A few years ago, Days of Wonder sent me an early copy of HEAT: Pedal to the Metal. While racing games were not one of my top themes for board games, after reading the rules and playing it for the first time, I was impressed. The more I played it, the more I liked it. As I have played this game with others, they also enjoy it. In fact, HEAT: Pedal to the Metal was GeekDad’s Game of the Year for 2023! Since it release, there have been two expansions: Heavy Rain and Tunnel Vision, each of which added two new race courses as well as new features. Now a third expansion is out: HEAT: Rocky Roads which adds even more to an already great game.
What Is HEAT: Rocky Roads?
HEAT: Rocky Roads is an expansion for HEAT: Pedal to the Metal tabletop game for 1-8 players, ages 10 and up, and takes about 60minutes to play. This expansion adds not only two new race courses, South Africa and Deutschland, but also some new road conditions and other features. It’s currently available from your local game store as well as online retailers such as Amazon with a recommended price of $38 for a copy of the game. HEAT: Rocky Roads was designed by Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen, published by Days of Wonder, with illustrations by Vincent Dutrait.
HEAT: Rocky Roads Components
Here is what you get in the box:
- 1 double-sided game board with 2 tracks
- 2 track cards
- 1 race car and matching gear pawn
- 1 player mat
- 12 basic cards
- 15 heat cards
- 5 stress cards
- 15 upgrade cards
- 7 sponsorship cards
- 4 event cards
- 1 scorepad
- 1 rules booklet
The two-sided game board features a different track on each side. The South Africa track features gravel, a new type of challenge for drivers. At the end of the turn, all drivers whose car is on a gravel space must pay one heat from your engine. If they have no heat available, there is no affect. Since this track has two speed 2 corners and one speed 3 corner, you want to avoid losing heat unnecessarily. This is a two lap course so there is not a lot of room for errors.
The Deutschland track is in Germany and races here are also two laps. There are three long straightaways where you can really pour on the speed. They are 11, 12, and 20 spaces long respectively. However, there are two speed 4 corners only six spaces apart as well as another new feature: chicanes. These are two corners are speed 2 and only one space apart! That means if you blow past them at a speed higher than 2, you have to pay two heat for each speed above 2. What makes this even more challenging is that the chicanes are located in the middle of the 11 and 12 straightaways. When playing against the AI Legends, they can be aggressive going through the chicanes and if they start within three spaces of the first curve of the chicanes, they can drive through both curves in a single round.
While the base game comes with six cars for six players, HEAT: Rocky Roads adds another car. This white car also comes with a matching white gearshift pawn as well a a player mat for the white driver. Now you can play with seven players. If you have at least one of the other expansions, you can now play with the maximum of eight players.
Since you are adding the new white car, the expansion also includes the basic cards for the white driver as well as some more stress and heat cards to allow for races with more than six players.
HEAT: Rocky Roads comes with 15 upgrade cards and 7 sponsor cards which all add sliding skirts to the cars. Many of these have two different speeds which you can choose as you play them. All of these have the extra slipstream symbol. This allows you slipstream an extra time if they end in another slipstream position. If you have two cards with the extra slipstream, you can actually slipstream a third time as well. Since slipstreaming does not count towards your final speed when checking for corners, these extra slipstreams are great for getting past corners that are close together as well as chicanes.
There are also two race cards, one for each track, for when you are randomly selecting which tracks to race. In addition, there are four event cards for the 1966 season which include races not only in South Africa and Germany, but also France and Italy.
Finally, the expansion includes an additional scorepad you can use for the 1966 season as well as other races. The rulebook contains all the information on the new features in HEAT: Rocky Roads.
Why You Should Play HEAT: Rocky Roads
I am a huge fan of HEAT: Pedal to the Metal and was excited to try HEAT: Rocky Roads. I already owned both of the other two expansions and they also included both chicanes as well as aggressive legends. Gravel is a new challenge that really adds to the game and requires players to focus on managing their heat. While it may not seem like much to pay a heat, if you are a driver that pushes their car to the max this can affect your strategy. For example, you have to think ahead to which spaces are in front of you as well as considering if using slipstream will be worth it if you end up on gravel. When playing with lots of cars, those corners can get tight and not leave very many spaces without gravel. Plus by taking those clear spots, you can force your opponents into the gravel.
The chicanes on the Germany track also require some careful strategies. Since they come in the middle of a long straightaway where drivers will want to get as much speed as possible, you have to downshift from fourth gear down to second before blowing through those 2-speed corners that are only one space apart. If you can end your turn with your car right next to the first corner of the chicane, You could play 2 speed worth of cards to get through with no heat, or pay two or four heat if you pass by them at speed 3 or 4 respectively. The aggressive legends can blow right through the chicanes and challenge you to do the same if you want to stay in the race with them.
The fact that the expansion adds another car and another player really adds to the game. Before any of the expansions, six was the maximum number of players. However, each expansion adds a new car so you can play with up to eight players now. Having 7 or 8 cars on the track at one time is a lot of fun. I have really enjoyed playing with 8 players. However, if I don’t have eight players, I almost always add the AI legends to drive the other cars. Even when I play solo against the legends, I like at least 4-5 legends on the track with me. The more cars on the track, not only is it more challenging, but there are more opportunities to slipstream. With the new upgrades that allow you to slipstream a second time, you need more cars on the track to take advantage of that.
Finally, the addition of two new tracks offers more chances to replay the game with different experiences and challenges. The new race seasons includes not only the South Africa and German tracks, but also brings in two of the original tracks which are fun to revisit. Every time I have played HEAT: Pedal to the Metal, I have enjoyed the experience. Whether I play solo, with a small number of players or a full eight for a race, I have fun whether I win or lose while pushing my car to its limit and hoping it can take the heat. If you have a copy of the original game, then I highly recommend you add Heat: Rocky Roads to your collection.
For more information, visit the HEAT: Rocky Roads page!
Click here to see all our tabletop game reviews.
To subscribe to GeekDad’s tabletop gaming coverage, please copy this link and add it to your RSS reader.
Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
