Review: Flashpoint: Fire Rescue

Flashpoint: Fire Rescue

Players: 2 – 6

Publisher: Indie Boards & Cards

Year: 2011

Being a firefighter is easily one of the most admirable professions in the world. These brave men and women risk life and limb in order to save others from danger. To create a game about this, isn’t an easy feat. Let’s see if Indie Boards & Cards managed to live up to the challenge.

Gameplay in Flashpoint: Fire Rescue is very straightforward. You and the other players are a firefighters and by working together you need to rescue the people inside the house. In order to do this, you are given 4 Action Points (AP), and you can use them for a variety of purposes, such as moving, rescuing people or extinguishing fires. After you have done this, you roll the dice to spread the fire. With roles, such as the generalist, who has 5 AP or the Hazmat Technician, who can remove dangerous materials, and more advanced rules, which allow the fires to flare up again, the game becomes more complicated, but also challenging. All players work together to save the required number of victims, before they perish in the fire or the building collapses.

The reference cards, listing all possible actions and the turn sequence

The game contains everything needed to start straight away. Bright colored miniatures symbolize the different firefighters and the cards, for instance about turn-sequences or the amount of AP certain actions costs, are big and sturdy. The board is two-sided and contains two different buildings. The rulebook is easy to understand and easily flow from an introduction or family-friendly game towards more challenging experiences.

 

A selection of roles

There are quite a few things I like in this game. What I really like is how they managed to incorporate the theme into the game. You’re trying to save people or pets from a burning home. You aren’t just moving around with a watergun, it’s a desperate race against the clock in the more advanced games. You need to co-operate as having a single strategy for the entire game, will result in a failure. The whole experience is amazing and due to the introduction scenario, it’s easy to teach as well.

The downside is that the roles might make the actions obvious, such as the deck gun operator, who fires the main gun and can drive the fire truck around. This can be reinforced by people who have a dominant character. There is also a certain degree of randomness. A few bad rolls can really ruin your game. While I don’t consider this a flaw, I can imagine that some people would disagree. Lastly, in bigger groups, the downtime can take quite some while, as everyone does their actions and needs to spread the fire. However, these are minor details compared to the whole experience.

Everything together, this game is just great and I would certainly recommend it to anyone. A few minor detractions are present, but it’s still an amazing game. All the elements blend in together really well. It’s a theme that’s interesting to a lot of people, but also easy to learn. Unlike many lighter games, this co-op game can be made as difficult as you want by tweaking the rules.

Review: Wings of War: Famous Aces

Wings of War: Famous Aces

Players: 2 – 4

Publisher: Nexus

Year: 2004

Many among us have dreamed of being a pilot when we were younger. Soaring through the skies like a bird. Thanks to Wings of War: Famous Aces, that fantasy can be acted out. In this game you are placed in the cockpit of a bi-/triplane during the First World War and need to gun down the opposing player. 

Wings of War is a rather simple game. Players pick a plane, as depicted on a card, and control these for the duration of the battle or the mission. From their deck of movements, three cards are chosen,  placed in a row face down and then acted out one at a time. The card, featuring a line and an arrow, is connected to the plane card and then the plane card is placed accordingly. At the end of every move, you check if the planes are in range of firing and draw damage if necessary. This damage can range from nothing happening, to your plane exploding or catching fire. Because the movements are played face-down, you are not sure where your opponent is going and thanks to the nimbleness of the planes, you can’t always be sure where they will be. Because movement is simultaneous, there is little downtime.

An example of movement.

This base set features everything to get started with four players, and the neat part is that the four different movement decks are all tweaked toward certain types of planes. The German Albatross Dva behaves differently than the Sopwith Camel. While both have different characteristics, the later warplanes are usually more agile than the planes at the beginning of the First World War. Set up is rather simple and any flat surface can be used for this game. The light background and the darker flightpaths make it easy to place the planes. If dogfighting isn’t your cup of tea, you can move on to the various missions. 

What I personally think is a neat feature is the many different starting planes included in this box. There aren’t just British vs. German planes, but also American, Belgian, Italian, French planes. Even a few captured planes! Names of the pilots and their squadrons are included as well, for those that wish to look up more about them. A little extra touch, but it really makes the theme shine.

Examples of planes.

A few downsides are that the cards can be bumped or shifted throughout the game. Especially during the movement phase, where you are flying your plane throughout the sky, this will happen. A few millimeters at most, but still something to keep in mind.

Overall, I’m positively surprised by this game and would recommend it to anyone. The theme really stands out and since it’s so easy and quick to explain, it’s a great way of getting new people involved. The variety of planes and missions provide enough replay-ability to make this game a keeper.

Hey! Welcome to my blog! Dystopian Game Reviews is a blog dedicated to, as you might have guessed, Dystopian boardgames. Dystopian is taken in the widest sense of the word. This could take the form of a frightening future or a horrible history. I hope you will enjoy the reviews!