Game: Great Space Race, The

Thread: Re: Being Stupid Is Awesome

cuzzle — 2008-11-19T08:20:17+00:00

tankexmortis wrote:
Great read, thanks. Sounds like this is a good candidate for the FIMO treatment from one of our artistic peers.

Or just replacing the ships with something else on hand. We use the Star Wars constructable ships:

]]>

Thread: Re: Being Stupid Is Awesome

Doc Sonic — 2008-11-18T23:22:35+00:00

Games like this are my favorites. I think The Great Space race is great, light, silly fun. Along the same lines ( in spirit, not necessarily gameplay ) is Galaxy Trucker, my newest favorite. Give it a try if you can.

Thread: Re: Being Stupid Is Awesome

Joshuaaaaaa — 2008-11-18T18:47:29+00:00

Loved the review, and this may be the greatest premise for a game ever. I wonder if anyone in my group is too uptight to play this...if they are, screw 'em...I'll find other people as twisted as I am!

Thread: Re: Being Stupid Is Awesome

Hendal — 2008-11-18T14:12:08+00:00

Awesome review, loved it, very good stuff. I am so adding this to the wishlist, I love all things Kenzer & Co. so I am sure I will love this too, thanks and
Game On'

Thread: Re: Being Stupid Is Awesome

cheetor — 2008-11-18T09:31:08+00:00

Thanks for the review, entertaining as ever.

The Great Space Race has been sitting on my shelf for something like two years but it always seems to get bumped in favour of playing whatever other new game is around.

I think that mostly the concerns regarding it are about how long it might take, particularly the first time. Additionally some of the dodgier looking components tend to scare people off too.

How long did you guys take to play a full game? And with how many players?

Thread: Re: Being Stupid Is Awesome

tankexmortis — 2008-11-18T05:05:30+00:00

Great read, thanks. Sounds like this is a good candidate for the FIMO treatment from one of our artistic peers.

Thread: Being Stupid Is Awesome

VixenTorGames — 2008-11-18T03:32:36+00:00

There's something incredibly appealing about playing a stupid bastard. For one thing, when you make a total bonehead maneuver and end up blasting yourself with your own weapons, you can blame it on the fact that you're representing the guy who would have been picked last for the math team. For another thing, you get to make fun of everyone else for being dumber than a bag of hammers.

The Great Space Race, from Kenzer & Co., hits that special spot where you just love to be dumb. Each player takes on the role of an alien pilot in a great race - a race where the losers have their entire species eradicated from the universe. In fact, the whole contest is really just an opportunity for one race of evolutionary throwbacks to avoid complete extinction, by proving that they are slightly less stupid than the other species marked for extinction.

I don't know about you, but that's a theme I can get behind.

The race is played out with action cards. Your pilots can't think fast enough to pilot the ships themselves, so they have to feed their flight plans into the computer, which is smart enough to chew gum and walk (though not necessarily ambulatory enough to do either). You play your action cards face down in the order you want to execute them, and the number of cards you play is based on your speed. High speed, therefore, means you get to play a lot of cards - but it also greatly increases the odds that you'll get knocked off course and driven into a wall, which is hilariously awesome.

A simple race in this manner would probably be a little dull, however, so the galactic overlord who decided to put you in the race in the first place has equipped your ship with weapons. Every ship has mines that can be deployed behind it as it moves, and if you take the time to equip them, you can also add other goodies to your arsenal, like guided torpedoes and dumb-fire missiles and nuclear devices. And if you think it's a good idea for a pilot so stupid that its entire species is marked for extinction to have nuclear devices, then you might really get a kick out of The Great Space Race.

To add to the mayhem, the great galactic overlord had decreed that stupid crap can happen while you're flying around, trying to beat the other ships to the finish line and simultaneously trying to blow them to pieces (which is funny, because the odds are almost as good that they'll kill themselves, saving you the trouble - except that while trying to blast them, it's not entirely impossible that you wind up hurting yourself. Which, again, is hilariously awesome). This mayhem comes in the form of event cards that might get drawn with your action cards, which can result in more wacky hijinks. Snipers watching the race might take pot shots at you. You might fly into a wormhole. And if things go really poorly, you might open up a black hole right in front of you, and God help you and your entire alien species if you can't avoid flying into the black part in the middle.

The best part of all this meaningless violence happens when you blow up another ship, because each ship is powered by a nuclear reactor, and those reactors make enormous explosions right in the middle of the space race track when an opponent is destroyed. You can laugh at your opponent's misfortune as he blows up like the Death Star, but he may have the last laugh when your ship is torn to iron filings by the enormous explosive aftermath.

