Gravel Kings v1.3

(a PBM SPEEDWAY CHALLENGE variant)

by Howard Bishop

Original © 1990 by Lambourne Games. Modified for PBM by Howard Bishop 2002.

This is an experimental set of PBM rules. There is no attempt to infringe the copyright.

1.0 BASIC CONCEPT

1.1 The original Speedway Challenge game from Lambourne Games is an excellent fast play non-statistical simulation of a Speedway race. These rules allow several races to be played over the course of a number of postal turns to represent a short speedway meeting.

1.2 A heat consists of 2 home riders and 2 visiting riders. The outcome of the race is decided by the play of 5 cards for each of the riders. The first card represents the Starting Procedure. The remaining 4 cards each represent a single lap.

1.3 The heat winner receives 3 points, the second rider gets 2 points, the third 1 point, and the fourth 0 points.

1.4 At the start of the race, each rider is dealt a hand of cards (the number of cards is determined by the rider's absolute and relative CMA).

1.5 Nine cards are then dealt into the "Open Selection". The remaining deck forms the "Hidden Selection".

1.6 There are 4 types of card, each with a Value Number and a description of the position on the track represented by that card. Players must visualize the track as consisting of three distinct artificial "lanes"; reading from the inside "White Line", "Centre", and "Around The Boards". The rider who is able to play the highest card for a particular lap leads at the end of that lap and has the advantage of going first next lap, or winning if the lap in question is lap 4. In the event of equal Value Numbers being played, the rider nearest to the inside of the track has the advantage (e.g. Centre 7 beats Around The Boards 7).

1.7 All cards except one are Centre, White Line or Around The Boards. The exception is the Great Start 11 card, which can only be played during the start procedure and cannot be beaten.

2.0 THE START PROCEDURE

2.1 Players select a card for each rider, and then replenish hands by selecting a card from the Open Selection or the card from the Hidden Selection deck. Order of play starts with the rider drawn in lane 1 and proceeds out to lane 4. Orders can be conditional on previous riders' choices.

2.2 When replenishing cards, the first rider can only select from the first 6 cards, the second rider can select from the first 7, the third rider can select from the first 8 and the last rider can choose from the full 9. Of course this means that assuming all riders choose from the Open Selection each rider is only going to have a choice of 6 because previous riders will have taken cards already.

2.3 Each rider should provide alternatives, because their 1^st choice may be unavailable or gone.

2.4 The highest value card leads from the gate, the second highest is second, etc. If values are equal, the track position on the cards are used (see 1.6 above). If the cards are identical in position as well, the rider nearest to the inside on the starting grid has the advantage.

2.5 If any of the cards used at the start is also a Risk card, the top card of the Hidden Selection is flipped. If the top section is blank nothing untoward has happened. However, it may indicate a tape exclusion (race re-started with new hands dealt, but with offending rider excluded), a fall or something of that nature.

2.6 Once all riders have played/replenished, the Open Selection is now made up to 9 cards again from the Hidden Selection.

3.0 RACE PROCEDURE

3.1 Lap 1 proper starts with the leader from the Start Procedure. The leader can use any one of the three sections of the track (his advantage as leader). It should be noted that there are slightly more high value White Line cards than Centre or Around The Boards cards.

3.2 The second rider can play any card, except that he can't play into the same track position as the first rider, unless the Value Number is lower. The third and fourth riders follow the same procedure, although it is clearly most difficult for the fourth rider to find an empty lane. If none of his proposed move cards are legal or for a NMR, his move is determined by using his lowest legal card.

3.3 If a rider plays a card which is also a Risk card, the top card the top card of the Hidden Selection is flipped. If the bottom section is blank nothing untoward has happened. He may however turn over a card saying Fall, Engine Failure or something similar. If Fall - Injured is turned over, the rider is unable to ride again in the meeting. The race is completed as normal (deviation from standard Speedway Challenge, where the race is re-run).

3.4 Hands are replenished in the same sequence as cards were played. Orders for card play and replenishment can be conditional.

3.5 The Open Selection is now made up to 9 cards again.

3.6 The rider with the highest value now has the advantage. Track position breaks ties.

3.7 The procedure is repeated for laps 2, 3 & 4; each time starting with the rider leading at the end of the previous lap.

3.8 If at any time a rider can't play a valid card (ie. all his cards are for the same track position as the previous riders and have higher values), he can discard instead and will automatically be last for that lap. All following riders can choose to ignore him for track position purposes. If another rider has the same problem on the same lap, he immediately retires with engine failure.

4.0 MEETINGS AND TEAMS

4.1 Each meeting is made up of 6 heats (2 riders from each team). Each rider can ride in up to 2 of the first 5 heats, and any 2 riders can ride in the last (6th) heat irrespective of the number of previous rides.

4.2 Each team can have 5, 6 or 7 riders. Although you could get away with the minimum 5, one or two subs could be useful in the event of falls/injuries and could become stars for future meetings.

4.3 As in real speedway, a rider's ability is measured by his CMA (calculated match average), which is the average number of points scored per race, multiplied by 4. Since the scores for each heat are 3,2,1,0 it should be obvious that CMA can range from 0 to 12. For the purposes of the game, each rider should be assigned an initial CMA from 1 to 11.5 (in steps of 0.1), with the team's total CMA not exceeding 36. Riders 6 & 7 are called Reserves and can only be used in the event of one of the first 5 riders missing a race (see below).

4.4 Each rider will receive a number of hand of cards for each race. The size of the hand is determined from the table below. Check the rider's absolute and relative CMA and use the lower number of cards indicated. For example a rider with the highest CMA of 8.9 will get 5 cards.

4.5 If all 6 heats were run sequentially, a meeting would last 30 postal turns (!!), so the races are run with some overlaps. Heats 1 & 2 are started at the same time, because they must contain different riders. The home team has lanes 1 & 3 in odd-numbered heats/2 & 4 in even-numbered heats.

4.6 If a rider has a Fall or Engine Failure they miss the next race. Riders who have a Fall - Injured, miss the rest of the meeting. Since the play of races overlap, players can nominate Reserves to ride as replacements for riders who should be missing a race which already is underway. If there is no available Reserve, the team rides a man short in that heat. If the CMA of the reserve would mean that the card holding is incorrect, hands are immediately updated from the Hidden Selection/to the Discard Pile as appropriate for each rider.

4.7 The winners of heats 1,2&3 get a temporary boost to their CMA of 0.5 for all races which have not yet had cards dealt (heat 5 for heats 1&2 and heat 6 for heats 1,2&3).

4.8 At the end of the meeting riders' CMA values are updated using a 15-ride rolling average.