Expanding Flash Point Fire Rescue

"The new best firefighter in the game, is a DOG"

For this weeks game highlight Ian & Jason are taking a jumping back into Flash Point: Fire Rescue.  BUT this time round it's all about the expansions for the game. they run through what each comes with, how it changes the game and there thoughts and ratings for each one.

Flash Point: Fire Rescue is a cooperative game of fire rescue for 2-6 players aged 10+ with a low complexity, medium difficulty play time of 45 minuets.

There are two versions of game play in the base game of Flash Point, a basic/family game and expert/advanced game.
In both variants, players are attempting to rescue 7 out of 10 victims from a burning building.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++  NEWS  +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Paul is also back with his faithful rubber duck Brian in the news shed to bring you all the news, crowdfunding campaigns & event information we think you need to know about. including but not limited too.

• Nutty Squirrels of the Oakwood Forest by Tin Robot Games
• Champions Rise by Nefarious Duck
• Death Valley, Sprawlopolis, Tussie Mussie, Horreos, Skulls of Sedlac by Button Shy games 
• Save Patient Zero by Helvetiq
• Sonic The Card Game & Sea of Thieves by Steamforged Games
• Earth Rising: 20 Years to Save Our Planet by Stop, Drop and Roll
• Gencon
• UKGE

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Transcript

Jason: 0:18

What's up guys, and welcome to the Meeple Minded podcast, the podcast where we talk all things tabletop gaming.

Ian: 0:24

My name is Jason. And my name is Ian, and along with Paul, join us as we Bumble our way through the gaming industry. So pop the kettle on grab a brew, and let's get on with today's episode.

Jason: 0:35

That we shall but I'll tell you what, in this week, the week's just seem to be absolutely flying by this year. I cannot believe how fast this year is going.

Ian: 0:46

Tell me about it. I'm exhausted. To think we're nearly a quarter of the way through the year already.

Jason: 0:53

I know how it's scary man as I literally felt like we were sort of not singing Christmas sing songs like yesterday because you know, none of us were together at Christmas to sing the damn songs this year. But anyway, have you been up to anything fun this week?

Ian: 1:14

Fans how you use the terminology fun. Now I've had an okay week. It's been a really busy one. I had a new bed delivered last week. We just still haven't even got around to putting together yet. An example how busy actually is. Yeah, we sort of good news. Bad news in different news all flying around. How about you?

Jason: 1:34

Yeah, I've been exceptionally exceptionally busy this week. It seems to be that you finished doing your sort of house renovations and stuff last week read in preparation for for your bed and past all of that joy stuff onto me. Because Yeah, I'm come next week, or by the time this podcast comes out. I am actually going through having my room, my stairs, my landing my hallway all renovated at the same time because I'm an idiot. All right. So literally right now I'm pinned up against my computer desk in order to record this podcast, buy furniture from different rooms. So yeah, great fun on that part. However, positive notes, I have had some lovely deliveries this week have games and miniatures and all sorts of other goodness. Which Yeah, that's that's put a smile back on my face. But somebody else put a smile back on my face was the news from you. Obviously. Last week, you had a job interviewed in Yeah. How did that go?

Ian: 2:43

It's probably one of the best interviews I've ever done. I got the job. I got the offer the job in under 24 hours. That's pretty good. Yeah, and I am looking forward to I don't want to say new career direction, because it's just enhancing the career direction I'm already on. It's still working towards me being a therapist, but I'm now going to be a mental healthcare worker for a little while.

Jason: 3:06

Very, very nice. So the past year for you it's been a real sort of, it's actually been a massive positive really, isn't it? Like new job now?

Ian: 3:16

Yeah, the last 1415 months have been insane. I've got divorced. I've had issues with college that have now sorted themselves out. I've been made redundant, got a new job and actually finally got a job that pays well and almost like career sort of helping. I've got a new partner. You know, it's all been moving forward. So it's all onwards and upwards.

Jason: 3:41

Excellent. I'm really glad that you know, things are sorting themselves out for you as well. Because you know, it's something that was very overdue for yourself. So big, big celebrations here at the Meeple Minded Hq for Ian when we can, of course have celebrations. But anyway, we do this every single week. And we say this every single week. This is a tabletop gaming podcast. It's not about us. It's about those lovely tabletop games. So how about we dive into this week's subject team?

Ian: 4:14

Here? I'm looking forward to this one. We've mentioned it before. And it's fine to come in. This is all the expansions for Flashpoint fire and rescue.

Jason: 4:23

That is we talked about the base game two short weeks ago. We did tell you we were going to talk about the expansion separately and by God, are we going to do that today in droves? I am excited. I know Ian's excited. What's the best way to do we do Should we do them in release order? Yeah,

Ian: 4:43

that sounds like a good idea. But before we dive in, as I did a blurb last week, I should join him with a blurb this week.

Jason: 4:52

Go for it.

