Category Archives: formula d

formula d

Won the battle…

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night

But lost the war.

That best describes the finale for our second season of Formula D.

The starting positions for this race were:

Pole position – Debbie

2nd – Jonathan

3rd – Katie (3rd in previous race)

4th – Me (2nd place in previous race)

5th – winner of the last race Diego

The track for this showdown was the base games Monaco circuit.

Jonathan had the perfect start and had the automatic 4 space start. While the rest of us luckily didn’t stall, and had to settle for ones or twos. But by the first corner that great start had been squandered, and Jonathan was sitting at the back of the pack.

Briefly I was in the lead, but going into the first three stop corner I was now at the back. However somehow I had my tactics spot on for the corner, and was coming out of it on a higher gear than the others, that allowed me to jump back into the running again. I think this was the best I had ever navigated my way round that corner. Wish I had paid attention to what I had been doing.

By the time the last corner was being negotiated Katie was in the lead, ready to do a pit stop. I was close behind in second. While Debbie, Jonathan and Diego were fighting it out behind us.

I thought I could exploit the fact Katie was having a pitstop to take the lead and build a buffer between us. And I did take the lead from Katie, however not a big enough one to stop Katie spending the rest of the second lap duelling for top spot. Katie had been a bit more reckless/unlucky and was down to one tire point. So had to be more careful than me on corners. And it was this that allowed me to take the lead at a crucial point when Katie span out on the set of two stop corners.

Meanwhile while Katie and I were battling for first place, there was an equally fluid battle for third spot. That was looking like Jonathan had the advantage and third place, with Debbie being in front of Diego, who was last.

But that last set of two stop corners was also turning out to be a crucial area, it allowed Diego to over take Debbie, and slowed Jonathan down.

As the last three were about to hit the final corner, I sped across the finish line in first place. Taking my first victory in our league. Katie took second comfortably.

I thought Jonathan was a cert for third spot. But Diego out of nowhere it seemed, and much better dice rolls, stole whatever little glory was left away from him.

The final race results were:

  1. Me
  2. Katie
  3. Diego
  4. Jonathan
  5. Debbie

The final standings after our three race season were as follows:

  1. Katie (1,3,2)
  2. Me (4,2,1)
  3. Diego (5,1,3)
  4. Jonathan (2,4,4)
  5. Debbie (3,5,5)

Katie successfully defended her title. But only just. It was a narrow margin she won by. Whilst Debbie also successfully held on to the “Driving Miss Daisy” Cup. So named because obviously last place was driving like they were taking an old lady round the track.

A great last race for season 2. Will Katie manage to defend her title in season 3? We will add in the weather rule for that season!

The Streak Ends!

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night

Last night saw the second race of our Formula D league season two. The circuit for this race was Singapore.

As per our house rules our starting grid was the reverse order of the finishing positions of the previous race. Which meant Katie the reigning champ and winner of the first race of season two was starting at the back of the grid. Jonathan was in position four, Debbie three, myself in second and Diego was pole position.

I stalled on the starting grid, which Jonathan thought was funny. well until he did exactly the same thing!

Somewhere in the first half of the first lap, Katie manages to move up through the pack into pole position. We don’t know how, but it happens. It has been a mystery to us. Diego wasn’t going to let his lead go that easily, and he managed to hold on to it for at least three quarters of the first lap.

Unusually for me I was taking very little damage on my way round the track. While Katie and Diego were vying for first place, Jonathan and I were trading blows over third. Debbie was happily bringing up the rare, sometimes getting within striking distance of making a move for fourth.

Katie had the lead by the end of the first lap, but she needed a pitstop. Diego was second, and made the call he didn’t need to stop. Jonathan was third, and also in pretty bad shape that he needed to do a pitstop. The pitstops gave Diego and myself the opportunity to gain ground and challenge for the top spot.

We weren’t entirely sure that we had the advance pitstop rules interrupted correctly. They seemed to be a bit confusing. So we will have to go on to bgg and investigate.

In the meantime, lap two was continuing like the first, but tighter.

Diego and Katie were battling for first place. With the advantage clearly with Diego. While Jonathan and I continued our dueling for third.

Somehow I was driving exceedingly well. I was rarely overshooting, my gear selection was working for me. I was making ground on Katie in second! That was helped by her and Diego both skidding on this lap. They had both overshot too many times. As had Jonathan, which meant that I was in remarkable good shape for the second lap, and no pitstop.

In the second third of the track I overtook Katie! I wasn’t going to catch Diego up who was closing in on the finish line. The gap between me and Katie grew. She was having to be extra cautious, overshooting for her could mean instant elimination.

