Favorite Board Game for December 5th

#20 Radlands

In Radlands players are warring gangs in a post apocalyptic wasteland each trying to destroy the other over their world's most precious resource — water. Radlands is a head to head 2 player card game where each player tries to defeat the other in order to win. I don't normally like "battle" games, where the goal is to eliminate your opponent, but Radlands is my favorite among those few exceptions.

There are two main types of cards — the cards that you play from your hand, which will become resources like: gang members, special timed events, and single use special effects, and the cards that represent your gangs' various headquarters, called: bases. Each player begins by choosing three bases from among six choices. There's a whole deck of cards that represent the different bases, and each one is unique.

Each base provides a special benefit to it's player and these vary greatly in usefulness and utility. To balance swings in power between one base and the next, each base shows a number of cards that the player who owns that base will be get to draw into their hand at the start of the game. More powerful bases grant fewer cards (as few as zero). Players must weigh the benefits of more powerful base effects versus starting the game with more cards in hand.

The bases provide asymmetry for the players, informing each players strategy and game play. Choosing your three bases provides a sort of deck construction element, but because it's hyper focused to only three cards, it can be accomplished quickly at the start of every game. Once bases are chosen they are placed in a row in front of the players and actual card play can begin.

Each player's goal is to destroy the other player's bases. A successful attack against a base will force its player to turn that base card sideways to indicate that it has been damaged. A successful attack against a damaged base will force its player to turn that base card face down indicating that the base has been destroyed.

Cards are played from a players hand on their turn. These cards are drawn from a shared central deck. Most cards are gang members that can be played in front of a player's bases to provide a line of defense as well as other special "when activated" abilities that the cards are able to perform while in play. There's a lot of variety here and awesome synergies to be discovered that keep game play varied and exciting.

Cards are paid for when played by flipping tokens that represent the players chief in game currency, water. Players only have three such tokens available on each turn. They start the game with three and end the game with three. There are some cards that might provide more water, but cards in play are all vulnerable to attack, and your opponent won't allow you to keep such a powerful advantage for long.

Its tight in game economy makes for tense, quick and balanced game play. Radlands is a nearly perfect game play experience and one of my favorite games.