Review Details

Flash Point: Fire Rescue - Dangerous Waters Expansion Pack

Product Review (submitted on February 3, 2017):

Dangerous Waters is the newest expansion for Flash Point and adds 2 new boards to the game as well as a small counter sheet. You get to fight underwater on a submarine and on the deck of a burning merchant ship! That alone is amazing right there. The majority of the new additions are familiar to anyone who owns Extreme Danger, but I'll go through and sum them up anyways. If you've already played/own Extreme Danger, skip over the rules summary and go onto the meat of the new boards and what I think of them. Costing $15, Dangerous Waters adds 2 new boards, a small counter sheet, and a small 4 page rules booklet. Is it worth it?


New Rules: There's a new type of door on the map: Fireproof doors. This expansion comes with 4 of them. An open fireproof door functions just like a normal open door. However, closed fireproof doors STOP fire from moving through them when explosions occur. If fire would move through a fireproof door you roll a 6-sided die. If you roll a 1-3, the door stops the explosion and nothing else happens. If you roll a 4-6, the door stops the explosion but it becomes jammed. Place a jammed marker on the door. A door can be jammed MULTIPLE times. To open the door, you need to use a chop action for each jammed token on the door. When they are all gone, you've chopped through the door and remove it from the map. It won't help you anymore.



Additionally, the outer Wall segments can accumulate an unlimited number of Damage Markers without being Destroyed.


The only other new rule involves Special Machinery. Certain spaces on each map have damage counters associated with them (spaces with pictures of damage cubes on them). They cannot be the target space of a roll; any roll that lands on their space follows the arrows to the first empty space. Each time an explosion would put a fire marker in a space with Special Machinery, put a damage marker on the Machinery. If it's out of room for damage counters, it explodes and you lose because the ship sinks! Obviously, it's really important to keep the machines safe. You can't repair them so you have to work hard to make sure that they stay free of fire. You also cannot enter spaces with Special Machinery in them.


MAPS:

First there is the Merchant Ship, which is 2 smaller half maps pushed together to form the ship.

You have to get the victims to the boats to get out. The big engine in right about the middle of the map is the Special Machine you have to keep safe in this level. The green walls are also new for this expansion- a green wall BLOCKS fire from moving through it and doesn't take damage, but it DOES cause smoke to be formed on the other side if an explosion occurs next to it. This can be a boon or a curse depending on how your rolling goes during the game. The Merchant Ship is a harder map then most of the maps in the game and you can lose quickly. It's a lot of fun to play and is pretty challenging. The staircase by the Engines can pose a problem since fire spreads to the engines easily from it.


The other map is the sub, easily the hardest map in the game. It is formed of two maps laid side to side lengthwise to add to the fun.

The sub is a LONG map. It's only 3 spaces wide (1-3 on one side, 4-6 on the other) and has 3 spaces to keep safe (The engines, 4 damage and found on the right side of the map, and the map and navigation, both with 3 damage and found in the big square in the middle of the map). You can trade firefighters in/out at the starting space, the big orange square in the large open room, and you have to take your victims to sickbay, found to the right and left of the command room. However, FIRE can spread into the sickbay or get rolled and occur there, taking out the victims you've ALREADY saved. This is a HUGE bummer and has cost us the game before. The sub is a really great map to play with because it's entirely unique, has some really interesting challenges, and is extremely hard. We lose probably 60% of the time when we play with it because something gets destroyed.


Final Thoughts: This is hands-down my favorite expansion to Flash Point so far. It's a beast and either map can easily get out of control on your quickly. The additional danger of losing your engines or critical gear and causing you to sink is a great addition to the game, and these are easily 2 of the hardest maps you can face so far. While it doesn't add any bling, like Extreme Danger, or more building tiles, like 2nd Story, it does make the game a LOT harder and a LOT more interesting because of the new techniques you have to work to keep the ships safe. This is a solid expansion that definitely makes the game infinitely harder to play.


This expansion is totally worth getting. I'd recommend it to ANYONE who likes Flash Point because it really ramps up the difficulty of the game. That's a GREAT addition to Flash Point and these maps are really different, something else which is really interesting. They did an excellent job getting the feel of firefighting on a ship or sub, the challenges that go along with it, and really ensure that you need to have a solid plan to win. You can only make a couple minor mistakes here or else you'll be in serious trouble. Dangerous Waters is an amazing expansion to a solid game that everyone should have.