Cardboard Corner: Review of Steampunk Rally

In the Polish language exists the word kombinować. Its meaning can be straightforward, as in the English “to combine”, but it is most often used in the sense “to cleverly manipulate a situation to one's advantage”. , In other words, to use the elements at your disposal in crafty fashion to get something beneficial for yourself or to avoid a bad outcome. The government warns citizens not to “combine” during tax season, and children who generate lengthy excuses for their capers are told “don't combine!”. Steampunk Rally, the 2015 racing game, is the ultimate opportunity for people to kombinować.

Building wonderfully from theme, Steampunk Rally is a racing game for two to eight players. In the course of a game players build and wreck steampunk jalopies, trying to generate movement while somehow staying wired together. Push too hard and you may find yourself in a trash heap aside the track. Push too little and you'll have a big beautiful machine but lag behind. Find the right balance of speed and safety, and you may be among the racers vying for the lead as the finish line comes into view. The player who crosses the finish line furthest, wins.

Every round of Steampunk Rally goes through a cycle of four phases. Players will pay money to add parts to their vehicles, gain dice from cards, vent excess steam roll dice, place dice, generate movement and shields, and take special boost actions. Cards and special actions can also grant players movement forward on the racetrack. Repeating all these steps as the rounds move forward allows a player to combine and recombine their cards and dice to maximize movement. On the board this looks like a bunch of junk cars, moving in fits and spurts as every player tries to coax just a little more movement. Wonderfully thematic.

The game board is actually a set of modular tiles that can be used to create different racetracks of varying difficulty. Double-sided as well, the tiles offer two motifs: Swiss Alps and... what I guess could be called “future circus”? The Alps are standard while the circus is for more advanced for players who really want to kombinować. Vehicle health is tracked on solidly constructed dials, one per player, and vehicle components are featured on nicely illustrated cards which perfectly fit the theme. As a piece of cardboard culture, Steampunk Rally looks great on the table, it's art and production bringing to life the concept excellently.

One of the best aspects of Steampunk Rally is simultaneous action. Giving the game a somewhat frenetic feel, players madly assemble and reassemble their jalopies during the rounds, adding dice and spending dice trying to find ways of getting safe speed. It also makes sure the game moves at a good pace—appropriate for racing, no? While learning the game, players will want to take the time to go through every person's turn individually to get the rules right. But once the learning game is under the belt, the players can do all their mad work at the same time.

Steampunk Rally is one of those board games I can't figure out how it doesn't get more love. Everything fits together wonderfully. Building funnily shaped vehicles which jerk forward and crash. Being clever in capturing synergy among vehicle parts. The fun art style and excellent production. And of course the racing element, which is done simultaneously, giving the game a fun, frantic feel that ups the social ante. There's a bit of a learning curve coming to terms with the flow of phases and how the vehicle cards interact, but those are things my young son grasped after two games. Playtime roughly an hour, it doesn't overstay its welcome, and given the dynamic nature of gameplay the time seems to fly by. Overall a very fun, family friendly game that comes most recommended to people who like to kombinować.

Note: There is another version of the game called Steampunk Rally Fusion. If your only choice is to try/buy Fusion, do it. It's 95% the same, perhaps even a spot better. If you already own Steampunk Rally, the Fusion version offers two new maps, new inventors, all new cards, and a couple new mechanisms. It's worth your while if you play the game a lot.