Top Race

The game
It is all about racing. You are given a bunch of cards (right click the board to see them). Each column of cards are played at the same time, and the value of the cards tell you how far the car in the same color will be able to move when you play that card.You start with $200 000 and want to buy cars that will make it possible for you to make the most out of your cards. In other words, if you have a lot of high valued yellow cards, that is cards that will be able to move the yellow car far, you would like to buy the yellow car. What we want is to finish finish the race gaining the highest possible prices. (First car to finish = $200 000). Cash can also be won by betting (more about that later). The person with the most cash when the game is over (= all cars have finished or no one have more cards left) win.

The cars are sold in an auction. You click on the amount you want to pay for the car, or -passen- to pass.

To see who's turn it is, how many has been passing, how much money the other players have left, and what cars they have, hold the mouse over the status button. In the betting round the button is colored with a mixture of green and yellow indicating you are free to bet (there is no order in who can bet when in the betting round). When the movement of cars start the button will be green each time it is your turn - red when not.

When the auctioning is done and the green status light in upper right corner turns green it is your turn. Right click the gaming table to see your cards and select one of them. If we select the rightmost card, a new window looking like this will show up:

We here see all the cars that have to be moved. The car in the bottom is the current car to move. The cars have to be moved in the same order as listed on the card (that is, the car that can move the longest moves first). For each car to move there will be flags popping up on the board showing possible movement options. Click the flag where you want to place the car.

The black "joker" car
When you get a black card, you decide a car color you want that card to be. (You can not pick a color already in the same card collection. Click on the arrows over the card in the bottom to change color of the joker car. When happy with your selection, click the car. Note that the joker color choices do NOT loop around, so you will generally have to begin by clicking left.Be also aware that the light blue and green color is easy to mix, so make sure you select the correct car.

Spurt and Breakdown cards
Three special Spurt and Breakdown cards allow special actions. These cards show two cars connected with an arrow: Light Blue and Red, White and Green, Dark Blue and Yellow . The player of the card decides whether to use it as a spurt or as a breakdown. If one or both cars have already finished the race, the card has no effect. When used as a spurt card, the car which is behind is moved alongside the car which is ahead. (Catch up works both ways i.e. Light Blue can catch up Red, or vice versa. However, this can only be done if the path is clear: otherwise, the car can only move as far as the block.)

When used as a breakdown card, the car which is ahead is moved to the edge of the racetrack and remains there until the car behind has moved past this position. The car is then replaced on the track. There is no where you can find the information about the spurt and breakdown card after it has been played so you need to remember the cards, or what car that have to pass the breakdown car for the breakdown car to be able to re-enter the racing track. During the breakdown, any movement points affecting the car are ignored. There is no information shown about the breakdown card after it has been played, so you have to remember the cards, or remember what car has to pass the breakdown car before it can re-enter the racing track. The picture below show the result of playing the Dark Blue and Yellow Spurt and Breakdown card. Two flags are shown. To select breakdown click the flag that is positioned on the dark blue car. To select a spurt for the yellow car, select the flag next to the dark blue car.

Betting

Each time the lead car passes a Tip line, all players bet on which car will finish first. When a car passes Tip line 1, bet by clicking the square in column 1 for the car you bet on in the betting box that will show up on the screen.

The betting chart below shows what you gain/loose for each bett. Example: On first tip you bet that the white car will finish first.If it finish second, you gain $60K. If it comes in last, you loose $30.

The betting chart

1. Position 200.000 $
2. Position 150.000 $
3. Position 100.000 $
4. Position 60.000 $
5. Position 30.000 $
6. Position 10.000 $

Comments, rule wise or in regard to horrible English can be sent to nikita@noia.no

I have just tried to explain the game with as few words as possible here. Translation of the full boardgame rules can be found here.