Radlands | Solo Variant Playthrough | With Mike

Summary

Highlights

• Mike introduces Radlands and sets up the solo variant he's designing for the game. 🎮
• In the game of Radlands, players must destroy opponent bases to win, with the game revolving around a communal deck of cards. 💥
• Players have three bases each, and the game involves defending these while attempting to destroy an opponent's. 🛡️
• Events in the game, marked by a yellowish outline, possess countdown mechanisms and trigger after a set duration. ⌛
• The AI uses cards like 'raiders' and 'punk' efficiently, adding layers of difficulty for players to overcome. ⚔️

Key Takeaways

• Mike has created a unique solo variant for Radlands that is not officially recognized, offering fans a fresh way to play. 🎲
• You can support Mike and his creative endeavors on Patreon to get exclusive content and insights. 💡
• The AI opponent in the playthrough uses a mix of strategic card plays that can challenge even experienced players. 🤖
• Each turn is dynamic, with card draws, strategic decisions, and the occasional surprise move, like activating the raiders. 🎭
• Adjust the difficulty of the solo play by altering the number of card draws the AI opponent gets each turn. 📊

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Video Overview In this introduction chapter, Mike from the One Stop Co-op Shop introduces a solo variant of a game called Radland, a 1v1 card-based post-apocalyptic battler. He mentions that he has been working on several such solo variants and plans to release more videos on them.
• 00:30 - 05:00: Game Overview and Rules Explanation In this chapter, the speaker discusses their efforts in creating a solo mode for a game, emphasizing that it is an unofficial variant they are developing as a personal project. They acknowledge that the rules are subject to change as they continue to refine them through gameplay, inviting viewers to refer to a linked document for the most current version. Additionally, the speaker encourages viewers to support their content through Patreon, offering benefits like early access to videos and exclusive content, and promotes their streaming channel for further engagement.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Solo Variant Rules Explanation This chapter provides an explanation of the solo variant rules for the game Radlands. The game revolves around each player having three bases, and the main objective is to attack and destroy the opponent's bases. When a card is damaged, it gets rotated, and when a base is damaged again, it is flipped to a destroyed side and cannot return. The game continues in this manner until one player has all three of their bases destroyed, at which point the other player wins. There is also a communal deck that plays a central role in the gameplay.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Gameplay Starts - Player's First Turn The chapter introduces the basic mechanics of a card game. Players have two card types at their disposal: event cards and people cards. Each card type requires water as a cost, located at the upper left of the card. Players can choose to either play the card by paying the water cost or discard it to trigger an effect. Players receive three water units per turn, which can be used to pay for cards. Event cards have an ongoing mechanic where they gradually progress at the start of each turn. The significance of each icon and further game rules will be explained later.
• 07:00 - 09:00: Automa's First Turn The chapter describes the mechanics of movement and positioning in the game, specifically focusing on how certain events are triggered based on the positioning of cards. The chapter explains that when cards move beyond a certain space (space one), an event is triggered. These events can take some time to activate, and once they do, the cards associated with them are discarded. Cards related to players are positioned in a column with their bases, serving as a protective measure. The topmost card in this column is susceptible to attacks, demonstrating a layer of strategy in protecting specific cards, like an exterminator, while keeping others, like a rail gun, safe.
• 09:00 - 11:00: Player's Second Turn In the chapter titled 'Player's Second Turn', the gameplay mechanics are further explained. Players can attack a 'garage' in the arcade and have up to two people per column, allowing for six players in total. When a card is played, the water used to play it is placed on the card, rendering it inactive for the turn. Each card typically has an ability at the bottom that also requires water to activate. Cards can only be played or activated once per turn, limiting strategic options per round. The chapter emphasizes understanding these mechanics for effective gameplay.
