Carnival of Chaos review

Thunder Road: Vendetta – Carnival of Chaos Review

Turbo Tina has invited your crew into the Carnival of Chaos! Players will smash, slam, and shoot their way to victory by collecting “scrap” that Turbo Tina awards each round. Carnival of Chaos is the fifth expansion for Thunder Road: Vendetta and can be played with the base game or the Maximum Chrome Edition.

Welcome to the Carnival

We’ve played a lot of Thunder Road: Vendetta in 2023 and 2024. This new expansion is essentially an arena battle that introduces new weapons and a reward system as you collect “scrap”. There are three roads that lead into the arena where the combat takes place. At the end of each round, a new Turbo Tina card is revealed.

Carnival of Chaos - Turbo Tina

This card will trigger Killer Pillars which will destroy any car that is parked on top of these tiles. It also adds a new immovable object that players have to avoid. Tina will award scrap to any vehicles that are on spotlight locations, and even give a new decree for the next round.

Just like in the base game, players will shoot and slam one another, with dice dictating the outcome of the combat. For players who already know Thunder Road: Vendetta, there’s not a ton of new concepts here. Movement in the arena spaces is slightly different and takes a minute to get used to. I’ve taught this game to multiple TRV veterans and the movement trips people up the first couple turns. Sprinkled around the board are Party Favor tiles and Super-Weapon tokens. These are going to give you the boost you need to win.

Carnival of Chaos - killer pillar

The selection of Super-Weapons are fantastic. These cards attach to the vehicle that picked it up, giving them a new way to eliminate their opponent. A player with a Super-Weapon attached is a force to be reckoned with. Players who can slam opponents into Killer Pillars and maneuver gracefully around the arena are going to have fun with this expansion.

Ready for Combat

Restoration Games carried through the dystopian, Mad Max feel of Thunder Road into every area of the game. The art style and board layout is excellent and even the packaging sticks with the grindhouse visuals of the base game. You can tell that this expansion is essentially Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome without the IP license.

Carnival of Chaos - car combat

Since players cannot leave the arena once they enter, the game keeps players in close quarters. It forces players to interact and unlike the base game, players cannot just try to outrun their opponents.

Slamming opponents at just the right time can launch an opponents vehicle out of the arena, into a Killer Pillar, or into position to get clobbered by the other players. While in the arena, rolling high numbers on the dice become less of a necessity. You’ll rely more on positioning and weapons each round.

Carnival of Chaos also adds a fifth player color to the mix. The new team comes with three purple cars, dice, chopper, and purple dashboards. This allows you to play with up to five players across all different game modes with a standard team of 3 vehicles.

Carnival of Chaos - purple player

The Queen of Chaos

Carnival of Chaos has a specific number of rounds. Each of the six Turbo Tina cards come out at the end of the round. The game ends when there are no more Turbo Tina cards to flip over in the deck OR when a single player has been eliminated from play. Having the Turbo Tina deck dictate the length of the game works really well. While six rounds is a great game length, it’s the start of the game that comes off a little dry.

In the first round of the game, players have to travel up the three roadways that lead into the arena. This is made up of the regular road pieces that come with the base game. In my head, I see these cars rumbling toward this arena, ready for combat. In reality, it might take you two full turns to get to the center. Bad die rolls could even put you in the role of “spectator” for a couple rounds.

Carnival of Chaos - arena

It’s not uncommon for a player to have only two cars in the arena even into the start of the third round. That’s half-way through the game. In my first game, I felt like it had a pretty boring start. I felt validated when everyone else at the table mentioned it during clean up of the game.

For a game mode that is called Carnival of Chaos, this is a bit of a let down. Once players have there cars in the arena, the gameplay is smooth and fun. But it honestly doesn’t feel any crazier than the base game. I think being confined to the arena is really what sets this game apart from the base game.

Carnival of Chaos - party favor token

While I rarely “house rule” games, we did make a slight change to the start of the game. When playing at the house, only start flipping Turbo Tina cards after at least two players have entered the arena. This is usually in the second round. This helps players to feel like they get a full six rounds of combat with their opponents.

We Don’t Need Another Hero

Carnival of Chaos adds a lot of cool items to one of my absolute favorite games. When it comes to reviewing expansions, the question I usually ask myself is “Does this make the original game better?”

This is a tough one, and it depends on what you’re looking for in the game. I honestly believe that everything that comes in the Maximum Chrome edition will keep me busy for years. Carnival of Chaos offers a slightly different play mode that is interesting, but not incredibly memorable. If you’ve played through all the content in the Maximum Chrome box (or the separate expansions), you may be looking for a new mode of play. Carnival of Chaos is probably what you’re looking for.

Carnival of Chaos - weapon

I love the system and world that Restoration Games has created with Thunder Road: Vendetta. At this point, this is easily one of my favorite games of all time. Carnival of Chaos is a nice addition to the game, but not a necessity in my opinion.

Thunder Road: Vendetta – Carnival of Chaos is available at your local game store, on the Restoration Games webstore or online through Amazon today.

This game was provided to us by the publisher for review. Read more about our review policies at One Board Family.

Highs

  • Great addition of Super-Weapons and party favors
  • The arena forces up-close combat with players
  • Focus on collecting scrap add a new goal to the gameplay
  • Adds a fifth purple team to the mix

Lows

  • Less chaos than the name would imply
  • Beginning of the game is very sluggish

Complexity

2 out of 5

Time Commitment

2.5 out of 5

Replayability

2.5 out of 5

Ryan Gutowski

I'm a huge fan of strategy games and pretty much anything that involves "city building". My love of board games goes back to my childhood and passion for building relationships with others.

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