HoNoToGroABeMo Day Thirty-One: It Is Done
6 years ago
2:16 PM
Game Day: Circus Magicus, a fantastic variant of Circus Maximus by Avalon Hill.
I try to make a point of playing when Steve runs this game, which is basically his own well-adapted hybrid of Circus Maximus but with lots more random silliness and design for dramatic effect. That suits me! A chariot game is hardly accurate without people flying from chariot to chariot to engage in
hand to hand fighting.
The race was supposed to start at 7PM, but we got going late, and played until 10PM. Alas, only a
few turns were managed but we did some serious mayhem during that time.
The point of Circus Magicus is NOT to "race" or "win" but to win the Emperor's favor (Steve being the emperor, and his favors being plastic coins he toses at you). A wonderful innovation that makes game play focus on the important stuff-- bashing, crashing, ramming and boarding other chariots. At one point I had the option of ramming my OWN chariot (the beholders)or moving on to pull ahead in the race. I started to move onward and someone said "What, are you try to win a race or something?". He had a point. So I rammed my own team. Didn't get any favors for it, either!
There's some great elements to Steve's design which seemed borrowed from other games, particularly the
graduated damage chart from Silent Death (I think?) where you check boxes off the damage chart and every third or fourth box something bad happens, like a wheel check, speed decrease, crew check, etc. Very elegant for Chariot Racing and probably an element to add into the more historical Circus Maximus.
We ran for only 2 or 3 turns and had to call it a night. By that time, however, we had three chariots wiped out and the rest were seriously damaged.
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