Breaking Away

This is an excellent cycling game similar to racing games like Golden Strider, but with some new twists. It was designed by John Harrington (Fiendish Games)

1. There are six players, and each player has a team of four cyclists. The cyclists are graded A. B. C and D.

2. At the beginning of the game. players choose cards numbered between 1 and 15 inclusive for each of their cyclists. Cyclist A may have 3 or 4 cards. The other cyclists must have 3 cards each.

3. Cyclist A's cards must add up to 30, cyclist B 25, cyclist C 20 and cyclist D 16.

4. A cyclist may start with more than one of the same number card. e.g. cyclist A could start with 4-6-9-12 or 10-10-10 or 1-1-13-15 or 5-5-5-15.

5. The race track is 120 squares long. The finish line is situated between squares 120 and 121. There are no lanes. All cyclists start on square 0.

6. There are two sprint finish lines. The first is situated between squares 40 and 41. The second between squares 90 and 91.

7. The first 8 cyclists past a sprint finish. line score points as follows:

1st: 10 points. 2nd: 8 .3rd: 6. 4th: 5. 5th: 4. 6th: 3. 7th: 2. 8th: 1.

8. The first 9 cyclists past the finish line score points as follows: 1st: 20 points. 2nd: 16. 3rd: 12, 4th: 10. 5th: 8, 6th: 6. 7th: 4. 8th: 2.

9. Places in the sprints and at the finish are decided on a first past the post basis (see 14-15). not furthest past the post.

10. Each turn, every cyclist plays one card from their hand. The cyclist moves forward the same number of squares as the value of the card. Once played. the card is not returned. but is replaced with a new card.

11. The new card is determined by counting the number of cyclists in an 'unbroken string' in front of the cyclist (not counting those on the same square) and adding 3 to that number.

12. An 'unbroken string' is a group of cyclists occupying every square of a section of track. The string is broken by an empty square.

13. If. however, a cyclist is leading the field on his own (even by one square). he is said to have broken away. His new card is equal to the number of squares he is in front of the second place cyclist(s). If still in the lead on the next turn, he gets a 3.

14. Movement is processed from the front of the field to the back. In the event of two or more cyclists occupying the same square, their order of movement is determined by the order in which they arrived at the square. For the very first turn, Grade A cyclists move first, followed by B then C then D cyclists.

15. Thus early on in the game, some cyclists will arrive at squares simultaneously. Where this happens the cyclists move simultaneously and share any points gained that turn equally.

16. It is possible for a cyclist to get dropped by the pack. It is usually obvious when this happens and the controlling player need not continue to order for that cyclist.

17. At the end of the race. the team with the most points is the winner. In the case of a tie. the team involved in the tie with the highest finishing cyclist wins.

18. If a player NMRs (doesn't send orders) his cyclists all play their highest available card that turn.

19. Players should supply a name for their team and each of their cyclists.

20. Optional rules:

On turn 1 only. if there are four or more cyclists on the same square then the square in front of them is treated as an empty square for the purposes of replacement card values.

No rider may receive a replacement card higher than 15.

Instead of using the order that riders arrive at a square to determine order of movement, the rider's rank (A, B, C or D) is always used.

21. There are many variants to this game. Details will be given at gamestart.