PERLEN DER SPIELKUNST ◄ AUS DEM MUSeuM
HUGO KASTNER EMPFIEHLT
Top race
Strategic Bets & Clever Wins
Dear Reader! „Top Race“ has been running on a really long track since the time when it’s life span started with the rather crude race-game prequel „Niki Laudas Formel 1“, published in the year of 1980, which after all managed to be selected for the nomination list for the German “Game of the Year” – “Spiel des Jahres”. The Austrian Double World Champion was one of the few people who managed to lend their name to a board game in these early beginnings of a newly flowering „Games Era”, and this from a man who “did not want to keep driving in circles”, as he remarked rather dryly in the parting interview at the end of his first career. Well, Lauda hat his celebrated comeback, just as did the race game dedicated to him. This uniform driving in circles obviously also did not appeal to designer Wolfgang Kramer either, and therefore the highly decorated games designer further developed his fantastic racing idea, at first in the middle of the Nineties to a game featuring an interesting double race-bet mechanism and finally for a completely revised and redesigned new edition in 2008 to a tactically demanding racing event with pit stops and stock market actions. As a bonus, Kramer, the Grand Master of Board Games, included four highly diverse race tracks. Whatever track you will want to follow, a pit stop at the Austrian Games Museum in Leopoldsdorf is a necessity and simply belongs to a real „Top Race“! www.spielen.at.
In the light of a race spectator’s lamp a circular track including four chicanes must be mastered, and this with up to 6 Formula 1 racing cards, which are directed by the so called „speed“ cards. These speed cards show the colors of the cars which must be moved forward the number of steps noted on the cards. Three special cards among these speed cards allow short busts for certain race cards, but their use can also result in a malfunction, entirely according to the intentions of the driver. Each racing stable = player starts the game with 200.000 Dollars and the aim of the game is to substantially enhance this amount during three races as much as possible. To allow you to use the randomly drawn steering cards in an optimal “racing plan” you need cards of a certain color, which can be auctioned for at the start of the game. In this phase of the game you need to read your hand of cards correctly and make the best possible use of the auction. In any case, nobody is entirely left without a race car, because the last of the six cards is taken over for the paltry sum of 30.000 Dollars by the player who has up to now not managed to acquire a car. The race itself always results in must move” situations, as all cars of the colors featured on the currently played speed card must be moved. Three times during a race, whenever a “yellow betting line” is crossed, players place bets on the winning car. This demands an educated guess on the card supply of the other players and on their intentions („Strategic Bets“), as you can make an incredible amount of money in the payout with correctly placed bets on win, place and show! Up the the 3rd place you make money, all positions behind 3rd place lose you money. And the earlier you can make an educated guess on the final winner of the game („Clever Wins“) the higher the payout will be, as in real life. Another source of money that should not be neglected, are the bonuses that are paid out for your own car(s). In an ideal situation one Top Race can yield 200.00 $ victory money, 150.000 $ for second place and 180.000 $ winnings from betting. The races are run and at the end the successful winner can compare himself to Niki Lauda or to any other of the great Formula 1 drivers of our time, may his name be Schumacher, Vettel, Massa or Alonso.
Rückmeldungen an: hugo.kastner@chello.at Homepage: www.hugo-kastner.at
EMPFEHLUNG # 62
Autor: Wolfgang Kramer
Preis: 40 € (Neuauflage)
Jahr: 1996 (Erstauflage) / 2008 Neuauflage
Verlag: ASS, Pegasus
Spieler: 2-6
Alter: ab 8
Dauer: ab 45 Min.
OOOOOOOOO
Strategie/Taktik Info± Glück
„Top Race“, in its version from 1996 that is the basis for this article, is an exceedingly well-made mixture of tactical considerations, surprising use of steering control cards and a not insignificant amount of luck. All this is well-balanced and makes an excellent family game of this racing event.
Hugos EXPERTENTIPP
Even if you own the version of the game featured in this article you should not miss out on the new edition. It makes Top Race even morediversified and a bit more tactical. A real professional’s race, at that!.
Hugos BLITZLICHT
Notwithstanding the few rules each race is enormous fun, and that goes for any number of players. In case of a 2-player game each player knows the cards of his opponent which results in a highly tactical scissors-paper-stone effect. With a complete cast luck is a considerable factor which again and again topples the events in the race and overturns the hopes of every singly player. A top race in any case.!
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