Stats:
No. of players: 1-4
Amount of time to play: 45 min
Age requirements: 9+
Set-up time: 5 minutes

Rallyman simulates a rally race on asphalt or snow. You must drive aggressively and push your car and your luck to the limits. Push things too much and you’ll damage your car. Don’t push hard enough and you won’t win the race.

Rallyman Rules Description:

First you set up the race track which can be made up of 1-4 boards. The boards are double sided with asphalt on one side and snow on the other. Turns and shortcuts on the board are marked with the maximum gear you may be in as you drive through them.

Each turn you roll a chain of dice, one for each gear and two dice for simply accelerating and staying in the same gear. Your car has five gears, so you have seven dice total. Each die you roll moves your car one space on the track and must be within one of the die rolled before it. At the end of your roll and move you take a card with the gear you ended in. The next round you roll again but start with the gear from the card on top of you stack. Each die may only be rolled once per turn.

For example, in turn one you could roll first, second and then third gear. You would move three spaces and take a 3 card. Your next turn, you could roll second, third, fourth then fifth gear dice. You would move four spaces on the board and take a 5 card.

Each gear card has a time associated with it. The higher the gear, the lower the time.

Each die has one or two sides with a loss of control mark on it. If you roll three of these marks on one turn, you lose control of your car. This might result in damaging your car (and losing gears) or spinning out and having to start in first gear again.

When you roll the dice you may either roll them one at a time or all at once. If you roll them one at a time you may stop at anytime. (Like once you roll two loss of control symbols.) If you roll them all at one time you must accept the result. But you get a one second marker for each die you rolled. Second markers may be used to choose a die roll (when rolling one at a time). If you have any left at the end of the race you subtract them from your time.

Once everyone has finished, you add your stack of gear cards and subtract your left over second markers. The player with the lowest time wins. You can even play Rallyman in segments racing three stages.

Quick Review of Rallyman:

Rallyman is an excellent technical racing game. You must pay attention and figure out the best way to attack the course. There is good tension as you push your car and luck.

I really like the way you have to think about the gears and what gear you want to finish the turn in versus what space you’ll be in. There are fun, meaningful decisions to make too. Do you roll all the dice at once to shave a few more seconds off your time or play it safe and roll them one at a time? Should you take the shortcut and risk blowing a tire?

Rallyman’s gear mechanic makes it feel like a rally race. The theme fits the mechanics very well. You have the flexibility to play with a small group of friends or by yourself too.

The components for Rallyman are excellent. There are a few rough spots in the translation of the rules, but nothing you can’t figure out really quickly.

Rallyman is not perfect though. There can be a bit of downtime between turns, especially in a three or four player game. You also do not interact with other players much. It is rare for one car to pass another when all players have a good handle on the game. The end of the game can be anti-climatic if someone has a large lead.

All said, the balance of skill and luck mixed with how you must press your luck makes Rallyman an excellent racing game. If you enjoy racing games this is a must try. I think most any board gamer will enjoy Rallyman. It is great for families and a wide variety of ages can enjoy this game.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 1 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 3 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6