BMW to sell luxury cars for less online

The BMW i3 concept car at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show in January. (John T. Greilick / Detroit News)

BMW will sell cars over the Web for the first time as the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles seeks an inexpensive way to reach more buyers to recoup spending on its electric models.

A direct online sales platform for BMW's new I sub-brand will be unique in an industry where, outside of small-scale experiments, competitors leave Internet orders for cars to dealers. BMW's range of strategies for the models, including a roaming sales force backing a limited showroom network, reflects the challenge carmakers face as low-emission vehicles trickle into dealerships to sluggish demand after years of development.

"There is considerable risk in BMW's approach of promoting the I brand so prominently," said Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive Management at the University of Applied Science in Bergisch Gladbach, Germany. "There is the image risk, if they don't succeed as quickly as expected, and then there's the main risk of costs, which can only be countered with high deliveries."

BMW opened the I models' first showroom Tuesday in London, although only prototype cars and informational materials will be displayed at first because the vehicles themselves won't go on sale before next year. BMW is spending about $3 billion developing the i3 battery-powered city car and i8 plug-in hybrid supercar, according to an estimate by Frost & Sullivan. Industry sales of electric cars last year, at 43,000 vehicles, were only 57 percent of the 75,000 deliveries predicted by Sarwant Singh, a London-based automotive partner at the consulting company.

Starting prices posted

The four-seat i3, scheduled to reach the market in late 2013, will be priced at about 40,000 euros ($48,500), Bratzel estimated. That compares with a 23,850-euro starting price ($29,388) in Germany for the 1-Series, the cheapest BMW-brand car. The i8, targeted for sale in 2014, will cost more than 100,000 euros ($123,221), according to Ian Robertson, BMW's sales chief.

Details of how I-model buyers, the website and dealerships will interact are "still in the planning process" and will be communicated later, Linda Croissant, a spokeswoman at Munich- based BMW, said last week. Sales will be focused on the world's major urban areas, she said.

The online sales option is aimed at a generation of drivers used to making daily purchases over the Internet, and will be an extension of the car configuration that most automakers offer customers to view models with desired options such as interior colors, seat materials and roof styles.

Test drives not an option

The Internet platform may take a while to catch on because "many customers will still want to go somewhere to look at and drive the vehicle before buying," said Ian Fletcher, an auto analyst in London at research company IHS Global Insight.

"With new technologies, there may be even greater skepticism about buying a car over the Internet, as in many cases you'll have to win the confidence of customers that it works and there is support for them," Fletcher said in an email.

The setup may help BMW reduce expenses: Internet sales require less than half the cost of distributing through a dealership, according to Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the Center Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. That allows online car prices to be 5 percent to 7 percent less than showroom tags.

Still, BMW sees standard dealerships as "the backbone of what we are doing in the interface with the customer" for the I models, Robertson said in June at a press presentation at the sub-brand's Park Lane showroom in London.

Dealer selection criteria

Outlets will be restricted to dealers with high BMW-brand sales volume who have floor space as well as capacity to work with I models' powering technology and carbon-fiber body material, Robertson said. The carmaker has chosen 45 of its approximately 200 dealers in Germany to sell the i3 and i8, a ratio that will probably be similar elsewhere, he said.

Dealers will be designated as agents for the I models, which provides an "advantage" by keeping the vehicles on the carmaker's books, the association of BMW distributors in Germany said in an email.

Electric vehicles' disadvantages versus conventional cars include costly battery packs, limited ranges and the time needed to recharge. Consumer reception to models like the Nissan Motor Co.'s Leaf and General Motors Co.'s Chevrolet Volt has been tepid.

"Currently available electric cars have a limited market success because they are a big compromise," said Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst at Credit Suisse AG. "Customers are not willing to compromise and spend a lot of money."

Carbon fiber bodies lighter

BMW Chief Executive Officer Norbert Reithofer started Project I at the end of 2007 as tighter emissions regulations threatened the viability of sporty sedans. BMW chose to create all-new vehicles that use expensive carbon fiber for a lighter body to make up for the weight of the battery system.

The approach contrasts with a decision by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz Cars division to convert existing models, such as the van-like B-Class or two-seat Smart, to electric power.

