Html5 Demo:
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~taian/pages/html5/MtDoom488/mtDoom2.html
Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ax2fMjG00Q6uExMs7sBFHCtn13Ax5nWpmsH1bFUqQ1E/edit?hl=en_US
Original game review from boardgamegeek
Up the River is racing game with enough simple mechanics to keep it interesting. Suspense abounds as the boats sail against the current. The first player to the dock is not necessarily the winner which keeps the race exciting to the end.
The board is a river sliced into 10 tiles leading up to a harbor. The harbor has 12 numbered docks. The game includes a special die with arrows on one side.
Each player has three sailboats. Players roll the dice and move one of their boats the correct number of spaces.
The mechanics that keep this game from being a straight forward race include: the wave, the sand bar, the wind, the current and the waterfall.
The Wave(high tide) and Sand Bar:
The river has two special tiles: the wave and the sandbar. When boats land on the wave tile, they are pushed three spaces closer to the harbor. When boats come to the sand bar, they “run aground” and must end their turn on that tile.
The Wind:
When a player rolls an arrow, it’s a gust of wind. The wind can blow boats forward or backwards. The player must move one sailboat next to another sailboat of the same color. This can be one of the player’s own boats, to move it up the river or it can be another player’s boat to move it back down the river. The boat must stop at the first boat of the same color.
The Current:
After each player has had a turn, the first player takes the bottom river tile and moves it up to the top, next to the harbor. This nicely simulates the river’s current pushing the boats one tile away from the harbor.
The Waterfall:
Any boats that are on the bottom tile when it’s moved up next to harbor are said to have gone over the waterfall and are out of the game.
The first boat to reach the harbor docks on the number 12 dock and gets 12 points. The next boat gets 11 points, and so on until all the boats still in the game have reached the harbor. Players total their points when the last boat has docked. Highest number of points wins.
This game plays very quickly and is very suspenseful. Initially, it seems very simple to sail all of your boats up the river, but the game is more than just a roll and move. Decisions need to be made in several areas. These include: which boat to move, whether to use the wind to save one of your boats or to hold another player back. It takes some planning to be sure your boats aren’t going to be pushed over the waterfall by the impeding sand bar. Often, it’s necessary to sacrifice a boat over the waterfall.
Overall, I find this a light, fast, fun game. It is a nice family game that kids and adults can enjoy together. Kids find losing their boats over the waterfall pretty frustrating. However, after several plays, my kids learned that they can still win even when they lose a boat and they learned that sometimes it's in their best interest to sacrifice a boat to get a better position on the dock.
Up the River does rely heavily on luck of the dice. However, strategy and planning play enough of an important part to keep it from being completely mindless.
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Rule Vs procedure?
formal element
dramatic element
dynamic element
dominant strategy: sacrifice one boat
Reason:
In order to save all of the 3 boats, averagely every boat has to wait for 2 rounds, which means two tiles down the river. That means you have to dice at least 3 every time in order to save them, that is about 2/3 chance each round. but say (2/3)^10, gets a very small value.