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Ever since opening Heat: Pedal to the Metal I was excited for an expansion. It was so obviously inevitable, there’s two extra spaces in the box for cars and gear sticks! How could they not release expansions, right? After playing my first game, even possibly during my first game, I had decided that yes, this was definitively one of my favourite games. Seamlessly combining mechanics and theme in a way I’d never experienced in a board game. It’s fun, exciting, competitive and intense, and that’s just using the basic rules, when you add in the whether conditions, garage module, legends module and the championship mode on top; all of that dramatically increases. There’s literally so much in this box that they could have released all the extras as expansions and gamers would still have lapped it up. Pun intended.
But I didn’t have to wait long before Days of Wonder released news of an expansion and I jumped at the opportunity to pre-order my copy (thanks Zatu). The highly anticipated Heat: Heavy Rain expansion flooded the markets and pretty much sold out in every reputable online store worth mentioning. But is it good? Should you buy it? Is it worth it? Let’s dive into the box and see what you’re getting.
What’s in the box?
You’re getting a new double-sided map with Japan on one side and Mexico on the other. An orange racing car, gear stick, player mat and cards adding a seventh player to Heat. Additional heat and stress cards to accommodate that player. Some new advanced garage module cards and new sponsorship cards for the championship mode that both feature the new card ability Super Cool which I’ll explain later in this review. There’s also new 1964 championship cards and track cards.
First of all, an orange racing car? Yes please! Maybe it’s just me but orange and red are always my goto colours when selecting a player in board games. I’m probably a little bit too excited just for this alone.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Japan track is that there are large sections of it flooded with water which inevitably will cause a bit of havoc whilst racing. However the Mexico track has no water flooding the track and the only common aspect is the addition of chicanes will take a little bit of skill and careful hand management to navigate efficiently. The other major thing I’d like to point out is that there are now 12 starting places and 12 podium places on the board which raises the question; will future expansions bring Heat up to a 12 player game?
Additional heat and stress cards are welcome additions, the Japan track actually has players starting with 7 heat instead of the usual 6, although in all the games I’ve played we never ran out of heat cards even with 6 players and no-one ever spun out enough to make us run out of stress cards either. Very thoughtful though.
“You can now remove heat straight from your discard pile instead of your hand!”
The new advanced garage module cards and sponsorship cards are extremely welcome additions to this expansion. If you don’t use the garage module, you will after shuffling in these new cards, the Super Cool card ability is incredibly powerful and used with impeccable timing at the pivotal moment can be monumental in helping you secure first place. The ability allows you look through your discard pile and put heat back into your engine. And no, you didn’t read that incorrectly – you can now remove heat straight from your discard pile instead of your hand Super Cool combined with the other card abilities make this a very interesting ride. Adding this extra flavour into the sponsorship cards makes it all the more worth risking it all to get your hands on those lucrative deals and helps makes championships that little bit more exciting.
New track cards are a great addition, if like me you enjoy picking tracks at random or creating your own championships these will slide into your collection with ease. The new 1964 championship is great, personally I haven’t played through this yet, but the first thing that jumps out to me is that it starts and ends with Japan. I get it, it’s the heavy rain expansion, so why not? I’d have like to have seen Great Britain in there since the chicanes rule can be used on that track also but I’ll probably just make my own tournament up at some point if it ends up bothering me.
“It really gives you something to think about and adds an extra little spice…”
So what about the rules?
Flooded spaces on the Japan track will cost you 1 extra heat when shifting down in gear, so 1 if you shift down one gear but 2 if you shift down two gears! You’ll also notice that flooded spaces are primarily located before corners so approaching at speed could be extremely risky. And it is, it’s very risky, multiple times have I approached a flooded corner in third or fourth gear only to be forced to spend heat to shift down gears so that I wouldn’t spin out on my next turn when trying to pass the corner. It really gives you something to think about and adds an extra little spice to the already fruitfully delicious hand management aspect. Mastering flooded spaces will give experienced players a lot to think about.
Chicanes are an exciting little feature that, when navigated with the fearlessness of a real racing driver, will have you speeding past your opponents before they even realise what mistake they’ve made. If you use the weather module there’s a bit of consideration for sector symbols, otherwise they’re just treated like normal corners.
The aggressive Legends rule allows them to pass 2 corners in one turn where normally they would only be allowed to pass 1. This makes the AI players a bit more sneaky and definitely gives them the advantage when passing chicanes. Some of the spaces before a chicane have a chevron marked above the yellow diamond indicating that if the Legend starts on those spaces they can clear both corners in one turn. It doesn’t sound like much but definitely gives you a lot to consider. I always use the Legends to bolster the player count whenever I play so this makes it really interesting especially in a 2 player game.
Summing it up – expectations vs reality
Originally my group had expected any expansion to consist of two new cars to take this epic racing game up to an impressive 8 players. Something you could just slot into the base game box because there’s already space there for 2 extra cars and cards. That would have been ideal.
“overall this is a very good expansion, the addition of a seventh player is great and the new tracks are thoroughly enjoyable to play”
Instead we’re being drip fed one player at a time, which is fine I really don’t mind that, because I love this game so much that’ll I’ll probably order the next expansion anyway.
I do however have a few issues with the expansion as a whole.
For example; it’s call Heat: Heavy Rain, but only one of the two tracks feature rain, a better name would have been Heat: Chicane Chaos or something to that effect, because both tracks feature chicanes and the flooded parts of the Japan track would just have been a glorious extra challenge. The name also suggests that weather will be heavily featured and there are no additional weather tokens or weather condition tokens to be included here, a few extra of these tokens with new symbols for rain would have gone a long way into making this an excellent expansion.
The chicanes are a good addition, and the risk of paying a lot of heat can be quite challenging and often forces players to take risks that can be extremely punishing or rewarding. There could have been a little more effort put into this, the players could have made use of the chevrons that the aggressive Legends use or maybe a gear limit as well as a speed limit increasing the heat costs and danger taking chevrons to exciting new levels. But essentially it is just 2 corners that are very close together. Completely omitting this from the rule book would not have made a difference because players would have just figured out how to navigate them very easily.
With all the new cards some of the spaces in the base game box are getting a little crowded to the point where some sleeved cards may get damaged if you’re not careful. If you don’t sleeve your cards it won’t be a problem. And if you’re not too bothered with lid lift you could put the new track board in there too. While the base game box has a fantastic organizer which was well thought out to the point where expansions could clearly be added to it, it does annoy me a little that all of the expansion does not fit inside.
There’s a few negatives there but overall this is a very good expansion, the addition of a seventh player is great and the new tracks are thoroughly enjoyable to play, maybe Japan more-so simply because of the extra challenges the flooded areas bring to the table combined with the chicanes. The new upgrade cards for the garage module and the sponsorship cards are welcome additions also, and the Super Cool ability will keep veterans and novices alike entertained for a long time.
Racing to the finish line
So should you buy this expansion? If you want the extra player and the new tracks, yes what are you waiting for?
Is it worth it? That depends on what value the extras of this expansion would give you and what they add to the experience of playing in your gamer circle. Personally, it was worth it for me, but there are still some things I would like to seen included that would have made this purchase a no-brainer for everyone.
