EMCE: City Blackout

A relentless winter storm has paralyzed the city—snow is piling up, the power grid has collapsed, and critical systems are failing. If emergency response units can’t prioritize limited resources and make the right decisions, city residents will suffer serious impacts. In EMCE: City Blackout, you and your team take on the role of crisis managers, working under intense pressure to restore power, manage resources, and reduce the storm’s cascading impacts. Each round tests your ability to prioritize, communicate, and adapt as you coordinate a response to infrastructure failures and community needs. The game offers powerful lessons in emergency preparedness, teamwork, and the importance of early, decisive action. Fire trucks may be the only operational vehicles in these extreme conditions. The resources depicted in the game include just the equipment and personnel available for emergency response deployment. The game supports 2-8 active players and up to 8 observers. Over three rounds, players will address location-specific emergencies in certain regions of the city represented on the map, while also addressing citywide challenges on the cascade board. Success in early rounds can unlock preparedness bonuses. There are rules for using the resources at hand to address the challenges, requiring players to think strategically. The EMCE: Insight app allows players to track their decisions and results to analyze the effectiveness of their strategy during a post-game debrief. The data can also be pulled into a formal report for training purposes. —description from the publisher