Pole Position
Pole Position Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
- Components
- 2. Game Setup
- 3. Sequence of Play
- 4. Movement
- 5. Overtaking
- 6. Tyres
- 7. Pit Stops
- 8. Weather
- 9. Events
- 10. Collisions / Breakdowns
- 11. DRS
- 12. Stress
- 13. Custom Setting
- 14. Drivers and Teams
- 15. World Championship
- 16. Variants
- 17. Solo Mode / Bots
- Annex 1: Driver Cards
- Annex 2: Team Cards
- Annex 3: Event Cards
- Annex 4: Circuit Special Rules
- Using Driver Skill Points (SP)
- Credits
Components
- 1 Double sided board (2 circuits, USA and Great Britain)
- 6 Personal dashboards (6 different colours)
- 6 Cars (6 different colours)
- 30 Cubes (6 different colours). To use in the personal dashboards.
- 12 Tyre Tokens (6 colours). To indicate the tyres in use, and the tyre in use lifespan.
- 20 Breakdown tokens. Red: heavy breakdown, black: light breakdown, green: repaired breakdown.
- 12 Qualifying tokens. 2 per colour, used during qualifying rounds (Q1, Q2, Q3).
- 24 Tyre selection tokens. Used to indicate which type of tyres a car will use when the race starts.
- 2 Weather tokens and 1 lap counter
- 3 Off track and left racing line tokens
- 5 DRS tokens. To track when a car gets DRS.
- 4 Flags tokens. 2 yellow flags and 2 green flags. They must be placed when a collision occurs.
- 20 Green tokens. Used in pit stops. Numbered from 0 to 10.
- 4 Tyre dice. The colour of the die matches the set of tyres the car is using.
- 3 Special dice. Purple for the race start, pit exit and events, blue for the weather, and black with several uses.
- 12 Stress tokens. Stress tokens can go from 1 to 6. Each player has 3 tokens.
- 6 Driver card tokens. 4 wear tokens and 2 blowout tokens.
- 6 Driver cards. Numbered from 1 to 6.
- 6 Team cards
- 9 Event cards
- 20 Lifespan tokens. To track the lifespan of the tyres when making a pit stop.
- 6 Bot cards. Printed both sides. 12 bots in total.
Note: You can see the list of components of the standard game, Kickstarter components are not listed.
Board legend:
- Start-Finish straight
- Finish line
- Direction of the race
- Weather grids
- Position track
- Event deck
- Standard corner
- Technical corner
- Circuit special rules
- Lap track
- Pit lane entry
- Pits
- Pit
- Pit lane exit
- Qualifying track
- DRS line
- SC line
Personal dashboard legend:
- Tyre in use Lifespan track
- Tyre in use indicator
- Tyre Lifespan track
- Brake points track (BP)
- Engine points track (EP)
- Driver skill points track (SP)
- Stress Indicator
- Breakdowns
2. Game Setup
All players must select one circuit to play.
2.1 Circuit
If players have decided to use the circuit's special rules, you can find an explanation of each circuit special rules in the Annex 4 at the end of this rule book.
2.2 Events
If players have decided to use events (see 9), prepare the event deck as follows:
A) Event cards with an "A" are mandatory in each race.
B) Event cards with a "B" are only used for a few circuits; see Annex 4.
For example, there are two SC cards, one of them with the "A" letter and a second one with the "B" letter. The one with an "A" must be used in every circuit, however, the one with a "B" must be used only in a few circuits as is explained in Annex 4.
C) Event cards with a "C" are optional, and they are only used when all the players agree with that.
Note: cards with "C" don't appear in the standard version of the game.
2.3 Drivers and Teams
If the players decide to play with Drivers and Teams, each player draws a driver card and a Team card.
2.4 Weather Conditions
To determine the weather conditions, each circuit has two grids. The first grid has 6x6 positions (A in the illustration), and the second grid (B in the illustration) can have 5 or 6 positions.
A player rolls the black die three times. The first two rolls determine the column and the row of the first grid (A) in which a weather token must be placed (C). The second weather token (C) is placed in the position of the second grid (B) that corresponds to the value of the third roll.
Example: Any player rolls the black dice three times, and gets 3, 4 and 2. The first token is placed in the intersection of the 3rd column and 4th row of the first grid, and the second token is placed in the number "2" of the second grid. So the race starts with light rain.
If the second grid had fewer than 6 positions, roll the black die again until you get a number less than or equal to the number of positions this second grid has.
The position of (C) in the first grid, determines the current weather conditions.
2.5 Lap Counter
Place the lap counter in the first position on the lap track. On every lap, when the leader of the race crosses the finish line, move that token one position down. Reaching the last position means that there is still one lap left.
2.6 Tokens
Leave the following tokens in the supply: breakdown tokens, Off track and left racing line tokens, DRS tokens, flag tokens, green tokens, Stress tokens, lifespan tokens and all the dice.
2.7 Player Setup
Each player chooses one colour and takes:
- 1 Personal dashboard matching his colour.
- 1 Car matching his colour.
- 5 Cubes of the selected colour: he places 2 cubes in the "7th" position in the engine and brake tracks of his personal dashboard, and a third cube in the 9th position of the SP track. The fourth cube will be used for the qualifying rounds and the position track. The last cube can be used if players decide to use the custom setting (see section 13).
- 2 Tyre tokens matching his colour.
- 2 Qualifying tokens matching his colour.
- 4 Tyre selection tokens (with 4 colours: white, red, green, and blue).
3. Sequence of Play
A Pole Position race consists of 4 phases:
- Qualifying
- Race Start
- Rounds
- End of the race
3.1 Qualifying
The Qualifying rounds will decide the starting grid order, and play a very important role in the game. Starting from the first position ("Pole Position") can be essential to win the race.
The qualifying sessions consist of 3 rounds that will determine the order of the starting grid. Before starting each of the rounds, each player picks up his two qualifying tokens.
Players must play 3 rounds in a 6-car game, 2 rounds in a 5-car game, and 1 round in a game with 4 or fewer cars.
In each round, players must follow exactly the same mechanism.
3.1.1 Qualifying Q1
You must skip Q1 if you play with 5 or fewer cars.
All players (with no specific order) roll the black die and record each roll, placing a cube of their colour in the "Qualifying Track", as shown in the example below. Then, all the players, at the same time and secretly, choose one of their two qualifying tokens to indicate if they want to spend 1 driver skill point (SP) to make 2 "extra die rolls" or if they prefer to pass. Once all players have selected what they want to do, all qualifying tokens are revealed.
Players must choose the left marker if they decide to spend 1 SP and make two extra die rolls, and they must choose the right marker if they prefer to pass and keep the first die roll.
Those who have chosen to spend 1 driver skill point, must roll TWICE the black die again and decrease the driver skill point by one in their dashboards. If any of the new rolls is bigger than the one recorded, players must update the qualifying track.
The car with the lowest score must start the race in the last position on the race starting grid, while the others will go to Q2. If there is a tie, the player who has the lowest "Qualifying value" on his driver card will begin the race in the last position. In the event that players have decided not to use driver cards, ties are resolved randomly with a die roll.
The driver qualifying value is used to untie during the qualifying sessions (Q1, Q2, Q3). If players have decided to use driver cards, instead of rolling a die to untie, use the driver qualifying value; the higher, the better.
Finally, all players who pass to the next round must spend 1 SP from their dashboards.
Example: The red player rolls a 2, the blue player rolls a 3, the green and orange players roll a 4, the yellow player rolls a 5, and the purple player rolls a 6.
If none of them decide to roll the dice again, the red player, who had the lowest score, would be eliminated from Q1 and would start last on the race starting grid. All the players but the red one would pass on to Q2.
However, the red player (only him) decides to spend one SP and rolls the black die twice, getting 1 and 5. He must record the best roll between the initial die roll and those extra die rolls: 2, 1 and 5. The best one is 5. He puts the red cube in the 5 box, and the blue car would be eliminated.
At the end of the round, all players except the blue one spend 1 SP from their dashboards.
3.1.2 Qualifying Q2
You must skip Q2 if you play with 4 or fewer cars.
Proceed in the same way as in the previous session (Q1) to determine the player who starts at the penultimate position. For the players who are participating in this Q2, the rolls obtained in Q1 will not be taken into account.
Finally, all players who pass to the next session (Q3) must spend 1 SP from their tracks.
Example: At the end of the second session, the purple player is eliminated and he will not pass on to Q3. The purple player will start the race in 5th position on the race starting grid. The players who go to Q3 must spend 1 SP from their dashboards.
3.1.3 Qualifying Q3
Proceed in the same way as in the previous sessions (Q1, Q2) except that in this case, the goal is not to eliminate any player but to determine the starting order of the rest of the cars, according to the obtained results.
Example: At the end of the third Session (Q3), the red player has the pole position and starts the race in the first position. The green and yellow players are tied, so they must roll the black die to determine who of them goes first (players are not using driver cards). The yellow player rolls a higher value than the green one, so he gets the second position and the green player the third position. The orange player gets the fourth position.
3.2 Race Start
3.2.1 Setup
Depending on the result of the qualifying sessions, players must place one of their coloured cubes on the position track corresponding to the position they have reached at the end of the qualifying. Then, they must place their car at the starting grid position (marked with a "]"), according the results of the qualifying sessions.
