Expansion review — Thunderverse Track Pack

Asphalt As the Eye Can See

Designers: Carla & Jeff Horger

Player count: 2-11

Publisher: GMT Games

It was back in 2014 that designers Carla and Jeff Horger brought their first racing game into the world: Thunder Alley. NASCAR hot rods duked it out on four different tracks, battling each other as well as random events until a team cut through the chaos and emerged victorious.

The very next year, in 2015, GMT Games put out the Thunder Alley Expansion Tracks: four more speedways for enthusiasts to burn rubber on. Business as usual, right? Except ...
Each track, albeit clearly designed for NASCAR action, nonetheless featured fidgety detours intended for subtler adventures. There were also intriguing markings on the lap indicator—instructions about something called "Grand Prix" lasting an additional lap.

Thunder Alley wouldn't remain an only child for much longer.

(Fans of GMT productions knew all about it, because the new game wasn't kept a secret during its development.)

One year later, the foreshadowed Formula 1 version of the racing system came out, also shipping with four circuits of its own. In a departure from the typical NASCAR-looking tracks of its predecessor—misshapen ovals several lanes wide—the new offerings twisted this way and that in a manner more attuned to typical Formula 1 hair-raising maneuvers.

The official party line was that Grand Prix was absolutely playable on Thunder Alley tracks; not only on the expansion pack with its dedicated carve-outs, but also—why not?—on the four original tracks. The more, the merrier. And as if repaying an overdue favor, the circuits that shipped inside the Grand Prix box invited Thunder Alley enthusiasts to also enjoy the fun, with lap indicators sporting TA mentions (and usually making the race a lap shorter).

Just like that, the Thunderverse was born.
Two games, 12 high-velocity playgrounds—thus far.

It would take a few more years for the next entry in the series to reach publication. That was the Mad Max-adjacent Apocalypse Road, in 2020, replete with roof-mounted machine guns and other friendly appendages. Four more tracks joined the ranks; and even though, in this case, they looked more like battlefields—what with their chutes and rough & jump sections—they proved amenable to occasional visits from their more civilized brethren.

Three games strong, the Thunderverse was now racing across 16 different speedways.

In 2023, a mere three years after Apocalypse Road, GMT released the Grand Prix New Track Pack. Because what's wrong with more tracks?
This one offered—you guessed it—four new circuits, once more purpose-built for Grand Prix but usable to quench any Thunder Alley or Apocalypse Road thirst that might be keeping you up at night. (They failed to include any of the specific terrain required for Apocalypse Road to function, but it's something you can remedy with homemade markers.)

So, got enough with those 20 tracks of yours? Hardly.

GMT just published the Thunderverse Track Pack, an additional collection of four racecourses that, as its name suggests, isn't happy to simply offer more tarmac for all sorts of four-wheelers to zoom upon: it was designed with all three games in mind. Two of the new tracks zig and zag just like Grand Prix likes it, while the other two propose big oval shapes sure to keep any and all Thunder Alley enthusiasts happy. Even Apocalypse Road racers get their due. Mostly.

AUTODROME SIMARD-LALUMIÈRE

(Yes, a buddy of mine and I forked over some cash in exchange for the honor of naming this track that's very much shaped like the Canadian Grand Prix circuit located on an island right next to Montreal. I mean, as Canucks, how could we not?)

One of the two Thunder Alley-first tracks, the Autodrome gets right to the point. You want wide? You want fast? You've got it—but don't get too comfortable. The road surprises racers with several 3-to-1 and then 1-to-3 switch points that'll rain chaos on your orderly group of little cars.

It's got a discreet squiggle to satisfy basic Grand Prix requirements, adding a bit of finesse to an otherwise roaring experience. Alas, no accommodations for Apocalypse Road have been worked into the layout, so you'll have to rustle up your own.

I must also point out that the gray texture applied to the track itself does look good, except when it makes it difficult to read individual spaces in a sector.

Is that one or two spaces in those corner sectors?
What about the bottom sectors leading into the corner?

