Though we were not very sure about the colours...
Carmen worked hard with the drawings
It was almost that...
When I thought that maybe it woulf be better to make the
board in four pannels:
We had to start all over again!
Carmen made new drawings
And some that were finally discarded for no particular
reason...
Not to mention the hard time we had until we found the right
boxes to fit the game in. Finally the boxes were made to measure by
Pere Masmitjà (thanks!),
who was suggested by Pau (thanks, too). Pau has one of the finest wine stores in
Barcelona (Verema i Collita). So the moral of this story could be: drink good
wine and you will make good games!
Click here to see the finished game
MERCKX & GIMONDI by Donato Pompei
A very nice project by my good friend Donato. You
can click
here
to see the current state of the project.
THE PERFECT CYCLING GAME
The perfect cycling game
doen not exist, fortunately. Some of my favorite games are in the
LISTS section, though.
Nevertheless, a lot of
people seem to be looking for it, or (what's worse) trying to make it.
I am also trying. I have it all in
my mind. ;-)
REALSTATT CYCLING, by Robert G. Fray, USA
This one is NOT an unpublished
game, but rather a replay game. I wonder in what format it was originally published. It is copyrighted in 1994
(looks like there is a 2005 edition) and is just a set of statistics and tables and some simple rules: You chose as
many riders as you like, grab some dice, make yourself some stages, throw
the dice and look in the tables what was your position in the race. I don't see
where the interest lies, though stats sports replay games are fairly popular in
the US.
Welcome to the world of International
Cycling. You can create your own courses with sprints, time trials, flat
and mountain stages. The basic game comes with the top 8 cyclers from each
Tour de France race from 1971-2005. Ratings for cyclers for other major
races may be published in the future. To play: You need three 6-sided dice
and a calculator/spreadsheet program, and scratch paper for making
calculations before writing the final time on the race sheet for each
stage. A typical Tour de France race is made up of 20-23 stages in the
following categories. 1 Prologue Time Trial (choose between 5-9 km stages)
3 Time Trials (choose between 35-70 km stages) 5 to 7 Flat Stages-1
(120-180 km each) 5 to 7 Flat Stages-2 (190-250 km each) 5-7 Mountain
stages (140-260 km each) You can mix and match stages how ever you want.
You can even use the same distance stage more than once in a race. Choose
the racers for your race and design your course and enter the stage
distances and racers on a score sheet. Look at the Stage Distance / Time
charts. At the bottom of each column, you will see a 3x, 4x or 5x. This is
the number of times you roll the dice and accumulate the time for each
stage. For example – First stage is a 7km Prologue Time Trial. I’m racing
2005 Lance Armstrong. I will roll three 6-sided dice three times and add
up the total time. My first roll is 13 – 164 seconds. Second dice roll is
8 – 159 seconds. Third roll is 17 – 168 seconds. The grand total is 491
seconds. Next you roll two sided dice for a random adjustment to the
cyclers rating. You can do this once per stage, once per race or once per
type of stage. There are three types of stages – Time Trials, Flat stages
and Mountain stages. The adjustment chart is included when you buy the
game. This adds some random variation to every cycler’s rating each race.
For my example, I roll a 10. I am adding the adjustment for the whole
race. I will add .0002 to Lance’s rating of 0.9984 to come to a final
rating of 0.9986. I multiply this rating x his time of 491 seconds to get
an adjusted time for the first stage of 490.31 seconds. Write this on the
race sheet and repeat for the others cyclers. Future Cycler rating sets
may have individual ratings for each of the three types of stages for each
‘Year/Race’ of each Cycler. For the winner of each stage, subtract 5
seconds from the time of that stage. When you done with all the stages,
total the times for all the cyclers and divide each total by 3600. This
will give you the hours, let’s say our total is 364567 seconds. Divided by
3600, you get 101.269 hrs. Take the decimal remainder (.269) and multiply
by 60 to get the minutes = 16.14 = 16 minutes. Then take this decimal
remainder (.14) and multiply by 60 to get seconds = 8.4 seconds. Total
Time is 101:16:08.4
|
ROULEUR
Posted
17/07/2005 (as "Routard").