Reading through the rules, you might be a little intimidated by the heft of the book. There are rules for the black holes, rules for the nukes, and rules for the giant space amoeba that eats space ships. There are rules for the cannons that the overlord might toss into the ring as motivational tools, and rules for running into each other like Nascar drivers in the rain. But once you start playing, you'll realize that the whole thing goes really fast, and is really easy to learn, with just a few things that might send you back to the rulebook (like what happens when a player discovers the Terrible Secret of Space).

If you've ever played RoboRally, you probably have a pretty good idea how this game works. You put down cards to program movement, and then you take turns executing those cards to see how badly you miscalculated. And I'll say this right now - I don't like RoboRally. I've played it three or four times, and every time it just felt like work, and exceptionally unforgiving work, at that.

But I love The Great Space Race. For one thing, action cards often have options, like the ability to change direction on the fly, or choose between two flight paths, or otherwise have a little more control over your ship while it's moving. For another, The Great Space Race has command decisions, for when you're about to fly into a black hole because you miscounted your move three cards back, and really wish you could make a left turn after you pass Neptune. And yet another improvement is the massive player battles that take place, where you're dropping mines and ramming each other into walls and otherwise completely screwing with your opponents. You're not just trying to program a complicated route, like in RoboRally; now you're actively interacting with your opponents, and not just with cleverly planned maneuvers. Now you're firing missiles at them, which is so much more satisfying than just pushing them onto conveyor belts that drop them into holes in the ground.

A word of caution to the soon-to-be fan of The Great Space Race - the components are not awesome. Every bit of art in the game is drawn on a computer, and most of it is pretty clumsy. The cards are too small and too flimsy, and they tend to get scratched up pretty easy. If this were a game from a big company, it would have great cards and cool spaceships and sweet die-cut counters that you press out of a huge sheet of thick, double-sided cardboard so that you could overflow a landfill with the waste. But if it was from a big company, I wouldn't want to play it.

See, half the charm of The Great Space Race is the cobbled-together hilarity. While the rules are excellent, and the game plays very well, the writers didn't take themselves seriously. They know who they are, and they know what kind of game they're making, and the rules are a hoot to read. You'll laugh all the way through, and you'll be relieved that you're not reading a set of rules that Reiner Knizia had to get approved by a team of stuffy editors with half-finished English degrees. The game is funky and fresh, like an 80s rap group, back before rap was all about street thugs and guns and cussing and mysoginy.

Seriously, the only fault I can find with The Great Space Race is the component quality, and if you're the kind of gamer that gets hung up on pretty pieces, Fantasy Flight makes dozens of games with expensive pieces and no soul. The Great Space Race is fun, fast, exciting, funny, and charming. I look forward to playing it again, and that's not something I can say about lots of games I play.

Summary

Pros:
Great action game
Combines clever planning and quick thinking
Absolutely awesome theme
Fun and fast, with plenty of ways to discover wacky hijinks
Just plain charming, the way only a game from a smaller publisher can be

Cons:
Components could have been a lot better

Thread: Re: Impact Questions

railbaron — 2008-08-27T16:56:46+00:00

Quick question. Do you always impact with a boundary, or do you roll for impact, so there's a chance you miss? The rules just state something like, "When you impact with a boundary...". Fun game. I liked it a lot :-). Thanks!

Thread: Re: Barracuda (Web Extras)

sbaracleto — 2008-06-27T10:26:55+00:00

I think the same as You: The ship Barracuda is really strong.

During my play sessions I never allow to use it.

Thread: Re: quick question?

Blacknightjj — 2008-06-27T02:05:07+00:00

you were having a delusion because the game takes so long.
but on a serious note, no i don't remember that rule. it would be a good house rule.

stay well,

jj

Thread: quick question?

great white — 2008-06-26T00:23:26+00:00

We have played this game twice. The first time we played I could have swore I saw some place if you get lapped you are out of the game. Then when we played again at our game night, could not find that anyplace.
Did I imagine this or is it someplace.

Thread: Re: Is the Space Race Great? a review

JohnnyD — 2008-06-11T20:00:10+00:00

lordzogat wrote:
This game is a hoot, we play every weekend, always ending up with someone pouting cause they got blown up....sucka

Shouldn't that be 'blowed up'??

Thread: Barracuda (Web Extras)

HëllRÆZØR — 2008-05-05T16:11:39+00:00

Hi,

I didn't play this game often, but I think the ship "Barracuda" (Web Extras) is pretty strong compared to other ships: 46/102 movement cards are Straight Shots, which means that for about half of the movement cards, the Barracuda moves an additional hex. I made the experience that some ship abilities were hardly used during a game, while the Barracuda was about a half round ahead when he won.

