A few months ago, Brian Train asked me if we would be willing to play and give a few thoughts on the game play for Nights of Fire: Battle for Budapest from Mighty Boards, which is the follow-up effort to 2016’s breakout hit Days of Ire: Budapest 1956 from Cloud Island. Days was a game about the outset of the Hungarian revolution and its efforts to take back control of Budapest and totally eliminate Soviet influence. Nights is a follow-up to the revolutionaries success in part one, and this game starts as the Red Army arrives a few days later at the edge of the capital and pushes into the heart of the city; bent on retribution, destruction, and ruthless pursuit of control. For the players in charge of the Hungarian defense there is no time left for organizing and sedition. This is a hopeless war of survival, plain and simple.
The only hope that the resistance has is to fight hard enough, do enough damage to the 
mighty Soviet tanks, that it might fan the flames of rebellion and lower the prestige of the Soviets in the eyes of the world. This game has a competitive mode as well as a cooperative mode and is a card driven game that is focused on the various choices that the resistance has to relocate civilians before they can be arrested, ambush and disable Soviet mechanized troops, remove garrisoned units from various sectors and build up defenses, such as the mighty sandbag barricades, to aid their efforts in slowing the Soviet advance. This game is not one in which there will be a happy ending for the resistance. It is setup to cast them as martyrs to incite continued resistance and comes down to the very end each game.
The Kickstarter campaign for Nights of Fire is scheduled to start today, February 21st. You can visit the Kickstarter page at the following link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mightyboards/nights-of-fire-a-sequel-to-days-of-ire
-Grant
Kickstarter link missing 🙂
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It will publish at noon today and will be added at that point. Thanks for checking it out.
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Just announced!
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For the subject chosen it looks very good. Good art and especially well thought through asymmetrical mechanics.
A few question:
– You mentioned that when you played the game you win by, what I understand, crushing victory despite defeat. Since it was your first play, is your impression that such a result is very likely if all focus is set on helping citizens escape? Do you think the outcome, such a big (?) win, is just as likely if playing in competitive mode?
– If you have tested to play the Soviet side: do both side give an equally rich game experience?
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There’s a lot going on in this game, and your first two or three games might be outliers as you come to grips with how the different operations and methods used by each side interfere with each other.
Like all games, it’s an evolving set of choices. Doing your best to help civilians flee is an early priority, as is arresting them as soon as possible – the Insurgent has an advantage here in that they always know the value of a Civilian marker but the Soviet does not find this out until the end of the game.
Anyway, the civilian issue is usually decided for one side or the other by the time the first day is over (i.e. 3rd turn), and the mid-game begins.
I would say the Soviet side is quite challenging to play well, you have to choose your cards carefully at the beginning of the turn and to get optimum use out of them you have to make some hard choices.
I’ve played this game a lot (obviously) and would take either side gladly.
So, have you placed your order yet?
The latest stretch goal, at $45,000, is that you get to read my designer’s notes!
B~)
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Maybe… I would like to… 🙂
Family and already booked and supported games sets some boundaries of how much I will spend on myself.
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