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Powerboats box art

Powerboats

Game ID: GID0251749
Game Info
Year
2008
Collection
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Description

Powerboats simulates the sport of powerboat racing for 2 to 6 players using three-sided dice and an innovative rolling mechanic to simulate movement on the water.

Players aim to score the most points over a series of three races using a double-sided modular board for easier or more difficult challenges, but they must also avoid damaging their boats too much.

Once the board is set up buoys are placed to show the points the boats must pass during the race. A player keeps the dice from their previous turn and may, if desired, add or subtract a die from these to accelerate or slow on their current turn. Any or all dice used in the previous turn may be left at their current values or rerolled. Once the roll is complete the player chooses a direction of travel, either straight or one hex side (60 degrees) to the left or right, and if the complete distance cannot be travelled the boat incurs damage. Too much damage will sink your powerboat and penalise you for the next race. The buoys change positions for each successive race and, after three races, players add up their points to determine the winner. A scoring variant for two players is included in the rules.

Description

Powerboats simulates the sport of powerboat racing for 2 to 6 players using three-sided dice and an innovative rolling mechanic to simulate movement on the water.

Players aim to score the most points over a series of three races using a double-sided modular board for easier or more difficult challenges, but they must also avoid damaging their boats too much.

Once the board is set up buoys are placed to show the points the boats must pass during the race. A player keeps the dice from their previous turn and may, if desired, add or subtract a die from these to accelerate or slow on their current turn. Any or all dice used in the previous turn may be left at their current values or rerolled. Once the roll is complete the player chooses a direction of travel, either straight or one hex side (60 degrees) to the left or right, and if the complete distance cannot be travelled the boat incurs damage. Too much damage will sink your powerboat and penalise you for the next race. The buoys change positions for each successive race and, after three races, players add up their points to determine the winner. A scoring variant for two players is included in the rules.

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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 1
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Sentiment: pos 1 · mix 0 · neu 0 · neg 0
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Video pQ348fP-a-s Top List at 7:34 sentiment: positive
video_pk 69728 · mention_pk 166411
Powerboats video thumbnail
Click to watch at 7:34 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • One of the best roll and move racing games
  • Streamlined experience
  • Highly recommended if found
Cons
  • May not be available anymore
Thematic elements
  • Power boat racing
  • Water
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • Dice Rolling — rolling these weird three-sided Dice
  • Push Your Luck — pushing your luck too far
  • roll and move — rolling a few dice moving
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • if you don't like top 100s then you may as well go and sit in a Walkin freezer a
  • splotter have got a reputation for producing games that look like [___] but they actually play really really well
  • power grid is essentially a train game but I'm glad that it isn't because I [___] hate trains
  • Vinhos is one of the greatest Cold War Games ever made nobody ever speaks to this game
  • this is a real backstabbing game cuz there's a mechanism in this game that lets you remove your opponent's cubes from the map
  • if you love Ron's yeah Shipyard has them in spades it's just a fantastic Euro game experience
  • as a roll and move racing game this is one of the best year
  • one of the most infuriating games that we have ever played
  • Robinson Crusoe is an example of when Portal Games used to make stunning titles over the years their offerings have seemed to become more and more disappointing but this it's like a Beacon of Hope
References (from this video)
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