VEKTORACE is a car racing game that does not require a pre-defined race track and uses a “vectormovement” mechanism called Octagon System© to determine movements. Like any race, the goal is to be the first to cross the finish line.
COMPONENTS
Movement vectors (6 sets),numbered up to 5. The back of thevectors is referred to as “BOOST”
48 “Tyre Points” tokens
48 “Nitro points” tokens
1 Pitwall (Pit-Lane)
8 Corners numbered from 1 to 8
6 Grid tokens numbered from 1 to 6
8 Super Power tokens (advanced rules)
1 Flying Start vector
1 Slipstreaming vector
12 octagonal bases (to be used during the assembly of your own custom cars)
12 “frame” rectangles,(to be used during the assembly of your own custom cars)
6 auto pre-montate in omaggio
1 pre-cut cardboard containing replacement cars
Rulebook
DRIVING SCHOOL
Let’s start with some driving school to understand the basic rules of the Octagon System© vector movement. When you are familiar with these rules, you can take a “test drive”, placing some Corner tokens on the table to form a simple “oval”. After that, you can move on to the PRO rules.
VECTORS
Each F8 is “equipped” with 5 “gears, represented by movement vectors (from now simply “vectors”), determining its speed. Saying that an F8 in in “third gear” is a short way to say that the movement of that car in the next round will be calculated by placing on the table the vector identified with number 3. The yellow side of the vectors is identified a “BOOST”, and it’s used only with PRO rules.
BASIC MOVE
The basic move is resolved by placing a vector exactly in front of the F8 slightly lateral either on the right or on the left frontal sides of the car, as pictured
In both cases the vector follows exactly the direction of the F8. No exception to this rule.
After choosing how to place the vector, the F8 is moved touching one of the end points of the vector itself. On each vector, white arrows indicate the directions that the F8 can freely take at the end of the move, as in the example below. The use of the black arrows is described below.
ATTENTION: Each element must always be positioned without overlapping other game elements (F8, Corner tokens or Pitwall). The PRO rules contains emergency maneuvers and penalties for overlapping.
MANAGING GEARS
At the end of the movement, the vector is removed from the table and the gear for the next round is declared. You can keep the same gear, upshift or downshift onegear (so if you just finished a move in 3rd gear, for the next round you can choose 3rd, 2nd or 4th gear). The decision must be taken without making any measurements on the table, but simply estimating the distances. Managing the distance between the F8 and the next corner, and select the right gear, are the two basic skills to become a real “PRO” in vector driving.
“PRO” RULES
Once you have become familiar with the basics of the game system, it’s time to go on with PRO rules of the vector driving.
NITRO AND TYRES
At the race start, you will have Nitro and Tyre Points, which can be used to improve the performances of your F8 and to perform awesome attack maneuvers.
TYRE POINTS
With Tyre Points you can:
- Downshifting
- Take directions on vectors indicated by black arrows
- Perform a “swerving”
- “Jam on the Brakes”, do an emergency downshift, described below (see Movement limit and Penalty)
DOWNSHIFTING
At the end of your turn, when you must declare next turn gear, you can downshift more than allowed. For each Tyre Point spent you can decrease one extra gear.
i.e., To downshift from 5th to 1st gear, you need to spend 3 Tyre Points. Downshift from 5th to 4th is free, while the other three reductions require one Tyre Point each
This decision must always be taken when you declare the gear for the next round at the end of your turn, not at the beginning of your next turn.
“BLACK” MOVES
Tyre Points allow to take directions indicated on vectors by black arrows, increasing maneuverability of your F8. The six directions indicated by the black arrows (in the example two of the possible ones) all cost a Tyre Point.
SWERVING
In addition to standard positioning, it is possible to place the vector laterally to the car, using the side of the vector marked with the tyre symbol, as shown in the example. This cost a Tyre Point and can be performed at any speed, except in first gear.