Ian: 4:54

So your team's ready. you've dealt with the house fire You've helped rescue the people, including the cat and the dog. But what happens when the buildings get bigger? The challenges get greater. The maps change, the rules change. Even the game changes. How do you cope? How do you work together? And how do you stay alive? Join us as we work through all of the expansions. Flashpoint fire rescue.

Jason: 5:24

Excellent, another fantastic introduction there from our very own ear. And yeah, let's dive into these expansions. So the very first one that was actually released for this game was called urban structures back in 2011. Do you remember this one even?

Ian: 5:42

Not in the actual timeline of things, but I never got it as a Kickstarter exclusive. But it is it is a good map. It gives you two additional maps on a double sided board. brownstone, which is an urban duplex apartment and high rise, which is an office building, including elevators, bases, light walls and heavily reinforced walls. This one amused me with the rulebook as well, because they had to put a specific warning saying do not use an elevator in a real fire.

Jason: 6:15

Of course, they had to put that in there. Of course they did. Ever my It reminds me of a story. I had a shop in Amsterdam, but unfortunately family friendly podcast. I can't actually tell that story here. But if you want to hear it, you know where to find me.

Ian: 6:31

And come join us on the discord. There's all sorts of carnage on there. Oh, yes, indeedy.

Jason: 6:37

So, yeah, urban, urban structures. This, this is a really, really good expansion. The maps themselves add so much to the game, as well. And considering this was the first official expansion, it really was surprising how much it changed the game. I mean, what would you say, off the bat, what was the highlights that you have from urban structures,

Ian: 7:05

giving you the options with the additional maps, you know, having a high rise building that you got to try and get in and out of they made like either the left or the ladders outside with the fire engine, your only way in and out of the building, and requiring more actions to get in and out. And another thing we never mentioned, we added the structural engineer as a carrier as a crew member. Yes. Who can either clear hotspots or repair damaged walls. And in a later expansion, they had to actually edit this option. Because the one of the last expansion changes some of the actual game rules. So they had to tweak this, this character so that you get you still get use out of it.

Jason: 7:46

Yeah. I mean, I think it's safe to say that before the latest expansion, which obviously we will get to later, this was a game changer, mainly because of that structural engineer because you had that ability to actually clear the hotspots and repair the damage walls, which were two different ways that you could easily lose the game in a matter of turns. So that was a that was a real game changer. That was the the game changer for me in that expansion.

Ian: 8:16

Yep. Okay, so

Jason: 8:17

moving on is the second expansion that came for the game, which was actually called second story now that was released in 2012. It came with two buildings named Villa and hotel. Both of these buildings introduce a new game mechanic of having two floors, which immediately made the game harder because obviously, it's a bigger map. Having two floors means players need a way to scale those floors. And as such, the expansions also introduces portable ladders, staircases and windows, the additional things that come in this expansion are Action Point trackers and explosion markers. So Ian, also experienced with second story.

Ian: 9:04

So it's been a while since we've managed to go through all of these with lockdown and everything. And me and Jason had a discussion before we started this podcast. And I'm not even entirely sure if I actually own this expansion or not, which either means is underwhelming or we just haven't had much experience with this expansion. Some of the markers that come with this game come with some of the other expansions anyway, I mean, I recognise the ladders and staircases etc, that if that does mean I own this, which I thought I owned all of the expansion, so there's a good chance I do. It means this is a bit more of one of the underwhelming expansions unfortunately.

Jason: 9:45

Yeah, I mean, I thought that you actually owned all of them and the names definitely ring a bell of those buildings. I can safely say that in the games we've played we very rarely play with the two story game boards. However, Don't we have played with the two story game board. But that as we have discovered, could actually be from the third expansion which we will go into now, which is called extreme danger.

Ian: 10:12

So, this is one that I do enjoy, and I definitely know that we've played a lot. So this one gives us two new maps the laboratory which is another two storey building, and the mechanic's garage, which is a one storey building. Both maps can be combined and ending with an included add on board featuring the basement or attic. And this add on board can be combined with the second storey to allow for greater playable area, a 12 sided dice included as well with so you can use these expanded sections. Similar to the second story. The game also includes the ladder staircases and windows, which is why we can't tell whether I do or don't have the last expansion. Yep, was also introduced damaged floors fire doors that can jam when a hit with an explosion, and dangerous objects that can either explode or create a chemical spill. Finally, the hydronic platform can be chosen to replace the deck GM comes with its own box includes firefighters specific miniatures with coloured bases, Kickstarter backers when they did it also got a bonus pack featuring different victims and locked doors. They don't come with the retail version that I have. But they have been re released later on down the line, which will come to you later. Indeed, yes.

Jason: 11:21

So yeah, there's a lot of confusion between this at the moment as to whether it's this one that we are very familiar with, because obviously, we now have a way of playing the second floor without having the second story expansion. But I'm also pretty sure that we have played that second story expansion. So it might just be a case of it's not as game changing as this one for example, which as you can probably tell from what comes in this pack is a bit more on the game changer. This is probably the first expansion they released, where I really thought you know, the get the game is getting bigger and better every single time now.

