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On face value the other expansions for Thunder Road: Vendetta seem more exciting. Extra vehicles and player powers are awesome. But Carnage at Devil’s Run has a few tricks up it’s sleeve, including ramps, fire and ongoing damage!
Burn Baby Burn!
Devil’s Run comes with 5 more road boards, extra hazard tiles, fire and a fire die, more damage tokens and ongoing damage cards. Fire is a fun new mechanism where your cars can be set on fire. The Big Rig and Final Five react a little differently here, the Rig will take damage but not be set on fire, whereas the bikes can be set on fire in some circumstances.
Being set on fire is not necessarily a bad thing though, as from now on before you move you roll the fire die! The fire die might kill you, but it might make you go faster or simply go out. The odds are 1 in 6 so it’s no bad thing to be on fire… until it is.
Lift Off
New terrain on the boards and hazard tiles provide lots of opportunities for antics too. Ramps are a personal favourite as they allow you to jump up to four spaces (depending on the roll of the stunt die). They can only be entered from the space directly behind too, and are otherwise treated as impassable terrain. Ramps have been make or breaks in a few games I’ve played to much amusement.
Toxic goo stops vehicles dead whereas desert glass is the opposite – keep on going! Hazard wise the new sand worm and quake effects can be game changers. The quake particularly as it moves all vehicles in the direction rolled on the direction die! In one memorably game this pushed most of the vehicles to their doom and put the final damage on the Big Rig!
The new boards are simply added to the base game roads and create a great amount of variety. These boards feature all the new terrain types and are all a lot of fun.
Minor Ding
The new damage tokens do one of two things – either set you on fire or apply ongoing damage. Ongoing damage is a pain. If you draw ongoing damage you have to draw a card and apply its effects until you repair. You do not want ongoing damage, although it is very funny when someone else gets one.
In terms of the expansions, Carnage at Devil’s Run is my second favourite, although it is very close. This and the Choppe Shoppe offer more fun for all the players not just those controlling the special vehicles. They also make the other expansions better. Which is probably about as essential as you can get.