Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8104310/spokes

Designer: Bert Hardeman
Publisher: Radical 8 Games
Artist: Rusembell

Spokes is a bright and colorful game where players race bikes around the board in hopes of completing three laps first. In the solo game, the goal is to complete three laps with only a certain number of spokes, so it’s more like you’re working against a built in timer.

Each turn, a player selects a spoke from their board, lays it in one of the spaces adjacent to their biker, and replaces the existing spoke which then fills the empty spot on their player board. Then their biker meeple moves along a single color line as long as possible (or until they choose to stop).

There are a few other small rules here and there (one of which I’ll touch on momentarily), but that’s basically it. The gameplay is very straightforward but definitely clever and unique.

Here are some things I like about Spokes:

1) It can accommodate a wide player count range. The solo implementation is decent; it was fun and very quick (plays within like fifteen minutes), but it can also play up to six racers which is cool (and would likely get chaotic). It plays pretty quickly in general, honestly. Our four-player game took less than an hour with setup and teach and everything.

2) The artwork is great and the colors are fun.

3) There is some interesting strategy with the spoke you replace going back on your player board. Some routes seem really useful but then you could end up with multiple spokes of the same color on your board which can jam you up later.

4) Apart from the layout of the spokes on the main board and on your player board at setup, luck doesn’t play a huge factor.

This one is both positive and negative:

1) There is an interesting boost mechanism where if you are to land on the exact same spot as an opponent, you have to back up one space, but you also get to flip your boost tile over. Your boost tile can then be utilized later to travel along one spoke that doesn’t match the color you’re traveling on. While this is a cool mechanic, the rules could use some work. We house ruled it and instead of the traveling player backtracking one spot, that player actually bumps the existing player back one space and it was a lot more fun!

And here are a few minor complaints and/or places I see room for improvement:

1) If one player falls behind early, it can be a little tough to catch up. It’s honestly not terrible, but it can be a little deflating.

2) The setup is pretty fiddly with all the spokes, especially solo. In a solo setting, you end up setting up and putting the game away for a longer amount of time than you actually play. That’s obviously reduced when you have more players helping, but still worth noting.

Overall, it’s a solid game. It’s not something I’ll reach for all the time, especially solo, but it’s a great lighter weight, easy to teach game that can be pulled out when there are tired brains and/or people that are less familiar with gaming that still offers some interesting decisions.