Ian: 12:01

Yeah, I have enjoyed many again with this expansion.

Jason: 12:04

Yeah, the boxes because I actually own this expansion as well. This box is the one I use to store all of the map packs in. Whereas all the tokens and everything minis and that they're in the other box, going against my usual thing of having one box for everything.

Ian: 12:20

You can't do that with this game. However, speaking of minis, I think we can segue nicely on to the next expansion, which is one of my favourites, but also pretty much the smallest expansion they've done.

Jason: 12:32

It's a pretty useless expansion, but it is also probably one of the best just because of what it's called and what's in it.

Ian: 12:38

So this one is the veteran and rescue dog. Yeah, it is literally two characters and two minis. That's it. One of which is a dog.

Jason: 12:47

Yeah, who doesn't want to play as a dog,

Ian: 12:50

dog, which can't put out fires, but has a ridiculous amount of action points.

Jason: 12:55

He drag people out like a good boy, he does. And makes it even more hilarious when you get the dog rescue in the cat

Ian: 13:04

or the other firefighters.

Jason: 13:06

So this is true. This is true. The worst thing I always find about this expansion though, is whenever we play now, let's be honest, I play as the dog and the dog cat kind of has one roll. Yeah, with so many action points and movement. He is the one that goes around getting people out. And for the most part, I just run around like a lunatic. You're not actually doing anything. So

Ian: 13:30

don't get one of those character rescue dogs, one of those characters that in certain situations is the best thing to have one your team. Yeah, but there are so many turns when he's got like action points to spare and just sweet side or left to do with.

Jason: 13:46

Again, it was kind of an unnecessary expansion. I think when you really think about it. I mean, this one actually confused me because it is listed generally as a Kickstarter exclusive when they did the extreme danger Kickstarter pledge. However, this is actually probably one of the easiest of the expansions to come by, which doesn't say a lot considering how hard it is to come by any of these expansions. But this one is probably the easiest to be in. It's in stock in most places. And just a quick one for the veteran as well. As we've haven't really mentioned much better. There's not a lot to this expansion anyway, the veteran brings in a new option for spending your action points could dodge so he can spend his saved action points to effectively dodge damage which is quite nice. And you give that to other other characters on the board. That I mean that's probably the most game changing thing in in this set. But unfortunately, it's always sidelined because of the dog.

Ian: 14:42

Yeah, dog has 12 action points. Most of them. Regular firefighters have four. Yeah, it's really crazy. He can't move into fire. He can only he can either move for one action squeeze through a damage wall for two actions reveal the victims in adjacent spaces, or carry victims for four action points and movement. But that is all the dog can do. But he can leg it for the entire length of a house when the fire is on a common point. Oh, yes. So yes, it's a good balanced one because it's not broken by any means. But because he can be completely useless at times. Oh, yeah. But it's worth having as an option.

Jason: 15:26

So moving on. This is another one. Now this one actually changes things up quite a bit to be fair, because up to this point, when you're firefighting, everything is all on land. It's all, you know, buildings of various sizes. And the next expansion was called dangerous waters. And in dangerous waters, it adds another two maps to the game. But those maps are actually a merchant ship, and a submarine. And yeah, it added, obviously, a new mechanic in the sense of unity bulkheads that you know, in the game, they can't be damaged, which is cool. You had fireproof doors. And again, this one came out at the same sort of time as the extreme danger Kickstarter. But dangerous waters is actually one of those games I achieve. This is one of the expansions sorry that I really, really like, because it changes what you're doing. So how do you feel about it?

Ian: 16:19

It's really good. There's a lot to it with much tighter maps, and, you know, much more difficult to actually control the firearm. I will put one caveat, and is probably one of the last expansions I got, when the very last Kickstarter came out, I was able to backfill and get the missing expansions I didn't have before, this was one of them. So we haven't had much opportunity to play too much with these expansions. So I don't want to say too much, you know, in regards to not having the playtime that these maps deserve, huh, yeah, but they are good fun. Yeah.

Jason: 16:55

So yeah, that is dangerous waters. And we got two more, well, two more physical ones that we want to talk about. And there's there's a little hint there as to what might be coming. But yeah, I'll even go for the next one. What What's the next one? honour and duty?

Ian: 17:12

Again, this is another really good expansion. So this expansion includes the maps subway station and airfield, I kind of give a little hint on what they are, and adds the ability to find that fighter debt gun with foam.

Jason: 17:28

Party.

Ian: 17:29

Yep. You also received the fire prevention specialist, and a game board with alternative attic and basement that can be used with extreme danger. Nice if you did the Kickstarters.

Jason: 17:41

Yes. I said there's there's one particular thing I didn't like about this expansion. And it actually revolves around the fire prevention specialist. I did not like the fact that didn't come with a miniature.