Corrected and renamed 21/07/2005.
Another of my games. This
is just a set of rules for advancing a bunch of riders. They work quite well,
which does not mean I ever try to make a complete game out of it. Here is what I
have:
This is a game for any (reasonable) number of
players. You can play alone, as long as you don't mind running time-trials all
the time. You can play a single race, but these rules are ment to care about
energy, and about the energy left after the day for the following day. This
rules are meant to represent a multi-stage race. What I do not have are mountain
or sprint rules, but probably they could/should be included.
Elements of the game:
Teams of 5 cyclists, numbered 1 to 5. (Take it from
any other game. You can even use the ones in PISTARD). Each team has one control
board like the one on the rightmost picture. The color of the pins matches the
color of the team, in case you wondered. (Of course they don't need to be pins.
Anything will do).
Energy cards. A deck of cards numbered 1 to 5. In
fact, the number of cards is not that important, as long as there are enough of
them. I used around 200 cards. The proportions were:
- 35 per cent of the cards are number "1"
- 25 per cent of the cards are number "2"
- 16 per cent of the cards are number "3"
- 12 per cent of the cards are number "4"
- 12 per cent of the cards are number "5"
But now I think the easiest way is to get four regular
card decks and read them like that:
- A,K,Q,J mean "1"
- 10,9,8 mean "2"
- 7,6 mean "3"
- 5,4 mean "4"
- 3,2 mean "5"
(I admit it's not the same proportion, but as I said
the game was on the testing stage). Jokers can be adscribed to "1", or may be
used as jokers, or may be used for such things as the mountain rule or the
sprint rule (see end of text).
The dice. That's the important part of this game
mechanics (along with the cards). We have four different dice (see leftmost
picture), and I am afraid you will have to paint your own (at least that's what
I did):
- 1 YELLOW die with the faces marked 2 2 2 2 3 3
- 1 ORANGE die with the faces marked
2 2 3 3 4 X
- 1 RED die with the faces marked
3 3 4 4 X X
-
1 BLACK die with the faces marked
0 0 1 1 2 2
The road. Since I have not implemented rules for
mountain, sprint, &c you can use the board of any other game as long as the
cyclists fit in. You do not need lanes.
The game went like this:
You decide the lenght of the stage (around 60-70
squares worked, if I remember well). Every team receives the same number of
cards (That I don't remeber. Maybe I never reached a number. You can experiment
by yourself. I would say 20).
One important rule of the game is that, in general, a
rider is able to follow the pace of the peloton he is in. If the first rider of
the peloton id fast enough, everyone may follow him without throwing their
dices. (That part of the rules is not finished, there might be more exceptions.
At the moment the only exception is the use of the black die).
All the riders start the game with the YELLOW die and
therefore mark the square "O" on their pin board for all the riders. (The "X"
square is for the ORANGE die and the "XX" square is for the the RED die; the
BLACK die is not included on the pin board).
The first rider in the order of the race (ok, just put
the riders in any order, this is just a test). Throws his die. At this point he
can decide to keep the current die or change to another die). Let's examine the
three coloured dice:
The YELLOW die (2-2-2-2-3-3) is quite slow, but safe.
With it you advance an average of 2.33 squares. It may take long to reach the
finish line, but you do not spend energy cards. If you want to run faster, you
have to pay an energy card with the number of the rider and this rider will use
the orange die. If you do, you change the position of the pin in the pinboard to
"X", and you will use the orange die for that rider until this changes.
Of course, since there are more ones than fives in the
deck, the rider 1 is generally your stonger rider. But you cannot really tell if
how your rivals' riders "feel". Maybe they have a hand filled with fives and
their rider 5 will give us all a surprise!
