The really fun horse racing game! (University Games Really Nasty Horse Racing Game)

Member Name: stuff10

Product:	University Games Really Nasty Horse Racing Game
Date:	07/09/09 (58 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great idea, good quality, fun to play

Disadvantages: It ended! :(

The wife and I are fairly regular race-goers and enjoy sitting down and playing a board game every once in a while. Recently, whilst in The Works, we saw this game on offer for £4.99. The back of the box sounded interesting and so we made the purchase.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and we found a free evening to sit down with the in-laws and play the game... and what great fun it was!

The game contains a racing track board and 6 coloured horses. Each player chooses their horse and is given £20,000 to start the game. The meeting consists of 6 races, each with varying levels of prize money for the winning horses. Each player has 6 horses (one for each race) but these horses are rated 1-6 with 1 being the best horse and 6 being the worst. The player must decide which horse to enter into each race - do you put your best horse into the feature race and go for the big jackpot or do you choose a lesser race hoping for an easy victory?

With your horse order decided, it's time to deal out the lane cards which contain a number (1-6) determining which lane your horse races in. Lane 1 is the inside track and provides a distinct advantage over lane 6 which is much further for the horse to run.

With the horses placed at the start line, it's time to consult a handy table which gives you the horses' odds - because as well as wanting your horse to win, you can also place a bet on a rival horse if you think it'll do well.

After you've placed your bets it's time to start the game and the horse on the inside track rolls the dice and moves forward that number of spaces. The player to the left then rolls the dice and so on. The first horse to pass the finishing line is the winner and receives the prize money.

Sounds fairly mundane doesn't it? Well, what I didn't tell you is that each player also has a number of "really nasty" cards which can affect the outcome of the race... The course contains a number of fences and if a player lands on a fence another player can unseat the rider if they have the correct "really nasty" card! This makes for some strategic racing as you can take out your rivals, but you can only use each card once for the entire game. Other cards include stewards enquiries where you can roll the dice to affect the outcome of the race and re-seated rider cards which enable your rider to remount the horse if they fall off!

There's also a number of special squares which allow you to double your dice throw if you land on them and if you're using the right grade of horse. For example your best horse (horse 1) has 3 possible double-up squares to land on whereas your worst horse (horse 6) only has one - this is where your strategy of when to race your best horse comes into play!

After around 2 hours of playing, I was declared the clear winner having amassed over £2.2m in winnings. All of the family really enjoyed the game and we're looking forward to playing it again!

Summary: If you like board games and you like horse racing, you will love this!