsor” another car. Five special six-sided dice control movement. The dice have to be put together using stickers. There’s one sticker for each of the five cars on each die plus another sticker that allows the player to draw a card. Players roll all five dice, selecting three of those dice to use for movement or card drawing. The numbers on the dice, which are all the same on a die (in other words, there’s a die with all ones, a die with all twos, etc), determine the number of spaces moved or whether a card is drawn. As with Daytona 500, a player may end up moving a car that doesn’t belong to him. The cards provide for instant benefits such as extra movement, causing an opponent’s car to spin or making a player a “sponsor” of another car. The sponsorships, which are kept secret, provide benefits to the sponsoring player if the car they are sponsoring does well. This can really change a race as you may suddenly find two players interested in helping along the same car. Each race is one lap with a full game consisting of two races. The player with the most money wins.

This game can readily be picked up from eBay for $10 to $20 and is well worth it if you have some younger players. It’s a game that requires enough thought for an adult to enjoy playing it but is simple enough that young players will understand the game. Again using my five year old son as an example, he can play the game with the full set of rules. I just have to read the cards for him. If your gaming group is entirely adult, though, stick with DAYTONA 500. If you have some younger players, though, this would be a good addition to your game collection. Rating: 6 when playing with adults, 7 if children are playing with you.

DAS MOTORSPORTSPIEL (aka DTM HOCKENHEIM)
Players: 2 to 12
Publisher: ProMotorsport Spiel

This is sometimes known as the “racing game in a tube” because it comes in a long, plastic tube. The track is huge, about six feet long and close to three feet wide, and printed on lightweight plastic that rolls up to fit into the tube. Plus, the game comes with some of the coolest cars available in a racing game. The cars are 1/87 (HO) scale European touring cars and are truly excellent. The game play is interesting, too.

Movement, as usual, is handled by rolling dice. There are two standard six-sided dice and one six-sided die with the digits 1, 2 and 3 appearing twice each. A player rolls the dice but may opt to change them by flipping them over to the exact opposite side. For example, if you roll a one on a standard six-sided die, you could flip that over to the six that is on the other side. I find this an interesting mechanism that puts some choice into the play and offsets the luck of rolling the dice. The player must also place the dice rolled in the order in which they will be used. For example, if a player rolls a 6, a 4 and a 3, the player may choose to use the dice in the order 3, 6 then 4. The order of the dice IS important, too. Here’s why:

Curves have posted maximum speeds. While a car is in a curve, it cannot use a die for movement that has a number higher than the maximum speed without earning a flag (more on flags later). Using the die roll example above, if a player was in a curve with a max speed of three, he would choose to use the die with the 3 first so he could move out of the curve before using the higher dice. (And, if the first three didn’t move the car out of the curve, the 4 could be flipped to a 3 and, if necessary, the 6 to a 1.) Also, a car may only change lanes when using a die with a number that appears diagonally on the die (on a standard six-sided die those numbers are two, three and five). Players must look ahead and determine when they will have to change lanes to get around other cars and choose the order of the dice appropriately. Moving in a curve using a die with a number higher than the curve’s max speed or having movement points left over at the end of a turn (due to be blocked) earns flags for the players. As flags accumulate, the chance of being knocked out of the race increases, too. A player may make a pit stop to remove the flags.

So, all of this is pretty straightforward and not so tough, right? And it would be, too, if a timer wasn’t involved. Each player has 30 seconds to roll the dice, flip those he wishes to flip, put them in order and move his car (we give more time to new players). Failure to finish in time earns the player a flag. The timer is really what makes the game. Without it, you have a game that is far too easy. With the timer, you have a game that does the best job of giving players the “feel” of racing as they must make important decisions quickly. And, as in real racing, making the wrong decision can be very costly. Rating: 9

MOTORCHAMP
Players: 2 to 8 (up to 10 with the expansion teams)
Publisher: AZA Spiele
Web: www.aza-spiele.de
Without question, I believe this is the best looking racing game available. Yes, FORMULA DE fans, the FD boards look good, but the boards for MOTORCHAMP look at least as good and the cars are vastly superior. The cars, in fact, are the only ones capable of matching the cars that come with DAS MOTORSPORTSPIEL for overall coolness. The game comes with 8 pairs of cars, each pair having identical paints schemes but different numbers on the cars, a matching set of three dice for each team of cars and three game boards with track printed on both sides. The game boards can be put together to create 12 different tracks, four short tracks that use on two boards and eight long tracks that use all three boards. There are also lots of little bits used to track laps and pit stop status. So, while the game is expensive, you get plenty of bang for your buck.