The ORANGE die (2-2-3-3-4-X) is a little faster than
the yellow die, but has an X on it. The average advance is 2.8 squares but every
time you throw an "X" you must decide between paying another energy card (with
the number of the rider on it, of course) or shifting down to the yellow die
(and keeping it until you change again). If you pay the energy card, you throw
the orange die again to advance the rider. (Of course you could throw another
"X" and still have to decide whether you pay ANOTHER energy card or shift down
to the yellow die).
But of course you may want to run faster. Before you
throw the orange dice, you can pay another energy ard and shift to the RED
die. You change your pin on the pinboard and grab the fast but exhausting RED
die (3-3-4-4-X-X), which has and average advance of 3.5 but two "X". Well, you
can imagine how it works, you will advance 3 or 4 fields in every throw, as long
as you are lucky not to get an "X". If you do you will have to spend an energy
card to keep the red die or shift down to the orange die (which still has ans
"X" on it).
If you still want to go faster, and you have the
energy cards to do it, after throwing any coloured die you can pay one extra
energy card and throw the BLACK (0-0-1-1-2-2) die ONCE. If you are lucky you
will advance two fields, if you are not you might even stay where you are. The
black die is not marked on the pinboard, so you do not keep it. A rider can't
use it more than one time per turn (even if he threw a "0", aven if he has a lot
of energy cards...). On the other hand, the black die can be used after any
coloured dice, including yellow (although it does not make much sense,
probably). It can even be used after following another rider (without throwing a
coloured die).
Since the use of the black die is a sudden burst of
energy, the follow-the-peloton rule does not apply to a rider using the black
die (even if he throws a "0"!). A rider using the black die is supposed to try a
breakaway.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Well, that's all I have (or can remember) about this
one. The rest of the rules can be quite similar to those in many games. The game
is meant for a multi-stage race (maybe 5 or 6 stages, including a time trial,
either a team or an individual one). The second day the players receive new
energy cards (maybe less than the first day) but keep the ones they have. So the
big issue of the game is about when you should use your energy. The weakest
riders of the team can still do a very useful work since they can lead a peloton
and spend all their energy on a red die. As a result, a peloton can ride much
faster than a single rider (much more energy to spend) as long as there is a
good cooperation between the riders. (though the rules for shifting places
inside a peloton aren't clear either, I know).
The development of this one stopped when I started
thinking about TAKTIK TOUR. Then I discovered that TAKTIK TOUR would take too
long and I shifted to ARC-EN-CIEL, and even did PISTARD. So ROULEUR has been in
the limbo for a while, and might stay there quite a long time, though I think
these mechanics are quite strong for a cycling game. Needless to say, I'll be
glad to cooperate with anyone who wishes to use these ideas (or part of them).
---------------------------------------------------
Possible mountain or sprint rules: Let's assume
cyclist "2" is a climber and cyclist "3" is a sprinter. The mountain rule would
be something like "the joker cards can be used by the climber only in mountain
sections, otherwise they will be used by the team leader" (of course, mountain
sections should be marked on the road). Moreover, no aspiration rule in the
mountain sections. Possible sprint rule: "near the finish
line, a joker can be used by a sprinter to get an additional throw of the black
die".
SPRINT / L'AUTOBUS, by Tony Reeves
Click here for more info on this one:
Smiffy's Rules
Bank
Someone called Tony Reeves
wrote the rules for these two for a games fanzine. I find these rules quite
interesting, but (a) "Sprint" does not
really work (the second player always wins if he plays the correct strategy - a
very easy one to find); and (b) "L'Autobus" looks better but this set of rules
is not complete (for instance, how many cards are dealt to each player?).
I tried to
contact Mr. Reeves but I could not make it. Can anyone help?
Sprint -
a game of nip and tuck
A game for
2 players 5 to 8 turns
This game
has been in my head for some time now and I think it’s worth a
playtesting. It is very loosely based on Sprint Cycling. When I was young
this always struck me as a daft name because they don’t (sprint, that is)
at least not until the final 200 metres or so. The bulk of the contest is
taken up by an elaborate battle of wits in an attempt to hang behind the
opposing cyclist until the last possible moment.
