''Thunder Road'' (''a.k.a. ThunderRoad, Le Survivant'') is a post-apocalyptic themed

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

invented by Jim Keifer and published by

Milton Bradley Milton Bradley (November 8, 1836 – May 30, 1911) was an American business magnate, game pioneer and publisher, credited by many with launching the board game industry, with his eponymous enterprise, which was purchased by Hasbro in 1984, and ...

. Using an assortment of four different vehicles each ranging from a modified dune buggy to a

gyrocopter An autogyro (from Ancient Greek, Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift (force), lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an ...

, players must race down an infinite roadway against one another. The goal of the game for players is to either be the last player team alive (''e.g., eliminate all other player vehicle teams'') or simply out race (''i.e., out distance'') the other teams. Although the game was originally published by Milton Bradley in 1986,

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

currently owns the rights to the game, since it acquired Milton Bradley in 1984 (though a modernized version, ''Thunder Road: Vendetta'' was released in 2023 by Restoration Games)."Thunder Road Vendetta" on kickstarter.com

Game play

After the game pieces have been assembled (''first time setup time can be approximately ten minutes due to game piece complexity''), the ''switch & link''

game board Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

has been set up with its appropriate hazard areas (''wrecks''), and player colors have been selected play begins. Initial play consists of each player rolling three yellow

dice Dice (singular die or dice) are small, throwable objects with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. They are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing g ...

and moving their vehicles for the number of spaces rolled on a per die per vehicle basis. Once all players have done this, the rest of the game proceeds with each player rolling to move and also trying to attack opposing player vehicles. Attacks can be done by a player ramming their vehicle into their opposition's vehicle, shooting at their opponent's vehicle with vehicle-mounted artillery or using their aerial vehicle (''the Thunder Chopper'') to attack. As play progresses along the game board, it is constantly extended by using the back portion of the board; the ''Rear Board''. Indeed, a way in which a player can beat an opponent is by getting all of their cars and chopper onto the forward-most game board (''Lead Board'') faster than their opponent's vehicles. If a player is lagging too far behind and is still on the rear-most game board section (''Rear Board'') by the time another player has reached the end of the ''Lead Board'', any vehicles on that portion of board are permanently removed from the game; this suggests that the car was ''"outrun"''. An exception to this rule applies only to the Thunder Chopper, it can stay in play as long as a player has at least one running car remaining.

References

External links

Thunder Road
at

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Thunder Road manualGame review
at BoardGameGeek {{Milton Bradley Board games introduced in 1986 Children's board games Milton Bradley Company games Roll-and-move board games