3.2.2 Direction of the race
The double arrow depicted in each corner determines the direction of the race (clockwise or anticlockwise).
3.2.3 Tyre selection
All the players must take their 4 tyre selection tokens at the same time, and choose one of them secretly. The kind of tyre selected must be used at the start of the race.
After all players have selected their type of tyres, they must reveal them simultaneously. Then, players can update their dashboard accordingly (see 6).
Example: The yellow car plans a conservative strategy and chooses the hard tyre (white) to start the race. The player places one tyre token on the hard tyre (white) space of his tyre in use indicator, and he also puts a second tyre token on the value 4 of his tyre in use lifespan track. As we will see in Section 6, hard tyres have a lifespan of 4 laps.
3.2.4 Race start movement
It consists of the first 3 rounds of the race; in each round, each player must roll the purple die, and count the cells obtained in the rolled die. In each round, the players must strictly follow the order indicated by the position track. That is, if player A overtakes player B in round 2, then player A will roll before player B, in round 3.
To see when an overtake occurs, see section 5. Overtaking.
The following exceptional rules apply to these three rounds at the start of the race:
- Players must take into account the brown dashing lines at the start of the race and during the first lap.
- Players may move diagonally until they reach the first corner.
- Overtaking is allowed, and there will be no "fight for the position" (see 5.1).
- Weather conditions do not change, so there is no need to make a weather roll (see 8).
- Players can reroll the purple die, spending 1 SP, and keep the higher result.
Note that the position track must be updated after each overtaking. Brown dashed lines on the starting straight line are only used during the first lap, they will no longer be used during the race.
Example: During the start of the race, the blue car rolls the purple dice and gets a 4. During the first 3 rounds, it is allowed to move diagonally and to overtake without having to fight for the position (see 5.1), so it takes advantage of overtaking the yellow car. Then, the player updates the position track. See that all the cars must take into consideration the brown dashed lines during the first lap.
3.3 Rounds
This is the main part of the race, where players move their cars until all the cars have completed the number of laps indicated in the circuit.
Moving a car is explained in detail in the movement section (See 4 Movement).
EACH CAR MUST MAKE A PIT STOP BEFORE STARTING THE LAST LAP, IF NOT, THAT CAR WILL BE ELIMINATED FROM THE RACE.
During each round, all players move their cars forward. In each round, all the cars must be moved. Each round takes place as follows:
- The leader of the race updates the weather forecast (see 8) and checks if a new event is triggered (see 9), if the players are using the events optional rule.
- In descending order of the position track (that is, first the player who is the leader, second the player who is in second place, etc.). Each player rolls the tyre die according to the type of tyre he's using (red, white, blue, or green die), to obtain the movement points based on the die roll, and must move his car forward using those points. Every time a car crosses the finish line (or makes a pit stop), it must apply wear to their tyres (see 6.2), by decreasing the tyre in use lifespan.
Players must update the position track when an overtaking occurs. This means:
- On straight sections, one player is ahead of another if his car, no matter which lane it is in, is ahead. If two cars are tied, i.e., in the same row of cells, the order is not altered; it remains the same as it was in the previous round.
- At corners, the order of the players is determined by counting the number of cells remaining in their lane until the beginning of the next straight stretch. The car with the lowest number is ahead. In the event of a tie between two players, the one who is in the outermost lane will go first.
- Pit stops: If a player crosses the finish line, he overtakes all the cars that are currently in the pits or in the pit entry/exit lane.
Example: The standings at the start of the round are as follows: blue, yellow, red, and green. The round just ends as the image shows. The green car has not overtaken the red car because it's not ahead in the straight, the red car was ahead at the start of the round, so it keeps its position. The yellow car has 3 cells remaining to finish the corner, the same as the blue one, but being located in the outermost lane, the yellow car overtakes the blue car, exchanging their positions in the position track.
3.4 End of the Race
The race ends when all cars cross the finish line on the last lap. The order in which the line is crossed will determine the final positions, no matter how many cells are left once the finish line is crossed.
4. Movement
Each track is divided into three lanes, one middle lane and the two outer lanes. Adjacent lanes refer to the middle lane and any of the outside lanes. See that some circuits (or some parts of them) can only have one or two lanes.
In every player's turn, the player must roll the tyre die according to the tyre type he is using (see 6).
The result of the tyre die roll is the number of cells players must count (Movement Points, MP).
Each player must use the points obtained on the tyre die roll to count cells; however, the player can always decide to count up to 3 cells less. For example, if a player gets a 10 on the die, he can choose to count 7, 8, 9, or 10 cells.
Example: The player must roll the red die (his car is using soft tyres). The player moves his car forward based on the number obtained in the die roll; we call this "Movement Points (MP)". There is no mandatory use of all the MP obtained in the die roll. The player rolls a 9, but he spends only 7 MP.
4.1 Repeating a Die Roll
A player can spend 1 skill point (SP) to repeat a tyre die roll or a race start roll with the purple die. This process can be carried out several times as long as the player has SPs left. At the end, the player can choose his best roll among the ones he has rolled.
Note: Skill points are used in many situations during the race; at the end of the rules, there is a summary of all these situations.
4.2 Corners
A corner starts in the row of cells that follows the "double arrow", and ends with the row of cells where the last shaded cell is.
Cars can move forward from one cell to any other that shares some part of its perimeter.
Example: The green car can move to cells 1, 2, and 3 because they share its perimeter with the cell in which it is located. However, it cannot move to cells 4 and 5, even if they share their perimeter, because they are behind the current cell.
Players can spend up to 3 skill points in each turn (only 2 in rainy conditions) to get extra MPs in corner areas. This should be done before or after spending the MP of the tyre roll, but never in the middle. Every SP spent gives you one extra MP, but it can only be used in corner spaces. This forward movement is compatible with the use of engine forcing (see straights) and/or braking (see 4.4 and 4.5).
Example: The green car ends its movement at the beginning of the corner. It costs 2 SP to get 2 extra MP in a corner area.
4.2.1 Racing Line
Cars that have passed through the double-arrow box, get the racing line, and they can move forward from that space to the first shaded space and from this shaded space to the next one. However, a car cannot move from one shaded space to another if there is a car between them.
In other words, if the car does not pass through the double arrow, it is as if all the shaded boxes of the curve disappear.
Example: The purple car gets the racing line because it passes through the double arrow cell. This lets the car move from one shaded cell to another, spending only 5 MP to trace the entire corner. If the player decides not to pass through the double arrow (the wrong decision), the car will not get the racing line and would spend 12 MP. The illustration shows one possible movement, of course, it is more efficient to pass over the double arrow cell and get the racing line.
When a car doesn't pass through the double arrow, you can use the corresponding token, pointing at the car, to remember it for the next turn.
If a car leaves the racing line, to recover it, it must move to another shaded cell.
Example: The red car, after moving 2 cells, leaves the racing line (because he moved to a non-shaded cell) to overtake the yellow car. After fighting for the position (with success), the car needs to move to a shaded cell to recover the racing line. (This happens on point 5).
4.2.2 Technical Corners
Technical corners differ from the rest because they are delimited by two red lines (and start with a red double arrow). If the player on the corner leaves the racing line (out of the shaded boxes), he cannot get it again, even if he returns to a shaded box. In other words, when a car loses the racing line (by moving to a non-shaded space), you can ignore all the shaded spaces until the end of the corner.
Example: The purple car gets 12 MP and starts its movement by passing by the double-arrow cell and getting the racing line of the technical corner (in red). See that in (2), the car must leave the racing line in order to overtake the yellow car. He does it, moves to (3), and a fight for the position occurs. If the purple car wins the fight for the position, it has already lost the racing line (because it is a technical corner). So from now on, he can not go from shaded to shaded cell.
4.3 Straights
A straight is the range of track starting in the row of cells following the last shaded cell of the previous corner, and ending in the row of cells (inclusive) where the "double arrow" cell is.
On straights, cars can only move forward or laterally, never diagonally, with the following exceptions:
- At the start of the race (see 3.2).
- When overtaking if taking slipstream (see 5.2.1).
4.4 Engine Forcing
Engine forcing must be used before or after counting the MP of the tyre roll, never in the middle.
On his turn, a player can decide to force the engine by spending 1 engine point from his dashboard. The player can move his car forward up to 3 extra cells (2 in rainy conditions). All these cells must be in straight areas. The player forcing the engine does not have to count all the MP obtained.
If a player decides to force the engine twice in the same turn, he must spend 3 Engine Points instead of 2. Engine forcing cannot be used 3 or more times in one single turn.
Players cannot force the engine on the pit lanes (entering or leaving) or during the 3 first rounds (race start rounds).
Note: A car can force the engine even if it is on the last cell of a corner, meanwhile next spaces are straight ones.
Example: Once the red car has moved, spending all his MPs, the player can spend 1 engine point to get 3 extra MPs. If he wants to advance 3 additional cells, he must spend 2 extra engine points.
4.5 Braking
Braking must be used before or after counting the MPs of the tyre roll, never in the middle.
Braking can be done when the player's car is on the double arrow cell or from 1 to 3 spaces before the double arrow.
Braking can not be used if the car is already inside a corner area, unless the car is located in the last space of the corner. In that last case, the car can use its brakes to enter the next corner.
Example: In this case, the car can use the brakes because it is in the last cell of a corner and 2 cells away from the next double arrow.