Maybe the special ability should only apply to Straight Shot cards without a turn; that means it affects 22% instead of 45% of all movement cards, but I think it's still a great ability.

...if this should be to weak, alternatively one could rule that the Barracuda's special ability doesn't affect 6-hex-Straight Shots; this means that still about 37% of all movement cards are affected.

P.S.: The Barracuda can be found in a .pdf in the files section, under "Web Extras".

Image

manwich — 2008-04-30T04:29:17+00:00

Custom ships

Thread: Re: cards quantity

PSiEK311 — 2008-04-12T19:28:44+00:00

2 Dog Leg Left 1 3 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Left 1 4 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Left 2 3 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Left 3 3 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Right 1 3 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Right 1 4 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Right 2 3 Turn Mine
2 Dog Leg Right 3 3 Turn Mine
2 Dragon's Tail 1 Turn 3 Turn 3 Turn
2 Straight Shot 3
2 Straight Shot 3 Mine
2 Straight Shot 3 Mine Turn
2 Straight Shot 3 Turn
2 Straight Shot 6
2 Straight Shot 6 Mine
2 Straight Shot 6 Mine Turn
2 Straight Shot 6 Turn
3 Slide Slip Left 4 1 Turn Mine
3 Slide Slip Right 4 1 Turn Mine
3 Straight Shot 4
3 Straight Shot 5
4 Broken Arrow 1 Turn 3 Mine
4 Broken Arrow 1 Turn 4 Mine
4 Broken Arrow 2 Turn 2 Mine
4 Broken Arrow 2 Turn 3 Mine
4 Straight Shot 4 Mine
4 Straight Shot 4 Mine Turn
4 Straight Shot 4 Turn
4 Straight Shot 5 Mine
4 Straight Shot 5 Mine Turn
4 Straight Shot 5 Turn
8 Dog Leg Pilot's Choice 2 Turn 3
8 Twisting Barrel Roll 2 Turn 2 Turn
1 Event: Comet
1 Event: Dimensional Rift
1 Event: Emergency Repairs
3 Event: Engine Stall
1 Event: Explosive Decompression
1 Event: Made on Planet Gluptar
2 Event: Major Event
1 Event: Meteor Shower
1 Event: Planetoid
1 Event: Power Drain
1 Event: Power Leech
1 Event: Skillful Navigation
2 Event: Snipers in the Stand
1 Event: Static Overload
1 Event: Stowaway
2 Event: Wormhole
7 Maintenance: Active Equipment
7 Maintenance: Reload Mines
7 Maintenance: Shields Up
144 ACTION CARDS

1 Advanced Tracking System
4 Atomic Device
1 Dual Processors
2 Dumb-Fire Missiles
2 Guided Torpedo
3 Magnetic Mines
2 Mine Launcher
2 Neutronium Fuel
2 Phase Inducers
3 Plasma Shields
1 Ram Fit
2 Repulsion Cannon
2 Robot Co-Pilot
2 Tractor Beam
1 Ultanium Superstructure
30 EQUIPMENT CARDS

1 Major Event: Acidic Cloud
1 Major Event: Asteroids
1 Major Event: Black Hole
1 Major Event: Cosmic Typhoon
1 Major Event: Gamma Rays
1 Major Event: Imperial Incentive
1 Major Event: Interstellar Slime
1 Major Event: Nova Mites
1 Major Event: Pirates
1 Major Event: Space Amoeba
1 Major Event: Space Goats
1 Major Event: Terrible Secret of Space
12 MAJOR EVENT CARDS

186 TOTAL CARDS

1 Red Plastic Ship Token ( 1 Hex )
1 Black Plastic Ship Token ( 1 Hex )
1 Blue Plastic Ship Token ( 1 Hex )
1 Green Plastic Ship Token ( 1 Hex )
1 Yellow Plastic Ship Token ( 1 Hex )
1 White Plastic Ship Token ( 1 Hex )
2 Dice

1 Atomic Device Blast Radius (37 Hex )
1 Black Hole (37 Hex )
1 Acidic Cloud ( 7 Hex )
1 Space Amoeba (7 Hex)
1 1 Initiative Counter
1 2 Initiative Counter
1 3 Initiative Counter
1 4 Initiative Counter
1 5 Initiative Counter
1 6 Initiative Counter
2 Purple Wormhole Counters
2 Green Wormhole Counters
2 Blue Wormhole Counters
2 Red Wormhole Counters
2 Yellow Wormhole Counters
2 Orange Wormhole Counters
3 Gun Tower Counters
3 Planetoid Counters
6 Atomic Device counters
9 Dumb-Fire Missile Counters
18 Asteroid Counters
18 Control Dials
20 Magnetic Mine Counters
20 Plasma Shield Counters
24 Command Decision counters
75 Standard Mine Counters
214 CARDBOARD COUNTERS

