Boosting Bike társasjáték

Angol leírás

Boosting Bike is a cycling game, with a special focus on making the movement of a peloton of cyclists on the board realistic, to have a "peloton feel" in the way riders move.
The number of riders in the race is fixed to sixteen (four teams of four riders).

If there are less than four players, some of them have to take more than one team.

The rules say that the game is for 1 to 5 players. Of course, in the case of playing solo, the player takes all four teams. This lets clear that, although this not just a roll-and-move game and there are a fair number of decisions to be taken at each turn, there is not a complex strategy involved in the game.

The game does not include rules for different types of roads or riders. It represents a race on a flat circuit.

The game uses special dice (drilled one by one by Jos Noben himself). The red dots represent half a point. the values on the dice are 3, 3, 2 1/2, 2 1 1/2, and 1. There are two different 3's (painted/unpainted) because there is a rule about throwing the same number with both dice, and it just applies to either two painted threes aor two unpainted threes , but not to one of each.

The riders are placed on the white lines and on the black dots of the board. The half-point is a diagonal move (line to dot, or dot to line) while the full point is either a front or diagonal move.

Another original rule is the turn order. It is not determined by the first rider on the race nor by tghe order of the players round the board (which are the two usual options in cycling games), but by a colour table on the board upon whic a white counter is placed to remind where we are in the turn. The turn itself is divided in eight parts.
The two leading riders of each teams are moved in the first half of the turn and two trailing riders of the teams are moved in the second half of the turn, but in a different order. The order of the following turns is also different.

At the end of each turn, when the sixteen priders have moved, there is a phase called "Boosting" in which some riders benefit from an extra advance. Riders who are on a black dot just (diagonally) behind another rider (who is on a white line) move one dot ahead. Should the rider, by this movement, find himself again diagonally behind another rider, he continues advancing.

After the "Boosting" phase there is still another phase called "Peloton" where certain groups of riders, depending on their position, may advance even further. This rule may look counter-intuitive at first sight (why certain groups of riders and not others?) but it fulfills well its role of regrouping the pack.

The winner of the game is the player who's riders arrive first at the finish.