1.Each
player has 6 cards, three 2’s, two 4’s and a 6.
2.One player starts on square 1, the
other on square zero
3.Cards are revealed simultaneously and the players move the stated number
of squares. Those cards are then lost with the exception described in Rule
4.
4. Any player who commences a turn exactly one square behind his opponent
and plays exactly the same card as his opponent retains that card. The
leading player can never retain a chosen card
5. The winner is the player who moves the furthest when all cards are
discarded.
I’m
really not sure that the game will work but would be grateful to anybody
who can playtest it or is willing to sign up and give it a go. I would run
2 games between opponents simultaneously, swapping the positions on the
starting grid.
If it
does work, I’d like to extend the idea to cover more cyclists. There
would be a real Prisoner’s Dilemma element to the idea of mutual co-operation.
We’ll see.
|
L’autobus - Sprint grows up
L’autobus
a multi-player game which has evolved from the 2 player game of Sprint. In
practice, Sprint has been found wanting in terms of strategical and
tactical options but I think that the basic "conservation of energy/movement
cards" mechanism is interesting and is worth persevering with. Thus
the element of taking back into the hand a card which is the same as that
played by a cyclist on a space immediately in front (ie the next space
ahead) is retained. The crucial difference comes from the increased number
of cyclists and the effect of playing a card that would bring a cyclist
into a group. The term L’autobus, I am lead to believe, is used for the
group of cyclists who have no great aspirations in the mountain stages
other than to stay within the qualifying times and therefore form a safe
bunch in which they can all "travel".
The rules:
0.
The object of the game is to travel as far as possible given limited
resources.
1. There are 5 teams of cyclists per game.
2. Each player manages a team of 5 cyclists.
3. The cyclists start in 5 groups, each group separated by one space from
the preceeding group. This means that the last cyclist in group E starts
at space 1, the last cyclist in group D starts at space 7 and so on. The
leading cyclist starts at space 31.
4. Players simultaneously reveal their card choices for each of their 5
cyclists.
5. If a cyclist is not in a space immediately behind another cyclist then
the card is discaded and cannot be used again.
6. If the cyclist is immediately behind another cyclist and the card
matches that played by the cyclist immediately ahead then the card is
retained for future use. The trailing cyclist is assumed to have
slipstreamed the leading one and saved his energy for later use.
7. In carrying out movement, the cyclists are moved in race position order.
Note that two or more cyclists can never occupy the same space.
8. If a cyclist’s movement takes him to an empty space then he simply
advances to that space.
9. If a cyclist’s movement takes him to a space where he would land on
the same place as another cyclist then he moves to the next available
forward space. It is therefore possible to overtake a continuous group of
cyclists by playing a movement crd that would place a cyclist on the same
space as a cyclist at the back of the group. This (sort of) simulates a
rider moving up to join a group but being forced to move to the front of
the group (taking the bulk of the wind resistance) for his audacity.
10. Their are 2 "Special" cards which can be played at any time
except turn one. They can only be played ONCE and cannot be recouped into
the hand as in rule 6 even if the conditions for doing so are otherwise
satisfied. They are: (a) a ZERO card (b) a SPRINT card. The ZERO card
results in no movement for the cyclist in question and may be useful in
allowing another cyclist to pass by. It can only be used ONCE, even if the
cyclist immediately in front plays a zero. The
SPRINT card results in that cyclist playing ALL their remaining cards in
one move to give an aggregate movement equal to the sum of the remaining
cards. A cyclist may want to do this to break away from the remainder of a
group, particularly towards the end of the race.
11. If a cyclist plays all his remaining cards before the SPRINT card then
the SPRINT card turns into a movement card of value 1. This movement card
behaves as a normal movement card as outlined in rules 4 to 9.