And since you're asking, yes, this is the one and only Canadian track in the entire system. So far, most of them have been located in the USA. Of the non-American speedways, three (!!) of them are in Spain, one in Ireland, one in England, one in South Korea, one in Mexico, and one in, well, Atlantis.

RICHEY RACEWAY

Another pedal-to-the-metal experience, Richey Raceway nevertheless manages to slow down horde after horde of mechanical beasts by virtue of its unforgiving funnels. A 3-space sector tightens into a 2-space sector, then a 1-space bottleneck, before opening up again through a reverse 2- and 3-space sequence that really messes up even the most well-intentioned pack. 

The Grand Prix/Apocalypse Road carve-outs are more extensive this time around and work rather well, though some graphic design choices will sometimes create contradictory interpretations as to what constitutes a space. Apocalypse Road is once more mysteriously left out, even though the board offers plenty of space for those rugged markings.

TRIMPERIAL RACEWAY

The only track in this new pack that clearly displays its Grand Prix DNA, the Trimperial Raceway goes first and foremost for those twisty bottlenecks that are delightful to puzzle out when you're playing Grand Prix or Apocalypse Road (thanks to the miracle of conditional linking). Those kinds of tracks give no quarter when it comes to Thunder Alley, however, in that whoever squeezes first in that narrow corridor will become difficult to dislodge.

The center section is dedicated to Apocalypse Road, with everything road warriors have come to expect from a speedway that shows no fear.

CARLA HORGER MEMORIAL SPEEDWAY

Named in honor of co-designer and wife Carla who passed away last year, this is ultimately the one true multi-game track: some Thunder Alley, some Grand Prix and an Apocalypse Road corner all rolled into one. (While the opposite corner serves as a launching pad only, never to be touched again.)

Despite its busy appearance, the track never actually gets into crossover shenanigans the way the Tieran Raceway or the Essendarium have done in the past. There are various points where different games will go different ways, but everything's clear enough not to spark any of those traditional boardgame-fueled bar fights.
And I am thankful for the design intention that ended up trapping Apocalypse Road vehicles in that tight corner, never to escape; otherwise, on a track this expansive, targets would have grown few and far between.

This most recent pack bolsters the collection all the way up to 24 tracks—enough to run entire seasons for years to come, for all three games.

Because of the recent death of Jeff Horger, the other co-designer, the future of the system is currently unknown. But should this be the last hurrah of a much-heralded system that has brought me and many others endless joy and excitement over the past decade, it would already be an amazing legacy.

Thank you for brightening our lives, Carla and Jeff.

# # #

My Top 10 Boardgames Published in 2024

     

Here's a look at my 10 favorite games published in 2024.

(Or else made available in North America so late in 2023 that there was no way to really play them before the calendar flipped.)

#10

RED DUST REBELLION

I've just scratched the surface here, but I already like (a lot!) what I see. Yes, this is another COIN game from GMT—volume 12, if you can believe that—but this one being fictitious makes possible a host of things we haven't seen elsewhere. From truly asymmetric factions (The Church of the Reclaimer is a blast—and a brain twister—to play) to semi-random storms that'll hit your forces hard unless they head for cover, this is a brave new world for the COIN series.

#9

JEKYLL & HYDE VS SCOTLAND YARD

Before The Crew, nobody thought a co-operative trick-taking game was possible; nowadays, it seems there's a new one every other month. Jekyll & Hyde vs Scotland Yard is a two-player game to boot, and a damn clever one, where players try to manipulate the number of tricks they win so that Jekyll/Hyde makes it home before the police can catch him. Rotating trump suits and the occasional potion will keep players on their toes—almost as much as the title character.

(You can read my flash review here.)

#8

ALTERED

I thought I had weaned myself off collectable card games back in the day, and this year I tried two new games that confirmed those feelings: Star Wars Unlimited (yawn) and Lorcana (visually superb but mechanically generic). Then I gave Altered a shot and ended up purchasing two booster boxes. It runs on very innovative gameplay, killer visuals, and nothing short of a revolutionary publishing plan. I'm very much looking forward to what's on the horizon.

