Episode 12 - Radlands: Punks are People Too!

In this Episode of Board With Each Other we appraise the 2-player card based duel that is Radlands. Set in a vibrant post-apocalyptic environ, this is a classic card battler with a number of interesting twists that plays relatively quickly. 

But how good is it? Does the substance live up to the style? And where does it stand on tactics and replayability? All these questions on more answered in this episode. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Hello everybody and welcome to episode twelve of Board with Each Other, the board gaming podcast that reviews games through the lens of playing them as a pair, whether that be as a couple, with a good friend, or with a fellow punk that you're trying to while away time during the apocalypse with. I am joined as ever by my lovely wife, my co-host, and my player too, Hannah Kelly.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Hi guys.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

And before we crack on with what we're doing today, um for those of you that listen to us regularly, you'll know that we are a monthly podcast, and this is podcast number twelve, which means it's podcast adversary. So happy podcast anniversary!

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Happy anniversary!

SPEAKER_00 0:54

So today we are going to be looking at Radlands. Um, and in contrast with a lot of other games that we look at quite regularly, this one is strictly a two-player game. So, those of you that are familiar with our scoring, obviously one of our scoring categories, the scalability won't count in this sense, so we're just gonna NA that one. But aside from that, this will be a normal review. So Radlands is a card game, and it is basically uh a simulation of two rival Mad Max adjacent style. You just listen to our podcast and nemesis, I imagine, our previous one, and it's a similar kind of thing. This is Mad Max, but it's not Mad Max, because that would be copyrighted, you don't want that. Um, and you play as rival gangs who are fighting over the wasteland, and the object of the game is destroy your opponent's camps, of which they are three. How the game is played is it's played on a three by three grid, so three columns and three rows. Uh at the bottom of your at the your bottom row, as it were, comprises your three camps, and these are dealt out randomly at the start of the game. There's a whole bunch of them, I think there must be about 30 or 40 of them. But you start with three camps. All of these camps have abilities, and they also dictate how many cards you start the game with in your hand. Above those camps you can play people, so you draw people cards, they they cost you the resource, which is water, of which you get three every turn. You can play people or punks, and as Halla loves to say from all the cards.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

People are punks too! Oh no, punks are people.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Punks are people too. Um and they basically you use them to either defend your camps. You can't you can't usually damage uh uh defended camp directly with other people, but they also do other things dependent on the card. To the right hand side of this 3x3 grid is a events track. So you play certain cards in the game that are events, and they will have a little number and a bomb icon on them, which tell you what position to put them in in the track, and then at the start of your turn, your events advance one until they reach zero, in which case they go off. There's also instant events which start with a zero that you play directly from your hand and take an immediate effect. Probably the most important of these events is your raiders card. Um, that starts on position number two, and when that goes off, it damages one of your opponent's camps, whether they are defended or not, of their choice. Once it does that, it goes back to your hand, and you need mechanisms either on cards or from elsewhere in the game to put it back on the table and restart it. Uh, on the other side, you have a water tower, which you can spend one water to pull into your hand, and in later turns you can play that card to gain a bonus water for that round. So, particularly uh sort of some of the late game cards, if you will, some of the really powerful ones cost four water. So you need to plan ahead if you want to be thinking about getting one of those out. When your people come into play, um if they are not usable that turn, uh quite a common trope in uh sort of battle of card games. Anybody who's played Magic of the Gathering will be uh familiar with summoning sickness, similar kind of concept here. And all the abilities on all your cards can only be used once per turn. Uh, and you denote this by putting a well, if you flip your water tokens over, there's a little minus counter on there, you pop on there. And that's basically how the game plays. You draw one card per round. So I would say, in terms of card economy or cards that you have in your hand, as far as games go, this one tends to be very low. You'll quite often have only have one or two cards in your hand, so your options tend to be quite limited. You can spend two water on your turn to draw a card, but as the economy goes and you only have three per turn, that is quite an expensive proposition. You can also discard cards directly from your hand to have an effect which is basically listed on the top left of your card. So you could discard a card to damage a person, you could discard a card to get your raiders back out, and they those are completely card dependent, so it's always an interplay of whether you want to actually put cards permanently down on the table or whether you just want to trash them for their for their um instant trash value, as it were. And that basically sums it up.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

