Players/time

A 2-6 players game - should play in about 30 minutes more or less, once the rules are understood.

Game description

The game is fairly abstract, which isn't surprising knowing the author. If you're looking for labels, then to me it feels mostly like an abstract racing game with some special mechanics for car movements and scoring. The rules are simple, but the resulting game is not simplistic. I'll gloss over the theme (mobsters collecting money drops and trying to avoid the police) and will present the game in its abstract form.

Each player starts with 6 points. The board is a race track that forms a figure of 8. There is only one space in the middle of the 8, called the alley - it's where all the cars start. The alley is the only space that can be crossed in either direction. Each player will own 2 cars - in 2-3 players, a car is owned by a single player, but in 4-6 players, each car is owned by two players, so cars are shared. The cars can be moved by any player (not only their owners) and their movement is determined via dice. On a turn start, the dice corresponding to all cars are rolled by the first player - he chooses one die and moves the corresponding car, stopping it if scoring is necessary. Then the remaining dice are passed to the next player who rolls them and chooses a die, then passes the remaining dice along, until the last player gets a single die - instead of rolling that, he collects all dice and starts a new turn by rolling them all. Now, for the scoring: there are two markers on the board - a payout marker and a penalty marker; a player can be paid money when he moves a car over either marker (1 point) or when a car he owns is moved over the payout marker, and he will loose money when his car is moved over the penalty marker. When a car gets over a marker, it stops its movement, the marker is scored (the payout or penalty is the number of points corresponding to the number on which the marker rests), and it is moved to the next highest position, where it can be scored again if a car is already there. There are 7 positions for each marker: 1 to 7 for the payout marker and -1 to -7 for the penalty marker. When both markers end on the 7s (which are in the alley) or when one marker is scored on its 7th space, the game ends and the winner is the player with the most money.

A couple more rules involve movement and the alley: when cars move the number of spaces on a die, they don't count spaces occupied by other cars and skip over them. Also, after the initial start, only one car can be in the alley, so the alley can be blocked. For advanced players, an option is provided to randomly set the way the markers will be moved during the game.

Gameplay and some strategy notes

I only played the game a couple of times in two players, so these are preliminary notes. Basically, you're trying to collect payouts by moving your cars over the payout marker, or by setting them just before future payout locations, and you're trying to avoid having your cars be the ones moving over the penalty marker. The dice selection means that the game isn't fully random and gives you some choice. You have to think ahead and plan for where the markers will be moved. The alley is important, as it can help you avoid going towards a penalty marker, and blocking it can force another player to go get it. What I like the most about the game is the amount of choices it provides out of a few simple rules - you just have a few pawns, a few dice, and a simple track, but the rules make it much more interesting than you might expect out of just examining the components.

Components

Wood car pieces, colored dice, cards indicating car owners, a folded board, 2 markers, and more markers for changing the way the markers will move across the board. Everything is good quality. If anything, I feel a game with such simple components was overproduced - a smaller box and map would have worked just as well and would have made the game more portable, as well as making the game cheaper.

Conclusion

This is a light game in terms of rule complexity and speed of playing, but it is meatier than expected in terms of gameplay. The random aspect of throwing dice is nicely controlled by allowing you to choose the die to apply, and by having pairs of players own cars when playing in more players. In more players, I expect it would be hard to predict what will happen until your turn will come back. But given the speed of play and simplicity of rules, this can be a great filler game. You would probably like it if you like abstract racing games, messing up with other players, fast play, and you don't mind a bit of chaos and improvisation from one turn to another. You will probably not like it if you're looking for a thematic game that allows for more strategic planning.