Entenrallye

Drive, style, repair and don't lose any time while you are doing it!

a game from Walter Müller, translation John Webley.

(Translators note, As is obvious from the game, the Germans call Citroen 2CVs, ducks. "Enten".)

Entenrallye, Enten fever is breaking out all over, it has even reached as far as your place. You have each purchased an old battered Citroen 2CV and want to turn it into the most stylish car possible. There are four meetings each year of the Citroen owners club and at each there will be prizes for the best styled 2CV. Obviously you want to carry off all the prizes. So, off you go, there is no time to lose, your car has to be fitted out with its new parts as soon as possible and then driven to the meeting, if you don't make it time, then there will be no prizes to be won. But in the middle of all this rush, you mustn't forget to keep your car in a road worthy condition, if it fails it's TöV, (MOT), or ASU (Exhaust check), then it will have to go back to the workshop to be repaired and will never get to the meeting in time.

Contents

Game Idea and Goal

During the game, you must obtain and fit new body work for your car and so transform it from a bettered gray 2CV into a multicolored wonder, each part brings a point score. But the points only count if the car makes it to the owners club meeting before it finishes, so drive fast. But the car must also be kept in good repair, or it will fail its MOT. And a player who spends too much time styling or repairing cannot drive fast at the same time, but if he drives too slowly, then he will be too late for the meeting. The art of the game is to make the best use of the limited time. The winner of the game is the player who gains the largest number of points by the end of the game.

Preparation

First lay out the board in the center of the table. Before you play the game for the first time you will need to carefully break out the various cards. Next, each player takes a wooden car in the color of their choice, along with the corresponding car card and marker stone. The car goes on the starting square, the marker stone on the 0 square of the red and white repair point track, and the car card is placed face up on the table in front of the player. All 48 car part cards are well shuffled and placed face down in a pile. The two orange marker stones are used later in the game.

Now choose a starting player and you can get going.

The Board

Naturally enough, in a car game there are traffic regulations.

The road is divided into gray and beige sections. Special moves may only be carried out when the car is on a gray square.

Special actions may not be carried out when a car is on a beige section.

Cars may not turn on the road, they always drive forwards. The only places where the car can turn round is at the TöV and ASU which are dead ends.

At junctions, the player may decide which of the two routes they will choose.

More than one car may be on a square simultaneously.

Game Play

Play proceeds in a clockwise direction. Each turn includes up to three actions

Drive Car

The car moves along the track, it must move at least one square per turn. The only exception is when it is waiting for a meeting to begin.

Special Actions

A special action may only be carried out when the car had moved onto a gray square during its turn. The choice of special actions depends on the dice roll.

The decision to carry out a special action is entirely the choice of the player, any number of special actions may be carried out in one turn.

Advance Time Markers

Every time that a 6 is rolled, then the time marker is advanced by one space. The marker also moves on every time that a car arrives at a meeting, or at the TöV or the ASU.

It is very important to remember that the action of advancing the time marker is carried out after the car moves and after any special actions have been carried out. The order of the three phases of any move must always be first movement, then special actions, then advance time.

The Route

During the year/game there are 6 points, each of which the player should attempt to visit during the correct month. These are the four owners club meetings (Ententreffen) which take place in February,(Februar), June,(Juni), August and December (Dezember), the TöV, (MOT) in April and the ASU (exhaust check), in October (Oktober). The players decide which of these to visit and which not. It would be extremely difficult to visit all 6 during one game. Points can only be gained by attending the 4 meets, and you need points to win the game, but if you are late in getting to the TöV or ASU then you must go back to the TöV or ASU workshop and that will make reaching the subsequent meet very difficult. If you are too late for a meet then the best course is to take a short cut and so make it easier to attend the next meet.

The Race Begins

To start, the players each roll a dice and move forward the relevant number of squares. However, they may choose to use some of the dice points to buy parts and/or to repair the car.

Buying Car Parts

Each car part costs 3 dice points. Since the car must move at least one square forward each turn, this means that a player can only buy a car part on a roll of 4, 5 or 6. For example, with a roll of 5 a player could choose to move 2 squares forward and then to use the remaining 3 points to buy a car part.

Attaching car parts. Once you have bought a car part, you should not show it to any other player. There are good car parts and some absolute rubbish in the pack. The best cards have 5 points (Punkte), and 3 faults (Mangel) and the worst, 2 points and 5 faults. If you want to attach a part to your car you simply turn it face up and lay it onto your car card in the correct position. A part which has been attached may only be removed after the points reckoning at a meet, it must be left on the car until the player has got a score for it. Only one part of each type may be attached to a car at any time, you cannot lay any card on top of another. If you have a part which you do not wish to attach immediately to your car, then you should simply lay it face down by the side of your car card.

Repairs

The basic car has 4 times 3 faults = 12 faults. Adding parts to a car may change the number of faults on the car. The total number of faults is always the sum of the four visible fault numbers (Mangel). Example: Juliane has added a part with 4 faults and one with 5 to her car. The total number of faults on the car is therefore 15 (3+3+4+5). In order to pass her TöV or ASU then she must have 15 or more repair points. Collecting repair points is very simple. Each repair point costs 1 dice point and so the player merely moves their repair marker one space forward per dice point instead of moving the car forward.

Example

Walter has thrown a four. He moves his car one space forward and moves his repair marker three spaces. He has now repaired three of the faults on his car. You should not forget that every car must move at least one square forward every turn, so you cannot use all the dice points to repair. Once a car has passed the ASU station, it may not be repaired further. No player may collect more than 20 repair points.

