Review -- GRAND PRIX CRIBBAGE

Last week this space looked at 'Round the Bases: Major League Cribbage.

Considering cribbage is such a popular game, and a personal favourite, so I thought I'd look at a variant which is now out-of-print, but is one that if you see at a yard sale, it's worth picking up.

Grand Prix Cribbage was released way back in 1985, and was created by D. Bader. The game was distributed by Drumski Enterprises out of Portland, OR.

The game offers nothing new in terms of how the card game of cribbage is played. You play by standard game rules, although it is more or less a two-player game, although partners could "drive" a single car like in a rally race.

What is different about Grand Prix Cribbage is the board.

You basically peg around a race track as you play cribbage.

The board is painted clear plastic, and should last and last and last. The artwork is pretty simple, in black, against a white track and red background. The look is a bit cartoonish, in particular the cars spinning out on oil spills, but it gets the job done.

The basic premise is that events happen to you when you land on the various icons on the board, such as the spin put spots, or oil spills. Land on those you roll a six-sided dice and consult a chart right on the board to see what happens. Some spots, the slipstream, give you bonus pegging ranging from five-to-10. You can only slipstream if behind though.

An oil spill you might come out of safe, or you could lose an entire hand, or just a card or two from your hand.

You can change lanes in the game, at certain spots on the board, shortening a circuit from 121 holes down to 107.

Some of the icons, such as lane change spots are not clearly defined as to which is which in a rule book without any supporting art, but you can figure it out fairly easily.

Grand Prix Cribbage will not replace your regular crib board, but once-in-a-while it can offer a nice change of pace. Like all cribbage games it will play rather quickly, and the pasted on car race theme works well enough.

Sure a dice rolls adds even more randomness to a game already reliant on the vagaries of cards, but hey this is a game played purely for fun, so check it out if you get a chance. If you like cribbage this will be appreciated.

If anyone is interested in this game, or other boardgames feel free to contact calmardan@sasktel.net

-- Review appeared in Yorkton This Week newspaper March 14, 2012 - Yorkton, SK. Canada