Ian: 17:53

He does eventually though, it did

Jason: 17:55

it that Oh, sorry. It does eventually. But the fact that it didn't come with it. At the time, especially as all the other specialists at the time had had a miniture I felt that that was a bit of a missed opportunity with that one. Yeah. But that being said, that particular expansion is is pretty good that the maps themselves are are good, but I love the idea of changing the deck gun to shoot with foam. You know, it's a pretty standardised thing now, I think with most firefighting forces is that a lot of the time they do actually use foam as opposed to water? Yeah, so yeah, that was pretty cool. For me, it's

Ian: 18:33

the maps. The subway station is a recall map. And it's really hard to navigate, you know, jumping between the two trains that are there requires lots of action points. And a long way to get back and forth. And with few a few exit points, you know, they're they're all bunched up on either side. Yeah. So there's quite a lot of tight spaces and easy to flush the fire around.

Jason: 18:55

Yeah, I suppose that sort of replicates the real life firefighting in, in a subway station or Underground stations. We know it as in the UK. Because, you know, at the end of the day, they're big, long, narrow corridors. And, you know,

Ian: 19:08

in principle with the airfield, you have a massive plane with an explodable engine on the front, you know, it's just on the site on the wing, you know, so you've got to navigate extra new mechanics and try and work out Where's best to position everything.

Jason: 19:22

Yeah. And now, I think we're going to move on to the very latest expansion, which considering this was released back in 2017. I get the feeling we do another one at some point. The hope so

Ian: 19:38

this is by far the best expansion. They have done. Flashpoint.

Jason: 19:43

Yes,

Ian: 19:44

this I can't play without this expansion anymore. It changed the game so much for the better. And it took out some a lot of the luck factor that the game struggled with. Hmm,

Jason: 19:57

yeah. So yes, the tragic event. Expansion It was released back in 2017. As I said, to date, this is hands down the hardest expansion to come by I have not managed to find it as of yet. I reasonable price. So I will add to it, you can get it, but you pay through the nose for it. And the reason in says that this changes everything is because it actually replaces the original hotspot mechanic in the base game back from yo 2011. And it replaces it with event cards, which actually makes things so much better. So I wouldn't say easier, but it makes the actual gameplay experience balanced.

Ian: 20:46

So this, this expansion gives you two decks. So you either have basic fire rages cards, so you just roll the five days resolve the fire like you normally would. Or you have an accelerate card, where you have to do two fire rolls, you add then a flare up card to the fire deck, you then reveal an event card, which we'll come on to in a minute, and then you shuffle the entire discard pile, including the accelerate card back to restart the fire fire rages deck. Again, the flare ups are similar sort of thing where you do two, two fire rolls and do an event card. But you also gain two saved action points for your character. And you then reveal another fire card from the top of the decks. If you let too many flare ups building the deck, you have a big issue of like spiralling through your deck like the hotspot mechanic used to. Yeah, but the event cards I mentioned, there are some good ones, there are some bad ones, and there's some hilarious ones, they will do something to the board, they might like one of them is you forgot to save your game is the title. And it makes you put a saved victim back into the pool of tokens to be rescued. Again, there are others in there that add special survivors in like one of them is a human with a oxygen tank that can explode. That requires more action points to move, one spawns a pair in so you have two people to rescue instead of one, you know there's a critically wounded character that's, you know that there's either slow to move or needs to be healed before they can be moved. So there's lots added into the game just on just on the two decks alone. And on top of this, it gives you three characters as well.

Jason: 22:32

Yeah, so you get the three additional specialists. And they're associated miniatures as well. Now, I mean, this one actually did confuse me a little bit because this is the point that you got the miniture for the fire prevention specialist. But that was also one of the specialists listed as an addition to this. So what what was the reason that they did both of those? I can't,

Ian: 22:54

it's not your exclusives. So the people who couldn't get the kick skarlatos I didn't know bear in mind how old this game is now. This is an opportunity for them to get these specialists. The other thing to note is they also this is the expansion that had to replace the structural engineer as well. Because obviously with no hotspots, they had to change the options for what they can do.

Jason: 23:15

Yes, yeah. Obviously the structural engineer, it goes all the way back to I think it was the very first expansion, isn't it? Yeah. The very first expansion back in 2011. So yeah, it was it was needed of an update, because it was only really good at one thing, which was obviously clear and hotspots and hotspot doesn't exist anymore. So very much so. So I think it's pretty obvious what our favourite expansion is. Clearly, it's the veteran in the dock. But but which I guess tragic events was the game changer for this game. And like I said, this, this came out in 2017. It does feel like we got to be do something again soon, don't you think?

Ian: 24:09

I hope so. But it's also too much of a good thing, potentially. And what can you still do with the game to expand it? So these guys only seem to pump out expansions to actually make a difference to the game? Yeah. So I'd like to hope that the reason we're waiting so long is either for something good or they don't want to we're in it. Yeah, I'd

Jason: 24:30

like to. I'd like to think that I'd definitely agree. There's no point in making an expansion for an expansion sake.