#7

DUCTH RESISTANCE: ORANGE SHALL OVERCOME!

Orange is a solo/co-op game of resistance in the Netherlands during World War II. Several scenarios require players to dodge German checkpoints, smuggle supplies (even people!) into dangerous locations, and resort to violence when there's no other way. An impressive system and overall package, and from a first-time designer, no less.

#6

SKYRISE

A cutthroat bidding game about building a city in the sky, with simple rules that pave the way for tense and rewarding gameplay. I played the game this was based on—Metropolys—once, years ago; I never felt the need to play it again. But Skyrise elevates (ha!) the action and makes everything shine.

And while there's no denying the deluxe version is seriously overproduced, it does look great on the table.

(You can read my flash review here.)

#5

WOLFPACK
I tried a few submarine games over the years, but they were either too convoluted or else too much "on rails" with few player decisions and an experience that felt more like watching the game happen around me.

Wolfpack hits the sweet spot: Despite the game's 76 pages of (generously illustrated) rules, it's easy to get into a routine of going out on patrols, spotting juicy merchant ships, arming and firing torpedoes... and also evading escorts, dealing with crew injuries, putting out sub fires, fending off flooding and performing a dance of death with depth charges on a daily basis.

What's not to like?

#4

NORMAN CONQUESTS
Not only did this fifth volume in the Men of Iron series convince me to take the plunge, but I enjoyed it so much that I promptly tracked down the first four volumes and am eagerly awaiting #6. The game offers tactical medieval battles with just the right amount of chrome to give you something satisfying to bite into while never overstaying its welcome. 

Just make sure you leave your units room to retreat. You'll thank me later.

#3

OXONO

One of those abstract two-player games with minimal components, a cerebral look, and that ubiquitous "place four pieces in a row" victory condition, Oxono almost looks like a toy. Until you play (and lose) your first game, that is. Players move an X and an O totem, both acting as poles around which you can play a corresponding piece (X or O) in your color. It's those pieces you're trying to align, in any colors. So you win if you put the fourth X in a row/column of Xs, or the fourth O in a row/column of Os, no matter who placed the first three; you can also win by scoring a row/column entirely in your color, whatever symbols end up in there.
You can't imagine how challenging—and addictive—that is until you've tried it.

#2

BOMB BUSTERS

This is one of those rare cooperative games where the alpha player problem (running everyone like puppets in an otherwise solo game) cannot happen, because the whole thing revolves around secret information everyone is trying to deduce from the occasional clues put up by their partners. Your bomb squad needs to defuse bomb after bomb by cutting pairs of like-numbered wires: one facing one of your friends (and whose value you're not always sure of) and one facing you. 
And whatever you do, DONT' CUT THE RED WIRE!

(You can read my flash review here.)

#1

DOWNFALL

Last year's #1 entry (Mr. President) began thusly: "The most complex and longest game on the list..." And I'm forced to recognize that it's also the case this year. I might have to seek treatment.
Downfall is kind of a monster game that eats up an entire table (or two) and whose short scenario lasts six hours. Hey, playing the last act of WWII ain't a walk in the park! But the game flows so wonderfully and without any downtime that I find myself transfixed, for however long the whole thing takes.

It is a stunning design that I can't wait to play again.

(You can read my review here.)

* * *

DISAPPOINTMENTS
I define disappointments as games I expected a lot from, and which failed to deliver. Here are the "top" three from 2024.

I rarely post negative reviews of games on this blog (life's too short!) but my feelings were so negative in the case of Heat's first expansion that I couldn't do otherwise. (So here it is.) I wasn't disappointed: I was thoroughly pissed off.

In short, I thought they did everything completely wrong, making Heavy Rain the worst expansion I've come across in 30 years of boardgaming. It almost deserves an award just for that.

