Flash Point Fire Resue

Fire fighters, brave men and women who rush in, when others run away.  Children dream of becoming one as they see the shiny fire trucks zoom down the road.  I admire their courage, their daring, and their tenacity.  They truly deserve the title of hero.


This is why Flash Point is such a compelling game.  The theme is amazing; saving victims from a burning building, who can't get behind this one?  It's a co-op, so we win or lose together.  And even if you don't win, you usually rescue a few victims.  And, for a few of us, we get to live out that childhood dream of being a fire fighter.



Object of the Game:


In Flash Point players are trying to rescue victims trapped inside of a burning building before the fire gets out of control or the building collapses.

Players win or lose as a team. Players win when seven victims are rescued or they lose when the four victims are killed or the building collapses. 

Components / Set Up

The game board is double-sided.  Each side shows a different building.  The board reminds me a lot of houses from the computer games SIMS, and truthfully the way fire are randomly starting in the game it makes me wonder if the victims are Sims.  This doesn't mean I don't like the artwork.  It's very good! The Building is divided into rooms and the area outside consists of spaces with numbers, die faces, and four corner spaces.  These outside spaces are used during the game.

The board is a grid and each space has a coordinate.  These grid coordinates are marked in the lower right of each space with easy to identify symbols.  The symbols show the grid location of the space and correspond to the dice. Players will be rolling dice many times during the game to determine where to add markers (fire/smoke tokens or points of interest).  The red symbol represents the red, six sided die.  The black symbol represents the black, eight sided die.  Together these symbols mark a board location.

An important point to remember is that, when referring to adjacent spaces, these spaces are up, down, left, or right from a space.  Diagonal spaces are not adjacent.  Closed doors and walls prevent spaces from being adjacent - unless the wall segment is destroyed.  A wall segment with one damage marker is damaged; two damage markers mean it is destroyed.



After players choose which board side to play with they should place the door markers with the closed side up in each of the door ways.  The door markers are thick circular cardboard disks that are double-sided.  One side shows a closed door the other an open door.  All the components are very nice and of high quality. 


The game also comes with six fire fighter pawns.  If you were lucky enough to be a Kick Starter supporter you would have gotten the awesome fireperson meeples.  But alas for me, I passed and didn't get these neat little guys.

Other components included are 33 double-sided threat tokens, one side showing fire, the other smoke.  The 18 point of interest tokens that have a question mark on one side.  On the flip side they are either a false alarm blank or a victim.  24 black wooden damage counters, 24 hot spots, 21 action markers, 3 heal markers, 6 hazmat markers, doubled sided ambulance and engine markers, and six player cards.



The game also comes with player aid cards for each player and eight specialist cards. 

If playing the advanced rules players will need to choose a difficulty level.  The game comes with a family game set-up but I won't go over those rules in this review.  For a Recruit level players will place 3 initial explosions and 3 hazmats, at Veteran level there are 3 initial explosions, and 4 hazmats, and at heroic level there are 4 initial explosions and 5 hazmats.  All unused hazmats are placed back in the box.

Now players must set up the board.  To set the first explosion one player rolls the back eight sided die to determine the Target space as follows:  1= Red three, black three, 2= Red three, black four, 3= red three, black six, 4=red three, black six, 5= red four, black six, 6= red four, black five, 7= red four, black four, and 8= red four, black three.  Players place a fire and Hot Spot marker and resolve and Explosion in the Target space.



An explosion radiates in all four directions (up, down, left, right) from the target space.  Place a fire marker with the fire side up in each adjacent space.  A damage marker is placed on any wall that border the target space.  Remove any door markers that border the target space.

For the second explosion the players roll both dice to determine the target space.  If the Target space is already on fire, roll again.  Place a fire and spot marker and resolve an explosion in the target space.

For the third explosion, flip over to show the opposite face on the black die from the previous roll and re-roll the red die to determine the target space.  If the target space is already on fire, roll the red die again.  Place a fire and hot spot on the target space and resolve an explosion.

