GWJ Strategy Club Game 7: Qvadriga

Whipping is most painful when an opponent blocks you.

Oh, man, I'm glad I stumbled on this thread. I've forgotten how tense this game makes me.

Huh, I just pulled up my campaign and I guess I used to know how to play this; my top racer is just missing one quality point and I've got 26K in the bank. I'm now terrified to bring them onto the track for fear of screwing it up. "Sorry, past me, I've let you down".

Hockosi wrote:

Whipping is most painful when an opponent blocks you.

Seeing them slowly drift over into your lane and just waiting for the crash. "Noooooo!"

Put them on the track and play cautiously, but if they are famous, the AI might target them anyway. Such is Roman life.

Qvadriga is $4.79 on Steam for the sale.

I finally got around to purchasing it today and excited to join the race!

I decided to go with a soldier background since I'm former Army and have a fascination with the Roman military. I've named my team "Legio Augusta" after the Second Legion and am diving in to learning the mechanics. More to come.

Also, I'll update everyone's ranks on the leaderboard directly.

You can run a few single races to get a feel for the game, if you like. That won't risk your actual game.

Robear wrote:

You can run a few single races to get a feel for the game, if you like. That won't risk your actual game. :-)

So played three races so far - won one and crashed the other two. I still don't understand why I keep crashing - I've ordered "maintain stability" on the turns and yet roll my chariot despite nobody around me. Is there a way to see percentages of crashing or is it just based on color? And should I stay in the middle to avoid crashes?

See the above discussions, but basically if the turn is not a nice light green, there's an increasing chance of taking damage or flipping. This is modified by the stats for the chariot, driver and horses. The safest lanes for turning are usually 4 or further out. Of course those are longer paths.

Each enhancement for the chariot will nullify one or two bad rolls. Same for the driver and horses. So if you have one "drop" for the horses, you get the standard one freebie benefit, then one or two more (I forget). Whip a fourth time and things could get bad. Same thing for the chariot and horses on a non-green turn. Push it too many times and you'll get burned.

You can see from this image of a toy that the racing chariots were pretty, well, insubstantial. Those wheels were about 65cm across, for example. The platform is woven or slatted. No suspension at all. Sometimes the outer (right) wheel had an iron reinforcing strip, but the inner did not, which tell you a lot about the stresses that occur in a turn. The spokes would be wooden. It's flimsy by design, to save weight. You have to treat them gently and always, always remember, just finishing yields a decent purse. So rein it in. You don't have to win every time. Or even most of the time.

Robear wrote:

See the above discussions, but basically if the turn is not a nice light green, there's an increasing chance of taking damage or flipping. This is modified by the stats for the chariot, driver and horses. The safest lanes for turning are usually 4 or further out. Of course those are longer paths.

Each enhancement for the chariot will nullify one or two bad rolls. Same for the driver and horses. So if you have one "drop" for the horses, you get the standard one freebie benefit, then one or two more (I forget). Whip a fourth time and things could get bad. Same thing for the chariot and horses on a non-green turn. Push it too many times and you'll get burned.

You can see from this image of a toy that the racing chariots were pretty, well, insubstantial. Those wheels were about 65cm across, for example. The platform is woven or slatted. No suspension at all. Sometimes the outer (right) wheel had an iron reinforcing strip, but the inner did not, which tell you a lot about the stresses that occur in a turn. The spokes would be wooden. It's flimsy by design, to save weight. You have to treat them gently and always, always remember, just finishing yields a decent purse. So rein it in. You don't have to win every time. Or even most of the time.

Holy crap I was picturing the heavier triumph or war chariots. Those things are go carts.

Follow up question - is there ever a time when you let your guy get drug to win? I was near the finish line and held on to the reigns only to die. Fortunately happened in a one off race and not campaign.

You might be able to hold on if you lose the cart in the last turn, otherwise it is just timing to let go and not get run over by another chariot.

Right. If you are blocked on the outside, you might as well hang on. You could die, but if it's pretty sure you'll get squished by an oncoming team, well...

