Mille Bornes


Mille Bornes is a French designer card game. Mille Bornes is listed in the GAMES Magazine Hall of Fame.

History

The game was created in 1954 by as 1000 Bornes. It is almost identical to the earlier American automotive card game Touring, designed by William Janson Roche in 1906. One additional feature is the coup-fourré, whereby bonus points are earned by holding back a safety card until an opponent plays the corresponding hazard card. The game's name is derived from the approximate length of the RN 7 connecting Paris with the Italian border.
Dujardin moved to Arcachon southwest of Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast of France in 1947, where he and his family began producing the game in the basement of his house at No. 63, Boulevard de la Plage. The box for the original 1954 edition carries the strapline la Canasta de la Route, highlighting its similarity to Canasta. The cards are illustrated and hand-lettered by, a graphic designer from France. Due to demand, production was moved to a former fish cannery in Arcachon. A revised version was released in 1960, with updated artwork from Le Callennec; in addition a "special edition" was released with more abstract artwork from Pierre Praquin. With canasta having fallen out of favor, the regular 1960 edition advertised its connection to bridge: the rulebook included an introduction written by Pierre Albarran, and the game was billed as a favorite of world champions Pierre Jaïs and Roger Trézel. Dujardin began international distribution in the same year with bilingual cards.
Parker Brothers, who held the license to distribute Touring in the United States, acquired a license for Mille Bornes in 1962 and began publishing its version in America with updated cover art; the game used the same bilingual cards from the 1960 Dujardin regular edition. Mille Bornes was very popular in the United States, at one point outselling Monopoly. Parker Brothers updated the box/cover art again in 1971, and introduced a more comprehensive revision in 1982 with significantly simplified artwork for the cards. In the mid-1970s, the Dujardin company moved its headquarters slightly south to La Teste-de-Buch before being acquired by in 1981. The headquarters in La Teste were moved to Cestas, 10 miles from Bordeaux, in 2009 shortly after the company was acquired by in 2007. Dujardin, who has produced the game continuously since 1954, currently do so in Saint-Pantaléon-de-Larche, which is north of Toulouse.
In 2021 Dujardin was acquired by Jumbo Games and the production at Saint-Pantaléon-de-Larche was discontinued. The company’s headquarters, though, remain in Cestas.
There have been 26 known publishers of the game in all markets. Some Mille Bornes decks are printed in both English and French. The Spanish version Mil Hitos, distributed by Heraclio Fournier, was very popular in Spain during the 1970s. In the Netherlands there is a predecesor to this game, Stap op, marketed as early as 1939, which deals with cycling instead of driving. The hazards and distances are different, but the mechanics of the game are exactly the same.
The current U.S. version, published by Asmodee, a French manufacturer of games, has removed all French language from the printed cards. The rules still include the "Coup Fourré"; however there is no explanation given for the "counter thrust" translation.

Objective

The premise of Mille Bornes is that the players are in a road race. Each race—or hand—is 1000 miles long. For two- or three-player games the goal is shortened to 700, with an option for the first player to complete that distance to declare an extension to 1000 miles. Mille Bornes is played with a special deck of cards. There are hazard, ''remedy, safety, and distance'' cards. Each hazard is corrected by a corresponding remedy, and can be prevented from happening in the first place by a corresponding safety. The target distance is reached by playing distance cards.

List of cards

The deck has 106 playable cards. Some versions of the game include non-playable cards which list the playable cards and summarize the scoring. In some decks, some of these are printed entirely in French.

Play

The deck is shuffled and six cards are dealt to each player; the remainder becomes a draw pile and a discard pile forms next to it. Each player's turn begins with a draw of one card and a play of one card, so that each player always holds six cards at the end of their turn. The game is typically played with four players divided into two teams.

Player ''tableau''

Each player builds a tableau to display the cards played to the other player or team. In the four-player, two-team game, two players are responsible for a single tableau. The example shows a single typical tableau midway through a hand. The tableau is divided into battle, speed, distance, and safety areas; cards in the battle and speed areas are stacked so that only the top card shows.
  • Hazards and Remedies are played in the battle area. In the example, a Roll card is shown.
  • Speed Limit and End of Limit cards are played separately in the speed area. In the example, a speed limit has been imposed on the player, which means the player cannot play distance cards greater than 50-km.
  • Distance cards are played in the distance area and organized into separate stacks according to value so all players can see their opponents' distance traveled. It is common to play any 200 km cards apart from one another, rather than fanning them as in other columns.
  • Safety cards are played in the safety area along the top of the tableau. In the example shown, the horizontal placement of the Extra Tank card indicates that it has been played as a coup-fourré.

