Formula D

This game began my board game addiction. A lot of fun. You can play with large groups. Easy to play.

I saw this game on TableTop and thought it looked interesting, different, and fun. I was not disappointed. The gameplay mechanics are simple and quick, and anyone should be able to get from opening the box to playing the game in only a few minutes. There are basic rules, advanced rules and optional rules that can be used to make the game easy or more difficult. You can select between a generic F1 racer, a street racer with different skills, vehicle "hit points" and special abilities or design your own car/driver.I would highly recommend this game to anyone as it is a blast and can accommodate up to 10 players. Detailed review below.GAME BOARDFormula D comes with 2 game boards. Monaco (F1) and Road Race City (a street race track).Monaco is a handful of technical corners and gear selection here is critical because you will need to flow from fast open corners to tight technical ones and you do not want to overshoot.Road Race City does have technical section, but for the most part it is open corners. The difficulty is in the special details on this course. There is a section with road damage, an area where the local residents shoot at you, and a "hit point" bonus for whoever buzzes the police station the fastest. This one is my favorite.GAME PLAYMost of my gaming friends did not seem interested or did not understand how a board game could simulate car racing. Formula D actually does this very well. By making the player select gears to change between dice that have different min/max values (or "speeds") and requiring the players to adjust turn order based on position on the track the game simulates racing well and provides a need to make well thought out gear selections.Providing a car "hit point" management system that simulates collisions, road damage to handling, and tire and brake wear adds more complexity to the game. The basic (ie - beginners rules) use a single "hit point" pool that all forms of damage and wear draw against. This style of play promotes some VERY lose driving as you can loose a tremendous amount of tire and or brake overshooting turns.The game is much more challenging with the advanced rules. These break out each category of car damage/wear and assign a starting value (the same for each F1 driver but different for each street racer). This style of means that you will have to calculate your gear selections before hand to avoid overshooting and or slipping gears if possible. You can blow up your car if you are not careful.The game includes optional rules that add even more complexity. Weather rules along with tire selection rules can change each cars handling mid race and makes the pit stop worth more value.

I've played a few racing board games in my time, but so far this one takes the cake.This is a game that sounds a lot more difficult to play than it is, and comes down to strategy far more than any other game of it's kind I have yet to play. You race around a board with your car, moving up and down in gear as you approach corners and straightaways. You take damage for skipping gears, overshooting corners, and collisions. There are a few other basic rules if you are playing the simple version but they are largely logical and easy to understand (if you roll the highest number in a later gear you are straining your engine, you can't zig-zag in a straight line).The game is incredibly well-designed, the board is beautiful, and you can play with up to ten players, though the game is really fun with only two (which really surprised me). There is a large amount of risk/reward going on which separates this from a mere dice-rolling game, and if it's too easy you can apply a ton of extra rules to make the game more complex (pit-stops, weather, driver powers, individual damage meters for car parts).The main thing to remember is that this game is REALLY fun. I kept hesitating to play this game thinking it would bore people, and my father looked a little scared as I read all the rules, but once we started to play he quickly got into it, and by the time time we got to the final corner he was on the edge of his seat and I was close to wrecking my gearbox and dropping out of the game.I think this game will especially appeal to people who love auto racing, and those who have large groups who like to play games. Unlike most games where "It's over when the first person passes the finish line" I can see an epic battle to not be in last place taking place with this game, as well as ridiculous collisions at the start of the race as everyone is jockeying for position (like the real world!). I have only two minor complaints. 1. The boards damage easily. and 2. Only a few of the boards released before Asmodee bought the rights have been released and I am absolutely dying to race around real world tracks like Laguna Seca, Suzuki, Silverstone, and Monza. If Asmodee is listening, I'm begging you to put the street racing tracks together on expansions and real world tracks together, instead of mixing the two, and start releasing some real world-class tracks. If you make it, the fans will buy! See you at the track!