As you’d expect from the “matching set of three dice” bit above, this game uses dice for movement. The dice are similar to those in DAS MOTORSPORTSPIEL in that you have two standard six sided dice and one die with the digits, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3 and 3. The color of the space your car is on at the start of its turn determines how many dice you may roll. If your car is on a light gray space, you may roll three dice, two dice for medium gray and one die for dark gray. You may choose to roll fewer dice, perhaps because the track ahead is blocked or due to a “speed limit” (more on that in a moment). However, once you choose the number of dice to roll, you simply roll them and move your car that number of spaces. The “speed limit” I just mentioned is a number printed next to some of the spaces on the track. If your car is starting from a space with such a number, that speed limit applies to your car for that turn. For example, a car could be on a light gray space (roll three dice) but have a speed limit of 12. As long as the total you roll is less than or equal to 12, you have no problems. That’s one reason you may choose to roll only two dice even though you are allowed to roll three. And going over the speed limit is definitely something to be avoided, as is ramming other cars from behind.

So what happens if you go over the speed limit or ram another car? That depends on how much you go over or how many spaces you have left to move when you ram another car. If your roll is only one higher than the speed limit, a 13 when the limit was 12, for example, your car spins out. Move your car 13 spaces then put it off the track next to the 13th space facing backwards. If you ram a car with only one movement point left, your car also spins out. A car recovers from a spin out as other cars pass its position. When the first car passes the spun out car, you turn the spun out car around to face forwards. When the second car passes it, you place it back on the track. All right, we’ve covered what happens if your roll is just one higher than what you want. What happens if your roll is two or more higher than the speed limit or you have two or more spaces left to move when you ram a car? Simply put, your car crashes and is out of the race.

The game also includes an easy-to-learn slipstreaming rule and one pit stop is required from each car. The results of failing to make a pit stop are very bad. You can only roll one die each turn until such time as you make a pit stop. Races are run for six laps and most players will, at some point, experience a spin out or a crash. It’s because of the possibility of crashing that each player runs a team of cars.

From what I’ve read, opinions on this game are highly divided. There are those who like it and those who simply can’t stand it. I’m in the group that likes the game. The luck of the die roll does tend to even out throughout a full race. I’ve also found that careful movement can leave you well positioned for your next turn. For example, in one game I played there was a particular space that was the best position to be in approaching one of the turns. Those of us who paid attention to what we were doing were able to land our car in that space every time (unless, of course, some other player was already in that space). There’s no way we could have done something like that if the game was completely luck driven. Rating: 9
Note: AZA Spiele also produces Turfmaster, an excellent horse racing game. Last year, the fine folks at AZA flew me to Germany, at their expense, to participate in their yearly Turfmaster tournament. I stayed at their home (AZA Spiel is a husband and wife company – he designs the games and she produces them). For that reason, there is absolutely no way I can be completely unbiased about any game these people produce. However, I can safely say that I would have thoroughly enjoyed MOTORCHAMP even if I hadn’t gotten the free trip to Germany.

FORMULA DE’
Players: 2 to 10
Publisher: Eurogames
Web: www.formula-de.com

This is so well known that I doubt I really have to go into any detail concerning game play. Still, there may be some people who aren’t familiar with the big dog in the racing game market, so here goes.

The basics of the game revolve around gear selection for your car. Depending on the gear you select, you roll either a four-sided, six-sided, eight-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided or 20-sided die. The numbers on the dice do not all start at one. For example, the 20-sided die has numbers from 21 to 30 on it. Jumping gears can cause damage to your car, so smooth gear work is important. The turns on the track all have a set number of “stops” that you must make to successfully navigate the turn. For example, to navigate a turn rated 2, your car would have to stop – i.e. end its turn – twice within the turn. Once that is done, you would be free to accelerate out of the turn in as high a gear as possible. Each car has a certain number of wear points for things like tires, brakes and the engine. If you fail to make the correct number of stops in a turn, for instance, you would mark off tire wear (or brake wear if you decided to brake hard and stop in the turn).

The game comes with two tracks on a double-sided board, 10 plastic grand prix cars and the six dice required to play the game. There are also well over 20 extra tracks that can be purchased for the game. The game boards themselves are quite attractive, second only to the boards in MOTORCHAMP, in my opinion. The place where the game seems to fall down, at least for me, is that people who play the game tend to carefully count out the spaces between them and the next turn before selecting a gear and rolling the correct die. I think dice based racing games should be played, well, quickly. Min/maxing your turn by carefully counting everything just doesn’t fit my idea of a racing game. This, of course, is not a problem with the game as much as it is with the players. I would tend to favor a house rule giving a player about five seconds to select a gear then move on with die rolling.