Ian: 24:39

Any games do though?

Jason: 24:41

Yeah, unfortunately. But they seem to have their head screwed on and they're not doing that. So if you had to, if you had to rate them, what would sort of order would you would you say them?

Ian: 24:52

This? Let's just start giving a rating on each one.

Jason: 24:55

Yeah. All right.

Ian: 24:56

So urban structures. We both said this was this wasn't a Part One, including the elevators, we've used this quite a lot. This is the first expansion we probably ease people into after doing like a proper early bass game demo game sort of thing. Yeah. I'd give this a solid like seven or eight out of 10. Yeah,

Jason: 25:13

I think I would, I would definitely agree with that. Sir, seven, seven and a half, eight out of 10 is very worthy of instructions. It is a nice step up from the base game itself. Obviously, at the time, you're still using the hotspot mechanic. But if you combine that with the much later expansion, that's where you start hitting the eights, I think, because it just makes it just that little bit more bearable. Yeah,

Ian: 25:41

leading on second story is a little bit of an unfair one to write properly, because we can't even remember if we own this. So the mechanics brought him We're good. We're having them sort of brought in in better ways later on down the line. I'm going to give this a pre emptive six, because I feel it's unfair to penalise it for us not having really played it much.

Jason: 26:02

Yeah, I mean, if this turns out that we don't actually own this, then you know, we've sort of give it redo our ratings. At some point, we found out that we haven't gotten it and we managed to get it and play it. But I think to say six or seven is is is fair, because the next one that we're going to talk about has exactly the same stuff involved in it. So we get a rough idea of how second story should play. We've seen the maps for definite. So we're able to get a good idea of how things how these things are actually played. But yeah, yeah, six, six, or seven, I think is fine. For a second story.

Ian: 26:44

This leads us on to extreme danger. I think this is another good solid eight, expanding on with easy sort of expansions on mechanics with too good maps. And the ability with this, as you say, eight or nine, the ability to then combine this with other expansions and the base game to give a bigger house or a bigger structure as well. That thing's really, really good.

Jason: 27:07

Yeah. I'm glad you actually changed it there because I was actually gonna disagree with you and say, this needs to be a nine for me. It's almost perfect. To be honest. The only reason I wouldn't say it was perfect is because it is basically second story but with a with a different map and a few extras. So did it really bring anything new to the table? It's hard to say yes, I think it did. But it was kind of a an upgraded version of second story. But this is my if I had to pick Oh, if I had to suggest expansions that people own This is the second one on my list as a milestone. So yeah, not nine out of 10 for me on this one.

Ian: 27:53

So the next one, veteran rescue dog solid 1010. Just 10. I mean, all joking aside, it is it still actually warrants a nine or so. Yeah, for a mini expansion, as long as you take it for what it is. And it is a mini expansion.

Jason: 28:14

Yeah, I mean, this, this probably added the the minimum to the game being the sense of it is literally just two new characters. All joking aside, the veteran is incredibly good. It does change a lot of game mechanics.

Ian: 28:30

But the doggy dog changes the game because it's either a really useful or really useless character with very little in between. Yeah, and that can change within a turn.

Jason: 28:40

Yeah, I think this game itself actually makes players work together as a team, but you add in these two characters, and it's just sort of turns that up to 11. Because these characters work exceptionally well, but they only work exceptionally well, if you've got a good team surrounding you. So yeah, all joking aside, this is nine or 10 for me because it does change the game.

Ian: 29:10

And its value for money as well being such a small expansion is one of the cheaper ones do exactly

Jason: 29:15

and is readily available. Right.

Ian: 29:17

So another one is a difficult one to give a good rating for because we haven't had much time to explore is dangerous waters. I'm going to go for an eight preliminary a because I like the idea of having the boat and the submarine. And again, this will lead on to honour and duty in a second as well. Having a different types instead of just buildings all the time was a huge game changer. And a very welcome change. It makes for a completely different strategy for the games. But I just we haven't had the time to really play test it that much. So it's difficult to give it a fair rating. It might be higher, it might be lower. I don't know. Yeah.

Jason: 29:53

I think I think I have played this maybe one more time than you if if that Again, is still not had a fair trial with me, however, I am going to stick it at a solid eight with a perspective of going to an eight and a half. The reason that I would maybe go a little bit higher, I really like the fact that you've essentially stretched out the buildings. And it makes it very difficult because when the fire starts to spread, it's not like in the houses where you can potentially go round, the fire being the buildings are longer thinner, it's a lot harder to do that, it means you're far more immersed into having to fight the fire in order to get where you're going. The bulkheads is awesome for me, because again, it's parts of the, I'll say the word building is parts of the building that cannot be damaged. Whereas in the house, everything can be damaged, or the walls can be damaged. So that sort of adds a nice sort of touch of realism to it as well. So yeah, I'd say eight and a half is a fair assumption for dangerous waters at this juncture,

Ian: 31:03

and honour and duty next. So same sort of principle subway station and airfield, I have had a good few guys that these. And again, this is why I wanted to give the last one a higher score than I did for us being fair without having really tested it. This one's gonna get a solid nine from me nice.