1 Drake Control Console Board
1 Manta Control Console Board
1 Nautilus Control Console Board
1 Octopoid Control Console Board
1 Old Faithful Control Console Board
1 Space Guppy Control Console Board
1 Star Shark Control Console Board
1 Swordfish Control Console Board
1 Drake Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Manta Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Nautilus Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Octopoid Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Old Faithful Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Space Guppy Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Star Shark Counter ( 1 Hex )
1 Swordfish Counter ( 1 Hex )

428 THE GREAT SPACE RACE PIECE TOTAL

Thread: Re: Couple Of Questions

Sarge77 — 2008-03-22T14:15:55+00:00

gf_ripper wrote:

2. When in a black hole it says at the end of the turn a ship moves 1 space closer to the center based on the arrows. So after all the phases are done if the ship is still there it moves or is it when a slot is done?

At the end of a ship's movement card (Slot), if the ship comes to rest on the black hole template, it moves forward one space in the direction of the yellow arrow, which also changes the ships facing.

I bought this game on a whim, and glad I did. It's a blast.

Thread: Re: Couple Of Questions

Doc Sonic — 2008-01-10T05:29:43+00:00

I don't have the rules with me as I don't own the game but I am a big fan. I'll give you the info I know.

There is a speed factor loss when you collide with a boundry or another ship. No, you don't always lose speed when taking damage.

Yes, when the ship explodes, place the atomic device chart centered over the hex the ship exploded. Damage is easy to figure out from there.

Thread: Couple Of Questions

gf_ripper — 2008-01-09T22:07:08+00:00

1. What situtations cause you to lose speed by force? Also do you always lose speed if you take damage, or if you are ramming another ship do you both lose speed if you take damage?

2. When in a black hole it says at the end of the turn a ship moves 1 space closer to the center based on the arrows. So after all the phases are done if the ship is still there it moves or is it when a slot is done?

3. When ship explodes do you go based on the atomic device damage chart to see if you do any damage?

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

sbaracleto — 2007-12-14T11:50:15+00:00

I wish to thanks Mr Mark Plemmons, from Kenzer & Company, for having help me.
He sent me the 4 missing ship control boards for my copy of The Great Space Race boardgame.

Thanks for the assistance.
Alberto Vitali

Image

Rokkr — 2007-11-23T22:12:41+00:00

the ship tolens

Image

Rokkr — 2007-11-23T22:07:57+00:00

the space amoeba

Image

Rokkr — 2007-11-23T22:07:00+00:00

the acidic cloud

Image

Rokkr — 2007-11-23T21:32:26+00:00

The Black Hole!

Image

Rokkr — 2007-11-23T21:28:22+00:00

The Atomic Device!

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

sbaracleto — 2007-11-09T15:45:54+00:00

Thank You guys!!! ^_^

Alberto

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

Peter Loop — 2007-11-09T15:36:17+00:00

All the links are on the BGG page for the game:

http://www.kenzerco.com/product_info.php?cPath=32&products_i...

Contact them via thier web site: (Phone:847-662-6600)
http://www.kenzerco.com/contact_us.php

They will get back to you.

If you need a 5th pannel go to the games download section (or pull the file from here on BGG)
http://www.kenzerco.com/index.php?cPath=32_65

The printable web extra's http://www.kenzerco.com/free_files/GSR_web_extras.pdf
has the control console for the Barracuda as well as other good stuff.

]]>

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

Mundane — 2007-11-09T15:35:01+00:00

Here are the special abilities of the four you are missing:

Nautilus: Ultanium Shell - when rammed by another ship, you take -1 damage and you do not lose speed.

Old Faithful: Hi-Capacity Memory Banks - hand size of 3 cards.

Octopoid: Tentacles - may grab an adjacent mine at the end of each movement and place it in ship stores.

Swordfish: Aggressive Design Feature - add +2 damage to all ram attacks (when ramming or being rammed).

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

larryjrice — 2007-11-09T15:34:49+00:00

If I still had the game I'd try to help out with the digital scan. I traded it away though in a math trade.

You can contact them via the following link:

http://www.kenzerco.com/contact_us.php

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

sbaracleto — 2007-11-09T14:44:43+00:00

Thanks Larry, I'll do it.

Can You, please, give me the email You used to contact the company customer service?