Using the brakes, the player can move his car forward up to 3 cells (2 in rain) by spending one brake point (BP). Players can brake before or after using the MPs of the tyre roll, but never in the middle of the tyre roll movement.
If a player decides to brake twice in the same turn, instead of spending 2 BPs, he must spend 3 BPs. Braking may not be used three or more times in a single turn.
Players can use the brakes and force the engine in the same turn. The player braking does not have to count all the MP obtained.
Brakes cannot be used on the pit lane (entering or leaving) or during the 3 first rounds of the race (race start).
Example: At the beginning of his turn, the red player makes his tyre roll and gets 11 MPs. After using those MPs, he decides to spend 1 engine point, so the car advances 3 extra cells. When he finishes his movement, he realizes that he is only 2 MPs away from the double arrow cell. As he meets the condition, he spends 1 brake point to advance 3 additional spaces. If the car was located on the double arrow cell, he could still force braking to move 3 additional spaces.
Players don't have all the MP used in forcing the engine or Braking.
4.6 Off Track
A car can be off track because of:
A) When using the "wrong" type of tyres during light or heavy rain, the car will go off track getting certain values in the tyre die roll:
Example 1: A car using soft tyres (red) in light rain will go off track when the tyre die roll (before applying any kind of die modifiers) is 9 or more.
Example 2: A car using hard tyres (white) in heavy rain, will go off track when the tyre roll is 7 or more.
Example 3: A car using soft tyres suffers a heavy breakdown (must reduce by 1 every tyre die roll), the weather is light rain, and he rolls a "9" that becomes an 8 because of the breakdown, but in this case we must take into consideration the initial die roll (9), first table indicates that the car goes off track.
B) When ending the car movement on a "less grip area" and it is raining, with a certain tyre die roll:
If the condition is met, the player must roll the black die; if he gets "1", the car will go off track. The less grip areas have slightly different asphalt (not all circuits have this type of area).
Example 4: In light rain, a car using soft tyres rolls a "9", his movement would finish in a "less grip area".
A) If the player decides not to use any SP to reduce the die roll (see 4.6.1), the car would go off track, moving 4 spaces instead of 9.
B) If the player decides to spend 1 SP (see 4.6.1), the "9" becomes an "8", after counting 8 MP, the car finishes its movement in a less grip area (see second table). The player must check if the car goes off track. He rolls the black die and gets "2", so the car doesn't go off track.
C) If the player decides to spend 2 SPs, the initial roll ("9") becomes a "7". In this case, the car doesn't go off track and there is no need to roll any die.
Note: If for any reason (for example, a heavy breakdown) the tyre die roll must be reduced, this will not be taken into consideration when checking off tracks.
If a car goes off track:
- The car will move forward 4 cells instead of the MP obtained in the die roll, and then he must place the off track token next to his car. Any other car is now able to overtake him, passing over his car (like it was out of the track) or even finishing in the cell where the car initially was.
- In the next turn, the car will move forward another 4 cells, then the player must remove the off track token; furthermore, during this round, any other car will be able to overtake him by passing over him, but they will not be able to finish their movement on the same cell as him. It is understood that in this second turn, the car is returning to the track.
Example: The weather is light rain. The blue car has soft tyres and gets 10 MPs on the tyre roll. According to the previous table, it goes off track and advances 4 MPs, placing the off track token next to the car. In the next round, he doesn't have to roll any tyre die. The player must remove the off track token, and the car moves 4 additional spaces.
4.6.1 Avoiding Off Tracks
The player can spend one skill point (or more) to reduce by one (or more) the MP rolled in the tyre roll in order to not exceed the limit set for track exits (see 4.6). There is no limit on the number of SP that can be used for this purpose in a single turn.
Example: The weather conditions are light rain, the green player is using hard tyres (white) and he rolls 10 MP. Being >=8, it would cause the car to go off track. To keep the car on track, the green player decides to spend 3 SPs, so the initial 10 become 7, and the car moves forward 7 spaces.
5. Overtaking
After a successful overtaking, players must update the position track accordingly.
During the movement, the player must stop his car if the next cell to move would imply overtaking an opponent. Then, a fight for the position occurs. See that when the car stops, there must be at least one movement point left to count, if there is not any left, the overtaking did not take place.
Firstly, the defender (the car that is overtaken) decides if he allows the attacker to overtake. Normally, the defender will not allow the attacker to pass him, but in some circumstances, he can choose this option. In this case, the overtaking takes place, and the attacker moves the remaining spaces, overtaking the defender.
If the defender doesn't allow the attacker to pass, a "fight for the position" occurs (see 5.1). This is an auction, where both players can bid SP to see whether the overtaking takes place or not. If the attacker (the player trying to overtake) wins the auction, the car can continue its movement, if not (the defender wins the auction), the attacker must stop its movement and loses all the remaining movement points.
If, after an overtaking, the attacking car still has MP to spend, it can try to overtake another car.
While overtaking, a collision can occur, so both cars are taking this risk. (See 10). Remember that collisions are optional rules.
5.1 Fight for the Position
A fight for position consists of an auction where each player can bid skill points to win it.
Initially, both players, starting with the player who is trying to overtake (the attacker), roll one black die. If both players obtain the same die roll (before applying any die roll modifier), a collision is produced and the overtake doesn't take place (see 10), both cars remain in the cell they were in just before starting the overtaking. In any other case, the fight for position continues.
Note: If the players have decided not to use the optional rule of collisions, the fight for the position continues.
If the attacker has more than 2 movement points unused (remaining movement points), he must apply die roll modifiers.
Example: A car gets a 10 with the tyre die roll and decides to force the engine (see 4.4) before starting to count the MP corresponding to the tyre roll, so he has a total 13 MP (10 + 3). After counting 10 MP, it stops because it reaches the defender, and a fight for the position starts. In this case, the attacker must roll the black die and apply +1 because there are 3 unused MP.
The player with a lower result in the die roll (the defender if the attacker rolls higher, or the attacker if the defender rolls greater or equal to the attacker) can modify the die roll by bidding SPs; each SP increases the die roll by 1. So, based on this new result, the "current loser" can bid SPs again to beat the opponent (increasing the die roll).
During the auction, a tie will make the defender win. Repeat this bidding procedure until one player passes. Then, if the attacker has a higher value, overtaking takes place; if not, the attacker stays in the cell he was before starting the bidding. Once the bidding is finished, it is time for the winner of the auction (defender or attacker), to reduce the SPs he has bidden from his dashboard. See that the loser doesn't spend any SP.
There is no limit to the number of SPs a player can bid for this purpose, as long as he has enough SPs in his dashboard.
Example: The green car has 9 MP, the player moves his car until reaching the yellow car (cell 6), taking advantage of the slipstream (see 5.2.1). A fight for position begins, and both players roll the black die. The green player rolls a 2, and the yellow player rolls a 4. There is no collision because both rolls are different. The green car still has 3 MP unused, so his roll is increased by 1. At this moment, the green player has a total of 3 and the yellow player has a total of 4. So the "loser" is, by now, the attacker, who has to decide between bidding again, or passing and declining to overtake. The green car increases its bid by 2, and at this moment, he is winning the fight (5 versus 4). So the yellow player must decide if he wants to bid. The yellow player prefers not to keep bidding and gives up the position. If the yellow player had decided to bid 1 SP there would be a tie, so the defender would win the auction and it would be the attacker's turn to speak again.
The green car can continue its movement using the 3 MPs he has left and the green player must spend 2 SP from his dashboard. The yellow player does not lose any SP, as he has lost the fight for position.
5.2 Overtaking in a Straight
Case 1: The attacker overtakes using the lane adjacent to the lane where the defender is located. In this case, the attacker moves until it is parallel to the defender, and then the defender must decide whether he leaves the attacker to pass or starts a fight for the position. If the defender declines to fight, the attacker continues the movement and overtakes the defender. If the overtake is produced in a straight line and the attacker passes through the cell located just behind the defender, the attacker can move diagonally twice (see 5.2.1 later).
Example: The red car moves along a lane adjacent to the yellow car. Once it reaches the yellow car, it stops the movement (cell 2) to try a fight for the position. If he had lost the fight for the position, he would not move to (3) and (4). However he wins the overtaking and can advance diagonally to cell (3) and continue his movement.
Case 2: If the attacker is moving in one of the outside lanes, he can overtake a defender who is driving in the other outside lane without doing a fight for the position. See that in this case, the attacker overtakes, leaving a "free" lane between him and the defender.
Example: The red car moves to the left lane because he doesn't want to be adjacent to the yellow car. By doing so, he can overtake without fighting for position.
Case 3: If the defender lets the attacker overtake, there is no fight for the position.
5.2.1 Slipstream
If the defender is on a straight and the attacker passes through the cell located just behind the defender, the attacker takes the slipstream from the defender. The attacker's next move can be made diagonally by placing his car parallel to the defender's car.
In the same way, if the overtaking has success, the attacker can move diagonally again to get the same lane as the defender, provided it is a straight cell (see previous illustration).
5.3 Overtaking in a Corner
Overtaking in a corner is quite similar to overtaking in a straight. The attacker can avoid the fight for the position auction if he overtakes in a lane not adjacent to the defender.
Case 1: If the attacker is driving in one of the outside lanes, he can overtake a defender who is driving in the other outside lane without fighting for the position.
