"Rules for chariot races?" Topic

So I have seen this in a few shops and auctions:

auction

and I have read this:
link

and I am wondering if anyone has ever come up with a set of rules for chariot races using miniatures, 1/32 or otherwise?

This would have to be a total blast. As a kid I played a game called Formula One (http://www.vintagetoysgames.co.uk/formula_1_62.html) and I guess I would probably want similar rules. That is, you accelerate a certain amount per turn but if you brake more than a certain amount your brake wear builds up and if you are blocked and need to brake more than your remaining brakes allow you are stuffed.

Is it just me or does this already exist? Someone must be doing this?

Two Hour Wargames was working on some

We used to play a chariot-racing game in New Zealand in the early 80's, between games at conventions.

It was a beer and pretzel type game as I remember. Amazingly good fun, until the rum and money came out.

Actually, that did make it a bit more fun.

link

The old Avalon Hill Circus Maximus boardgame works well, just scale up and use mini's instead of the board. It does take a fair bit of space even in 15mm. A couple of different guys bring a 15mm game of this to the East cons. Always a hoot.

Mark

You could adapt Arena Mximus as well:

link

Check out: link and they are free!

Habet Hoc Habet from Scale Creep/Flagship is a combined set of gladiator and chariot rules.
We used to have a lot of fun playing with them.

link

Ran a ten chariot race at Bayou Wars with ten newbies. Finished in under 90 minutes. Went pretty fast once chariots began to wreck.

link

Ed,
How does a race work? Mechanics/Sequence of Play/ Etc. Did I read somewhere that the chariots don't actually go around a track but just relative position to others. (Sorry if I am confusing your rules with something else I read or imagined)

Todd636,
Yes, you're correct. Here's a quick explanation.

The driver has two Stats –
Savvy – How good he is driving.
Strength – How he handles the horses in the turns.

The horse has one one Stat
Speed – How fast the team is.

Each chariot starts with Bonus dice used when you want.

First Turn – All the chariots take off and are arranged from most successes to fewest.

Chariots are placed in the movement zone from first to last.
Three "lanes" to race over.

First phase is Challenge.
Front to back, those that want to pass put their chariot on position to pass.

Then Random Events.

The nice thing is no one ever gets so far behind to be out of the race and everyone has two or three things to do every turn

Then try to pass from front to back.

Then move the whole pack one move zone.

Six total zones, four straight and two turns. Three laps.

All the chariots are in the same zone during the race and the key is how they are placed in relationship to each other.

Hope that makes sense.

Plutarch 64 is right. The rules were published in Christchurch? Wargames Club mag Southern Sortie. I have the copy and will try to dig it out.

They sound like the ones, kiwi.

Had various rules such as cutting people off, and whipping opponents' horses to force them to crash etc.

I would be interested in a copy if you find them.

I will second the Two Hour rules. Great fun, we play them for fast game before everyone arrives at our club. Fast and furious, no tedious counting squares around the circus.

Having said that they are more a cross between a board game and a miniature game in my mind. As all you need is chariots and then you place them on the table, which after the first run is in a row going from the first to the last. Then the second charioiter decides what he wants to do then then the third etc. Once you have placed your chariots there is a random event phase where things can and do get ugly then you move on to the passing phase where chariots who have pulled out to the side try to pass the chariot in front. You keep track of the pack on a cheet sheet. So no terrain needed. What is great about the game is the way you have to be clever about when and where you use your bonus dice which you lose once you use them. So you need to time your passing with that in mind.

We had one race where most of the 5 players just kind of drafted for the first two laps then all hell broke loose with crashes and one player that had a whoping 20+ bonus dice going into the last staight got blocked by another chariot which had a random event and put him right in front of him so he could not pass. End of race. Great stuff and got better with each beer!
William

I have dug out the chariot racing rules we have used here in NZ. They were published in May 1980 issue of Southern Sortie. Plutarch 64 was interested in a copy – if you give me your email I'll try to get a copy to you.
Craig

Apparently the new Warhammer Historical Gladiator Rules include rules for chariot racing.

I just finished hosting 6 chariot racing games at Guns Of August in Williamsburg, VA using the Circus Maximus rules and 28mm chariots from Old Glory and a 10'6" long track with 8 racing lanes (it was just over 48" wide edge-to-edge). We ran four and six player races for two laps, with each race lasting about 90 minutes.

The track was fairly simple to draw out and there were several useful play aids in the files section for Circus Maximus on boardgame geek.

I did make three changes from the printed rules:
1.) No ramming against horses. This simply speeds play.
2.) Drivers could keep whips if they took them from another driver. This too speeds play.
3.) Modified chariot setup; I gave players 5 points to spend, used averaging dice for driver hit points and team speed, and cut endurance down to 20 points base +20 more per point spent on this attribute.

With players not having enough points to make a chariot that was top notch in every area, they had to choose how to set up their chariot – some set up for speed, others for demolition, and a few set up for balance. In the end, the speedsters won out, with 3 wins out of the 6 races.

I found that players really wanted to plot out where their wrecked chariots fell, and I'm already working on getting a few wrecks made up to make that part of the game a little more visual.

I'll definitely run Circus Maximus again.

Skytrex used to have stock of an old OOP set.

WH's Gladiator has chariot rules