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gamephotos — 2007-05-29T13:52:14+00:00

Poor Colour Matching - The Horse, Card and Board Should All Be The Same Colour

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:54:50+00:00

Blue Stretches Their Lead - Aiming For A Runaway Win

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:52:22+00:00

Horses Lined Up At The Start

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:48:32+00:00

Shadow Horses

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:45:59+00:00

Red Streaks Ahead - But The Money Is On Yellow To Win

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:42:24+00:00

Ready To Start - Movement Cards Assigned and Bets Placed

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:39:44+00:00

Sample Range of Card Values - Top Row Never Alters, But All The Others Do

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:36:04+00:00

Nearly There - Finish Line Approaching

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:34:10+00:00

Riders and Die (Showing Horseshoe and Jockey's Cap)

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gamephotos — 2007-05-22T22:19:44+00:00

First Round Moves Completed - Showing A Large Range of Moves From 5 to 16 Per Horse

Thread: Re: Why not merge with Winner's Circle?

tool — 2007-04-29T18:48:32+00:00

While they are very similar, they do have some significant differences in play. There are games in the database which are more similar which have separate entries (e.g., Runebound 1st and 2nd editions).

Thread: Why not merge with Winner's Circle?

kevinb9n — 2007-04-29T16:24:45+00:00

The description given here sounds *exactly* like Winner's Circle.. no one would ever miss the obvious fact that these two were really fundamentally the same game. Why keep them separate?

Thread: Session Report

dougadamsau — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Roger writes:

Roger: 10 + 7 = 17
Doug: 6 + 9 = 15
Janet: 5 + 3 = 8
Dey: 2 + 5 = 7
David: 2 + 4 = 6

After some discussion the magic words "Reiner Knizia" helped us decide on the next game to play. This little game is an English edition, published by Gibson's and imported by Board Not Bored Games. Although this was Doug's copy, I think only David had played before.

The game is played in two parts. Firstly there is a betting round. A card is turned up for each of the seven horses that will be racing. This card shows how that horse is likely to perform in the race. Four symbols on the card (horse head, horseshoe, cap and boot) match those on a d6, with the horse head appearing twice. Next to each symbol is the amount of spaces on the 40 space race track that the horse can be moved if that symbol is rolled. Some horses will move steadily but conservatively (these might be a 5 or 6 against every symbol for such a horse) while others might be more of a wild card capable of great bursts of speed balanced out by slow patches (say a 12 against one of the symbols and a 1 against another). Each player places three bets, one of which is a double value bet (shades of Members Only). All of a player's bets must be placed on different horses. Bets are placed in turn on each horse before the card for the next horse is turned up.

The race commences by a player rolling the die and choosing which horse to move. Generally this will be one of the horses that player has invested in, but it may also make sense to defer moving a horse you have an interest in the hope that another player will move it on a better roll later in the turn. It might also make sense to nobble another horse by moving it a low number of spaces. After that horse has moved, its card is turned face down. After all horses are moved, cards are turned face up again and a new round or movement starts. It takes around three rounds to complete a race. The race ends when the first horse crosses the line. 1st, 2nd and 3rd places pay off. If only one or two players have bet on a horse, bonus multipliers are applied to the score.

I really enjoyed this game. It reminded me of Honeybears, both in the look of the board, and in the fact that players don't solely "own" any particular horse. There was certainly a reasonable amount of tension and a lot of "encouragement" given to players to move particular horses. I'm not sure how much skill there really is to the movement: I suspect that the placement of bets may be the critical factor. Does anyone else have any thoughts?

Janet commented (and I agree) that the colours were a bit confusing. The plastic horse didn't quite match the card which didn't quite match the betting square on the board. I also had trouble remembering which bet chips (another six colours here) belonged to the other players (let alone to myself). Some mats such as provided in the Rio Grande Medici would be a great help here.

Doug writes:

I had been bringing this along to Billabong for several weeks trying to sneak it into the play rotation. It is one of two sports games Reiner Knizia has published by Gibson's Games (the other he did was Formula Motor Racing). I've played a few of these Gibson's Sports games (Golf, Formula Motor Racing, Armchair Cricket) and found them to be rather good. Therefore I was delighted to get a chance to finally play this one.

After galloping a couple of races we came to the conclusion that this one also is quite good, and a nice addition the Gibson's sports line. As with each new Knizia I play, I see links to other games (I'll list them here). Players take on the role of gamblers (Grand National Derby) at the races, and are given three betting chips each. Two of them are single bets, while a large chip is a double bet (Members Only).

There are seven horses running the race, and players earn points for betting on horses that finish in the top three places. Cards are revealed and placed against each horse until each horse has a card, and the race is ready to begin. The cards have four ratings - horse ability (constant, from 1 to 7, depending on the horse), jockey ability, horse shoes and boots! No idea how these last two ratings impact a horse race, but we are talking Knizia here...

As a card is placed against a horse, all players in turn are given the chance to position one betting chip against that horse. You are thus given a chance to assess the ratings (higher the beter) and thus make a bet if you think the horse has a chance. If others bet on the horse, you can be assured they will be helping get that horse to the front, and that has a big impact on whether you bet, or not. However, there is a carrot for not backing a horse others have backed, as winnings are trippled or doubled if you are the only one, or one of two, gamblers to back a horse.

The race is simple, quick, yet rather tricky. Players in turn roll a special die that has a distribution of horse head - horse head - horse head - boots - horse shoe - jockey. The players may then use that result to advance a horse a number of spaces matching the horses rating with the die roll. Once a horse has moved, it's card is turned face down until all other horses have moved. Cards are then flipped face up and all horses are moved again.

The race continues until a horse has crossed the line, 41 spaces down the track. Bets are paid out for the first three horses as a 4/2/1 spread, doubled for double bets and again for single or paired backing of a horse.

I found this game to be rather good. The rotation of the turns means you will have good, and then poor, chances to influence the race as the number of face up horse cards differs from turn to turn. There is lots of scope to nobble other players, but advancing their horses a small amount and thus ensuring it won't be moved far THAT turn. The end of the races was rather exciting as the front runners all had chances to get over the line.

I'm a bit hazy on race specifics, however Mosstown Boy was a strong performer in both races, winning one and getting a second in the next race. Silver Blaze (paying homage to Conan Doyle?) won the second race...betting points totalled across the two races were.

Doug's rating: 7 - not a bad game at all - recommended. The only downside is it takes a race or two to match up the rather pastel card colours with the strong plastic horse colours. The name of the horse gives a further clue (Raven Beauty = Black, etc).

David writes:

I'm a bit of fan of this one, too (despite my poor performance this time). It also reminded a little of Honey Bears, another fun little filler from the amazing Mr Knizia. I think the skill in the game is in judging the odds of each horse's movement (the 1 in 2 odds for the horsehead movement versus the 1 in 6 odds for each of Boot, Racing Cap & Horseshoe) and balancing that against how many players also are backing that horse, and what other horses they are backing (and the odds for those, etc etc). This actually determines the REAL odds of a horse using its optimum movement. It's not easy, but it's fun. I agree about the colours, but I think the mnemonics are really quite simple, and easy to get used to (Imperial Purple for the Roman one, Black for Raven whatever, Blue for the Lagoon one, etc etc).

Game: Turf Horse Racing

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Thread: Re: Why not merge with Winner's Circle?

Thread: Why not merge with Winner's Circle?

Thread: Session Report