How RoboRally Works

So what does it take to get arobotto move around here? Turns out, quite a bit. Let's briefly go over the different components of the game so we're not left wandering aimless around the factory floor:

That enough for you? Well, there's also the 10-page rulebook and a 23-page set of course manuals to choose from.

When first setting up, pick a course from the factory floorboards. Check the rulebook; it has setups for easy, intermediate and expert courses. It'll also show you how to position the Docking Bay and flags. You'll get a robot, a Program Sheet and an Archive marker for play, along with three Life Tokens that go on your Program Sheet. (Damage and Power Down tokens can go next to the board.) Shuffle both Options and Program cards and then randomly decide the order of play. Whoever goes first puts their robot and Archive marker in Dock 1 and so on.

Deal the program cards; each player starts with nine. (A player will be dealt a card fewer for each damage point accumulated as the game continues.) Choose five cards you'll use to move your robot and put them face down on your Program Sheet (in spaces called "registers") in the order you want them executed. Call "done," and your cards are locked in. When all the players are finished, everyone will reveal their cards at the same time and start moving. While play proceeds simultaneously, you might find yourself conflicting with another robot. To figure out who moves first, check the Priority Number at the top of the card in question; the highest number goes first.

Now, this factory is filled with obstacles. Move them in this order: Shift Express (two-arrow) conveyor belts one space. Next, move the Express conveyer another space and the normal conveyer (one-arrow) one space. Active pushers then shove the robot into adjacent squares, and lastly, gears turn the robot 90 degrees.

You also need to watch out for bottomless pits -- try to avoid falling (or being pushed) into them. If your robot ends up on alaser瓷砖,你会得到一个伤害令牌/激光。(只有the robot closest to the source of the laser takes the hit, and you don't get penalized for moving through a laser). Robots have lasers, too, so any robot that's directly in the line of sight of another (with no obstacle or robot in between) automatically gets a Damage token.

If you made it this far and touched the flag, congrats! Put your Archive token on the flag; you'll reenter here if you're destroyed between this spot and the next flag.

After completing all five "register phases," it's time to assess the damage. If you're on a single-wrench space, get rid of one Damage token. If you're on a crossed wrench/hammer space, discard a Damage token and take an Option card. Read it aloud and keep it with you, face up.

And that completes one turn!

If you've played RoboRally by now, you know that trying to keep yourrobotalive and functioning can take all of your战略muscle, without even attempting any flag-touching goal. In fact, that in itself may be a strategy: Just try to be the last bot standing.

When should you try that? It'll come in especially handy if you have some evil opponents who are more interested in picking off other bots than touching the flag. Avoiding the robots that are just trying to maim and kill is always best. (A good rule of thumb that also applies to humans).

If you're playing more of a game of strategy as opposed to all-out war, there's an advantage to being fast. Making sure you're actually planning the quickest way from point A to point B -- while being aware of what the robots around you are potentially up to -- is going to help you out. Remember that playing to touch flags and playing to stop the other robots at all costs are both fairly decent strategies; you might want to do an assessment of how the game is being played before you decide on either. You'll also need to decide if you want to capture Option tokens to get a boost, Power Down to mitigate Damage or get to a Repair Site to take away a Damage point instead of getting to the flag fastest.

If you're still jonesing for a more complicated game, expansions were released with the earlier versions of RoboRally. They include Armed and Dangerous, Crash and Burn, Grand Prix, King of the Hill and Radioactive. All are largely compatible with the new version and include items like new game boards, more Options or different obstacles.

And if you want even more practice, go online. Not only are there some pay-to-play options for multiplayer games, but there are also free versions to play against the computer. If you need more help, try out the fun -- and enormously helpful --demoon the RoboRally official Web site. It'll give you or any rookies a good primer for how the game works, not to mention how the board is designed to "move."

When I told friends I was writing about RoboRally, most shared my skepticism that a game where pieces move in minute measurements was going to be rollicking. But it was my computer programmer and engineer buddies who immediately produced boxes of the game or waxed lyrical about how satisfying it was to get your robot to touch the flag. I remained skeptical; as someone with startlingly bad spatial logic and an impatient streak when it comes to complicated rules, I assumed I was doomed. But those logical engineers and programmers didn't have to get through one turn with me before I was hooked. Don't concern yourself too much with skill; stop worrying, and learn to love the robot.

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