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Players: 2-4 (ages 8+)
Playing Time: 20-40 minutes
The classic road-racing card game, Mille Bornes, has been a family game night favorite for more than half a century. If you’ve ever found it challenging to keep track of the cards in front of you, though, you’ll love the new board game version.
Game play is similar to the card game version. Instead of keeping track of your own mileage (and scoring points for various actions), though, you simply move your car pawn around the board.
At the beginning of the game, players are dealt six cards—and they keep six cards in their hands throughout the game, drawing one card at the beginning of each turn and playing one card at the end.
The object of the game is to be the first player to travel 1000 miles and reach the finish line. To do so, you’ll play distance cards—25, 50, 75, 100, or 200 miles—to help you move around the board. But, along the way, your opponents can place hazards in your way, from accidents to flat tires. For each hazard, you’ll have to play the corresponding remedy card (along with a “Go” card) in order to get back on the road again.
Whichever player reaches the finish line first—or gets the farthest after all of the cards in the deck have been played—wins the race.
The 1000 Bornes game board may be a new addition to the classic game, but the cool, retro styling makes it feel like an old-school board game from the ‘50s. There are classic cars to take you around the board, as well as hazard pawns to place in your way whenever you’re stopped. The abundance of little plastic parts may be unnecessary, but younger players will like placing stop signs and flat tires in front of their opponents.
The rules, meanwhile, are somewhat simplified—making it easier for younger players to join in. The board removes the need to keep track of your own mileage—and, with the new rules, there aren’t any points to add up. For some fans of the classic game, that may be frustrating, since the points add another layer of strategies. Without the points and strategies, it’s a pretty basic board game—with just a few twists—but that’s a welcome change if you’re playing with kids.
Of course, if you still prefer the classic card game, you can simply use the cards included and set the board and the playing pieces aside—but you’ll have to remember the original rules, since they aren’t included with the board game.
1000 Bornes can be a maddening game—a game of frustrating hazards, of watching your opponents race by as you try to find just one elusive “Go” card. But the simple rules and fun board game pawns make for plenty of family-friendly, road race fun.
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