To make its electric vehicles more attractive, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler's Smart brand offers to lease the battery separately from the car. The automaker has a target of selling more than 10,000 of the models next year, with a starting price of 18,910 euros plus monthly battery rental at 65 euros.

The I models' new technology poses risks for BMW, "but they have no choice if they want to keep their premium and image as an innovation leader," Ellinghorst said.

The i3 and i8 will probably be among BMW's lowest-selling models through 2024, alongside the existing Z4 roadster, according to IHS estimates. In 2014, the first full year of production, BMW will probably deliver 31,380 i3s, compared with 564,760 of the best-selling 3-Series model and 18,101 Z4s, a study by the research company shows.

BMW's stance is that the models should produce earnings from the start, sales chief Robertson said.

"We clearly, as a company, go into any product launch with the view of making profit, which is no different with the I brand," Robertson said. "This is a car line just as every other car line, and we intend to make profit from Day 1."

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Large Square Frame Sunglasses by Gucci

Large Square Frame Sunglasses by Gucci:

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Brown Cap Toe Derby Shoes by Fratelli Borgioli

Brown Cap Toe Derby Shoes by Fratelli Borgioli:

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Spain Scraps Siesta as Stores Stay Open to Spur Spending

The Spanish shopping siesta may be about to become the latest victim of the sovereign debt crisis. To stimulate spending after a 23 percent drop in retail sales since 2007, the euro region’s fourth-largest economy this month approved measures that allow shops of more than 300 square meters (3,229 square feet) to open for 25 percent longer a week. The new rules may encourage the outlets to sell during the traditional afternoon snooze from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and on an additional two Sundays or holidays a year for a total of 10. “When everything was fine, nobody complained, but now that things have gone awry, then it’s another story,” said Carmen Cardeno, director general for domestic commerce at the nation’s economy ministry, which created the rules. “We need to evolve and be more flexible.” Spain is following its European neighbors in trying to liberalize shopping hours that have traditionally been checked by governments in the region to protect religious observances, for rest and on behalf of smaller retailers that have fewer resources to staff shops around the clock. England has allowed retailers to open for longer on Sundays during the Olympics than the six hours usually allowed. In France, food shops can be open 13 hours a day and stores located in tourist areas have the right to open on Sundays. Spanish shops are allowed to open for less time than anywhere else in Europe, according to its government, which was asked by retail associations to allow large stores to open 16 Sundays or holidays a year. Some smaller merchants opposed the extension, arguing that the bigger stores would have the necessary manpower and they wouldn’t. The new measures allow stores 18 additional business hours a week and will permit merchants to decide when to cut prices in sales instead of only twice a year. Siesta Time The country’s regions will get to decide how to implement the rules, though they usually follow the lead of the central government. In Madrid, which is an exception, stores have been able to open for as long as they want since July 15. Outlets of less than 300 square meters also have no restrictions on opening hours, though the Spanish tradition of eating at home and having a siesta means most shopkeepers keep their businesses closed for about two hours in the middle of the day. The new measures may not be enough to offset shrinking demand in Spain’s 217 billion-euro ($264 billion) retail industry, which is worsening each year the crisis goes on in a nation where one in four people is out of work. The number of companies seeking bankruptcy protection rose 22 percent from a year earlier to 2,224 in the first quarter, according to the nation’s statistics institute, with commerce being the third- largest contributor behind construction and housing firms and industrial and energy companies. ‘Almost Insignificant’ Javier Millan-Astray, director general of retail association ANGED, said the approved loosening of restrictions on opening hours doesn’t go far enough. “The government’s reform is almost insignificant,” Millan-Astray told reporters in Madrid, when retail groups pushed for 16 Sunday openings. The associations’ “new proposal would help boost consumption and create more jobs because when we open on a holiday, people come and shop. It’s unbelievable that amid this crisis, we have to keep our stores closed.” Spain has been wrestling with the dilemma of preserving its culture and modernizing the industry for decades. The socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in 2004 rolled back liberalization of opening hours instituted by his predecessor, bringing them back to rules from the 1990s and leaving the country with the tightest regulations of any European country. Job Creation Even with the latest proposals, “retail regulation is hurting both business and customers in Spain,” said Fernando Fernandez, a professor at the IE Business School in Madrid. “Both big and small retailers would benefit from fewer restrictions. When big retailers such as Ikea or Zara open a store, all small shops in that area benefit from that.” Ending the restrictions completely would create 337,581 jobs across all industries and add 17.2 billion euros to economic growth this year, according to a study commissioned by the government, which examined the implications of several scenarios. The nearest of those to the current proposals, under which stores open on 16 Sundays or holidays, could have added 47,945 full-time retail jobs, the study found. About 1.8 million people worked in retail in the first quarter, 0.3 percent less than in the year-earlier period. Stores are also bracing for change as the government looks to the retail industry to help boost tax revenue. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will increase the most common rate of sales tax to 21 percent from 18 percent on Sept. 1, putting an additional brake on consumers’ ability to spend. previous