It's worth noting that theoretically, um there are cards that allow you to do differently, but theoretically, you would need to damage the people in um a row before you can hit the camp, so you'd need to wipe out that row. That's not always the case, but I mean in general principle. Um punks can only take generic punks can only take one damage, but your people cards, if you like, can take two. But the first time they take damage, it means you can't use their special abilities, they essentially just become meat shields.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. Um when a car becomes damaged or injured in the case of a person, you turn it sideways, tap it, for those that are familiar with that terminology, and they are essentially unusable until you either heal them or they take another damage. Um punks are a mechanism in the game, you can get punks, and if you do so, you have a shared uh draw deck in this game, you don't have separate draw decks, but basically you take the top card from the door draw deck without looking at it, and you place it directly face down because the reverse of the card is uh is a punk. If that punk's destroyed, you don't discard that card, it goes back on the top of the uh the draw pile.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Which is fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Yeah, it's an interesting mechanic. And you dot all one person's camps are destroyed.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

All three of them.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Games can take uh i it's a quick game to play.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

We've had games that probably last about 15 minutes, but we've also had games that are over in like two turns.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah, yeah. I think on the box it says 20 to 40 minutes. I've never played a 40-minute game with Radlions, I don't know how that happens. Um I would say the vast majority of games run as about 15 to 20 minutes, I'd say. You do get the odd one, which is just a steamroll right out of the gate. I'll get probably a bit more on that later. Um, in which case, you know, you just start again, really. Um but yeah, I would say 15 minutes on average is about right, I think the way we play.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Yeah. In terms of where this one came about, I think this was the one I just saw a little bit of buzz about. I think it was a I think it was a Kickstarter originally that came to retail. I might be wrong on that, but um I just remember seeing people sort of raving about it as a two-play experience, and I picked it up. Uh I like any sort of mad maxi type themed things if it's in with the the aesthetics I like. Um so yeah, it was a it was an easy, easy one to go for, I think.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

I think what's really interesting about this is from what you've said, again, you'll you're the expert, not me, it's used quite heavily on a tournament scene because of the balancing in it, which we'll talk about later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

But also I'm not so sure about a tournament scene. I think it's quite a competitive game, and I think like games nights, a lot of people do play it quite competitively, but I don't know about the richness of a tournament scene. I don't quote me on that. It feels like the kind of game that could have that, but I I'm not entirely sure that it exists.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Um but also there are no plans to release any expansions. It is what it is. Yeah. It is one box, and that's Charlotte. And I actually kind of admire a developer that's so proud behind the product they put out. Like, this is it. We might twiddle with the rules a little bit, but it is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah, Daniel uh Piechnik, I hope I'm pronouncing that right, Daniel, if you're listening, um, is actually quite active on the the uh Board Game Geek forums, and he said on a number of occasions that he has no intention to expand this at all. Which in this day and age of constant expansions and bloats and kickstarters, I I really respect that. I like I like the fact that there's like, no, I'm just gonna drop this incredibly like well-balanced game and I'm just gonna leave it at that.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yeah, takes a lot of balls, and I think it's already great thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

I really respect that. I really respect that. Um, yeah, so anything else you want to sort of run through before we get onto our scoring. I'm conscious this might be a shorter episode than usual because it is quite a small box game, as it were, considering you know, last time we did Nemesis, but No, that's it, let's get into scoring. Okay, alright. So let's crack on with the review then. So, do you want to talk us through the first scoring category?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yep, so our first going category is components, so that thinks about the actual components that you get in a box, also table space, set up, strip-down, yeah, um, those sorts of things.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yep. I mean, I I will say it right off the bat, I just wish every card and every board game was printed on the cardstock that they use for this.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Oh, it's delicious, isn't it? It's really nice. It's it's got like slight bumps to it, so it means that when you shuffle it, you've got a bit of texture, so when you shuffle it, there's grip to it and they're quite thick, and I have to say, when you go back and then shuffle normal cards, it you can feel the difference. You taste some difference in reverse.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Yeah, it feels definitely the the cards feel quite deluxe, don't they? I I I don't know how else to explain that. I mean, as far as components go, there's not a huge amount there. You've got your cards, you've got some standards cardboard counters. Um, there's not really much else to talk about, but I do I do think the the card quality is really up there.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about the artwork because I mean you you say it's set in a post-apocalyptic Mad Max Borderlands-esque uh kind of artwork that is absolutely stunning, but also quite niche. I don't know what I've seen other games with this kind of that look to them.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think I've seen bits and pieces out there, but it's very it's very punky, it's very vibrant. Yeah, but obviously less less sort of self-shaded and I don't know. It it reminds me of almost um uh sort of your more like left field comic book artist kind of kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

