Recap, Page Two: Action at the South End... the race gets ugly early as several LARGE vehicle compete for a smallish space.  Say, was that a train whistle I hear?

The Racers were presented with IMMEDIATE DIFFICULTY by having to negotiate into a tight space, after performing a hairpin turn.  Since almost to a man or woman, the racers decided to start the race at FULL THROTTLE (or redline, or pedal to the metal, Energy Conservation be damned ), almost everyone was hitting this turn at full speed, point straight ahead.

Rules Citation: "In LE GRAND CIRQUE, a racer may make ONE Turn per his or her turn, and one turn only.  The turn may take place at any point during the turn, but it cannot be a multiple turn, as the time being simulated will not allow for an action of such complexity."  -- LE GRAND CIRQUE rulebook, "Movement"

What ended up occurring occurring was, everyone made their turns to negotiate around the huge clump of conveyances at the start of the race, and had no turn to make at the END of the first turn-- so they had to "Turn into the Red"...

Rules Citation: "TURNING: In order to make a turn, the racer places the Turn Template on the axis of advance, and the rotates the conveyance somewhere within a 90 degree arc.  At 45 degrees, the conveyance is in the "red zone" and must make a balance check.  Conveyances with difficulty in balancing (unicycles, mono-wheel designs, etc.) make HARD balance checks.  Everyone else makes easy checks." -- LE GRAND CIRQUE rulebook, "Movement"

Observe what happens when vehicles hit the red zone with no other options.

1) Heading for the turn, going like a bat out of hell.... and

2) Suddenly you're gazing up at the placid sky of Indiana, wondering what happened.

O'Roarke also went over, and if my memory serves me, so did a few others, including Hidreema Djeenie.

The Bridge Crowding problems got exacerbated by more than one L-Class vehicle trying to inhabit the same space at the same time-- there's a law of physics being violated in there somewhere, I just know it.

The S-Class conveyances (bicycles mostly) managed to squeeze past the L class behemoths taking advantage of the basing rule and the Narrow Place Rule of Thumb:

Rules Citation: "The Base of the Model Does Not Exist in Game terms.  If a base of one model touches another, they are not necessarily ramming each other"

Rules Citation: "The Tight Place Rule of Thumb: A S Class may squeeze around a S, M or L class in a tight place, but you should eyeball the L class at least.  A M Class may squeeze around a S or M, but eyeball the M class.  A L class may NOT squeeze around another L, but could possibly squeeze past a M (eyeball it) and could squeeze past an S."

What this added up to was a big log jam as first the Count got on the bridge, then the Big Spiky wheel thing got on the bridge, then the Galvanic Rat Wheel tried it.  Logjam time.

The situation wasn't helped by the unexpected arrival of THE WABASH CANNONBALL, who was running a little early today.  The train (thankfully) chugged into the station slowly, but the ensuing carnage knocked back the RatWheel and PM's Delivery wagon, which were both (miraculously) only slightly dented.

Things improved when the Count managed to get the BatCoach off of the bridge, thus clearing the way for the conveyances stacked up behind him.

At this point, the SPOILERS came into play.  A Spoiler is a random event which can impact game play for positive or negative reasons.  The first spoiler of the day was the ARMED WING OF THE INTERNATIONAL VEGETARIAN SOCIETY, led by the mysterious Colonel Napoleon Blownapart.  In the Colonel's odd mental calculus, the Society would be making a point about the cruelty to animals caused by a meat-eating culture by shooting tar-daubed flaming pigs into the race, thus disrupting the status quo and getting lots of publicity for his cause: 

While spectacular, the flaming pigs did little damage to conveyances, landing on the Counts Bat Coach and only one other conveyance-- the launcher proved too hard to aim.  The intentional ironic jest was lost on most of the spectators.

Fire 'em Up! The Race Moves into the Farm Area.

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