NITRO POINTS
With Nitro Points you can:
- Upshifting
- Use BOOST speed, for an instant acceleration
- Do a “slingshot pass”, see Attack Moves
UPSHIFTING
As already seen, at the end of your move you can upshift by taking the vector corresponding to the gear immediately above the one just used. However, it is possible to upshift over this limit spending one Nitro Point for each extra gear.
i.e., upshift from 2nd to 5th costs 2 Nitro Points. One for any gear more than the normally allowed acceleration.
This decision must always be taken only when you declare the gear for the next round at the end of your turn.
BOOSTING
During your turn, however, after placing the vector for the movement, but strictly before moving your F8, you can spend one Nitro Point to use the BOOST, increasing your F8 speed without changing the gear. Once the BOOST is activated, the vector can no longer be moved. The player turns on the BOOST side the vectors indicated on the front of the vector just used, so he can choose what he wants, even making positioning tests. The chosen BOOST vector must be placed exactly in front of the vector just played, in order to extend its length. This additional acceleration always require you to spend one Nitro Point, regardless of the BOOST value chosen.
i.e., at the end of your turn you had declared 4th gear. On your next turn, you place vector 4 and, before moving your F8, you can decide to accelerate using one of the allowed BOOST, indicated on the front of vector 4 (so 3, 2 or 1). Immediately discard a Nitro Point and, after having tried which is the most convenient BOOST vector, position it as shown in the image.
The final position of the F8 is determined exclusively by the arrows printed on the chosen BOOST vector, no exceptions. At the end of this move, the player is free to declare the gear for the next round without any restrictions, still respecting the basic rule, using the vector used for the move as a reference. For example, if you have played 4th gear plus BOOST, you can stay in 4th, move up to 5th or go down in 3rd.
PRE-RACE SET-UP
The game is designed to allow you to create any type of circuit, having as the only limit the size of the table on which you will race. Place the Pitwall on the table, this determines the starting and finishing line. The arrow on the wall indicates the Pit Entry, while the checkered side indicates the Finish line. The Pitwall is printed on both sides in order to allow clockwise and counter clockwise races. Now it’s time to place corners, building your own circuit.
The numbers on the corners determine the sequence, while the curbs indicate the side of the corner the F8 must travel around. Curbs has two different color settings, only for aestethical and visibility purposes.
When the circuit is done:
- Give each player a set of five vectors (numbered up to 5) and an F8.
- Place Tyre and Nitro Points, the Flying Start vector and the Slipstreaming vector within reach.
- Decide the number of laps.
- Take Grid tokens corresponding to the participants (for example, if you race in four, use tokens numbered from 1 to 4)
STARTING GRID AND RACE STRATEGY
The starting grid is decided using the Grid tokens to randomly draw positions on the main straight (who draws the 1 will start in “pole” followed by the others in order).
Starting from the one in pole position, each player in turn must now declare how many Nitro and Tyre Points he wants to start with. Each player can take a total of 8 tokens (each worth one point) freely divided in the way he likes. The extra tokens are temporarily placed back in the box and will be used in case of Pit-Stop.
STARTING PROCEDURE
The race begins with a Flying Start. Cars are not aligned on a starting grid, but positioned according to opponents strategy. Player starting on “pole position” places his own F8 wherever he wants, with frontal side aligned to the PIT
LANE entry line on the Pitwall. Second player places the black side of the Flying Start vector next to the F8 on pole and then places his own F8 on one of the white sides of the vector, as shown in the examples. All other players, in the starting order, will place the Flying Start vector by leaning it against any other car already on the track (not necessarily the last one) and then place their F8 at one of the white sides. All F8s that doesn’t start in “pole” must have the frontal side behind the one of the car immediately preceding. All F8s must start inline with the Pitwall.
i.e., in the image below the player controlling the red car, starts in pole position, and place the F8 close to the Pitwall. The player controlling the blue car, who starts second, places the black side of the Flying Start vector next to the red car, then places his own car correctly, staying behind the opponent. In the second image the third player (the yellow car) decides to use the red one as reference point, while remaining behind the blue car as rules require. This allows players an untold variety of starting configurations, each leading to a different race strategy from the very first move.
