FIRESTORM

Do you have what it takes to fight the biggest wildfire of this century? Or are you too busy cowering beneath your computer desk?

When two forest fires collide... a ferocious storm unleashes its fury. You must stop the flames at all costs.

You are encouraged to add your own ideas, thoughts, feedback, etc. to this page.

• Hose Packs (aid)
• Water Cannon (aid)
• Backburn (aid)
• Burnout (aid)
• Fuel Break (aid)
• River/Lake (aid)
• Weather Monitor (aid)
• Forward Lay (aid)
• Mutual Aid (aid)
• Reverse Lay (aid)
• Hot Line (aid)
• Surround & Drown (aid)
• Nomex� (aid)
• Wet Down (aid)
• Infrared Photos (aid)
• In the Black (aid)
• Clear Cut (aid)
• Controlled Burn (aid)
• Helitack (aid)
• Fire Dispatch (aid)
• Lookout Tower (aid)
• Water Tender (aid)
• Sky Crane (aid)
• Safe Zone (aid)
• Super Huey (aid)
• Sky Jello (aid)
• Water Curtain (aid)
• Fire Shelter (aid)
• Cold Trail (aid)
• Fireline Explosives (aid)

• Probie - F’n New Guy (challenge)
• Sun Downer Effect (challenge)
• Erratic Winds (challenge)
• Mountainous Terrain (challenge)
• Major Rager (challenge)
• Water Hammer (challenge)
• Flashover (challenge)
• Exhaustion (challenge)
• Snake Bite (challenge)
• Fire Tornado (challenge)
• Fall (challenge)
• Crown Fire (challenge)
• Backdraft (challenge)
• Dry Thunderstorm (challenge)
• Engine Overun (challenge)
• Conflagration (challenge)
• Encircled (challenge)
• Sprain (challenge)
• Heat Stroke (challenge)
• Smoke Inhalation (challenge)
• Inept Leader (challenge)
• Politics (challenge)
• Let-Burn Policy (challenge)
• Santa Ana Wind (challenge)
• Widow Maker (challenge)
• Snag (challenge)
• Boot-Rot (challenge)

• Strike Team Leader (leader)
• Task Force Leader (leader)
• Incident Commander (leader)
• Captain (leader)
• Engine Boss (leader)
• Crew Boss (leader)

• Smoke Chasers (fight E:3 R:3 M:4)
• Sawyers (fight E:3 R:2 M:5)
• Fallers (fight E:2 R:2 M:3)
• Mop-Up Crews (fight E:1 R:1 M:1)

Solo card game.
Also designed for 2 or more players to compete against each other for best score.
Each player is in command of an Army of wildfire fighters & equipment.
Protect structures from fire damage to accumulate points.

One full deck of standard playing cards (including jokers) per player.

• Face Cards: Structures (buildings, resort areas, stranded campers/hikers, areas of historical importance).
  
• Jokers: Firestorm (flames spread twice as fast, roll twice in Flame Phase and discard joker).
  
• Numerical: Flames (number represents Heat Index).
  
• Turned Over Cards: Extinguished Flames.
  

Basic Card Set and/or expansion sets for each player.

• Fighter Cards
  • Efficiency: Number of 6-sided dice rolled when battling flames.
  • Range: Number of cards from the end of fire or from an extinguished flame card a unit can reach to battle flames.
  • Heat: Maximum heat index a unit can battle.
• Leader Cards
• Challenge Cards
• Aid Cards

Use coins to record reductions in Heat Index.

When all flames are extinguished or there are no more flame cards in the deck the player with the most structures wins.

Draw 6 flame cards and lay them side-by-side in a single row.
Each player draws 4 battle cards.

1. Draw Phase
2. Challenge Phase
3. Command Phase
4. Battle Phase
5. Flame Phase
6. Burn Phase
7. Hot Spots

Replace and cards played last turn so that you have 4 battle cards in your hand.

For every challenge card you draw. Roll 2d6.
If the roll is less than 8 you fail the challenge:

• Discard the challenge card.
• You can not battle the flames this turn.
• Proceed directly to the the Burn Phase.

