BOOM Patrol has you programming tanks in an arena.

Can you gain enough medals to win?

Hello and welcome to the BOOMburg Battle Arena where the most celebrated tank crews have assembled for an all-out battle for gold & glory. So get ready to crush buildings, grab those power-ups and make things go BOOM!

BOOM Patrol Game Overview

Comprehensive Rules Video

How do you win?

Have the most medals at the end of the game.

Main Mechanisms

Programming is the main one. You’ll program movement and firing as well as when to use your captains power.

USP

There is a mix of mechanisms and game play elements here that have been done before.

Theme

Anthropomorphic animals in tanks fighting in an arena overlooked by a commentary team standee… Interesting!

Setup & Rulebook

Setup takes time, adding the building tiles all over the place.

The rulebook is fine for the best part. There are huge blocks of text which is unattractive and hard to read. I would like smaller sections that are easier to scan during play.

Components & Artwork

I have the Kickstarter edition so I have plastic tokens instead of cardboard bits. I also have shiny components which aren’t always easy to see in some light.

The art is OK, nice and silly.

Ease of Teaching

The game is easy to teach for the best part. There is some awkwardness around some of the movement and moving off etc but it’s fine.

Similar Games

We can look at Roborally obviously as a programming game. Robot Quest Arena is a deck building game where you move bots to fight.

I’m sure there are some more serious World War-style tank programming games out there.

BOOM Patrol Review

Positives

A fun easy programming game.

Destroying buildings on most turns makes you feel powerful.

The fun, cute theme is nice.

Negatives

Some fiddley rules.

It’s lacking something like unique decks, variable buildings or scenarios for variability.

Summary

A fun game, I worry about the long term replayability.

Jesta ThaRogue