Review – Charioteer

There’s something about the Roman Circus Maximus, where chariot races were held, that just brings a thrill to me when I think about it.

Maybe it was owning the old Avalon Hill game of the same name at one point?

Maybe it was going to various game conventions and having a huge chariot racing game going, with a crowd around it, all chanting “Flip! Flip! Flip! Flip!”

Or maybe it’s Charlton Heston.

Either way, chariot racing is one of those things, like Debbie Gibson back when I was a teenager, that makes me smile.

That’s why I was excited when GMT announced a new game from Matt Calkins (designer of the classic Sekigahara, which sadly I have never played) that was all about chariot racing!

Charioteer was finally released in 2022 by GMT Games. Designed by Calkins, it has artwork by Donal Hegarty and Kurt Miller.

And it has a simply gorgeous cover.

Sadly, the rest of the presentation isn’t nearly as good.

But I’m getting ahead of myself a bit.

So let’s catch up to myself!

Let’s see how it works.

In Charioteer, players play cards from their hand that will allow them to move their chariot a certain number of spaces.

But first, at game setup, each player is dealt a skill card. This will determine the order of their skill markers and which skills they are most proficient at: Sprinting, Attacking, Cornering, and Recovery.

The skill markers are then placed in order on the player sheet, descending from top to bottom.

When skills are increased through play, they have to travel upwards first before then moving across the sheet

After that, chariots are placed on the board and the Emperor Die is rolled.

This tells players which skill the Emperor wants players to use this round.

Is that realistic?

Hell no.

But it does help you improve your skills. Whenever you use a skill on your turn, it’s level goes up one space. If the Emperor wanted that skill, it goes up another space.

There is one side of the Emperor Die that will inflict damage on all players in 2-3 player games, but do nothing in 4-6 player games. That represents the Emperor getting the crowd riled up so they throw stuff on the track or at the chariots.

After that, players will place 1-3 cards from their hand face down. These cards must have at least one matching symbol/number combination (Green 6, Yellow 0, etc).

However, there is a possible 4th card you can use (or second card if you only place one down).

The Crowd Card (seen in the Emperor Die picture above, as it’s the card right next to it) is useable by everybody if you match any of the symbols on it. Since your move must have two cards with matching symbols, you have to match the Crowd Card if you only place one card.

For example, you play these cards on your turn.

This means that you are attacking (red) and you will move 11 spaces (barring any damage or skill bonus).

The number of spaces you move around the board was the thing we got wrong in our first play.

How many spaces you move is the number in the symbol (5) plus the number of symbols you are matching (6).

For Attacking, if you use 3 cards (including the Crowd Card if you want), each other player who doesn’t have a Shield will take one damage to their chariot.

There is no targeted attacking in Charioteer. Everybody takes damage without a shield.

If you match 4 cards (which has to include the Crowd Card), everybody takes two damage.

Sprinting (green) will usually have you move a bunch of spaces, especially if you match a large number of symbols as well.

Yellow (Recovery) helps you recover damage so you will move less (though you will move some).

Black (Cornering) helps you corner.

Here’s how cornering works.

If you use any other move than a Corner move, when you are counting spaces you have to go back and forth, inside to outside.

However, if you do a Corner move, you just fly through the inside spaces.

It can make a difference!

Another aspect of moving is that you don’t just race past somebody.

Instead, when you enter another player’s space, you start on the outside. For each chariot in that space, you have to then count a space to move closer to the inside. Only once you are the furthest inside do you keep moving forward.

Inside is considered leading in that space.

If you match 6 symbols or more, you get to draw a crowd token. They like you!

These tokens can be used to do various things, like whip your horse to move further, or maybe Recover even when you do a Corner move (the black cross).

Whips (which also come on some cards) will give you five extra movement points on your turn, but the trick is that you cannot pass anybody with those movement points and you cannot be in the lead.

It’s a catch-up mechanism and it works pretty well for that.

You start out with five tokens already, which will help you move faster one time with each skill.

There’s also a discard token, which will let you cycle your hand if you have nothing but crap in it where none of it matches.

There are three laps in the race and on the turn when somebody crosses the finish line, whoever moves furthest past it is the winner.

