I like a good racing game. So I got to try Rallyman Dirt at Gen Con this year, and I was interested in it. I own a copy, I need to play my copy, but Board Game Arena now has it up on there. So I now have played it a bunch of times on there. Just a caveat with it, I need to play the game in person the whole way through. That is going to tell me if it works well in person, but from my demo at Gen Con, in person, and online plays, I think it will. But does that matter? Is Rallyman Dirt a good game?

How To Play Rallyman Dirt

The first part of the game that might be out of the normal is you need to build the track. You build out a course that you want, the box comes with some ideas for them, and you can start to race. Though, Rallyman Dirt is different than some other racing games.

Rally Time

Let’s quickly talk about how rally racing works. Cars are on the course not at the same time, or they are staggered in what order they go in. If you get caught, that is bad. And generally, a rally is held over several races, we’ll get to why that matters here in a minute. Just know that it isn’t a mass start from a starting line, like a gam like Heat or Formula D.

Planning and Rolling

So the first player grabs their dice. The dice number 1 through 6, a red die, and two yellow dice for the first player. Following players swap the two yellow dice for two white dice. You plan out your course next. You start in first gear and then move to higher gears. The higher the gear, the faster you go. Of course, you don’t always want to be in a high gear. You reach a corner and go to fast, it is going to go poorly for you.

Once you plan out your route, you roll the dice. You either roll them all at once, or one at a time. If you roll them all at once you geta time reduction in seconds equal to the number of dice you rolled. If you roll them one at a time you can stop whenever. The advantage to rolling one at a time is that you can avoid a crash or spinout if you go out of control, mainly because you know when you will potentially be rolling enough symbols to go out of control. And the leader is at a disadvantage. The leader rolls for their dice, two yellow dice, and those have a higher chance of a crash.

Turn Order

Another element I want to talk about is how turn order works. Because it goes out of order, in some ways. In a four player game, the first player goes twice before the second player. Then the first and second player go again before the third. This is to keep you spaced out on the course.

The Finish

At the end of the race you count up the time that you took on the course, you get a tile for each gear you were in at the end of each turn that makes up your time. And then you subtract time for each die that you rolled while going flat out. The fastest time wins that leg of the rally.

Then in order from first to last, you go on a new course. I like to play three races in a row, but how many you want to do is up to you. You even can do one race, but that means one person is at a disadvantage because they roll the yellow dice. At the end of all the races, and you adjust the order each time, the person with the fastest overall time is the winner.

What Doesn’t Work

I think that people will find it out, and I agree it kind of is, how the turn order works. But that is somewhat to simulate how a rally race actually works. But it is also to keep cars from bunching up. If you are following the leader, you don’t want to end up accidentally blocked, and it can happen. So you need to strategize your turns. Sometimes moving less is okay because you just go fast for a short distance and take a small amount of time.

What Works

Time System

The timing system in the game is clever. I like how you get a tile for the gear you were in at the end of each turn. So if you are going fast, it’s a gear with less time. I think gear six, you get 10 seconds added to your time. And if you go flat out, roll all the dice at once, you maybe reduce your time by another 4-5 seconds, depending on how far you went. But then you also need to slam it into lower gears often too.

I also like how the timing system doesn’t just allow you to stick in a high gear. Sure, I could stay in gear 6 as much as possible and move one to three spots a round, but that means that I’m taking a lot of those tokens. Sometimes it’s better to slam it into a low gear after moving a long distance so that you can really push how far you go. Because a slower time but further along the track means that you are taking fewer turns to get around the track, which means fewer time tokens overall.

Coasting

And the yellow and white dice are great. They are the coasting dice. Basically dice that let you maintain a speed. But if you are the leader in the race, you don’t know what is coming up. So while you aren’t going to be crashing all the time, the yellow dice increase those odds. And because someone has been on the course before, the white dice make it easier for you.

The Tracks

One element that I didn’t mention that I like are the hazards or obstacles on the track. You might have a jump, if you meet the speed total for the jump or are one higher you clear an extra space. Too much speed and you end up spinning out. Then there is water that you need to either cross in first gear or while coasting. And there are shortcuts on the tracks. Basically corners that you can hit and drift through a little area to make it even shorter and keep your speed even faster. Plus more elements as well.

And on the topic of tracks, I like how the tracks are just hexes. That means that you build the track you want. You want only big sweeping curves to keep the speeds fast, you can do that. You want a really technical course with a lot of hazards, sharp turns, and some shortcuts, you can do that as well. Or you pick from the tracks in the book that make up a three race rally and go you from there and play those. The game gives you a lot of freedom.

Simplicity

Finally, I want to talk about the simplicity. It is easy to understand what is going on. You don’t need to spend a lot of time learning about how gears work, what all the steps are that you check or anything like that. You literally place the dice onto the track to plot out how you are going to be going. And because you can only hit each gear once per turn, you don’t play with a ton of choices. At the start, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, coast and coast is a reasonable turn that everyone will do.

But as you get further along the track and as people spin out or run into issues or try different lines, the race really changes up. What it never does, though, is bog you down with too many choices. It’s set the dice out based off of the gear you ended the previous turn in and see how far and fast you can get.

Who Is Rallyman Dirt For?

I think Rallyman Dirt is a game for people who like dice chucking, but not just dice chucking and see what happens. There are definitely some fun options in terms of strategy with how you plan out your gears, when you try and push it as hard as you can, and when you go flat out and roll and when you roll one die at a time.

If someone is looking for a very technical racing game, this isn’t going to be it. But for people who want a fun game, a beer and pretzels style racing game but one that isn’t just luck and chaos, this is going to be a good game.

I also think this is a good game for people who want a racing game. This and Heat: Pedal to the Metal offer pretty easy to understanding racing without it feeling like a kids game or a luck fest. And I appreciate that I lot, and I think a lot of people will like it for that reason.

Final Thoughts on Rallyman Dirt

I like Rallyman Dirt a lot. I think that probably comes across easily with how long the section is for elements that work. For me, I know that I like a lot of racing games. And while I already own and play a number of racing games, this one still has a spot on my shelf because it feels like it does something different. The time trial element to it is great. I love connecting a few races together as well to face a bigger challenge.

The flexibility of Rallyman Dirt is great as well. I like how I am able to set-up or race on a track that is unique or different every time. Or maybe I want to do a rally on prebuilt tracks. There is a lot of variety in that. But also with the dice play, it has the flexibility for new gamers to jump into a game. I think that with the turn structure it even helps out with that more. When I teach the game I am going to be the first player, I am going to take the bad dice. Why, because I go twice before anyone else does, so they see how turns work in the game.

Rallyman Dirt is going to easily go into a rotation of racing games for me. I know I want to play more Heat: Pedal to the Metal. And I like games that are goofy like Titans Race, Tiny Turbo Cars, and PitchCar as well for racing. But this one lands in a great spot for me. Now I need to play my heavier racing games as well.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B-
Casual Grade: A-

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