• 11:00 - 13:00: Automa's Second Turn In 'Automa's Second Turn,' players begin their turns with summoning sickness akin to 'Magic: The Gathering,' requiring a turn to activate a character fully. Players start each turn with three water and draw one card, using cards to activate abilities or for their junk abilities. Water is spent to activate abilities, and players continue this cycle until one player loses. Two crucial cards include the Water Silo, which allows players to save water for future turns, and Raiders, which activate when triggered by specific in-game actions noted by a wheel symbol.
• 13:00 - 15:00: Player's Third Turn The chapter describes a game strategy involving a tactic that forces opponents to damage their own camps, referred to as bases. This tactic is a reliable method for inflicting damage on opponents, often becoming a primary strategy for victory. The rule basics are explained succinctly, leading into a discussion on the solo mode of the game. The solo mode operates on the principle that the AI, or automa, consistently utilizes a set of three specific bases. These bases include an arcade which contributes to continuous generation of people, indicating a focus on maintaining a steady supply of resources for gameplay.
• 15:00 - 16:00: Automa's Third Turn The chapter describes Automa's strategy and gameplay mechanics, particularly during its third turn. At the start, Automa checks its resources, particularly if it has two or more people. If lacking, Automa activates the arcade to gain a "punk," a minimal unit with limited capabilities, symbolized as a face-down card. Instead of traditional card draws, Automa resolves two cards, flipping them to determine their utility. Events are discarded for their upper left icons. The focus is on balancing resources while defending against consistent raider attacks using powerful tools like the railgun. This highlights Automa's robustness by design.
• 16:00 - 17:00: Player's Fourth Turn In the 'Player's Fourth Turn' chapter, the strategy involves understanding opponents' card-playing tendencies, such as opting to play people cards if affordable, despite having damaged cards on the board. A player must consider their resources, like water, to deploy cards like the vanguard or pyromaniac. Post-playing, the objective shifts to maximizing damage to the adversary if resources permit.
• 17:00 - 19:00: Automa's Fourth Turn In this chapter, the player must use strategic intelligence to efficiently deploy damage. The game mechanics prioritize attacking bases but will target high-cost assets (3 or 4 cost people) over bases due to their powerful abilities. The strategy involves injuring opponents to hinder their abilities before finishing them off. The game involves resolving two cards each turn, where characters may be played or discarded for effects, but events are never played. The primary objective remains to eliminate the player's characters. The chapter sets up for a quick play-through as the player considers their move, beginning with examining six camps.
• 19:00 - 21:00: Player's Fifth Turn In the chapter titled 'Player's Fifth Turn', the player discusses three strategic card options in a game scenario. The first option is the 'Atomic Garden', which allows the player to spend two units of water to repair a damaged person, making them ready for action immediately, unlike normal healing. The second option is the 'Labor Camp', which at no water cost, involves sacrificing one of the player's people to repair any structure or camp. Lastly, the 'Oasis' has a passive ability, reducing the cost of playing people into the same column if it starts empty, allowing for strategic placement at no cost under certain conditions. The chapter elaborates on how these decisions impact the game flow, particularly focusing on hand size, which is influenced by card values.
• 21:00 - 23:00: Automa's Fifth Turn In this chapter titled 'Automa's Fifth Turn,' the narrator discusses the process of drawing three cards in a game scenario. The cards drawn include two event cards. The first event is 'Truce,' which requires all people to be returned to their owners' hands immediately, but this is removed in solo play as the automa cannot handle it. The second event is 'Attack,' which allows an attack on all unprotected enemies and is used strategically when many people are in play. The narrator mentions having a banish card that costs one to play and can kill any enemy after one turn. Additionally, a pyromaniac card is introduced, which can attack an unprotected camp for one water. The narrative ends with the player preparing for their turn.
• 23:00 - 25:00: Conclusion and Final Thoughts The chapter 'Conclusion and Final Thoughts' reflects on the strategic elements of a game where the first player begins with a handicap of only one water. The narrator discusses deploying a pyromaniac on the oasis without cost, given they have one water left, and then describes acquiring a water silo to gain additional water for later use. The narrator experiences a moment of realization, noting the mistake of not drawing an extra card and expresses surprise at drawing many event cards. They highlight the 'High Ground' event as a powerful zero-cost card that allows rearranging people and makes opponent cards unprotected for a turn, enabling attacks on camps without interference.