Example: The red car has the racing line and moves through the corner using only the shaded cells. When paired with the yellow car at cell 2, it is not in an adjacent lane. It continues its movement and overtakes the yellow car without any auction.
Case 2: If the attacker tries to overtake moving through a lane adjacent to the defender, the overtaking will begin at the moment that the attacker's box is next to the defender's but without exceeding it. The defender decides whether to start a fight for position or, on the contrary, let the attacker overtake.
Example: The red car starts its movement but has to stop in cell 1 because in cell 2 it would already be ahead of the yellow car. The yellow car decides not to fight for the position, and the red car can continue its movement to cell 6.
Case 3: If the attacker has the racing line and the defender is blocking the next racing line shaded space (or in the path of the next shaded space), the attacker must temporarily abandon the racing line and stop in a cell next to the defender to fight for the position.
Example: The blue player rolls a 9 in the tyre roll. He starts his movement and enters the corner through the double arrow cell. It finds the green car in the next shaded box, which prevents it from passing. If the blue car wants to continue with his movement, it must go off the racing line to reach the green car and try overtaking it. It moves to cell 5 leaving the racing line, and pairs with the green car to start a fight for position. If the attacker wins the fight for the position auction, the blue car can recover the racing line at cell 7 and continue until cell 9. If the player had lost the fight for position, it would stay behind the green car at cell 5.
Case 4: If the defender lets the attacker overtake, there is no fight for the position.
5.4 Multiple Overtaking
Sometimes a player overtakes several rivals at the same time, this happens if the 2 defending cars are in parallel in a straight area.
A) If one of the defenders occupies the middle lane, the attacker must fight for the position only against this player; in other words, the attacker fights with the car he is adjacent to. If the attacker manages to overtake it, he overtakes both rivals at the same time.
Example: The red car only fights for position against the purple car. It is never adjacent to the yellow car.
B) If the attacker is trying to overtake using the middle lane and there are 2 cars in the adjacent cells, he must fight for the position against both of them, and he should defeat both of them, one by one. First, he must try to overtake the car behind him in the position track; if overtaking has succeeded, then he must try to overtake the second car. If at any time the attacker fails to overtake, the player's turn ends.
In this last case, if the first overtaking has succeeded and the second has failed, the player doesn't move anymore but needs to update the position track.
Example: The red car must fight for position with the two cars. If he fails with the first one, his turn will finish.
5.5 Overtaking in Pits
Every time a car crosses the finish line, it automatically overtakes all the cars that are in the pits, or in the pit lane entry or in the pit lane exit; he must update the position track.
5.6 Eliminated Cars
If a car is lapped, i.e., reached by the player in first position, it is eliminated from the race. A "fight for position" does not need to take place; it is enough if the race leader simply reaches the player in last position during his turn. If the last car is making a pit stop when the race leader also makes a pit stop, it is not considered lapped. However, if the last car is in the pit stop when the race leader passes the finish line, it is eliminated from the race.
As it is detailed in the Events section (see 9), a car is also eliminated if an event causes him to lose one engine/brake point but he has no more engine/brake points.
EACH CAR MUST MAKE AT LEAST 1 PIT STOP BEFORE STARTING THE LAST LAP, IF NOT, IT WILL BE ELIMINATED.
6. Tyres
As explained in previous sections, players use the tyre roll to move their cars. Players must select the initial type of tyre at the beginning of the race (See 3.2.3). They can change the type of tyre every time they make a pit stop (See 7).
Players should select the type of tyre based on many criteria, like position, strategy, future weather conditions, the state of the current tyre etc.
Each type of tyre (soft, hard, intermediate or rain) has a die with the same colour used to move the car.
In each round, every player must roll the tyre die according to the type of tyres he is using at that moment: Tyre die roll.
The die roll determines how many cells the car can move (Movement Points). Hard (white) and soft tyres (red) have higher values than intermediate (green) and wet (blue), but if it is raining, the car can go easily off track.
Looking at the previous table, we can see that the hard tyre (white) uses a white die. With hard tyres, you can do 4 laps in good conditions.
6.1 Use of Tyres
You can see everything related to the tyres on the left side of the player dashboard.
A) "Tyre in use indicator" (1), refers to the type of tyre the car is using at this moment.
In a standard race, every car can use 1 set of wet tyres (blue), 2 sets of intermediate tyres (green), 1 set of hard tyres (white) and 1 set of soft tyres (red). In every turn, players must use the die matching the colour of the type of tyre (except for the 3 starting rounds).
The second set of hard tyres (with "12") is not available in the standard game (see 16.2).
B) Just next to the tyre in use, on the right, we see the "Tyre lifespan track" in number of laps (2), indicating how many laps a type of tyres can do in good conditions. In the illustration, we see that hard tyres (white) have a tyre lifespan of 4 laps, while soft ones have a tyre lifespan of 2 laps.
C) As the car starts to move, tyres wear out, so we need to keep track of how many laps the car can still do in good condition: The "Tyre in use lifespan track" (3) on the dashboard, keeps this information. See that (3) must be decreased every lap during the race, that is, every time the car crosses the finish line or makes a pit stop. See that when a car places a new set of tyres, (2) and (3) must be the same number.
D) Finally, when the car makes a pit stop to change tyres (for example, from hard tyres to soft ones), we need to record how many more laps the replaced tyres can still do (if the player needs to use them again in the future). To track it, we use the lifespan token, numbered with the remaining number of laps the tyre still can do in good conditions, and we place it on the track (2). All of this is explained in section 7.
Example: At the beginning of the race, the player decides to start with hard tyres; he places a tyre token on the white space in the "Tyre in use indicator" (A). The hard tyre has a lifespan of 4 laps; so the player places a second tyre token on the "4" position in the "Tyre in use lifespan track" (B).
The player passes the finish line twice and at the end of the third lap decides to make a pit stop to place new tyres:
- He moves the tyre token in the "tyre in use lifespan track" down 1 position, the new position is "1". It started the race in the number "4", but it has applied wear to tyres 3 times (B).
- He places the lifespan token with the number "1" on the "Tyre lifespan track" (A), to indicate that if later on, the player decides to place again this set of tyres, those tyres only have 1 lap left in optimal conditions.
- The player decides to use a new set of soft tyres, and he places a tyre token on the red space in the "Tyre in use indicator" (A).
- Finally, the player places a second tyre token on the "2" position in the "Tyre in use lifespan track" (B). This is because a new set of soft tyre has a lifespan of 2 laps.
6.2 Tyre Wear
When a player crosses the finish line on each lap or when he makes a pit stop (see 7), he must decrease his "Tyre in use lifespan", moving the tyre token one position down. If the tyre in use lifespan reaches the "0" position, all his tyre rolls must be reduced by 1. If the car crosses the finish line again (without replacing the tyres), the player must decrease his tyre in use lifespan again down to "-1", and from then on, all his tyre rolls must be reduced by 2.
Normally, the tyre in use lifespan moves one position down, but this can vary if the player uses tyres that do not match the type of weather.
Example: We can see, for example, that if the weather is dry and the car is using intermediate tyres (green), the tyre in use lifespan would drop 2 positions every time it crosses the finish line.
6.3 Blowout
When the tyre in use lifespan token gets to the "-2" position, a possible blowout can occur. The player must perform a blowout roll using the black die, after doing the tyre die roll and moving his car. If the blowout roll is "1", the car will suffer a heavy breakdown and the player must place a heavy breakdown token on his dashboard (applying its effect from now on). When this happens, no more blowout rolls have to be done during the current lap. If the player decides to start a second lap without making a Pit Stop, he shall do blowout rolls again.
- Wet tyres (blue coloured) cannot blowout.
- The player does not have to do a blowout roll if his car ends the movement in the pits.
- In a "fight for the position", a blowout tyre modifies the black die roll by -1.
- If a player is off track, he doesn't have to do a blowout roll.
Example: A player has the "Tyre in use lifespan" at -2 position. In his turn, he rolls the red die and gets 11 MP. He moves his car normally, and after doing that, he must perform the blowout roll. He rolls a 1, so he must get a heavy breakdown token and apply it from the next turn.
A Blowout icon is depicted next to the symbol to remind players that at this point they must do a blowout roll.
7. Pit Stops
The degradation of tyres and weather conditions will force players to consider changing their tyres for new or more suitable ones. It is vital for your strategy to choose the right time to enter the pits.
Pit lane entry (1) and pit lane exit (2) can have blue dashed lines, these divisions are only taken into account if the weather is light or heavy rain.
It's not allowed to overtake in the pit entry lane. In every green cell (pit exit lane), there can be an unlimited number of cars.
7.1 Entry Turn
If a player gets enough movement points to pass the first zigzag line of the pit lane, he will move his car directly to the pit of his colour. He spends only the MPs needed to move his car to his pit.
- Once it passes the zigzag line, the car is automatically placed in the pit of its colour.
Example: The red car gets a 10 MP in the tyre roll, and uses 7 to cross the zigzag line. Dashed blue lines are not taken into account because it is dry weather.
- Take a green token with a number matching the pending MPs and place it over his pit box.
Example: After passing the zigzag line, the blue player places his car in his pit. In his tyre roll, he has rolled 10 MPs, he has spent 7 MPs to enter the pits. Now he has to track the 3 unused MPs. To do that, he takes the 3 green counter and places it in his pit.