This one is kind of a mild disappointment, in that I expected great things from this narrative game, and in the end only got "things" that were more often than not on the right side of fun without really making me feel like I'd need to replay the campaign, or get my hands on eventual sequels. Fun enough to borrow from a friend and try once, I guess, but that's pretty much it.

I think it's the first time a game from GMT ends up in this section of my yearly Top 10, and it breaks my heart. I had high hopes for I, Napoleon, but the decision space ended up being way too narrow for my taste. And I really wish there were just one or two lines of historical text at the bottom of each card, so that I could at least learn a few things if I'm not actively choosing stuff.

A pity.

* * *

STRAGGLERS
Let's end on a high note with three games that would have made my Top 10 had I encountered them back in the year when they were published.

Scout is the second trick-taking game on the list this year, and deservedly so. It's a clever, twisted and fun little bundle of joy—you should see that diminutive box—you can carry anywhere, that plays great with any number of players (including two!) and that will surprise and entertain anyone you ensnare with it.

Two abstract games on the same list might be a first, but I won't shy away from my admiration of this as-clever-as-it-is simple (and elegant) little game. Move a piece according to the pattern highlighted on one of your three cards, then give that card to your opponent. THAT'S IT. And since there are oodles of different cards (did I mention expansions?), no two games are ever alike.

Mandala is one of those games that feels so classic, so elemental, that you can't help but think the design already existed as a traditional thing played by generations past. Right? Nope: made up by two guys a few years ago.

But no matter how (not) old the game is, it's a splendid example of a simple system yielding remarkable depth. 

# # #

Expansion review — Heat: Heavy Rain

(I posted this review—a rare negative review when it comes to what I usually use this space for—on Boardgamegeek.com back in May 2024, and for some reason I completely forgot to publish it here. 

Better late than never, I suppose. Especially since this has been my most controversial game review so far.)

Let me preface this by saying Heat is one of my favorite racing games. It was also my #1 game in 2022. I preordered the expansion the minute it was announced.

And yet, after Heavy Rain, I will not buy another expansion for this amazing game.
The reason is simple: I think it's one of the worst expansions I've encountered in over three decades of boardgaming. (And no, I'm not even talking about the price, which I'll admit is surprisingly steep.)

Now this is no snarky review: I'm not writing this while angry, nor do I have an ax to grind with anyone. I'm just writing this as a consumer, a player of games, and one who's disappointed.
I really wanted this to be good.

So what are we getting in the box?

1. TRACKS
We all expected two more tracks, and two more (fun) tracks we got. So far, so good.

2. FLOODED SPACES
For some reason, it was decided that flooding would not be backwards compatible with the previous four tracks. Which I could maybe understand if it were some complex new game mechanic. But no: it's a super simple thing where you have to pay an extra heat when you shift down on a flooded space. (So simple a thing, in fact, that when I explain what the big blue spaces do on the Japan track, players always voice some disappointment. "That's it?")

This strange design decision comes with several equally strange wrinkles:

• It's only present on one of the two new tracks. (Mexico's dry as a bone, which I guess makes thematic sense.)
• You'll never be able to play on the Japan track without it—it's printed on the board itself, which robs the whole system of some (expected) variety.
• If flooded spaces make an appearance on future tracks, it'll also mean those tracks can only be played with flooded spaces.
• You'll also never see flooded spaces on any of the four base-game tracks.

This last point is particularly painful, because there are a number of ways in which flooded spaces could have worked on the four original tracks—as well as all of the future ones—with many other players pointing out the obvious "weather tile" solution. (You could even have, say, three different flooding tiles, indicating different numbers of flooded spaces before and after the corner line.)

3. CHICANES
Another very small change from the base game, chicanes are simply two corners that are closer together.
It makes sense for this not to appear on every track in the game, just as it’s logical for long straightaways not to feature on each track. Chicanes do exist on both of the new tracks, so that’s fun.