Jason: 31:21

Yeah, again, this is probably one of my lesser played ones. I love the introduction of the foam on the deck gun, but I'm gonna go in eight and a half with this one. So slightly lower than E and not quite as good as the extreme danger expansion, which is why it is slightly less. But it is a indeed a very good expansion. Probably my third recommendation.

Ian: 31:45

And that leads us on to the last expansion. I've harped on about it enough. This is a solid 12 out of 10.

Jason: 31:53

Yeah, I mean, again, jokes aside 10 out of 10 for tragic events, because it did, it gave the game a new lease of life, you know, a full sort of six years after it first came out and countless expansions, they managed to instal an expansion that changed the game to such an extent, without breaking any other rules, it was exceptionally well done. They clearly put a lot of time and effort into this expansion. And the other thing is with with the changing of the hotspot mechanic, it showed that they were listening to the community that play their game. So I think this is as we've said, we've said it countless times this is the number one must have expansion. If you own this game. If anyone out there has got this expansion that doesn't want it there is a very, very much a want from me get in touch, I want to buy it. I am insanely jealous of him because he does have this expansion and I do not. But this the second I can get this expansion. I'm getting it and it will not leave the game afterwards. So yeah, tragic, tragic events, a solid 10 out of 1012 out of 10. So yeah, that's all sort of ratings for all of those, as I sort of said it throughout that. my number one recommendation is tragic events. Number two will be extreme danger followed by honour of duty, honour and duty. Sorry,

Ian: 33:31

had day you forget the rescue dog.

Jason: 33:34

That I mean, that one's an easy one because it's so cheap, you know that that to me is just an it is just a buy with the game itself. But we do have an honourable mention to talk about, we won't go into it too much. But there is indeed an honourable mention.

Ian: 33:53

There is a PC version of this game under steam follows under the same name. Again, we haven't really had much time to play it too much. But it is a fully fledged 3d rendered game, you know, with moving pieces and all that sort of stuff designed to play the same way that the Flashpoint base game does.

Jason: 34:11

Yeah, so I've played it a little bit recently. It is a proper PC game. It's not like a board game adaptation. It's just played the same way so you still get your four action points and all that kind of stuff. It is very very well done. There's clearly been a lot of money in stored into making it and I would definitely recommend it providing you can get it for a good price. It regularly goes on sale on the steam sale. So I think it's definitely worth having. I know I own it. I believe Ian owns it as well. I've only ever played it solo. So how it plays is a multiplayer. I'm not really sure. But yeah, I think it's it's good fun. So that is our discussion about the expansions for Flashpoint fire and rescue.

Ian: 34:59

Are you Glad that we managed to do this and I am and I'd love to hear what other people think about both the base game and all of its expansions.

Jason: 35:07

Yeah, I find that people actually feel the same way as we do like as to which expansions are must have and whether we're right or wrong about how they change the game. So yeah, we'd love to hear from hear from any of you that have listened to this and hear your opinions. Contact us on any of our social medias, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, just search for Meeple Minded media you will find us we will be there. You can also find us on our discord links to that will be in the description of this podcast.

Ian: 35:40

So with that, I think it's time to move on to our own veteran. I'm not sure if he's experienced at all he's certainly old and he certainly good at making fires over to you Paul and Brian. I am so gonna get shot for that.