Now, roll to place the hazmat markers.  If the target space has a fire marker already, re-roll.  Place the hazmat on the target space.

Remove two of the victim markers and one false alarm marker and put them back into the box.  Flip all the other markers so the question mark is showing and shuffle them.  Roll the dice three times, and place one POI (Point of Interest) marker on the target space.  If the space is on fire re-roll.


Next, each player chooses a specialist card, a fire fighter pawn, and the corresponding card in the color of their choice.  If you wish, a player may play more than one fire fighter.  The remaining fire fighter pawns, cards, and specialist cards are placed back in the box.  The Specialist cards may be used during the game.  Don't put them too far away.

If needed roll to place additional hot spots.  As always, if the target space already has a hot spot, re-roll.  You will need to add three additional hot spots if playing at the Veteran or Heroic difficulty level, two additional if playing with three fire fighters, and three additional if playing with four or more fire fighters.

Place six, or twelve at the heroic level, hot spot markers on the board (small yellow circles) for later use.  The rest are put back into the box.

All the remaining tokens and damage markers are placed near the board.  Each fire fighter is placed on the board on any of the boards spaces outside the building.  The group decides where to place the ambulance and fire truck and players decide who goes first.

Playing the Game

From the start player, play proceeds clockwise around the table.   On your turn you must do three things

1. Take an Action:
2. Advance the Fire: 
3. Replenish POI makers

1.  Take an Action

Each turn a player receives four action points (AP).  Each action has an action cost needed to perform.  A player may select from any of the available actions in any order and spend the appropriate AP to perform it.  An action may be performed more than once per turn, so long as the AP cost is spent each time that action in performed.




Player may pass.  Unspent AP are saved from turn to turn.  A player may save up to a maximum of 4 AP at the end of their turn.

The player takes an action marker for each unspent AP.  These may be spent later as additional AP to perform.

Actions

Move - move the fire fighter to an adjacent space.  This costs one to move to a space without a fire, two to move to a space with a fire, and two to carry a victim to an open space or space with smoke.  A fire fighter may not carry a victim into a space with fire or end their turn in a space with fire.  A fire fighter may move through a destroyed wall. When a fire fighter moves into a space with a POI, the POI is flipped to reveal either a victim or a false alarm.

The false alarm is removed and put back into the box.  This does not cost any AP.


Open / Close Door - A player may flip the door marker for 1 AP.

 Extinguish - A fire fighter may fight a fire in their space or an adjacent space.  To remove a smoke maker from the board they must spend 1 AP.  To flip a fire maker to smoke it also costs 1 AP.  To remove a fire maker from the board it costs 2 AP. Smoke may reignite so it may be good to completely remove it.



Chop - With your axe you may demolish wall quickly to reach victims or create an escape route.  For 2 AP place a damage marker on a wall segment in your space.  When the wall has two damage markers it is destroyed and fire fighters as well as fire may pass through it.  So, be careful using chop.  When there are no damage markers left the building collapses, killing everyone still in it, and making players lose the game.


Vehicle Actions - Vehicles are used only in the experienced game.  They may be driven by the fire fighters but only to their respective spots.  They give additional action that can be preformed when they are located in one of the vehicle spaces.  Each vehicle occupies two spaces.  In the experienced game victims must be carried to the Ambulance to be rescued.

Drive:  It costs 2 AP to drive.  Fire fighters can only drive the engine when in the same space as the engine.  Using their radios, a fire fighter can make the Ambulance drive without being in the same space.  The fire fighter that drives the engine must go with the engine.  It is optional to go with the Ambulance.

Vehicles can be driven in either direction around the building.  Vehicles must always start and stop in their respective parking spot.  Driving a vehicle to the parking spot on the opposite side of the building takes to drive actions, or 4 AP.