LIGHTS OUT
Once all cars are placed and ready for the flying start, the player in “pole” decides for everyone the gear for the first move choosing between 3rd, 4th o 5th gear. Race can now starts with the player on “pole”. The first move follow every rules, including the attack rules below.
POSITION ORDER
The game is divided into rounds and each round is played following the position order of the cars. When the last player has played his own turn a new round is ready to start.
During each round it may be necessary to redefine the playing order, taking into account any possible overtaking occurred during the previous round.
An overtaking is “completed” when the front of the F8 completely passes the front of a preceding one.
In the image below, in the first case we are talking about overtaking concretely, while in the second and third cases we are not. If two F8s are perfectly aligned, overtaking is not yet completed and the play order between them remains
the previous one. An F8 can, of course, overtake more than one car in the same round, potentially passing from the last to the first place!!!
If, i.e., a car overtakes the one that lead, it will automatically overtake all the others, regardless of the reciprocal position.
All’interno di uno stesso round, una F8 può superare anche più di un’auto avversaria, riuscendo magari a scalare tutte le posizioni e passando dall’ultimo al primo posto!!! Se, per esempio, un’auto sorpassa quella che è in testa, automaticamente avrà superato anche tutte le altre, indipendentemente dalla posizione reciproca. La posizione delle auto rispetto alle curve o la distanza fra le auto sono del tutto ininfluenti per determinare l’ordine di gioco, per il quale si considera solo ed esclusivamente la linea perpendicolare al muso, tracciata idealmente usando il lato frontale dell’ottagono sul quale è montata la F8, come nell’esempio illustrato. In casi estremi, aiutatevi con i vettori per verificare le posizioni reciproche delle F8 in pista.
To determine the playing order, the distance or position of the cars related to corners are completely irrelevant, as the one thing taken into consideration is the imaginary line drawn perpendicularly using the frontal side of the F8 car octagon.
MOVEMENT LIMIT AND PENALTY
In the case that doing the declared gear is impossible, a player can perform an emergency downshift and jam on the brakes spending one Tyre Point for each gear decreasing. At the end of this emergency manouver no attack action is allowed
(see later), but neither is possible to shift up at the end of the turn. The next move can therefore only take place using the same gear, or a lower one. If this emergency downshift doesn’t allow any valid move, the penalty is losing the current turn, without moving the F8, and restarting next turn in first gear. In this case, the player does not spend any Tyre Point.
After this penalty a 45° rotation of the F8 is allowed. In the game there are no “crashes”, so any obstacle to movement even not covered by the rules will be resolved using the penalty described above.
ATTENTION! A player can’t voluntarily “jam on the brakes” or take the penalty if he can perform avalid move using the declared gear, no matter how unfavorable this may be.
EDGE CASES
Two edge cases can occur: A car that reaches the edge of the table or a car that will “cut the corner” with the next move. If a car, even after attempting a “jam on the brakes”, would fall off the table, it will be placed parallel to the edge where it would fall off and will restart from there, in the next round, in first gear. The player who had as his only possible move one that would lead his car to cut the corner, crossing the imaginary line that delimits the
inside of the next corner, could perform a “jam on the brakes” and possibly take a penalty. Below an example of this case.
GIVING WAY
In the case that a move is made impossible by another F8 that should move later than the current one, the player on turn may decide to “give way” and allow the opponent to move earlier. The action avoids a penalty, but no attack action is allowed in this turn. The ability to shift up at the end of your turn remains unchanged.
Es. Nel round precedente, l’auto blu ha mosso dopo l’auto rossa. A norma di regolamento il sorpasso non si è concretizzato, come si vede chiaramente dall’immagine. Nel round che sta per iniziare, dovrebbe quindi giocare prima la rossa, che è però ostacolata proprio dalla blu. Dovrebbe dunque subire la penalità prevista in caso di mossa impossibile, il giocatore ha la facoltà di “cedere il passo”, concedendo all’auto blu di muovere prima. Il giocatore dell’auto blu non può rifiutarsi di farlo e il gioco procede, senza alcuna penalizzazione.