- Update the "Tyre in use lifespan track", decreasing as many lifespan points as if the car was crossing the finish line. Remove your used tyre token: Take a lifespan token with the same value indicated on the tyre in use lifespan track and place it on the tyre lifespan box.
Example: The red car is making its first pit stop, after finishing the first lap. The player must decrease the tyre in use lifespan from 2 to 1 (A) (in the same way he would do when crossing the finish line every lap). So "1" is the new value. Then he places a lifespan token on (B) with the number "1". This induces that if the car puts the soft tyres back, it will only have 1 lap in good conditions.
- Recover 3 Skill Points, without exceeding the number of SPs in the setup.
- Repair any Breakdown, by flipping any Breakdown token to the green face.
Example: The driver increases his SP by 3 (1) and repairs the light breakdown (2).
- Place a new tyre: place a tyre token on the Tyre in use indicator corresponding to the new tyre type, and place the second tyre token on the corresponding cell of Tyre in use lifespan track. For example, if you have placed a new hard tyre set, your tyre token must be in the "4" box. See a complete example at 6.1 section.
7.2 First Turn After Pit Stop
During the following turn (one turn after entering the pit), the player must place his car on the first green space in the pit exit lane. The player cannot take any other action.
7.3 Second Turn After Pit Stop
During the following turn (two turns after entering the pit), the player must place his car in the second green space in the pit exit lane. The player cannot do any other action.
Example: The turn following the pit stop, the player places his car on the first green space, and the next turn on the second space.
7.4 Third Turn After Pit Stop
During the following turn (three turns after entering the pit), the player must roll the purple die, and must add to the MPs obtained in the die roll, the remaining MPs he had left when he entered the pit (the green numbered token). With this system, when doing a pit stop, the car doesn't lose any MP.
During the pit exit, it is not allowed to cross the thick line. There is no limit to the number of cars you can place on each of the two green spaces in the pit exit lane.
Example: The red car is leaving the pit, and the player rolls a 4 on the purple die. Add this MP to the remaining 3 MP from the pit entry. Now he moves his car 7 spaces. The car is not allowed to cross the thick line.
8. Weather
During the race, weather conditions can be: sunny (dry, in yellow), light rain (light blue), or heavy rain (dark blue). These conditions may vary during the race and can significantly affect the tyres you are using. Two grids and 2 tokens determine the weather, (A) and (B). The race weather condition is always determined by the weather token on grid A.
The left grid determines the current weather (A). There is also a second grid (B), and 2 weather tokens (C), one per grid.
8.1 Weather Conditions
At the start of each round (see 3.3), the leader of the race must see if the weather conditions change or not, with a weather roll (blue die). If the die roll is a cloud, players must move the second weather token (the one located in the second grid B) one space down. If that weather token is on the last cell of the grid B, and the weather roll is a cloud, then the second weather token (in B) is moved to the first position on the second grid (numbered with "1") and the weather token of grid (A) must move forward one cell.
Players must then apply the new weather conditions (the one shown in A) immediately.
Note: To move the weather token of the grid (A) forward, means to move it to the next cell on the right. If it is already in the last column of one row, move it to the first column of the next row, if it is in the last cell of the grid, move it to the first one.
Example: The leader of the race rolls the weather die and gets a "cloud". This means that the token on the second grid must be moved down. It is located in the last cell of the grid, so the token is moved to position "1" and then, the first weather token (of the first grid) is placed on the next cell; the new cell is "light rain" (light blue), which makes that the weather, from now on, becomes "light rain".
9. Events
If the leader of the race gets a "cloud" in the weather die roll, he must check if an event occurs. To do so, he must roll the purple die. If he gets a "!" he must reveal a new event card from the event deck and apply the corresponding effect. Leave the event card face up on discard event deck. If the event deck is empty, shuffle the discard event deck to form a new event deck.
If the event revealed is addressed to a single player, it must be determined which player will undergo this event. All the players roll a black die, and the player with the lowest score will undergo the event. If there is a draw, the players with the lowest score will keep throwing the dice until the tie is broken. If the player who must undergo the event is "immune from it", for example, if he has a team card that is not affected by events, then discard the event card.
If the event implies a loss of a motor point or a brake point and the player affected cannot lose it, the player will be immediately eliminated from the race.
If players want to increase the frequency of events in the race, they can modify this rule by replacing the "!" sign with the "3" value in the die roll.
If the event is the safety car and the players have decided not to use this rule, they must draw a second event card.
In Annex 3 you can see the explanation of all the events.
10. Collisions / Breakdowns
When 2 or more players involved in an overtaking roll the same number in a fight for position (see 5.1 Fight for the Position) before applying any die modification, this overtaking does not take place and a collision occurs.
In order to evaluate the damage caused, each player, according to the position track order, makes a collision roll using the black die and must apply the result using the corresponding table.
In the case of a collision in a multiple overtaking (see 5.4), all three players must perform a collision roll to find out the damage they have suffered, even if only 2 of them are fighting for position.
Once all the players have taken a collision roll, all of them (following the order of the position track) can decide to make a second collision roll; to do that, they must spend 1 SP. Players must apply the lower die roll.
When a player has to lose one engine point or one brake point and has no available points, he will be out of the race.
When a car suffers a breakdown (light or heavy), the player must take the corresponding breakdown token, and place it with the red/black side up, on the breakdown box of his dashboard.
If a player suffers a heavy breakdown, from now on, he must reduce by 1 MP every tyre die roll, until the breakdown is repaired. Light breakdowns do not affect the tyre roll result.
A breakdown can be repaired during the pit stop (see 7), at the same time as the tyres are replaced. When a breakdown is repaired, flip the corresponding breakdown token to show its green face, but keep this token on the dashboard, don't remove it.
Breakdowns have "breakdown points" regardless of whether they are repaired or not; light breakdowns have a value of 1 breakdown point, and heavy breakdowns have a value of 2. A car can only withstand 3 breakdown points. If at any time that value is exceeded, the car is eliminated, no matter whether the breakdowns are repaired or not. When a car suffers a second unrepaired breakdown of any kind, it is also eliminated from the race.
Example 1: A car suffers a light breakdown, but it is repaired (during a pit stop), the car still keeps one breakdown point. Then, the car suffers a heavy breakdown, which is also repaired (doing a second pit stop); at this moment the car has 3 breakdown points. If the car suffers a third breakdown (no matter if it is heavy or light), it would have 4 (or 5) breakdown points, and it would be eliminated.
Example 2: A car is involved in a collision, rolls the black die and gets a 5, it suffers a light breakdown. Because it already has an unrepaired light breakdown, it would be eliminated (because it would have 2 unrepaired breakdowns), so the player decides to spend one SP and reroll the black die, he gets a 3. The player must keep the lower result (3), and the car loses one engine point.
10.1 Yellow Flags
When in a collision some of the cars suffer some kind of damage (loss of points or breakdowns), a yellow flag appears in the race.
- If the collision has taken place in a corner zone, the yellow flag is placed at the beginning of the corner sector (the row of boxes following the double-arrow one), and one green flag is placed at the end of the corner sector where the collision has taken place (the row of the last shaded box).
- If the collision has taken place in a straight zone, the yellow flag is placed at the beginning of the straight sector (the first row of cells after the corner zone), and the green flag is placed at the end of the straight zone (the row of cells of the double arrow before the next corner).
In the area delimited by the two flags, overtaking is not allowed during this round and the next one. After playing those 2 rounds, both flags are removed, and the race continues as usual.
Each round starts with the turn of the leader, and finishes with the turn of the last player.
If the Safety Car appears, there is no need to use yellow and green flags.
Example: The green car has 9 MP and pairs up with the yellow car to try to overtake it at (6), taking advantage of the slipstream. The fight for the position begins, and both roll the dice, obtaining a 4 (both) and causing a collision. Although the green car has 3 MP left (which would add +1 to its roll), this modifier is not taken into consideration. The green car loses all remaining MP, and each player makes a collision roll. The green player rolls a 1, no effect, while the yellow player rolls a 6, heavy breakdown. The yellow player places a heavy breakdown token on his individual dashboard. The yellow and green flags are also placed.
10.2 Security Car
When on a collision roll, both players suffer any kind of breakdown (light or heavy), or when the SC event is drawn, the safety car is released, and the turn is interrupted. In this situation, the race will be resumed according to the following:
- Roll the weather die four times and apply the results.
- All players must move their cars, forming a row, one behind the other, behind the SC Line: If when performing this movement, there are cars crossing the finish line, those must apply wear to their tyres (see 6.2).
- According to the position track order, each player must decide whether he wants to make a pit stop or not (to change tyres, repair breakdowns, etc.). If the player decides not to make a pit stop, he keeps the position he had in the position track. If the player decides to make a pit stop, he will be overtaken by all the cars that decided not to take a pit stop. In other words, all the cars that decided not to make a pit stop will be placed at the beginning of the queue and all the cars that decided to make a pit stop will be at the tail of the queue. The cars that caused the collision (if any) will go at the end of the queue (also keeping the order) no matter if they have decided to make a pit stop or not.
- Update the position track.