And even colour schemes that go with it as well, they're really really stand out, um, and really um iconographic actually.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And um I think it very much leans on that sort of Mamax Fury Road vibrancy. I think one of the things that was so amazing about Fury Road was all the colour and vibrancy and madness that it brought to that world. Um post-apocalyptic worlds can be very grey and brown, whereas this is anything but it's very colourful, the colours really pop and everything just looks really cool.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

And what you were saying was actually that was a design choice from the the the producer, the publishers or or or whatever, and I think it absolutely was the right call to make. Absolutely. Um what I would say is if I had to find a critique, the carbo counters are fine.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

They're fine, but they're fine.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

There's so few of them that I feel like they could have done something with resin, you know, something a little bit more or even just wooden ones because I'm all about sustainability and stuff like that. Yeah, true, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

I mean it's a really small nitpicky thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Oh yeah, yeah, we're absolutely splitting hairs, yeah. Um one thing I will say about the components, I'm not gonna mark it down because of this, because I bought the retail copy, but I do know the Kickstarter, I think the deluxe version of the Kickstarter came with two playmats, with obviously your rows laid out and borders and your tracks and everything. I wish I had those, because that would just make the experience even better. I think it obviously once you get used to it, it's fine, but when you first start playing, it feels very sort of abstract. Yeah, um we have real problems with the water towers and the raiders, where everything goes and what have you, and uh the rules are not super super clear about where your water tower is supposed to sit and all that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Although largely it's relevant to your own.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

It is largely relevant, but I didn't know when we first read the rules, it's like, oh, does this actually take up a spot on one of the tracks? Or um so yeah, I mean it's one of those things that I think if the the if the version with the playmats came to retail, I probably would have gone for that one in hindsight, but I don't I don't think it did.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

But what I think is also amazing about Radlands, it is just a deck of cards. Yeah. But we played we've we reviewed other games that are also just deck of cards. This does not hog the tables. No, you can't. You could absolutely knit down the pub after work, get get it out of your bag because the box is tiny. Yeah, it's really quite small and compact, and you could have like an evening playing this without you know, without issue, and that's why I think this is quite special.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

Yeah, this is the ultimate, like if you're gonna go and see somebody you know who might like it, you could just pop it in your bag and which I have, and um whatever playing surface they've got is really easy to crack out. You know, you haven't got to worry about a board, you don't need space as such. Worst comes to worst, you could just sit on the floor and play it kind of thing. It's one of those games. Um so all that is absolutely great. Um I've given it a nine because I I don't really I have very little criticism to to bear to it. I think it's a really nice package. I love the way it looks, I love the way it feels, um, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Yeah, um again, also gave it a nine. Uh it's the artwork for me, I just think it makes it absolutely stand out. So yeah, well done.

SPEAKER_00 13:27

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

So our next category is complexity, and so when we talk about complexity, we're not talking about necessarily whether it's very, very complicated or whether it's not, it's more how well do the rules and the level of complexity suit the actual game itself. We also think a little bit about analysis paralysis, which is my big bugbear, um, and also how much we argue about rules. As with most card games, I'd say the devil in the in the case.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

It's not the cards.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Yeah, it's on the cards itself. However, I don't think we've really had to query rules on cars all that much.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

No.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Maybe once or twice.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