My question about the digital copy of the Control Consoles rised because I'll like to play the game this weekend with my buddies. ^_^

Cheers,
Alberto

Thread: Re: Missing parts, please help me!!!

larryjrice — 2007-11-09T14:10:18+00:00

If you contact the company, I think they'll replace your missing parts. They did when I was missing parts for this game.

Thread: Missing parts, please help me!!!

sbaracleto — 2007-11-09T13:55:26+00:00

Hi guys,
I bought a copy of "The Great Space Race" and today, after received and opened the sealed game, I checked the game-components.

After reading the Game-components, written on the rulebook, seems that my game lacks some Control Consoles.
On the rulebook is written "8 Control Consoles", but my copy only have 4, precisely:
- Manta
- Space Guppy
- Drake
- Star Shark

So my game lacks the Control Consoles for:
- Nautilus
- Octopoid
- Old Faithful
- Swordfish

Can someone give me a digital copy of the Control Consoles?
So I can print the lacking 4 Consoles and fully play the game...

Cheers,
Alberto

Thread: Re: Own RoboRally, Do I need Great Space Race?

otaku — 2007-10-15T06:13:07+00:00

Thanks for the replies guys. Hopefully they also help others in a similar boat as me. I'll probably hold off - if I lived in the US it might be different but postage costs are too high these days - except for "must haves" and I think this will be a "nice to have".

Bwian wrote:
otaku wrote:
A 15 minute race in space sounds great but I don't have much info on that game to make a call on that.
15 minutes? I'd generally set aside 3 hours, although that does include time for rules explanations at the beginning.

My 15mins was refering to the drag race version:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14738

It's actually quoted as 20-30 minutes. With our 20 month year son, 60 minutes is about the tops we can spare for playing games for now

Thread: Re: Own RoboRally, Do I need Great Space Race?

Bwian — 2007-10-12T22:37:18+00:00

otaku wrote:
2. Some of the components appear "cheap" (such as the Action cards);

Yep, action cards are a little flimsy. I haven't had any problems yet, though, and they've survived a few Con games at this point. (The kind played at Gaming Conventions, not on street corners or pool halls.)

otaku wrote:
3. It may be too similar to RoboRally to warrant a purchase.

I don't think it feels too similar. Your weapons are dropped behind you, not forward projecting. The command loop on movement is much shorter: you aren't always placing a full 5 cards, and most cards allow choices at "runtime". Also, you can't really design your own racetrack, unlike RoboRally.

otaku wrote:
A 15 minute race in space sounds great but I don't have much info on that game to make a call on that.

15 minutes? I'd generally set aside 3 hours, although that does include time for rules explanations at the beginning.

Don't know if any of this means you need it or not. I like it, and have played it more recently than RoboRally, but mostly because of the theme. Racing to save your species from destruction is just cooler than being the pawn of a bored super-computer, you know?

Thread: Re: Own RoboRally, Do I need Great Space Race?

chessduffer — 2007-10-12T22:17:10+00:00

rubberchicken wrote:
I own both games. They sound similar but the game feel is not similar at all.

1. I think that overall Roborally is a better game.

2. A two or three lap game of the Great space race is a bit too long. The first lap is not so good because there are not too many mines yet. The game is best as a one lap race. But if you play such a short race each player should get to place a bunch of mines before the start of the game (maybe with the restriction that no two mines in the initial placement are within 4 spaces of each other).

3. One problem with the Great space race is that the player in the lead has an advantage (he has no crowd ahead of him or beside him to block him and generally cause problems. This is the same problem that all race games have.). By keeping the race short it is not so much of a problem since you won't have to spend a half hour hopelessly behind which can happen in a longer game.

4. Thegreat space race lends itself easily to house rules. for example more weapons, or more penalties for going fast (which is a good way to control the leader).

Overall "the great space race" is fun, and not a copy of roborally. If you play both of the games in an evening you don't feel as if you played the same game twice. Both use the similar mechanic of simultaneous choosing of cards that will determine movement.

One Response to #3, it depends on how much of a lead he has. Since initiative changes each time, the leader could end up moving last and when he makes his move may actually have 4 other ships in front of him along with mines.

Thread: Re: Own RoboRally, Do I need Great Space Race?

WhiteKnight85 — 2007-10-12T16:15:32+00:00

I enjoy both. A lot.

They share a couple of similar mechanics, but there's a lot of differences as well. To me they have the feel of being 2 different games; one's not a clone of the other.

It is definitely true that the cards of The Great Space Race are not good quality, which is unfortunate, because they get used a lot. That might be my only complaint with the components.

Three laps can be a bit long; other times it's just right. It all depends on what you want that particular play session.