4. AGGRESSIVE LEGENDS
This rule allows Legends (the "bots") to cross both corners of a Chicane in one move, which gives cars on autopilot some welcome teeth. To avail itself of this option, a Legend needs to start its move on a space marked with a chevron, and those are depicted on both the Japan and the Mexico tracks.
It’s also possible to use that rule on the Great Britain track, and the expansion provides little chevron markers you can put over the relevant spaces.
I wish.
The reality is this: Players are invited to draw chevrons on their Great Britain track.
I’m not one of those boargamers who would never take a Sharpie to their game and implement alterations. (In fact, I did just that to number the spaces on my Grand Prix, Thunder Alley and Apocalypse Road tracks so we could race against each other remotely at the height of the pandemic.) But it’s the first time I run into an expansion suggesting that I modify some material in the base game without giving me what I need to do so, and asks me, instead, to just draw something on one of the original boards.
I was very much not impressed by this.
(Sure, they could also not have said anything about Chicanes on the Great Britain track, but it would have meant one more expansion element that’s impossible to use on the base tracks.)

5. SUPER COOL
Some cards sport a new symbol that lets you take a heat card from your discard pile (instead of your hand) and put it back in your engine.
This is a really fun concept, but it’s only deployed on advanced upgrade cards and sponsorship cards. I wish they’d decided to add a basic upgrade with super cool for each car, which would have given even the basic rules a fresh feel. As it stand—and if you, like me, tend to always play Heat with new players and opt for the basic rules—you won’t partake in much of that super cool fun.

6. NEW CAR + MATERIAL
The base game shipped with six cars, with room in its insert for two more. This was surprising to me, because the core of racing games—what we’re all here for—lies in negotiating a track full of opposing vehicles. The venerable Formula D could accommodate 10 players right out of the gate, and apart from Flamme Rouge (from one of the same designers), I can’t remember any racing game that added more vehicles/players as time went on.

The argument could be made that both Flamme Rouge and Heat require “more stuff” (i.e. a deck of cards and a player dashboard) than just a vehicle for each new player, and being prudent with a lower price point so you can gauge interest in your base game before you invest in more material for more players does hold water here.
But once you have a smash hit on your hands, why hold back on the number of cars in your follow-up product? We’re even told this time around that the game was designed and tested with 12 cars, but we’re still just getting one more. (The new tracks reflect that intent with 12 starting spaces, when the four base-game tracks only displayed eight.)

7. CHAMPIONSHIP
We get four new event cards, which we can never have too many of. More championship options is always a good thing.

Other comments, in no particular order:

No update to the Legends deck
I’ve read discussions of production considerations (there are only so many card slots on a print sheet and so on) and I guess that’s a valid argument from a strictly monetary point of view. But the fact remains that if you want to play with seven cars on the track (and why wouldn’t you?) then one of the human players must play orange—because the Legends deck, as printed in the base game, doesn’t take orange into account.

Sure, you can say that whenever green comes up on a Legends card it really means orange, but that’s an unnecessary mental layer I would not expect a game that’s sold oodles of copies to burden me with in an expansion. And if it was too expensive to reprint the Legends deck for just one additional car… then why not a) add more cars in one go, or b) reprint the Legends deck right now to accommodate all 12 cars and be done with it?
No room on the cards? There’s a ton of different formats out there ripe for the picking, but the simplest idea (to steal from the most recent edition of Formula D) would have been to make all 12 cars into six pairs of cars: two yellows (one with a black stripe), two reds (one with a black stripe), and so on. Not only would you be opening the way for a “racing stable” variation in the future, but you’d also be making sure that your original Legends deck will work no matter what: the yellow number moves both yellow cars, the red number moves both red cars, etc.
Right now, racers are wondering how many new cars will need to be in the game (i.e. how many expansion boxes later) before we get an updated Legends deck. Not a great feeling.

