The game is designed with a vibrant neon art style while taking place in a post-apocalyptic setting. [2] [3] Reception [ edit ] With so much to explore, Radlands gives the experience of a huge expandable card game, in a form factor that your gameshelf can actually handle. Super Deluxe Edition

Worried that this might have indicated a balance issue, we decided to try again with the same setup. Once again, largely relying on the Mercenary Camp, I handily emerged victorious. Frank was able to delay the inevitable for much longer, but there was never a point where the outcome felt contested. This seemed like a real problem. It was my first game not using the introductory setup suggested by the manual, and we were immediately running into what seemed like an inevitable loss for one of the players.

But do not let the game's level of elegance fool you, as Radlands provides one of the highest strategic depth to complexity ratios Team Roxley has ever experienced. After 2 years of polishing, our development team is still completely addicted to the game. We have still never seen two matches play out the same way, and continue to discover new synergies and strategies that we've never seen before. In Radlands, you take on the role of leader in a group of post-apocalyptic survivors. Your goal is to protect your three camps from a vicious rival group. Radlands comes with 34 Camp cards. Each player chooses three from a hand of six during setup. Some seem powerful to the point of breaking the game, while others barely seem useful at all, but it’s all about how they interact. In an elegant bit of balancing, the number of cards in your starting hand is determined by the Camps you choose: the more powerful and aggressive your Camps are, the fewer cards you draw at the beginning of the game. Cards are a lean economy in this game—everything is a lean economy in this game—and choosing three bruisers may leave you hurting in the long run, since your opponent can sprint out ahead of you in the early game with all those Junk actions. Workin’ ‘Neath the Wheel Till You Get Your Facts Learned

The Super Deluxe Edition features the Karli Blaze box (uniquely numbered while supplies last), a hot pink vac tray, and 2 Hazmat playmats that fit right in the box.

I suggested we try one more time, trading setups so Frank was playing with my Camps, including the Mercenary Camp, and I was playing with his Camps. With some intentional and measured changes to how I was playing, the advantage afforded by the Mercenary Camp was easily managed, and I won the game handily. Let me tell you about the night I fell in love with Radlands. My roommate and I were playing a game in which I had the Mercenary Camp, an incredibly powerful card. I opened the game by using it to destroy one of his camps, and things only went downhill from there. The whole game took less than ten minutes, and there was little opportunity for Frank to turn the tide.

The responsiveness of the design, the way I was forced/able to prioritize certain tactics long enough for the early advantage of that Camp to be negated, really impressed me, in a way I haven’t been impressed by a game in a while. Radlands rewards experience and thoughtful plays, even if it doesn’t involve much turn-to-turn strategy. The thrill of repeated plays is two-fold: you get the joy of discovering new Camp combos during setup and the satisfaction of figuring out how to play against whatever your opponent has. [Guitar & Saxophone Solos] An example of a full player setup with three camps, three people cards, and three punks. All pieces come together in this box to make the game work smoothly as intended. The water tokens are easy to use and feel great in hand and the plastic bend resistant cards are superb. Bend shuffle these to your hearts content. No need for sleeves as these punks can take a beating. Gameplay Personally, I enjoy it and I think that the strategy is tight and very involved. There is a lot to keep an eye out for though and it can catch you out if you are not in the right mood for it. If I want a serious one-on-one card battle against another serious gamer friend, then Radlands is my new go-to game. Overview At the start of each turn the current player draws one punk card into their hand to help them out and if needed players can also spend 2 water to get a new card as well but, the water is needed for other things on the whole. Card abilities Cards can be junked to get the ability in the top left-hand corner or played down in one of the 3 rows to protect the cards below it. If already in play, then a card’s effects can be used by spending its water cost. The water cost next to the name on each card is how much it costs to play the card down into your tableau and the effects listed at the bottom also come with a water cost, but these can only be used once the cards are in play.The effects available in Radlands are healing (which usually does not ready the cards unless specified), Damage (rotates a card on the first hit and destroys on the second hit), Destroy (usually costs more but is very powerful), damage a human (same as general damage but, only against “human” cards) or advance your event cards 1 space (activate immediately if in slot 1). Some cards also give you 1 extra water token but, these are rare. Event Cards