Fire fighters that are in the vehicle parking spot of a vehicle while it is being driven can ride the vehicle for 0 AP.  Riding is optional and any

Fire the Deck Gun: This action allows players to use the engines hose to extinguish the fire quickly.  It cost 4 AP to use the deck gun.  The deck gun is aimed at one quadrant of the board.  Quadrants are delineated by the dotted red lines on the board.

Fire fighters can only fire deck gun when it the same space as the engine; it can only be fired at the quadrant that borders the engine's current parking spot; and it can only be fired a quadrant with no fire fighter present.



The player rolls the dice to determine the deck gun's target space.  Because the full range of the dice rolls are not in the target quadrant, the numbers on the dice may not be in the quadrant you aimed at.  Flip over the dice that are out of range (to show the opposite space) to determine the deck guns target for any roll.  The deck gun extinguishes all smoke and fire in the target space and splashes over into each adjacent space completely extinguishing any fire or smoke. 



Splash over can extend beyond the quadrant boundary and has no effect on fire fighters, POI, victims, or hazmat.  Wall prevent splash over from reaching an adjacent space.

Crew Change - For 2 AP players may change specialists while in the heat of the action.  Players may swap their existing specialist card with any specialist not currently in play.  The player's fire fighter has the AP (less than 2 AP required for a crew change) and special abilities of the newly selected specialist for the entire turn.  Fire fighters must start their turn in the same space as the engine to complete the Crew Change action.  The Crew Change action must be completed as a player's first action of their turn. I'll talk more about the different specialists later.

2.  Advance Fire

After Taking actions the current player must roll the dice to Advance the fire.  They will place a smoke marker on the board in the target space corresponding to the numbers rolled on the dice.  Sometimes placing the smoke has a greater impact.  After you place the smoke marker, check to see if any of the following situations are created.

• If smoke is placed on an existing smoke - flip the smoke to fire and remove the other smoke marker from the board.  Remember:  smoke plus smoke equals fire.
• If the smoke is placed adjacent to fire - Flip the smoke to fire.  Remember: smoke adjacent to fire equal fire
• If the smoke is placed on and existing fire - You have just caused an explosion!  Resolve the explosion.

Explosions:

When the fire advances into a space that is already on fire, an explosion occurs.  Explosions spread fire quickly, knock down fire fighters, and kill victims.

As with set-up, explosion radiate in all four cardinal directions from the target space.  Place a fire marker in each adjacent space without fire, slip the smoke marker to fire in a smoke filled space (even outside the building), place a damage marker on wall, and remove any door markers that border the target space.

If the adjacent spaces in any directions are on fire, a shockwave occurs.  The shockwave continues to travel in its respective direction passing through all the spaces that are on fire until it either encounters an open space, smoke filled space, or wall or closed door.

What happens with a shockwave depends on what it hits first.

• Open space (without smoke or fire) - place a fire marker in the open space, even if it is outside
• Smoke filled space - flip the smoke to fire
• Wall - place a damage marker on the wall,  remember a wall that already has a damage marker is destroyed and will not stop a shockwave
• Closed door - remove the door marker; it has been destroyed.  A doorway with no door marker is treated as a destroyed wall (don't place damage markers)

A shockwave travels through destroyed walls and open doors.  If a shockwave travels though an open door, remove the door maker.

Secondary Effects

Now that the fire has advanced and explosions have been resolved it is time to check for any secondary effects that might occur.

Flashover - flip any smoke marker in a space adjacent to a fire marker to fire.  Repeat this as many times as you can.  There should be no smoke adjacent to fire. 

Any victims in the same space as fire are lost.  Place the POI or Victim marker on the Lost space at the edge of the board.  If the POI was not identified flip it over (at least point you are hoeing it wasn't a victim) and place it in the Lost space.

Any firefighter in a space with fire is Knocked Down.  When a firefighter is knocked down they are placed in one of the two spaces of the Ambulance's current position.  Any victims they were carrying are lost.

