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How do you play Y-battle?

1. Introduction and needed items

Y-battle is a game in which toy cars are used, like those of Hot Wheels and the such. This game requires two or four players, not three. Solo play rules are described a ways below, just before the history of development.

Items needed for play:
4 toy cars [no bigger than 2.5 inches long and 1 inch wide]
1 flat hard board 4 feet by 4 feet [minimum; 5 feet by 5 feet recommended, but not bigger than 6 by 6 feet].
1 piece of paper [for tallying who's the real winner]
1 pencil or pen

2. Game setup

This game is one of the easiest to set up. First, lay your 4x4 foot board on a flat surface, like that of the floor or table, preferrably the floor or a low surface. Then, the game is setup with the cars arranged in a Y-pattern as shown here:

The red car represents player 1, the green car represents player 2, the blue car represents player 3 and the magenta car represents player 4. That's all there is to game setup. Easy, isn't it?

3. How to play [2 to 4 players]

Though it may seem unfair at first, player 1 doesn't get to make a move on the first round. On the second round, player 2 doesn't get to make a move, but player 1 can. On round 3, it's player 3 that can't and on round 4, player 4 can't.

Four players:

Player 2 takes his car and aims after player 1. To aim, you grab your car, slide it back some, then jerk it forward letting go of the car when it reaches it's original spot again. If launched too late, the player is out of the match. If any cars are knocked upsidedown, they're out of the match. Then, player 3 launches his/her car at players 1 or 2. Again, any cars flipped upsidedown from the impact is knocked out of the match. Finally, player 4 launches his/her car at anyone he so chooses. After player 4 and there's still more than 1 car still rightsideup, player 2 makes his next turn targetting after anyone. If player 2 has been knocked out in any of the previous runs, it's player 3 instead and if player 3 has been knocked out, player 4 goes instead. Play continues until 1 car is left. If, for some reason, all remaining cars are flipped upsidedown, those that just were all get flipped back and play continues. Players knocked out before this point don't return to the game until the next round.

If any car, whether upsidedown or not, is out of bounds, that is, off of the board, that car gets placed back into the play area. If, however, the player itself went out of bounds, and their car is flipped upside down, they're out. Otherwise, they still survive and game play continues.

If you're close to an opponent, you may grab your car rotate it opposite of your opponent, then rotate it into your opponent smashing him/her. This is only effective at close range. If you're completely surrounded and cannot move, using the swing attack is very effective.

Once a winner is declared in round 1, the same setup is used as shown in the image, except player 2 is now in the center and player 1 goes where player 2 was in the first round [top left corner]. Gameplay continues like before until a winner is declared in this round. For round 3, player 3 takes the center and player 2 goes where player 3 once was in the previous round [top right corner]. Once a winner is declared in this round, player 4 goes in the center and player 3 goes where player 4 once was [bottom]. After round 4, the cycle continues again, starting with player 1. A group of 4 rounds is a set.

This, below, shows you the four arrangements of how the players are arranged in each of the four rounds:

Two players:

The rules for two-player mode are exactly the same as four player, only each player takes two cars, both even or both odd. Again, the cars are identified by 1, 2, 3, and 4. That is, player 1 has cars 1 and 3, while player 2 and cars 2 and 4.

4. Determining the winner

The winner is determined by the player who has won the most rounds.

5. Tournament mode

To make the game much more like a real tournament, one of those elimination diagrams is used, primarily with a power of 4, especially 64. An example of one is below:

Note that a set of four branches off into a single instead of a set of two branching off into a single? 64 becomes 16 instead of 32. 16 becomes 4 then 4 becomes 1.

Each player takes a set of numbers. It's best that player 1 takes all numbers a multiple of 4 plus 1, like 1, 5, 9, 13, 17, 21, etc.. Player 2 takes all numbers a multiple of 4 plus 2, like 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22, etc.. Player 3 takes all numbers a multiple of 4 minus 1, 3, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, etc.. Player 4 takes the remaining ones, multiples of 4, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, etc..

The tournament bracket has all the numbers on the left side and are in a count from 1 to the last number, in our example, 64. Each set contains 4 rounds. The winner of the 4 rounds gets placed on the line to head to the next round. If there happens to be a tie, those two cars go on a face-off and try to knock each other upsidedown. Again, like before, if both cars are flipped upside down, they get placed back where they were. Once a winner is determined, they'll be moving on to the next round. Then, for cars 5 through 8, the same thing is repeated again. Going on with 9 through 12, 13 through 16, and so on.

Once all these are matched and placed on the next inner bracket, the top four here compete. If cars 3, 8, 10, and 15 were there, players 3, 4, and 2 are used and player 3 gets two turns, again, in the proper order [numerical sequence]. In this case, the player with the lowest number is in the center first, then the next lowest goes in the center and so on. Upon completing this side of the bracket, 4 remain. Once these 4 have a clear winner, the ultimate winner is declared and is the champion.

This game can also be played with 256 sets, however, this could take an hour or two, so that's why I recommend 64 as your base. A set of 16 would last too short and won't have much competition. This is why I highly recommend 64. Medium length, more fair.

If you'd like to do 128 or 32, you can. Just set the matches to the groups of 4 and play normally until you get down to the last two. These two then will be on the face-off like the tie breaker.

6. Solo play

Solo play is mostly untested, however, it is possible, but lots less fun. Just like two-player and 4-player modes, you play in the same fashion. Solo play is best with the tournament. As with 2 or 4-player mode, you play with 4 cars at once. To get the same bet on whether you'll win or not, pick a number that is even or odd. This is the same as two-player mode. For four-player mode, pick a number within a set of 4 [That is, if you pick 3, you'll also get 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, etc..].

To make solo play more random, or if you can't decide on the number, use this standard:

Two player equivilent:	Four player equivelent
Take one coin and flip it. If the coin lands on heads, you choose odd, and if the coin lands on tails, you choose even.	Take two coins and flip them both at once. If both land on heads, you choose 1. If both land on tails, you choose 4. If they land both head and tails, take one coin and flip it again^*. If it lands on heads, you choose 2, and if it's tails, you choose 3.

Table footnotes:
* Though it seems odd, you have 2 possibilities for one head and one tail. You have only 1 possibility for both two heads or two tails. Because of the 2 in 4 chance [also 1 in 2], you take one of the coins and shake it to help determine which of 2 or 3 you take, the two possibilities that remain.

Footnotes:
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