Chariot Race - First Play!

9th June 2022

​Gaming night Aldershot continues with Chariot Race.

As you might have guessed from the title, this game about managing railway companies in the 19th Century on a hex-based map of North America. NO WAIT, THAT'S NOT RIGHT!

Chariot Race is about chariot racing in ancient Rome. That name is sure is confusing!

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What's in a game?

• Game board: This oblong board depicts a oval race track with 3 lanes in a sort of coliseum setting. Each of the corners also shows a 'safe speed' which differs for each lane, the outer one having highest safe speeds. The board also displays 6 starting spaces.
  The board is double-sided and on the 'B' side contains some obstacles to be avoided, providing some more challenge to the game
• Player board: There are player boards in every player colour and each one has 3 columns.
  The left and right columns track damage and speed respectively, while the centre column is 'segmented' and each segment displays a differing number of dice, starting with 1 die at the top and going down to 5 dice at the bottom.
  Finally, at the top is a horizontal 'fate' track that goes from 0-6.
  Additionally, each board also comes with 3 'pointer clips' to track all of this.
• Dice: The game uses non standard wooden six-siders with rounded corners and instead of numbers they depict symbols which represent the following.
  • Speed change: This result makes the player alter their speed by +1/-1/
  • Extreme speed change: This result makes the player alter their speed by +2/-2, however it also inflicts a point of damage on their chariot.
  • Change lane: Allows the player to move their chariot to a different lane. This symbol appears twice on each die.
  • Attack: Allows the player to drop caltrops or throw a spear at another player! Well this is Roman chariot racing.
  • Fortuna: Gives the player a point of fate.
• Standees: The game's chariots are standees constructed from 2 thick card tokens which slot together.
• Caltrops: These are little grey wooden cubes, they don't look much like caltrops but since they're little wooden cubes, I approve!
• Lap tokens: These little double-sided tokens are used to indicated which lap a player is on.

The components for Chariot Race are pretty good, the tokens and boards all feel suitably sturdy while the wooden dice are a nice touch.
Having chariots made of 2 pieces or card seems a little bit of a weird choice perhaps but it's not like it's a dealbreaker or anything and was probably done to keep the cost down.

There's very little artwork to write home about in Chariot Race which may be why I'm blogging about instead?
There are illustrations on the chariot standees but they'll hardly be noticed since they're quite small, especially when placed on the arena/game board.
There's some artwork on the game board as well and it's a fair depiction of a crowd watching the races. Otherwise Chariot Race looks fairly clean and minimalist in a unfussy kind of way, perfectly acceptable in my opinion.

The only iconography that can be found during the game is on the dice, those symbols are self-explanatory and I can't imagine they'd be an obstacle to any players.
Although, I will say that it feels a little odd and counterintuitive that the damage track is labelled 'damage' instead of something like 'health' since 12 on the damage track is completely undamaged and 0 is wrecked.

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How's it play?
Setup

• Player boards: Give each player the standee and player board in their colour, along with 3 pointers.
  All players should start with 12 damage, 4 speed and 3 fate.
• Game board: Put out the game board on either the 'A' or 'B' side and determine starting order. Each player should then put their standee in the relevant starting spot.

On to play
In Chariot Race, players are attempting to complete 2 laps of the track, avoid being wrecked and of course, finish first.
This is done by each player in their turn rolling dice and resolving the results.
Chariot Race does not use the usual turn order. Instead it's determined by position on the track round-by-round, whoever is 1st on the track goes 1st, 2nd on the track goes 2nd and so forth.
When the player in last place has gone, the round is over and play returns to the player in the lead at the start of a new round. Of course it's likely the turn order will now have changed.

In their turn, the active player will have several phases they can act in.