That’s pretty much it. Skills and damage add to or subtract from your number of spaces moved, so it’s good to clear up damage and perhaps concentrate on a couple of skills you might need.

You can also do a “reset turn” by playing 1-3 cards that don’t match, healing all of your damage, and not moving at all.

Other than that, I’ve described the game to you.

Is Charioteer a thrilling racing game putting you in the place of the immortal Ben Hur? Or is it a racing game where your chariot driver is Mr. Bean?

Overall, I do really enjoy Charioteer for a number of reasons.

But there are also a number of reservations as well.

Let’s start with the negatives so I can end on a positive note.

After that stunning cover, I was really disappointed at how brown and bland the rest of the game is.

The cards are very simple, so there’s not much you can mess up with those. I do like how the movement cards have symbols on the side if you hold your cards that way but also have the symbols nice and large as well.

However, the cards are pretty hard to shuffle. They don’t bend easily.

Finally, while the cards are stiff, the player mats are just flimsy as hell. They’re not quite paper, but they are close.

The game is also pretty random.

Yes, there are ways to mitigate that, with discard tokens that let you cycle your hand and also skill tokens to let you increase your movement.

Whips also come in very handy when you are behind. (poor horse).

That being said, the race is usually very close and nobody is ever really out of it.

That’s a great thing for player engagement, but it also makes the earlier part of the game seem a little superfluous.

My last three races have finished with a photo finish and almost everybody else not more than half a length of the track behind.

The ending is where it can come down to luck.

I led the entire way (with occasional turns where I was barely passed).

But going into the final turn, I couldn’t draw any matching Turning symbols.

It’s not a complete luckfest or anything, but there can definitely be luck involved.

Finally, while the rulebook is good for the most part, one of the aspects it is weak on is how the skill markers move.

Other than checking out the arrows on the skill chart and the “Every space on the skills track prior to the bonus box can hold multiple skill markers at once. This includes the starting spaces,” there is nothing in the rulebook about moving the beginning skill markers up before moving them out onto the track.

I got that, though it took me a minute. Looking at the arrows, it does seem pretty obvious.

But judging by the number of people who missed that detail (from questions on BGG), I have to wonder if the rule itself could have been made clearer.

How about some positives after all that downer stuff?

Because the races are so close, it is an exciting game to play. It is rare that you ever feel like you can’t come back, which is important in a racing game I think.

There’s nothing worse than falling so far behind at the beginning of the game that there’s no way you can ever win.

The player count is also a great aspect of the game. It does play 2-6 players, though I’ve never played it with fewer than 3. It plays amazingly at the higher player counts, so much so that it’s almost a go-to game when we have 5-6 players and want to play a group game after separating into two 3-person groups for a game prior to this.

The playing time is perfect for this too. Even at 6 players, it barely took us 90 minutes. The box says 60-120 minutes, making this a rare instance that the box time is actually correct!

Yes, you can nitpick some thing based on your preference for this type of game.

Attacks damaging everybody instead of being targeted makes it so that the game is enjoyable for players who don’t like “take that” games, but I understand those grognards who love games like Circus Maximus where two players can be taking whip shots back and forth at each other.

This isn’t that type of game.

In fact, I can see how some people would think the game is too generic to be fun.

I’m not one of them. But I can see it.

As much as I have a problem with some of the production issues and the look of the game, overall I find it very enjoyable.

The card symbol matching definitely works (though it does add to the randomness that some people might complain about) and the fan tokens can really help you.

I especially like how whips can catch you up to the pack but they aren’t so powerful that they can win you the game.

They can put you into a position that maybe, perhaps, if the gods are kind, you will have an opportunity to win the game.

Of course, you could be like me and be in the lead most of the game and most of the fan tokens you drew are whips.

How useful!!!

Anyway, if you like chariot racing, your game group is large, and you don’t mind some randomness, give Charioteer a try.

If you cut your teeth on chariot racing games of yore, though, you probably won’t like this one.

But you should give it a try anyway!

Tell them Charlie sent you.

(This review was written after 5 plays of the game, and 4 of them were correctly played!)