The the the rules that you're getting on cards, I mean, even if you compare it to something like Marvel Champions, you're not even getting a paragraph of text, it's usually an icon and a cast or one sentence thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Do damage to a person, do damage to a camp, do damage to anything, destroy something. It's it's really quite straightforward, and you've got a nice little handy reference uh card that tells you what each of the icons do. Um, and therefore, I think it's really quite easy and straightforward to pick up.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Oh, most definitely. Um in terms of complexity, it is not a complex game. I think there's a huge amount of depth.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I think uh for me always the key with games that are simple and easy to learn is the depth needs to be there, and I think in this case it absolutely is. I I I think it's um the the amount of interactions and strategies and combinations and everything is is enormous, but in terms of teaching somebody, picking it up and playing it, it's dead simple.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

What I will say is it's very, very luck-based.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

So everything is is random, you know, from the base camps that you were initially dealt with to whatever punks come or or people come into your hand, it's all entirely at random. And so, yes, there's an element and a level of strategy within that, you know, you have to deal with cards that you you've been dealt with. It is very, very random. You really like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yes, I do. I do. And I think there there are probably ways that you could cut that down a bit. I think you could introduce, and I'm I imagine there's already rules out there for this, because I imagine some some people have done this, but I think you could do things like some sort of draft for your camps. Because uh, as the rules as written go, you just each get delt three at the start and there's no mulligan. There's no mulligan, you just get delt three at the start, um, and you have to deal with what you've got. I imagine if you were playing this in a more competitive way, you would implement some sort of drafting mechanic there, where you draw like ten cards and you go back and forth choosing which ones you wanted. Um but that's not the way we play, and I'm fine with that. I I like I like the randomness of having to deal with whatever the game throws at you.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

I also think because there's very little reading involved, this is also a really good uh game if you've got a language barrier at the table for whatever reason. Yeah, I haven't thought about that. Because you've you've got symbols that pretty much tell you everything, so you don't have to read the cards.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

It's icons and numbers for the most part. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Um, which is probably the first game like this that we've reviewed. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Yeah, it's not purely so, but even when there's text, it's it's fairly light, yeah. Yeah, it's fairly light and fairly simple.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

And probably good for kids of an age where they're just beginning to learn to read and can start thinking about the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

Yeah, potentially. Yeah. Um Yeah, so I mean I I think in terms of how far the complexity suits the game, I think it's fine. I think it's perfectly fine. Um I think half of its appeal is it's not brain burner-y in the way that you need to sort of figure anything out. It's it's it can be brain burning in the way that you play and the strategy that you adopt. I think you can end up in situations where you really have to think your way out of them. I think there's quite there there's often times in our games where I really need to stop and think about how I'm gonna get out of this hole that I'm in, or you know, or how I'm gonna capitalise on the hole you got yourself in, kind of thing. I think if you make it's a game that if your opponent's playing decently well punishes mistakes quite badly. I find. If you do something wrong, you don't tend to get away with it, because it's a very tight game.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

But I think that's the other flip side of it, isn't it? Sometimes it's not about you playing badly or it's not about you making mistakes, you're so heavily luck-based. I've seen it with you that you've drawn nothing but either regular events or or whatever, and your hands are tiny, there's nothing you can do, and you're leaving yourself wide open. And I think that's where I would rate it down just slightly. I think I would like just a tiny little bit more strategy out of it.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Fair enough, yeah. I mean what what I think is quite unusual for a car game like this is obviously there's no deck building. You have a shared deck that you both draw from. So it's not like you can build a deck around anything or or go for a certain combo, it's very reactionary. You have to deal with the hand that you're dealt. And yes, you can use water to draw cards, but using two water on a turn to draw a card is a desperation measure because that is most of your turn next, basically. Yeah. From from my perspective. I mean you've had about 11-12 plays of this, I think.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

And there could be I mean there could be something I'm missing there. Um, maybe that is a viable strategy because again, there's always that discard mechanic where you can get rid you could trash cards for their costs, and sometimes they're too water for an instant potential injure or damage could be worth it, I guess. And yeah, I'm not sure. Okay, so how would you how would you rank on compression?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Um, so I gave it an eight.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Yeah, did I? I gave it an eight as well.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

Yeah. Fine, okay. Uh so shelf life and value for money. So this is how long we expect to be playing a game for, how much we'll come back to it, and value for money is what it says on the tent.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

So I suppose a good starting point is how much does it retail for?