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Invasion of the pickpockets

Britain is in the grip of a pickpocketing epidemic as Eastern European gangs descend on London ahead of the Olympic Games.

A surge in sneak street thefts means more than 1,700 people fall victim every day – an increase of nearly a fifth in only two years, according to official crime  figures released yesterday.

At the same time, police warned that professional gangs from Romania, Lithuania and even South America who operate in capitals across Europe are heading to Britain, intent on cashing in on unwitting tourists at London 2012.

How they do it: A member of the pickpocket gang approaches a BBC reporter investigating the rise in thefts ahead of the Olympics

Keeping him occupied: The man speaks to the victim on the pretense of needing directions while another gang member approaches from behind

A BBC investigation exposed the tactics used by Romanian thieves, who were previously operating in Barcelona, to dupe their victims.

The criminals boasted of their ‘one-second’ theft techniques which leave targets unaware that anything has happened until  it is too late. They can make £4,000 a week taking wallets, smartphones and laptop bags. The goods are then shipped back to Romania and sold on the black market.

 Scotland Yard has made more than 80 arrests already and warned thieves the capital will be a ‘hostile environment’ in the coming weeks.

The Met has even drafted in a team of Romanian police officers to deal with the problem and patrol in the West End of London and Westminster during the Games. They will not have arrest powers.

Distracted: An accomplice (left) then plays drunk so he can get close enough to the target to strike

 

Sleight of hand: The 'drunk' man jostles around with the BBC reporter, making it harder for him to notice what is going on

 

 

Rich pickings: The sneering thief walks away with the wallet from the unsuspecting victim

Teamwork: The thief quickly hands the wallet to another member of the gang, who spirits it away

 

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: ‘These Romanian officers will prove to be a huge asset in cracking down on certain criminal networks who are targeting tourists in central London.’

Official statistics released yesterday showed pickpocketing thefts rose 17 per cent in the past two years.

In 2011/12, a total of 625,000 people fell victim, the Crime Survey of England and Wales showed.

That is an increase of more than 102,000 since 2009/10.

The vast majority of the total are classified as ‘stealth thefts’, but in 83,000 cases the victims’ possessions were ‘snatched’.

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London 2012: the look of the Games

As final preparations for the London Olympics continue, the LOCOG design team gives CR an exclusive tour of the Olympic Park and the installation of the thousands of graphic elements making up the look of the Games

 

As you enter the Olympic Park from the Westfield shopping centre, following the route that 75% of visitors will take once the Games begin, the first thing that greets you (after the Commandos and their metal detectors) is the Stratford Gate. This huge magenta angular construction (by Surface Architects) is unmistakably part of London 2012. Its form comes directly from the graphic language derived from the 2012 logo, its lettering combines Gareth Hague's 2012 font with TFL's Johnston typeface.

 

But if you have arrived here on the tube, if you have spent any time in a London borough, seen the Torch Relay or even if you have come direct from the airport, you will already have been thoroughly exposed to the 'look' of the 2012 Olympics. LOCOG claims to have taken the development of a consistent, comprehensive graphic language for the Games further than any previous Olympiad with 'One Look' applied from the airport all the way to the venue.

Just how this 'One Look' was developed from the original 2012 brand created by Wolff Olins will be explored in detail in the August issue of CR (our Olympics special, out July 25) where we have an exclusive interview with LOCOG director of marketing, brand and culture Greg Nugent.

