Radlands

Radlands is a tight two-player duel. Each side has three camps to defend, protected by rows of people. Water is the only resource, you get three a turn, and almost everything costs some.

Destroy all three enemy camps and you win immediately.

Setup

1. Shuffle the pink draw deck and place it in the middle with the black water discs.
2. Shuffle the camp deck and deal 6 cards to each player. Each player secretly picks 3 camps and returns the rest to the box.
3. Place your three camps face down in a row, then reveal them at the same time.
4. Each player places their water silo, Raiders card and player aid in a column to the right, and takes three white water discs.
5. Look at the numbered rectangle in the bottom left of each of your camps and draw that many cards in total.
6. Flip a water disc — if it lands water side up, you go first.

First game? Use the recommended camps: one player takes Garage, Railgun and Supply Depot, the other takes Reactor, Cannon and Victory Totem.

Your Play Area

Column	Contents
First	Your event queue, numbered 3 → 2 → 1 moving toward you
Middle three	Each holds a camp with up to two people in front of it
Last	Your water silo (when not in hand) and Raiders (when not in the queue)

A camp or person with no card in front of it is unprotected. This is the single most important spatial rule in the game — most damage can only hit unprotected targets.

If a card tells you to spend water without placing it on something, put that water next to the draw deck to show it has been spent this turn.

How a Turn Works

1. Events

If there is an event card in the number 1 space, resolve its effect and discard it. If it is your Raiders card, resolve it and return it to your play area instead.

Then advance every event forward one space.

2. Replenish water

Collect three white water discs.

3. Actions

Take any number of the following, in any order, as long as you can pay:

Action	Cost
Play a person or event card	The card’s water cost
Draw a card	2 water
Take your water silo into hand	1 water
Junk a card from hand	Free
Use an ability	The ability’s water cost

Playing a person. Pay the water cost by placing water on the card, then place it in front of one of your camps — even a destroyed one. If a person is already there, you may place the new card in front of or behind it. Behind means protected. You may never have more than two people in front of one camp.

A person played this turn is not ready and cannot use abilities. A card is also not ready if it was just restored, if one of its abilities has been used, or if it is damaged.

Playing an event. Events go into the event queue at the space matching the numbered bomb icon on the card. Only one card per space — if that space is occupied, you cannot play it yet. Level 0 events resolve immediately and never enter the queue at all.

Junking a card. Resolve the effect icon in its top left corner, then discard it from your hand. Junking is how a card you cannot afford still does something useful.

The water silo. Spend 1 water to take it into your hand, hold it as long as you like, then junk it later for an extra water. It is how you bank a leftover water for a turn when you need four.

Using an ability. Abilities sit in black boxes on camps and people. If the card is ready, pay the water cost onto it and resolve the text. If the cost is zero, place a black water disc on it not-ready side up to mark it used.

Card Types

Type	Border	Shows
Camp	Black	Name, initial draw amount, abilities, traits
Person	White	Name, water cost, junk effect, ability, traits
Event	Striped	Name, water cost, junk effect, event effect, numbered bomb symbol

Punks are a special case: a punk is a person with no abilities or traits, represented by a face-down card from the deck. A punk is destroyed the moment it takes any damage and returned to the top of the deck.

And the rule the video is emphatic about: never look at the other side of a punk.

Effect Icons

Icon	Effect
Damage	Damage an unprotected person or camp unless stated otherwise. Turn the card sideways. If it is already damaged — or is a punk — destroy it instead.
Destroy	People are discarded, camps are flipped over, punks return to the top of the draw deck.
Injure	Damage a person only, never a camp.
Restore	Rotate a damaged card upright. If it is a person, mark it not ready.
Draw	Draw a card from the draw deck.
Gain punk	Place the top card of the draw deck face down in one of your columns.
Extra water	Gain one extra black water disc until the end of your turn. If none are left, borrow one from your opponent. All extra water returns to the supply at end of turn.
Raid	Play or advance your Raiders card — see below.

The Raiders card

Raid does one of three things depending on where your Raiders card is:

• Not in the queue? Place it at the number 2 space, if that space is empty.
• Already in the queue? Advance it one space forward, if available.
• Already at space 1? Resolve it: your opponent chooses one of their own camps to damage. Then return Raiders to your play area.

How to Win

Destroy all three of your opponent’s camps and you win immediately.

If the draw deck runs out, shuffle the discard pile to form a new one. If it runs out a second time, the game is a draw.

Strategy Notes

Keep Raiders moving. It is one of your most reliable routes to camp damage, because it bypasses protection entirely — your opponent has to damage a camp themselves. Get it back into the queue as often as you can.

Plan for expensive turns. Three water a turn does not cover everything. Taking the water silo into hand early gives you a fourth water later, which is often exactly what an expensive card needs.

Use punks as armour. A punk in front of a valuable person makes that person protected, and punks are cheap. They die to a single point of damage, which is precisely the job.

Common Mistakes

• Using a person the turn you play it. Newly played people are never ready.
• Forgetting damaged cards are not ready. A damaged person cannot use abilities until it is restored.
• Hitting protected targets. Unless a card says otherwise, damage only hits unprotected cards.
• Stacking three people on a camp. Two is the hard maximum per camp.
• Forgetting to advance the event queue. Events move forward every single turn, including the ones you would rather forget about.
• Letting extra water sit unused. Extra water vanishes at end of turn; only the silo lets you carry value forward.
• Peeking at a punk. Genuinely a rule, not a joke — punks return to the deck when destroyed, so knowing what one was is information you should not have.