Radlands: Review

Radlands: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Two-Player, Head to Head, 
Player Age: 14+ 

Player Count: 2 Players

Time to Play: 20 - 40 Minutes 
Game Designer: Daniel Piechnick
Game Artist:  Lina Cossette, Damien Mammoliti, Manny Trembley

Publisher: Roxley

Year Published: 2021

BGG Weight: 2.22
Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

Radlands is a head-to-head game set in a post-apocalyptic world where water is the only resource that matters. War is all this world knows so strike first and strike hard. With the aid of your multi-use cards the aim is simply to destroy all the camps controlled by the other player. 

Game Anatomy:

Throughout the deck there are two card types; person cards and event cards. All cards in this deck are multi-use cards consisting of an ability in the top left that can be discarded as junk to instantly use at no cost or the card can be played by spending the water amount on the left of the card for the action. 

Person Cards:

The person cards have an activated ability that can be used any turn after the one it enters play. These abilities consist of a range of damaging effects. Each column above a camp only has space for two person cards, once these spots are filled you cannot play more cards to this camp until a spot is empty.

Event Cards:

There is one column reserved for events in each player's play area. There are 3 spaces available in this column that corresponds to how many turns it will take to release the card into play. Each turn, your events will move one up this track if able until they move off the track and resolve. Each space in this track can only be occupied by one event card, so in a circumstance where there would be two in a certain numbered space, either the event does not move up or the new event cannot be played. When the event is played there will be a number in a bomb icon designating in which space on the track the event is played into as not all events are created equal. 

Camp Deck:

Each player will have three camps they need to protect during the game. Each camp has abilities that can be activated and a numbered card symbol to the left that determines how many cards the player will begin the game with. Each camp in the deck is unique, creating a decision during setup on which camps match your play style and how many starting cards you need.

Key Terms:

key iconography is used throughout the cards including: 

Destroy - discard a specific person or flip a camp. 

Damage - turn a person or camp sideways to signify damage has been done. In this state, the card is not ready and therefore cannot use their ability. One more damage and the card is destroyed.

Injure - works the same as damage but can only damage persons.

Restore - return a person or camp to an upright position. Mark the card as not ready for this turn only. 

Draw - draw a card from the deck.

Extra Water - gain one extra water disc to use this turn to be discarded at the end of the turn. 

Gain a Punk - place a card face-down as a person. This punk has no ability but protects anything behind it in the column from normal damage. One damage will cause it to be destroyed.

Raid - play or advance your raid card in the events track.

Raider:

This event will be used to damage your opponent's camps even if they are protected. When a raid ability is used this card will go onto the event track and will be moved every time the raid symbol is used. Once moved off the track it will damage any one of the enemy's camps (enemies choice). This event will still move normally at the start of every turn. Once the effect is resolved it returns to the player's reserve to be used on a future turn.

Water Silo:

The water silo is what players will use if they have leftover water. On your turn, you can spend one water to draw the silo into your hand. In a future turn, you can junk this card to gain one more water for that turn. When junked, instead of being discarded it will go back to your reserve, next to the raider.

Water Discs:

Each player has three water discs (resources to use on every turn). The water disc also has a not ready symbol on the other side to keep track of what isn't ready on your turn. Six extra water discs, with a black background rather than white, are available for use by any player when they have a large amount of water in their reserve.

Setup:

- Shuffle the camp deck and give each player six camp cards.

- Each player selects three camp cards and creates three columns, all the other camp cards are returned to the box.

- Shuffle the main deck, each player draws a starting hand equal to the total number in the black rectangle card symbols on their chosen camp cards.

- Place the water silo, raiders, player aid card and three of the white water resources in each player's game area.

- Place the other six water resources in the middle area.

How to Play:

Until one player has had all their camps destroyed, each player's turn will consist of three phases: event, replenish and action.

Event Phase:

If you have an event in the number one spot, resolve the ability of the event. Then increase each event on your track.

Replenish Phase:

Draw a card from the shared deck and reset your three water discs.

Action Phase:

This is the main part of your turn. You can do any of these actions any amount of times then end your turn by discarding all not ready and water tokens on your cards. 

Play Card:

Simply pay the cost of the event or person in your hand and play it either into your event track or into one of your empty person spots. This person is not ready for this turn and cannot use their activated ability.

Draw Card:

Spend two water tokens to draw a card from the main deck.

Junk:

Any card in your hand can be discarded for free to be used for its junk effect. This makes every card useful and will have players constantly deciding if a card is more advantageous for its junk or activated ability/event ability.

Use Ability:

As long as your person is ready you can spend water once per turn to activate the activated ability. These abilities can target any column, not just the column the card is facing. When an ability is planned properly it can often turn the tide in your favour.

A card is not ready if it is either damaged, played that turn, healed that turn or has used its ability that turn.

Take Water Silo:

Spend one water to place the water silo into your hand. This creates an opportunity to junk the card for water on a future turn.

Final Thoughts:

- Amazing art. 

- Compact case which is good for travelling but challenging to get the rule book in.

- Interesting tower defence sort of combat, because you can't damage unprotected cards the goal becomes to clear a column or find a way around it to reach the camps.

- No deck building needed as there is a shared deck of cards.

- Every camp is unique, creating interesting decisions during the setup of which camp matches your play style.

- Multi-use cards to keep the game feeling fresh and strategic in how players use each card.

- Abilities can't be used if the person/camp is damaged, creating moments where damaging the enemies' cards become vital to survival.

For any fans of the head-to-head genre, Radlands is an easy addition to your collection. The multi-use cards keep the game feeling fresh as each card has different uses at different times. The combat has a unique tower defence style where you are trying to keep the enemies' columns clear to be able to destroy their camps. The combat is further amplified by the abilities on cards, this will make person cards a stronger target than camps as you only have to damage the card to keep them from activating their ability. With the resource, it may seem like having three water a turn is limiting but in gameplay it is far from it. Due to the junk system, players have an abundance of options on any given turn but when lacking cards they can also use water to draw more and plan a larger turn by adding the silo into their hand. The great gameplay is enhanced by the amazing neon style of art, this game feels like a vibrant 80's version of a post-apocalyptic world and I am all for it. This game is easily getting a Silver Seal of Approval.

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