 

 

The project was led by Futurebrand (with global ECD Shane Greeves and creative director Matt Buckhurst) which developed a comprehensive visual language out of the Wolff Olins work to a stage where the LOCOG design team could (again working with a 20-strong team at Futurebrand) apply it to dressing the Games. That dressing includes everything from street banners, to the Tube, to the Torch Relay to the Olympic venues themselves. When Wolff Olins revealed the 2012 logo in 2007, we were promised that the brand would really come alive once we saw it applied across all the Olympic elements. Finally, that vision is coming into being and the real potential of what has remained a highly controversial identity is being fully exploited.

All over London, banners proclaiming the upcoming Games have been going up, conforming to the standards set out in the London 2012 Look Book.

 

Olympic banners on Goodge Street, London W1

 

Tube travellers will also have noticed the Olympic signage going up in stations around the network. But it is in the Olympic Park that things really come together.

The Tube signage is all in magenta (one of the few colours not already used by the network) and the New Johnston TFL typeface. That is repeated on the Park itself. Wayfinding is led by Surface's giant beacons whose architecture, like the Stratford Gate, takes its cues from the shard-like visual language derived from the logo.

 

The hierarchy of the beacons starts with major venues (typically the stadium) at the top as an aid to orientation, followed by smaller venues, entrances and exits and finally, nearest the ground, estimated walking times to points within the Park. Their gigantic size is mean to aid traffic flows as people will not need to gather too close around them to read the directions. LED displays top each structure.

 

Additional signage also takes its physical form from the shards generated from the logo.

 

The angular magenta wayfaring signs are carried through into the venues. This is from the athletes' area of the Aquatic Centre (note the directions to the Synchronised Swimming 'vanity area' - a line of make-up mirrors and hairdryers ready for those last-minute touch-ups before going poolside).

Each venue has its own specific colour: as you near, say, the Aquatic Centre, the banners lining the paths change to the colours of that venue (blue and yellow in the case of water sports) leading you to where you need to go. These colour schemes are also carried through to the tickets (more on the tickets here).

 

Those specific colour schemes are then used to 'dress' the venues inside and out. Here, graphics panels for the Water Polo venue are being readied for installation.

 

Within the venues, the 'prime asset' of the Olympic Rings takes pride of place, while the London 2012 word mark is used in preference to the main logo. Below, graphics are being applied to the velodrome. In a first for 2012, the LOCOG team worked closely with photographers and broadcasters to ensure that not only would the venue graphics not interfere with their shots, but also that as many shots as possible would be able to feature 2012 branding. As a result of talking to photographers and TV directors, the LOCOG team have gone to extraordinary lengths to brand each shot, placing logos on, for example, water polo goal posts, the end of poles on show jumping fences and the top of the struts holding the pole vaulting bar.

 

Many of the Olympic venues are temporary, allowing the look of the games to be incorporated into their architecture. Here, for example, the temporary yellow and white seats in the Aquatic Centre use the shard pattern (as do the seats in the main stadium and the hockey arena).

The Olympic hockey stadium as shot by aerial photographer Jason Hawkes. For more on Hawkes' work, see our post here

The hockey stadium's distinctive blue field was the result of a request from the International Hockey Federation to LOCOG to help them raise interest in the sport. The LOCOG team developed the new colour scheme after extensive testing with players and broadcasters.

Even the floodlights of the main stadium were designed in response to the Games' angular look, as was the wrap around the outside of the stadium which doubles as a wayfaring device (seat block numbers are printed at the bottom of the white strips).

 

Within the stadium, the look has even been applied to the numbering of the lanes on the running track which use the 2012 font.

 

In a nice touch, each venue also has what Nugent calls its "Anfield moment" - an image from London 1948 of a sign featuring Baron de Coubertin's famous quote on the Olympian spirit which all athletes must pass on their way out to the playing area. This one is from the water polo venue.

The LOCOG team of 40 designers (Beijing apparently had around 800), led by head of look and feel Richard Hill and brand manager Maria Ramos, have had to produce some 250,000 items of design for the Games and the Paralympic Games (after the Olympics are over, the team has to redress all the venues with the Paralympic branding).

Even non-sporting venues have received the full 'One Look' treatment. Here's the interior of the press centre.

Illuminated pictograms are used in this section for press releases on each sport.

 

And here the main press conference room.