ATTACK MOVEMENTS
SLIPSTREAMING
When a car at least in 3rd gear ends its movement in the same direction as the car in front of it, without having used any Tyre Points in the current turn, at a maximum distance of two octagons, calculated with the special vector as in the example, and with no obstacles between the two cars, it can “take the slipstream” and move forward to join the other car, provided that it too has declared at least 3rd gear for the next round. Essential are the position of the frontal side of the octagonal base and the direction.
Attack maneuvers allow you to perform moves based on the mutual position of the F8s.
DRAFTING, PUSHING AND SLINGSHOT PASS
When a car takes the slipstream of another, according tothe rules above, but at a distance of no more than oneoctagon (see illustration) it can perform a slipstreamattack, which has two possibilities:
Pushing
The attacking F8 is placed exactly behind the preceding onethus filling the gap separating them. The “pushed” F8, in its next turn, will not be allowed to downshift at the end of its move, no exceptions. The attacked player can only declare the same gear or a higher one.
Slingshot pass
Another option for the attacking car is to overtake the opponent, either by place the car exactly in front or on one of the two front sides (as in the example). This attack costs one Nitro Point. The overtaken car will not have any speed restrictions as with the Pushing attack.
The slipstream attack must always be declared, so being exactly behind an opponent does not automatically determine this special race situation. Overtaking also determines a new game order, so the overtaken car is not immediately under attack and is free to shift down for the next round if the player so wishes.
If the attacked car is preceded by another car that prevents overtaking, the attacker can place the F8 next to the car that is further ahead, as shown in the picture. This is not a double overtaking, as the two cars are now exactly side by side.
LATERAL ATTACK (SHUNTING)
If a car finishes its movement with its front inside the side attack area of the preceding one, in the same direction and at least in 2nd gear, it can automatically fill the gap by positioning itself adjacent to the rear side of the opposing car, as indicated in the image.
On his next turn, the attacked player will be subject to the following limitations: he can position the vector only on the front or on the opposite side to the one attacked of his car and can change direction only using the front side arrows or those opposed to the one under attack.
Note that a car may be at the same time under attack both from the right and from the left. In this case, the only possible move is the straight one, with possible direction change using the arrows in the front part of the vector.
The shunting is also possible after a “black” move but, as the slipstream attack, must always be declared. A close position does not automatically lead to an attack.
PIT-STOP
The pitwall placed during setup separates the track from the box area (Pit-Lane), delimited by an entry and an exit line.
In order to do a Standard Pit-Stop, you need to pass through this area at most in 2nd gear (there is no real “stop”).
A Standard Pit-Stop allows the “refuelling” a supply of 8 total points, freely distribuited among Tyre or Nitro. The points eventually saved are added to these eight, but under no circumstances is it possible to exit the Pit-Stop area with more than 8 Tyre Points or 8 Nitro Points.
Es. l’auto dell’esempio ha varcato la linea di ingresso al Box in quarta marcia. Poiché è entrata con ben due marce in più rispetto al rifornimento standard, la penalizzazione è di quattro punti (2 x 2). Al giocatore ne restano dunque quattro da utilizzare per il rifornimento e decide di suddividerli in: tre Punti Gomma e un Punto Nitro. Avrebbe potuto scegliere qualsiasi altra combinazione, purché non superiore a quattro.
If after the last corner the car is on the main straight parallel to the Pitwall, you can declare the Pit-Stop by announcing “BOX-BOX!”. From this moment on you are immune to any attack from opponents and you can’t attack or use BOOST. Once you have declared “BOX-BOX!” you must pass through the Pit-Lane, following the refueling rules. The Pit-Entry is closed on the final lap, which makes it impossible to win the race by using this rule or by passing into the Pit-Lane.
SPLASH AND GO!
