Game Spotlight – FormulaD

No one should be surprised that we are visiting a car racing game given that we had bikes and hoverboards (of the Screaming kind) already.  Plus I alluded to this game in both write ups so without further ado, may I present to you FormulaD.

In FormulaD you race a car around a track (Monico or Race City is the intro track, the board is reversible) and try to not totally destroy your car while crossing the finish line first. Along the way you will need to negotiate corners, straight-aways and other players and you can do this in a Beginner setting or an Advanced setting.

Movement is determined by what “gear” you are in (all cars start in 1st) and the number of spaces you can move in each gear is determined by rolling the die that corresponds with that gear. 1st gear is a 4 sided die, 2nd gear is a 6 sided die, and so on up to 6th gear which is a 30 sided die. The dice are also custom made for FormulaD and have fewer rolling options than their D&D counterpart dice. The 4 sided die rolls a 1 or a 2 only while the 30 sided die rolls 21-30.

Why not go flat out 6th gear all the time and win the race? Corners. Every corner has a number next to it that tells you how many times you will need to pause between dice rolls in that corner (outlined in red). If a 2 rated corner has a maximum path of 11, you are going to want to pick a gear in which you will finish your turn in that corner 2 times and 6th gear with a minimum of 21 is not that gear.  You will also inflict damage to your car for every square beyond the corner that you overshoot (while not pausing between rolls).  Plan your gearing strategy wisely; go fast on the straights but make sure you downshift in time to hit those corner marks.  

There are also rules for driving close to other cars (and taking potential damage) and breaking so as to not hit a cluster of cars (and taking potential damage). In beginner mode, everyone starts out with 18 “wear” points but in Advanced mode the “wear” points are broken down into specific damage areas: tires, brakes, gearbox, car body, engine, and road handling.  Different scenarios affect different parts of the car so instead of a general pool of damage, now you have to think about how many points in tires you have versus how many points in breaks you have. Is it better to blow through that corner and lose some tires or should you stomp the breaks and lose points there? Also in Advanced mode, every time you lose a car body or an engine wear point, you drop an obstacle on the track (oil, nuts, bolts, your entire exhaust manifold…) for other racers to contend with.

Things I liked: 

• I love the custom dice. That D20 – kinda wish I had one for playing D&D you know? 
• Monaco (base track) is a nice long track with some good straights and turns. Plus, I kinda dig playing on a real race track (Game reveal, I don’t think I have yet played on the “Race City” flip side)
• The game plays 2-10 players (which is a nice spread) but they give you a millionty cars to choose from. Some are traditional Formula 1/Indy car bodies, some are stock/sports car bodies.

Things I didn’t like: 

• The base game comes with only one reversible track board so if you want to purchase more boards it’s going to cost you half again to 3/4 the price of the original game. That’s a bit pricey. Each expansion is also a double sided board so at least you get two tracks for that price, but what’s the playability of 2 more tracks versus the price of acquiring them?
• There are a LOT of rules. I realized that I’ve never played the Basic version but we don’t play all the Advanced rules either. I like how we play the game so maybe think about house rules if it seems like Basic is too easy but you have to keep going back to the rules book to check on every little thing in Advanced mode.
• While I like the whole concept of shifting and the points damage to various systems, the actual implementation I find a bit clunky. Maybe my copy isn’t smooth or is too loose but I feel it could have been done better somehow.