Look at the box art, does it not just yell "HEY I AM A WARHAMMER 40000 RACING GAME AND I AM GOING TO BE FUN"? If you do not think so then you might need to get your eyes tested!
I am of course the BoardgameKingUK from Instagram and this is my review for the card/dice game Gretchinz!
We shall first start with the basic info for the game:
Players: 2 - 4
Age: 8+
Time: 30 minutes
Now that is out of the way let us look at what is in the box!
Inside the box you will have;
4 rulebooks - different languages do not worry that you will have a load of rules to learn! I crapped my pants when I saw them.
12 dice - 3 per player
Several punchout pieces that need to be punched out
125ish cards - I of course forget the number, yes I could look at the rulebook and tell you but I am going to wing it.
There is really not that much to this game but that does not mean that it is lacking in any aspect. It just does not take a lot to play this game that is all. Now stop your whining and let us talk about setting up the play pieces.
This is where my first issues with the game come into play, there are no instructions on how to build the racing buggies. It is not the end of the world as they are simple enough but I like to be told everything and not have to guess.
Building the buggies was simple enough but yet some of the pieces were flimsy and started to bend while pushing them into place. The green buggy for example in my set is a mess! There was nothing that I could have done differently to build it.
Popping out the cardboard tokes is a pain in the ass, they rip the top image off so you need to be delicate when doing this. I hate playing pieces like this because you know they will not last over a long period of time. It just makes them feel cheap to me.
Once you have built the pieces you are ready for your first game! About time! I was excited to play this game, to say the least.
Setting up the game
The set-up is straightforward, shuffle all the terrain cards to start with. Each player takes a player card you can pick or do this at random (do it at random make the game more exciting). Then you take 3 dice per player, next place your buggies down in a line and then deal out the terrain cards in front of them. Now you deal out 1 terrain card per player and then +2 so for a 4 player game there would be 6 cards out. They need to be placed in a row from left to right this is the method you always use when placing cards. Deal each player 5 cards and they MUST NOT look at the bottom of them this is important. They must always be looking at the terrain side of the card.
Okay, you with me so far? I know there is a lot of rules to the setup and there are a few more to come so buckle in!
Place the shuffled terrain cards, crater cards and fire tokens behind the buggies and make sure you have space for 7 cards to go in a line to create the track.
You got to the end of the setup! Go you, yay! Now you can just look at the photo further above and make sure you have set the game up the same. That is what I would do... did you read all of this? Oh man, that sucks.
Now I went a little bit in-depth on the setup and that's not what I want to do, I want to talk about the elements and how I found them, the setup was easy, the rulebook does explain the setup well.
How to play
To start the game all players collect their dice and on the count of 3 starts rolling! This is interesting because all players keep rolling until a player locks in the 3 dice they want and yell "WAHHHHHHH" once this is called everyone must lock the dice they have and that's that. The order you place these dice will determine the order they are resolved and this really does matter!
Now I went a little bit in-depth on the setup and that's not what I want to do, I want to talk about the elements and how I found them, the setup was easy, the rulebook does explain the setup well.
To start the game all players collect their dice and on the count of 3 starts rolling! This is interesting because all players keep rolling until a player locks in the 3 dice they want and yell "WAHHHHHHH" once this is called everyone must lock the dice they have and that's that. The order you place these dice will determine the order they are resolved and this really does matter!
Each dice symbol will allow you to perform an action and since their are 3 dice this means you get to do 3 actions on your turn. You can move, shoot, collect cards, ask a player how many bullets you have (firing cards), perform your wahhhhh ability and move the other way. Yes movement is odd in this game!
You really need to think about the order you place the dice, if you picked shoot before collect cards and you had 0 cards in your hand then guess what? You can not shoot this turn because you did not collect the cards until after you picked to shoot. This means even though you are rushing to roll and place the dice you want you need to check you put them in the right order. Once again I am rambling on, please leave a comment if you think I talk to much about certain aspects and not enough about other elements.
We will now cover the different actions and how they effect the game. This is important because if you do not know what to do on the rolls you are stuck and will look like a silly old Gretchin.
Move! This is important to the game and at the core the most important aspect, if you are not the first to the finish line and the not so much on fire you will win the game!
Now in this game you never move in a straight line you are always moving left or right which is confusing and different. You can move 3 times if you roll the dice, you do not try to go off the board and no card stops you per turn.