Very little content for the basic rules
I’ve mentioned it earlier in this review: Almost every time I get Heat to the table, we have a handful of new players around the track, and it just makes sense to use the basic rules with those people. (And it’s also true for most of the Heat owners around me.) So no garage options, no championships, no sponsorships… (Thought we tend to add Legends and weather as soon as we hit race #2.) This means that most of the time, for us, the expansion comes down to one more car and two more tracks. It’s pretty thin.
As I’ve previously highlighted, nothing in here is backwards compatible – not even the Legends deck – so nothing in the expansion will affect the way you race on the four original tracks if you don’t use the advanced rules. Well, there is a seventh car, and you can always draw those chevrons on your Great Britain track. But it’s not much.

Overall quantity of content
This is debatable, and I won’t get into the whole pricing knife fight. (But yes, I was taken aback at the box’s contents after paying for it.) Even if you consider every item in the expansion, it’s not very much. But beyond that, my main gripe here is that it’s a feeble expansion that probably won’t really change the way you play Heat. My consumer perception—and I don’t seem to be alone in this—is that you’re getting two new tracks and one new car, plus some other bits, most of which are weirdly integrated and not backwards compatible.

For a system where we’re told everything was thought of long in advance, Heavy Rain sure doesn’t feel like it. There are too many instances that make you go, “Well, if they knew they were going in this direction, why did they print it like that?” and furrow your brow about the future (“So I guess all future tracks will either be permanently flooded, or never?”) I mean, what about strong winds or night conditions—are things like that also going to appear on selected tracks only?

As such, I cannot recommend Heavy Rain to my boardgaming friends. It just doesn’t feel like an expansion worthy of that name. Even at half the price, I would still say that Heavy Rain doesn’t feel like an expansion for our beloved Heat.

It just feels like a couple of new tracks.

Expansion review — New Tracks for Grand Prix

Are We There Yet?

Designers: Carla & Jeff Horger

Player count: 2-11

Publisher: GMT Games

While it only took one year for GMT Games to publish additional tracks for their NASCAR racing title Thunder Alley, fans of the F1 incarnation of that system—GrandPrix—had to wait six years before they could start burning rubber on brand new racetracks.
Were those four additional circuits worth the long wait? You bet your chassis, they were.

AND THEY’RE OFF

The aptly named “Expansion Tracks for Grand Prix” package offers four new tracks on two mounted, double-sided boards. The whole thing ships in a big ziplock bag, with a reference card that lists a sprinkling of special rules for each track.

Overall, the tracks in this new batch feel much tighter than the original four. Whereas the number of bottlenecks (one-space sectors where cars can’t pass each other) averaged 11 in the base game, they’ve now grown to a spine-tingling 18!

Let’s take a quick look at each of these fresh offerings.

With its 11 bottlenecks, Tieran Raceway not only feels looser than its brethren, but also more easily adaptable to the other two games in the system (Thunder Alley and Apocalypse Road). That’s because it offers two overlapping circuits—an oval and a road course—that can also connect to form a longer, combined course. Each option comes with its own prescription as to number of laps, depending on the game you’re playing.
If you’re sticking to Grand Prix, I recommend racing on the combined course; anything else doesn’t quite feel like a full meal.

Just about as loose as the previous entry (what with its 13 bottlenecks), Knight Kennedy Speedway promises one harrowing hairpin turn through which even Overtake cards cannot be played—ensuring that there’s absolutely no way to pass another car until the pack unspools in the straightaway that follows. It won’t affect your games all that much, but when it does, I guarantee you’ll remember it.

Circuit de Chevas might appear to offer a typical Grand Prix experience, but with 21 bottlenecks, it’s tighter than even the tightest of the original tracks (Circuito Dr. Tomas Gomez, with 16 bottlenecks). This configuration affords stragglers much fewer opportunities to catch up to the pack; on a track like this, there’s only so much a Clean Air card can accomplish.

The Leviathan is the king of tight circuits, with a whopping 25 bottlenecks. No special rules required: you’ll feel this one in your bones. Seriously, you have to play it to believe it. It can get a bit frustrating at times (make sure you play those neutral cars like there’s no tomorrow) but when you do manage to get ahead, it’s like watching the sun rise.