Diego had done what we had thought impossible. He had beaten Katie and taken the win. I crossed the finish line in second. I too had beaten Katie!! This was unheard of in the short history of the league. Katie had suffered her first defeat, and fallen to third place. Jonathan crossed in fourth with Debbie limping over in last place. Katie’s winning streak had come to an abrupt end.

Despite there being a new race winner. Katie is still top of the points table. In the third and final race of the league in the new year Katie will be starting in the middle of the pack. But the pressure will be on for her to reclaim her title, and start a new streak. Will that pressure be too much?

Song Remains the Same

Fenland Gamers, formula d, Game day, game night, zombicide

Yesterday at my place of employment on our day off, my colleague and I met up to take on the zombie horde in Epic Zombicide!

I set up a six by five city map, with our soul objective of getting from our start position to one of the two exit points.

I’d tailored the search deck with a mixture of weapons, and useful stuff (no food basically). We were up against regular zombies, brutes, skinners and toxic zombies. Plus those crowz. 

Throughout the map were randomly placed cars to be searched and driven. In the car search pile I did have one aargh card shuffled in. Just to give it a little tension while searching.

We managed to get everyone out. And that’s despite whenever we thought we would investigate a building it only made things worse. The building I was going to look in revealed a fattie. While the one my colleague was going to go into introduced an abomination onto the map! Luckily it was a regular abomination with three hit points, and I had a weapon that did three damage.

For me this randomly thrown together scenario and objective was easy. Maybe too easy. But for introducing a noob to the game like my colleague, I think this was pitched nicely at the right level.

Tomorrow it’s more Epic Zombicide. I may step it up by putting an objective that forces us into a building to achieve before making a dash to the exit point.

Last night saw the start of season two of our Formula D League.


Spoiler alert, the Formula D machine that is Katie continued off where she left off from the inaugural season of our league, with a win.

Katie won the first season with a clean sweep of victories.

For our second season we upped our game and moved on to the advanced rules. We haven’t gone “complete” advanced and started using weather and deciding our own wear points. That will be season three. 

In the meantime we are still wondering what exactly we have to do to beat Katie.

During both laps there were brief moments when I was in front. But on both occasions that lead was squandered somehow. Most of the time I was battling it out with Jonathan for second place. 

Somehow in the last third of the final lap  I went from second place to fourth! Debbie did amazing to come up and take third from me on the final two corners.

In fact I’m still in shock.

Wow the advanced rules! Having all those   different wear points. It makes decisions like over shooting, collisions, dropping gears far more “interesting”. They all have different impacts on the various aspects of your wear points. And severly  limit the number of times you do any of them. 

The overshoot spin out rule on corners is cool, and adds even more consequences to the action.

Jonathan particularly liked the changes to the pit stop rule. Which made it more realistic. And I did like it too. Like a real pit stop the only thing that gets repaired are the tires, plus you have to roll for how quick the tire change was done. Brilliant.

Plus we now get debris on the track from collisions etc. Cool!

Yeah the advanced rules are fun, forcing you to be more thoughtful in your driving! Love them.

But who will dethrone Katie?

Formula D League Finale

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night, Uncategorized

Wednesday saw the final race of our mini Formula D league on the base games track.

Once more our starting positions were decided using the handicapped system previously suggested by Jonsthan. Which is basically reverse finishing order of the previous race. So the winner is at the back, while the loser is in pole position. 

So with Jo a no show for this final race, and dropping valuable points, she had consolidated her place as last overall.

Having two comprehensive wins previously Katie was the clear overall leader. The best I could hope for was to win and for Katie to not finish, and then I could draw with her. All Katie needed to do was cross the finish line and score to cement her victory.

In reality this race would be all about Jonathan and myself fighting it out for the scraps or more accurately second place.


Jonathan stalled at the start once more! Going into the the first three stop corner I was still in the lead. Coming out of it somehow Katie was in front, and I was last!

How does she do this? There is some trickery going on here.

For the rest of the race Katie held onto her lead pretty convincingly. Whilst Jonathan and I battled it out for second place. Which for a lot of the race looked like a battle Jonathan was winning.

Everything came down to the final four corners. As we negotiated them it looked like we might even steal first place from Katie at one point. But that was false hope. 

With some “brave” (read over shooting and taking wear points) driving, I took second away from Jonathan, as Katie pulled away. 

Katie easily scored her third win, making that a clean sweep of victories.

I came in second, while Jonathan limped in third. Jonathan and I had both been driving on the edge and had finished with barely any wear points left.

So the final standings were:

  1. Katie (9 points – 1/1/1)
  2. Me (5 points – 2/3/2)
  3. Jonathan (3 [not the 4 I originally put – thank you Martin for pointing this big mistake out] points DNF/2/3)
  4. Jo (1 point 3/4/DNS)

DNF – Did not finish

DNS – Did not start

A great three race season, using the beginner rules. There will be another second season starting in the Autumn using the Advanced rules, and possibly an extra track (finances permitting). 

