FallCon - A Cornucopia of Gaming

Searching for a horse racing board game?

Do you want to immerse yourself in the excitement of the tracks? Do you want to place bets and shout encouragement for your horse to win? Horse racing is fun and exciting and there are several published board games that try to recreate the magic of the sport.

One such game is called Winner's Circle. This review was originally published on BoardGame-Reviews.com.

And they're off....!

Winner's Circle is a horse racing board game designed by Reiner Knizia. It is a strategy board game and allows you to bet on a favorite horse and help your horse to win. Winner's circle is:

• Designed by: Reiner Knizia
• Published by: Face 2 Face Games
• Number of players: 2-6
• Playing time: 45-60 minutes
• Player ages: 8+

The game is published by F2F Games and is available for purchase at fine game stores.


During the game, you will try to ensure that it is your horse that places first by:

• choosing to move the most appropriate horse (not necessarily the one you bet on)
• advancing your horses as far as possible
• slow down others' horses
• make threats or cajole other players into moving your horses!

The first horse to place the pace marker (space 18 on the board) will reward the bettor with an additional $100 payout per bet.

Only the first three horses to finish the race will pay out.


In this horse racing board game, you are a bettor and your goal is to make the most money at the end of three laps.


You start the game by placing bets among the seven horses available for the first race. After placing the bets, each player will take turns to roll a special die and pick any horse to move.

The strategy in this game is to move horses such that your horse is the one most likely to win.

How do you pick a horse to move?

First you roll a special die, which has icons instead of pips, and based on the result of the die roll, you pick a horse. Each horse is represented by a tile which gives its movement abilities for a given roll.

For instance, if you roll a helmet, the horse, Equipoise, will move five spaces.

All horses are mathematically balanced (Dr. Reiner Knizia is a mathematics professor at a German university!) to have the same movement capabilities over time.


Winner's Circle is a great horse racing board game and it is suitable for teaching players about:

• managing risk
• manipulating odds
• diplomacy
• having fun!

Winner's Circle is a game that is best played with 4-6 players. For a horse racing board game, it has interesting movement mechanics that allow for a lot of great table talk. It is an interactive game and it will surely provide a lot of fun for you in a short playing time.

Happy gaming!
Thushyanthan

Aladdin's Dragons was published in 2000 and is designed by Richard Breese. The heart of this game is a bluffing and blind bidding mechanism that creates tension for all players!

Aladdin's Dragons:

• Designed by: Richard Breese
• Published by: Rio Grande Games
• Number of players: 3-5
• Playing time: 90 minutes
• Player ages: 10+

The components for the Rio Grande Games version of Aladdin's Dragons are of excellent and durable quality.


In the game, each player takes the role of a treasure hunter and must search out the Dragon Caves for treasure. After retriving the treasure, they must then pass through the city on the way to the palace.

At the palace doors, they may need to bypass the guards at the doors and enter the rooms to buy the artifacts.

The winner is the one with the most artifacts at the end of the game.


Before the game begins, each player is given eight tokens of a particular color. Each token has a number from 1-9 (the value "3" is not part of the players' tokens).

Players then place one artifact per palace room. In a 3 player game, 3 palace rooms are used. In a 5 player game, 5 palace rooms are used. Next a random "palace guard" token is drawn and placed face down at the entrance to the palace. There are 10 palace guard tokens with values ranging from 1-10.

Before a round begins, a treasure card is turned up and the appropriate treasure tokens are placed in each of the Dragon caves.

Now the game begins.

During each round, play continues clockwise and players have a chance to place one of their player tokens, face down, at a time in each of the areas of the board.

The winner in any area of the board is the one with the highest sum of player tokens.

The areas of the game are resolved from the bottom of the board (Dragon Caves), then the city (middle of the board) and finally the palace. Players need to acquire treasures to pay for any artifacts they win.

There are five each of six different artifcats for a total of 30 artifacts. In a 5 player game all 30 artifacts are used; in a 3 player game, only 18 are used.


Aladdin's Dragons is a well-produced game that can easily be played by children 8-9+ years old. The blind bidding mechanism is something children enjoy because it is like a race and creates tension.

There is a lot of player interaction in the game and it can get repetitive with older players. The best thing to do in this case is to play the "Magic Version" of this game where you are able to invoke the magic powers of your artifacts!

Happy gaming.
Thushyanthan