"I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" - Radlands

"The game you will take with you

through the apocalypse."

- Roxley Games

 Welcome to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!

Today I want to tell you about a kickstarter that arrived the other week: Radlands!

What was it that attracted me to this kickstarter? Was it the beautiful neon art direction? The promise of high quality, finely tuned game play? The idea that I could play a great game without feeling the need to paint loads of miniatures first?

All of the above. 

The Look:

As you can see from the pictures here, and from their website, the aesthetics of this game are beautiful and arresting, and the quality is top notch. The "synth" cards are made out of a plastic material that is durable (water proof and bend-resistant) and feels really nice in the hand without being too slippery. The tokens that came with the Kickstarter edition are made out of basically backgammon pieces - they have a nice chunky weight. I could go on an on about the lovely vibrant and functional neoprene mats, the magnetic box with interior artwork, and everything else in the game, but I think you get the idea...it's purdy. 

The Game:

My dad and I (neither of us are regular gamers) have played a bunch of games now over the past two weeks and it is a great game! It is one of those games where the more you play it, the more options you realize you have and the more synergies you recognize. We have found it really rewarding in this way. 

The game is cleverly crafted so that you rarely have nothing to do, which is quite remarkable when your hand might only consist of 3 or 4 cards. 

For a "how to play" I'd recommend you check out this video:

But for a general overview, you have three camps (which you choose from six which were randomly drawn from a pool of about 30) which have special abilities like "injure an enemy person", "heal one of your people", "launch your raiders". You have to protect your camps while trying to destroy all three of the enemy's camps. 

Our games have lasted about 30-45min on average and each one has felt so close that with a couple more turns the other person could have won. So close that after a game we both feel energized to discuss turning points in the game, risks we took, blunders we made, and the like. We have found ourselves discussing strategies between games, and have only had to refer to the (well laid out) rules a handful of times. 

One point of contention is the heavy reliance on symbols rather than text for most abilities in the game. This makes it a little more opaque for new players, as they will constantly be looking at their Player's Aid during the first game. I found that the symbols quickly became second nature, and with more experience, the symbols actually  sped up the game - because you can glance across the table and quickly assess the game state by seeing the symbols rather than having to lean in to read text on your opponents cards. 

As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Radlands. While I am (unfortunately) not sponsored by Roxley, I will say that if this game sounds interesting to you, you will be able to pick it up in retail or through their webstore.

This game has an active community over on Board Game Geek

Here's the Kickstarter page

And here is the dedicated website. 

Thanks as always for dropping by, I'll see you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Dune (2021)

Reading: Northern Spy - Flynn Berry

Next Week:

Cleansing flames...