SPEAKER_00 19:08

So this retails for about 20 quid, which I think is bang on. Absolutely bang on. I I I have no qualms whatsoever with the packaging quality that is paying that for it.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Yeah. Um, I think what's great about this is you've actually got so many different combinations. Like you said, your stack of base camps is probably like 30, 40 cards. So whilst we have drawn the same base camps, um we've never had the same base camps all over twice, and it changes your playstyle very much, you know, even which ones you choose to defend, which ones you're quite happy to give up. And I think for that reason, it's definitely got a huge amount of replayability um there in terms of like the actual experience and the different cards that you get.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah, and I think there's something about not being able to deck build and having that joint deck and that randomization, which I actually think extends the shelf life because you there's no meta, you can't get you can't look at and go, Oh, I've solved this.

SPEAKER_01 20:05

But it's not even that, it's deck building takes effort. So, one of the things about deck builders, Marvel Champions is actually quite good for this compared to other deck builders, is that before you even start playing, you've got to spend a huge amount of time building your deck, and that becomes a dr- and that eats into your playtime. Yeah, and it's not some people will love that and have fun, but if you're playing it as a social game, that becomes a problem because you're sat there looking at all of this, dropping all your cards out, etc. You have none of that, you're just going.

SPEAKER_00 20:35

You just go. It's a lifestyle thing as well. I mean we've we we've we've mentioned before that we have a young child, and um I mean back in my Magic the Gathering days, I spend happily sit there for three hours crafting a deck. I just don't have time for that anymore.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

I mean I definitely spend three hours crafting a 300 Well, you just found as many bears as you could and put them all in a deck.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Yeah. Um it's one of the things that gets me a bit about Marvel Champions these days, is like I I want to sit there and build an incredible deck, but I just don't really have time. And we've got time.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

And Marvel Champions is the best or better of the deck builders formula.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

If we've got time to play a game, I don't want to sit there in silence building a deck. Um anyway, we we digress, but I think it is something that massively extends this the shelf life of this for me. I think I often ask myself the question when we do this category, like, do I see myself in five years still going and pulling this off the shelf?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Absolutely, 110%.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

What I do think you know, and again, let's own it, I we both veer on the heavy and war games. We do light games that take several hours and complexity and depth, and so for that reason, does it scratch that itch? No. And I think because of that, it means we don't get it out as much, perhaps, as other games, but it's also where does it fit in our rotation? That said, you're absolutely right in five years, we will still be bringing this out.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Yeah, because we want to have a quick 50 minute, 20 minute game or something. It's so easy to find you there.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

It's really easy to teach. It's you know, it's definitely something you can take with friends.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Well one friend.

SPEAKER_01 22:09

We have more than one friend.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

No, but it is a two-player game unless you really want the other people to just watch.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

That's how we're wrong.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

We're getting into weird territory there. Um, how did you rate it?

SPEAKER_01 22:20

How did you score it?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I scored it a nine.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Really? So I scored it a seven.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Oh really?

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Mainly because when we first played it, fell in love, absolutely loved it, and yet we've still only played it twelve times.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Yes, but I think I think that's more about us than it is about the game. And I I guess when I'm thinking about value for money and shelf life, 20 quid, for something that I do see me putting off the shelf for years and years and years, is is a line to me.

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Yeah. No, I d I don't disagree.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

I just think it's that I c I can't foresee myself it ever becoming because it is so random and there's so many combinations, I can't see myself becoming bored with it. It's more about how it fits in.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Yeah, see, and yeah maybe I can. Yeah, maybe I can because whilst the devils and details of the cards and whilst the base camps will change, it is still the same game. There's gonna be no spicing it up or anything like that. Whereas I feel like Magic, for example, which is not a good comparator, it's a very different game. There is yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Okay, alright, fair enough. I stick by it.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

Yeah, I stick by mine. We'll agree to disagree.

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Fine. Or it's not that much of a disagreement.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

20 quid, it's exceptional value, like it's yeah, good.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

Okay. Um is it any fun though?