FORMULA DE’ is a good game. I just don’t happen to like it as much as several of the other games mentioned in this overview. Given a choice, I’d rather play the STOCK CAR RACING CHAMPIONSHIP card game, DAS MOTORSPORTSPIEL, MOTORCHAMP or DAYTONA 500. However, this is a good racing game that is easy to teach, can be quick to play and has enough tracks available – albeit for a hefty chunk of change – to provide lots of game play without getting repetitive. Rating: 7

FORMULA MOTOR RACING
Players: 2 to 6
Publisher: GMT Games
Web: www.gmtgames.com

A lot of words have been used to describe this game since it was released a few months ago. Luck-based, chaotic, filler and fun are the ones I’ve seen most often. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with any of those. The game is luck-based, though after a few plays I think I’m beginning to develop a strategy. It certainly can be chaotic as the game situation changes so rapidly that it is virtually impossible to plan ahead. It plays fast enough to be a filler game at the end of the evening or at the beginning while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Game play is simple. Each player is dealt a hand of five cards. Some of the cards are color coded, meaning they only work for the cars that are that color. The rest of the cards work for any of the cars, though they have position restrictions. The cars, 12 plastic ones in six different colors, are simply lined up to show their relative position in the race (similar to the STOCK CAR RACING CHAMPIONSHIP card game in this respect). Playing a card allows you to move a car forward a certain number of positions or cause a car to drop backwards one position. The color-coded cards also allow slipstreaming, meaning the car behind the car moved also goes forward that number of positions. From a strategy point of view, you rarely have the cards that match your car color. The idea would be to wait until one of your cars is behind a car matching the color of the card in your hand and then play that card. The problem is that things change so much, chances are you won’t be able to set this situation up yourself. The good part, though, is that things change so much that you’re likely to find your car in the position you want at some point during the race.

Like I said at the beginning, this is a light game, not one to be taken seriously. As long as it is approached in that way, it can be a lot of fun. Rating: 7

TOP RACE
Players: 2 to 6
Publisher: ASS (English rules translation available at www.boardgamegeek.com)

This is Wolfgang Kramer’s update of Nikki Lauda’s FORMULA ONE. It uses the same mechanism as DAYTONA 500 though adds a betting mechanism to the mix. The betting system is good and, perhaps, worth porting over to DAYTONA 500. At three points in the race – at the one quarter, half way and three quarter marks – players may “bet” on the car they believe will win. No money changes hands at any point. Depending on how well the car you select does in the race, you either win money or pay money. The risks of picking incorrectly are lowest at the one quarter mark while the rewards for picking correctly at that mark are highest. The risks for picking incorrectly at the three quarter mark are highest while, of course, the rewards are lowest. The betting bit adds some flavor to the game and gives a player who was dealt a poor hand a chance to win money without doing well in the race. The other major difference, of course, is the game board. The track in TOP RACE has two chicanes where the track narrows down to one lane. These can be real killers as a single car can cause a bottleneck that allows one or two cars to break far ahead of the rest of the pack.

Top Race is a very good game, but I prefer the version found in DAYTONA 500 and I can’t really recommend this version.

Note: Mayfair publishes DETROIT/CLEVELAND GRAND PRIX, which uses the same mechanism and can be purchased for a good bit less than you’d pay for TOP RACE. I haven’t played the tracks that come with D/C, so can’t comment on that part. However, D/C may be the easiest version of this type of game to find.
Rating: 7

LUNATIX LOOP
Players: 3 to 6
Publisher: Locust Games (limited print run, sold out)
Web: www.leacock.com/locust/index.html

This is an odd little game about racing Trebants. A Trebant, for those of you who don’t know, is an awful little car that came with a two-stroke engine. It was produced in the former East Germany. Obviously all the German auto engineers stayed in West Germany… Anyway, the person behind Locust Games had the sick idea of creating a racing game featuring this fine example of automotive engineering. The resulting game was desktop published with a print run of 200. I managed to snag a copy from the publisher and am rather happy I did.

