Here is an unpretentious little card game created, self-published, and self-distributed by a group of French friends, as they themselves make clear. The game belongs to the family of domino card games, the most famous of which is known as Sevens (or Parliament) at least in English-speaking countries, although there are variants in many other places. In Spain, for instance, seises ("sixes") or cinquillo (roughly, "fives"), are very popular variants. Remark that they are still known by the number of the card value that starts the particular version of the game, but that this number is lower than the "seven" of the "English" version, since in Spain the game is played with a smaller deck of 48 or even 40 cards. I am sure there are also French versions of the game, one of them probably being the inspirator of Tape l'Etape.

Nevertheless, Tape l'Ëtape adds a couple of nice twists to give the game a cycling flavour, even though you do not need to be a cycling specialist or even a cycling fan to enjoy this family game.

 

 

There are three types of cards in the game, with different colours on the back. The main deck is composed of 48 cards of 4 different colours, numbered 1 to 12 in each colour. Lower value cards (1 to 6) are marked "10 seconds", while higher value cards (7 to 12) are marked "30 seconds". All cards are dealt (not all cards will be used if there are less than six players), and the first player who gets rid of all his cards wins the hand (in this case, the stage). The winner gets a 40-second bonus in the GC, while the other players have to add all seconds marked on the cards left in their hands.

 

There are five different types of stages, with slightly different rules, but these slight variations can make a big difference in the end. The game can be played either as a short 20-minute (or so) game, in which case only six hands are played, or as a longer game, in which up to 30 hands are played (depending on the number of players). In both cases, the seconds gained or lost in each hand/stage are added for the general GC, and the winner at the end of the game is, naturally, the player with fewer seconds accumulated.

In each hand there is a player who will decide the type of stage to be played, and he does so after seeing the cards he has been dealt, so there is a tactical choice in this election.

 

Furthermore, each player has three (or four, since a second vitamin card is used in long games) tactical cards (race incidents): vitamins, punctures, and gear changes. Each player can use each card only once in the game (not "once in each hand/stage" but "once in the complete stage race"), so the careful use of these cards (and the right choice of which stage to play) can and does determine the final GC.

 

On the back of the game box we find a QR code to access a classification keeping app (which is also accessible on the games website for all of us who refuse to use smartphones). In my humble opinion, it is an unnecessary feature. You can easily keep track of GC times with pen and paper (you know how to add minutes and seconds, don't you?). As for the other classifications (mountain and sprint), they are just points classifications that only apply to flat and mountain stages and for which the tie-breaking rule is not only unspecified in the game rules but absurd (alphabetical order of the player's names, at least on the website's version). In case you wish to keep mountain, sprint, or whatever other classifications you can think of, pen and paper will do.

In the end, I think this is a quite enjoyable little game, and, especially if you play the short version, a nice filler in any gaming session.

 

Check the game's official website.