Flashpoint Fire Rescue

Flashpoint is a cooperative game where you are working together to rescue trapped victims before the building collapses.

Firefighters really do have to work at a team so a cooperative makes sense. Having the board be a floorplan with fire tokens really helps carry the theme well. The game looks good and is easy to see what’s happening. There’s both an easy mode and an advanced mode which makes the audience for this game quite large. Plus the board is two sided and fire and POI tokens can be placed differently on the board so not every game will be the same, there is a lot replay-ability. I really like the dice element, it makes the game a little unpredictable since you don’t know where the new smoke or fire is going to go. If you’ve always wanted to be a firefighter this game would be a great fit for you.

Flashpoint designed by Kevin Lanzing, with art by Luis Francisco and George Patsouras and it is published by Indie Boards and Cards. It is for 2 to 6 players aged 10 and up.

Components

6 Firefighters
33 Threat Markers
18 Points of Interest Markers
24 Damage Counters
8 Door Markers
24 Hot Spots
1 Board
21 Action Markers
3 Heal Markers
6 Hazmat Markers
2 Vehicles
6 Player Cards
2 Dice
Players Aids
8 Specialist Cards

What make this game interesting is there are two different set of rules. There are family rules for playing with children and experienced rules if you’d like something more challenging. Like most coop games, you can also play this one solo if you choose. The player aids provided are great for teaching, making this a great game for anyone new to boardgames.

The game board has two sides to represent two different buildings. The outside area also has spaces with numbers, die faces and four corner spaces. The outside spaces are also part of the game.

The board contains a grid to help with locations. Each space is marked in the lower right with a symbol that corresponds to the die faces. Sometimes you will roll the dice to add smoke to locations. If an adjacent space is referenced, it is either up, down, left or right. Diagonal spaces do not count. You cannot move adjacent if there is a closed door or wall in the direction you want to move unless that wall has been destroyed. A wall can be destroyed with two damage markers.

For this post, I will go over the family game set up. In the family setup the goal is to rescue 7 victims before the building collapses.

Place the board on the table. Place the door markers with the closed side up in the doorways.

Place fire markers on the board based on the listed coordinates.

Use only 10 victim markers and 5 false alarm markers. Place them question mark side up, shuffle and place 3 POI markers on the board with the listed coordinates.

Place the damage and action point markers, remaining POI, remaining threat markers and dice near the board.

Have each player choose a firefighter and and player card. Place the firefighter on any of the board spaces outside the building.

The Heal, Hazmat and Hot Spot markers, specialist cars and vehicles will go back in the box and not be used.

With the game set up you are ready to play. Each player will take a turn by following three steps. They will take an action, advance the fire and replenish POI markers.

1. Take an Action

Each turn players can use 4 action points. Different actions cost different points. An action can be used more than once provided the player has points available. Players can pass on spending an points, up to 4 points can carry over to the next turn.

Actions

Move – You can move your firefighter to an adjacent space. A space without fire is 1 action point, a space with fire is 2 action points and to carry a victim to an open space is 2 action points. You can move through destroyed walls if there are 2 damage counters.

If there is a POI marker in the space you moved to, flip the marker over to reveal a victim or false alarm. False alarms move to the rescued space.

You cannot carry a victim into a fire space and you cannot end your turn on a fire space.

Open/Close door – It costs 1 action point to flip the door marker in your space.

Extinguish – Fight the fire in your space or an adjacent space. Removing a smoke marker costs 1 action point, flipping a fire to smoke costs 1 action point and removing a fire marker from the board costs 2 action points.

Chop – A player can use an axe to demolish walls to reach victims or create an escape route. It costs 2 action points to place a damage marker on a wall segment. A wall segment is destroyed when it has two damage markers. If you run out of damage markers the building will collapse.

2. Advance Fire

Once actions have been taken the fire must be advanced. The player will roll the dice and place a smoke marker on the space marked on the dice.

If the spot already has smoke it turns into a fire.

If the spot is next to a space with fire it the smoke will also turn into a fire.

If the smoke is placed on a spot that already has a fire there will be an explosion.

Explosions will spread fire quickly. The explosion will spread in all four directions from the dice roll spot. The four spaces will now have a fire in them even if the space is outside the building. Place a damage marker on a wall around the explosion space and remove any doors as well.

If one of the spaces adjacent to the explosion already has fire a shockwave will be created. A shockwave will continue in that direction until it reaches an open space.

When it hits an open space a fire marker will be placed even if it’s outside the building. A smoke filled space will flip to fire, a damage will be added to any wall the shockwave moves through and any closed doors will be destroyed.

After the fire advances and explosions were resolved, check to see if there is any damage. Flip any smoke adjacent to fire into fire. Any victims or POI in a space with fire are lost. The POI or victim marker will be moved to the lost space at the edge of the board. Remove any fire markers that are outside the building.

A firefighter that is knocked down because a fire advanced into their space will need to go to the ambulance to recover. Move the firefighter to the closest ambulance parking spot. The fire marker will remain on that space.

If the knocked down firefighter was carrying a victim, they are lost and moved to the lost space on the edge of the board.

3. Replenish POI

At the end of your turn you will replenish any POI markers that were lost, Victims that were rescued or lost, or identified false alarms. There should always be 3 POI markers on the board. If there is less than 3 roll the dice and place a poi on the board. If that spot has fire or smoke, remove it and place the POI. If the space has a firefighter, reveal the POI and remove if its a false alarm. If there is already a POI on the space you can reroll.

End of Game

The game ends if either the building has collapsed, 7 victims were recused or 4 victims were lost. If the building collapses or you have lost 4 victims you have lost the game. If 7 victims were rescued you have won the game.

That is the family game setup there are advanced rules which are similar but add in a few elements. There’s an added ambulance and engine. Also there are firefighters with special abilities and plenty of room for this game to grow. Having the basic and advanced rules help with the game’s replay-ability and broadens it’s audience.