Faustus Furius

I've already bought two games by Nic Wright this year ('Blood, Sweat and Cheers' and 'Palaeo Diet'), as well as played a lot of a third ('Galleys and Galleons', which I think is now probably my second-favourite game after HOTT). So when it was suggested I have a look at 'Faustus Furious' I thought it would be worth the effort.

'Faustus Furius' is a tongue-in-cheek chariot-racing game, based, as ever, around the Ganesha Games activation system. Chariots roll one, two or three dice, looking for successes. Each success give an action, and actions can be used for bursts of speed, turning, attacks or more esoteric things. Failures can allow opposing chariots to make small movements or turns, or cause bigger problems for your chariot. Movement is based around the tradition short, medium and long sticks.

I set up six chariots to try out the game. They're the collection I put together for 2HW's 'Charioteer', and are 6mm Celtic chariots, each painted in an easy to identify colour. 'Faustus Furius' gleefully mixes chariot-types from throughout history, and works with non-chariot racers as well; I've seen games with steam-tanks, goblins riding spiders, flying carpets, jet-bikes and post-apocalypse cars.

Anyway, here are the six chariots on the starting line. I ran them all as basic chariots; there are six other types, each with their own advantages and disadvantages - these Celtic chariots could just as easily be Agile (turn faster, but less stable when things go wrong) or Scythed (better in an attack, but prone to crashing in collisions).

I ran the game as a two-lap race - down the track, around the sacred grove, back around the hill, and repeat.

The pack split up from he start. The Red chariot got some early movement boosts from failed activations around it, and shot into the lead. Those that failed activations can be seen to the left of the picture.

The end of the second turn saw all six chariots closed up as they began to negotiate the first bend. Red was still out in front, with Green running it close.

Turn Three saw the chariots take the turn. Red maintained their lead, whst Green suffered setbacks and ended up in the rear. Blue and Grey were now challenging the leader.

On Turn Four a loss of control saw Red veer off to the right, and lose its lead, putting Grey in front. A couple of collisions saw Blue skid to a halt, and Yellow and Green  now closed up.

Turn Five saw the pack break up completely. Grey was out in front, with Green running a respectable second. Red and Yellow were in all kinds of trouble out on the edge of the course, whilst Blue was struggling to turn their chariot around and get back into the running.

Six turns in and the leaders were negotiating the second turn. Green took advantage of a slow turn by Grey, and cut the corner on the inside to take the lead. White was also coming up strong, whilst Red and Yellow were starting to get back into the race as well. Blue was basically out of the running now.

On Turn, Seven Green finished the turn, now challenged by White in a position ripe for collision. Grey and Red were also running dangerously close, as both chariots pushed their dice-rolling to the limit. Yellow was getting left behind a little.

Turn Eight saw Green use a burst of speed to pull into an strong lead. we were now on the second lap, and the odds of success on the dice would drop, so chariots had to be more careful with their rolling. Yellow and Grey were in second place, Red had had an 'incident' and was now lagging behind.

As for White, a terrible activation saw it veer wildly off course, towards Blue who was still struggling to turn around and take the first turn.

On Turn Nine, Yellow and Grey closed up on Green, taking more risks than the leader who was playing a cautious game.

Turn Ten saw Yellow skid out of control to a stop, whilst Red and Grey took the corner rather too wide to keep them in the running.

Or maybe not. Grey recovered well, and began to chase Green. Blue re-entered the pack, albeit a lap behind, and attacked Yellow, causing chaos. White crashed and would be out of the race until the crew could recover the chariot (wrecking is generally not forever in this game).

Turn Twelve saw Grey close up on the leader, as the Green chariot began a cautious final turn.

Both Grey and Green failed to take the turn as tightly as they should, which gave White a chance if it could manage a tight turn on their inside.

Grey and Green collided!

Both chariots spun to a halt, but Green still had the initiative. The game uses random activation, and Green hadn't acted when the collision took place, so whilst Grey lost most of its turn through the collision, Green was able to accelerate from a standing start and head towards the finish line.

A win for Green, who had held the lead for the whole of the second lap.

Whilst probably not the greatest application of the Ganesha mechanisms, this seems to be a fun little game, and it will be interesting to try it with a range of different chariots. Or even some of my Machinas/Gaslands cars; the rules as written would work for them if you're not fussy, and I suspect they could be adapted to cover the cars more 'accurately' fairly easily.