Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Flamme Rouge – the best cycling board game out there?

Easy-to-learn rules, quick gameplay and tactical complexity have given the game a cult following

​Is this the best cycling board game out there? With easy-to-learn rules, quick gameplay combined with tactical complexity, a national championships in Denmark, and now an expansion pack and companion app for smartphones, Flamme Rouge has acquired a cult following including pro cyclists.  

Designed by Asger Harding Granerud from Copenhagen and published by Finnish company Lautapelit, reviews of Flamme Rouge on the website Board Game Geek are overwhelmingly positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10.

The game in its original form is suitable for 2-4 players, and takes between 30 and 45 minutes to play and is said to be very quick to pick up, whether you’re aged 8 or 80.

Flamme Rouge box.jpg

In June, an expansion pack was released, adding two further teams of two riders to make the game suitable for six players under the original rules, or 12 controlling a rider each in an alternative version.

Many reviewers highlight the fact that the game is simple (and quick) to play while at the same time managing to capture some of the tactical complexities of bike racing.

Each player gets two riders – one a rouleur, the other a sprinteur. As in a real-life race, the idea is to try and conserve as much of the sprinteur’s energy as possible ahead of the final push to the line.

The tiles that comprise the course – including cobbles in the expansion pack – mean that multiple variations of the parcours are possible.

The game has also acquired a cult following, and some fans are painting up the plastic rider pieces and even adapting the tiles or creating their own custom ones, as shown below.

There’s even a national championship in Denmark.

And here's riders and staff from UCI Professional Continental outfit Direct Energie playing it during a rest day at last month's Tour de France.

One reviewer on Board Game Geek, John McD, said he’d been searching for the perfect cycling board game for some time and while he had been enthusiastic about Flamme Rouge when it was in development, felt let down initially after learning of its simplicity.

But, once he bought the game and played it, he said: “Good grief! It's so simple, but it absolutely drives our real race tactics.

“It's the race game I wanted. you play it and you feel all the tension, all the decisions, all the pain (except the pain to legs, and from crashes).

“It's the perfect reduction of cycle racing to the very bones. I love it.”

He added: “All told, a great game, the cycling game I wanted, and a great way to set out the simple pleasure of bike racing to those as yet uninitiated.”

The companion app is designed by Benoit Gourdin and available for Apple and Android devices that lets you put on a Grand Tour based on the game.

The app enables players to plan several stages in advance and keep track of rider and team scores.  

The app is free, while the English version of the game itself can be bought through outlets including Amazon.co.uk, with Games Lore selling it for £34.35.

To see if Flamme Rouge lives up to its promise, we’ll see if we can get our hands on a copy here at road.cc so we can give it our own hands-on review treatment.

In the meantime, if you own a copy or have played it, or have any other cycling board game recommendations, we'd love to hear your views in the comments below.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

12 comments

Avatar
django69 | 7 years ago
1 like

"Attack the Pack" is a great cycling card game. Needs a bit of strategy and doesn't take too long to play.

https://attackthepack.com

Avatar
Richard D | 7 years ago
0 likes

Before I started cycling, my hobby was board games.  I have lots of them (several thousand - but I dare to count them all).  These days I buy fewer than I used to, but I was very pleased that I got a copy of Flamme Rouge last October.  

There are quite a few board and card games centred around cycling.  6-Day Race has its fans, Um Reifenbrite  won awards, Leader One is good but a touch complex, but Flamme Rouge is probably the best of them.  It combines simple but cunningly effective game mechanisms with the feel of a bike race.  A flat sprint stage is very different to a mountain top finish, and both are different to a cobbled classic.

I'm indulging both hobbies this weekend - by cycling to a board games weekend.  It'll also mark my first go at bike camping.  Unfortunately the panniers are already full of tent and sleeping bag, so no room for any games, but I'm hoping that someone will have a copy of Flamme Rouge with them.

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 7 years ago
0 likes

As a former fully paid up member as a 'BGG' I have to say it's far too simplistic for my personal tastes.
I guess for younger folk and those in need of a 'quickie' then this will suit but as board games go I'm rather more interested in a long cross continental ride than rudimentary weak legged fumblings along a shared use track.
Goid luck to them though.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to BehindTheBikesheds | 7 years ago
1 like

BehindTheBikesheds wrote:

As a former fully paid up member as a 'BGG' I have to say it's far too simplistic for my personal tastes. I guess for younger folk and those in need of a 'quickie' then this will suit but as board games go I'm rather more interested in a long cross continental ride than rudimentary weak legged fumblings along a shared use track. Goid luck to them though.

I suppose you'd prefer a quick game of Campaign for North Africa?

Avatar
JonD | 7 years ago
0 likes

FWIW, the 'games lore link' just pulls up a different amazon vendor selling it for £howfeckingmuch?

The link you actually want is https://www.gameslore.co.uk/acatalog/PR_Flamme_Rouge_Board_Game.html where it's 29 quid (plus p+p I guess), but currently out of stock.

Alternatively, from the manufacturer for about 37euros (I think free p+p over a 60euro spend)https://www.lautapelit.fi/tuotehaku.asp?sua=1&lang=3&reid=1&tn=flamme

The 'peleton' expansion pack appears to come out in october - tho' I wonder what the difference is between that and adding a second complete game for the extra 12eu (eg like 2 mates doubling up scalextric  3 )...there's a descriptive pdf for each, dunno if that yields any clues.

 

Another review: http://www.creakingshelves.com/flamme-rouge-review/

Anyhow, I've already spent more time writing this than I have riding my bike this month :o

Avatar
theironduck | 7 years ago
1 like

No discs, no helmet (and no chainstay apparently), the horror!

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
1 like
Avatar
theironduck | 7 years ago
2 likes

How about a cross-over game:  The Dunwich Dynamo Horror? 

"In his house at Raleigh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming"

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to theironduck | 7 years ago
0 likes

theironduck wrote:

How about a cross-over game:  The Dunwich Dynamo Horror? 

"In his house at Raleigh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming"

I waste him with my 'cross bike  3

Avatar
hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
1 like

Interesting. I think I'll have to get hold of this and see if I can persuade our gaming group to give it a go. Makes a change from Cthulhu-themed games.

Avatar
brooksby replied to hawkinspeter | 7 years ago
1 like

hawkinspeter wrote:

Interesting. I think I'll have to get hold of this and see if I can persuade our gaming group to give it a go. Makes a change from Cthulhu-themed games.

Ah, but if you win the game then  you are greeted by the Black Pharoah and taken away into the Outer Darkness...

Avatar
pockstone replied to brooksby | 7 years ago
1 like

[

 

[/quote]

Ah, but if you win the game then  you are greeted by the Black Pharoah and taken away into the Outer Darkness...

[/quote]

A contract with SKY?

Latest Comments