Flamme Rouge – the best cycling board game out there?

​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.

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.