When you move left or right you then move the card and starting with the top terrain card you place it left of the card you are on and then put one in front of you and finally one to the right, this creates a line of 3.
If you look above on the image you can see the new line of three in front of the buggy. Now I always (not sure this is a rule) do the line of 3 even if it is out of bounds (you set a game space limit (usually 6 cards wide)) and then discrad the card that was out of bounds. This stops the players from cheating and using the barriers to know what card will be in front of them next(ish you never really know).
If you land on a carry on moving terrain card (straight arrow) you can perform the next move you have. If you land on any other terrain card you need to perform the action it states and then stop moving, any other movement dice this turn are discarded and not actioned.
This makes the game tricky to try and blast ahead in the game because you never know what terrain is going to come up! It is clever and difficult at the same time!
Now we have shooting to cover or DAKKA and this is difficult because of how random the game is!
Now you have a hand of 5 cards (not always as you can lose cards but you never go over 5 if you do you need to discard down) and you do not know but everyone else does what they are. They could be firing cards (I call these bullets, shoot or red cards), problem cards (I call these blur or misfire cards) and explosion cards (I call these the motherf**kers or no god why me cards).
First, declare if you are shooting at a player or a terrain card, now I believe these can be anywhere on the board and not just in front of you. The example in the rule book the guy shoots behind him so why not!
If you are shooting at a player pick them and select 2 cards in your hand at random and reveal them. If you get two red cards then you are a badass who just damaged another player, they put a flame token on their buggy.
If you happen to get a blue and a red card then the other players laugh at you for missing and your buggy malfunctions and you get a fire token. If they are both blue I think the same just happens, there does not seem to be a rule on this. Finally, if you get an explosion card then s**t hit the fan and it goes wrong. You must discard all the cards in your hand. If you get that and a blue card you also set on fire (not in real life just the buggy in the game).
If you pick a terrain card you literally do the same but with one card, if you hit the terrain place a crater card over the top of that card. If you miss you set on fire, if you explode then your hand goes bye-bye.
Attacking is very simple but can be a real nightmare with the random element. Now I love random elements in games so this appeals to me, if you hate not knowing this game really will not be for you!
The other dice symbols are pretty much straightforward and need to be used to best serve your goals. I mean if you really want to shoot another player a turn before it is always using the eye of mork card to ask them how many red cards you have. Then if you know you have none you will not bother attacking on your next turn. It is the simple mechanics like that which make the game fun. You need to be thinking at the pace of a 100m sprinter because the game is fast and you need to be able to plan out your turn in the blink of an eye.
If at any moment you get 3 fire tokens on your buggy then its GAME OVER, I lie its not the end of the world but it hinders you, firstly on your next turn you must discard your hand, you then need to remove 2 out of the 3 fire tokens and that is it. You are done, son! What is the point of the game you might be asking? Well, it is to be the first player to reach the 7th terrain card and then you win! Now everyone still gets to play their turn so if 2 players reach the end it is the player who has the least amount of fire tokens on their buggy. That is how you win!
That about covers the game and it's not your usual review because I explain the mechanics and elements too. I want the review to also explain the game to you and you can see if it is the type of game you would like to play.
I am also going to do a review wrap up at the end or a conclusion if you wish that will sum up the game for me and then a final rating.
Final Thoughts
I was excited to play the game, I had seen a video on this played a while back and knew it was a game I wanted to try. The artwork is typical Warhammer 40000 orc style and I love it. The game pieces (cardboard mainly) feels cheap and I do not expect them to last.
The crazy fast-paced dice rolling section and screaming WAHHHH is amazingly fun but stressful at the same time!
The randomness of the movement and firing at players and terrain is a joy and a burden. The number of times I felt like I might die while trying to pick a card to hopefully shoot another player was unreal!
You become invested in the race and your Gretchin, you pray to Gork and Mork that your buggy will make it to the end before anyone else.
It is all good fun but also depending on how fate smiles upon you very unbalanced. This makes the game a little hard if you are just not getting what you need.
I really think this game is one that people should try but if you hate games with random game changing elements then you need to STAY AWAY from this game.
I enjoyed the game and I will play it again but I am in no rush to do so, and that is what makes a great game great! You know it's a great game because after playing you are just thinking about the next time you can play it and this game just does not have that feeling.
7/10