Paul: 35:54

good morning Brian are no late night for us. Wasn't it? Fun, though? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, for our faithful listeners, we both took part in a play test last night as the night before we record for a game coming soon to Kickstarter. You may have heard us mention it here or there on the podcast and indeed Jason unboxing it over on the Meeple Minded YouTube channel. Again being from our good friends over at Stop, drop and roll and again is Earth rising 20 years to transform our planet. Yeah, I know we didn't quite manage it, did we but we were very very, very close. And I think if we hadn't messed up a couple of roles early on. We may have been okay view blade anything like it? No, me neither. It certainly was something very unique and wonderfully so both mechanically and visually. They've done a tremendous job and I'll be happy and eager to play it again. You to her? Well, we'll have to get over to Jason's once we're allowed and play on the actual copy he has to be honest, I haven't had that much fun since you know we got drunk you dresses a chicken and I chased you through KFC? Yeah, they get back in the bloody fryer. Yeah, I know I missed go into KFC but unfortunately the ban still stands good times. Good times. Well, in a nutshell, the game is fantastic. Both Jason Ian and myself. We'll be keeping a very close eye on it and bringing more on it to the channels in the coming weeks. right onto the news. you okay with that? Good good. What seems to be a running theme the past few weeks has been the amount of video games make the new way to a table near us with the likes of big digital hitters like Horizon Zero Dawn Space Invaders, Assassin's Creed Bloodborne Fallout, Dark Souls and recently starting Valley already gracing our tables or waiting fulfilment, together with the recent news regarding Rainbow Six Elder Scrolls and Monster Hunter making their way to crowdfunding and stores pretty soon. Last week, steam forged games posted a blog detailing a few upcoming games in development including small teasers for competitive card game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series, as well as a Sea of Thieves board game. The Sonic teaser gave very little substance beyond the logo featuring the blue blurs face and the title, Sonic, the card game and a tagline Sonics. The name and speed is the game literally join the beloved blue blur in a competitive at card racing game where you collect power ups and rings to win the post with another image showing a salty backdrop of sand. A treasure chest full of coins, a handsome skull and a compass, a graphic in the middle red with golden teases we are bidden but the secret shall remain hidden treasure galore you shall receive if you can brave the sea of dot dot dot. The last word likely completes the title rares multiplayer video games Sea of Thieves a popular collaborative action adventure game about finding or indeed stealing treasure in a shared world. Other players might help fend off a deadly cracking but are just as likely to swing onto another ship to plunder it's harder routing or some video game adaptations are being worked on. Others are just being cancelled. Id w Games has just announced the cancellation of the upcoming tabletop adaptation of its super Bomber Man. a tweet from Shawn at Dallas MacDonald the designer behind the game, the release of Super Bomberman r blast tactics has been officially cancelled due to unforeseen issues faced by its publisher. McDonald didn't elaborate on what these issues exactly were but mentioned an earlier announced but by Nazca games the studio founded by Emerson Matt Suchi. The Creator behind the recently cancelled Metal Gear Solid the board game The writing was on the wall from NASCAR games earlier announcement but I can now officially say the Bama man board game from Eid wg has also been cancelled tweeted MacDonald, with both a metal gear solid and Bomber Man video game franchise is still owned by Konami, but the designs to the board games still owned by McDonald and Matt Suchi. Both remain undecided on how to proceed with their games. Although Matt Suchi is making tracks to publish the game self. The popular Co Op game pandemic saw a boost in sales in 2020, as intrepid players took on the roles of medics, researchers and scientists in a hope to understand the scope of the real pandemic are all currently experiencing with the current pandemic still a major part of our lives. The Swiss publisher helvetic is bringing its latest game save patient zero to a table near you soon safe patient zero pits two to five players split into two teams representing rival labs. With one player representing a lab computer called savvy, a new pathology has just appeared, patient zero has been identified, and it's up to you to find the antidote as soon as possible to save the patient and humanity. The labs compete to identify an antidote of three molecules with the labs typically sharing no information with one another. Whichever lab finds the antidote first wins. The general idea of the game is to use the lab tools in the best sequence possible to identify the three molecules out of 25 that make up the antidote. Each lab has a finite number of actions in its 18 card deck, especially the antidote action, because if you fail to identify the correct three molecules a second time, then your lab loses the game automatically. We're heading on over to crowdfunding now. And the first game up is Death Valley. It's by button shy games and it's a want to play again only takes 15 minutes to play ages for eight and upwards. The project ends on March 27. And the pledges come in a printed play for three pounds or$3. The game itself and the expansion is only eight pounds or $10 intro to button shy bundle is 22 pounds or $30, which includes Death Valley and its expansion, plus sprawl, propolis and Tassie mercy, the latter being designed by Elizabeth Hargraves, you can also get a real life bundle, which again is at 22 pounds or$30. Includes Death Valley and the expansion plus Oreos, and skills of sedlak. Sunlight glaring through the windshield your favourite songs blasting through the speakers, candy bar wrappers piled next to a warm drink in that cheap plastic cup holder, your companion riding in the passenger seat snapping pictures of landmarks as you settle into the hypnotic rhythm of the road. But be careful. This fun road trip could get dangerous as you drive through Death Valley as with all button try games Death Valley is a pocket sized push your luck Tableau building game for one to two players, with each traveller striving to assemble the best mix of cards in their journey and scrapbook in order to win the game cards feature stars or points and special abilities. They affect the value and position of the cards and some interesting facts about Death Valley itself. Each card also as a hazard heat, terrain, flood or animals listed having three of the same hazard visible in their Tableau will cause the player to bust and lose all the progress in their journey. Next up on Kickstarter is champions rise by nefarious duck is with two to five players it will take you 45 to 120 minutes to complete is ages 13 and up projects due to end on April the 16th. And the base game and stretch goals will set you back 33 pounds of $45 champions rise is a cooperative card game with light deck building themes, play cards and use energy to rise fight and defeat an endless onslaught of enemies your players a champion with different and exciting abilities against the villain whose sole purpose is to defeat you in the most merciless way possible in a battlefield that can help tip the scales to victory. The objective of champions rise is to defeat the villain while playing in a battlefield as a team of champions. Each villain and Battlefield have their own sets of rules that will change the game pay significantly on repeat playthroughs largely on Kickstarter this week is nutty squirrels of the oak wood forest is by 10 robot games is a one to six players it takes 20 to 45 minutes to play for ages eight and over and the project finishes on Friday, April the 16th. The pledge level is 29 pounds or $40. nutty squirrels and the awkward forest is a precious resource collecting get ready for winter board game involving squirrels was a personality that unique game builds the board Using a series of leaf cards spreading out into six branches from the centre of the tree, each turn plays are three actions to utilise across whichever mix they wish we move on to leaves cards using your movement, flipper leaves cards to discover power ups or icons berry icons for the winter, players can carry up to three powerup cards at a time, which can give them extra actions allow them to carry more acorns steal acorns from other players swing over broken branches or undulation owl to take out their opponents. The game ends when a player is the first to bury a total of 20 acorns or when there are no more cards left to flip, which case the highest score of April's wins and over two events. Gen Con is one of the largest tabletop conventions and was due to take place in August in Indianapolis from the fifth to the eighth. However, recent announcements show a short postponement moving the event to September 16. To the 19th. This is in order to meet the challenges of the moment, though not specified, it is unlikely to be in reference to anything other than COVID which allows them to offer a range of flexible opportunities to get involved. This means people can attend the show physically but with a cat attendance and a modified format or at home through Gen Con online events, which will include live streaming remote events and community on discord and also at friendly local game stores through pop up Gen Con conventions where publishers games will be available to stores for demos, events and purchases. UK ga scheduled for Friday 30th of July down to Sunday first of August as recently made an announcement in regard to the event. Firstly, they have had to decrease in size as a convention itself is reduced to two halls instead of the usual three. This in turn will impact both the tournament's and bring them by that would do to be held. Secondly, the Hilton Metropole hotel where most of the RPGs open gaming and linked events were to be held as decided to close for refurbishment until at least September. Yeah, that's where we were supposed to be staying And isn't it so anybody planning on staying at the hotel have been told to contact the hotel directly or through any third party you may have booked with as this is out of UK GDS control organiser stated it's been a very difficult year for everyone. But we are still hopeful that we can deliver a live show by the end of July. We are currently waiting for the outcome of the events research programme which is due to report by June on how we can safely run a major event. In a positive note. All three halls have been secured for 2022. So in a nutshell, no Hilton or bring them by reduced open gaming events and tournaments. But the trade Hall and the Vikings are out in full force. As always in this climate, things may change between now and then. So we'll keep you posted here or keep checking the socials for more information. As for local gaming groups online gaming continues with the addition of a Wednesday evening of gaming run by the comic shop in Crawley and hosted by ours truly Jason is run via the comic shops Discord server with gamers playing on a variety of platforms. Thursday is the usual worthy board gamers and Lewis board game cafe groups on Zune to go and check out their socials for more information. Monday's is Jason Ian and the corner gaming communities tied by their Discord server. So that's all from us this week. Look after yourselves. meeples stay safe. Keep those dice roll in and card shuffling. And we'll be right here for you next week. it's goodbye from the duck. And it's a goodbye from me. Until next week.