Our hope is the advance rules will slow down the winning machine that is Katie!

Wacky Races

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night
It was the end of the month. Which meant it was time for the second race in our inaugural Formula D League. In our first race Katie ran away with the victory, while Jonathan did not finish.
In a cunning plan, which I'm sure he'd been plotting since his going out in flames in the first race, Jonathan suggested a “handicapping” for starting order. Which saw Jonathan in pole position, Jo in second, myself in third, and Katie in last place. Basically the reverse order of the results from the previous race.
So even with the head start and an initial lead where it looked like Katie was getting a strong hold on last place, and a little smack talk from me. Somehow and I'm still not sure how even as I write this, Katie was in the lead, and pulling away. I think we lost it on the corners.
As Katie casually raced around the track admiring the sights and sounds of Singapore, Jonathan and I had a little tussle for second and third place, which in the end he ended up winning comfortably. Finally limping across the finish line and taking home the “Driving Miss Daisy” cup for last place was Jo.
That's back to back victories for Katie, a first time finish for Jonathan. I don't think anyone is going to touch Katie for taking the honours of champion at the end of our next race, however there's everything to play for, for the other podium places for the rest of us.

We ended the evening by introducing Katie to Bohemian Villages. Jonathan and I really should stop trying to play the “meta” game and using Jedi mind tricks on others to try and get a tactical advantage, and concentrate on playing. Katie kicked our butts at this game, some would argue beginners luck. But not I. Getting a massive score of sixty three is not luck.

Before our racing started Jonathan and myself had met up a little early to play a game or two as warm up. So we played Nations the Dice Game.

Our first game saw a couple of miss plays, like scoring only one point for being in front in books instead of two. The other more crucial was missing out the fourth age/round. DOH!

Neither of us got much of an engine going, mainly because there were very few tiles coming out to buy that gave us extra dice.

I sneaked the win. Despite the misplays, Jonathan liked the game enough to give it a second play. This time we played it correctly, and with more tiles coming out that gave more dice, engines kicked in, and more options of what to do became available.

Jonathan liked the game, and made the comment I think everyone makes after playing it, I know I have, it's over way too quickly. You just want it to go on for another round or two.

A great evening gaming once again.

Peddle to the metal

Fenland Gamers, formula d, game night

Last night saw the inaugural race of the Fenland Gamers Formula D league.

We chose for our first race the Valencia race track from the Circuits 2 pack for the game. After some great indecision amongst ourselves we decided that the races for our league would consist of two laps of the track. Something we hadn't done before, and also meant we would have pit stops too. Another new thing for us playing the game.

For the inaugural season of our league we are using the basic rules for the game.

So which brave souls decided to risk all whizzing round the tarmac for fame and fortune? First up on the grid in pole position was Katie, taking second place on the starting grid was Jo, in the third starting position was myself and in last position on the grid was Jonathan.

Jonathan repeating his “dice hate me” rolling from when we play Memoir '44 rolled so that he stalled his engine. Katie and Jo made good use of their advantageous starting positions on the grid, and took an early lead, battling it out for pole position. Katie edged in front, as I caught up and did battle for second place with Jo.

With great negotiation of the corners Katie extended her lead, enabling her to take a pit stop and continue as if nothing had happened. Jo and I also pit stopped, with me getting the edge and getting back out first. Meanwhile in the Lewis Hamilton position Jonathan was doing his best to catch up and took the risky tactical decision of not stopping for a pit stop.

That decision quickly came back to haunt him when he over shot the first corner big time and took enough damage to take him out of the race.

Katie was so far out in front there was no way Jo or I would catch her up. As she cruised over the finish line, Jo and I were left battling over second and third spots. Jo edged out in front. On the penultimate corner I snatched the lead back and held on to it to grab second place. Leaving Jo to finish in third.

We followed up Katie's emphatic victory in our first Formula D race with a game of cunning and bluffing, Batman Love Letter. By the end of the first round Katie had three points, one more in the next round it would be another win for her.

Luckily my mind reading act guessed her card and forced her out of the round before she had a chance to grab the win. Jonathan used this opportunity to score a couple of points.

Our final round was won quickly with Katie guessing my card to give her the final point needed for victory.

The final game of the evening was King of Tokyo. As our kaiju (I think that is the correct Japanese term for these monsters) battled it out over Tokyo I was watching the others rack up victory points leaving me with only one real tactic if I was to win, be the last one standing.

Katie's luck had run out, she was the first to be eliminated. Not long after Jo managed to knock out Jonathan, but in doing so left herself open to a final blow from myself to grab the win.

A great start to our Formula D league, race two happens in a months time.