Radlands

The Game

Radlands is a two-player head-to-head card game by Australian designer Daniel Piechnick. Set in an apocalyptic future (think Mad Max), you are rival tribes trying to exterminate each other. You win by destroying all three camps of your opponent. 

I learned about Radlands through a series of articles on game design written by the designer. They are well written, candid and insightful, a must-read for new game designers. Some examples in the articles mention Radlands. So when I saw Radlands at a game store in Cologne, Germany, I decided I must get a copy and see how all those principles in the articles translate into this published game. 

In the game, players start with choosing their three camps from six randomly drawn camp cards. The game comes with many different camps so there is variability. Every camp has a different ability. The other cards in the game are people and events. You can play up to two people cards in front of a camp to protect it. People cards have various abilities you can use, e.g. attacking your opponent’s people or camps. There is a raid ability which lets you send raiders. Raiders are a special type of attacker which directly hits a camp, even if it is protected by people. Normally you can only damage a camp if it is unprotected. Cards, be it camps or people, all have two life points. The first time damaged, you turn the card sideways. It loses its abilities. The next time hit, it will be destroyed. There are cards which can heal though. 

You have three camps, and they have different abilities

This is what an early game looks like. 

The camps are well protected now. 

This is the raider card. Both players have one. You need the raid icon to deploy your raider. 

The event cards have a countdown mechanism. Most event cards need to be placed on a track, and they advance at the start of your turn. They are triggered only when they complete their countdown. This means your opponent has a little time to prepare to defend or at least to try to mitigate. 

The first person to destroy all three of the opponent’s camps wins. 

The Play

I played two games with Chen Rui back to back. The first one was quick but the second dragged somewhat, because we got better at defending and we had cards that could heal. You usually have three or four actions on your turn. Water is your currency and also your action points. The cost for playing a card is in water. By default you only get three water on your turn. Turns are generally fast and there is little down time. 

Game in progress with younger daughter Chen Rui. 

The icon in the top left corner is what you get if you discard the card. 

Events have a black-and-yellow border

There are many different characters in the game, all with different abilities. You want to build up a good army of fighters, both to protect your camps and also to give you good attack abilities. You don’t have attack abilities by default. You need to have cards in play with attack abilities, i.e. specific icons. There are cards with crazy abilities, e.g. the truce card returns all characters to hand. The camp abilities are interesting. They make every game a little different. You want to play to the strengths of your camps. 

There is a great variety of cards. 

All three camps have been damaged, and are thus rotated 90 degrees.

Many colourful characters

The Thoughts

Radlands is polished. I did not find it particularly interesting, because it felt like just another two player battle card game. There is no specific problem, just that I did not find anything that stands out. I wonder whether I have unconsciously set too high expectations after reading Daniel's article series. I might not be being fair to the game. I do like the variety in the camps and how interesting some of their powers are. I see Radlands as a well crafted product. Both well developed and marketed. It is ranked high on BoardGameGeek.com, which is no small feat. It has good art. Gameplay is smooth and streamlined, without being overburdened by too many resource types and stats to track. So although the game did not click with me, there is still a lot I can learn and benefit from. 

Onstage / SangDen

The Game

OnStage is a trick-taking game from Vietnam. I first saw the game at the Asian Board Games Festival Malaysia (in Penang) in July, but I had to take care of my booth that weekend and didn't have time at all to play others' games. It was later, in November, at the Thailand Board Games Show that I managed to try the game myself. I had a local assistant for my booth at the fair so I had some time to explore others' games. 

The most eye-catching part of the game is this little stage you build with the game box. The setting is traditional Vietnamese opera. But this stage is not just for show. It is a practical visual tool that supports gameplay. 

During game setup you line up the twelve performers randomly in a queue next to the stage. Before the start of every trick, the first in line goes on stage. The players compete to attract performers who are on stage. The performers hold one to three flowers, which represent their popularity among the opera fans. The flowers are also your victory points. You try to win tricks in this game so that you can attract performers. 

The trick-taking mechanism here is mostly standard. Whatever the start player of the trick plays is the lead colour, and everyone else must follow suit if possible. Only when you don't have that colour then you can play any colour. By default, it is the highest card in the lead colour which wins. The exception is when the trump colour is in play. The trump colour is determined by the performers on stage. If there is one single colour of performers which has the most flowers, that colour is the trump colour. In case of ties, there is no trump colour. If any trump colour card is played in a trick, then the highest card in the trump colour wins. The trump colour keeps shifting during the game, because the combination of performers on stage keeps changing. 

