Flamme Rouge
Ready to set off on the race. This includes an expansion with 2 additional colours
I figured that I'd bring this game write up forward a bit, given I've been losing sleep watching the tour de France for the last week and a half and losing sleep because of it. This game is quite a nice modular cycling race game, with 21 double sided pieces of track and 6 stage cards (I think they were double sided also) for how to set up a single stage. There is also an app that (as far as I'm aware) the makers of the game have put together to manage and run a multiple stage race.
Given the speed of the game, with our first race, and learning how things work only taking around 45 minutes it is quite possible to run through a 3 or 4 stage race in under 2 hours. We took longer as we took breaks between each stage and were talking with other people as well as having some players swapping in and out of the game.
Stage 1: Flat, with a feed zone before 2 sections of cobblestones/gravel
Each player controls 2 cyclists, a 'sprinter' and a 'roller'. Their movements are controlled through a deck of cards, with the sprinter ranging from 2 through to 9, while the roller being clustered between 3 and 7. For each round, all players draw 4 cards from one of their cyclist's decks, and selecting a card to play from it. Then they repeat this for their other cyclist. The 3 cards for each cyclist not chosen go into the discard pile for the respective deck.
After everyone has selected a card for both their cyclists, movement happens in order from the front of the race to the back. Riders that are next to each other are ordered from the 'inside' line outwards. Which side of the track this happens to be is indicated on the boards, but in our races it was the right hand side.
A big pack rounding the final hairpin with a couple of stragglers finishing the last cobble section
The movement of bikes from further back is only blocked if the space they'd end on is occupied, at which point they stop at a position as far forward as they could make it with their movement. There is also some mechanics for going up and down hills, where speed is either restricted to a maximum, or increased to a minimum to simulate the difficulty or ease of riding the road.
The game mechanics also simulate drafting, starting from the back of the race, dragging any rider that is 1 space gap to a rider in front will be sucked along to stick to the back of the group in front. This can mean a rider at the rear of the race actually gains multiple spaces if the new group they become part of is then only 1 space gap behind another group ahead of them until the front of the race is reached.
A sprinter caught right on the line. Will they have the power to hold on?
Exhaustion is then determined, with any riders at the head of a group taking an exhaustion card into their discard pile. These are 2 value cards that are returned on use. As selected cards are no longer available during the current stage, gathering exhaustion cards will clog up the remainder of your deck and effectively reduce the values you can choose between as the race goes on.
On the whole, for a single stage race I found that the exhaustion wasn't too difficult to deal with, either sticking in the peloton until late in the race before charging, or using the exhuastion cards up on downhill sections to gain the increased speed from it while also getting rid of the card. Over a multiple stage race however, you have to manage them more, as you keep half rounded up after each stage. One of the teams in our game started one of the later stages with 5 exhaustion cards. With only 15 cards in the starting deck, that significantly increases the chances of getting low numbers that you have to deal with.
In a very close finish they just held on. The same tie breakers used during the race continue after the finish line. In the multiple stage races, each additional turn adds a 10 second penalty to your overall time. There was also a record of how far past the finish line you went that may have adjusted time also.
One of the other parts of the deck management was making sure you had enough power to make the finish line. Some stages are so tightly set up that you actually need to either draft a little, or gain a couple of exhaustion cards just to get to the finish line. If you don't have any cards left in your deck, you automatically play an exhaustion card, so you will never not make the finish, but rolling in at 2 spaces a turn could see you passed by others, much like a breakaway rider being caught in the final sprint to the line.
Another of the stages we played. This one includes 2 climbs and descent sections, with a feed section between them
Overall I found this game very good, for a light game, and quite a decent replication of cycling races. I'd recommend this game to anyone that likes deck management, cycling, or racing games. With the easy to understand mechanics and simple workings, young players would also enjoy this game.
And another track example, where the feed section is followed by a hill climb and descent before a long cobbled section and an uphill finish.
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