Flamme Rouge Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Goal Line
  • Overview and Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setting Up
  • Build the Track
  • Pick a Colour
  • Form Rider Decks
  • Form Exhaustion Decks
• The 3 Phases
• 1. Energy Phase
  • 1. Choose rider, Draw cards
  • 2. Play and Recycle
  • 3. Repeat
• 2. Movement Phase
• 3. End Phase
  • 1. Remove played cards
  • 2. Apply slipstreaming
  • 3. Assign exhaustion cards
• Additional Rules
  • Alternative Stages
  • Handicap
  • Mountains
• Reporters of Flamme Rouge

The Goal Line

Overview and Goal of the Game

Flamme Rouge is a fast-paced, tactical bicycle racing game where each player controls a team of two riders: a Rouleur and a Sprinteur. The players' goal is to be the first to cross the finish line with one of their riders. If more than one rider crosses the line in the same round, the one who gets furthest across wins. Players move their riders forward by drawing and playing numbered cards, which show how far each rider moves.

Components

• 4 Player Boards (1 per player colour)
• 8 Cyclist Models (2 per player colour) — 4 Rouleurs, 4 Sprinteurs
• 21 Track Tiles (double-sided) — 1 Start, 1 Finish, 7 Straight, 6 Soft turns, 6 Sharp turns
• 190 Cards
  • 120 Energy cards — 4 Sprinteur decks, 4 Rouleur decks
  • 60 Exhaustion cards — 1 Sprinteur deck, 1 Rouleur deck
  • 6 Stage cards
  • 4 Reference cards

Setting Up

Build the Track

Pick a stage card, and lay out the track tiles as depicted on it.

For your first game: Use the Avenue Corso Paseo stage card. For all the tiles, use the sides marked with lowercase letters (a,b,c...) as shown on the card and in the picture below.

Pick a Colour

Take a sprinteur and a rouleur model, their matching energy cards, and a player board of your colour.

Form Rider Decks

Shuffle your sprinteur's energy cards to form a deck, and place it on your player board face down on its indicated space. Then, do the same for your rouleur's energy cards.

Form Exhaustion Decks

Place all sprinteur exhaustion cards face up within easy reach of all players. Then, do the same for rouleur exhaustion cards.

How to build the track: The track tiles are identified with lowercase and capital letters in the lower left corner, e.g. "a" on one side and "A" on the other.

The start and finish tiles are highlighted with yellow.

The start tile is also marked with ►. At the bottom of the stage card, there is a string of letters that shows you the correct order of the tiles.

Starting positions: The player who most recently rode a bike (youngest if tied) freely places their two riders in any free lanes, behind the Start line. Continue in a clockwise order around the table until all riders have been placed.

Red player places their riders first. Black player goes second. Blue player then joins black in the 3rd square and takes the top position, which had been left free.

Square vs. Lane: Squares are divided from each other with thick white lines. Each square has two lanes: left & right. One rider occupies one lane. If a square is empty, riders are always placed in the right lane (which is marked with a double line).

The 3 Phases

The race is played over several rounds. Each round has three phases:

• In the Energy Phase players (simultaneously) draw 4 and play 1 card face down for one of their riders first, then the other.
• In the Movement Phase all played cards are revealed and riders move according to their card.
• In the End Phase the played cards are removed, then slipstreaming and exhaustion are applied.

1. Energy Phase

All players simultaneously

1. Choose rider, Draw cards

Choose one of your riders (sprinteur or rouleur) and draw four cards from his energy deck.

2. Play and Recycle

Select one of the cards and play it face down next to the matching rider's energy deck. This card indicates the rider's movement value for this round. Recycle the unplayed cards.

Recycle: place the card(s) face up at the bottom of the matching rider's energy deck.

You may look at the recycled cards at the bottom of your decks at any time, but not the face-down cards.

3. Repeat

After this, repeat steps 1. and 2. for your other rider. When all players have played a card for both their riders, proceed to the Movement Phase.

When drawing cards:

• You cannot draw cards for your second rider before playing the card for your first one. You can look at your played card(s) whenever you like.
• If your energy deck runs out of face-down cards, shuffle the recycled cards and place them back on your player board face down. Keep drawing until you have four cards in hand.
• If there are fewer than four cards total in your energy deck (recycled & face down), simply draw all cards.