When you win a trick, you will hope to win one performer from the stage. This doesn't always happen. When you win a trick, you can only claim a performer in the same colour as the winning card. If there is no such performer, you don't get anything. Well, other than ridicule from your friends. The cards numbered 1, 4 and 7 have special powers. You get to manipulate the performers on stage. You may add, remove and even swap them with another still in the queue. What this means is the trump colour might change in the middle of a trick, because you can manipulate who are on stage. 

The cards have 1 to 3 flowers. When you win a trick with a card, you can only claim a performer in the same colour. If there is a performer with the same number of flowers as the winning card, you must take that performer. If that particular performer is not on stage, then you may take a different performer in the same colour. You will notice that the higher numbers have fewer flowers. It is easier to win a trick with a high number, but when it comes to picking a performer, you might be forced to pick a lower valued one. 

There is a shoot-for-the-moon mechanism. If you find that things are going poorly, you can try to aim for this rare situation of being the only player to not win any performer. If you can achieve that, you get to take all remaining performers who are still on stage. If there are none on stage, you get to take all performers still in the queue. Needless to say, being able to do this is difficult, especially in the 3 player game. With 5 players, it might be easier, and it is something everyone will watch out for. If you aim to do this, but accidentally win just that one lousy performer, you will be royally screwed. 

The Play

I'm not specifically a fan of trick-taking games. I don't dislike them, but I don't seek them out. I do think the trick-taking mechanism in general is a good one. There are reasons why this genre is so popular. I have played many trick-taking games recently. Sometimes I get a nagging feeling that trick-taking games are a shortcut to fame which small publishers are taking. Come up with a small twist, slap on a pretty theme, and voila! You have a product that has many ready fans. I must admit I am slightly negative towards this abundance of trick-taking games. The moment I tried OnStage, I immediately decided this is a trick-taking game I want in my collection. Probably the only other trick-taking game I feel so strongly about is Sticheln. I find that in OnStage, the tweaks to the standard trick-taking formula come together really well and create a fluid yet smooth experience. You get many surprises, and also opportunities for clever plays. 

You don't always score points when you win tricks. It depends on whether you are able to claim a performer. The stage situation keeps evolving, so it is not easy to manage your hand. If I distill the game down to just the mechanisms, this is a pretty abstract trick-taking game. However the opera performer setting matches this combination of game mechanisms very well. This certainly enhances the play experience. 

The spotlight on the stage is not just for show. It serves a purpose. If there is a trump colour in play, you place all the performers in the trump colour in the spotlight. This is a good visual cue for everyone. It makes gameplay smoother. 

Eight flowers mean eight victory points. 

The cards are in four suits (colours) and are numbered 1 to 9.

The Thoughts

Among trick-taking games, I wouldn't say the game mechanisms in OnStage are very radical. It is nowhere near as radical as Cat in the Box. I like OnStage more than Cat in the Box because the latter can be quite a stressful experience. It is an excellent, very clever and innovative game, and at the same time it stresses me out because I need to play defensively to avoid creating any paradox. Not that stressful is necessarily bad. In OnStage, I feel more positive and energised because the ever changing situation presents many tactical opportunities. You want to manipulate the performers on stage to your benefit. You have to consider how things will change when you claim a performer from the stage. You want to save your strong cards for the right moment. You won't always win a performer when you win a trick. However there is still the advantage of dictating the lead colour for the next trick. I am keen to see what other games Michael Orion will be making. 

Vagrant Dash

 

The Game

Vagrant Dash (2018) is a two-player strategy game. You each lead an army and start from opposite sides of the board. You head towards the three relic sites at the middle of the board. It is the control of these sites which determines victory. The game is played over a fixed number of rounds. When time runs out, whoever controls more sites wins. You can also win by sudden death if you manage to kill the opponent's general, but that's quite hard to do. 

You have five troop types, and they have different abilities. On your turn, you either move a unit, or attack using a unit. The different troop types move and attack in different ways. At the start of the game, many of the hex spaces are still black, i.e. unknown terrain. You can't move into unknown terrain. You need to first use your scouts to scan the terrain. When a scout moves into a space adjacent to one or more black spaces, you get to draw terrain tiles from a bag, and then you can decide how to place them over those black spaces. This is how the map is gradually expanded. Eventually you will reach the relic sites.  

Different terrain types affect movement differently. Units entering rough terrain must stop. They can only resume moving next turn. Mountains cannot be entered, unless you are moving flying units. 

You will be heading for the relic sites. You control a site by simply having a unit on it. Now these sites are not exactly safe havens or strongholds. Your units there are just sitting ducks. This is just like chess. There is no concept of defense. If someone attacks you, you just die. 

You have some cards that you can play for various effects. Some can be played in response to your opponent's actions. The cards create some hidden information in this otherwise open information game. You get to draw cards when you capture a relic site. This makes capturing sites early attractive, even though your unit might get killed. 

