Fire Academy Challenge Update Understanding the strengths and limitations of your specialists is key to a successful rescue. The Fire Academy Challenges are designed to test your understanding of each member of your squad and how they work together. [In Development] As the official digital adaptation of the acclaimed board game from Indie Boards and Cards you will experience the same excitement and challenge of the original in a light-hearted digital form. At the start of a game you roll the dice to generate a series of explosions that represent the state of the fire when you arrive. These explosions generate fire tokens, which hinder progress until extinguished, and structural damage cubes. Damage cubes create holes in walls making it easier for you, and the fire, to move about, but should you run out of the supply then the house falls down crushing everyone still inside. To get victims out of the house you need to travel to one of the three points of interest tokens on the board. When you do you can flip them and determine whether it’s a victim or simply nothing. The fire can disorient fire fighters and I imagine a blank token is like a random noise being interpreted as a cry for help when in reality it was made by the building as it burns. If you do happen to find a victim, you must carry them out of the building and to the ambulance to save them. Unfortunately, this is tiring work and consumes 2 action points per move instead of the usual 1 action point.

The starting screen offered us two game modes: Family and Experienced. It feels a bit barebones at the moment, but the developers have promised to add more features from the board version, like new maps, new firemen and the possibility to tweak the rules as you wish. (I feel compelled to point out that the original board game features playable rescue dogs. This is very important.) Do you walk all the way from the game room, through the kitchen, dining room and play room to get to the victim in the small bathroom? Or do you just chop down the shared wall between the game room and the small bathroom? Next, three potential “victims” are placed in different locations in the house. These markers are call “Point of Interest (POI)” markers and are placed face down so no one knows if it’s a real “victim” (person or animal) or a decoy. These victims are the key to victory in Flash Point: Fire Rescue. If 4 or more victims are lost to the fire, your cooperative team will lose the game instantly. For fans of Pandemic, you can expect similar mechanics (the spreading of disease/fires, player roles) but different since no one player can carry the team. The two-sided game board featured in Flash Point gives it an added replayability factor that Pandemic falls short on. Flash Point is extremely easy to learn and teach. The game comes with rules for a simplified version of the game, which makes it easy for even young children to learn. It was designed to be a family board game, and it is one of the very best cooperative games for families in existence.

Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Extreme Danger

Your team will need to make the most of each turn using limited action points and specialized abilities to explore the environment, tame the volatile fire and rescue the survivors before the building is reduced to rubble. 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. Efficient Specialists: Each member of your squad brings a unique blend of skills that you will need to carefully apply as you adapt to the ever changing scenarios. Feel free to chat, coordinate your starting locations, and plan strategies. It’s a “cooperative” game, remember? So you all either sink or swim together. If there are not three blue “?” markers on the grid, roll the dice to place a new POI. Your team needs at least three possible victims to save at all times.

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. Door markers are placed next, “Closed” side showing, on each of the 8 interior “doorways” in the house. Doors offer limited protection again spreading fire and explosions so it’s best to keep them in the “Closed” position as much as possible. An “Open” door is the same as “no door at all” when it comes to containing the inferno. Remember that after every player turn, the fire will spread by an unknown amount. It could be just another Smoke space, or it could be an inferno that kills one or more of your helpless victims. So you must strike a balance between containing the fire and getting victims moved to safety.I would definitely recommend the Experienced version for older kids (13+), adults, or experienced gamers. Every turn, players will make decisions using 4 action points. Will you move to an adjacent space, chop down a wall, put out a fire, close/open doors, or carry a victim to safety?

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 While 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. But, on the positive side, the firefighters have enhanced capabilities as well. There is a Fire Engine which is capable of putting out fires in multiple spaces simultaneously. And each firefighter is assigned a “specialty”, by choosing a Specialist Card. The following specialties are available: 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 walls All players have an individual talent that comes with their specialist cards. Some actions may be free depending on your assigned ability. On occasion, you’ll find your abilities useless; in others, they’ll save your life.

What Curators Say

Every time a firefighter finishes their turn, a shiny spark of ember wanders the map, spawning a new puff of smoke in a random spot. Smoke becomes fire when next to another flame, and when too much fire fills the same room, it explodes. The house has a number of hit points, and after sustaining too much damage, it’s game over. Flash Point: Fire Rescue is the digital adaptation of a board game about rescuing people from buildings on fire. The basic premise is simple: a house is aflame. You command a squad of firemen and penetrate the place, trying to rescue as many survivors as possible before the building collapses. Big question marks randomly appear on the map. Some of them hide survivors, other are false alarms. Once you find a person, you need to drag them outside the building, possibly avoiding catching fire during the process. This faithful recreation got successfully funded on Fig last year, and now is here for us all to enjoy. Who is it for, though? Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a thematic cooperative board game designed by Kevin Lanzing with the help of firefighters. [1] released in November 2011. [2] The objective is for players to work together to rescue people and animals from a burning building before it collapses. Since the initial release of the game several expansions have been published, which add additional scenarios for players experience. These include fires in a high rise building, a two-story house, and a submarine. 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.