 

The scale of the project on the Olympic Park alone is extraordinary as is the level to which the Futurebrand and LOCOG teams have gone to ensure a consistent, coherent visual experience. The logo will still have its detractors, but the way the look has been created and applied, across the Olympic Park, London and all over the UK, with the cooperation of local authorities, the GLA, TFL, sponsors etc is unprecedented. We were promised a brand and not just a logo, a comprehensive visual experience to an extent not seen in previous Games. Futurebrand and LOCOG have delivered just that.

 

The August issue of CR, our Olympics special, features an in-depth piece on the development of the look of the 2012 Games and an interview with LOCOG director of marketing, brand and culture Greg Nugent. Out July 25

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Fifty Shades Of Grey is said to have slapped the spice back into the sex lives of millions of Brits

Knot impressed ... Pamela Stephenson says Fifty Shades of Grey paints S&M fans as monsters

Alamy

EROTIC novel,The book, dubbed “mummy porn”, is part of a trilogy by British author EL James and is the fastest selling paperback of all time.

It describes in vivid detail how its billionaire lead character Christian Grey shares bondage sex with student Anastasia Steele.

Yesterday we told how Raymond Hodgson was fined £100 after he splattered his lover Emma McCormick with HP sauce when he saw her reading the book.

Leading clinical psychologist Pamela Stephenson believes the sex in the books paints an unfair portrait and could be dangerous for couples who follow what is contained in the pages.

Former comedian Pamela, who is married to funnyman Billy Connolly, carried out one of the biggest ever studies of bondage fans.

Here she explains what she thinks of the books.

THE best-selling Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy by EL James has sold 20million copies worldwide.

Having read the three novels in one sitting, I very much doubt it is the sex that did it.

 

'Mummy porn' ... novel Fifty Shades Of Grey

I found it boring, repetitive, and it leads women to aspire to undesirable — and frankly unattainable — goals, such as simultaneous orgasm, which occurs between the protagonists most of the time.

 

But, most annoyingly, the story demonises BDSM — the term for the erotic style comprising bondage, domination, and sado-masochism — and those who enjoy it.

The male protagonist, Christian Grey, is portrayed as a cold-hearted sexual predator with a dungeon (that word has been wisely swapped for “playroom”), full of scary sex toys.

Worst of all is the implication that his particular erotic style has developed because he is psychologically “sick”. Frankly, in BDSM terms, Grey is a lightweight.

Even novices, however, would know that his use of cable ties is a very bad idea (to avoid nerve-damage and scarring, soft, thick rope is the norm).

Grey’s lack of competency in his chosen erotic arena is most apparent, though, in the way he fails to assess his potential new submissive’s naivety.

Experienced BDSM practitioners would not dream of terrifying a novice by bringing up such advanced techniques as fire, electricity and gynaecological play.

Ten years ago, I carried out an extensive psychological study of people in the BDSM community — the largest empirical study ever done at the time — to examine their psychological attributes and determine if there was any justification for the notion, commonly held, even within my field, that they were all psychologically disturbed.

After giving each of the 132 participants four hours of psychological tests, as well as a face-to-face interview, I found the group was generally not mentally unhealthy, and the instances of early abuse that had long been associated with the adult practice of BDSM were present in just a few.

 

Study ... Pamela Stephenson

 

When I presented my findings in 2003, the jury was still out as to whether BDSM and psychopathology went hand in hand.

But since then it has been firmly established that BDSM, played in a safe and consensual manner, is not proof of mental or physical illness, essential badness or emotional damage from trauma or abusive parenting, and that people cannot — and should not — be treated to cure it.

All the work that has been done to establish that BDSM is not a pathological symptom, but one of a wide range of normative human erotic interests, is in danger of being undermined by the success of Fifty Shades.

Let’s hope we do not return to the days when people were discriminated against — losing children, property, jobs — for their interest in BDSM.

Remember, Fifty Shades is just another bodice-ripper.

With cable ties.

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WOODEN BOW TIE

1. WOODEN BOW TIE

   , POPKILLER ORANGE COUNTY, in TIES

2. BAG

   , 

   BEN MINKOFF

   , in BAGS

3. GLASSES

   , BONLOOK.COM/?GCLID=CLH3S8XWLBECFCFETAODMX1NDA

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The Quicksilver airships have been retired from Queen Victoria’s Royal Air Force, but they’ve been put to use in the Quicksilver International Racing Federation.