- If the leader of the race was positioned between the SC line and the finish line, then update the Position track moving the lap counter one position down, if this is not the case, the lap counter stays where it is. Please also note that:
- If the lap counter exceeds the number of laps of the race, the race is over and the current standings become the final standings.
- If the lap counter reaches the number of laps of the race, players must play only the stretch from the SAFETY CAR line to the finish line.
Example: The purple car overtakes the green car without fighting for the position. When trying to overtake the yellow car, there is a collision between the purple car and the yellow car. In the collision roll, both players suffer a breakdown, the purple car suffers a heavy breakdown (6 in the collision die roll) and the yellow car suffers a light breakdown (4 in the collision die roll). This situation causes the SC to appear.
Maintaining the current race order, all the cars are placed behind the SC line except for the cars that caused the collision (yellow and purple). In the current order, all the cars must decide whether to enter the pits.
The blue player decides to enter the pits (to change the tyres) so, he places his car at the end of the queue. As no more cars enter the pits, the yellow and purple cars are placed at the end, following the blue car, keeping the order before the collision.
11. DRS
When a car crosses a DRS line during the movement and finishes the movement at 1 MP away from any of the cars that precede him, he gets the DRS benefit and must put the DRS token next to his car as a reminder. In the next turn, he can add up to 2 MPs to the tyre die roll, then, he must remove his DRS token.
Note: The car must be 1 MP away from the car that precedes it. In the next illustration you can see that the car is 1 MP away but 2 spaces away (it is using the racing line).
The use of DRS has the following considerations:
- The car cannot activate DRS from an off track car.
- If there is a collision, during the next turn, all involved cars cannot activate DRS, even if they had not suffered any damage.
- Players can use the engine or brake points in the same turn they are using the DRS extra points.
- The DRS cannot be activated while it is raining (light or heavy).
- Cars cannot get DRS in the first turn after the safety car appears.
Example: The red car crosses the DRS line and ends its turn 1 MP away from the green car. The red car can enable the DRS, takes the DRS token and places it next to the car. On the next turn, the red car can add 2 MP to the tyre roll.
12. Stress
There are some kinds of situations that affect the driver during the race, especially when he is the leader. Those situations affect his mental concentration and prevent him from doing some actions.
Use the stress tokens numbered from 1 to 6 to track each driver's stress level, 0 is the lower stress level, and 6 is the higher stress level.
Drivers start with a stress level of 0, that is, with no token. Every time a driver gets a new stress level, he must place the new stress token.
Example: In the middle of the race, a driver has stress 4 (he must have the token 4 in his dashboard), if he increases his stress, he must take a token with number 5, leaving token 4 in the reserve. Similar way to decrease the stress.
12.1 Consequences of the Stress
- Level 0 (no token): No consequences.
- Level 1: No consequences.
- Level 2: Drivers cannot use both engine and brake points in the same turn.
- Level 3: Drivers cannot spend any skill point in any fight for the position.
- Level 4: Drivers cannot use either the engine or brake points (none of them).
- Level 5: Drivers cannot spend any SP.
- Level 6: Drivers must reduce the stress in their turn and get the 5th level.
Note: All the penalties are accumulative, so if a driver has level 4, he must apply levels 2 and 3 penalties as well (level 1 has no consequences).
12.2 How to Get Stress
- The driver who gets the pole position must start with level 1.
Drivers must increase the level of stress by 1 in the following situations:
- When a driver is involved in a collision.
- Every time the leading car crosses the finish line.
- Every time the car behind gets DRS.
- If any car finishes just 1 MP behind the leader, in this case the leader will get 1 stress point.
- When the leader makes a pit stop.
- At the moment one car crosses the finish line, if that car overtakes the leader who is in the pits.
IMPORTANT: A driver cannot get stressed because of two different situations at the same round.
Example: If one driver gets the DRS from the leader, two situations are met, but in this case the leader only gets one stress point.
12.3 How to Reduce Stress
A driver can reduce a maximum of one stress level per turn. To do so, he must reduce 3 MPs in the dry tyre die roll (red and white dice) or 2 MPs in a wet or intermediate die roll (blue and green dice).
Remember that a driver with a stress level of 6 must take this action in his turn.
Example: One driver with stress level 4 rolls the tyre die and gets a 9. He decides to count 6 (instead of 9) and reduce the stress level from 4 to 3. He replaces the "4" stress token with the "3" stress token in his dashboard.
13. Custom Setting
13.1 At the Start of the Race
Before starting the race, just after determining the weather conditions, each player can swap up to 2 engine points with 2 brake points. So some different combinations can be: 8 EP and 6 BP, 9 EP and 5 BP etc.
13.2 In the Pits
In every pit stop, players can swap 1 brake point and 1 engine point.
Example: One driver has 1 brake point and 5 engine points, he decides to make a pit stop, after changing the tyres, he decides to swap those points, and finally he continues the race with 2 brake points and 4 engine points.
14. Drivers and Teams
During setup, players draw one driver and one team card if they decided to follow this optional rule.
Drivers have a specific skill called "Qualifying value". This skill is used to break ties in the qualifying rounds (Q1, Q2, Q3). In the event of a tie in a qualifying round, the driver with the higher value is the winner. If the tie persists, players must roll the black die until the tie is broken.
See Annex 1 and 2: Drivers and Teams at the end of this rulebook to see the skill of each card.
15. World Championship
This mode consists of playing from 4 to 8 races; players must decide which circuits they want to play and in which order.
In all the races, except the last one, each player receives points according to the results obtained. In the last race, points are awarded differently.
The winner will be the player with more points at the end of the last race. If there is a tie, the winner is the player who has won the most races. If the tie still persists, then the player with the most second places, etc.
15.1 Damaged Engine
This rule is not compatible with rule 13.1.
If you are playing a World Championship, you must decide whether to use this rule (15.1) or not.
If a player finishes a race with 0 engine points, that will affect the next race setup; he will start the remaining races, reducing the car's starting engine points by 1. If the same player finishes a second race with 0 engine points, he will start the remaining races by reducing the car's starting engine points by 2. In other words, it will start with 5 engine points.
At the start of a race, before playing Q1, Q2, and Q3, every player can decide to change a damaged engine; in this case, he must start at the end of the starting grid.
If two or more players decide to change the engine, they must determine the order of the starting grid by a die roll.
A player cannot damage his engine a third time (without changing it). He must change it compulsorily.
15.2 Constructors' Championship
Every team is formed by two players, although each player will play with his colour, the team must choose one pit colour and both cars must use this pit. If one member of the team arrives at the pit while the other member is still there, the first one must wait until the other car exits the pit.
Overtaking works as explained in the standard rules. Remember that one player can decide not to fight for the position and leave any other player to overtake him.
At the end of the championship, the team with the most points, adding up points from the two drivers of the team, will be the constructors champion. In case of a tie, the constructor that has obtained more victories will be the winner, if the tie persists, then the constructor with the most second places etc.
You can use the rules of this section in both: standard race and World Championship mode.
16. Variants
16.1 No Eliminated Drivers
During the race, some situations arise where players are out of the game. In order to avoid that, some alternative rules may be applied.
- If a player gets a breakdown exceeding the number of breakdown points the car can hold, instead of being eliminated, he must make a pit stop as soon as possible. From that moment on, any other breakdown he might have will make him go back to the pit box.
- If a player must lose a brake or an engine point when he hasn't got any left, instead of being eliminated, he must make a pit stop. If he loses brake or engine points again, he will have to enter pit boxes compulsorily again.
16.2 Extended Play
We strongly suggest playing the number of laps indicated in each circuit, at least until you get familiar with the game. Players can use this variant by applying the following changes:
- The number of laps of the race is doubled.
- Every car starts with 12 engine points, 12 brake points, and 15 skill points.
- A car can withstand up to 4 breakdown points.
- If the safety car appears, the lap counter token advances 1 extra position more than it would do in a standard race.
- The second set of hard tyres (white with a "12") are available.
Be careful, the second set of white tyres (with "12") is only used with extended play distance races.
17. Solo Mode / Bots
The main purpose of the bots is to increase the number of cars in the race. Bots are an optional rule, and players must agree on it before starting the race. The game box contains 12 different bots (six cards).
On each bot card there are 2 bots. The "A" bot is slightly better than the "B" bot. For each bot, you can choose one side or the other, so for example, there can be three A bots and two B bots in the same race.
In order to identify the bot with the corresponding miniature, each bot card has a different background colour.
On the card, you can see:
- Speed progress track in dry weather conditions
- Speed progress track in wet weather conditions
- Tyre base speed
- Tyre in use
- Qualifying value (Q1, Q2, Q3)
- Overtaking value
- Type of bot: A or B
17.1 Bots Setup
Before starting the race, players must decide how many bots they are going to use. The total number of cars (human + bots) must be 6 or less.
- Players choose among the available bot cards. We suggest matching the colour of the car with the background colour of the card in order to identify each car with the corresponding bot.
- Players must put one cube in each bot card at the start of the speed progress track. The colour of the cube must be the same colour as the card background.
The speed progress track will help us to know how many cells the bots must advance in each turn. This will be calculated by adding the tyre base speed (depending on the tyre the bot is carrying) to the position of the speed progress track.
- Put next to each bot card the 4 tyre selection tokens. Those tokens are used to indicate which type of tyre the bot is using.
Note that the cube will be placed on the same space in all the bot's cards. When the weather advances, all the cubes of ALL cards must advance as well.
