Jeff brought along a new game to our games night last night called Formula Motor Racing. This is another games designed by Reiner Knizia so we were fairly sure it would be a winner, and trying not to get to corny it moved straight through the field into pole position.
Each game plays in around 20-30 minutes and is good fun in itself but, mirroring the actual Grand Prix season, players tally their scores over a series of games to see who can win the season.
Simply put, the mechanic of the game is down to playing cards that either advance cars through the race order, move them back, or possibly knock them out of the race completely. The cards are colour coded with a colour for each player and also black, which can be used on any players cars. As cards are randomly drawn players do not get the cards specifically for their own colour, so you often have to play tactically to improve your position in the field. The first 6 cars at the end of the game score, and the order that they finish in is the order that the they start the next race in.
Once the series of games is under way it soon becomes apparent that the game is as much about pushing other players down the ranking as it is about getting your cars up it. As soon as one player starts to take a lead over several games all the other players start actively forcing him out of the scoring.
This is an extremely simple game to learn to play, but it is incredibly addictive. I imagine we will be playing this regularly as a secondary game to other games that may finish early.
Well worth looking out for.
Photos from Boardgamegeek.com