Stealing Car Parts

The poor player who rolls a one on the die may steal a part from one of his neighbors. The player takes a face down part from the stock of one of the other players. He may not take any part that has already been attached to a car. The car is of course still moved one square along the track, stealing costs no dice points. If none of the other players have any face down parts then there is nothing to steal. To recap, a player may only steal when he rolls a one.

Exchanging Car Parts

It is only possible to exchange parts if at least two players have car parts face down in front of them. Parts already attached to cars may not be exchanged. An exchange may only be carried out by a player who has just thrown a 2. Example. Walter throws a two and decides to exchange parts with Juliane who has two car parts laid face down in front of her. He takes one of them without looking at its value and gives Juliane, face down, a part which he has face down in front of him. Walter now looks at the part that he has taken, and may, if he wishes, immediately attach it to his car. Juliane may also examine the part that she has been given, but may not add it to her car until her turn.

Time

The passing of time in the game is represented by the movement of the two orange time marker stones. The markers are moved forward by one space, whenever a player throws a 6, or when a player's car reaches a meeting, or the TöV or ASU, during or before the relevant month. If a player throws a 6 and uses it to move to a meet etc. then the markers move two spaces forward. Example. The two orange time marker stones lie on March (Marz) and the number 3 circle respectively. This means that the game time at present is the third period in March. If someone now rolls a 6 or moves onto the TöV then the right hand stone is moved one space down onto 4. Once the stone is on the 6 then the month is nearly ended. As soon as someone then rolls a 6 or reaches the TöV then the left hand stone is moved on to April and the right hand one back up to the 1 circle. The game time is the now the first period in April. April lasts until the right hand stone again moves on from the 6 circle, it is then May and so on. The marker stones are not placed on the board at first. Only when the first 6 is thrown are they put onto January and 1 respectively. The games is over at the end of December.

Important

If there are fewer than 6 players then the number of spaces used in the right hand column is equal to the number of players. For example, in a game with 4 players then the month stone is advanced every time that the right hand stone moves beyond the 4 space, and the right hand stone moves back up to 1 rather than on to 5. Example: There are three players and the two stones are on November and 3. If Juliane now rolls a 6 then the stones are moved to December and 1. In the unlikely event of all cars reaching the 4th meet before the end of December, then the game ends of course at that point.

Citroen Owners meets (Ententreffen)

Now we turn to the long awaited meets, where all your hard work of adding parts to your car will be rewarded. Only cars which arrive at the meet during or before the correct month for that meet, score points. It is not necessary to throw the exact number to reach a meet, any excess points are ignored. Once you have arrived you gain your points. The player scores all the points on the attached parts. Any part which has the same background colour as the car it is attached to scores an extra bonus point. the points scored are noted on a sheet of paper. Faults play no part in scoring. Once the scores have been reckoned then the attached parts are removed and shuffled back into the pack. The player may retain up to two face down parts, any excess must be returned to the pack, the player chooses which parts to retain. Your car is now once again its old grey self and you can now buy and attach more parts to it, ready for the next meet. Cars which are too late for a meet do not lose any attached pieces, instead they drive over the meeting place without stopping. The time markers are not affected by this. At the end of the game the points scored at all the meets are added and the player with the highest total wins the game.

Waiting

Occasionally one sees super-fast cars that reach a meeting place before the meet takes place. When this happens, the car has to wait until the month of the meet has begun. Example. Marits has already reached the 2nd meet during May. On her next turn the two markers are on May and 6. She rolls the die, although she has to wait, and rolls a 6. She cannot move on since the meet doesn't start until June. Since she is on a brown space, she is also unable to use the dice roll to carry out any special action. At the end of her turn however, she moves the time markers on to June and 1. It is now June and in her next turn she may once again move along further down the track. All players that have already reached the 4th meet in December should continue to roll the die in the chance that they may roll a 6 and so advance the time markers.

TöV and ASU

As has already been described in the section "Repairs", a car will only pass its TöV or ASU if all its faults have been repaired. Additionally, a car must reach the TöV or ASU station during or before the correct month. Players do not need to roll an exact number to reach the station, any excess points are ignored. Players who have successfully reached the TöV or ASU station, move their repair markers back down the repair track by as many spaces as they have faults. They are then ready to drive on next turn towards the next meet. Attached car parts are not removed at the TöV or ASU.

Example

Marit has reached the TöV station during April and has 15 repair points. His car has 12 faults and so he moves his repair marker stone back from 15 to 3. Next turn he drives on.

Once April is over, any cars which have not reached the TöV station are moved back to the TöV Workshop, (TöV Werkstatt). Their repair markers are reduced by the number of faults on their cars and the game goes on. The cars do not need to return to the TöV. Likewise at the end of October for cars that have not reached the ASU station.

It is important not to confuse the TöV and ASU stations ( TöV and ASU) with the TöV and ASU Workshops (TöV Werkstatt and ASU Werkstatt) which are separate buildings on the other side of the board. As if being sent back to the workshop isn't bad enough, an even worse fate awaits cars which have an insufficient number of repair points to cover all their faults. They are placed onto the minus squares behind the workshop. The repair marker stone is returned to 0. Example, Juliane arrives at the ASU with 14 faults. She is there in good time, but has miscalculated, since she has only 12 repair points. Her car is immediately moved to the -2 space behind the ASU workshop. From there, it is so far to the 4th meet that she has virtually no chance of making it in time. Cars which manage to be too late in getting to the TöV or ASU, and to have too few repair points for all their faults, are put onto the minus spaces in the same way, but that would never happen to you, would it?

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell