Radlands
Review

Radlands (2021) is a battle game set in a post-apocalyptic future, where you survive by protecting your water supply and destroying your opponent. You use People cards to defend your camp and Event cards to destroy your opponent’s camp. It is a straight-up fight to the death, where you carefully deploy your limited resources to build an army strong enough to destroy your opponent.

You battle for survival by choosing how to use your three Water tokens (the most limited resource in this post-apocalyptic future), to play either attacking and defensive cards. Each turn becomes a choice between shoring up your defences with People cards or attacking your opponent with Events cards. Timing is crucial as Event cards cost more water and take time to come into effect, so you need to build up your resources to enable you to play them in a timely manner.

As you progress, you build a grid of up to six People cards. Doing well is about playing cards both at the right time, but also with the right combinations and synergies with other cards you've played to multiply their effects and maximise your stocks of water. Play continues with this back and forth until one player manages to destroy all three of their opponent’s Base cards and they are the winner.

The result is a super simple strategy game, similar to the original Plants Vs Zombies, Marvel Snap or Clash of Clans. It's all about careful timing and being vigilant. Attacking can be the best form of defence but not if your own defences won't hold.

Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Radlands 14 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 11 months ago.