The Play

Playing Vagrant Dash feels like playing a perfect-information abstract game, despite the variability of the terrain tiles and the hidden information in the cards. You want to think several steps ahead, playing in your mind what your opponent would do and how you would respond to it. There is some luck. If you keep drawing difficult terrain, you will be slower than your opponent in reaching the sites. You need to time the capture of the sites well, so that you have the upper hand when the game ends. You also want to position your units well to prepare for the final scramble to control the sites. 

The copy I played was a special demo copy. The units were all handcrafted and painted. This is not the mass-produced version. You can't buy this version. 

Tiles with red-and-white borders are mountains. Blue-and-white are lakes.

This is the standard version of Vagrant Dash that you can buy.

You can paint the units if you like. 

The Thoughts

Vagrant Dash is one of only two Malaysian games which sold out at this year's Thailand Board Game Show. It is a game developed and produced with a lot of heart. It is quite chess-like, which means this is a thinky strategy game. The terrains introduce some variability and randomness, and the cards introduce surprises. Both inject some luck into the game. If you enjoy this type of strategy game, give it a go! 

Mini Rogue

The Game

Mini Rogue is a streamlined and compact dungeon crawler, which can be played solo or as a two-player game. You enter a dungeon and fight through traps and monsters, sometimes collecting equipment and gold along the way, sometimes leveling up as you gain experience. Eventually, you will get to the boss at the end of the journey, and if you beat it too, you win.  

The game comes in a small box. Your encounters in the dungeon are represented by cards. Every segment of the dungeon is represented by a 3×3 grid of cards. You start with the card at the top left and must get to the card at the bottom right. You may only move right or down. If you survive all the encounters, you complete the segment. You then move on to the next segment.

The 3x3 grid is the current segment of the dungeon you are in. 

You roll dice to determine the outcomes of your encounters. You need to roll above specific values for success. Die rolls also determine the penalty or reward, depending on whether you are successful. As you level up, you get to roll more dice, which means your chances of success will increase. However, as you move deeper into the dungeon, the monsters will get stronger too.

Possible results of your encounter are listed at the bottom of the card. 

This is your player board. You track several stats like level and hit points. 

This is a monster. At different levels, the stats differ. 

Several other aspects of dungeon crawlers are present. You can get poisoned. You can get cursed. You can obtain magic potions to use on yourself or on your enemies. You can equip yourself with weapons and other items.

Purple cubes track the potions you carry (max 2). 

There are four characters to choose from, with different special abilities. 

The Play

So far, I have only played this as a two player game. Although many elements of typical role playing games have been simplified, I find that there is still a lot to handle. The game is physically small and the number of game components is low, but the gameplay is still rich. I kept referring to the rulebook to check what the icons mean and how to resolve specific situations. This is by no means a light game. It is still very much a dungeon crawler. The early game seems to be more luck-heavy, since you only have one die and your fate is very much dependent on that one die. Or maybe I need to work harder to find ways to mitigate this early luck factor. 

Unfortunately we didn't last very long, and I never got to experience the late game. Every fight with a monster is a fight to the death, theirs or yours. There is no running away. The moment you get stuck with a monster you can't kill, it's game over. I like this. It keeps you on your toes. 

As you explore the dungeon, cards are revealed. 

This is the master map. You need to survive 10 segments to get to the final boss. 

When you encounter the merchant, you can buy or sell stuff. 

The pawns are lovely. 

The Thoughts

Mini Rogue is a miniaturised dungeon crawler, but it is still very much a dungeon crawler. It's a constant struggle to survive. You need to fully utilise everything at your disposal. You need to plan to level up and to equip yourself. I've never been a dungeon crawler fan nor am I into roleplaying games, so this game didn't quite click. I got it because I was curious about how they miniaturised the whole dungeon crawling experience. I'd say they were successful. 

The Story

I bought this game at the Ares Games booth at the Essen game fair 2024. Well, to be more precise, I got it for free. This is one experience that will make me always remember Ares Games fondly. I browsed their shop and found one of the games being sold, Port Arthur, interesting. Browsing further, I saw the other game in the series, by the same designer, 300: Earth and Water. I decided to get both. One of them was EUR25, and the other EUR29. As I prepared to pay, the lady made me an offer. She said if I picked a third game, I could get three games for the price of two, with the lowest priced game made free. I thought why not. So I browsed the shelves again. I really couldn't find anything else I was particularly keen to try. I only found Mini Rogue to be somewhat interesting, because it was trying to do something a little unusual, packing a dungeon crawler into a small box. So I picked it. Now Mini Rogue was only EUR25. That meant I would get it for free. I thought I was being quite clever. Had I picked a game with a higher price, I would be spending more money in total, despite getting one game for free. I thought the lady would now probably regret making me that offer, because instead of generating more revenue, I was just getting a free game from them. That was a bad deal for them, but a great one for me. The lady checked my three items. She said to me, "Since the third game is EUR25 too, then let's do this. The EUR29 game will be free, and I'll charge you for just the two EUR25 games. So the total will be EUR50." She gave me an additional discount! That was such a nice thing to do. This little act of kindness is what will make me always remember Ares Games fondly. 

