Flamme rouge is a racing game were you try and get either one of your two bicycles across the finishing lining. You have two different decks made up of movement cards, one for your rouler(your all-rounder cyclist) and your sprinter(which can go really fast at some points but to contract that also go really slow other times). Picking one of these decks to do first, you take four cards and choose one of them to be that riders movement of that turn and discard it from the game while the other are put at the back of the deck to be re-used later(meaning that if you only pick your good cards at the start then you will be overtaken in the late game as you have to pick the bad cards). After that everyone moves their cyclists corresponding to the movement cards starting from the biker at the front moving back. Then you get to move up all the packs that are one space apart together because of 'slip-streaming' and they everyone at the front of the pack takes a exhaustion card which is put in that cyclists recycling section.
The first thing I love about this game is the huge variety of strategies that present themselves from the challenge of managing your riders deck and the different strategies that the decisions you make represent. For example you might try to form a breakaway, conserve your energy for a final sprint or if I was in the game just go slowly for the entire race.
The art is also very nice, with different art for each of the riders decks, which is a really nice touch that makes it feel like you are controlling two people instead if two little pieces on a board. However I do have one problem which is scaling, because according to my calculations (which involved lots of counting, searching the internet and a cow) that the course in Flamme Rouge is only 518.16 meters long and a stage in the tour de france covers about 166666 meters and it would take about 33.6 seconds for professional cyclists to complete it. Saying this, the flame rouge is a flag that marks the last kilometre in a race and 518.16 meters is kind of close to a kilometre.
But if you look past the fact that the race is absolutely tiny, you can bask in the brilliance of the theme of this game. It simulates the fact that going out in front is tiring and the help from slipstreaming riders get but also how it is really hard to form a break-away from any length of time without being swallowed back up by the peleton. Anyone who has watch even a bit of cycling will recognise this from the actual thing. Everything works really intuitively
My last small problem is the cyclists, which all had their rides fall of them, and so we will have to glue them back together (all though it will almost certainly never happen, I am very lazy). Also, it is slightly hard to tell the difference between your router and sprinter but it isn't that bad.
Overall the problems are insignificant really, when you think about how easy the rules are to explain, while also not making the game simple or limiting any of the strategic options. I think that this is an amazing gateway game but is also worth it for anyone who wants a great racing game. Overall I would give this a nine out of ten and recommend this to basically anyone.
The first thing I love about this game is the huge variety of strategies that present themselves from the challenge of managing your riders deck and the different strategies that the decisions you make represent. For example you might try to form a breakaway, conserve your energy for a final sprint or if I was in the game just go slowly for the entire race.
The art is also very nice, with different art for each of the riders decks, which is a really nice touch that makes it feel like you are controlling two people instead if two little pieces on a board. However I do have one problem which is scaling, because according to my calculations (which involved lots of counting, searching the internet and a cow) that the course in Flamme Rouge is only 518.16 meters long and a stage in the tour de france covers about 166666 meters and it would take about 33.6 seconds for professional cyclists to complete it. Saying this, the flame rouge is a flag that marks the last kilometre in a race and 518.16 meters is kind of close to a kilometre.
But if you look past the fact that the race is absolutely tiny, you can bask in the brilliance of the theme of this game. It simulates the fact that going out in front is tiring and the help from slipstreaming riders get but also how it is really hard to form a break-away from any length of time without being swallowed back up by the peleton. Anyone who has watch even a bit of cycling will recognise this from the actual thing. Everything works really intuitively
My last small problem is the cyclists, which all had their rides fall of them, and so we will have to glue them back together (all though it will almost certainly never happen, I am very lazy). Also, it is slightly hard to tell the difference between your router and sprinter but it isn't that bad.
Overall the problems are insignificant really, when you think about how easy the rules are to explain, while also not making the game simple or limiting any of the strategic options. I think that this is an amazing gateway game but is also worth it for anyone who wants a great racing game. Overall I would give this a nine out of ten and recommend this to basically anyone.
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