    Legal actions

During their turn, each player may use a card, depending on its type:
  • Roll:
  • * If the player's battle area is empty or showing any remedy other than Roll, the Roll card may be played in their battle area.
  • Distance:
  • * If a Roll card is showing in the player's battle area, a distance card may be played in their distance area.
  • * If a Speed Limit is showing in the player's speed area, only 25 and 50 km distance cards may be played.
  • * No more than two 200 km distance cards may be played per player in a single hand.
  • * The total distance cannot exceed the target value needed to win the hand.
  • Remedy:
  • * If a hazard is showing in the player's battle area, the corresponding remedy may be played on top of it.
  • * If any remedy other than Roll is showing in the player's battle area, a Roll must be played onto it before any distance cards can be played on subsequent turns.
  • * If a Speed Limit is showing in the player's speed area, the End of Limit remedy may be played on top of it.
  • Hazard:
  • * If an opponent's battle area is not empty, any hazard except for Speed Limit may be played onto it.
  • * If an opponent's speed area is empty or showing an End of Limit, a Speed Limit hazard may be played. This is the only hazard that can be played against an opponent whose battle area is empty.
  • * If an opponent has played a safety, the corresponding hazard may not be played against them for the remainder of the hand.
  • Safety:
  • * The player may play a safety in their own safety area, regardless of whether the corresponding hazard is currently in effect against the player.
  • * The safety may be played immediately in response to the corresponding hazard, skipping intermediate players if necessary. This action is known as a coup-fourré.
  • * The player is immune to the hazard remedied by the safety card for the remainder of the hand.
  • Discard:
  • * The player may voluntarily discard a card, even if there are other legal actions available.
  • * The player must discard a card if there are no other legal actions.
  • * Discarded cards cannot be used again for the remainder of the hand.
The first player only has four available legal moves to start: Roll, a safety, Speed Limit, or discard. Starting with the second player, a hazard may be played against any player that has already played a Roll card. Once an Accident, Out of Gas, or Flat Tire hazard has been played, and the appropriate remedy card played to correct it, the player must next play a Roll card in order to get moving again, unless that player also has played the Right of Way safety card. A hazard can be played onto an opponent's battle area even if another one is already showing, but only the topmost hazard needs to be corrected before that player can use a Roll card; however, some rule variants prohibit multiple hazards and instead require that hazards can be played only against Roll cards. Playing a Roll against a Stop hazard corrects it and allows the player to start moving; a second Roll is not needed.
A player affected by a Speed Limit may only play 25 and 50 km cards until the End of Limit remedy has been played. A player may be attacked with both a road hazard and a Speed Limit hazard at the same time. No more than two 200 km cards may be played by any player or team in a single hand.
Whenever a safety is played, the same player draws another card immediately and plays again. It is possible to play consecutive safeties on one turn, each time drawing a card before playing again. Playing a safety may be done either to prevent or correct a corresponding hazard. In either case, once the safety is played, it prevents opponents from using the remedied hazard against that player for the remainder of the hand. When the safety is played preventively, it is placed in the conventional orientation. Unless the player also has played the Right of Way safety, a Roll must still be played before any distance cards.
If the player that was attacked by a hazard is holding the corresponding safety, they may immediately play it, regardless of whether or not it is their turn, and declare a coup-fourré. The safety is laid down horizontally in the safety area, and the hazard card that was played is removed to the discard pile. As required, the player who played the safety draws a new card and takes their normal turn, skipping all players between the attacker and the safety player. If the attacked player had the Roll card on top of their battle pile, since the hazard was removed by the coup-fourré action, the Roll card is exposed again and the attacked player may play a distance card.
The Right of Way/Emergency safety card remedies and protects against both Stop and Speed Limit hazards. If a player uses this safety, they need not play a Roll card in order to get moving again; any Stop or Speed Limit cards showing in the battle/speed areas are moved to the discard pile. The player is still vulnerable to any hazard for which they have not yet played a safety; however, after remedying it, they can begin to play distance cards again without using a Roll card first.
If an uncorrected hazard is revealed in the battle area due to the Right of Way or a coup-fourré being played, and the corresponding safety is not in effect, the hazard must be corrected in order to start moving again. Players may always discard, even if they have a legal play available. A player who has no playable cards must discard. All discards are considered dead and may not be used or touched for the remainder of the hand.