Big Rig And The Final Five Thunder Road Review

I backed Thunder Road on Kickstarter at the maximum chrome level meaning that all the expansions came with the base game in the core set. Therefore I’ve included them in every play bar my first. That puts me in a good position to tell you which are essential and which are missable, why you should probably buy all three, but leave this one until last…Why not head over to my base review first if you haven’t already. Onto the Big Rig And The Final Five expansion!

First Things First

It is surprising that this is the least essential of the expansions as it sure looks the most exciting. It contains two new player colours with the red ‘Big Rig’ truck and the yellow ‘Final Five’ motorbikes. This allows you to play up to five players or even six if you are happy to ignore the publishers recommendation.

Both the Big Rig and the bikes play differently to the normal vehicles in the base game, and this is why it isn’t the first expansion you should pick up. As these two exciting ways of playing give you extra options that the base vehicles don’t get… unless you also purchase the Choppe Shoppe. The Choppe Shoppe gives the base game vehicles unique powers and command boards which make things feel a lot more even when using the Rig and Final Five!

I Like Trucking

The Big Rig is a powerful monster that is hard to stop. It ploughs through hazards that would eliminate other vehicles and cannot be moved by other game effects – if you slam it you are the one who is moving son.

It also is unique in that it gets to move three times a round compared to every other vehicles one move per round. There are a couple of caveats here though. Firstly the Rigs dice only go from 1-3 and secondly your first dice is always assigned to how many times you can turn the rig that round. Although you can ram through everything you will take damage if you do so, so having enough steering is vital.

As it doesn’t have a command module dice you place will always activate a power for the rig too. And these are good. From firing a shed full of missiles to battering other cars out of the way they are all fun to use. The Rig can also shoot from both its front and rear arcs, which is handy as it is a lot easier to hit than other vehicles.

The three sections of the Rig move snake like through the terrain and can be targeted individually. Damage works a little differently here with a minor damage covering up the special power of that dice placement, limiting what the Rig can achieve on future turns. The Rig can only be eliminated by getting 6 damage on it or making it fall off the back of the track – easier said than done.

Biker Grove

The Final Five are the polar opposite of the big rig, many and small, they have the potential to zip around the track avoiding slams. As long as they manage to stay on the bikes that is. You get six dice, one for each of the bikes and one for the command module. On each of your three turns you will use two dice. Five of these on bike movement and one on the command module.

Bikes can zip between vehicles not causing slams when they move into spaces – only if they end their turn in a space with another vehicle. If this does happen the bikes are always the ones to move from the resulting slam. Biking in Thunder Road is perilous.

Bikes can coast more than standard vehicles too, with each bike being allowed four coast dice applied. Of course this means you are down to your last bike so hightailing it is preferable. Their command module is standard and they only take minor damage like the big rig, but each bike can only take one damage before becoming inoperable.

Rigged?

The Big Rig and Final Five add a lot of fun to Thunder Road. But the Big Rig is by far the favourite in my experience. It is easier to play and more fun. The bikes are much harder to play and I have never seen them win. In fact in crowded areas a slam often pings them to their doom. They are also harder to move due to each bike only moving once per round, whereas the Rig gets a massive three moves, albeit with a smaller dice range.

The Big Rig is the one that people want to play and an obvious target in games. I reckon it’s won 50% of the games it’s been in. It can really motor down the track and if other players don’t work to keep it’s damage high that can cause real problems.

The bikes on the other hand seem easy pickings. You know if you slam them they are going to move so why not? This feels slightly unfair as the big rig can shoot front and back and moves everything else in a slam. It is a shame that bikes can’t shoot all around them to give them some level of threat and make other players a little weary of getting too close to them.

The biggest problem with the expansion, though, is it makes the base vehicles seem rather vanilla in comparison. This makes the Choppe Shoppe expansion much more desirable as it contains upgrades and excitement for those vehicles and makes taking on the Big Rig much more appealing. However this does leave the bikes as the clear loser in terms of the most exciting vehicles. I am going to try a few house rules like the shooting one about (it’s thematic after all) and maybe making them harder to slam off turn, to try and balance this out but it’s always disappointing when this isn’t done out of the box.

Final Five Thoughts

Ultimately, Big Rig and the Final Five is a great expansion, that perhaps should have been boxed with the Choppe Shoppe. If you can only afford one I would absolutely recommend Choppe Shoppe and the Carnage at Devil’s Run before this. But ultimate all the expansions add a good amount of fun and gameplay and really you should buy them all.