Indie Boards and Cards IBCFPF2 Flash Point Fire Rescue Second Edition Board Game

Product Information

Success or failure rides on the shoulders of the firefighters and their ability to work as a team, and react to rapdily changing environments. Firefighters in Action! For 2-4 players though, Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a wonderful game that really makes you feel like a hero! Fiona’s Final Thoughts

Before you bring the heat in Flash Point, there are some turn actions you’ll need to know. It’s vital that all players work cooperatively to save all the family members and Fido before it’s too late! Game Setup The Brownstone game board is a duplex apartment that butts up to the buildings on either side making it difficult to access for fire fighters. Vehicles can still get from one die of the building to the other by expending four action points. Games are rated for how salty (competitive), tasty (replayable) and spicy (original) they are. The SaltWhile first impressions are very useful when trying to streamline the interface for people new to the game, don’t forget that we would also like to hear about any improvements we can make for the veteran players.

The game ends with the players winning when seven people have been rescued, or they lose when four are lost or the building collapses by taking to much damage. While we’re preparing the next major update to Flash Point, releasing later this week, all indications are that we’re set for a early 2018 release. Lets dive into some details. There are only ever three POI (Point of Interest) tokens on the board at once. You need to rescue them before the fire engulfs them. This was really my first experience with a “Euro” type game. I’m generally a hard-core hex map wargamer. But I have to say that I enjoyed Flash Point: Fire Rescue enough that I’ll probably try other Indie Boards & Cards games in the future. Congratulations to the designer and publisher on a job well done.

The Experienced Game takes just a bit longer to set up because there’s a lot more going on. It has three levels of play: Recruit, Veteran, and Heroic, with Recruit being similar in difficulty to the Family Game, and “Heroic” being (as you might imagine) very difficult. I played at the Veteran level just to get a good sense of how much more difficult the game becomes. Replenish POI Markers– There must be at least 3 POI markers on the board at the beginning of each player’s turn. So, as victims are rescued, identified as decoys, or (gulp) killed, new markers must take their place. Dice are rolled to select random placement spaces for new POI markers. Flash Point is a very thematic board game. You will feel like a firefighter every time you take an action, and the way the fire spreads works to build up tension. I personally realized just how thematic this game is when I first flipped over a person of interest token only to find out that it was a “false alarm.” I couldn’t help imagining being a firefighter in that situation and realizing all of that effort I had put in was for naught. Very cool. Generally most logical moves are a good option. Like many co-operative games in this style, there is the opportunity for one player to try and take over and decide everyone’s move, but if everyone is conscious to avoid this ‘alpha-player’ scenario then all players should be able to make a big contribution, even in a first game. In addition, if playing with young experienced players, the base game even includes a family rule set with no special character abilities and few extra simplifications. For gamers this can be quite boring but it’s worth it to get everyone around the table familiar with the mechanics. The common goal to get everyone out alive creates a sense of urgency that keeps players on their toes. Since everyone works as a collective unit, you’ll be communicating constantly. Your fire squad wins and loses together. Will your team go down in flames? Cons:

Flash Point: Fire Rescue follows the formula of many co-operative games, having a relatively short list of potential actions and giving each player a number of actions to spend on their turn. The theme of Flash Point: Fire Rescue makes it quite obvious and intuitive for new players to decide what moves to make. Sometimes the random layout of the fire will make games much easier or much more difficult. I can’t blame the designer for making it this way, but it means that you’re not going to get a consistent experience. After selecting Family mode, we immediately found ourselves squinting at a dense wall of text. The tutorial is just a big instruction manual, and while it explains the game rules, it doesn’t really explain how to play― the buttons to press, the way a turn works. It all feels abstract at first, and we only truly understood our situation after a confusing first playthrough. Things become noticeably more difficult right from the setup. You have to randomly place, and then resolve, 3 Explosions. So, the center of my building was already an inferno, with three points of Wall Damage to boot! Add in the placement of 4 Hazardous Materials markers and 6 Hot Spots and you have all the ingredients for a bad day. Focus on getting the fire under control early.The less fire there is on the board the slower it will spread because there is less risk of explosions and damage to wallsThe theme is where we had very different perspectives. My wife and both daughters find the thought of a house fire quite terrifying. While my youngest daughter was still willing to try the game my wife and oldest daughter weren’t interested in trying Flash Point at all. My son just doesn’t find the firefighting theme that interesting. Each of these options have positive and negative aspects. Heading into the inferno in the family room, with a helpless victim over his shoulder just doesn’t sound prudent. If there was another firefighter on the other side, maybe it would be workable. But there isn’t. On the other hand, that direction leads to the closest external door and safety… Once you have placed explosions you also place a number of hazardous materials, which explode if they touch fire, and a number of points of interest tokens which are either people/animals you need to save, or blank tokens designed to waste your time! Each player then receives a role card giving them a unique ability to use throughout the game.