SPEAKER_01 23:36

No. Um, yes. Yeah. Um I don't know what else I want to say about this.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

It's really fun because we have had these games where I have just literally decimated you in two turns and it's been really satisfying. It's also we've had games where there's been a real slog behind it, and where I've had to really fight and really work, and we've turned things around as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

So I just think it is a game that even if you swings. Yeah, there are swings in this. In I don't think there's anything else quite like it in that way, because I think most of the games that we play, I mean, realistically, once you get about three quarters through the game, you kind of know who's going to win.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

Not this. No. I have seen I have been in games with this with you where it looks like somebody is absolutely spanking the other person.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Usually you.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

I mean, I lose most of our games, full disclosure.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

You feel like you're absolutely giving me a hiding.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And then you just come back and you just swing out of nowhere, and the next thing I know, I've got three destroyed cramps, and the game's over.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Um, it it it it is a game that has these really big, satisfying swings, and I really think that plays its flavour. It's one of those games that you are never out until you're out. I think there was one game that I can't remember who it was, it was either you or me, that had a camp half destroy one half destroyed camp left, the other person had three, and they came back to win it.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Um and it can't happen, that's great. Um I think it's a i it's just an exceptionally fun time when playing. There's a there's a lot of there's a lot of decision space, but there's also not, so it's easy to play, but you also feel like it's quick and snappy, it's easy to play, but you also feel like you that you are being tactical, and it feels like your decisions matter. Which they do. I think most of the good games that we play, we do have those games that one person just steamrolls the other because of luck and card draw and stuff. And I actually rate it down a little bit because of that. Um because I do think there's that there are some balance issues there, particularly with your initial draw of camps, you can you can draw a bit of a dud to start with. Not because the camps are useless, but the camps, as I said at the beginning, denote how many they also denote how many cards you you have in your hand. And I played one card, I can't remember one game, should I say, I can't remember whether it was with you or with one of my friends, but we drew three zeros, which means we meant we had no the person that person had no cards in their hand whatsoever to start the game, and that is just it's it's too much of a hill to climb.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Maybe there's a ball balancing issue in that, I wonder.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Um so that that marks down slightly for me, but I mean at the end of the day, if that happens, it's over in two minutes and you just restart. You know? You just restart. And when you when you get into the thick of it, you have these pivotal decision points in the game that go back and forth, and you every game you could look back and go, oh, there's like two or three points there where that really could have gone either way.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

And I think uh so I talk about mana conservation, so like you know, the way in which you use resources or water conservation is a how do you use your water? There are a huge amount of options that you have on the table. So whether you use your water to use your base camp abilities, whether you use your water to get out new punks or peoples, whether you use your water to use special abilities, uh and actually that can be really, really difficult to balance. And I think you know, quite often my temptation is I want to get all my punks out, I want to get all my people out, have a huge amount of like defence, and then I'll start using them. But actually, if you do that, you can miss golden opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

So it's thinking about how do you balance that, and that's that's and I I think our playstyles are really different because you like do you like to build a board state in this. I don't. I I I get I do trash cards. I trash cards.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Don't trash a card, that's expensive.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

I don't trash cards like Burbaby's business because I just go, ooh, like I can do that immediately, so why don't I just do that? And whether that's right or wrong, I think it but I think none of those are wrong. It's just about when you choose to do it, which is what I mean about the sort of pivotal moments and decision spaces. You almost at some point you lean into something really hard and either works or it doesn't. You don't get trapped in it because you're not you haven't got a deck built around a particular mechanic, but because you you may decide with what's in front of you to go right, I'm just gonna do this, this thing to go really hard at it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but that's the beauty of it.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

It is, and I think for people that don't like luck and don't want that random element, this will be really, really hard. Yeah, I would say if you don't like luck, if you don't like luck in your games, avoid and if you like reactionary, so like very much dealing with the current board state and what you draw, like this is probably not the game for you.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yeah, if that that sounds like you, if you are no luck heavy Euro gamer, this is a two for you.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Um I would I would absolutely avoid, but I love luck in my games, as you've listened to our previous podcast, you know I like the only way you win. Yeah, it's only thing puts me on even Kiel. Wait till the Terra Mysticum episode, mate.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Um I scored at an eight.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Yes, I have also scored at an eight. Well, this is the most synergistic we've ever been. I think so. No. But I think we don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

I think we often score things this game. Hopefully so.