In addition to the Standard Pit-Stop, it is possible to enter the pit-lane at a higher speed with some limitations on refuelling. For each gear higher than 2nd gear the player can refuel 2 less points on the total of Tyre Points and Nitro Points he can refuel .i.e., entering in 4th gear allow to take a maximum of 4 points (instead of 8) to be distributed as desired between Tyre and Nitro.
ENTERING AND EXIT FROM THE PITLANE
Rules and limitations
- Regardless the choice between Standard Pit-Stop or Splash and Go! the movement of the car must end WITHIN the two lines that delimit the Pit-Lane (the frontal side of the car counts). If this doesn’t happen the car will be moved back until it touches with the frontal side of the Pit-Exit line. From here will continue in 2nd gear for the next round, without having refueled.
2. It is not allowed to enter the Pit-Lane by overtaking in slipstream or by using the BOOST.
3. It is not allowed to change direction or to rotate the direction of the car as long as the it is even partially inside the Pit-Lane, only movements parallel to the Pit wall are allowed.
4.Any attack maneuver is forbidden inside the Pit-Lane
5. Whether you make a Standard Pit-Stop or a Splash and Go!, the move that leads the car out of the Pit-Lane must be made in 2nd gear. In the case of Splash and Go!, the reduction of speed occurs without the need to spend any Tyre Points in the round following the entry.
GEOMETRY OF THE GAME
The “geometric” nature of the game should not let cars assume unnatural positions with according to the 45° rule. However, because during the game it is quite normal to perform involuntary micro-movements, in every possible situation players are allowed to slightly 12 rotate their F8 to align it to the two main axes (horizontal and vertical) of the table.
To do this, you can take into account the edges of the table or the sides of the corners, which should always be positioned orthogonally to the starting line and the table edge.
For the reasons above, don’t be too rigorous when choosing if a move is valid or not, especially if this should lead to a penalty.
However, when it’s necessary to settle edge cases, ifcommon sense is not enough, follow this simple rule:the player in the last position always takes the finaldecision. If he is involved in the doubt, then the firstone will take it.
VICTORY
The race is won by the first F8 that crosses the finish line at the end of the last lap, regardless of whether the others have yet to complete their turn or not. Other positions are determined in the same way. The finish line must be crossed with perpendicular movement (of the car or vector).
ADVANCED RULES
SUPER POWER
In the game there are 8 “Super Power” tokens, which give players the possibility to use special rules during the race. Before the race, starting with the last and up to the first, each player may choose one of the available Super Power tokens. Tokens not chosen at the start are kept aside and constitute a reserve. A player that uses a token must turn it over to indicate that it cannot be used a second time. When a player end a lap must discard the token (used or not) and replace it with one of those available in the reserve. Discarded token is placed face up with the others in the reserve, available to those who end a lap later.
ATTENTION! Using Super Powersis not allowed during a move resulting from a movement penalty.
Used when BOOST is activated allows to position the car in all directions indicated on the token.
Allow use of any BOOST vector regardless of the speed of the F8. Require discarding one Nitro Point. Also allows the use of BOOST 5 vector, which cannot be activated in any other way. If activated in 5th gear, use an opponent's BOOST 5 vector.
Count as an additional Tyre Point or Nitro Point. Does not require to have point in personal supply.
Allows to shift up or down one gear at the start of the turn, discard one Nitro Point or on Tyre Point. Used during turn to change the previously declared gear. Applies even under enemy attack (Pushing)
Allows to avoid Pushing or Shunting. It is played at the moment of the attack. The attacking car remains in the acquired position, but without being able to gain benefits from the attack
At the end of the round allows to "take the measure" using vectors, before declaring the gear for the next round.
Allows to downshift multiple gears at the cost of one Tyre Point only, or upshift multiple gears at the cost of one Nitro Point only. It is used at the end of the turn when the gear for the next round is declared
Allows to turn a Nitro Point into a Tyre Point or a Tyre Point into a Nitro Point. Requires at least one point available.
