Boardgame Bulletin 24-3 ~ Bringing on the HEAT: Pedal to the Metal (Days of Wonder, 2022)

It looks like my boardgaming January was all shook up with Shake That City (AEG, 2023). In February, however, Punxsutawney Phil may just be onto something about an early spring thanks to the arrival of HEAT: Pedal to the Metal (Days of Wonder, 2022) at the RockyMountainNavy boardgaming raceway. HEAT is not the first racing boardgame to adorn the RockyMountainNavy boardgame raceway. Over the years racing games such as Formula D (Eurogames, 1997) or Pitchcar (Ferti, 2003) or Supercharged (The Dietz Foundation, 2021) have all zoomed around the gaming table.

Fair trade

In 2022 I recognized the hype around HEAT but, at the time, the game proved hard to acquire locally. Since then I was interested in the game but never quite ready to pull the trigger on a purchase. Influencing my purchasing decision, since 2022 the RockyMountainNavy Boys have become real Formula 1 racing fans so when a very good excellent condition copy of HEAT recently showed up on a local BGG Flea Market at an equally excellent price I jumped at it.

Green flag

This weekend I got HEAT to the gaming table for a qualification race. Due to race scheduling conflicts, the youngest driver for RMN Racing was away for training and not able to participate. This first qualification race instead say RMN Sr., RMN T, and two Legends [automated drivers] taking laps around the USA circuit.

Hands on the wheel

The (game) engine behind HEAT is a hand management, push your luck drivetrain. Starting with a deck of 18 cards, players change gears to see how many cards they can play during a turn for movement. The catch is that certain actions will cost you Heat; cards that clog up your deck as they can only be discarded if in a lower gear (less cards—movement—played in a turn) or in last place. Other actions or events cause Stress which can also be played for movement but in less predictable ways. You can exceed the corner speed by paying Heat. You can get more speed out of your engine by playing Heat. Some actions give you a Cooldown which removes Heat. The problem is that Heat is finite; if you exceed the corner speed by more Heat than you have in your engine you spin out. If you have too much Heat in your hand you will have to dump it as if you spin out. The key to winning the race is managing your (hand of) Heat.

Drivers ed

We found HEAT surprisingly easy to learn. After a simple set up each turn is nine steps of which five are mandatory.

1. Shift Gears (Mandatory). But watch the Heat!
2. Play Cards (Mandatory). Put the pedal to the metal!
3. Reveal & Move (Mandatory). Did you plan ahead right?
4. Adrenaline (Situational). Sometimes being in last place is a great motivator.
5. React (Situational). Maybe you see the need for a Boost to get some extra speed or you need to dump some Heat from your hand using Cooldown.
6. Slipstream (Situational). Pass that fool!
7. Check Corner (Situational). Your driving writing checks your Heat can’t cash? Spin out!
8. Discard (Situational). Pit boss giving you advice…will you take it?
9. Replenish Hand (Mandatory).

Drive it like you stole it

Like Ford versus Ferrari, so too do Ameritrash and Eurogamers compete. HEAT is perhaps the modern Red Bull of boardgame racers bringing the best of both worlds together. The game is highly thematic but played using a set of very modern game mechanisms. Above all else HEAT is fun! It is easy to learn, easy to teach, looks good on the gaming table, and doesn’t run past it’s time slot.

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Feature image courtesy RMN

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