Quicksilver (prototype shown). Photo: Split Second Games

 

Overview: The Quicksilver airships have been retired from Queen Victoria’s Royal Air Force, but they’ve been put to use in the Quicksilver International Racing Federation. Race to the checkpoints and cross the finish line first, but watch that you don’t run into mountains or flying minefields, and look out for the gun turrets. (Retired? Perhaps. Inactive? Not a chance.) Welcome to the game of Quicksilver, and good luck!

Players: 2 to 6

Ages: 13 and up

Playing Time: 15 minutes per player (may vary with board setup)

Retail: $50 on Kickstarter, plus other reward levels

Rating: Jolly good show, old chap! A fairly simple set of rules makes for a fun game about racing airships.

Who Will Like It? If the phrase “airship racing” sets your pulse quickening, then you should give this project a look. Quicksilver is fairly easy to learn, offers some customization in the race courses, and has a fun Victorian theme.

 

Early in the game, Cathe consults her cards while Tim and Jarrod plot their next move. (Prototype shown) Photo: Jonathan Liu

Theme: The game is about racing retired airships around a dangerous course, and the game makes good use of the theme. The airships cannot fly over the high mountains and lose armor if they hit them; starting your move in a cloud slows you down significantly. You can choose to make ranged attacks or ram other ships, but beware that you may end up losing armor yourself! The tactics cards have great names and illustrations to build on the theme. One of my favorite cards, used to cancel somebody else’s tactics card, is called “Not Amused,” depicting Queen Victoria with her opera glasses and a big “thumbs-down.”

A sampling of the tactics cards. Image: Split Second Games

Components:

My review is based on a prototype demo copy, but here’s what it contains:

• 1 large hex-based map
• 1 start/finish line token (6 hexes wide)
• 3 numbered checkpoint tokens (double-sided)
• 6 pilot instrument panels (2 arrows each)
• 6 airship tokens with stands
• 6 cloud/minefield tokens (double-sided)
• 3 turret tokens
• 4 velocity dice
• 66 tactics cards

The map is quite large, as you can see in the photo above, and it’s nicely illustrated. The mountains and clouds have red and white borders around them to indicate which hexes specifically count as obstacles. There are three black hexes to indicate where the checkpoint markers will be placed, with arrows showing the line that must be crossed to pass the checkpoint. (My copy is a large sheet of paper, but the final board will be a six-panel folding board, akin to Arkham Horror.

Quicksilver turn order card and instrument panel. (Prototype shown) Photo: Jonathan Liu

The pilot instrument panels have two gauges, one showing the velocity and one showing the armor level. They’re nice and big: the prototype just uses brads to attach the arrows so I don’t know what the final version will look like. There are turn order cards which have a nice summary, and there’s also one with a portrait of Queen Victoria on the back which is used to determine the starting player.

The movement dice are six-sided dice, but rather than 1 through 6 they’re 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4. The airships are little cardboard cutouts with plastic bases: I think the plan is to have circular bases with a die-cut cardboard cutout. (Split Second Games would love to do molded plastic airships, but right now they’re just hoping to hit the production goal and maybe the first stretch goal to add a second map to the back of the game board.) The tactics cards have a wide range of uses — many of them allow you to make changes to your movement, and some allow you to affect other players by reducing their armor, discarding their cards, or stopping their movement. The cards are also numbered from 1 to 3, and these values come into play as well. The artwork on everything is great, and I really like the style.

Gameplay:

Each player starts with 0 Velocity and 4 Armor on their panel, and gets 5 tactics cards. Players agree on the placement for the starting line and then place the checkpoints on their spots. Races can be customized by the changing the order of the checkpoints as well as the rotation (clockwise or counterclockwise). The suggested first game race only uses two of the checkpoints instead of three, for a shorter game.

Each player chooses one obstacle to place on the board: a cloud, a turret, or a minefield. They can’t be placed too close to checkpoints or the starting line, and there are some restrictions where each type may go. Basically a cloud will slow players down, a turret fires at players passing by it, and a minefield blows up and damages nearby airships the first time it is encountered. After determining player order (using the turn order cards), players line up on the starting line in reverse order, with the last player going first. Then the starting player begins the game.