Each player has a speedometer and, of course, a car on the race track. The speedometer has two pawns on it, one marking your current speed and other marking your car’s current maximum speed (which can change as your car receives damage or is repaired). Each player also has four action cards: Ram, Brake, Accelerate and Drop. Before a turn begins, players select the action card they wish to use that turn and place it face down in front of them. Cards are revealed at the same time. The cards also have numbers printed on them and these numbers control turn order. The player who played the lowest numbered card goes first and so on up the line. Ties are broken based on speed and track position. The Accelerate card allows you to change your car’s speed by 0 to 20 mph, in 10 mph increments. You may also choose to use the Turbo boost, which may accelerate your car more than 20 mph in the turn or, possibly, damage your car. The Brake card allows you to decrease your car’s speed by 0 to 40 mph, again in 10 mph increments. The Ram card, as you might guess, allows you to ram an opponent’s car, doing, one hopes, more damage to the opponent’s car than you do to your own car (dice are rolled to determine damage for rammed and ramming cars). Finally, the Drop card allows you to drop spikes, oil or glue on the track. Spikes, the more useful thing to drop in my opinion, damage any car that runs over spikes. Glue slows a car down for the turn it runs over the glue. Running over oil forces the player to draw a Hazard card. Hazard cards may do nothing or may indicate some kind of trauma – always mental (thus, the “Lunatix” in the title) – suffered by your driver. These traumas may reduce your maximum speed or make it impossible for you to choose a specific action card. Hazards may be eliminated by visiting the pits, where your driver can pick up motivational tapes to help him overcome his trauma. Really, I’m not making this up! Each player has three luck chips, which may be discarded to allow the player to ignore a card that was drawn and draw again.

Movement is very simple. A car moves one space for every 10 mph of current speed. A car traveling at a speed of 100 mph would move 10 spaces. Curves have maximum speeds associated with them. Unlike most other games, though, taking a curve at a higher speed doesn’t do damage to you car. In LUNATIX LOOP, you must draw a Hazard card for every 10 mph your car is over the maximum safe speed.

Not a game to be taken seriously, LUNATIX LOOP is lots of strange and wacky fun. Rating: 8

CARABANDE
Players: 2 to 8
Publisher: Goldsieber

CARABANDE is unlike any other racing game on the market. It’s a game of dexterity rather than strategy. Play is simple. The game comes with pieces of track, curved and straight, that are used to create a racetrack. Every track piece has a wall on one side. The curves have the wall along the outside of the curve while the one for straight pieces will vary, depending on how you choose to set it up. Once the track is constructed, players use their fingers to flick wooden disks, with stickers on them showing race cars, along the track. Unlike most race games, play continues in the original order of play regardless of the position of the cars. The first car to complete three laps wins the race. There are really only three rules to the game beyond what I’ve mentioned. First, if your car goes off the track, the car is returned to where it began the turn and your turn is over. Second, if you knock another player’s car off the track, both cars are returned to where they started and your turn is over. Third, if your car flips over, your next turn will consist solely of turning the car right side up. We have added a couple of house rules to those. First, you must flick your car in a “forward” direction on the track. Second, if your car begins on the track and ends on the track, it’s a valid move. The first house rule was put in place to stop players from abusing the second house rule and flicking directly off the track in hopes of skipping large segments of track.

Of all the games I’ve covered, this is easily the most original. It’s also one of the most fun games, racing or non-racing, that I own. Even non-gamers can usually be convinced to try out the game. Rarely has anyone told me they didn’t enjoy the game. It’s particularly recommended for cookouts and parties as it plays quickly and is very easily explained. Highly recommended! Rating: 10

That pretty much wraps this up. I’d be interested in hearing if people found this interesting and useful. And, obviously, I’d love to hear about racing games I haven’t covered here! If anyone has further questions concerning any of the games I’ve mentioned here, please feel free to contact me using the e-mail address in the by line.

Henry Vogel can be contacted at Henry.Vogel@bigfoot.com

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1. If at all possible, we prefer reviews of recently released games. An occasional article or review of a long forgotten game will be published, but we are mostly interested in what has gamers excited in the here and now.

2. Keep your reviews/articles between 1,000 and 1,500 words.

3. Payment for reviews is modest – usually $20 in Boulder Games credit per review used. Obviously if you submit an unusable review or article you’ll receive no compensation for it. Them’s the breaks!

4. Our space is limited, so make certain your writing is strong, eloquent and original. See any Darrell Hanning review for a good idea of what we consider effective writing.

5. Be opinionated! Boulder Games is known for telling it like it is. Heck, just look at many of our product descriptions. If we don’t like a game, we let you know it. So, whether you love or hate a game doesn’t matter as long as you clearly convey WHY you love or hate it.

6. Ease off of the game mechanic descriptions. We want a critique of the game, not three pages of detailed instructions about how the game works. Mechanic descriptions certainly have their place but don’t let them become the “meat” of your review.

That’s it! If you have any questions, or if you want to submit an article or review, just contact chriskirby@bouldergames.com.