Firefly Adventures - a Review

As promised, here is my review of the Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats board-game with 28mm scale miniatures produced by Gale Force Nine.

I'll start with a look at the contents of the game. At the left are the assorted counters used in the game. Made of thick card, I keep them stored in a small plastic container box.
The bottom of the box contains ten small boxes, which also double as buildings to use in the game. This is a great idea and even the big box can be used as a large building. The six game boards are stored under the ten small boxes. The large rectangular box at the top contains the Hero stat cards and a wad of paper money in various denominations that is used as rewards for Jobs completed, purchasing equipment and perhaps bribing opponents. In the four square boxes, I have placed the 5 Cowboys, 5 Thugs, 5 Casual Crew and 5 Heroic Crew. In the five small rectangular boxes at the right are from top to bottom, the 30 Tech Challenge cards, 30 Negotiation Challenge cards, 40 Equipment cards, 10 Goon stat cards and the 6 dice. The dice have a Firefly symbol in place of the 6. For each Firefly rolled, you may roll an additional bonus die and add it to your results. Each Firefly rolled adds 6 to the Test result. The opposite sides of the dice have a Disgruntled Icon instead of a 1. If you roll more Disgruntled faces than Heroic dice things have gone awry and you fail the Test. Disgruntled Faces never add to the dices' total.
To the right of the big box are the four Jobs sheets, which detail the missions, any special rules and what rewards apply.

In these next photos I have set everything up for the start of a mission. The six game boards are double-sided. Note that I have set them and the buildings up for an imaginary Job, just to show you all of the components. The smaller buildings are numbered from 1 to 10. Doors to the buildings may be locked or unlocked. If locked, they will require some form of a Challenge Test to unlock. The Goons will ignore the Heroes as long as the Crew act Casual. Once a Crew acts Heroically, any Goon who has line of sight to him or her will be Alerted and react accordingly. Thugs will Brawl if they can, otherwise they'll move to the Hero. Cowboys will Shoot if the Hero is within 6 squares of him, otherwise he will move closer. If a Cowboy is adjacent to a Hero, he will Brawl. If a Hero defeats a Goon, the Goon figure is replaced with a dead body counter. Dead bodies will also alert Goons if they are seen. However, the Heroes can move dead bodies to place them out of sight. Although it takes extra time to move a body, it is a useful tactic.

The Crew start with five items of Equipment, which are drawn randomly. Any Hero may hold up to four items of Equipment. If playing a campaign, Equipment may be carried over from Job to Job, thus improving your chances of success. Extra items of Equipment can sometimes be found during the course of a Job.

Crew have their Wounds listed on their Heroic side (between 3 and 5). Once wounded, a Character must act Heroic until they are fully healed. You can't casually bleed all over the place! When a Crew is reduced to 0 Health, that Character has been Downed. Place a Downed status card over their Heroic Actions. The Downed cards are shown in the bottom left of the above photo. Some Characters have the ability to heal Wounds. To heal a Wound, the healer must be standing next to the Wounded Character. A Wounded Character may be healed multiple times in a turn. Healing counts as Heroic if in sight of a Goon. A Downed Crew Member must be healed before they can take Actions other than waiting or healing themselves.

In this photo, I have set the Crew next to or on their M.U.L.E. transport vehicle. This being the start of the game, they are all acting Casual. On their turn, a Character may take two of the Actions listed on their Character card. This may be the same action both times. Actions listed on Equipment cards count towards a Character's two Actions on their turn. Goons always take two Actions. At the end of each Crew's turn, check to see if any Goons have been Alerted, either because they took Wounds or because they can now see a Heroic Crew.

Probably the most important component of the game is the Timeline Tracker, which runs around the edges of the board. It is used to track how much time the Crew has to complete a Job. Different Actions take different amounts of time. Each character on the map has their own Time Marker, which tracks how much time they have spent so far. As the Crew moves, shoots and attempts Challenges, they'll advance their Time Marker up the Timeline. I have placed the Time Markers for the Crew on the first five segments of the Timeline Tracker. Once their turn is over, the Character at the back of the Timeline takes their turn. So in this case, Wash will act first. Sometimes a Character's Time Marker will end up on top of another Character's. In this case, the marker which is on top is considered to be behind the markers below it.
Conclusion
I played this game for the first time on my birthday and I absolutely loved it. I chose a simple Job - Questionable Objectives - which I successfully completed. For almost the whole game, the Crew acted Casual. When they did act Heroic, I made sure that no Goons could see them, apart from in one instance, when a Thug had line of sight to Kaylee, who was acting Heroically. Before he could move, Zoe shot him dead. I'd have preferred to have played the game without killing any Goons but it was necessary to take out that particular Thug. The objective my crew had to find turned out to be a safe, which they had to move off the board. This they did easily since they'd moved all of the closest Goons out of sight of them, giving them a clear run off the board.
There is much to admire about this game. The figures are nicely sculpted, despite their facial details being a tad soft. The idea of having Casual and Heroic Crew is an excellent one. I like that the boxes for holding the components also double as the buildings. Sure, they don't have roofs, but that doesn't bother me. It's what's inside them that is more important. The Timeline Tracker adds a great deal of tension to the game.
I found the game very easy to play. Obviously, I had to frequently reference the rulebook, but that's only to be expected with any game you're playing for the first time. Best of all, I didn't make any mistakes, which pleased me greatly.
My only criticism of the game is that it only comes with four Jobs sheets. I'd have expected more. It does rather limit re-playability, although tactics that work once may not work a second time depending on dice rolls. However, extra Jobs can be downloaded from GF9games.com. If, like me, you buy the two Crew expansion sets, each set contains another three Jobs, which gives you 10 in total if you don't download any. This is much more acceptable. Plus, with extra Crew, you have far greater choice on who to take on your Jobs, giving even more options.
As a massive fan of the TV series and spin-off film, I was expecting great things from this game. It goes without saying that I was not disappointed. Highly recommended, especially if you're a Firefly/Serenity fan. If you do fancy buying it, Amazon UK have it for sale at £33.00. See here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/GaleForce-Nine-GF9FADV1-Firefly-Adventures/dp/1945625619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543235261&sr=8-1&keywords=firefly+adventures+brigands+%26+browncoats