If there's one gaming genre which will undoubtedly persist until doomsday, it must be the race game. Perhaps because racing— trying to reach a goal first— is so easy to simulate, it's a popular theme for board games whether abstracted (Parcheesi) or representational (Formula De). DTM Hockenheimring is a touring car race landing firmly on the lighter side of the gaming map, but packing a great deal of fun into its simple rule system.
DTM is affectionately known as the tube game, as it comes in a large plastic tube. Rather than give us a folded or mounted track, they've gone with an oversize roll-up one— essentially, a poster. You'll need a large table to play this game— I need to add the leaf to my dining room table to avoid having the poster drape over the ends. What the manufacturers saved in this inexpensive approach they made up for with the cars. The game includes six die-cast race cars of exceptional quality— imagine half-size matchbox cars and you've got the general idea. Each car is painted differently (if rather drably) and is functional (that is, its wheels work so it rolls along the track). Careful, though— the rear spoilers are delicate and come off easily (thankfully, they are just as easily reattached). Expect to spend five minutes merely oohing at the cars as they come out of the package, whetting your appetite for the game which follows.
The map has both an outer (long) and inner (short) loop, allowing you to scale the race to your tastes. A single lap, even with a full complement of six players, should take no more than 30 minutes to complete.
Three dice are included in the game— two white standard ones and one red one with nothing higher than a 3. Car movement is controlled by these dice. Once rolled, a player is racing against the clock to complete his turn. The rules suggest thirty seconds per turn, but I've found that twenty seconds provides greater pressure and results in a more entertaining game. In that time, a player must place the dice in boxes on the track, indicating the order in which the dice will be used to move his car. Once placed in a box, a die cannot be moved— even if the player realizes he's made a terrible mistake. There's no reverse gear in racing.
Before the dice get placed in the boxes, any number of them can be flipped to the opposite side. Obviously, this lets you control your speed. It also lets you control your navigational ability, because cars may only change lanes while using a roll of 2, 3, or 5 (dice with diagonal pip patterns).
With over half the possible rolls providing turn abilities (the red die has two each of 2 and 3), you'd think controlling your car would be a piece of cake. If you're in front, that's pretty much true— it's rather difficult to screw things up when there's nobody in your way. But when there are cars ahead of you, it's easy to miscalculate and wind up in the wrong lane with the wrong die.
All lanes are not created equal. Some spaces are double-length, effectively letting a car move two spaces at once (and two cars are allowed to occupy these spaces at once, effective allowing the trailing car to draft an extra space). Maneuvering through these spaces is a key way to make up ground. But with the pressure of the clock, it's easy for these spaces to lure you into trouble by taking you into a turn too soon.
Each turn is marked with a value between 2 and 4. That value is the highest die roll which can safely be used to navigate that turn. If a car moves into a turn space using a die roll exceeding that turn's marked value, disaster strikes. If the driver has less than four unused movement points left (from the current and remaining dice), he gets a yellow flag and moves last during the next turn. Otherwise he gets a red flag and spins out off the road, missing the next turn completely.
The same flag procedure is used if someone accidentally rear-ends a competing car. This can happen if the road is completely blocked, or if the driver traps himself in another car's lane on a die which doesn't allow him to swerve (sixes are particularly hazardous in this regard).
A driver with two yellow flags trades them in for a red flag. A driver with a red flag who screws up again gets a black flag. Any driver with a black flag must pull into the pit at the end of the lap. This gets rid of all flags, but movement slows to a crawl in the pit lane (you're required to use the lower of the two possible faces on each rolled die). And you can't cross the finish line from the pit lane, so getting a black flag on the last lap is bad news.
Time penalties can also result in a black flag. If your turn runs over the allotted twenty seconds, you get a white flag. Three of these and you're off to the pit. And don't even think about getting another flag while you've got a black— your car explodes in a spectacular fireball and you're out of the race.
A second track (Nurburgring) is also available. Both tracks have an optional shorter path— a nice touch allowing for shorter races. At the moment, though, it's hard to get just the new track in the US— you've got to buy a complete second game instead. I'm hoping someone going to Essen this year will volunteer to pick me up a Nurburgring track (hint, hint).
DTM is definitely a beer and pretzels race game, and the time limit is absolutely essential. Without it, the game would just be too easy and dull. The pressure of the clock forces quick thinking and, inevitably, errors. And in games like this, errors are what spice up the proceedings.
We've found that a good way to introduce new players to the system is by making the first turn untimed, then clocking the second turn at 30 seconds, then dropping it to 20 on the third turn. This gives players a chance to get a feel for the game's systems— flipping the dice, changing lanes, etc.
Like Carabande, DTM is a race game where the emphasis is on fun rather than on simulation. It's less cerebral than Formula De (which also benefits from a timer, by the way) and puts you in the driver seat more than the Daytona 500/Grand Prix card system. It is, however, quite expensive, and if you can manage to pick up just the map, you could easily scrounge up the other necessary components. That said, I quite enjoy a three lap race and am glad the high price didn't scare me away.