Rallyman Dirt

Summary

👥 A game for 1 – 6 players
⏳ Play time is 45- 90 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Synapses Games

Introduction

In Rallyman: Dirt, you try to complete a rally course as fast as possible in a time trial against other players. The player with the fastest time wins.

Let’s get in on the table

The course is built with modular tiles that include straights, turns, splits and special terrains, in this edition only mud with occasional hills or water. Each tile has speed limits and terrain restrictions.

Place the second tokens in piles within the play area so everyone can reach them.

Put the damage tokens into the token bag and shuffle it. Place the time cards, separated from 1 to 6 and shuffle them separately face down on the table.

Place the dice nearby and give each player a colour car model, driver card, spare tyre card and a dashboard.

During each Stage, players will have to navigate twists and turns as fast as possible to achieve the best time. At the end of each of their turns, players gain a certain number of seconds to add to their overall time based on the Gear that they finish in. Drivers should be looking to maximize the distance

travelled while maintaining the highest speed possible.

A game of Rallyman: DIRT is made up of rounds with each player getting one turn per round. At the beginning of each round, you must first determine the order of play. The player that is in front, is the start player. The start of each Rally Stage is unique in that, as this is a time trial race, players do not all begin the Stage at the same time. Instead, their departure is staggered with each player playing one additional
round before the next one enters the race.

Just a small example to make this clear;
In a three player game, the starting rounds of a Stage would therefore be:
Round 1: Player 1 starts their first turn.
Round 2: Player 1 takes their second turn, then Player 2 starts their first turn.
Round 3: Player 1 takes their third turn, Player 2 takes their second turn and Player 3 starts their first turn.

When starting the stage, players place their car in the space behind the Starting Line and begin in Gear 0

So choose a first player and let’s go to the race.

Let’s play

During their turn a player will do the following:
– Choose your dice
– Roll your dice and move your car

Step 1 – Choose your dice

On your dashboard you can see the number of dice you can use and also the colour of the dice. You can use as many dice as shown on your dashboard, and only once during each turn.

Each turn, you plan your move by choosing a set of dice that determine your action. On your turn, you can accelerate, brake, steer through corners and maintain your speed.

You can use the following dice for this purpose;
The orange dice – are used in exactly the same fashion as the white Coast dice, except only the first player each round uses these
The white dice – are used to maintain the same speed
The red die – is used to brake hard, slowing your car by more than one Gear at a time.
The black dice – are used to accelerate or decelerate progressively

You can combine acceleration, deceleration, braking, and coasting in any way you like during your turn to get the best out of your car! You lay the dice out on the road in order to plan your movement

each turn. By combining different dice in clever ways, you can overcome any obstacle the Stage can throw at you. You can even accelerate and decelerate with your Gear dice in the same turn.

Just remember the golden rule: each die can only be used once per turn!

The road is never a straight line, there are some extra rules. We’ve explained them further down this review. We wanted to make it more clear then the rulebook, hopefully we succeeded in this.

Step 2 – Rolling the dice and move your car

You may roll all the chosen dice at once (this can be quite risky) or one at a time (which is a lot safer). But if you roll three or more exclamation marks, you lose control and crash!

A little more explanation and clarification between these two options.

Rolling the dice one by one
This is just the safest option, you don’t get any rewards but when things are looking bad you can end your movement whenever you please to avoid a loss of control. You don;t have to roll all the dice that you’ve laid out for the turn when rolling one by one and, as long as you don’t suffer a loss of

Control, may choose to stop and end your movement at any time.

However, once a die is rolled its results must be applied.

Going Flat Out (rolling all the dice at once)
Want to take risk for extra advantage? Then you can choose to go Flat Out: rolling all your dice at once. Exciting, but it can earn you valuable Second tokens!

Here’s how it works:
– Plan your move as normal.
– On the square where you want to finish, place a stack of Second tokens. The number of tokens is equal to the number of Gear and Coast dice you will roll.
– Then roll all the dice at once.

What happens next?

