L'autobus

by Tony Reeves

Sprint grows up....

L'autobus a multi-player game which has evolved from the 2 player game of Sprint. In practice, Sprint has been found wanting in terms of strategical and tactical options but I think that the basic "conservation of energy/movement cards" mechanism is interesting and is worth persevering with. Thus the element of taking back into the hand a card which is the same as that played by a cyclist on a space immediately in front (ie the next space ahead) is retained. The crucial difference comes from the increased number of cyclists and the effect of playing a card that would bring a cyclist into a group. The term L'autobus, I am lead to believe, is used for the group of cyclists who have no great aspirations in the mountain stages other than to stay within the qualifying times and therefore form a safe bunch in which they can all "travel".

The rules:

0. The object of the game is to travel as far as possible given limited resources.

1. There are 5 teams of cyclists per game.

2. Each player manages a team of 5 cyclists.

3. The cyclists start in 5 groups, each group separated by one space from the preceeding group. This means that the last cyclist in group E starts at space 1, the last cyclist in group D starts at space 7 and so on. The leading cyclist starts at space 31.

4. Players simultaneously reveal their card choices for each of their 5 cyclists.

5. If a cyclist is not in a space immediately behind another cyclist then the card is discaded and cannot be used again.

6. If the cyclist is immediately behind another cyclist and the card matches that played by the cyclist immediately ahead then the card is retained for future use. The trailing cyclist is assumed to have slipstreamed the leading one and saved his energy for later use.

7. In carrying out movement, the cyclists are moved in race position order. Note that two or more cyclists can never occupy the same space.

8. If a cyclist's movement takes him to an empty space then he simply advances to that space.

9. If a cyclist's movement takes him to a space where he would land on the same place as another cyclist then he moves to the next available forward space. It is therefore possible to overtake a continuous group of cyclists by playing a movement crd that would place a cyclist on the same space as a cyclist at the back of the group. This (sort of) simulates a rider moving up to join a group but being forced to move to the front of the group (taking the bulk of the wind resistance) for his audacity.

10. Their are 2 "Special" cards which can be played at any time except turn one. They can only be played ONCE and cannot be recouped into the hand as in rule 6 even if the conditions for doing so are otherwise satisfied. They are

(a) a ZERO card

(b) a SPRINT card

The ZERO card results in no movement for the cyclist in question and may be useful in allowing another cyclist to pass by. It can only be used ONCE, even if the cyclist immediately in front plays a zero.

The SPRINT card results in that cyclist playing ALL their remaining cards in one move to give an aggregate movement equal to the sum of the remaining cards. A cyclist may want to do this to break away from the remainder of a group, particularly towards the end of the race.

11. If a cyclist plays all his remaining cards before the SPRINT card then the SPRINT card turns into a movement card of value 1. This movement card behaves as a normal movement card as outlined in rules 4 to 9.

12. The race ends when all cyclists are void of cards.

13. At the end of the race, the 3 leading cyclists receive movement bonuses as follows, prior to the calculations of team scores:

1st - moves forward 3 spaces

2nd - moves forward 2 spaces

3rd - moves forward 1 space

14. The (penalty) scores for each cyclist are calculated as follows:

One penalty point for every empty (i.e. unoccupied by cyclists) space between that cyclist and the winning cyclist. Thus, all cyclists in a group are judged to have the "same time" as there will be no additional empty spaces between the front and back of a continuous group. The bonuses in Rule 13 are intended to reward the 3 leading cyclists and to emphasise the difference between them.

Note that the winning cyclist will always have a penalty score of zero, the 2nd place cyclist a minimum of one, the third a minimum of two. It is possibly, but very unlikely for the remaining cyclists to all have a score of three.

15. The winning team is the team with the lowest aggregate of penalty points for its 5 cyclists.

16. Variant rules for mountainous terrain are in the alpha playtesting stage.