Jason: 48:45

Thank you very much that Paul and thank you, Brian, for the news. Once again, I have to disagree actually with what Ian said in the lead up to that I don't think that Paul is a veteran in any way shape or form. He far better resembles the dog so and of course by that, I mean he's very furry, you know, he's got a big beard. I'm very friendly, and very, very friendly indeed. But anyway, guys, thank you very much for joining us for our discussion about the expansions for Flashpoint. As we've said in the previous episode, we are incredibly passionate about this game, it is one of my collection keepers. It may not be the best game in the world, but it's definitely not a bad game in any way shape or form is fantastic and is a great game to introduce new gamers to as well I actually rate this higher as a as an introductory game than the likes of tickets arrived. So it really does rank high for me. But yeah, anything you want to add today and

Ian: 49:50

again, this is it's a reiterate again, I would love to hear people's opinions. And how again, this game sits as a high highly rated game in my collection. And I hope other people enjoy this as much as I do.

Jason: 50:02

And indeed, I think we're gonna sign off there I'm gonna take this time to plug our YouTube channel which is now receiving very, very regular video content. And by the time you hear this there will be content up for a Kickstarter exclusive preview. And I will break the news here it is for Earth rising 20 years to transform our world some Stop, drop and roll games. By the time you hear this, there will be a video up with the unboxing of what will come in the Kickstarter box. We will also be doing a how to play and provide him we can somehow find a way to get together to review it. We are going to review that game both here and on video. Are you looking forward to that one,

Ian: 50:48

Ian? I am it should be really good fun. It looks a very, very good game.

Jason: 50:52

But anyway, guys, thank you very much for joining us. It's been a pleasure talking to you again. We will be back next Tuesday morning. My name is Jason he's been en We'll see you then. Have a good one.

Ian: 51:04

Bye bye.