Auf Achse - Das Kartenspiel

Designed by Wolfgang Kramer
Published by FX Schmid
Translated by Frank Branham (frank_branham@emtc.com)

Hallo, Trucker

5 stages lie before you. Can you make the longest run? Be careful, because you can overshoot the goal, and be forced to start back at the beginning.

The Bits

Object

The person who drives the most miles at the end of 5 stages wins.

Setup

The youngest player takes the Start Card and places it before him. Shuffle the cards and deal 10 to each player. The remaining cards are put in the middle to form a Draw Pile.

The Play

The game lasts 5 stages, each of varying length. Each stage consists of several rounds. During a round:

  1. Each player takes a card from their hand and places it face down before them on the table. The is the start of their run.
  2. Starting with the Start Player, each player in turn lays an additional card face down to form the Kilometer Counter pile. Then these cards are turned up, and acted upon.
  3. Finally, players draw cards to fill their hand to 10, and the Start Card passes to the next player.

Then a new round begins with each player playing a new card onto his run, until the stage ends. The stage is then scored, with each player counting the valid kilometers in his run. At the end of 5 stages, the player with the highest score wins.

[The caption on page 3 shows the middle of a stage in a 4 player game. ]

I. Runs

Each player will slowly create a run over the course of a stage. Cards in the run are always placed on the right side of the run, and always face down.

The values of a run must always increase over the previous card. A run of 20-40-50-70-80-120 would therefore be a complete run. If the run is complete, all cards are scored according to value.
If a run is broken by out of place cards (called fractures), then only the last complete run is scored.

For example: 30-50-40--60-60-70-90 would only be worth 220km, as only the last 60-70-90 are scored.

Rest Cards may be included in a run, but two may never be placed together, or they form a fracture. Rest cards have a value of 0 for scoring purposes.

Action Cards in a run are always a fracture, and also have a value of 0.

Here are some scoring examples with the valid runs in bold:

10-20-40-80-Rest-120
A complete run worth 270km.

Rest-40-50-70-30-90
A row with a fracture, so it is only worth 120km.

20-50-40-60-60-Rest-70-80
A row with several fractures, worth 210km.

40-50-Rest-Rest-60-120-Rest
This is worth 180km. (The two Rest cards form a fracture.)

70-Rest-80-100-action-110-Rest-120
Worth 230km. (The action card is a fracture.)

II. The Kilometer Counter

This determines when a round ends:

If there are 2 players 150 km or more
3 players 200 km or more
4 players 250 km or more
5 players 300 km or more

In each round, players will end up tossing a card face down onto the Kilometer Counter pile. Then they are turned up one at a time and any required actions are taken.

Kilometer cards are added to a face up pile next to the kilometer counter. When this pile hits the trigger number to end the round, then the round is over. This pile does not have fractures like the player runs.

Rest Cards may be played onto the Kilometer Counter. They are simply discarded.

There are 4 action cards. When one is turned over, its effects are applied immediately, then it is discarded.

Freight Lost (The -50 cards)
This reduces the kilometer counter by 50. Discard it along with 50 points of positive km cards. (Or add it to the face up km-counter pile until you can.)

Barrier (Down pointing Triangles with a -1)
All players remove the most recent card from their runs, and toss them on the discard pile.

Free Ride (Upward pointing trangles with a +1)
All players immediately place one extra card on thier run.

Really Free Ride (Upward pointing triangle with a +2)
All players add 2 cards to their run.

III. Drawing Cards

After all the kilomter cards have been dealt with, each player beginning with the Start Player draws to refill his hand to 10 cards. Then the Start Player card passes to the next player.

If you've burned through the draw pile, shuffle the discards and make a new one.

End of a Stage

A stage ends when the kilometer counter reaches a certain value at the end of a round. Note: If the number is reached before all of the km cards are turned up, keep going. If someone has some -50 cards, the round may not be over.

Starting with the Start Player, turn over and score your runs. Take all of the cards and reshuffle them for the next stage. Stop at 5 stages, tally the scores, and declare a winner.

The Game Cabinet - editor@gamecabinet.com - Ken Tidwell