It is something we should always remember. Choose to be kind to people. 

game accessory: Coinsides

Coinsides is a nifty little tool from Japan, designed by EX FIRST GAMES. It is a large metal coin, and it can be used as multiple types of dice. 

The two sides of the coin are different. Using this side, if you only look at the numbers 1 to 4, you use it as a D4 (four-sided die). If you look at numbers 1 to 8, then it is a D8. If you look closely, you can see Roman numerals going up to 20. So this is also a D20. You "roll" the die by spinning the coin and then stopping it with a finger. Once stopped, the first number to the left of your finger is your result. 

Coinsides comes with this little pouch. 

When you rest Coinsides on the pouch, you can use it to track hit points or any other stat. Just like how sometimes dice are used. When rested on the pouch, you can avoid accidentally spinning it. The black mark on the pouch is used to indicate your hit point. When you need to adjust your hit point, just rotate the Coinsides accordingly. 

If you need to track a larger number, you can use this little shuriken. One side shows 0, 10 and 20, and the other side 30, 40 and 50. With this shuriken you can track up to 59. 

This is how you use Coinsides. If I use it as a D8, then I have just rolled a 3, because the first number to the left of my finger is a 3. If I'm using it as a D20, then I've just rolled 15. The XV next to my finger is the Roman numeral for 15. 

RPG players will probably like this. Check out the Coinsides official webpage.

My Rainforest

The Game

My Rainforest is a light card game from Malaysian publisher Specky Studio. Every card in the game is a plant or an animal from the Malaysian rainforest. You build your own tableau of cards, and that is your rainforest. It will eventually have 9 cards. The cards score points in several ways, mostly depending on what are the card types next to them. 

The core mechanism is like 7 Wonders. Everyone starts with a hand of cards. You pick one and pass the rest to the player on your left. The card you have picked must then be added to your rainforest. 

Cards you place in your rainforest must be organised in a beehive pattern. A card can have at most 6 adjacent cards. 

How a card scores points is specified in the top left corner. This Sumatran Rhinoceros scores 8 points if there are two green cards next to it. If there are four, it scores 16 points. Green cards are plants. The rhino is a herbivore. 

The water buffalo (rightmost card) scores 15 points if it has three green cards next to it. However if there is any red card (carnivore), you lose 3 points for each red card. 

Four player game in progress

There is an advanced variant - the national parks. At the start of the game you draw two national park cards. A card specifies a specific pattern which if you manage to adhere to with your rainforest, you will score bonus points. The card also specifies one animal or plant card. If you have that in your rainforest, you will also score bonus points. These national parks are all real places in Malaysia. 

I managed to create a rainforest that matches exactly one of my national park cards. Yay! I also had the specific plant which could be found at that national park. It is satisfying to be able to achieve both. 

The Play

My strategy is simple. Early on I try to pick the highest scoring cards. Then for the rest of the game I do my best to fulfil their conditions. So far this has been effective. I probably should pay more attention to the player on my left. If there are certain cards which he wants, I should consider taking those cards myself to deny him. But I'm a bit lazy and I tend to focus on just my own rainforest. It's up to you how you want to play. If you prefer a more relaxed and zen mode, just enjoy building your own little rainforest. If you are the more competitive type, yes, feel free to be nasty to your left neighbour. I'm not sure it will always help you win, but if you enjoy making another person lose, knock yourself out. 

The game is simple and smooth. It is a peaceful experience, and the great artwork adds to the enjoyment. 

The Thoughts

I like what Specky Studio is doing. Their games are well crafted products with great art direction and design. I like the additional information on the cards, e.g. the endangered status of animals and their sizes compared to humans. These are not directly related to gameplay, but they add to the play experience. This is a simple game that non-gamers and casual gamers can pick up easily. For gamers, you probably want to play with the national parks to make it more interesting. 

Specky Studio makes games with an educational purpose. My Rainforest is different from most of the so called educational games out there. It is much better. Most educational games I see are rather weak. Yes, they fulfil the purpose of being a teaching tool, but as games, most are lame. My Rainforest is not just a good educational game, it is simply a decent game in its own right.