The Fire Has a Mind of it's Own (Review of Tragic Events Expansion)

I've already reviewed Flash Point: Fire Rescue (I can't recall if it was on here or just on BoardGameGeek...either way I'll be restating many of the points now) but I was very excited to get my hands on the new Tragic Events expansion.  Flash Point: Fire Rescue is in my top 20 solo games last (sitting at #9) and I wouldn't be surprised if it moved up a spot or two with this new expansion.  But why?  Let me tell you!

First of all, let me explain what this newest expansion adds to the game.  It adds three new heroes (with miniatures that match those from the Extreme Danger expansion) as well as the corresponding character cards and a revised one for the structural engineer (to take into account the rule changes).

It also comes with two brand new decks - these are the real game changers (ha ha ha).  One of these is the fire deck.  This is supposed to replace the old hot spots from the base game.  Instead of just rolling dice after your turn, you flip a card and the card tells you what to do.  Most of the cards just say "roll the dice" but some of them ask you to roll twice, draw more cards, add more bad cards to the deck, or draw from the event deck.  This is the meat of the expansion and, in my opinion, it really delivers. 

The other new deck is the event deck.  This one works in tandem with the fire deck as you only draw cards from here if the fire deck tells you to.  Most of these events are negative - you might have to add more POIs (place of interest?) to the board, shuffle already discovered POIs back into the pile, lose saved actions, not be allowed to move this turn, add a difficult POI to the pile, and so on.  There are also a few helpful events, such as the fire grenade, which works like the hose from the fire truck, and the "Get In Its Face" card that lets you extinguish fires for 0 AP.  These events really add a lot of random interest to the game and are very thematic.

There is also a bag full of new POIs.  These are really cool, except that they're not explained in the little rulebook that came in the expansion (at least, not as far as I could tell).  I just chose a bunch of random POIs, mostly the new "cool" looking ones.  As I played through the game and drew event cards, I learned what most of the new POIs do as they're explained on the card.  I wish they had detailed how these work in the rulebook, but I'm excited to play the game again and use these properly.  These new POIs get added to the game after certain event cards are drawn.  Some examples of these are explosives, a couple that you have to take separately, or a heavier person that is more difficult to move.

That's about it.  Let's jump into the review!

COMPONENTS
Since I already had the miniatures from the Extreme Danger expansion, I was excited to add three new figures to the game.  They're kind of cartoony (probably to tone down the mood of the game) and not the most detailed, but I actually really like them. All of the other pieces in this expansion match the good quality and the artwork is good too. The components don't blow me away, but they're good. No issues. 4/5

RULES
The rulebook continues to be the weakest part of this game.  As I mentioned earlier, the little rulebook didn't explain how to use the new POIs, I had to play the game to figure that out as I went.  Having a new expansion with a new set of rules just adds to the mess that is the rulebook.  I like having some options, and there are now even more, but to me, it's too much. The rules explain things very well for the simple/beginner game, but I feel they are confusing for advanced play. 3/5

GAMEPLAY

When I previously reviewed this game, I mentioned how I was excited about how the fire and event decks would improve the game.  Well, they certainly do!  It adds a lot more excitement and tension when the fire spreads and the different events are very thematic and enjoyable.  The decks increase the playtime a little bit, but in my opinion, it is worth it.  4/5

REPLAYABILITY
The game already has a lot of replayability and this new edition adds to that.  What will the fire do next?  What sort of special abilities will I be able to get?  Who will I have to save?  The replayability in Flash Point has never been a problem and this makes it even better.  5/5

FUN
I already had a lot of fun playing this game.  In fact, one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time was playing this game with my wife and our closest couple friends.  We were losing badly but we took a break, talked about our strategy, turned things around and won!  It was so exciting!  Playing with the new decks adds to that fun, adding more theme to the game and a better AI for the fire.  9/10

TOTAL SCORE - 25/30

The Tragic Events expansion makes a great game just a little bit better.  I would recommend Flash Point to anyone and if you can add this expansion to it as well, it's worth it.