Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix
I've seen this game floating around for a while and never played. I'm a bit of a Speed Circuit racing game snob. Every racing game gets compared to Speed Circuit. I can't help it.
But Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix is much more like Formula Motor Racing then Speed Circuit. Speed Circuit is a strategic simulation -- its really trying to be formula one racing. Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix and Formula Motor Racing are card games with a racing theme.
I'll be honest, I liked Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix more then I thought I would. The mechanics are pretty interesting. First you are dealt a hand of cards. All but three cards in the deck tell you how many spaces to move 1 or more of the 6 cars around a track.
Then you bid for the cars in the race. At the end of the race money is paid back out based on your finish in the race. Repeat three times, guy with the most money wins.
The game seemed fun to play and not overly complicated. But I think the keys to winning are a little subtle. Obviously you want to "buy" cars that you have good cards for. But everyone else is trying to do that too. It seems obvious that you want to pay as little as possible in order to maximize your value as well.
Now I've found that bidding habits will vary greatly when different people play the same game, but we tended to never bid more then $60,000 for a car and that was rare. We were playing a 3 player game as well, which probably changes the dynamic greatly as there wasn't a ton of competition for cars. (We each raced with 2 cars each). But the payout for first place is 200,000. Second is $150,000, third 100,000. Forth - sixth end up with very similar payout amounts. So you might save 30-40 grand by not going high with your bids, but the difference between 1st and 3rd is 100,000 so why be cheap with car bids?
At some level you would think that card play was the key to a car's movement. I think the key to the game is actually found in the track layout. Each track has two features that can end up impeding a cars progress.
First the track varies in width from 1 to 3 spaces wide. The 2 and 1 wide areas of the track can very easily end up getting clogged and blocked by cars. This is important because it can provide opportunities to use cards in your hand that may not appear helpful on their face because they would move an opponent's car a lot more then your car, but if that opponent's car is blocked, and it would not get the full value of that move, then that card can become very helpful.
The flip side of that is making sure that you don't get your cars stuck in those situations. One interesting aspect of the game is that you end up getting a bonus card when you win a bid for a car. The card moves that car and only that car 10 spaces. Most other cards will only move a car 5 or 6 spaces and usually will move other cars in addition. So that 10 car is a big deal. When to use the card seems like an interesting strategic choice. I think one thing to look at for high value cards is using them so that you can leap ahead or through potential bottle necks before someone else gets you stuck in them.
Another track feature to watch out for are the places on each track where you can end up using 3 or 4 spaces to go the same distance on the track as someone who only used 2 spaces to go that distance. This feature is not as common as the track narrowing, but since the player of the card gets to decide how each car is moved, its a no-brainer to move opponents' cars through the "slow" lanes. As with track narrowing, this feature can be used defensively -- using high value cards on your turn to move your car(s) past those situations before an opponent can move you through the "slow" lanes.
Finally a thought on grid position. Another aspect of the bidding at the beginning of each race is that the cars are bid on in a randomly determined order. The first car bid on ends up being on the pole and so on. But no car ends up more then 2 spaces behind the leaders at the beginning of the race. For me that did not seem like enough of a difference to waste much time on. Usually my cards seemed more then 2 spaces better for some cars then for others, so I tended to bid on cars based on my cards not potential grid position.
One complaint before I go: the rules do not indicate whether the amount of money each team has is public or private. It makes a difference if I know that my opponent is 50,000 ahead of me instead of just suspecting he is. Sure you could probably figure it out if your memory is half-decent, but mine is not. Either way, the rules should say what is intended there.
Board Game Geek page
But Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix is much more like Formula Motor Racing then Speed Circuit. Speed Circuit is a strategic simulation -- its really trying to be formula one racing. Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix and Formula Motor Racing are card games with a racing theme.
I'll be honest, I liked Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix more then I thought I would. The mechanics are pretty interesting. First you are dealt a hand of cards. All but three cards in the deck tell you how many spaces to move 1 or more of the 6 cars around a track.
Then you bid for the cars in the race. At the end of the race money is paid back out based on your finish in the race. Repeat three times, guy with the most money wins.
The game seemed fun to play and not overly complicated. But I think the keys to winning are a little subtle. Obviously you want to "buy" cars that you have good cards for. But everyone else is trying to do that too. It seems obvious that you want to pay as little as possible in order to maximize your value as well.
Now I've found that bidding habits will vary greatly when different people play the same game, but we tended to never bid more then $60,000 for a car and that was rare. We were playing a 3 player game as well, which probably changes the dynamic greatly as there wasn't a ton of competition for cars. (We each raced with 2 cars each). But the payout for first place is 200,000. Second is $150,000, third 100,000. Forth - sixth end up with very similar payout amounts. So you might save 30-40 grand by not going high with your bids, but the difference between 1st and 3rd is 100,000 so why be cheap with car bids?
At some level you would think that card play was the key to a car's movement. I think the key to the game is actually found in the track layout. Each track has two features that can end up impeding a cars progress.
First the track varies in width from 1 to 3 spaces wide. The 2 and 1 wide areas of the track can very easily end up getting clogged and blocked by cars. This is important because it can provide opportunities to use cards in your hand that may not appear helpful on their face because they would move an opponent's car a lot more then your car, but if that opponent's car is blocked, and it would not get the full value of that move, then that card can become very helpful.
The flip side of that is making sure that you don't get your cars stuck in those situations. One interesting aspect of the game is that you end up getting a bonus card when you win a bid for a car. The card moves that car and only that car 10 spaces. Most other cards will only move a car 5 or 6 spaces and usually will move other cars in addition. So that 10 car is a big deal. When to use the card seems like an interesting strategic choice. I think one thing to look at for high value cards is using them so that you can leap ahead or through potential bottle necks before someone else gets you stuck in them.
Another track feature to watch out for are the places on each track where you can end up using 3 or 4 spaces to go the same distance on the track as someone who only used 2 spaces to go that distance. This feature is not as common as the track narrowing, but since the player of the card gets to decide how each car is moved, its a no-brainer to move opponents' cars through the "slow" lanes. As with track narrowing, this feature can be used defensively -- using high value cards on your turn to move your car(s) past those situations before an opponent can move you through the "slow" lanes.
Finally a thought on grid position. Another aspect of the bidding at the beginning of each race is that the cars are bid on in a randomly determined order. The first car bid on ends up being on the pole and so on. But no car ends up more then 2 spaces behind the leaders at the beginning of the race. For me that did not seem like enough of a difference to waste much time on. Usually my cards seemed more then 2 spaces better for some cars then for others, so I tended to bid on cars based on my cards not potential grid position.
One complaint before I go: the rules do not indicate whether the amount of money each team has is public or private. It makes a difference if I know that my opponent is 50,000 ahead of me instead of just suspecting he is. Sure you could probably figure it out if your memory is half-decent, but mine is not. Either way, the rules should say what is intended there.
Board Game Geek page
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