How to Play

Steampunk Rally

2-8 players 45-60 min 7.1 Board Game Geek Rating

Players embody famous inventors like Tesla and Curie, building steampunk contraptions through card drafting and strategic dice placement. Each round, draft machine parts or discard them for resources, then roll dice to activate components providing movement, protection, and bonuses. Race through Swiss alps while managing damage that destroys parts, forcing constant adaptation and discovery of new mechanical synergies to win.

Published 2015

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Select a racetrack

Choose Swiss Alps or Hoverdrome and flip all track tiles to that side

Build the track

Select 3 of the 5 Middle Track tiles and arrange them into a continuous racetrack of any shape

Place start and finish

Put the Start tile at one end and the Finish Line tile at the other, then attach the End Track Tile to the Finish Line tile

Prepare card decks

Sort and shuffle all Machine Part and Boost cards into 4 separate face-down decks according to color

Create discard piles

Flip the top card face-up beside each deck to form a discard pile

Add optional challenges

Place up to 3 Challenge Tiles next to spaces that have no Challenge already

Set play direction

Flip the Play Direction Token and place it between 2 random players

Choose inventors

Each player selects an Inventor and takes their Inventor Cockpit, Machine Part, and Pawn

Position pawns

Place each Pawn on the Racetrack Start space

Build starting machine

Place Cockpit and Machine Part upright with a complete valve connection

Distribute light bulbs

Place a Light Bulb into each Player Area with the "on" side face-up

Set damage gauges

Place a Damage Gauge into each Player Area set to "0"

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Draw cards

Each player draws 1 card from each deck to create a hand of 4 cards

Handle empty decks

Shuffle in discards if not enough cards; if still not enough, all players discard down to 4 of that color

Select cards simultaneously

All players place a card face-down, then reveal

Use selected cards

Choose one option per card:

Pass remaining cards

Pass cards in the direction of the token and repeat until no cards remain

Spend cogs to reduce dice

Each Cog allows reduction of 1 die by 1 or 2 pips, or 2 dice by 1 pip each

Remove empty dice

If a die is reduced to 0, discard it from the slot

Play vent-specific boosts

Resolve Boost cards that must be played during Vent Phase in order determined by play direction token, one player at a time

Optionally play normal boosts

Normal Boost cards can be resolved at this time

Roll dice

Roll all dice in your Dice Pool and dice stored in diamond-shaped die storage slots

Spend cogs for rerolls

Any time during Race Phase, discard a Cog to re-roll a die or increase a die by 1 pip (maximum 6)

Activate machine parts

Place dice of matching color from pool into a Machine Part

Calculate activations

Sum total pips placed this turn and divide by the icon number (truncate remainder); perform the Race Effect that many times

Minimum activation rule

Can only place dice if they allow activation at least once; parts with "1+" activation power can only perform once

Use light bulb parts

Parts with the light bulb symbol are activated by flipping your Light Bulb to the "off" side

Resolve terrain damage

When entering a space with a Terrain icon, apply damage equal to the number shown; moving backward does not inflict Terrain Damage

Check damage gauge

If Damage Gauge is 0 or higher, do not adjust

Resolve negative damage

If below 0, discard Machine Parts equal to the number shown in red on the Damage Gauge, then reset to 0

Handle explosion

If forced to discard Inventor Cockpit, move pawn 1 space behind last place player, discard all Machine Parts except Cockpit, and reset Damage Gauge to 0

Reset light bulb

Flip Light Bulb to "On"

Store dice

May place a die in each Storage Die Slot from your dice pool

Return unused dice

Return unused dice in your dice pool to the supply (keep Cogs)

Flip direction token

Reverse the Play Direction Token

Maintain connections

All parts must connect to Cockpit through complete valve connections, but not all valves need to connect

Rearrange freely

At any time, you can rearrange your Invention and discard unconnected or unwanted parts (also discard placed dice)