PIT STOP

As much fun as I’m having with the new tracks, I’m doing so playing Grand Prix. Sure, you can give the other two games a go on those same circuits, but your mileage may vary.

In the case of Thunder Alley, tightness becomes the main impediment. Original Grand Prix tracks were a bit more forgiving in this regard, but the new boards prevent any significant lateral maneuvering from taking place—which is a staple in TA. While constrained situations become fun puzzles to unravel using the conditional linking rule in GP, you can’t do that with TA. So unless you can whip out a leader movement card at just the right time, you’ll keep pushing the car(s) blocking your way, and sometimes right into the next bottleneck.

When it comes to Apocalypse Road, the fact that the game also uses conditional linking allows you to navigate the new tracks without too much trouble. But multiple bottlenecks mean much fewer targets within range, and that might take away from the intended experience.
More importantly, the new tracks lack a rough section and a jump section, which come into play on 1 in 5 Movement Event cards and are a big part of the AR fun. Also, no chute from where to launch new cars!

To be fair, in the entire system, no tracks outside of Apocalypse Road itself sport those very specific features, and rightly so. But I was hoping GMT would print small cardboard markers players could use to decide where such sections start and end on non-AR tracks.
Something like these homemade ones:

CHECKERED FLAG

We can finally run a respectable season of Grand Prix and never play the same track twice! Each new circuit gives off its own vibes, and they’re all a blast to zoom around.

And I’d be remiss not to mention how good the new boards look—especially The Leviathan, whose blue hues should stop many a passerby in their tracks.

  

# # #

Expansion review — Tank Duel: North Africa & Tank Pack #1

With any new, intended series of games, you’re never sure you’ll get past volume 1: it all depends on what the good folks out there think of your first offering. But it didn’t take long for GMT and designer Mike Bertucelli to realize that their fun tank battle opus Tank Duel had legs—or tracks, as it were. Now come two expansions released together, with the promise of several more to come.

NORTH AFRICA

Welcome to the place any tanker doesn’t want to be: the scorching heat of North Africa, where sand and sun conspire with the enemy to smother any and all of your belligerent intentions.

NEW TANKS

You want tanks? We got tanks.

North Africa ships with 16 double-sided tank boards that feature all-new machines, from the Italian M13/40 and Semovente, to the British Valentine and M3 Grant (armed with two guns!). Also thrown into the mix are the open-top German Marder II and the agile eight-wheeled armored car, the 8-rad. That’s a lot of cool, new vehicles to duke it out with.

Two minor gripes here.

1. The aforementioned Marder and Semovente tank boards are misprinted—the Move and Fire levels are not where they should be on the left hand track. Not a big deal and you can easily fix that yourself; one way is to print out the stickers GMT provide on their website.
2. The back printing here was done differently from the base game, with new tanks flipping left-right, whereas the old tanks flipped up-down. It’s possibly the ultimate nitpick, but I’m a consistency nerd. Plus it seems I’m always flipping tank boards the wrong way now, no matter what I decide to do.

NEW RULES

The new rules take up half of the North Africa rulebook, with entries covering new terrain card sets (more sand than you can lose a stick in), new weather conditions (dust everywhere, with sandstorms that’ll slow down tanks and stop infantry altogether), heat haze and fatigue (higher cover but lower morale), minefields (clear with a recon vehicle or enter at your own risk), night combat (bring your flares, or use the enemy’s muzzle flashes), multiple guns, small guns, and open-top vehicles.
GMT also overhauled the rules that pertain to anti-tank guns and infantry. Now anti-tank guns sometimes deploy hidden, can only fire at targets spotted by a friendly vehicle, and can use a Flank card to indicate they’re shooting into the side armor of their prey. In the case of infantry, the new rules create an actual battle between soldiers and metal monsters, whereas infantry acted more like a die roll modifier in the previous ruleset.
And yes, Robata rules have been been updated to take all of that new stuff in stride.

