LEGENDEN INTERNATIONALER RADSPORT QUARTETT
Marcel Michel, Switzerland, 2015-2024

Very fine Swiss game of the "high values"/"happy families" family (you can play both games), of which there are four independent editions. The first deck was released in 2015, a second deck appeared in 2019, and two more decks have appeared in 2024. One of them is dedicated to women cycling. Since it is still unusual to find women cycling represented in games, I have dedicated a separate entry to this game. That's why you just see three decks in the picture above. 

While this collection includes games dedicated to other sports, including football, Formula 1, ice hockey, tennis, skiing, boxing, and even schwingen (a form of wrestling native to Switzerland), cycling is the most represented sport so far.

In each deck, 40 cycling legends are grouped roughly by country. What makes these decks special is that each country is illustrated by a different hand. Furthermore, and that is truly amazing, not only does each game feature ten different graphic artists, but the artists in the different games are also different. There are a huge number of illustrators featured in the collection!
 

 

 

The illustrators in the first deck are Andreas Kiener (team Switzerland), Mathias Barth (Netherlands), Andreas Lori (Luxembourg), Eva Rust (France)

 

Nicole Lang (Australia, Canada & USA), Luca Bartulovic (Belgium), Anja Wicki (Spain), Tom Frey (Italy)

Elsa Klever (Germany), and Eva Rekade (Ireland & UK).

The illustrators in the second deck are Micha Rindisbacher (team Italy), Benjamin Hermann (Switzerland), Owley Samter (Netherlands), Marc Locatelli (Belgium), Daniel Bosshard (GBR), Michael Furler (France),  Julia Trachsel (USA & Australia), Maria Rehli (Spain), Malin Widen (Colombia, Danmark & Slovaquia), and Cornelius Heinzer (Austria & Germany)

 

 

The illustrators in the third deck are Fritz Erler, Nino Christen, Paolo Mainini, Simone Colongo, Liam Tanzen, Ronny Heimann, Michael  Nievergelt, Dino Molinari, Patrick Widmer, and Marc Locatelli.

The backs of the decks are different, which means that the games, in principle, are not meant to be mixed into a single, larger deck. While it is true that you cannot play "happy families" with more than one deck, it is perfectly possible to play a "high values" game with two or three decks.

 

 

 

To play "high values", you have up to 16 different categories to choose from, including the number of days in which a particular rider wore a leader maillot in each of the three grand tours or the number of times he won the King Of The Mountains classification, although not all the riders have values in the latter. The sixteenth category is the number of world champion titles, marked by the number of rainbow stripes on the topmost right corner. I admit that I had not noticed it at first sight. Thanks, Marcel, for enlightening me!

 

However, I must add, the main value of these decks is not as playable games (which of course they are) but as collectable items (which cannot be said to be true of all games).

Check the official website: http://www.legendenquartett.ch/

Description rewritten in July 2024
 

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