17.2 Considerations
- Every bot has 1 set of soft tyres and an unlimited number of the rest of the tyres sets. In each pit stop there is no need to track how many laps the used tyre still can do, because it is supposed the bot places a new set of tyres in every pit stop. The soft tyres cannot be placed back (only one use).
- Bots are not affected by collisions. No need to do a collision die roll.
The following concepts are used later in this rulebook:
Current weather: it is the weather at just this moment, it can be dry, light rain or heavy rain.
Future weather: it is the coming weather, when the current weather changes.
Steps: it is the number of times we need to advance the right grid of the weather to make the weather change.
A car is using a correct set of tyres if its type of tyres matches the current weather conditions. If the car uses hard or soft ones, the tyres are correct meanwhile the weather is dry, and they are incorrect in any other case. If the car uses intermediate tyres, they are correct meanwhile the weather conditions are light rain, in any other case they are incorrect. If the car uses wet tyres (blue) they are correct meanwhile the weather conditions are heavy rain.
Example: See in the left weather panel that the current weather is light rain and future weather is dry. 9 steps are needed to change the weather, this is because the right weather grid needs to advance 9 times in order to change the current weather.
17.3 Qualifying
To do each qualifying round, follow the standard rules of the game.
Every bot has a "Qualifying value" that determines if the bot rolls again the purple die or if it passes.
17.3.1 Qualifying (Q1, Q2, Q3)
- All human players (with no specific order) roll the black die and record each roll, placing a cube of their colour in the "Qualifying Track".
- Then, all the HUMAN players at the same time and secretly, select one of their qualifying tokens to decide if they want to keep the initial roll or spend 1 driver skill point (SP) to make 2 "extra die rolls"; if they roll again, they must track the best roll in the qualifying track.
- Then, each bot checks if the black die roll is greater than the qualifying value on his bot card, if this is the case, the bot will pass and keep the first die roll, but if the black die roll is less than or equal to its qualifying value, the bot will roll the purple die twice and will record the higher die roll.
- If a bot (or bots) is tied with a human player, the bot always goes first. If there is a tie between the bots, determine which goes first randomly.
- Finally, all HUMAN players who have passed to the next round must spend an SP from their dashboards.
Example: In a game with 5 human players and 1 bot (blue). In the Q1, after every car has rolled the purple die, all the players decided to keep the result of the die roll, so no human player spends any SP to roll the die again. The blue bot has a qualifying value of 1. Because the bot got a 1 on the first roll, and 1 is less than or equal to its qualifying value, the die must be rolled again twice. New values are 3 and 6, so 6 is the greater value obtained by the bot (1, 3, 6), and 6 is recorded in the qualifying track as it is shown in the next illustration.
17.4 Update Weather Forecast
The leader of the race must roll the weather die; in the same way he would do in a race with no bots. If the leader was a bot, any other player could roll the weather die.
If the die roll is a cloud, besides advancing the weather, players must advance the "speed progress" in ALL the bot cards. The speed progress cube never moves back. If the cube reaches position 6, the next move must be to position 1.
17.5 Movement
Before starting the race, once the starting grid has formed, both human and bots must choose the tyre compound (as in the race with no bots). Once human players have decided the tyre compound, bots must select it, as it is explained in section 17.8.
Once all the cars have a kind of tyre selected, race starts, see next section.
17.5.1 Movement During the Race Start
The race start consists of 3 rounds (as in a race without bots).
Roll the purple die for every bot and move its car accordingly. During these three turns, bots will be able to move diagonally (like any other player). The first bot movement point must be used to move towards the lane that has the "double arrow" in the next corner.
If the bot meets another car in its path, it will move diagonally to catch up with it. Once overtaken (if this is the case), it will return to the lane containing the double arrow in the next corner.
17.5.2 Race Movement
This is the movement to be done during the race, once the 3 first rounds are finished. The turn order is the same as in the standard race.
The MPs a bot can advance are calculated by adding the "Tyre base speed" (depending on the tyre the bot is carrying) to the position of the speed progress track.
Before counting those MPs, you must reduce them accordingly if your bot has arrived at the "-1" or "-2" positions in the lifespan track.
Example: If the green bot places hard tyres at the start of the race, the bot advances 10 MP; this is because the sum of the tyre base speed (10) and the speed progress (0) is 10+0 = 10. If the cube of the speed progress track is on the second position, the bot advances 11 in dry weather (10+1) and 10 in wet weather (10+0).
The bot moves applying the same rules as the players, but considering the following criteria:
17.5.2.1 Movement in Straights
Bots must spend their first MPs in each turn, to move towards the lane that contains the double arrow in the next corner, in other words, bots are moving to prepare to take the next corner's racing line.
If a bot meets another car in front of it (located in the same straight area), the bot will try to overtake it (see 17.6).
17.5.2.2 Movements in Corners
In corners, bots must get the racing line. If a bot gets the racing line (by passing through the double arrow) but meets a car that prevents it from moving, the bot will try to overtake that car (see 17.6).
If a bot leaves the racing line, it must spend the next MPs to recover it, that is moving to the closest shaded box. Remember that to recover the racing line, the car needs to move to any shaded cell.
IMPORTANT: Bots always get the racing line, they don't need to pass through the double arrow. When they are on a shaded cell, they can skip to the next shaded cell spending 1 MP. Bots can always recover the racing line even in technical corners, in other words, bots do not consider technical corners.
17.6 Overtaking
17.6.1 Overtaking Between Bots and Human Players
Bots will try to overtake human players, as long as they have enough MPs to do so.
In a fight for the position, the bot always uses the overtaking value on his bot's card. If the human player is the defender, he must (at least) get this value if he doesn't want the bot to overtake him. If the human player is the attacker, he must obtain a greater value than the bot overtaking value.
Of course, the human player can use SP to modify the die roll.
Important: The bot never places any bid other than the starting bid.
If both (human and bots) get the same value (before applying any modification) so the die roll of the human is the same as the bot's overtaking value, then the human player must do a collision die roll (like in the standard game). If the human player gets a breakdown (in the collision roll), he must check if the SC is released by rolling the black die, getting 1, 2 or 3 the safety car is released.
17.6.2 Overtaking Between Bots
Between bots, overtaking occurs as long as they have movement points to complete it. Before completing the overtaking, the purple dice must be rolled twice. If you get the following combination: "!" + "!", there will be no overtaking and the safety car is released using the standard SC rules. This does not imply any damage to the bots, but they will be placed in the last position (as indicated by the general rules) for having caused the safety car to release.
If the SC is not released, overtaking is done without bidding, and the attacker always overtakes the defender with no auction. If the overtaking takes place, the attacker will continue its moving with the remaining MPs. If the overtaking occurs in a corner, the bot continues its movement and tries to get the racing line as soon as possible.
17.7 Apply Wear to Bot's Tyres
Every lap a bot crosses the finish line, it must apply wear to its tyres, by placing the corresponding lifespan token next to its card.
Bots do not wear out wet tyres (blue), besides this, they have as many sets of hard and intermediate tyres as they need, so every time they make a pit stop, they can put a new set of those types, but they only have one set of soft tyres, so once they have used them, they cannot use them anymore.
Example: A bot using hard tyres is completing its first lap (but has not finished it); it is wearing hard tyres, so it has a lifespan token with the value "4"; then it crosses the finish line and the lifespan token must be replaced with the "3" value.
17.8 Initial Tyre Selection
Before starting the race, human players must choose the kind of tyres they are going to use at the beginning of the race. Once they have decided, every bot determines its initial kind of tyres based on the following:
A) If the current weather is dry and more than 3 steps are needed to change to the future weather, then:
- If the bot has qualified 1st or 2nd in the starting grid: roll the black die; if the die roll is 1 or 2, place the hard tyre; in any other case, place soft ones.
- If the bot has qualified 3rd or 4th, 5th or 6th in the starting grid, roll the black die; if the die roll is 1 or 2, place the soft tyres, in any other case, place the hard tyres.
B) If more than 3 steps are needed to change the weather and the current weather is light/heavy rain, place the intermediate/wet tyres.
C) If 1, 2 or 3 steps are needed to change the weather, and the future weather is dry: roll the black die. If the die roll is 1, 2 or 3 then place the intermediate or wet tyres (matching the current weather). If the die roll is 4, 5 or 6: place the soft tyres.
D) If 1, 2 or 3 steps are needed to change the weather and the future weather is light or heavy rain, place the intermediate or the wet set of tyres.
Example: The bot has selected hard tyres; a lifespan token with the number "4" must also be placed.
To track the new set of tyres in the bot's card, place the correct "Tyre selection token" in the tyres in use space (in the bot's card), then, take one tyre lifespan token and place it next to the corresponding place in the bot's tyre base speed.
17.9 Pit Stop
17.9.1 When to Make a Pit Stop
Every time a bot has the opportunity to enter the pits, players must check whether the bot enters or not. A bot's car makes a pit stop if:
A) The Tyre in use lifespan track is about to get to the "-1" position (in other words, the tyre in use lifespan is at the "1" position), then roll the black die, with a die roll of 1 or 2, they make a pit stop.
B) The Tyre in use lifespan track is about to get to the "-2" position.
C) The tyres of the bot are not the correct ones according to the CURRENT weather (see 17.2), and more than 3 steps are needed to change the weather.
