OUR REVIEW

Carrera Tabletop Games

Start frei!

From the track to the board!

Carrera race Tracks, miniatures of racing cars, the many different layout of tracks, an eternally fascinating toy for fans of car racing in all age groups. This year, Stadlbauer, the publisher of the Carrera tracks, offers three games on the topic of car races and Carrera, in a new series called Carrera Tabletop Games – a card game, a game for children and Start frei!, the family game of the trio.

A race track is laid out from track parts; those parts are of course designed in the famous and familiar Carrera design and enter the game in stages: At the start three straight track parts are placed according to parameters; in the course of the game, when a stage has been completed, the player in last position in the race chooses two track parts and places them at the end of the track until the course, chosen at the start of the game, is complete. Each player is given a steering wheel with four gear positions, a gear shift marker to denote the current gear, a set of six start cards and 2 Carrera Coins, and of course, a car in our color that we place at the start.

The remaining cards are separated into A and B stacks according to parameters, shuffled and then you form the stack for the current game, using all B cards and putting eight randomly selected A cards on top.

A game turn, representing a stage of the race, is very simple: You play one card from your hand face down, and then all players reveal their card and implement it in ascending order of numbers on the cards played, and you activate/implement the symbols on the card always from left to right. Basically you use those cards either for “Gear Change” – you shift gear either up or down by one level and relocate your marker accordingly– or “Roll Dice” – this is the movement action in the game; rolling a die moves your car forward, you use the die corresponding to the current gear level of your car. Cards can also have special functions, for instance the option to change a die result. When all cards have been implemented, the stage is complete and track parts are added, as mentioned earlier.

The track shows two lanes and to overtake another car you can either change lanes or directly overtake one or more cars in front, for a direct overtaking you use an additional Boost Die. There are lots of chicanes on the track and if you master them with exactly the right speed you earn one Carrera Coin; otherwise they force you to change gear into a lower level; this must also happen when you run up to a car in front of you. Some card abilities can also give you Carrera Coins, and you have to pay one Carrera Coin if you want to change track.

When all six cards have been played, a Pit Stop Phase is played. In this phase you can – in reverse order of positions in the race – spend your Carrera Coins to buy new cards from a display of five cards. For each card that you buy you must discard one of the cards you already hold, as there is a limit of six cards for your hand. If you do not want to buy you pass; the first two players who pass are allowed to reveal two and one Pit Stop Marker respectively and to implement them immediately. This can be of real advantage towards the end of the game, as two of the six markers carry the action “Roll Dice” for movement.

So far so much for the general flow of the game – there are quite a few additional details like the effects of chicanes to the car in the lead and to the cards behind, overtaking, DRS Marker for a once-only use, acquired as a consolation price for announced and failed direct overtaking maneuvers, etc.

The race track of your choice or the one assembled according to templates in the rules is navigated twice, so you have the advantage to know the complete track from the start. If you are first to cross the finish line after the second lap, you trigger the end of the race – all players who did not yet implement the card they played do so and whoever is then in the lead, that is, furthest beyond the finish line, wins.

To start with, the design of the components gets a „wow“, they really give off the feeling of a Carrera Track to the board, simply nice. The other components come up to scratch, too, as regards to quality, and there is a cute gimmick, a dice cup shaped like the gear stick of the Carrera Track!

The first good impression is confirmed by the rules, first of all as to layout, the rules are well-structured and also include an overview sheet on the topics of setting up the game and the explanation of two stages played, an introductory game, so to say, explained card by card. Interestingly this example game features three players, and that was confirmed in our games, we have come to the opinion that three players is the ideal number of players for the game, because three players provide the exactly right mix of driving along rather undisturbed and real congestions on the track with expensive lane changes.

A problem with a chicane turned out, upon inquiry, to be a printing error, for which we already had reached the same conclusion and had simply ignored the chicane. What really turns the game into the family game that is was announced to be on the box lid, is the lacking ousting of cards from the race due to driving mistakes and also the lack of other additional parameters like weather or track characteristics. The element of chance from dice rolling for speed and the tactical element from the option to influence the race via the cards are in principle well balanced, albeit with the DRS chips for failed overtaking and the Pit Stop Markers having very different consequences. Lights to green for a new race!

At the end of the game remains a positive impression despite some tiny irritations, the game had to follow in some pretty impressive footsteps, as regards to the race feeling provided by the company’s own Carrera track as well as regards to well-known and well-working car racing simulation like Formule D and others. The team of designers managed a solid simulation, absolutely geared to families, as was the intention! Lights to green for a new race!

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 30+

Designer: Klemens Franz, Hanno Girke, Dale Yu

Artist: Andreas Resch, Klemens Franz

Price: ca. 23 Euro

Publisher: Stadlbauer Marketing + Vertrieb 2014

Web: www.carreragames.com

Genre: Car racing

Users: For families

Version: de

Rules: de

In-game text: no

Comments:

Attractive components with the flair of the Carrera Bahn

Simple basic rules

Luck and use of cards are well balanced

Compares to:

All car racing game using cards and shifting gears

Other editions:

Currently none

My rating: 5

Dagmar de Cassan:

The start was successful! Carrera feeling on the game board! A simple mechanism for a nice family game with a good balance between luck of the dice and card management.

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0