Smoke fills the sky and flames climb to the tops of towering trees. The thundering roar of the fire is interrupted with shouts from firefighters as they try to outflank the inferno. Suddenly, the wind shifts and the fire changes direction. New trees catch alight, and the blaze increases!

This is the setting for Fireside’s newest cooperative game Hotshots, in which 1 to 4 players take on the role of crewmembers of an elite wildland firefighting team battling a raging forest fire. Players must put out the fire before eight tiles are scorched or the Fire Camp tile scorches.

At the heart of Hotshots is a press-your-luck dice mechanic. Players try to roll matching symbols to beat the fire, but failure causes the fire to grow. The board is made up of 19 different hexagonal Terrain tiles that are randomly arranged to create the forest. Each Terrain tile has a unique combination of six symbols on it that must be rolled on the Firefighting dice to beat back the fire. Each tile also has a scorch limit that indicates how many flames will cause that tile to scorch and be lost from the game. Many tiles also have special effects, some of which are active as long as the tile is in play and help the players, while others have effects that only trigger when a tile is scorched and makes the battle harder.

The game begins with six tiles burning, indicated by placing the plastic flame tokens on the starting tiles. Each player chooses one of four characters (Crew Boss, Spotter, Swamper, and Sawyer), each with unique abilities, and places that firefighter token on the Fire Camp.

On their turn, players move their firefighter to a burning tile, and then roll all six Firefighting dice and try to fight the fire by matching the combination of symbols shown on the burning tile. If a player matches at least one die to the combination shown on the tile, they can press their luck and keep rolling, or decide to stop and keep their results. The more symbols that are matched, the better the rewards. But, if a roll results in no matching symbols, that player fails to contain the fire and an additional flame token is added.

Matching three dice allows the player to put down a Firebreak token, preventing the fire from spreading in the blocked direction. Matching four dice removes one flame from the tile, while Matching five dice removes two flames and lets the player take a Reward token from a facedown pile. Reward tokens can be spent on later turns to help the players. Matching all six dice grants the most rewards by removing three flame tokens and giving the player both a Reward token and a Firebreak token. For every other firefighter on the same tile, a player gains one Support. Support allows a player to avoid the penalty for failing to match at least one symbol on a roll of the dice.

After fighting the fire, the current player draws a Fire card, which controls how the fire grows and spreads. Burning fires will become more intense by adding additional Flame tokens. Fires will spread to other tiles through Embers or by the wind blowing. When the wind blows, it spreads new fires from existing ones in the direction indicated by the Wind marker on the Fire Camp tile. The wind will change direction, so players will need to plan for the unexpected, use the terrain to their advantage, and cooperate in order to beat back the flames.

Any time the number of Flame tokens equals or exceeds the Scorch limit shown, that tile Scorches and is flipped over to reveal a charred landscape, then spreads additional fire to adjacent tiles. If eight tiles become scorched, or if the Fire Camp tile is ever scorched, the game ends and the players lose. When a player moves to the Air Attack Base tile, they can bring Vehicle tokens into play. The Air Tanker, Helicopter, and Brush Rig will remove Flame tokens and build chains of Firebreaks anywhere on the board, but each vehicle can only be used once, so timing is crucial.

The modular tiles and unpredictable fire behavior means that every game of Hotshots will be different, which provides a lot of replayability. The rulebook even includes alternate tile setups based on National Parks, as well as rules for solitaire play, and more. This highly thematic game plays in about an hour and will hit stores May 31. If you think you’re up for the challenge, gather your friends and see if you can beat the heat!

Justin De Witt is the Chief Creative Officer and co-owner of Fireside Games with his wife and CEO, Anne-Marie De Witt. His previous designs include Castle Panic, The Wizard's Tower, Star Trek Panic, and Dastardly Dirigibles.