Help Kickstart This Grand Prix-Inspired Board Game

Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of board games. There are rules to be followed and pieces to be lost, and even the most “simple” modern ones—I’m looking at you, Settlers—seems to have a million different pieces and variables. In contrast, the game you see here has a simple folding board, six pieces, a standard stack of playing cards, dice, and…that’s about it. So when I saw Lacorsa, I reached out to its creator, Mark Haskins, to see if he’d bring it by the Petrolicious office for a round or two.

The objective is simple: you’ve got to pass your rivals. Each race sees all cards drawn to players, who in turn use their hand as a resource to be managed. Like in War, you’re constantly waging battle—in this case for position on the single-track board—with other players through the use of these cards. Higher cards are better as far as position goes, so players who start the race from the back after qualifying will be challenging players ahead using their best cards.

We played three races, and I finished second, fourth, and first—ranking just behind Haskins in total points. There was a lot of strategy that played out, and the game’s versatility had us wondering how differently we could have raced. For instance, players can control multiple cars, scoring points for each; it’s possible to add in “crashes”, which take out two cars if players draw a tie. With races taking well under 30 minutes, especially once players are familiar with how it works, you’ll want to run multiple rounds to determine a winner…especially if you’re on a losing streak.

Haskins is funding his project through Kickstarter, and you’re able to order a copy today. If Lacorsa is fully funded, production will start and the first round of games is expected to be in your hands by January 2017.

Having played just a few rounds already, it’ll be a long wait. Check it out!