Rubber and Lead - Back on the Table

My wife's brothers and families were over last weekend for a dinner and hang-out. One of her brothers lives halfway across the country in St. Louis so we hardly ever see him/them. The three of us played a good bit of 40K back around 92-93-94 so I knew they'd be up for a game of something or other. Two brothers who are very competitive? What could be better than Rubber and Lead, my combat racing game? 

The brothers, Chris and Winston, were joined by young Christopher (age 10) and me as the four drivers. I only got one picture of game one, at the penultimate turn.

I was driving the yellow car. A couple of wall-scrapes and a cannon hit put me in a terrible condition for the Blue Blazer, driven by brother Chris, to finish me off. Having T-boned me, he was at a dead-stop. He reversed into his brother in the purple pick-up, destroying both vehicles. Young Christopher's panel van was the only car still running; he maneuvered past the wrecks to claim victory. Feh.

Game 2 was a bit more interesting since all players were now expert veterans. R & L is a simple game to learn that's very difficult to be excellent at. 

Cars are randomly assigned and we managed to get some repeat vehicles for this race. Christopher in the Blue Blazer, brother Chris in the H8-Team van, Winston in The Silver Bullet cement truck and me in Pick-Em-Up. Between us, I think we had about eight or nine oil slicks available, making for a very hazardous track for lap 2.

In a rare move for me, I actually survived a full lap! For lap two, I threw caution to the wind and gunned the engine. Slow and steady is for sissies!

The pay-off was that I managed to smash it into little Chris' truck and we both died noisily. The brothers continued their race to the finish line. Winston had a commanding lead until the final corner which he mis-judged. He left himself in a poor position such that regardless of whatever speed he set to or turn template chosen, he couldn't clear the finish line! Chris was able to gun it across the grass, cutting off a bit of the last corner and shooting over the finish line! It was a brilliant race and a heck of a victory for Chris.

All three of them enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to getting it on the table again. There's no better four-player game!