Remove any fire markers that were placed outside of the building.

The Advanced game adds two more possible effects:  Hazmat and Hot Spots.

Hazmat - Hazmats are improperly stored flammable materials that are liable to cause an explosion.  After checking for and resolving flashovers, any Hazmat in a space with fire causes and expulsion in that space.  Multiple explosions can be triggered by different hazmats in the same phase, if this happens the players can choose which explosion to resolve first.  Remove the hazmat marker and add a Hot Spot marker in the space of the exploded Hazmat.


Hazmats can be carried for the same costs, and with the same restrictions, as a victim.  Hazmats can be disposed of by carrying it outside the building.  Disposed hazmats are removed from play and placed in the Rescued spot of the board.  
 
Hazmats have certainly made my games interesting.  During the Advance Fire stage of my first turn one game, I caused the explosion of three hazmats which killed two victims and nearly made the house collapse.  It was quite remarkable!  

Hot Spots & Flare Ups - Real fires get harder to fight the longer they are burning - the building heats up and combustible materials are brought closer and closer to their flash points.  Hot spots and flare ups are used to simulate this progression. 

When the target space of the advance fire roll contains a hot spot you have triggered a flare up, which are an additional advance fire roll.  These spread the fire more rapidly.

There is no limit to the number of flare ups that can occur on a single.Keep rolling the dice every time the advance fire roll target space has a hot spot.

Flare-ups also increase the number of hot spots.  After resolving all flare-ups, add a hot spot marker to the target space of the last Advance Fire roll.

Order of Resolution

In the experienced game the Advance Fire phase has a number of different steps.  The order in which the steps should be completed is:


1.  Roll for and resolve Advance Fire
2.  Resolve any explosions if needed
3.  Resolve any flashovers if needed
4.  Resolve any hazmats explosions if needed (add hot spot marker to hazmat space)
5.  Resolve any flare-ups if needed
6.  Resolve any knock downs, Lost POI or victims


Replenish POI


In the experienced game a POI may only be placed in a space without threat marker, firefighter, or another POI.


If the POI replenishment target space in invalid, the use the diagram across on the board to redirect the POI.  Begin with the target space and follow the path created by the arrows as shown until you reach a valid space.  If there are no valid spaces on the path, re-roll.


Game End

The game ends when the building collapses, the player have won (7 victims rescued) or the players have been defeated (4+ victims lost). 

Building Collapse - The game ends immediately as the building collapses when tall 24 damage markers have been placed on the board.  Place any remaining victims and POI (inside or outside of the building) on the lost space on the board.

Victory - The players are victorious when seven victims have been rescued.  If you would like, you can continue to play to see if you can rescue all ten victims for a perfect game.

Defeat - The players are defeated when four or more victims have been lost. 


Specialists

Firefighters with special abilities are introduced in the experienced game.  Each specialists has unique abilities that are useful during certain situations and beneficial to team play.

Players may choose a Specialist or select one randomly during the game.  I think its wise to work together even when choosing the specialist to build the best team possible.



 Paramedic:  The paramedic receives 4 AP per turn but can treat a victim for 1 AP.  The heal marker is placed under the victim to show this.  A treated victim may be moved by any firefigther without having to carry them.  A firefighter can lead one treated victim at a time.  They may carry a victim and lead a treated victim at the normal movement cost to carry a victim (2 AP).  A treated victim may still not be moved into a fire space.  The paramedic does pay double AP to extinguish a fire. 

Rescue Specialist:  The rescue specialist has 4 AP per turn plus 3 free movement AP per turn.  Chop costs 1 AP.  She pays double AP costs to extinguish fire and / or smoke.

Imaging Technician: Receives 4 AP per turn, and can identify, or flip a POI marker anywhere on the board for 1 AP.

CAFS Firefighther:  Receives 3 AP plus 3 free extinguish AP per turn.  (Free extinguish can not be saved). 

