Thunder Alley Published

Fair point, Mr. Repo.

Could anyone who's played Daytona 500 or any of the other Kramer card-driven racing games do a quick gloss on why Thunder Alley is better?

There's a part of me that doesn't want to compare Thunder Alley to other racing games, but instead to euros with resource management concepts.

That's not a dig on the game, just that it's not like Formula De or Rush 'n Crush or any of the other racing games where you're marshaling and preserving one car. This is multiple cars per player pulling from one source of energy -- your very limited hand. That concept means you're deciding which car lives and which dies, where you want to distribute your options for best effect. The end of it reminded me of Ticket to Ride yesterday, where the number of remaining turns is pretty obvious and you have to decide what to do with your remaining cards. It's not unreasonable to let your lead car drop out of first place for the finish in order to bring your two or three other cars farther forward in the back of the pack. If you have one Lead card left and can move two of your middle-of-the-pack cars (and perhaps an opponent's) forward eight places at the end of the Action phase, you may let your lead guy drop out of first into third place.

Again, I don't mean that as an insult to the game since I know a lot of people don't like Ticket to Ride very much here at Fortress Ameritrash (Horger would likely be happy with comparable sales) but conceptually it's similar in its what-options-are-left endgame. On the last turn you're counting points. Maybe not literally, but you're counting points.

It's racing alright and the action on the board bears an uncanny resemblance to NASCAR considering it's a turn-based game, but it ain't about dragging your one car over the line first. I'll be curious to hear what racing games other people compare it to, because mentally I'm dropping this in the T2R/Alhambra bucket. Tactical, brain burn, work with what you've got kind of gaming.

S.

Keep these posts coming! I'm getting more and more intrigued each time.

I caved and snagged a copy off Amazon today. Hopefully I can weigh in on the game by this time next week.

The comparison to the Kramer games is important, because in some ways this game is a direct descendant of that kind of "play and move" racing game. Some of the key elements are there, specifically the notion of moving multiple cars- which may not be yours- to maintain an overall sense of pace and to create strategic spaces. Specifically, you are going to have some of the same decision points where you're balancing gaining and losing ground.

But TA cuts the extraneous money, bidding and so forth and also cuts your hand size WAY down. But it adds some very important details that are necessary to create the NASCAR environment. Chiefly, the four different types of movement take those Kramer concepts and turns them into something even more strategic. You are also racing a TEAM of cars, and coordinating movement to get your cars ahead is a prime action. There is also the need toward the end to sort of plan on how you're going to finish, who you're going to push, and who you're giving up on.

Damage and car wear is also a major factor, which again reflects the NASCAR setting since endurance is an element. When to fry the tires to take the lead or pull a battered car ahead becomes a critical decision. And then there's pitting.

Obviously, there is more going on than in the Kramer games but they are very similar. You could almost think of TA as an "advanced" Kramer racing title.

The Kramer games are better for the family, TA is for your gaming table.

The moving-other-players'-cars mechanic is one I've always liked. Moving your car, say, three spaces and someone else's vehicle six spaces seems counter-thematic at first, but it's actually a brilliant abstraction of the little tactical compromises that must be made during the course of a race.

An "advanced" Kramer racing game minus the money aspect sounds pretty fucking great, actually.

Goddammit guys. Now I really want this.

My wife and I played a two-player game. It did go kind of long, and my wife--who had been enjoying it for two of the three laps (probably should've gone with a different configuration anyway)--was kind of bummed by the last lap, as she figured out she hadn't been doing something right with the movement. But I think we'd definitely give it another go and that it would go quicker and more smoothly.

It's a pretty damn great production apart from a few glaring but mostly superficial unforced errors on the components (the misprint on the pursuit and lead movement summaries that appear on every board, the lack of a "back" side to the first player marker, a missing icon on one card). (Among the many and I'm sure deserved credits in the instruction booklet, a copy editor/proofreader cannot be found.) I'm giving it a very provisional 8, which is my usual first-game rating for something I'm eager to try again.

The original estimates of 40 minutes per game is juuuuuuust a bit short of what my games have been running. My son adds 40 minutes onto any game played, so I may not be the best judge of it, but my game Saturday didn't include him and we went two hours plus with new players.

S.

That was actually a pretty good point about the ersatz tracks...particularly that they aren't phonies listed as being in the south. NASCAR is a very southern thing, and as a southerner I too would have appreciated seeing that tradition at least subtlely upheld. That kind of gets at the one big glaring issue I have with the game, which actually has nothing to do with the gameplay (which I think is brilliant, floor to ceiling). GMT games are always so great about having background information, history, and explanations for "why" things are. There is NONE Of that in this game. I would have loved to have seen a playbook with an extended play example but more importantly, a history of stock car racing and designer's notes about bringing this particular style of racing to the table. Granted, it's hard to do much without the very expensive NASCAR license, but it feels like a missed opportunity especially since GMT is usually great about this kind of thing.

There are a couple of production issues, like that first player marker that's supposed to flip over and the "darker" lanes for yellow flag restarts that aren't darker at all. There are some board misprints, but it's just some rules reminder text. Not a big deal.