I quite enjoy the new rules, especially the weather conditions, which work well together to create a proper desert feeling for the new scenarios. The new battle cards also dovetail nicely into this—and I don’t mind switching them out as required—but in many cases, I found myself replacing a bunch of cards with exact duplicates, minus the desert theme (the name and illustration of the cover element) and the infantry symbols that represent the forces in action (so you’ll get British instead of Soviet, for instance). If you’re like me, you’ll play a bunch of North Africa scenarios in a row anyway, so you can leave those desert cards in there for the duration. But if you like to bounce back and forth between theaters, “cosmetic” card replacement might get a little annoying.

NEW SCENARIOS

North Africa offers 11 new battles (three more than the base game!), five of which are proper historical scenarios, plus one hypothetical, with a set Order of Battle—while the original box only featured two of those. The other five scenarios use a “create your own matchup” prompt.
The new fights offer a nice variety of situations and problems to solve, some with infantry involvement, others without, and are built to progressively introduce new game elements. Scenarios 1 and 2 include vehicle dust and heat/haze rules, scenario 4 throws minefiels into the mix, and so on.
Also, all of the new scenarios can be played with Robata. Solo wargamers rejoice!

There’s one element I mentioned in my review of the base game and I’ll stick to my guns here: the matchup thing doesn’t really work for me, mainly because it’s too loose and vague for my taste. In fact, North Africa seems to take a step back: whereas the base game gave us a table of suggested tank matchups, the expansion just recommends using vehicles “with similar armor or penetration values, or vehicles from similar years.” It does go further, suggesting players balance those matchups with different crew qualities, anti-tank guns and multiple tanks to one side; but without something like point values attached to those scenario-building elements, the enterprise feels too much like guesswork to me.
I want balanced scenarios that task me with digging myself out of a hole (or maintaining an apparently advantageous position), or else very clear guidelines to ensure we’re not just building a death trap for one of the players. In short, I’d really like a scenario generator, or at the very least a sturdy matchup generator—and the designer has hinted online at exactly that, coming with the next expansion (Normandy, right?). If I had that, I’d be delighted to roll the bones and go, “Alright, a pair of KV-85s!”

Some of the helpful new markers provided in North Africa

  

TANK PACK #1

I enjoy the two different expansion formats: one a full-fledged box full of stuff, the other a bunch of scenarios and tanks shipped in a ziplock bag.
Tank Pack #1 belongs to that second category.

NEW TANKS

Eight new double-sided tank boards await, featuring the Churchill, the KV-1 and the really fast Puma, to name but a few. Together with the base game and the North Africa expansion, that brings the total of tank boards to a whopping 40! They can all fit in one of the game boxes if you want, but you’ll stick nothing else in there. Also, watch out for back pains.

RULES & NEW SCENARIOS

The booklet included in this package only features a handful of the rules necessary to use the new tanks. Interestingly enough, they are numbered according to the actual rulebooks for ease of cross-reference. (So the rule for small guns, even though it’s the very first rule in this booklet, bears the number 5.4.)

The rest is all new battles! Six of them to be exact, all of which are historical and sport dedicated Orders of Battle. (Yay!) We’re having great fun fighting our way through them, although scenario 6—Knight’s Cross—seemed like a foregone conclusion as to the victor: barring a couple of lucky shots, we just didn’t see what the Soviets could do.

A warning about the new scenarios. The front of the booklet states that some of the scenarios require ownership of the North Africa expansion, whereas in fact five (out of six) of them do require the expansion. So if you’re getting just this Tank Pack and not North Africa, be aware that you’ll only be able to play one of the six scenarios contained herein.
(Sure, you can replace scenario-specific tanks with hardware you already have in your inventory, but that sort of defeats my above point about set Orders of Battle…)

PARTING SHOTS

If you enjoyed Tank Duel, you’ll love North Africa and Tank Pack #1. It’s more of the same action-packed goodness the original game had to offer, with a great new setting and plenty of new toys to keep the lead flying.

 

  

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