Spring Rally Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Objective of the Game
• Contents
• Set-up
• Play
  • Play Overview
  • How to Play
  • How Does the Spring Work?
  • End of the Round
  • Track
• End of the Game

Objective of the Game

Whoever first finishes two laps around the track wins.

Contents

• 1 Game board (Beach Track and Volcano Track, double-sided)
• 5 Wooden cars (in 5 colors)
• 45 Rally cards (3 suits, with numbers 1–15 in each suit)
• Spring tile sets: 5 outer rings (double-sided), 5 inner rings in the player colors
• 5 Wind-up keys
• Starting player token
• Trophy token

For 3–5 players, 20 minutes, ages 8 and up.

Set-up

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table. The board is double-sided with two distinctive race tracks. You can use either side of the board.
2. Assemble each spring tile by placing the outer ring on the table with the yellow side face up, then placing a colored inner ring of your choice inside this outer ring. Place a key in the inner ring, set this key to a value of 0, and give this spring to a player.
3. Take the wooden cars that match the color of the inner spring tiles in play, and place these cars on the starting location on the board.
4. Adjust the card deck based on the number of players. Use all three suits of cards regardless of the number of players, but with: 3 players, only cards 2–10; 4 players, only cards 2–13; 5 players, cards 1–15. Return unused cards to the box. Shuffle the cards to be used in the game, then for the first round deal five cards to each player. Place the remaining cards face down near the game board.
5. Give the Starting player token to the best driver among the players. This player is the driver, and will lead on the first trick of the game.

Play

Play Overview

On each turn of the game, each player plays one card to the table. These cards constitute the trick. After each trick, one player moves their car forward while everyone else winds up their spring. Once players have played all of their cards, all players then release their springs and advance their cars, then the round ends. Shuffle the cards to prepare for the next round.

How to Play

The game lasts three rounds, and the number of cards you start with increases each round:

• Round 1: Deal each player 5 cards
• Round 2: Deal each player 7 cards
• Round 3: Deal each player 9 cards

Thus, each round has 5, 7 or 9 tricks, and each trick plays out as follows:

1. Play Cards. The starting player selects a card in their hand and places it face up in front of them. In clockwise order, each other player selects a card in their hand that matches the color of the card played by the starting player and places this card face up in front of them. If the player doesn't have a card that matches the starting player's color, they may play a card of any color. Note: If another player plays off-color, you still must match the color of the starting player's card, if possible.

2. Determine who wins the trick. After each player has played one card, the trick is complete. To determine who wins the trick, consider these three situations:

• The trick contains cards of only one color: Whoever played the card with the highest number wins the trick.
• The trick contains cards of two colors: Whoever played the card with the highest number of the second color played wins the trick.
• The trick contains cards of three colors: Whoever played the card with the highest number of the third color played wins the trick.

Example: Player #1 plays the green 11. Player #2 plays the red 5. Player #3 plays the blue 3. Player #4 plays the red 9. In this case, player #3 wins the trick because blue was the third color played, and the blue 3 was the highest number played in this color. (If player #2 had played a green or blue card instead of red, then player #4 would have won instead since red would have been the third color played.)

3. Move Forward. The player who won the trick now moves their car forward on the track, and they move their car a number of spaces equal to the smallest card played in the trick, regardless of color. If they have already wound their spring due to losing tricks earlier in this round, they can choose to release their spring and move forward an additional number of spaces equal to their current spring value. When moving your car forward, skip over occupied spaces without counting them.

Example: The orange player wins a trick in which the lowest card has a value of 3. They decide to release the spring which also has a value of 3, so they move the orange car 6 spaces. They skip the yellow car while moving, so the orange car moves 7 spaces in total.

IMPORTANT: When you decide to release your spring, you must release it fully! You cannot release it partially and leave it partly wound.

4. Wind the Springs. All players other than the winner of the trick wind their spring, moving their key one space clockwise. (Example: a player with their spring on space 15 loses the current trick, so they move their key one space clockwise to space 16.) After the winner moves their car and everyone else winds their spring, take all the cards from the current trick and place them aside face down. The winner of the trick becomes the new starting player, takes the starting player token, and leads the first card in the next trick.

How Does the Spring Work?

At the start of a round, all players should have their spring on value 0. When a player doesn't win a trick, they turn the spring clockwise one space. If they wind the spring too much, they've "overwinded" their springs, losing movement points for later in the round. When a player releases their spring, they move their key back to 0.

End of the Round

Once players have played all of the cards in their hand and carried out the final movement and spring-winding, the round is almost over. Now all players release their springs and advance their cars, starting with the car that's currently in last and moving the cars one by one, ending with the car that was in the lead following the final trick. In order, players look at their spring value, advance their car (skipping over occupied spaces as usual), then reset their spring value to 0.

Example: At the end of round 3, the purple player – who won only one trick and who therefore wound their spring eight times – releases their spring and moves the purple car ahead four spaces.

After all players have moved, shuffle all of the cards (including those set aside at the start of the round), then deal each player a new hand of cards. The number of cards you receive depends on the round you are playing. (See How to Play.) The player in the lead is the driver of the first trick in the next round.

Note: When players release their springs after the first round, multiple players might still be sitting in the starting location. In this case, the player in clockwise order who is sitting closest to the winner of the last trick is considered to be in last position and therefore moves first when players release their springs.

Track

The game board is double-sided with two different tracks. Each track includes both downhill spaces (blue) and uphill spaces (red). For example, the volcano track of the board contains more downhill spaces than uphill.

• Downhill: If your car stops on a blue downhill space, it slides forward to the flatland, stopping on the first space after the downhill area ends.
• Uphill: If your car stops on a red uphill space, it slides backward to the flatland, stopping on the first space before the uphill area begins.

If another car is located on the space where you would slide to, skip that space and continue moving forward (or backward!) to the first empty space. It's possible to skip over multiple spaces.

Important: If you decide to release your spring to move additional spaces, you add the spring value to your movement before you move your car. You apply the downhill or uphill effect to your car after you have completed your movement.

End of the Game

When a player crosses the finish line for the first time, this player flips over the outer ring of their spring to change the color from yellow to red. This lets everyone at the table know who has passed the halfway point in the race.

If a player crosses the finish line a second time, the game ends immediately, no one else moves, and this player wins. Give them the trophy token and applaud their success! A player might win this way when players are releasing their springs at the end of a round. (Remember that players release their springs one by one starting with whoever is in last place.)

If no one has completed two laps after the end of the third round of card play and after all players have released their springs for the third time, the player who is currently in the lead wins.