Disclaimer
A copy of Line of Fire: Burnt Moon was provided by Zatu Games for the purposes of this review. All views are my own.
Intro
I find there is a specific thrill in unboxing a massive, sprawling tactical board game, but finding both the energy and the group to set up and play even once is another matter entirely. Sometimes, what you really want is something much smaller in both scale and scope. Line of Fire: Burnt Moon aims to fill that niche, removing complex systems and (most) tokens, replacing these with cards and a few central tiles. I wanted to discover whether this seemingly simple card game successfully distils the tactical depth most often reserved for bigger games.
What's in the box?
The packaging is covered in attractive artwork and fairly compact, squeezing in two brightly coloured cardboard boxes each containing a faction deck, five 'site' tiles, fortification tokens, and a rulebook. The first thing that strikes you are the fantastic, stylised illustrations on the cards, depicting the various Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Personnel across the two factions: the corporate LFA (blue) and POSIWID hackers (pink). One thing to note is that, despite the small box, the game requires a surprisingly large amount of table space to play.
How the game works
Line of Fire: Burnt Moon is a two-player card game centred around unforgiving combat and tactical manoeuvring. Set on one of Jupiter’s moons, Io, players take command of rival factions battling over five sites on the planet surface. These are represented by in five ‘lanes’, made up of two rows of five location tiles. Each faction has more-or-less identical cards, featuring a mix of ROV and Personnel cards. ROVs are deployed on the surface of Io at one of the five locations, whereas Personnel cards are used to manipulate the battlefield or your deck. The objective of the game is simple: either capture control points totalling at least 8 in value or destroy all of your opponent's MOSS ROV cards.
To set up the game, each player forms a starting deck of nine specific cards, placing the remainder of their forces into twelve face-up supply piles. They are separated into by type e.g. MOSS ROV and squad i.e. A or B. Despite being otherwise identical, A and B cards are considered distinct and cannot be played in the same lane as each other. These supply cards are not included in your deck, unless you’ve used a particular ability on one of your cards to do so. Finally, after randomly determining initiative, players take turns deploying their units into one of the lanes.
1 The supply of ROVs, at a 'Dutch' angle
On each subsequent round, both players draw four cards. One card is chosen secretly and revealed simultaneously to bid for initiative based on the numeric value of the card. The winner goes first and can use play their remaining three cards. ROVs are deployed directly into the lanes, whereas Personnel cards avoid the battlefield; they stay in your deck and have various abilities you can activate when played on your turn. ROVs are the main draw here (pardon the pun). Some, like MOSS units, allow you to Control lanes. Others can construct fortifications, perform Recon actions, or act as enforcer units with high damage outputs.
To control lanes, you must have a majority in your lane (ROVs and fortifications contribute to majority) and then use a MOSS unit to Control it. Sounds simple, right? Not quite so. Rather than being able to activate abilities on your ROV cards outright, players must discard a matching card from their hand. However, at the beginning of the game, you might not have one of these in your deck. This is where your Personnel cards come into play; they allow you to do all manner of things including drawing more cards, stunning enemy ROVs, and recruiting stronger units from your supply. Adding more ROVs and Personnel cards to your deck is the only way you’ll succeed in your quest to dominate IO.
If you don’t have a majority, combat may be your only option. There are no dice in this game, so combat is entirely deterministic, relying on simple arithmetic with fixed attack and defence values. You hit the opposing ROV if your attack is equal to or exceeds the defence value. When hit, the defender must permanently remove a matching card from their hand. If there isn’t one available, they remove one from their discard pile, and if there aren’t any discarded ROVs, then they remove from their deck. If no matching cards remain, the deployed ROV unit is destroyed.
How it plays
As with any new game, there is absolutely no way our first try was going to last only 30 minutes as the box suggested. However, we found that the game was relatively easy to get going. While the start of the game was relatively quick, the tension quickly rose as we began to properly vie for the same control points.
The midpoint of a very tense game
Towards the end of the game, the board was clogged with ROVs and at least two of the five control points were hotly contested. I was convinced that my game was over as most of my MOSS A cards had been obliterated. However, the luck of the draw was on my side by the end of the game, as I was able to withdraw my MOSS B, redeploy, attack, and control the final control point in one fell swoop. An exhilarating feeling, certainly, and one that recalls the most satisfying experience in deck building; the cards aligning for that one amazing turn where everything clicks. However, the flip side of deck-building is also here: mistakes can be quite severely punished here, so you need to go into each turn with a clear plan. That, combined with being at the mercy of your card draw, make for a tense combination.
Final Thoughts
Line of Fire: Burnt Moon is an interesting deck builder that makes each turn feel a bit like a puzzle to be solved. You can see what your opponent is adding to their deck, you know their cards because they’re also yours, and mistakes are harshly punished. It’s a test of patience, careful planning, and adapting to those plans being obliterated. It’s also easy and relatively quick to set up so I imagine you can fit a few games into one session once you’re used to the rules. As both factions play the same, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of variety in playstyles to be found. I don’t know whether there are any expansions planned, but some variety would go a long way. I also don’t think this game is for everyone, and I certainly wouldn’t arrange a games night just to play this, but it has enough to it for repeat plays.
