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Formula Dé
Players	2–10
Age range	12 +
Setup time	10 minutes
Playing time	120 minutes
Rules complexity	Medium
Strategy depth	Medium
Random chance	Medium
Skills required	Strategic thinking, Resource management

Formula Dé is a board game that simulates formula racing (F1, CART, IRL). It is for two to ten players. It was designed by Eric Randall and Laurent Lavaur and published by Ludodelire. The rights to the game passed to Eurogames with the collapse of Ludodelire. Eurogames was subsequently acquired by Jeux Descartes, the game´s current publisher.

Contents 1 Object of the Game 2 Game mechanic 3 Circuits 4 Variants 5 External links

Object of the Game

The game is about formula racing, with an emphasis on Formula 1. The object of the game is to win a race and cross the finish line. Races can be anywhere from one to three laps long. Formula Dé comes with a game board measuring 100 x 70 cm (39 x 28 inches), seven specialized dice, ten plastic race cars, ten gearshift and dashboard indicators, and race sheets for one, two, and three lap races.

The game has seven dice. There are six colored dice (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20, and d30) that are used to simulate specific gears, and a black d20 used for collisions, and other course events.

Each of the dice represent a gear shift. The d4 is used for 1st gear, the d6 for 2nd gear and so on. Each die has a series of numbers representing the number of spaces the F1 cars move.

The black die is a d20 and used for determining collisions, engine wear during fifth and sixth gears, pit stop speed, pole position, and whether or not at the beginning of the first lap you stalled, or had a flying start. If you are playing with the advanced rules, you can set up weather conditions with the black die.

Game mechanic

The play method of Formula Dé is very simple. Each player takes a race sheet for their car, which tracks damage to different parts of their car's systems. If any system is damaged too far, their car is eliminated from the race, and they are out of the game.

On any given player's turn, they are required to choose which gear they want their car to be in. The chosen gear may be only one higher than the previous turn's gear, or may be one lower with no penalty; they may also select a gear two, three, or four lower but this "gear crashing" causes damage to several car systems depending on how many gears were skipped. Having selected a gear, the player must roll the appropriate dice for that gear. The coloured dice vary not only in number of sides but also in the range of numbers represented (they are not traditionally numbered dice). The player must then move their car a number of spaces equal to the roll.

The catch is that the squares making up each corner on the racetrack are coloured differently to other squares, marked with a flag indicating a number. If the number is 1, the player must arrange that they end a turn inside the coloured area. If the number is 2, the player must end 2 turns inside the coloured area, and so on. If a player fails to end the required number of turns inside the coloured area, they suffer a penalty, which may range from damage to the car's tires and brakes to immediate elimination of the car in the case where more than two turn endings were skipped.

Since the player is obliged to move the full distance rolled on the dice, the core aim of the game is to time and carefully manage gear changes to ensure that turns end at the required points while not requiring the player to set their gear too low and waste time speeding up again after the corner. Players may also wish to accept some damage to their tires in order to outpace rivals.

Circuits

Along with the two circuits that come with the main game, additional boards with different circuits on them can be purchased. The additional circuits are purely an expansion set; you need the original Formula Dé board game use them. They are usually sold two circuits per package. The circuits are as follows:

• Circuits 1 & 2: Monaco & Zandvoort No. 1 (Netherlands) (included in base game set.)
• Circuits 3 & 4: Zandvoort No. 2 & Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium)
• Circuits 5 & 6: Kyalami (South Africa) & Enzo (San Marino)
• Circuits 7 & 8: Magny-Cours (France) & Monza (Italy)
• Circuits 9 & 10: Estoril (Portugal) & Interlagos (Brazil)
• Circuits 11 & 12: Watkins Glen (USA) & Silverstone (England)
• Circuits 13 & 14: Montreal (Canada) & Long Beach (USA)
• Circuits 15 & 16: Hockenheim (Germany) & Zeltweg (Austria)
• Circuits 17 & 18: Buenos Aires (Argentina) & Barcelona (Spain)
• Circuits 19 & 20: Suzuka (Japan) & Melbourne (Australia)
• Circuits 21 & 22: Budapest (Hungary) & Nurburgring (Germany)
• Circuits 23, 24, 25 & 26 (USA Pack #1): Monterey, Portland, Elkhart Lake, & Indianapolis
• Circuits 27, 28, 29 & 30 (USA Pack #2): Detroit, Lexington, Atlanta, & Daytona Beach
• Circuits 31 & 32: Zhuhai (China) & Sepang (Malaysia)
• Circuit 33: 10th Anniversary Circuit (fictional)
• Circuits 34 & 35: Sakhir (Bahrain) & Shanghai (China)

Variants

By far the most popular rules variation to Formula Dé is the doubled straights rule, where each space on a straight (ie, not within a coloured corner area) requires two squares of movement to pass rather than one. This encourages the use of high gears (which is otherwise relatively rare) and makes the tactical timing for dealing with the corners even more important.

One criticism of the game is that a single square of movement rolled can make a significant difference. The standard case of this is that a roll that leaves the player ending a turn on the first square of a corner area is the best possible result, as they can then begin accelerating again immediately; whereas had the roll been one value lower, the car would have stopped just outside the corner area, which is the worst possible result as the player must ensure that their entire next move fits within the corner area. Some authors have proposed variant rules to correct this but they usually succeed only at moving the problem to a different roll value.

External links

• BoardGameGeek reviews and pictures of the game
• Formula PC, an online version of the game
• Formule Dé Online, a version of the game using the original gameboard lay-outs.

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