12. The race ends when all cyclists are void of cards.
13. At the end of the race, the 3 leading cyclists receive movement
bonuses as follows, prior to the calculations of team scores:
1st -
moves forward 3 spaces
2nd - moves forward 2 spaces
3rd - moves forward 1 space
14.
The (penalty) scores for each cyclist are calculated as follows: One
penalty point for every empty (i.e. unoccupied by cyclists) space between
that cyclist and the winning cyclist. Thus, all cyclists in a group are
judged to have the "same time" as there will be no additional
empty spaces between the front and back of a continuous group. The bonuses
in Rule 13 are intended to reward the 3 leading cyclists and to emphasise
the difference between them.
Note that
the winning cyclist will always have a penalty score of zero, the 2nd
place cyclist a minimum of one, the third a minimum of two. It is possibly,
but very unlikely for the remaining cyclists to all have a score of three.
15. The
winning team is the team with the lowest aggregate of penalty points for
its 5 cyclists.
16. Variant
rules for mountainous terrain are in the alpha playtesting stage.
|
SPRINTER 3D (Sprinter 3D INPI 2007)
This game is supposed to
be released in more versions, included Paris-Roubaix and track cycling. The
first version contains the Alpe d'Huez climb. What you get are 12 big unstable Cofalu
riders (2 per team, though the rules mention 3 or 4 per team), 4 A3 pannels and a rule set.
When you receive the
game, you have to find three dice and to change them (by your own means) to
122223 (or maybe 122222, a variant suggested "for more tactical play"). You also
have to paint the numbers on the riders, and probably photocopy some extra team
book sheets (which, by the way, provide space for three riders per team)
The rules are not so
bad, although you will have to decide what happens if you throw only two dice
uphill and you thwow a one and a two? (My guess: you must throw a third die).
Also being a peloton -based game, I would have likes a mention to what happens
when the head of the peloton is descending and the back of the peloton is still
uphill (ok, maybe there is no need of a special rule for this, but it should be
mentionned nevertheless).
Basically, you secretly
distribute a given number of energy points between your team. This distribution
remains secret during all the race. In every rider's turn, he choses to
throw one, two or three dice (remember, the dice are 122223) and crosses
the same number of energy points. All the riders in a group can follow the
leader of the group at no cost. Furthermore, the leader of the peloton advancess
less than te thow of the dice (depending on the type of terrain). Every rider
must advance at least once, can chose the dide of the road. Since the right side
of the road plays frst, the rider in front of the pack will try to move to the
left side of the road.
I have not played the
game, but my guess is that, among adult gamers trying to play the right strategy,
the game becomes a bluffing game. Mybe not the first time you play it, but it is
the only solution.
Since a breakaway rider
also gets an advance penalty in every turn, once you break away you have to
throw three dice at a time, to minimize the number of turns (i.e. of lost pips).
So, I think that the race will move very slowly until there is the first serious
breakaway, which is better accomplished from second or third place of the
peloton. So we probably will find some struggle for a good position and, from a
certain point in the race, an all-the-way attack. Probably the most interesting
thing is how to get the right riders to the right position of the pack at the
right moment in the race.
Nevertheless, the game
mechanics, although interesting, are probably weak, in the sense that a
time-trial canot be implemented . Similarly, the designers, maybe wisely, have
not tried to implement a stage race and have not devised a way to keep track of
time.
Finally, not having
tried the game, I cannot tell if the fact that tere is no limit to the point
distribution in the game is a weakness or an advantage. The Alpe D'Huez race,
for instance, is 138 squares long (and mostly uphill, which means -3 for a
breakaway rider in everyturn) and you have 60 energy poins per player. In a
breakaway at full speed, at an average advance of 3 squares per turn, you need
26 turns to reach the finish line, which means 78 energy points. So anyrider
with, say 80 energy points can safely think of climbing the whole race atfull
speed (quite less, in fact, since not all the race is uphill).
