The blaze of the fire intensifies, surrounding you. A faint cry is barely heard over the flames. You rush through the fire and the flames to find the victim, putting out the fire as you go. The walls grow weaker, leaving the house even worse for wear. There, in the smoke, you get closer. As you step through, you see...nothing. It was all a trick of the smoke, there was nobody here. You walk past, putting out more fires. That's the role of the firefighter, putting out fires and rescuing people. That's Flash Point: Fire Rescue.
BACKGROUND: Flash Point is a co-operative board game for 2-6 players, created by Kevin Lanzing in 2011, and published by Indie Boards & Cards. By working together, players attempt to put out fires, save victims, and keep the building from collapsing.
GAMEPLAY: Each turn consists of a player taking 4 AP (Action Points). Action Points can be used to move through spaces, open and close doors, put out fires, and chop through walls. Depending on the action, each takes 1 or 2 AP. If a player doesn't use all their AP on their turn, they can save it, up to 4 at most. Scattered throughout the house are face-down POI markers, with "?" on them. Whenever a player lands on these tokens, they are flipped face-up. If there is nothing on them, they are discarded. If there's a person or animal on them, they are now Victims, and must be taken out of the house.
FIRES: At the end of each players turn, the player rolls the red and black dice, and puts a smoke token based on the roll. If there's one there, it flips and becomes a fire token, instead. If that's already a fire, an explosion occurs, spreading fire in each direction. Explosions can cause players to get knocked down, kill Victims, and destroy doors and walls. Finally, if there are less than 3 POI and Victim tokens in the house, roll to replenish the house to up to 3 POI tokens.
ADVANCED: Now that the base rules are set up, there are more things to introduce. Each player is given a character card, which can change how many AP they get each turn, and how much certain actions cost. There are also vehicles, an Engine and an Ambulance, which can be used, and driven to certain points on the board for AP. Players now have to get the Victims to the Ambulance. The engine can be used to put out fires easier, but only within a single quadrant.
DANGERS: There are also more bad things that happen in the advanced rules. Hazmat tokens immediately cause explosions, and can be carried out of the house. Hot spots are used to not only simulate where fires would be hottest, but when a fire lands on a hot spot, the player keeps rolling for more fire. They cannot be removed from the game, but do not change the tokens if a hot spot is added to a space with a smoke/fire token.
WINNING: To win, the players must get 7 Victim tokens out of the house before all 24 damage markers are placed on the house's walls, or 4 or more Victims are killed or lost.
CONCLUSION: Ho, boy, this game is a doozy, in a good way. This is exactly how a co-operative game should be, difficult enough that the victories, even the small ones, mean something. Everything is high stakes, working together means coming up with a plan you all follow and can execute without one player suffering for not communicating with the team, and that smidge of luck that can make or break a plan that you can't quite account for. Now, this is based on the advanced version, and that can put a lot of pressure on people. The basic version is a bit more friendly and open, and makes the game a little easier to win, but not less stressful. Kids, never run into a burning building unless you're a professional, but do run to your local game store and buy this hot game.
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