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bt455's Horse Race (Board Game) (Other)

[February 5, 2013 01:33:10 PM]

Because I haven't played any board games or card games since I came to the States, I will choose a very famous board game in my Vietnam my country, called "Cờ cá ngựa" (meaning Horse Race). This is a multiplayer, non co-operative (every-man-for-himself) kind of board game, but it is very fun and simple, because its main audiences are kids. The theme of the game is very casual, with maybe some sort of PG-13 violence (no blood or whatsoever)and may require some decision makings at times. Players are managers of a horse stables, trying to get their horses out and make them run around the board by rolling the dice , then make the horses arrive to their new stables safely.

= Players =
This game allows maximum 4 players (player can even play all by himself if he is a sad lonely person, like me sometimes). Each person will have their own stables with 4-5 horses, which depends on the board you buy. That means their roles are all the same and they need to reach the same goal, only in different locations.

= The Board =
This is the picture of the board
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc261/lamngocrang/Cocangua.jpg
The original stables are located at 4 corners of the map and painted in 4 different colors. There are 4 starting points that can be seen as highlighted circles place next to the stable. The ending points for each stable are actually on the left of starting points, however that does not mean players need only one step to get there, they have to make the horse go all the way from right to left to get to the point, which means 1 whole round. The horses cannot go further than the ending point, it can only run maximum one round. When the horse arrive to the ending point, it needs one more condition to go in the new stable safely, otherwise it maybe endangered (will explain later in gameplay)

= The Horses =
As mentioned, there are 4-5 horses for each stables, depends on the type of board you buy. The horses look like the Knights in Chess game. The horses do not have any kind of super powers of special abilities, however it does have one ability: kick opponents back to their stables. To get the horse out of the stable, you need to roll the dice and get maximum point (which is 6,and after that, it can move according to the point you get each time you roll the dice, as long as there is no other horse ahead of him (will explain more specifically later)

= The Stables =
This refers to the stables at the end point. As shown in the picture of the board, the stables have 6 spots marked from 1 to 6. When a horse finishes his race and stand in front of the stables, the player needs to roll the dice one or few more times to make it go the highest spot possible (for example, the first horse to arrive the ending point needs 6 points from the dice to go to spot 6, the second horse needs 5 points, and so on).

= The Gameplay =
This game has very simple gameplay, requires no complex rules or logic. As mentioned, to make the horse start the race, players need to roll the dice and get 6 points. However, getting six points means he can get another chance to roll the dice, so if someone is lucky enough or cheats (I do not know how to cheat though) to get a lot of 6 points, he continue his turn for a really long time. If he gets 6 points when he already have one horse running, he can either choose to move that horse further, or getting another horse out of the starting point. Since the game does not allow more than one horse at the same spot, players cannot have 2 horses sitting on the starting point, or any other points on the board.
When there are several horses on the board, the violence starts to trigger (no blood though, but you can add ketchup if you want). In before, the horse have one and only one ability: kicking other horses back to their stables (normally there are no friendly fires but if the player is crazy enough then why not, he can do whatever he wants). However, to kick another horse, it has to be in range (from 1 to 6 steps away), and player needs to have the exact points needed to kick it (for example, if the opponent's horse is 3 points away from your horse, the player has to have 3 points to kick it, he cannot have 5 points to kick the horse then move 2 more steps further. If he cannot kick it, he can move 1 or 2 steps to get closer to his opponent's horse). There are only one spot where the horse is completely safe and cannot be kicked, that is the starting point. The horses cannot move to other stables' starting points, they simply move past that. They can step to the ending points however, which mean that they can kick or be kicked when standing in the ending points. This makes the game very interesting and hurtful at times, and believe it or not, it happens more than you think.
To make the game even more fun, some additional rules are added sometimes. For example, the players can roll 2 dices at once, the horses can kick back (this is the rule that I particularly enjoy, and it means that the horse step back and kick other horses if he wants, the rules is basically the same as forward kicking). One more rule to make game pace faster and has been applied a lot is that if you get one point from the dice, you can make the horse sprint to the most nearby ending point, as long as there is no horse standing in the way.

= State of winning =
Obviously, the first person to make his horses arrive the new stables safely is the winner.

= Overall =
This is a very simple, quick, fun and mostly based of luck game. I think everyone can play it, no matter how old you are. At times it may require some decision makings or few tactics. Just buy the game and invite a few friends and you will have a great time, or you can play by yourself and cry because you are a pathetic, lonely human being.

This entry has been edited 3 times. It was last edited on Feb 5th, 2013 at 13:42:47.