There's a variant where half the ships go clockwise, and half go counterclockwise. I haven't tried it yet, but I intend to do so soon. I think that will go a long way towards slowing down a runaway leader, because he'll soon be flying towards obstacles and other ships.

Additionally, if you have 2 or 3 players, then each of you can fly 2 ships, one clockwise, and one counterclockwise. If you have a disasterous run and blow up early, you've still got another ship to fly.

I encourage buying both. Except for the cost factor you mention. I have no idea how much it would cost you to get one in Australia, but I bet it's pricey. I can't advise you as to at what price it becomes too expensive for what it is.

Thread: Re: Own RoboRally, Do I need Great Space Race?

rubberchicken — 2007-10-12T09:32:26+00:00

I own both games. They sound similar but the game feel is not similar at all.

1. I think that overall Roborally is a better game.

2. A two or three lap game of the Great space race is a bit too long. The first lap is not so good because there are not too many mines yet. The game is best as a one lap race. But if you play such a short race each player should get to place a bunch of mines before the start of the game (maybe with the restriction that no two mines in the initial placement are within 4 spaces of each other).

3. One problem with the Great space race is that the player in the lead has an advantage (he has no crowd ahead of him or beside him to block him and generally cause problems. This is the same problem that all race games have.). By keeping the race short it is not so much of a problem since you won't have to spend a half hour hopelessly behind which can happen in a longer game.

4. Thegreat space race lends itself easily to house rules. for example more weapons, or more penalties for going fast (which is a good way to control the leader).

Overall "the great space race" is fun, and not a copy of roborally. If you play both of the games in an evening you don't feel as if you played the same game twice. Both use the similar mechanic of simultaneous choosing of cards that will determine movement.

Thread: Own RoboRally, Do I need Great Space Race?

otaku — 2007-10-12T05:35:51+00:00

Guys,

I have played and own RoboRally but can't decide if I really need the Great Space Race. I have read the rules to the Great Space Race and yes it does look fun but:

1. It's hard (impossible?) to buy in Oz -> expensive;
2. Some of the components appear "cheap" (such as the Action cards);
3. It may be too similar to RoboRally to warrant a purchase.

Has anyone who has played both games have any thoughts to share? If it came with the "Great Space Race Drag" included I probably wouldn't hesitate (if I knew more about the drag race game that is) - A 15 minute race in space sounds great but I don't have much info on that game to make a call on that.

Cheers in advance.

Thread: Re: Question About Current Lap and Major Event Card

mark_biggar — 2007-10-09T02:34:34+00:00

By my definition of lap, a lap is not completed until every ship has crossed the line. So the major event cards are not shuffled back into until that point and where the leader is doesn't effect this at all.

Thread: Re: Question About Current Lap and Major Event Card

Mundane — 2007-10-09T00:43:36+00:00

Your reasoning sounds good to me. I favor anything that makes the race more complicated and bloody but that's just me.

Thread: Question About Current Lap and Major Event Card

WhiteKnight85 — 2007-10-09T00:20:44+00:00

The "Major Event" Event card (i.e., the Event card which directs you to draw a Major Event), instructs you to set that Event card aside until the current lap has been completed, then shuffle it back into the deck.

In a recent game, one ship was far in the lead, on the 3rd (last) lap while the other ships were on the 2nd lap. Both "Major Event" Event cards had been drawn while the lead ship was on its final lap, and so were set aside.

Those darn Space Goats attacked, and right after that the lead ship ran afoul of the gun towers, resulting in that ship blowing up. The next turn the new leader finished his 2nd lap, starting his 3rd and final lap.

Should the "Major Event" Event cards be shuffled back in to the Action deck at this point? It seems to me as if the "current lap" shifted from Lap #3 to Lap #2 as soon as the lead ship blew up (since no one else was on Lap 3 at the time). Therefore I think the reshuffling was the correct thing to do.

(Since there were only 8 Action cards left in the deck at that point, both "Major Event" Event cards soon made an appearance in the second Lap #3, and one of those Major Events turned out to be the Terrible Secret of Space. Suffice it to say that this lap was brutal.)

Did I play this correctly? Or was the Current Lap never completed until the end of the race, even though that 1st leader never made it?

Image

Von Cougar — 2007-09-12T03:46:41+00:00

"Control Console" - Space Guppy

Image

Von Cougar — 2007-09-12T03:45:32+00:00

Counter Sheet 1

Image

Von Cougar — 2007-09-12T03:44:40+00:00

Counter Sheet 2

Image

Von Cougar — 2007-09-12T03:43:26+00:00

Counter Sheet 3

Thread: Re: cards quantity

Great Dane — 2007-08-10T17:23:37+00:00

GGames wrote:
Can someone tell me how mucho of these cards come with the game?