Place fight cards from your hand under the flame cards they are to battle this turn.
You may assign a fight card to an extinguished flame and it automatically removes the card from play.
You may assign more than one fight card to any one flame card.
A single fight card can only battle one flame card in a turn.
The flame must be within the range of the fight card.
A fight card can not be assigned to a flame card with a Heat Index higher than its Heat Value.
Range can be determined from either end of the fire or from any extinguished flame, whichever is closest to the target flame.

Remove every extinguished flame card with a fight card assigned to it.
Roll 1d6 for every efficiency point assigned to battle a flame card.
For each 1 rolled (or 2 if an aid card is used) the heat index is reduced by one, mark with coin(s).
If the heat index is reduced to zero or lower then flip the card over, the flame is extinguished.
Remove any structure that does not have a flame card or extinguished flame card adjacent to it. This counts as 1 victory point.
Close any gaps in the row of cards.

Roll 1d6 for each of the 2 flame cards at the ends of the fire (or roll twice if only one flame card is remaining).
If the Heat Index is equal to or larger than the roll then draw a flame card and place it at that end of the fire.

Roll 1d6 for each flame card adjacent to a structure.
If the Heat Index is equal to or larger than the roll then the structure is discarded from play.

Roll 1d6 for each extinguished flame card remaining from a previous turn.
If a 1 is rolled flip the card over, the area reignites.
Note: Air Tankers & Heli Tankers can not put out Hot Spots.

A player begins with the following cards (ignore suits they are not relevant for this game)

Notice the 2 structures (J & Q), in order to get a good score you will need to protect them. Notice the heat index of flames cards adjacent to objectives. Heat index indicates how likely the flames will spread. Since the Queen is surrounded by only one 2 and the Jack is surrounded by a 3 and a 2 (either of which could spread to the structure). To attack the 3 would require a fight card with a range of 3 or higher (3 in from the right-side & 3 in from the left-side). Lets say we use a helishot card from our hand and fight the flames between the Jack & the Queen and are sucessful. Then we would turn over the 2 card to indicate that it is controlled.

Once the flames are controlled you can use that as an entry point to fight the fire (shortens range), so the 3 card could be attacked with only a range of 2 instead of 3. So lets say we send in dozers to take out the 3 card and protect the ojective.

Next you would probably want to mop-up the extinguished flames so that they don’t flare-up again (hot-spots in the extinguished area). So lets say we send in a hand-crew to take out the one between the Jack & the Queen. Let’s say the roll is successful. Remove the Queen card and keep it, that is your score, you now have 1 objective

A convict crew now takes out the one next to the Jack, remove it. Another objective you now have 2 points.

Next turn flames spread:

Note: I haven’t play tested it yet. Please feel free to experiment and/or contribute. This example needs a little work, it was done before I posted the rules. Some signficant changes have been made to the mechanics to make it much more enjoyable.

Ok this is very cool. I like it a lot.
This can be turned into a working game in no time.
Some definitions would be nice:
for ex- what exactly do you mean by a “Widow Maker” or “In the Black”?
What is a Water Hammer?

Glossary of Wildland Fire Terms
Glossary of Firefighting Equipment

Snag
A standing or fallen tree (perhaps flaming) that is leaning up against something (typically another tree). When walking under it the tree can easily crush the person under it.

Widow Maker
Branches, tops of trees or anything hanging from a tree that can fall on top of the wildland firefighter.

In the Black
A safe-zone, a burned out area (no fuel for the fire).

Water Hammer
A potentially damaging effect caused by opening or closing nozzles too quickly. Can damage nozzles, hoses, hydrants, and engine pumps.

Strike Team Leader
5 type-3 (wildland) engines or 2 type-1 Hot Shot crews.

Task Force Leader
Multiple resources of different types (Hot Shots, engines and dozers) put together to accomplish a specific task. (Example: Task force for structure protection).

Cold Trail
Firefighting Technique: Lining the Hot Spots (bypass cold). Fire almost out along edges.

One Foot in the Black (Hot Line)
Firefighting Technique: Direct-line on the flame front (working the edge).

Thanks for the comments. I will try to put together a complete glossary.

Special thanks to Captain Gary Peterson for providing tips on new cards, updates, and correcting some of the information on this page.

Note: A few of the terms are city firefighter terms rather than wildland firefighters terms but I left in the game because they sounded cool (i.e. flashover, backdraft, Major Rager).

SpotFire Images Wildfire Photojournal

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