Generalists:  Recieves 5 AP but has no other special abilities or actions.

Driver / Operator:  Receives 4 AP per turn.  It only cost 2AP to fire the deck gun and when firing the gun he may re-roll one or both dice.  After re-rolling one die, he may then choose to re-roll the other, but is limited to a single re-roll for each.  The second roll always replaces the first. 

Fire Captain:  Receives 4 AP plus two free Command AP per turn.

He may use their AP to command any other firefighter to Move / or Open / Close doors, carry hazmats, or move with treated victims on the Fire Captains turn.  The Fire Captain spends AP at the cost of the commanded firefighter would normally have paid for the movement.  Free command may not be saved and no more than one command AP may be spent on the CAFS firefighter. 

Hazmat Technician - Receives 4 AP per turn.  They may dispose or remove a hazmat from the firefighters space and space it in the rescue spot for 2 AP. 

My Thoughts

Playing co-operative games isn't always relaxing for me.  I fear making a mistake, doing the wrong actions, or losing the game for the other players.  This game compelled me when I first saw it on Kickstarter. But, I stayed away; knowing that I really didn't need another co-op that would rarely get played.

But the buzz and the draw wouldn't go away.  I kept hearing about it; about the fire trucks, and ambulances, and cool roles.  After all the positive praise I decided to give it a try.  I wasn't disappointed.  I actually found a co-op game that I will play anytime!

The first thing that gets me is the theme.  Fire fighters are true life heroes that sacrifice to save others.  You take on their role and work as a team to rescue people and pets.  What a wonderful theme.  I like fighting dragons, and running a vegetable stand, in other games, but this theme could to appeal to so many people. 




It is also a wonderful for families with older children.  (Younger children may not like knowing the victims are killed).  Even new gamers might be willing to give it a try because of the theme.

I also like the scale of the game.  You are concentrating on one home during the game, not the neighborhood or an entire office building.  Most games I play concentrate on whole worlds, large maps, or an entire battlefield.  Focusing your attention on such a small scale is a bit novel, for me.  The board isn't small but the scale lets you center your concentration. People who might be intimidated large scale boards may find Flash Point much more inviting.

More positives for the game are the roles and special abilities.  The games I have played have shown me the importance of a well balanced team.  Using both the paramedic and Rescue Specialist during a two person games isn't quite a good idea.  But combine the Fire Captain and Rescue Specialist or really any other role in a two player game and you have a strong team.  Okay maybe you may not want to use the imagining technician in a two player game. 

But, the great thing is that you can switch roles.  You aren't stuck with a specialist who is no longer as useful.  Yes, it costs AP, but sometimes it's worth it.  So don't be afraid of taking that risk.  I also like using the Fire Truck, though I haven't been the one to roll for the deck gun, I think it's awesome that it was included.  It's also meant the difference between a win and a loss in a few of our games.


One of the reasons I think I really enjoy this co-op is a reason some people really don't like the game.  I really like the randomness.  I think it takes some of the pressure off of me making a mistake.  Rolling for the smoke and POI placement makes the game more interesting and less overbearing than other co-op games for me. 



The dice decide and, yes I could have made a better choice of where to be or what fire to put out; but not being able to plan out every last move makes a more enjoyable game.  I also think it keeps some people from overtaking the game and ordering other around.  It's random, you can guess what may happen but you never know for sure until you roll the dice.

In general, I think Flash Point has changed my opinions of co-op games.  I really do enjoy the strategy discussions and the team work that happens in the game.  It's great for bonding with friends and family.  Playing Flash Point just makes me feel good inside.  To me, that is the marking of a great game.  



Quick Stats

Designer:  Kevin Lanzing
Artist:  Luis Francisco, George Patsouras

Publishers: 999 Games, Indie Boards and Cards

Number of Players: 1-6
Game Length: 45 minutes