My copy has the following numbers:

7 Maintenance: reload mines
7 Maintenance: shields up
7 Maintenance: active equipment

2 Event: snipers in the stand
3 Event: engine stall
2 Event: mayor event
2 Event: wormhole

3 Movement: side slip right (1-4)
7+7* Movement: straight shot (5)
*with and without "Deploy Mines" symbol

Thread: Re: 30 Equipment Cards detail

ArtEmiSa64 — 2007-06-15T23:44:46+00:00

thanks a lot, was very useful

Thread: Re: 30 Equipment Cards detail

Mundane — 2007-06-13T21:22:37+00:00

I've uploaded an image of the equipment cards:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/220371

Thread: cards quantity

GGames — 2007-06-13T19:40:40+00:00

Can someone tell me how mucho of these cards come with the game? My game has more that should be:

Maintenance: reload mind
Maintenance: shields up
Maintenance: active equipment
Event: snipers in the stand
Event: engine stall
Event: mayor event
Event: wormhole
Movement: side slip right (1-4)
Movement: straight shot (5)

Thanks.

Thread: Re: 30 Equipment Cards detail

dstanfor — 2007-06-13T18:54:06+00:00

The kenzerco contact should be mark@kenzerco.com, I believe. Their website (www.kenzerco.com) has a phone number contact as well.

Thread: Re: 30 Equipment Cards detail

ArtEmiSa64 — 2007-06-13T18:27:45+00:00

I checked my cards and indeed I don’t have any of the equipment cards. I’ve already tried to contact Kenzer and Company, with no answer yet. I’ve been able to figure out some of the cards, but, can someone give me the description of the following ones?

* Ram Fit
* Dual Processors
* Neutronium Fuel
* Advanced Tracking System
* Plasma Shields
* Ultanium Superstructure
* Mine Launcher
* Robot Co-Pilot

Thanks

Thread: Re: 30 Equipment Cards detail

ArtEmiSa64 — 2007-06-09T17:35:07+00:00

thanks

Thread: Re: 30 Equipment Cards detail

Mundane — 2007-06-09T17:05:47+00:00

The equipment cards all say "Equipment" at the top. Here is the list:

Guided Torpedo x2
Ram Fit
Tractor Beam x2
Dual Processors
Neutronium Fuel x2
Atomic Device x4
Dumb-Fire Missiles x2
Repulsion Cannon x2
Phase Inducers x2
Magnetic Mines x3
Advanced Tracking System
Plasma Shields x3
Ultanium Superstructure
Mine Launcher x2
Robot Co-Pilot x2

Thread: 30 Equipment Cards detail

ArtEmiSa64 — 2007-06-09T16:12:52+00:00

Hi,

I just got the game but it seems that the cards are printed with the wrong back, because I've got 201 cards but 0 equipment cards. Can someone give me the list of the equipment card to check if I have them at all?

Thanks

Thread: The Great Space Race Micro Badge is now available

lordzogat — 2007-04-30T03:20:46+00:00

The Great Space Race Micro Badge is now available, look under Group: Games S - Z in the Micro Badges section.

I submitted all 6 colors but they only accepted one. One is better than none. Enjoy

Thread: Re: New Space Race Varient - Space Soccer

lordzogat — 2007-04-18T00:44:16+00:00

We have come up with a faster version of this game. You can score in any net and you can shoot the ball straigh ahead 3 hexes at the end of a slot. You can also use this to pass to team mates if oyur playing with multiple people on a team.

We have also added a ring around the center making it a bit harder to navigate to where the ball respawns.

Thread: Re: Is the Space Race Great? a review

Spacehulk — 2007-04-13T19:25:23+00:00

We play 3 people, 2 ships each, one of each ship flying in different directions around the track loaded with pre-game space debris.

Your Crazy. That sounds like a blast; but it doesn't make you less crazy.

Thread: New Space Race Varient - Space Soccer

lordzogat — 2007-04-02T06:27:30+00:00

Here is a new variant we tried out today. The idea came to when playing a PC online game called subspace. The object of one of the games it to capture the ball and score a goal in your teams net.

Here in this custom game of Space Race we tried this out with a Hex shaped board. Since we had 3 Players and 2 ships each, we only had 3 nets.

The Object:

Drive over the Ball and take possession of the ball, try to return the ball into your own net to score. The game length and number of goals is up to you. Once a goal is scored the ball immediately returns to center.

The Rules:

Obviously we had to make some major adjustments to the games Play and rules to make this work. We had to iron out a few bugs but it worked out and was quite a bit of fun. The following rules apply or override existing rules.