The turn comes in five phases:

1. Velocity: Change velocity by 1 if desired.
2. Roll: Roll the specified number of dice, and optionally discard a card to add or subtract its value from your total movement points.
3. Pivot: Optionally spend one movement point to pivot 60°. (You may pivot 120° but it also costs you an armor point.)
4. Move: Move all remaining movement points forward in a straight line.
5. Draw: Draw one tactics card. Discard down to 5 cards.

You may also play any number of tactics cards from your hand during your turn before your Draw phase.

A few other notes: Based on your velocity, you will roll between 1 and 3 dice, but there is also a minimum number of movement points for each velocity. “Danger” means you have a minimum of 6 points, even if you roll lower than that on the dice. In addition, to go at the “Danger” speed you must discard 2 cards from your hand; if you don’t have 2 cards to discard then you must slow down to “Fast.” If you start your turn inside a cloud, then your movement points are half the total, rounded up.

You can attack other players — either by ramming them or through cards that give you ranged attacks. When you pass through another player’s airship, you may discard a card to pass by them safely, or ram them on your way past. In any attack (ram or ranged), both players roll two dice. They may then discard as many cards as they wish from their hands to add the values to the rolls. Attackers win ties. In the case of a ramming attack, the losing player loses one point of armor. For ranged attacks, if the defender wins the attacker does not suffer any effects.

Colliding with mountains and checkpoints or flying off the edge of the map are, in general, bad ideas. You can lose armor, lose turns, or slow your velocity to 0, depending on which obstacle you hit, but either way you lose precious time while your opponents pull ahead. If you run out of armor entirely, you will end up spending a turn to right your airship and restore 1 Armor point, and then your next turn you get to continue from Velocity 0.

Players must reach the checkpoints and cross the line indicated by the arrows in the indicated direction (clockwise or counterclockwise). The first player to clear all the checkpoints and cross the finish line is the winner.

Conclusion:

When I first got out the components I thought it was going to be a very complex game — maybe just because the airships reminded me of Leviathans. In fact, it may be a little closer to something like Kings of Air and Steam, except that it’s a racing game rather than a pickup-and-delivery game. The gameplay turned out to be very simple, and the depth of strategy comes in the use of the tactics cards: when do you discard cards for movement points (or to godangerously fast), and when do you save them for their actions?

As we played, we tried to take different routes to get to the checkpoints. In one game, I took a shot at passing through a narrow mountain pass while the others had to contend with a gun turret and minefield — it worked, but I had to face several “Gust of Wind” cards on my way through. In another game, the players split up in two directions from the starting line, and it still turned out to be quite close reaching the checkpoints, with a few lucky dice rolls making the difference. It made me realize that the board, with the checkpoint locations and built-in obstacles, is laid out really well. The size and placement of the clouds and mountains make it really challenging to take straight-line routes and force you to zigzag to your destination.

Heading in two directions around the mountain for the first checkpoint. (Prototype shown) Photo: Jonathan Liu

If there’s any complaint about the game, it’s in the fact that it is luck-dependent — both in the cards you get and the dice rolls. Sometimes you could be going at Velocity 3 and get the minimum 6 movement points, and other times when you wanted to go a short distance you might roll too high and be forced to run into an obstacle or overshoot your goal. Thankfully, you can use the cards to adjust your roll, and I like the strategic decisions you have to make about discarding two cards to max out your speed — it means that you won’t have any other protective cards in case of an attack, and you won’t have cards to tweak your roll. On the other hand, in one five-player game, we had one player who had been in the middle or end of the pack for a while pull out to second place by the end of the game. Again, it’s not purely luck because you can adjust your movement with cards, but a bad roll can make a big difference.

In that sense, Quicksilver is more of a typical American game than European game. You can end up in a situation where you get a runaway leader — and if that happens, they can be really hard to stop except with a timely “Gust of Wind” card or canceling some of their cards as they play. But it’s still a pretty fun racing game and one that I’m definitely interested in playing again.

The Kickstarter campaign has a little over a week left to go, so check out the project and consider picking up a copy. Split Second Games is a small venture, just two guys who developed this board game, and I think they’ve got a cool idea on their hands; I’d love to see this project succeed. One nice thing about the game is that I think it could be handled by younger players as well: the mechanics are pretty simple, though planning your route long-term may be a slightly trickier lesson.

Head over to Kickstarter for more information.

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