Thunder Alley Published

So, my interest is still high, but its sounds more hand/car/resource management than race. Would that be fair to say?

VonTush wrote: So, my interest is still high, but its sounds more hand/car/resource management than race. Would that be fair to say?

Very fair to say.

There's also a push-your-luck element to it that I enjoy (i.e., do I pit my damaged car with reduced movement points, or do I keep it in the race because I think it'll get carried along for a couple of drafts).

The only thing I'm not sure about are the yellow flag restart event cards. I don't know another game in which such sweeping changes are made based on the random flip of a card. Fun and dramatic, but also make the turns leading up to the restart fairly pointless.

A question for the TA owners, and my apologies if this was discussed and I missed it, but are the shading differences on the track (for purposes of determining yellow flag restart positions) almost impossible to differentiate on your boards? I don't know if it's the finish on the board or the lighting in my buddy's basement or what, but the difference in shading has been almost impossible for any of us to detect. It's like staring cross-eyed at those jumbled-colour posters, desperately trying to reveal the hidden picture.

Wasn't aware they were there personally, I guess I just picked the two lanes that looked best.

S.

Sagrilarus wrote: Wasn't aware they were there personally, I guess I just picked the two lanes that looked best.

S.

We didn't notice until we stared for a really long time after reading in the rules that some of the lanes are a lighter shade (the same shade as the Pit lane, which you might not have noticed is a lighter shade).

You can notice the difference more readily in images of the file rather than actually looking at the board (see BGG images if you're curious) but, even in the original file, it's still overly subtle, IMO.

I don think they printed right. The good news is that it's easy. Same as the the starting lanes (middle two on a four lane, inner two on a three).

repoman wrote: First player having no back? Big deal. Like we aren't all going to go buy a little checker flag to use instead.

I'm going to get a big chunky nut at the hardware store and dip it half in black paint.

Michael Barnes wrote: I don think they printed right. The good news is that it's easy. Same as the the starting lanes (middle two on a four lane, inner two on a three).

I remember reading about the shading but didn't see it and just followed that procedure.

Played a 4-player game for the first time yesterday. Although the game does a great job of scaling down to two mechanically, the interpersonal dynamics were more fun with four for sure. In other circumstances I might've been bummed about ending on a red flag (we drew both cards across three turns), but I was already running late for an RPG session I was supposed to be leading. It seemed as though the three new players, only one of whom had read the rules, enjoyed TA as well.

I'd suggest people who are interested in this game should pick it up sooner rather than later. My guess is that GMT did not produce a shit ton of these, given the relatively tepid P500 history and the Kickstarter failure.

I see GMT are using the same designers for the upcoming game Grand Prix which appeals to me more than this as it's less... err.....how can I put this?

American.