Fire Tower Board Game: Should You Buy It?
What’s Fire Tower The Board Game About?
Okay, so we’ve all played battleships before, it’s kinda like that but without the hiding of ships. Okay so kind of not at all like that. Each player gets they’re own Fire Tower to watch over and defend from the great powerful flames of the forest. But oh no! There are other Fire Towers with other people trying to be the last Fire Tower standing. So now you need to use all your cards to fight back your rival Fire Towers. Burn all other enemy Fire Towers down and you win the game!
Play the game as a free-for-all or teams with 4 players!
Should You Buy Fire Tower Board Game?
Yes, the simple answer to this question is yes. I will explain don’t worry, this is the perfect storm for a board game. Easy to learn, easy to teach, artwork is fun and colorful, it doesn’t take forever to play, and the fire gems are super unique and cool. This game is not complex and doesn’t pretend to be, but it’s added enough cards and possibilities that in a full game free-for-all it gets really exciting.
| Fire Tower General Information |
|---|
| Play Time: 15-30 Mins |
| Publisher: Runaway Parade Games |
| Designers : Samual Bryant, Gwen Ruelle |
| Player Count: 2-4 |
Fire Tower Board
All the artwork was done by Kevin Ruelle. I think he did a great job, I love the look of this game. The cards are simple and easy to understand, the map puts you right in the Fire Tower watch mind space. The towers themselves are very similar to most Fire Towers in real life. The board itself is a good size, a nice square and not too big not too small.
1v1 Game Of Fire Tower
If you only have two players to play Fire Tower you’ll end up being diagonal to your opponent. The picture above is a game my wife and I played today. I ended up winning of course but it was a close match. Something I love about this game is that it’s appealing to watch the board slowly fill up with all the fire gems. It does start to feel like a real forest fire, but instead of trying to put out the flames, you’re just trying to survive.
How A Normal Turn Goes In Fire Tower?
When you first start the game, before you have any turns going, someone rolls the 8-sided “Wind Dice.” That decides two things, first the person closest to the direction rolled goes first, and second it decides where the wind starts at. If you have all 4 players playing then the person with the wind direction to their left goes first. The Rules do an amazing job of explaining everything. Top-tier explaining for a Rule Book.
After that first bit, the turns only have 2 parts to them.
1. Place 1 Fire gem in the current direction of the wind.
2. Play any of the four action cards… Or Discard any amount of your cards and draw back up to the hand limit. Then end your turn by drawing up to your hand limit.
How Difficult Is It To Play Fire Tower?
When it comes to difficulty Fire Tower is low on the difficulty level. I have an 8-year-old and I think I could easily teach him this game in less than two games. The Rule Book does a great job of fully explaining just about everything you could need to know. On top of it already being a basic and easy-to-enter kind of board game, every card explains how to use it which helps a ton when you first play.
I recommend that everyone read through the Rule Book. This is obvious but it does help when you have questions like what orthogonal means, or where you place and not place a firebreak token.
What Would I Like To See Added To Fire Tower?
Honestly, I don’t have much that I can think of to add that makes sense to me. The one big thing I would say is probably more cards, different types of Fire, Water, Wind, And Firebreak cards would be really fun. Maybe for some added chaos add more event cards to offer more chaos if players wanna be a little crazy. There’s not much else I can think of to add personally.
How Is Fire Tower’s Box Setup?
Everything fits perfectly in the box. Which makes my little heart very satisfied, the velvet bag that holds all the fire gems is great and fits perfectly for the board to be stored on top. The cards don’t have much room to roam around because of the gems so it all fits quite nicely.
Probably my favorite component for Fire Tower is easily the fire gems. At any time during the game, I’ll have a small handful of gems that I just keep playing around with. As a disclaimer, the fire gems do not light up like the photos below. I had to position a flashlight standing up to make the fire gems “glow.”
Is There Any Expansion Pack For Fire Tower?
I have not had the chance to get the expansion pack yet, as soon as I do I will be adding more to this section. If you’re at all interested in checking it out here’s a link for you to do so.
Fire Tower Game Rules – PDF
Thanks for taking the time to look over my review. I hope that it brought you some value. God Bless.