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Robo Rally

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zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969

This game rates quite highly on the BoardGameGeek (around a 7.6 I believe) and on that merit I bought this game (Dutch Edition, 999 Games).

A short description of the game:

Each player controls a robot which has to go from checkpoint to checkpoint across a factoryfloor filled with obstacles, such as lasers, conveyerbelts, pits, flamethrowers and what not. Some of these obstacles damage your robot and others outright kill it.

At the start of each round each player is given 9 program cards with a description of how it moves the robot (ie. 1, 2 or 3 spaces forward, 90 or 180 degrees turn, etc). A player then places 5 of those cards facedown. All players simultaneously flip over the first card and perform that action for their robot.

After a robot has moved, the lasers, conveyerbelts and the other factory things do their work.

Robots move other robots when they cross eachothers path and suddenly your robot might end up somewhere totally unexpected!

Damaged robots can be repaired and when a robot is destroyed it loses one of its 3 lifepoints and it starts over at the last backup point. The player who is the first to reach the last checkpoint wins the game.

That

Dralius
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Joined: 07/26/2008
Robo Rally

Dear Ziaga
I disagree with your final assessment of Robo Rally. "Robo Rally is an interesting game idea, but it fails at actually being a good game. "
I, my friends and even my wife enjoy this game which i think is all that needs to be said to say a game is good. It is true that it can become a bit long and that luck is a huge factor in play. The fact that you compared it to Pachisi i find humorous in the absurd sense. When do you get to shoot at anything in Pachisi, change your pawns abilitys or decide the board layout and goals. The only thing they have in common is that they are both race games. A solution for the "Runaway Leader" is the out and back track where you have two or three boards in a row. The end goal being on the starting board and flags on each board. This makes the winning player have to pass the others on their way back giving everyone one last crack at them. The "Lack of interactivity" problem is caused by have a playing field that is to large for the number of players. I feel you should never have more boards than players.
While i would give it a 7 on the 1-10 scale you feel the game is not very worthy of play (3.7). There are many types of personalitys among players and this goes to show that there is no one game that will please them all.

phpbbadmin
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Joined: 04/23/2013
Robo Rally

I find that Roborally falls into a love it or hate it for most players. Personally, I hate it and for all the reasons that Zaiga mentioned. Like Dralius has mentioned, some people find it enjoyable. On the plus side though, you won

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Robo Rally

Quote:
31-03-2003 at 05:13, Dralius wrote:
There are many types of personalitys among players and this goes to show that there is no one game that will please them all.

That is certainly true! I know that a lot of people like the game, but it just didn

FastLearner
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Robo Rally

I certainly agree that the game is flawed, particularly its length, player elimination, and the fact that if you get too far behind you really don

sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
You guys are nuts!

Robo Rally is one of the best games out there! The fact is that it's not a strategy game, which seems to be the game of choice for the people in this forum.

The luck factor which was brought up in this thread... don't get me started. This game's mechanics are even less about luck than the die rolling thing, and we all know where that discussion went.

I will agree that the game can take a long time, perhaps too long sometimes. This isn't much of a problem though, as it's completely up to the players which boards to use, how many, and where to put the checkpoints. More checkpoints/boards = longer game.

I'd argue that the "runaway leader" problem is mitigated, as you say, by arranging the boards and checkpoints to increase interactivity- as well as keeping the game short. I think the longer a game of Roborally drags on, the more pronounced any runaway leader problem can become.

Keeping the game short (this is relative to the number of players, and the players' experience as well) basically solves any problems it may have (runaway leader, game length). I admit that longer games tend to break down and even I lose interest in them (unless maybe I'm winning or in 2nd).

The other important point to note is that Roborally has an "alternate path to victory" kind of thing built in. You can choose to fight it out with people, making the game very interactive, or you can try and just race, getting away from other players and playing against the "clock" (less or no DIRECT player interaction, just try and navigate the boards faster than opponents). Both can be valid strategies and both can be a lot of fun.

As for the random element, there is a great deal of control over the arrangement of the cards, and your board position. The fact that you get less cards after taking damage isn't a problem, it;s an incentive... you don't WANT to take damage, or if you do, you have to be willing to either accept the more difficult movement options, or plan to recoup on a wrench or power down. I've seen clever players power down after stepping onto a convenient conveyor belt and barely lost a turn while getting fully healed!

Robo Rally is a great, fun game. It is not the "heavy strategy game" that some of the German games are, but it's still very strategic (mostly tactical I guess), very competetive, and very fun to play (I recommend a short, compact game). I have never tried the 2-robots-per-player thing, but it sounds like a lot of fun. I would be concerned that the programming turns may take too long though- but the challenge would be a blast, especially if your robots could hurt each other!

- Seth

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