The card game Velonimo allows you to depict the merciless struggle in the animal world for the distinctive and highly prized "petits pois-carottes" jersey rewarded to the best climbing cyclist. This trick taking game features ultra simple rules for an absolutely addictive play experience.
Goal of the Game: Race to the summit to score as many points as possible and win the coveted jersey. To win a race, you must be the first player to get rid of all your cards. Racer cards may be played alone or in specific combinations of the same color or same value. There are also breakaway specialist cards which work alone to speed ahead of the pack.
Victory: The game has 5 rounds, each representing the ascent of a different mountain summit by riders in a cycling race. To win the round, you need to get rid of all of your cards before any other player. Even if you are not the winner, you can still score points for your position. Keep playing until there is only one player left. At the end of each round, the player with the highest points total is the leader and received the coveted jersey. The player who receives the jersey at the end of the last round, after the final scoring, is the winner.
- Simple and fast; great family filler
- Cute art and humor; strong player interaction with stealing and duos
- Limited depth; may be less engaging for heavier players
- Ladder climbing and hand shedding with light humor
- Cycling race with animals
- Light, family-friendly
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Compound Scoring — Duo cards grant extra turns or effects; lead cards let you steal a card.
- Ladder climbing — Play hands that beat previous hand; you choose suit or number and try to surpass the previous value.
- Ladder Climbing / Hand Shedding — Play hands that beat previous hand; you choose suit or number and try to surpass the previous value.
- Set Scoring with Duo cards — Duo cards grant extra turns or effects; lead cards let you steal a card.
- Take-and-Swap / Steal — Tortoise leaders let you steal a card from another player's hand when played.
- Trick-taking — Tortoise leaders let you steal a card from another player's hand when played.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- it's a wild child of the bunch
- the art is spectacular
- it's a race to get rid of your hand
- the theme is really cute and the art is spectacular
- it's a simple rule set that you can get into quickly
- I am a sucker for the card design