D) The tyres of the bot are not the correct ones according to the FUTURE weather (see 17.2) and less than 3 steps are needed to change the weather.
E) The tyres of the bot are not the correct ones according to the FUTURE weather (see 17.2) and exactly 3 steps are needed to change the weather, then, roll the black die, with a roll of 1 or 2, the car enters the pits.
Example: The bot is using hard tyres, future weather is light rain, and 2 steps are needed to change the weather. So condition D) is met, and the bot will make a pit stop.
17.9.2 Select the New Set of Tyres
We must apply the following criteria to see which type of tyres the bot must select:
A) If more than 3 steps are needed to change the weather and the current weather is dry, place the soft tyres if they are still available; if not, place the hard tyres.
B) If more than 3 steps are needed to change the weather and the current weather is light or heavy rain, place the intermediate or wet tyres.
C) If 1, 2 or 3 steps are needed to change the weather and the future weather is dry, place the soft set if it is available; if it is not available, place the hard set of tyres.
D) If 1, 2 or 3 steps are needed to change the weather and the future weather is light or heavy rain, place the intermediate or wet set of tyres.
To track the wear of the new set of tyres in the bot's card, place the correct "Tyre selection token" in the "Tyres in use" space (in the bot's card), and take one "Tyre lifespan token" and place it on the bot's card. For example, place the lifespan token with "2" if you have just placed the soft tyres, place the lifespan token with "4" if you have put the hard tyres etc.
Every lap when the bot's car crosses the finish line, the bot must apply wear to its tyres (see 17.7). See that after value "1", we will place the "-1" lifespan token, in the same way that we would do in a standard race.
17.10 Pit Stop Exit
Bot's pit exit will be done in the same way it is done in the standard rules: by making a purple die roll and applying the remaining MPs (green token).
17.11 Off Tracks
To check if a bot goes off track when it is using a dry tyre in rainy conditions, any player will roll the black die and apply the results in the corresponding table. If it prevents going off track, it must advance 8 spaces with light rain and 7 spaces with heavy rain. If the bot goes off track, it would move 4 spaces during two turns (like humans would do).
17.12 Events & Stress
Bots can never get stress tokens and are never affected by events.
Annex 1: Driver Cards
Each driver card grants the driver one of the following abilities:
- If you are the defender in a fight for the position, increase your die roll by 2.
- If you are the attacker in a fight for the position, increase your die roll by 2.
- All the technical corners (red) become green corners.
- In each pit stop, you recover 2 driver's SP.
- At the start of the race, take 4 wear tokens and 2 blowout tokens. If you are at position "1" or "-1" in the tyre in use lifespan, you can spend one wear token to get +1 MP. If you suffer a blowout, you can spend one blowout token to avoid it.
- Increase by 1 your first die roll in each qualifying round roll (Q1, Q2, Q3). +1 to the purple die during the 3 race start rounds. +1 to the first tyre die roll after SC.
- In every non-technical corner, you can spend as many SP as you want. For each SP you spend, you get 2 MP (instead of 1).
- In light rain, you go off track using hard tyres with a roll of 9 or more, using soft tyres with a roll of 10 or more. In heavy rain, you go off track using hard tyres with a roll of 8 or more, and using soft tyres with a roll of 9 or more.
- If it rains, every time you spend one engine point, you get 3 MP. If it rains, in every fight for the position, if you are the attacker, you get +1 to your black die roll.
- If it rains, every time you spend one brake point, you get 3 MP. If it rains, in every fight for the position, get +1 to the black die if you are the defender.
- In every fight for the position (no matter if you are the attacker or the defender) increase your die roll by 1.
- Your DRS range increases by 1. If you get DRS, you get 1 extra MP.
Annex 2: Team Cards
Each team card grants the following ability:
- If it rains lightly and you are using intermediate tyres, you can reroll the tyre die each turn, and choose the best roll.
- If the weather is dry and you are using hard tyres, you can reroll the tyre die each turn and choose the best roll.
- If the weather is dry and you are using soft tyres, you can reroll the tyre die each turn and choose the best roll.
- Before starting the race, increase by 1 the number of engine points, and by 2 the number of brake points on your dashboard.
- In every collision roll, decrease the die roll by 2. Your car can hold 2 extra breakdown points. You never suffer a blowout.
- In every pit stop, you overtake all the cars that have made a pit stop in the same turn as you. When exiting the pits, you have 3 extra MP.
- Before starting the race, increase by 1 the number of brake points on your dashboard. In every collision roll, decrease the die roll by 1. You don't suffer any breakdown event.
- After winning any fight for the position, you get 2 extra MP. When exiting the pits, you have one extra MP.
- In every pit stop, recover 1 engine point or 1 brake point. When exiting the pits, you have 3 extra MP.
- Before starting the race, increase by 3 the number of engine points on your dashboard.
- Before starting the race, increase by 2 the number of engine points and by 1 the number of brake points on your dashboard.
- Before starting the race, increase by 3 the number of brake points on your dashboard.
Annex 3: Event Cards
- The Safety Car is released. (See Section 10.2).
- The weather token of the second weather grid advances 6 positions. The new weather conditions apply immediately.
- The weather token of the second weather grid advances 3 positions. The new weather conditions apply immediately.
- One player at random receives a light breakdown. Each player rolls the black die, and the one who gets the lowest value receives the breakdown. If there is a tie, the tied players roll the die again.
- One player at random receives a heavy breakdown. Each player rolls the black die, and the one who gets the lowest value receives the breakdown. If there is a tie, the tied players roll the die again.
- One player at random loses 1 engine point. Each player rolls the black die, and the one who gets the lowest value loses 1 engine point. If there is a tie, the tied players roll the die again.
- One player at random loses 1 brake point. Each player rolls the black die, and the one who gets the lowest value loses 1 brake point. If there is a tie, the tied players roll the die again.
Annex 4: Circuit Special Rules
GREAT BRITAIN: Each time a new event occurs, the weather token (second grid) advances 2 spaces. When overtaking, the attacker gets +1 to the black die roll.
MONACO: When creating the events deck during the game setup, include the second SC card. When overtaking, the defender gets +1 to the black die roll. All light breakdown events become heavy breakdowns.
BRAZIL: All the cars start the race, reducing 1 brake point. When spending 1 engine point in dry weather, you have 4 MP (instead of 3).
CHINA: All the cars start the race with 1 extra engine point. All drivers start the race with 1 stress point (even the leader). At the end of the 3rd round of the race start, run the first Event card.
SPAIN: All cars start with 1 less engine point and 1 extra brake point. Every time it starts light raining, run a new event.
UNITED STATES: All cars start with 1 less engine point. Spending a brake point in dry weather advances 4 spaces instead of 3. When creating the event deck, place a second SC card.
ITALY: Less grip area (see 4.6).
GERMANY: Less grip area (see 4.6). If a car takes DRS, it advances 3 cells extra instead of 2.
Using Driver Skill Points (SP)
Players can/must spend 1 SP in the following situations:
- In each qualifying round, spend 1 SP to reroll the black dice twice. Max 1 SP per qualifying round. (See 3.1).
- When passing to the next Qualifying round (from Q3 to Q2 and from Q2 to Q1). Mandatory. (See 3.1).
- Reroll the race start purple die or reroll any tyre die roll. No limit. (See 3.2.4).
- Reroll the die in a collision roll (max. once). (See 10).
- To bid in the fight for position auction (no limit). (See 5.1).
- Advance 1 space in any corner cell. (Limit 3 per turn in dry weather, or 2 per turn in wet weather). (See 4.2).
- Avoid going off track, reducing the tyre die roll by 1. No limit. (See 4.8.1) [as printed; this rule is covered in section 4.6.1].
Credits
Designer: José Joaquín Bernal Circuits illustrations: Ruth Pérez Other illustrations: Gonzo Brios, Jaime Andres Sanchez Graphic design: Dossom estudio, Gonzo Bríos, David Chamorro, Yolanda Purroy Minis design: David Chamorro Bots design: José Joaquín Bernal, Artur Zanón Bots testers: David Santiago, Edu Benito (Santa Clara BCS) Developers: Artur Zanón, David Chamorro, Yolanda Purroy Rulesbook: Artur Zanón English translation: Ricard García, Artur Zanón Edition: DOITGAMES DISTRIBUCIÓN SL Main testers: David Chamorro, Artur Zanón Other testers: Zoste, Carlos Ryhr, Marco Antonio García, Rewind Master, Sergi López, Enric Serra, Yolanda Purroy, Jesús Navarro, Pau Martínez, Júlia Zanón, Alfred Garcia, Jordi Roca, David Santiago, Edu Benito (Santa Clara BCS), David Santiago (Santa Clara BCS), Manuel Chica, Vicente Guardiola, José Antonio Jiménez, Félix López, Juan Marín, Javier Martínez, Manuel Pitarch, Kike Alonso
Special thanks to all KS backers, and to the following youtubers/podcasters: El rincón Legacy, Owen's Rules, Zilla Blitz, Nitrania, Spielama, Gaming Rules!, Gioconauta, Rewind Masters, Rincón de Jugones
© 2024 Doitgames Distribución SL. All rights reserved.
DOITGAMES DISTRIBUCIÓN SL, Poblenou, 59 4t-1a, Barcelona (España). www.doitgames.com