SPEAKER_00 28:43

Okay, fair enough. Okay. So as always, we add all of our scores together and average them out, and that gives us a general rating of eight, which I am very pleased about.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

I'm pleased about, slightly surprised, but yeah, it's a really solid game.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

It's a great game. It's an absolutely great game, and I think if you look at it from through the lens of what it is, very easy, transportable, very quick, easy-to-play, two-player game. Eight is the score that I would give it. It's great. It's not perfect, but it's it's great. It's really good fun.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

So let's then move on to our two-player ratings. So ordinarily we have three categories within this. We're gonna NA the last one, which is about scalability and foam rating, because it's only designed for two players.

SPEAKER_00 29:27

Yeah, we always do that with two-player only games, don't we?

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yep. So our first category then is table talk. So when we're thinking about table talk, we're thinking about the amount of dead time, so time you just sat there in silence. Yeah. Also thinking about getting to know you, so getting to know how the other person works and operates, etc. Um, what I would say is that there is a fair amount of conversation discussion, so you're narrating what you're doing, and also you know, explaining you did this to me the other night. You were like, I do this, this, this, and this, you get three damage, that one's dead, that one's dead, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Explain to me what you're doing, and as you talk people through the cards, there's often quite a lot of discourse and discussion.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Yeah, and also it's uh it's a very sort of fighty competitive game, uh, which which I think is great, it's very much attack the other person. I I I I think there's almost a uh a a dearth of that in our collection. There's there's not there's not that many to head that head to head. I am literally trying to to beat you by destroying your stuff, um, which I really like. I mean I like I was a Magic the Gathering player for years, really loved it, and it's it's the one game out of a collection that gives me that that feel, that sort of jewel aspect, but a very like in-your-face jewel, and with that comes a little bit of trash talk and you know that there's there's that element of I really like.

SPEAKER_01 30:50

However, I don't think the trash talk is as much with other games that you mentioned like Magic the Gathering. I'm also gonna potentially suggest Aries Project, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Um, mainly because it is very quick, there is less thinking and downtime, so therefore I'm less committed to my characters and and my punks and my people. You're less attached to what's on the table. I'm not attached in the same way. These these are even my expensive guys, I know that they're not gonna last long.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

No, no, there's there's no like super like rare, like, you know, you've been building team for like ten turns to get it out kind of thing that you get super attached to.

SPEAKER_01 31:29

So, you know, my trash talk is perhaps less in in that sense.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yeah, fair enough. But yeah, I think that interplay and that interactivity of it is great. I mean you can't, it's it's not a it's not a solo game you play together kind of thing, which you see a lot of nowadays. Um is very much reacting to what your opponent is doing constantly.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Really good date game, actually. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

That's how you find the one though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 31:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Um I said Netflix and chill, but I actually meant Radland. Sit down please.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

Yeah, it would be a really good date game, I think.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Yeah, it would be, it would be. And I I think you can find out quite a lot about somebody by playing something like this, because you find out you'll find out if they you know they're okay with that sort of conflict-based play, they uh you'll find out if they get a bit sulky when their stuff starts to disappear. All sort of things that you'd like to know in another sort of fellow board game if you're playing with somebody regularly. Um and I think the interactivity of it is is is great. And I like I said, it's it's very reactionary, but the good thing about reactionary games are that you have to deal with your what your opponent is doing. You can't just sit there build an engine, you have to actually constantly be battling somebody. So as a duel kind of game, there's so many two-player like variant duel games out there. This one actually feels like a jewel, yeah. Um, which I love. So I'm I'm very positive about that, and I've given it an eight.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

I apparently didn't score this.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

I scored.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Uh, but I would agree with an eight.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Okay. Um, so on to our second and this time final category. Competitiveness.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Well, I mean you kind of just uh put a nail hammered nail on their head.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

That's the right one.

SPEAKER_02 33:20

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Um it is, it's definitely that there is no confusion about the fact that I am attacking your camps, I am attacking you, I'm getting rid of your peoples and your punks. Um, because punks are people too.