Yeah, you have to think of the chariots as basically boards and wheels on an axle. The front is just there to provide a handhold as the driver assumes various positions (squatting, standing, kneeling, whatever) during the race. They might as well be made of willow.

So... Softly, softly is the way. Aim always to *finish*, and then jump to take advantage when the race turns your way. But don't get carried away. If you are far behind and all but two of your opponents have been taken out, just hit the "Quick Finish" button and you'll have third. That's a good way to avoid temptation, and expensive repairs and healing in lots of situations where you know you just need to hold on in the last straight.

There is a quick finish?

Yeah, it's a button in the upper right of the race window. Honestly, this go-round is the first time I noticed it. Been playing without it for 7 years...

Robear wrote:

Yeah, it's a button in the upper right of the race window. Honestly, this go-round is the first time I noticed it. Been playing without it for 7 years...

...

Thank you!!!

I know, right? So embarrassing. But it really does help.

Ran a few races this morning to wake up the teams. Had to use most of my money to prevent the death of one of my aurigas, but in another race my best auriga garnered a second place after coming from behind in a 9 team race where chariot repairs were half price after the race, due to a sick-minded benefactor. The AI went bf crazy and 4 of the 9 teams were down in the first straight (Roman start, so everyone was glommed up together. Another two went down in the course of the race; 3 drivers died trying to escape, including the town favorite. 6 of 9 lanes had debris in them, some had several pieces scattered around. It was just mayhem and since I had started in the outside slot, I just hovered around waiting my turn. Almost won, but hey, second is good enough for a pile of cash.

Now I'm saving up for a fourth team before I head off for, I dunno, Cordoba maybe. If I can overcome my cash issues.

Just so I can budget enough time to beat it, how long are most campaigns? I’m guessing 15-20 hours but may be way off.

....beat it? I've never done that, so I have no idea. I think if you followed all the guides and savescummed the RNG, 15 hours would certainly be very doable. The single data point at howlongtobeat says 8 hours.

I've never beaten it. Never gotten to Rome although I got close, back in the day. But I've had a ton of fun races.

I think I have a better chance now that I understand the game better.

The thing is you really don't want to win early when you get to a city, as your purse drops by 10?% for each win. I've actually breaked just to not win because I wanted more cash for my next several races as I am way outclassed.

Are you all mostly playing turn-based, or dynamic?

Robear wrote:

Are you all mostly playing turn-based, or dynamic?

Turn-based; I make my moves in under 10 seconds for the most part, anyway, so I don't think it changes much? Then again, I keep learning new things about this game, so...

(Someone needs to make a VR chariot racing game based on this ruleset!)

Robear wrote:

Are you all mostly playing turn-based, or dynamic?

Turn-based. I haven't tried dynamic yet, but I think I might in just a quick race to see how much different it is.

It's more tense, that's for sure. Have not started a campaign like that, but my next one will be.

I've got a good start in, maybe a dozen races. I started in Hispania and I've moved up one city so far, to get better chariots. My drivers haven't improved yet, so I'm slowly gathering more money by finishing races. I can often get third if there's been a bloodbath, but right now I'm just settling down in the third and fourth lanes to finish. I don't bother whipping horses since it just hurts them for no real difference yet.

I tried dynamic for a bit but decided against it; the game just isn't quite fast enough for me to easily keep full focus on it throughout the turn, and you can't easily see as far ahead as you can in standard mode.

Sounds like a good start, qaraq. Glad you are enjoying it.

Where the heck should I go to get better chariots? Did a grand tour to every country to find somewhere that sold better rides and it was a huge waste of money. Back to Rome to hope I get lucky with a good one. (I need a two-acceleration instance; keep getting left in the dust by the teams that have speedy chariots and horses.)

I thought you could check cities to see what they offer? But anyway, the Steam Guide, which is excellent, has this table.

Spoiler:

Toletum and Camulodunum seem to be the two Iron Forge bonus cities.

The cities say but when you arrive you may not have the best offers to buy. You race a while and the items for sale will change. Sometime I have to race until the chariot I want shows up to buy.

Does anyone know how useful buying the doctor, mechanic, and/or horse trainer is? or is it better just to move more often looking for the good horses/chariots?