I received Turfmaster by AZA a couple of weeks ago from a friend in Germany. Having had a chance to play it a few times, I thought I'd post my initial impressions concerning the game.

First, the game looks great. The horses, of which there are 8, are a-bout an inch long (25 millimeters for those who use reasonable units of measure). If you buy the standard edition, which I did, the horses are painted entirely in a color, blue, red, black, etc. There is a more expensive version that features hand painted horses. I haven't seen those but I'm told by a friend in Germany that they're very, very nice. Even without the hand painting, the horses are very nice. They are 3 dimensional rather than flat (as in 3M/AH's Win, Place, and Show) and are made of metal. The game also comes with 8 decks of movement cards, each in its own clear plastic box (a nice touch) with the backs colored to match the horse colors. Finally, there are 8 pairs of dice also colored to match the horses. The board is sturdy and attractive to look at. Overall, an excellent package for the price (I paid just under $60 for my copy).

Second, the game only comes with a German copy of the rules. Ho-wever, the good folks at AZA (AZA-Spiele@t-online.de) already have an English translation of the rules. I sent them an e-mail message late on a Friday afternoon inquiring about English rules. I had a reply, with the rules attached as an MS Word file, Saturday morning. (For American players, change the page type from A4 to letter.) AZA is a small company but they obviously take customer service very seriously!

Now, what about game play? Before giving my opinion on game play, let me give a brief overview of the game mechanics. Movement is handled two ways - alternating between card play and by rolling dice. During a round of card play, beginning with the player whose horse is in the lead, each player plays a card and moves their horse the number of spaces show on the card. During a dice roll move, one player rolls two dice then chooses whether to use the sum of both dice or just one of the two dice. All horses move the amount selected by the player who rolls the dice. If things were that simple, though, there wouldn't be much to the game. Fortunately, things aren't that simple.

The first complication is the handicap. The horse - or horses if more than one is tied - in first place cannot move more than 8 spaces. The horse or horses in second place cannot move more than 9 spaces. Finally, the horse or horses in third place cannot move more than 10 spaces. During card movement, if a player plays a card with a number higher than the handicap allows his horse to move, the horse doesn't move - unless the card played is a joker. There are 4 joker cards - movement numbers 9, 10, 11, and 12 - that allow a horse to move the full distance shown on the card regardless of the handicap.

During dice movement, if the total to be moved exceeds a horse's handicap, the player controlling that horse can only move the horse the amount shown on one of the two dice. (Example, the dice show a 5 and a 6 for a total of 11. The player who rolled the dice happens to be in fourth player and has no handicap. The player opts to move the full 11 spaces. The players in first, second, and third place can move their horses 5 spaces or 6 spaces while everyone else moves 11 spaces.)

The second complication involves lane changing. A horse can only change lanes (moving diagonally) as the first space moved and again starting with the seventh space moved. A horse may change lanes no more than twice. Further, if the horse doesn't change lanes as the first space moved, the horse may only change lanes one time from space seven on. Finally, a horse cannot move into the space directly in front of or directly behind another horse.

These two complications add a lot to the decision making process. Changing lanes isn't easy and it's very possible to find your horse blocked from a complete move due to the positions of the horses in ahead of yours. I have played several races, though none with the full 8 players, and have thoroughly enjoyed each race. The movement of the horses reflects the way horse races actually look. Further, the decisions to be made are very interesting. Do you jump out to a lead early and hope the numbers on the dice stay low (8 or lower)? If you do go for the early lead, you might find your horse fading down the back stretch as horses without handicaps play their high number cards or benefit from a high roll of the dice. If you hang back, you might find yourself forced to go wide on the final turn, using precious movement spaces to keep up with slower moving horses. Finally, if you wait too long to play your high number cards, you may find it too late to benefit from them. One high roll of the dice in the final quarter of the race can radically affect card play.

For another (favorable) opinion of the game, check out Counter #3. Meanwhile, I highly recommend Turfmaster. I also heartily recommend that American game importers - such as Boulder and Funagain - carry the game if at all possible.

Overall, an excellent effort from a small company and a must have for all fans of horse racing games. And if you think you don't like horse racing, this game could change your mind!