Since there is no team
classiffication, what need is there to care for the third rider. You can
probably give 90 points each to a couple of riders and race atfull speed all the
race. Who cares id other riders save energy by drafting from you, when everybody
has enough energy to reach the top?
I would suggest a
geometric progression in the energy spending. ! energy point (EP) if you throe
one die, 3 EPs if you throw 2 dice, 6 Eps if you throw 3 dice.
Anyway, I am waiting
for the next boards to see how the game evolves.
TAKTIK TOUR
This will be the best
cycling game ever, if I ever am able finish it! I have the idea (though there's
not much I can disclose about it) and I have the name. You will have to wait for
the rest.
TARKA CYCLE TRAIL
This one is by Peter Davis
from Exeter, Devon. Not exactly pro cycling.
THE TOUR
(Mike Clifford, Lionel Games)
This one is not exactly an unpublished
game, but since it is not a board game either, I keep it in the "unpublished
games" section for now. It is another replay game. I never saw the interenst of
replay games, but at least this one can be downloaded for free.
Download it
here.
TOUR DE FRANCE DICE GAME (Bernd Brucker, 2005)
In his book Die schönsten Würfelspiele (Heyne, München, 2005), Bernd
Brucker describes a game called "Tour de France". I would hardly classify it as
a cycling game, but... I am sure there must be more cycling-oriented dice games.
TOUR
DE TÊTE
An unfinished project form
my friend Michael Glanzer, from New York. He worked quite hard on it, as you can
see from the cards.
1st version:
2nd version:
Last time Michael
mentionned the game he looked quite disappointed about it not being such a good
game as he had thought.(which iss good: game inventors tend to think their game
is the best game in the world, and even reality won't make them change their
minds).
I hope Michel resumes
working on this one. For the moment, here is a draft of the
rules. If you feel you have something to bring to the game, drop a line and I
will put you in contact with Richard.
TOUR DE
DUCK
Simple little game made
available by German on-line magazine "Page 42". You can download it here:
http://www.seite42.de/82_43e.htm
Peer Sylvester remarks
that "Tour de Duck" is not really unpublished. It was originally featured in a
German Micky Maus Magazine (No. 43 of 1982). The website Seite42.de is featuring
scans of the games from the Micky Maus magazines.
TOUR DU CYCLISME
Not really a game but an
idea from the Dutch online magazine
SPELMAGAZIJN to play the different stages of a race with different
games. If my Dutch does not betray me, the mountain stages were played with
HOMAS TOUR, the flat stages with DESR AUSSREISER and the time trial with some
computer game. A nice idea!
TOUR
GAME
This one has a website:
http://www.tour-game.com
TOUR MALA'S (Joachim Haack, 2003)
Another supposedly published game... if you can find it (?)
The picture was taken from
boardgamegeek, where you can find more info about this one.
TRIATHLON TIME CHALLENGE
US Patents are freely available on-line.
This game has Patent number 4,634,128. By the way, I seldom include Triathlon
games on the website, I have to draw the limit somewhere...
VELODROMO
I have recently purchased this one in
Italy. It's a plywood board with some Salza riders on it. It did not have any
rules, of course.
VELOX
John Weber mentions this one on BGG:
"Another one I have seen and actually played that was pretty good was a game
called Velo or Velox that was an unpublished prototype. If I recall correctly,
the game was designed by a Swiss and I was shown it by a Frenchman who happened
to be in the USA for the World Diplomacy championships."
On a private email, he added: "Each
stage was broken down into a number of turns, that could be flat, sprint,
high mountains, or lesser mountains, then you had the peleton working at a
particular rate of speed, breakaways, cyclists falling off the back, etc.
It had a fairly realistic feel to it -- and hey, I won the race! -- and a
cool feature was you could slip the yellow jersey on the cyclist's back
(these were paper cyclists printed out on a desktop -- nothing fancy) -- but
the game was pretty good, sorry not to see it make it into production."