• Repair: The active player may spend 3 fate points to repair 3 damage.
  Get wrecked: If, at anytime a player's chariot reaches 0 damage, they are immediately wrecked and eliminated from the game.
• Adjust speed: A chariot's speed score can never exceed its damage score.
  If a chariot took damage during other players' turns (Which is likely.) or overcooked a corner in the previous turn (Also likely!) and the damage drops below the chariot's speed, the speed is lowered to match the damage during this phase.
• Roll dice: The active player now rolls dice, the number they roll is determined by what their speed is on the tracker on their player board in relation to the segments in the centre column. Thus at speed 5, they would roll 5 dice, at speed 8 they would roll 3 dice, all the way to speed 12 where they roll only 1 die!
  ​Re-roll: The player may set aside and/or re-roll any number of their dice once only.
  Spend fate: The active player may spend fate points to re-roll any number of dice - including ones already set aside or change a die to a side of their choice except for the fortuna side.
• Fortuna: In this phase, any dice showing the fortuna icon increase the player's fate score respectively. This occurs after using re-rolls, which means fate points acquired this turn cannot be used to affect this turn's dice results.
• Movement: In this phase, all dice showing the 3 movement icons are resolved and several events may occur.
  +/- speed: Dice showing the speed change icons must be resolved and the player must alter their speed either up or down (Their choice.) as dictated by the dice. As an aside, there's nothing to stop a player using a + result from 1 die and the - result from another to negate each other.
  Regardless of this, once the speed score has been adjusted accordingly, the active player must move their chariot that many spaces.
  Change lane: During movement, the active player may change their chariot's lane a number of times equal to the change lane results they got on the dice.
  Cornering: If the active player's chariot enters a cornering space, that is; a corner with a number, there's a chance the chariot can take damage.
  If the chariot's speed is equal to or less than they number, the chariot is unaffected.
  If the chariot's speed exceeds the corner's speed, then the chariot takes an amount of damage equal to how much they exceeded the corner by.
  Caltrops: If the active player's chariot passes through a space with a caltrop, then the chariot takes damage.
  Ramming: If during movement, the active player's chariot passes through a space with another chariot, then both chariots takes damage.
  The active player cannot end their movement in the same space as another chariot.
• Attack: The active player may use a die with this result for 1 of 2 actions.
  Throw Javelin: Once the active player has finished their movement, they can throw a javelin at another chariot. Javelins have a range of 2 spaces and inflict 1 damage.
  Drop caltrop: The active player may drop a caltrop on to any empty space which their chariot has moved through in this turn.
  Caltrops inflict damage to any chariot that passes over them and are removed from the board when they do so.

This pretty much covers all the rules.

Endgame
Chariot Race is played over 2 laps and there are several criteria which can determine the winner.

If a player's chariot completes their 2nd lap and no other chariot crosses the finish lap, they win the race.
If 2 or more chariots finish the race in the same round, then the chariot that went the furthest past the finish line wins.
Finally, a wrecked chariot cannot win, even if it crossed the finish line first or got furthest past it.

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Overall
Chariot Race is a fast playing and mechanically speaking, actually a fairly straightforward game; roll the dice and carry out the resulting actions displayed.
The decisions that players get to make are also fairly straightforward, although their consequences can be significant - which is good. Meaningful decisions are always good.

Player decisions take the form of choosing which dice to keep and which to re-roll, players must choose what to try and prioritise, this will of course be contextual and change from round to round.
The other area where player's will probably be making the most is going to be about speeding up and slowing down. It's obvious that players will want to be fast in the straights but manage their speed through the race's 4 corners.
Managing speed is the game's best mechanic, I like that the faster a chariot goes, the less dice the player gets to roll and consequently, the less options they have.
It feels suitably thematic, not only does it represent having less thinking time at speed but also that this a horse race and players are never entirely in control of them.
Players can find themselves hurtling through corners and taking damage, the question is how fast for how much damage? There's only 4 corners,  so this means it's ok to take damage... right?

This brings me neatly to damage. There's definitely a combative edge to Chariot Race which makes it an usual racing game. Damaging opponents has its benefits.
Firstly; it lowers their maximum top speed, hindering them and secondly, it can lead to their elimination for the game.
It's vital to keep an eye on damage, in the early game players will probably be congenial, but in the late game, that will all change. Having low damage points can make a player a big target, especially if that player is ahead and which others will look to exploit this to put them out of the race.

It does mean that Chariot Race can have a lot of direct conflict and there may well be some 'pick-on-the-leader' tactics going on as well. If this isn't your cup of tea, it's one to probably avoid.
The game also has player elimination as a mechanic, which is something I have little fondness for but fortunately, this is a quick playing game so there isn't too much downtime.

In conclusion though; while it won't set the world alight, it is quick to learn and quick to play, Chariot Race is a fun light game If you like your racing theme with some extra competitive zing and a generous dollop of luck, then this might interest you.