Race Day (19 May 2010)

Anne had other plans on Wednesday so we could play games she doesn't like. It turned out we played race games all evening, starting with two that Anne doesn't like and finishing with one that I am usually less than keen on. Race games feel like straight forward theme for a board game but in fact it seems that it is tricky to get one that is: fun to play, invokes the feel of a race and requires skill to win. Perhaps race games should be real time (like the build, i.e. non-race, part of Galaxy Trucker).

Winner's Circle
Winner's Circle is a game of 3 races in each race 7 horses are competing and we, the players, get to both bet on 3 of the horses and jointly race all 7 of them. Each horse has a card with 4 symbols, with a number by symbol. Betting is putting your betting markers on 3 of the horses, while racing is throwing a die a die with symbols on it and choosing one the horses that haven't yet moved this round and moving it the number of squares corresponding to the symbol on the horse's description card. At the end of the race there is a payout for the people who bet on the horses who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with slightly more for horses that weren't popular.

I learnt the hard way the disadvantages in backing a horse by yourself. Everyone else has an interest in making sure your horse fails to finish in the first 3. You need other people to help your horse win but you also need to do better than other people! Which was beyond me.

Lance  1450
Nigel  1350
John R 1250
Peter   950
John B  900
Ian     600

Around the World in 80 Days
This race is not about how many turns it takes you to get around the world but how many days it takes, i.e. how efficiently you do it. The most controversial aspect to this game is the blue (bad) special cards. John R suggested that if you draw a blue card the effect is carried out but then you draw another card (this extra draw only happens once per turn). We agreed to this variant, but in retrospect I am not so sure because if you don't already have special card then there is almost no risk in drawing/buying one.

I stayed behind initially to pick up the rewards for arriving last and to try and improve my hand but I didn't get around to making the necessary acceleration to finish before the game. At one point I had 4 special cards in my hand but not a particularly useful combination. Lance also didn't finish, whereas Peter played the opposite strategy and raced to the finish, taking all the finish first rewards, grabbing the watch (start player) several times. Once Peter had finished Nigel panicked and rushed to London, followed more efficiently by John R, but most efficiently by John B.

John B 66
Peter  72
John R 79
Nigel  84
Lance  Did not finish
Ian    Did not finish

Ave Caesar
Race I
Ave Caesar is a cute idea, chariot racing where everyone has their own deck of movement cards, a small hand to choose from each turn and tracks with choke points. But I think the luck of the start and the luck of the draw outweighs the skill in choosing your card and route. Though to be fair Lance does win more often than luck would account for. We usually play with 6 players, but Nigel and John B had gone home. Though even with only 4 there was plenty of blocking. I should have recorded the starting positions because it is interesting to see how much places you made or lost from the start positions, but unfortunately I didn't.

Lance
Ian
Peter
John R

Race II
We flipped to the lesser played side (without the loop), and Lance won again. Actually this side is quite hard with a shorter finishing straight and more choke points.

Lance
John R
Ian
Peter

Lance says that he is good at majority (or area) control games but it looks like he is good at race games too.