Stupid Shempezuelans

On this very cold Wednesday night, us Wagsters ventured into the wonderful world of racing board games with the help of "Formula De" and "Formula- Motor Racing".

First up was Formula De. There are three possible tracks on two boards (one is a short training track). The boards are large, nicely illustrated bird's eye views of the race. Players each get two cars (first and last, 2nd + 2nd last, etc), and the goal is to be the first across the finish line without getting all blowed up. The main mechanic in the game is gear shifting... each gear has a special die associated with it, each with a different range of values representing how many spaces your car would move. On your turn, you can start by shifting up 1 gear (allowing you to move more spaces)or shifting down up to 4 gears (allowing you to move fewer spaces). The main challenge in the game are the bends in the track. Each bend requires the player to end his turn a certain number of times within the "bend zone" indicated on the board. If the car overshoots the area without stopping the required amount of times, they are forced to either wear out their brakes or ruin their tires (represented by boxes which are checked of as they are used). Oh yeah, and if you end your turn too close to another car you might cause some damage, and even possibly blow your car!All in all, the whole thing simulates the ups and downs of racing fairly well with a simple and fun (if somewhat random) system. You can push your car to the limit and see if it holds toghether long enough to cross the line, or you can play it safe and hope to outlast the more reckless players. If you are lucky, you can time a turn perfectly and stay in a high gear on a turn and blow past your opponents unscathed. In fact, the aspect of the game which most impresses me is that things can change pretty dramatically over the course of the race... pole position (or a lead half way through the game) is no garantee of a win.

Our first game saw me in the lead up to the first bend and then I faded pretty quickly after that. Kozure and Tili were neck and neck for most of the race, but Kozure's fortunes were better and he edged out the win.

The second was almost a smash up derby as car after car was wiped out from the race. Personally, I was doing very well in this one. I pushed my cars early (taking quite a bit of wear on my tires and break pads) giving me good positions for both cars. However, on one turn I just wasn't thinking clearly and didn't get into the proper gear for both my cars... overshooting the mark very badly on both occasions. In one case, it cost me the car, in the other, it cost me every bit of leeway I had (all gas, break pads and tire markers gone). Still, we were close to the end, with two turns left, so I held some hope. I gunned it again, knowing that unless I rolled very high, I would be safe and be in a great position for the end run. Unfortunately for me, I did roll very high and blew up the car. Others weren't having much better luck, with a collision knocking out one of Kozure's cars, and Shemp spinning out on the second last turn. Kozure DID finish first, but good ol' Luch, drawing the rear for the entire race, drove past Shemp's spun out car, his wrecked car, Kozure's wrecked car and my two crashes to finish second and third. Sadly for Kozure, the ultimate winner is calculated by the sum of the TEAM's points and 2nd+3rd added up to more than 1st. Luch won.

Lastly, we tried Reiner Knizia's Formula-Motor racing. This one is more abstract (no surprise), and simpler (actual surprise). All cars in the race form a line. On a player's turn, he/ she plays a card from their hand, and then draws. Cards affect the order of the cars ("overtake +3" allows a car to move ahead 3 spots in the line, for ex.) There are crashes which take cars out of the game, there are tailwinds which allow cars to follow others as they zip to the front, etc. Essentially, this goes on until the deck runs out and points are assigned for the best 6 showings. Three rounds are played, and the team total determines the winner. This one is pretty light, paticular for the creator of Tigris and Euphrates. There's more luck than strategy, but it's fun enough and pretty fast. It was during this game that the long simmering hatred between the Shempezuelans and the Easylanders flared up again, with both of us taking a few actions whcih were clearly aimed at screwing the other more than helping ourselves. I got to play the last card and had one which had a 2/3 chance of putting a car in first place (and a 1/3 chance of putting that same car last). I went for screwage. It would have been more entertaining, and dramatic, for the stupid Shempezuelans to have plummeted from first to last than for me to move up a space, so played the card on Shemp. Sadly, it didn't work out and he kept the lead. It also cost me the game! Luch came in third, and Kozure had cars eliminated from many of the three races... and therefore came a distant last.

Stupid Shempezuelans.

Rating:
Formula De: 7.5
Formula-Motor Racing: 6.5