1) Ship collisions - incur no damage to either ship and no loss of speed. The impacted ship gets pushed as normal. If they have possession of the ball, its knocked loose. See Ball Loss Rules

2) Boundary Impacts - incur no damage or loss of speed. The ship flies into the boundary and bounces out at the opposite angle. (In rare circumstances the ship bounces in and straight back out). Since the game has no cards that allow for U-turns, the following occurs upon impact with a boundary. The ship once it has hit the wall bounces out at the opposite angle, and remaining sections of the move continue as normal. The ships orientation DOES NOT alter until the end of the move or is allowed as part of the move. Once the move is completed which included boundary impact, the ships operator has the choice of an additional turn, essentially completing a U-turn.

3) Loss of Ball Possession - There are three main ways a ship can loose possession of the ball. a) Ship to ship impact, If and only if the ship causing the impact does not have possession. If the ship that holds the ball impacts another ship, it keeps ball possession. b) Impact with Mines, Asteroids, Planetoids and Atomic bombs. Roll for impact as normal, if an impact occurs, take ship damage and release the ball as per ball release instructions below. c) A Missile is fired at the Ball carrying ship.

Once one of the following situations occur, the ball is released in the following manner. One side of the hex representing the ball token, is given a value of 1, each other side to its right moving clockwise counts up to 6 in the same manner as the Space amoeba and Acid cloud. The first roll determines the balls direction. The second roll determines how far it goes. 1 - 6 hexes in a straight line. If the ball ejects into another ship, its immediately takes possession

4) Taking possession of the ball. By driving over the ball or having it shot into the ship it immediately takes possession. Once possession of the ball has occurs, the ship loses a speed and action cards shift to the appropriate slots based on the new reduced speed. A ship that has ball possession at the start of a turn, can not increase speed unless all other ships are still one speed faster. If the ship that has the ball drops a speed and is still faster than other ships on the board, it remains at that speed until it loses the ball, or the other ships become faster. The ships operator does have the choice to decrease speed but runs the risk of not increasing speed again.

5) Scoring - scoring a point is simple, fly your ship with the ball into the defined area of your net. The ball immediately resets to the center and the ship continues the rest of it move and behaves as normal as per other rules.

6) Black holes - Since this variant is designed to have fun and chase the ball or ship with the ball, the center of a black hole does not remove a ship from the game, instead it instantly teleports a ship (similar to a wormhole) to the edge of the playing field in the opposite direction it was facing when entering the black holes center.

7) Worm Holes, Acid Clouds, Space Amoeba, Planetoids, Atomic Bombs, Space Stations, Events etc etc all of these game components behave as normal. We opted however to not use the Asteroids Major Event as it adds too many objects that would cause a ball to be lost.

If I think of additional issues we came up against during the game I will list them as i probably left a few minor things out. Other slight variations we will try are a ball that keeps moving as there is no gravity in space. Also the option of the ball holder to shoot the ball straight ahead similar to a Missile, thus passing to a team mate.

In a lucky move, my ship picked up the ball, side steped into the Black hole and shot backwards right into my own goal....lol the looks on their faces. All of a sudden the game required 3 points to win.

Here are a few pics from the game.

Ok who has the ball? LOL Its under White I think

White has the ball, is about to use the boundary to alter direction in the next slot.

Thread: The Great Space Microbadge?

lordzogat — 2007-03-31T22:09:01+00:00

Hey Great Space Race Fans. I am trying to get the admin to add the Great Space Race Micro Badges I designed. I am not completely familiar with the process, he asked me to post one in the forum found here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/130746/page/87

These are the badges I had done up for each color:

I don't know if people have to chime in stating they will buy one before he decides to add it to the list.

Thread: Re: Black Hole questions

lordzogat — 2007-03-18T09:10:21+00:00

What graphics program are you prining them in, make sure it prints in portrait 8x10

The resolution is high, but it should still have a print size of 8x10.

It could be the graphics propgram.

---------------

Ok here is whats happened. The files were submitted as jpeg files, they had a resolution and size aspect ratio. When you download the file it loads in your browser, when you go to print it loses the proper 8x10 size aspect.

You must load these images in a proper graphics program to print.

I am resubmitting all the images as a group in a Zip file. Plus a new Teleportation Event Card has been added. Open the jpeg files in the zip folder in a graphics program to print in the proper size.

Thread: Re: Black Hole questions

gpren — 2007-03-13T04:29:55+00:00

Matt, Thanks for your help. I tried to print out the extras that you spoke of, unfortunately they do not print out properly on my computer. Everything will not fit on the page and even if I reduce the size of the document only the top half of the front of the event card makes it onto the page. Its a shame because I really like what you've done.