Do you throw fewer exclamation marks than your limit on your dashboard? Then your Flat Out has succeeded! You move your car to the marked box and take the Second tokens. Do you throw as many or more exclamation marks than your limit? Then you lose control! But first:
-Lay out your dice on the track again, as if you were planning a normal move.
-You don’t have to use the exact same route or dice, as long as it results in a Loss of Control.
-The place where you lose control is where the effect (such as too many exclamation points or a speed limit) occurs.

Note: Even if you crash, you get to keep the Second tokens!

What are second tokens?
Second tokens represent the seconds you gain thanks to daring driving actions. You only earn them by making a Flat Out throw.

For every Gear, Coast or Leader die you use during a Flat Out roll, you get 1 Second token – even if you roll an exclamation mark.

Brake dice (red) do not yield Second tokens.

The tokens are available in values of 1, 3 and 5 seconds.

But you can’t just collect them – you can also use them tactically! During a normal turn and not Flat Out, you can use Second tokens to secure dice. That means you don’t have to roll them, and therefore don’t risk any exclamation points. You can secure as many dice as you want as long as you pay for them, you must do this before you roll a die, Once you have rolled then you may no longer secure that die.

Number secured dice	Costs in Seconds (total)
1st die	1 Second
2nd die	+2 Seconds (3 total)
3rd Die	+3 Seconds (6 total)

You pay for the tokens by putting them back into the general supply. After that, you may continue with your turn.

Important:
You cannot use Seconds to negate away effects or a Loss of Control. They only help to avoid risk in advance.

Loss of Control
If you lose control (e.g. by throwing too many exclamation points), you take a Time card corresponding to the gear you were driving in at the time. You turn this card over to the ‘O’ side and put it on top of your pile next to your dashboard.

A Loss of Control costs you more time than even the lowest gear – so you will have to drive faster to make up for it.

What happens in a crash?
On the Time Card, there is an icon at the top that determines what happens:
Spinout; Your car stays on the box. You lose time, but suffer no damage. Next turn, you straighten your car again and continue
Crash; Your car is placed next to the square where you lost control. You temporarily don’t count as an obstacle for other cars. Next turn place your car back on the original square and continue

Damage in the event of a crash
Below the icon, you can see how much damage your car takes, depending on the danger level of the terrain. You can tell by the colour of the sign on the tile. For each black mark on the time card, draw 1 damage token from the bag and place it face up on your dashboard. The damage tokens can be:

• Gear damage (-1 Gear); You may use 1 less gear die per turn
• Brake damage; You may use 1 less brake die per turn
• Coast/Leader damage; You may use 1 less Coast or Leader die per turn

These effects stack and can limit your dice to 0. Extra damage tokens are still kept even if they have no extra effect.

• Green flag; You are lucky! No effect

End of the turn

Your turn ends when any of the following things happen:
-You have finished your movement.
-Your are blocked.
-You have suffered a Loss of Control.

At the end of your turn, you take a Time card corresponding to your highest gear used. The higher the gear, the fewer seconds you add to your total time.

Did you not move or only use the white coast dice?
Then you take the same card as last turn.

Keep your Time cards in a stack next to your dashboard, the top card determines:

The order of play on a new round, your acceleration between turns and whether you are allowed to overtake. But most important is your starting acceleration for the next turn.

The extra rules on the tracks

Moving
There can only be one car on any space and you always move forwards in a straight line or diagonally to change lanes.

Corners
A rally without corners would only be half as exciting! Corners can be recognized by the speed limits (numbers in circles) between the inner and outer bend.

You can take a corner in two ways:
Inside bend
Shorter, but requires lower acceleration. You follow the speed limit of the inside lane.

Outer lane (drift)
Longer, but you may maintain a higher gear. You follow the limit of the outside lane. Your car is placed across the road to indicate that you are drifting. The lane then counts as two zones, separated by a dotted line.

You have to choose in advance how you take the corner – once in, you cannot change it.