SPEAKER_02 33:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Um, and that level of competition is is really there and apparent, and it's nice. Uh there's no competing for resources in the same way as perhaps other games.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

Your resources are always there. I mean in that way it kind of reminds me a little bit about Hearthstone, the video game. If you've ever played that, it's like you always have this constant pool of resources, you know they're gonna be there. It's not like magic where, oh no, you have you drawn a land, you know, do you have any do you have them available? They're always there, and obviously you can pump that up at the water tower.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Or other cards.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

Or other cards, yeah, other cards will do the same. Um provided you get a good draw off the start, you both get a good draw in terms of camps, then it is an incredibly tight, tense, competitive game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

And it can flip on a knife's edge.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Yeah, as we mentioned before, that those big swing moments are are fantastic, you know, and you you uh you're never really out until you're out.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

And being able to claw your way back from imminent death is really satisfying.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Yeah, absolutely, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

And you can, because actually, as long as your camps haven't been destroyed, you can use other cards' abilities to be able to restore them. So you literally can be three camps half down or damaged, and literally pull yourself back to full health if you get lucky and if you're if you're lucky and you've got really cool.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah, it is, and that's what a game like this should be. You should never be out until you're out, and you you're not in this. You are absolutely not. I've seen the proof of that so many times.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

So it is an incredibly competitive game when it is. There are the moments. I mean, there's a certain part of me that'd be like this would be a nine or a ten in competitiveness, but you get those, you pull the you get those card pulls that just mean somebody's out through no fault of their own, they are just out. And that has made me mark it down slightly.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

However, I kind of feel like, and and maybe there is a rule that we've just not seen, like maybe it's a an updated rule around being able to molligan, because most games like this have a molligan function. So maybe there is a molligan function and we just don't know about it. And I think if you've got a monogam function, then that would kind of I think a drafting function would fix that.

SPEAKER_00 35:42

I think a county.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

I don't want to draft. I think the whole beauty and the amazing thing about this is that you don't draft, and that's the point of it. And I think you start talking about drafting, you're changing the way the game works. Yeah, fair enough. No, not having it.

SPEAKER_00 35:56

Okay, fair enough. I mean, yeah, I I I I think if you wanted to play this super competitive, but we don't, so that's not why we play it. I think you could do that. One thing that I didn't mention earlier, I probably should have mentioned during the the rules uh section, was I know the designer released an errata, so he released like almost a version 1.5, which cleared up a few rules. Because I think there was something the rule book is obviously very, very slim given the size of the box and what have you. Um I think the the two main things that came out of it that people were complaining about that if you're not aware have been fixed, is cards cannot heal themselves. Because I think there was a situation where people could get certain camps that had a heal function and they just kept healing, the the camps just kept healing. And um the other one was around filling up your board space. Um if your board space is full, you can discard cards from it and replace them. And that's not particularly clear or even present in the rule book as far as I understand. So people thought they got locked into something, and once they were locked in, people were just kind of leaving them locked in and then winning the game as a result of that. So those things have been fixed. So if you come across any of those issues, I definitely recommend giving the the Errata, which is available on board game Geeker Read, because it does it does fix uh a couple of the potential non-competitive elements why I wanted to mention this section. Um but yeah, overall I gave him mate. Like I say, it'd be a nine or a ten if it wasn't for the the occasional bust game.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

I know, but that's also really satisfying as a player.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Not satisfying for the loser, though, it's no fun for the other person.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Also, I disagree because there's nothing you can do about it. Like you can't think your way out of that one. Like, you know, it's just a winning.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Yeah, but you have a very chill, pragmatic approach. Some people get well, some people will find that quite difficult.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Okay. Alright, fine. But anyway, I also scored it an eight.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Okay. Well.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

So I mean you don't have to be a good one.

SPEAKER_00 37:50

So you have an eight and an eight. So a fantastic little package, fantastic ball game. Um, really highly recommended.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Fantastic little package.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

I'm gonna leave that one in there. Um so on that note, thank you very much for listening. Um until next time. Uh thank you to all of our listeners that have been on board the the last uh 12 months. We really appreciate you listening, we really appreciate your support. Um, it means a lot to us. We do this just because we enjoy it. And the fact that everybody out there actually listens to us is really is really endearing. And I I hope we've managed to sort of guide you some new uh purchases and you've enjoyed listening to our discussion. We intend to carry on as we are, really. Um but yeah, until next time, be good to each other and play lots of board games.