Rating: 6.3 Fair
Popularity:33
Difficulty:Easy
Year:1994
Players: 2-8 players
Playing time: 20-120 minutes
Age:12+

Official Site: RoboRally - Homepage on Avalon Hill's website at Wizards of the Coast


Created by: Richard Garfield, Peter Bergting, Bob Carasca, Phil Foglio, Daniel Gelon, Jennifer Lathrop, Paul Sottosanti, Franz Vohwinkel, Peter Whitley

Published by: 999 Games, AMIGO Spiel + Freizeit GmbH, Avalon Hill (Hasbro)

Alternate Names: RoboRally

Description:

Imagine that you're a supercomputer. Now imagine that you're bored. So you dream up a little contest for you and a couple of your supercomputing buddies. Your task is to move one of the stupid little robots out on the factory floor through a series of checkpoints scattered throughout the factory.

The wrinkle, however, is that the factory floor is filled with all kinds of inconvenient (if not down-right deadly) obstacles located in various locations: conveyor belts, crushers, flame-throwers, pushers, teleporters, oil slicks, pits, et cetera. But the real fun comes when the robots cross each other's path, and suddenly your perfect route is something less than that...

In RoboRally players each control a different robot in a race through a dangerous factory floor. Several goals will be placed on the board and you must navigate your robot to them in a specific order.

The boards can be combined in several different ways to accommodate different player counts and races can be as long or as short as player's desire.

In general, players will first fill all of their robot's "registers" with facedown movement cards. This happens simultaneously and there is a time element involved. If you don't act fast enough you are forced to place cards randomly to fill the rest. Then, starting with the first register, everyone reveals their card.

The card with the highest number moves first. After everyone resolves their movement they reveal the next card and so on. Examples of movement cards may be to turn 90 degrees left or right, move forward 2 spaces, or move backward 1 space though there are a bigger variety than that.

You can plan a perfect route, but if another robot runs into you it can push you off course. This can be disastrous since you can't reprogram any cards to fix it!

Robots fire lasers and factory elements resolve after each movement and robots may become damaged. If they take enough damage certain movement cards become fixed and can no longer be changed.

If they take more they may be destroyed entirely. The first robot to claim all the goals in the correct order wins, though some may award points and play tournament style.

Prices:
Retail Price:$47
Amazon:$42
Ebay:$55
Expansions:
RoboRally: Armed and Dangerous
RoboRally: Crash and Burn
RoboRally: Grand Prix
RoboRally: King of the Hill
RoboRally: Radioactive
Awards:
Årets Spill Best Strategy Game Nominee 2005
Origins Awards Best Graphic Presentation of a Boardgame Winner 1994
Origins Awards Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame Winner 1994


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Components

  • 6 double-sided gameboards
  • double-sided start board
  • 6 robot figures
  • 6 reboot tokens
  • 36 checkpoint tokens
  • plastic priority antenna
  • 6 checkpoints
  • 48 plastic energy cubes
  • 30-second sand timer
  • 6 robot player mats
  • 40 upgrade cards
  • six 20-card programming card decks
  • 6 special programming cards
  • 74 damage cards
  • vac tray
  • label sheet

Object of the Game

All week long, the robots of ROBO RALLY toil over their work. There's no escaping their factory home, so these robots know only one joy: to be the victor in their weekly race of survival and sabotage. …



Here's a more detailed look at the board elements and robot interactions that will affect your robots as they race through the factory.

Board Elements

Remember, board elements activate at the end of each register. An element affects a robot only when that robot sits on it at the end of a register.

As soon as the robot moves off a board element, whether as a result of that board element, the effects of upgrade cards, or robot interactions, the board element no longer affects the robot. …



On the following pages, you'll find a list of nineteen racing courses. The course descriptions will tell you which boards to use (each board is labeled with a number and a letter) and how to set up board elements. The courses are listed according to the following five difficulty levels.

  1. Starter Course: Dizzy Highway

    If you're playing for the first time, start here!

  2. Beginner

    Comfortable with the basic ROBO RALLY rules? Try these courses, where you'll need to interact with the board elements more than you did in Dizzy Highway. …



Here's a more detailed look at the different types of cards in ROBO RALLY.

Programming Cards

Move 1, Move 2, Move 3

Move your robot in the direction it is facing the number of spaces indicated.


  • Turn Right

    Turn your robot 90 degrees to the right. The robot remains in its current space.


  • Turn Left

    Turn your robot 90 degrees to the left. The robot remains in its current space.


  • U-turn

    Turn your robot 180 degrees so it faces the opposite direction. The robot remains in its current space. …



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