Biathlon Blast: Rapid Review
Information:
Player Age: 14+
Game Designer: Lars Max Jensen, Carl Tenland
Rundown:
Sports are slowly becoming a more prominent theme in boardgames. Biathlon Blast uses an interesting winter sport that has contestants both skiing and rifle shooting in a race testing endurance and precision. In terms of the tabletop, this means that players are racing over the course of three laps while monitoring their pulse, timing the wind, planning the right movement and shooting at the target range. This is all with the goal to be the first player across the finish line. How players do this is achieved through card placement each round.
Each round every player will select one card from their hand to play. Before selecting a card, a bullet may be spent to re-draw the players discard pile, otherwise the discard pile will be re-drawn when there are no cards in the hand. Every player will then show their card and the player order will be determined by the initiative in red at the top left of the card. The higher the initiative the earlier in a turn the player will activate.
On a player's turn they will select the top or bottom action of the card. This will allow the player to move, then increase or decrease pulse based on the value on the card. If there is a wind symbol, the player can move the wind to any direction or to a standstill to affect the pulse of either other players or their own journey. The movement is aided by colour coordination; black (uphill), yellow (flat ground) and green (downhill). Going from green to black movement can be counted for its earlier colour, green movement being the easiest movement. A movement is spent when a player moves into a location. As players undergo movement they can pass through opponents but must stop in their own sectioned location (some locations include two spaces).
Once the last player has activated, the round will reset until a player has completed three laps, stopping at the shooting range twice and finally passing the finish line first.
When a player reaches the shooting range they must end their movement here. In the next turn the player will play their card like normal for the initiative, however, the remainder of the card won't matter. The player will then either wait to reduce the pulse and change the wind, or shoot, which is rolling the dice and seeing how many hits occur.
The hits will then translate into movement and the card played will be removed from the game. Each board has slightly different results on the hit and wait ability. To determine which die is a hit players will look at their targeting token in the middle of their player board to check which accuracy has the pulse underneath. Any dice result that equals or exceeds this value will result in a hit.
Alteration:
This game is filled with easy to use alterations. Firstly, the board is double sided with different race tracks that contain; different coaches (bonus locations), different shooting ranges and, of course, different movement combinations.
There is also an asymmetrical combination system in play when it comes to selecting a character. There are six unique player boards with a different configuration of starting bullets, as well as a bonus token that can be used as movement or to reduce pulse based on the colour. For example, a blue token reduces the player's pulse if they choose to spend it, whereas a yellow token can be used as a yellow or green movement. With the player board there is a player colour attached which will be used to determine tie breakers throughout the whole game.
Paired with the player board colour is the athlete/country. The athlete/country will have its own tuck box that includes an accuracy tile and a deck of a mix of the same cards as some players (shown with a black border on the athlete icon) or unique cards to create asymmetry between players.
One of the best, and most unique, design choices for this game are the country flags. The different colours represent what an athlete is good at. If the flag is yellow and blue, the athlete is good at managing their pulse and yellow movement.
Pulse:
A steady pulse leads to a steady shot, therefore the higher the pulse the worse the accuracy in the shooting range will be. A controlled pulse is hence a key area of management throughout the game. Nearly every card played will increase or decrease the pulse in some capacity. If a player exceeds a pulse of 10 during the game they will instantly be eliminated.
During the game the wind will create a pulse challenge to overcome. In the pulse phase, if the wind is directed towards an unblocked player’s back they will reduce their pulse by -1. If a player is directly behind another player, this will also reduce their pulse by -1. Lastly, if the wind is directed towards an unblocked player's front, there is turbulence for skiing and the player's pulse will increase by +1. When moving the wind it is pivotal to move it in directions that will either assist the active player or disturb the opposition.
Intricacies:
Cards:
There are two elements of the cards that still need to be explained. Firstly, if the action the player takes has a snowy background they will discard this card after use. If the background is icey the card will be destroyed (removed from the game). This creates an interesting tension to the hand management of the game. Players have to decide when it is relevant to use these stronger and often crucial cards. A smaller hand also allows the player to redraw their hands faster instead of spending bullets.
Some values on the cards will be represented by either a single dice of colour or two dice of colour. The value of this action will either equal the dice of the colour rolled, or double that value. These dice are only rolled when shooting occurs, creating essential timing on when to play these cards.
Lastly, players will add to their hand from one of the two face-up neutral cards in the display or from the top of the deck. This occurs when the player passes the start line. This will happen a total of three times during the game once at the start of the game.
Coaches:
There are several coaches scattered throughout the map. If a player starts/ends their turn on this location they will either gain the extra movement at the start of the turn, or gain the pulse reduction/wind movement after their movement.
Shooting:
When starting a turn in the shooting range the player will still play a card as normal and determine their initiative. Besides this, the card will not be used for any of the remaining text. Instead, the player will choose the hit or wait action. The wait action will reduce the players pulse so they can gain a better shot. The hit action will roll all of the dice. The player will then determine how many successful hits they have by the value being equal to or lower than that of the accuracy where their pulse is. The player now immediately gains black movement (counts as any movement) equal to the hit value multiplied by 2. The dice will remain at these values until another player hits again. The wind will affect the shooter. If there is a crosswind (the wind is coming from the left or right of the shooter) they will lose a hit. The player may also spend bullets to gain one hit per bullet spent.
Determination:
- Important hand management aspect for the deck destruction.
- The game at its core is a race with players managing these elements to be the fastest overall.
- Each card has two actions that are selected when the player resolves their turn.
- Nice level of asymmetry keeping it from being too complex and having a large level of variability.
- Unique theme.
- Can be a bigger teach than expected.
As someone that isn't the target audience for sport games, I have easily been swayed over by this uniquely themed game, Biathlon Blast. At its base level the game is a race, with an interesting pulse management (exceed 10 pulse and you’re eliminated) and wind manipulation system (way to increase/decrease pulse on top of the cards that are played). However, there are many more great elements to the game. Firstly, there is a light but interesting asymmetrical nature with different player boards and their token bonuses for the game. Especially when considering it is mixed with an athlete with a unique mix of strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own accuracy values that count when shooting. Players also have to be careful with their hand management as each card will have two options for effects. These options will either enter the discard pile after being resolved or be permanently removed from the game. Biathlon Blast is a uniquely themed game that has captured its source material perfectly. The race is the focal point, however, there are a lot of smart choices during the race that players can sink their teeth into. I am easily awarding this game a Silver Seal of Approval
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