This game makes teaching much more engaging. Students focus on applying what they've learned, while I can evaluate leadership, teamwork, task execution, and how they handle stress and loss.

These cards are amazing and I can't wait to use them in my next exercise facilitation. It's a great way to bring the PIO into the mix.

This is a great opportunity for training, and a really engaging "gamification" of MCI response that makes training fun and learning intuitive. Was able to adapt easily to multiple organizations that I work with, and it was fun, entertaining, and an educational experience for all. Very well received by those that learned and "played" the game. The opportunity to constantly adapt and apply the scenarios to different audiences and players is also a plus. Good for all levels of experience.

I've really enjoyed using EM Disaster Gaming's Hell's Highway as a quick and effective incident command and logistics training game for firefighters. It's become a valuable tool for helping newer firefighters who may be expected to serve as an Incident Commander on smaller incidents.
The game does an excellent job of teaching resource allocation, apparatus positioning, prioritization, and the importance of ordering the right resources at the right time. The base version follows the directions well and provides plenty of learning opportunities without being overly complicated.
For some of my more seasoned Incident Commanders, I've added an extra layer of realism by introducing random incidents after they clear an existing one. This forces them to balance resources, adjust priorities, and manage the kind of chaos that often occurs in the real world. It's been a great way to challenge experienced personnel and generate meaningful discussions after the exercise.
Overall, I highly recommend Hell's Highway for fire departments looking for an affordable, engaging, and practical way to develop incident command and resource management skills. It's easy to learn, adaptable to different experience levels, and creates excellent training conversations.

A tactically sound game with a lot of chaos to deal with. I would recommend all First responders use this game to have a better understanding of things going wrong. Strengths of CCA8
1. True Adversarial Red‑Team vs Blue‑Team Play
Unlike traditional tabletop exercises, CCA8 features a fully developed hostile cell with its own objectives, tactics, and extraction plan.
This creates dynamic, unpredictable gameplay that forces Blue Team players to think like real incident commanders.

2. High‑Fidelity Emergency Management Simulation
The game integrates:
ICS structure
EOC crisis & consequence management.
Multi‑agency coordination.
Realistic time pressure.
Decision‑making under uncertainty.
This makes it valuable for training, education, and professional development.
This Game Is Best For:
Emergency managers
First responders
Public safety students
Homeland security programs
Wargamers who enjoy realistic, scenario‑driven strategy
Agencies seeking hands‑on training tools
Groups wanting a more serious, immersive cooperative/adversarial experience.

So excited to attend this great event! Thank you for making it affordable to students!

Even though the game is complex, it can be played with one person. You just have to separate the groups of Emergency response units and keep track of them on separate documents, but it is not a big deal.It is overall a great learning tool for any Emergency responder to use in chaos situations. I would highly recommend everyone use this game.

Dr. Simental is a superior instructor and the course was excellent. As a planner of some of the world's major exercises, I still learned a great deal. Great information to have in any toolkit where you are trying to build resiliency in a memorable way.

A brand new series of emergency management disaster board games have made their debut in Autumn 2025. I was fortunate enough to test one out tbus past weekend, and can confidently say it is a terrific offering out of the box.

The play-style is reminiscent of Settlers of Catan and Risk; turn-based and fast-paced, covering a great deal of potentialities in emergency scenarios. Each player starts out with a varying number of resources with which to respond. A larger-scale disaster is reported, but day-to-day local emergencies also continue to occur.

Prioritizing becomes incredibly important, teaching participants to think critically in a high-stakes simulation, showing how each leadership decision can have broad-reaching impacts in response as well as public perception. Parsing data and knowing chaos can reign supreme in those initial attack moments of an incident are concepts regularly visited throughout gameplay.

I found this game to be robust and comprehensive, well-made with a keen eye for details. The emergency management concepts are easily grasped at almost any age, and offer fun learning for an entire group, family (or department!) of participants.

Disaster gaming is an evolving practice that could change how we approach tabletop exercises in emergency management and homeland security. While gaming and emergency management aren't words commonly associated in the homeland security and emergency management communities, under the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP), “gaming” is an officially approved type of exercise by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Thank you for the great service and reaching out to confirm the style/design. The product looks absolutely fantastic to help showcase the time that I spent helping to keep the community that I love safe. Thank you!

We played the game in our introductory Emergency Management class, and it definitely applied and reinforced key course concepts in a fun, interactive, practical way. The student loved it and had a ton of fun learning about ESFs, teamwork, and resource management. Definitely recommend!