2. Movement Phase

Turn all played cards face up. Starting with the frontmost rider, move each rider forward the exact number of squares on his matching card.

You can change lanes at no additional cost.

A rider landing in an empty square must always be placed in the right-hand lane.

The frontmost rider is the rider closest to the Finish line in the right-hand lane.

A rider can move through other riders, but cannot end their movement on them. If a rider would end his movement on a fully occupied square, he must stop behind it, in the first square with a free lane.

Example: Blue sprinteur moves first (energy value 5). Red rouleur moves next (energy value 5). He would end up in a fully occupied square. He has to end his movement on the first square with a free lane.

3. End Phase

1. Remove played cards

Remove all played cards from the game.

Cards can be used only once per game.

2. Apply slipstreaming

Starting with the backmost pack of riders, move every pack that gains slipstreaming one square forward.

Pack: consists of one or more riders that have no empty squares between them.

Slipstreaming:

• Check if there is exactly one empty square between two packs. The rear pack is moved forward one square so that the two packs merge. Then, check if slipstreaming applies to this new pack. Keep going through the rest of the packs.
• Riders may gain slipstreaming several times in one round.

Example: Starting with the backmost pack, move all applicable packs in order. Pack 1 does not move, because it is more than one square away from Pack 2. Pack 2 moves because it is one empty square from Pack 3. The Merged Pack A moves because it is one empty square from Pack 4. Thus, the riders in Pack 2 got to move two squares, and Pack 3 got to move one square.

3. Assign exhaustion cards

If your rider is exhausted, take an exhaustion card matching your rider (sprinteur or rouleur) and recycle it.

Exhaustion: A rider is exhausted if he has an empty square in front of him.

Exhaustion cards:

• Are used exactly like any other energy cards with a value of 2.

Give a matching exhaustion card to every rider that has an empty square in front of him. An empty lane in front of a rider does not cause exhaustion—in a real life race the pack is driving in the middle of the road, not in lanes.

Additional Rules

Alternative Stages

The track tiles are double-sided, which allow for very varied setups. There are 6 suggested stages you can try, each with their own Stage card. Feel free to also create your own tracks!

Handicap

If you are introducing this game to new players, consider adding a handicap:

• All players that have already played the game can add 1 exhaustion card to both of their energy decks during setup.
• Really experienced players can add an additional exhaustion card to both of their energy decks.

Mountains

Mountains can help or hinder you, depending on how you handle them. There are two new road types that portray mountains: Ascents (all squares with backward-pointing road edges) and Descents (all squares with forward-pointing road edges).

The Ascents add two new rules:

First, in the Movement Phase: a rider starting on, moving onto or going across any red Ascent square can never move more than 5 squares. A higher value card can be played, but its value is capped at 5 and excess moves are wasted.

If the 6th or above move would allow the rider to enter the first square of an Ascent, simply stop him on the last free lane before the Ascent starts.

Second, in the End Phase: a rider on an Ascent can never give nor receive slipstreaming to or from other riders.

The Descents add only one rule:

If a rider starts a turn on a blue Descent square, his card always counts as a minimum of 5. A lower value card can be played, but its value is always minimum 5. Slipstreaming is awarded as normal.

The road signs on the track tiles are a reminder of these rules.

Slipstreaming: Red Sprinteur does not move, because Blue Rouleur is on Ascent. Blue Rouleur does not move, because he's on Ascent and cannot gain slipstreaming. Black Sprinteur moves, because he is on Descent and slipstreaming applies normally.

Exhaustion cards are given as per normal rules.

Reporters of Flamme Rouge

Designer: Asger Sams Granerud

Art Director: Jere Kasanen

Illustrator: Ossi Hiekkala

Producers: Toni Niittymäki & Markus Bremer

Special thanks to: Michael Andresen, Anders Frost Bertelsen, Claus Eggert, Mads Fløe, Hans Peter Hartsteen, Malu Harding Jensen, Hans Lerche, Max Møller, Jakob Lind Olsen, Mikkel Olsen, Daniel Skjold Pedersen, Claus Raasted, Esa Ryömä, Dennis Friis Skram, Troels Vastrup, Nikolaj Wendt

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