Shortcuts
What would a Rally be without a little bit of off-road action? Some corners have shortcuts that might just save you time if your luck holds out. Shortcuts are special spaces recognizable by the shortcut symbol. The number inside the shortcut is a speed limitation. Player may enter or leave a shortcut space from or to any space connected to them except corner spaces. Anytime you enter a shortcut space, draw 1 damage token from the token bag and place if face down with the shortcut symbol on top.
The result can be:
Ok; you made it and place it onto your dashboard
Coast/Leader damage; place it on your dashboard, the number of coast/ leader dice is reduced by one for each of these tokens.
-1: You spray stones and mud onto the road! You are not affected but the drivers behind you are! Place this token onto the shortcut and the maximum speed is reduced by 1 for the corners, NOT the shortcut. A space with a speed limitation reduced to 0 or less becomes unusable. Cars may not enter these spaces.

Jumps
Some sections of road contain a jump, recognisable by the jump symbol, this is a bump you can use to cover extra distance. If you drive over this with the right gear, you can literally make a jump.

• Do you use a die with the same acceleration as the jump symbol? Then you jump 1 square forward.
• Do you use a die with one gear higher? Then you jump 2 spaces forward.
• Are you going two gears or more too fast? Then you also jump 2 squares, but you lose control as soon as you land.
• Are you driving in a lower gear? Then the section just counts as normal and you don’t make a jump.

You are not allowed to land in a section where there is already a car, and if you land in a bend, you can choose which lane you end up in. But beware: if you throw an exclamation mark while jumping, you immediately lose control of the landing box.

Water Hazards
Some stages contain water obstacles, such as rivers or streams. These are identified by the water symbol on the course. To cross a water obstacle, you must:

• Use a Coast die, or
• A Gear 1 die (without a brake die included).

Are you using a different gear or trying to brake in combination with Gear 1? Then your movement stops immediately on the square before the water. As soon as you exit the water, you may accelerate, decelerate, brake or drive the same speed as normal.

Overtaking
Although rallies are usually driven solo, you may find yourself overtaking another car. Want to drive alongside another car? Then you have to use a gear die or a Coast die that is equal to or higher than the gear of the car you want to overtake. You can see that acceleration on that player’s top time card.

For example:
If you are in gear 3, you may drive next to a car in gear 1, 2 or 3. But not next to someone in gear 4 or higher.
Once you drive next to it, you may just continue your movement at any speed.

Overtaking is also allowed diagonally, between two cars.

The Game Ends

The game ends once all players have reached the finish line. Then everyone adds up all the time cards, subtract any time tokens and the player with the shortest total time is the winner of this race.

Conclusion & end score

Difficulty: 1.70/ 5
Re-playability: 8
Our score: 8,5 out of 10 dice

Rallyman Dirt is a surprisingly accessible racing game that manages to get you on the edge of your seat time and time again. The rules are clear and uncluttered, although in our opinion the rules could have been more easily described in the rules, but you roll the dice to determine your speed and driving behavior, always weighing up whether you want to take risks or opt for control. Do you go into the corner full throttle or do you slow down a little to glide safely through the gravel?

I hear you ask, is this very different from Heat Pedal to the Metal? Yes definitely, Rallyman is more of a technical time trial full of risks and Heat is more dynamic, more interactive and leans on smart card playing and timing. Rallyman is much more luck based because you depend on the result you throw, you can influence this a bit by e.g. not taking risks but that is the charm of Rallyman. Heat remains in the top 9.5 of games but with Rallyman you have a very nice counterpart.

The game material is sturdy and looks nice, the modular tiles let you build a new course each time, and in this you can and may unleash your own creativity. The dice are large, colourful and nice to use. The map with your dashboard and the dice could have been a bit clearer, but it works fine.

Rallyman: Dirt remains an exciting game, whether you drive solo against the clock or compete with multiple players for the fastest time. Thanks to the many course combinations, replayability is particularly high. Every race feels like a new challenge. If you have other challenges, you even get to deal with different surfaces such as asphalt and snow/ice, allowing you to incorporate even more cool elements into your game. If you want a quieter lap, that’s also possible and just choose a course without water and jumps.

Do you love speed, sharp corners and that wonderful gnawing feeling of really getting on the gas? Then Rallyman: Dirt is a great addition to your gaming collection. Start the engines and roll those dice… and let the dust settle!

Thanks to Synapses Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about this game.