Radlands | Solo Variant Playthrough | With Mike Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] hey this is mike from the one stop co-op shop and i'm back with another solo variant of my own design i've been working on a bunch of these so there will be several videos coming i hope you enjoy them but today we're looking at radland this is a recent 1v1 card based post-apocalyptic battler and while roxy games did give me a free copy of the
• 00:30 - 01:00 game to try out my design chops this is not an official solo mode this is just me messing around and a quick note that i will continue refining the rules as i play more so you can use the link in the video description to see them and eventually they might change a bit from what is shown in this video so the rules document should be considered the most up-to-date version and hey if you like the content on the one-stop co-op shop if you like these solo variants i'm designing feel free to support us through patreon you get early access to our videos and exclusive videos including my worst five games of last year you can also check out our streaming channel for even more content
• 01:00 - 01:30 listen to our weekly podcast and join us for conversations on our discord channel but let's face the fallout and get into radlands so first to go over some of the basics of radland's play in general each player has three bases and that is the goal of the game to attack and destroy these bases cards can be undamaged when they get damaged they get rotated 90 degrees and for bases when they get damaged again they get flipped to this destroyed side and can't come back once all three bases are destroyed the other player wins the rest of the game revolves around this big communal deck
• 01:30 - 02:00 of cards and there are two types of cards in it you have events with kind of this yellowish outline and then you have people cards now both have a cost in water in the upper left here as well as an effect you can discard the card for instead of playing a card and paying for it you can discard a card from your hand to do the effect in the upper left you'll find out what those icons mean later but if you want to pay water for a card you have three water a turn you can play it down now for events they slowly tick down basically the beginning of each of your turns every event you have
• 02:00 - 02:30 moves up one space and the space they start on is determined by this little explosion basically in line with your bases is space three then if you imagine more cards here that's space two that's space one and once they ascend past space one then the event triggers you have to wait a while sometimes for the events to do something but then they're discarded whereas people cards get put in a column with your bases and they're basically protecting your base because for most attack abilities the top most card is the only one that's vulnerable to being attacked so right now someone could attack my exterminator but not my rail gun whereas they could freely
• 02:30 - 03:00 attack the garage in the arcade and you can have up to two people in a given column so you can have up to six played in general now when you play a card you put the water that you paid to play it right on the card and that means the card can't be used this turn and when i say use what do i mean almost every card has an ability on the bottom that also costs water so in this case you use the garage i would put a water on it and again the icons are about attacking and healing things and that kind of stuff you'll see them in the play through but basically a card can only be played or activated once per turn so i couldn't like play the exterminator and shoot
• 03:00 - 03:30 with him that turn you have to wait a turn kind of like summoning sickness and magic and that's about it you get three water and draw one card at the start of each of your turns you play some cards you can discard them for their junk abilities you spend your water to activate abilities and rinse and repeat till one of you dies now two more important cards to show every player has these the water silo you can spend one water if you just like kind of have one left over at the end of your turn you don't know what to do with it to take this into your hand and then you can discard it in a future turn to get one water so it just kind of lets you hold the water from turn to turn and then raiders very important they activate whenever you do something with this little wheel symbol and they're an event
• 03:30 - 04:00 with two timing that lets you force the opponent to damage one of their camps so they call them bases camps so this is a consistent way to deal damage you're gonna see that this is often uh one of the main ways that you kill each other because it forces them to damage their camps whether or not anybody's defending them all right that's about it for the rule basics let's get into how the solo works so first a key concept of my automa is that they always use these same three bases because these are very straightforward and kind of required ones to make the ai work they've got the arcade they can give them consistent people generation
• 04:00 - 04:30 to protect their stuff they've got the garage they can give them consistent raider attacks on you to destroy your bases and the railgun for consistent damage pretty powerful cans which does make them pretty tough which is by design and here's how their turn runs first they check if they have two or more people if they don't they're going to start their turn by activating the arcade to get them a free punk this is a face down card and basically it counts as a one health kind of weenie person that can't do much of anything then instead of having a hand of cards they resolve two cards and what they do is they flip each one if it's an event they just junk it for the upper left icon
• 04:30 - 05:00 they will never play any event except for their raider card but if it's a person and they can afford them they will try to play them unless they have too many people already and how many people is too many people it is three punk people that are not damaged not turned to the side so if they have a bunch of damage people they're still gonna keep on playing people so like here they would pay one water to play the vanguard and they flip the next one and it's another person they can afford so they would pay one water for the pyromaniac and now they're out of water but after playing their cards or discarding them for the junk effect if they had water left they would try to damage me as much as possible so this is
• 05:00 - 05:30 where the player has to use a little bit of intelligence they basically try to efficiently use as much damage as they can and they have a whole priority for who they try to kill generally they attack bases first except they do prefer three and four cost people before bases because they can be so powerful and then they try to injure people before they finish them off so they can't use their abilities you'll see it all in the play but that's kind of the basics they just resolve two cards sometimes they'll play people sometimes they'll discard them for effects they never play events and then they try to kill you as much as they can all right with those out of the way let's get into the play through should be quick all right so for the player you get to look at six camps and
• 05:30 - 06:00 choose three of them i've picked the atomic garden for two water i can repair a damaged person and they become ready which means normally when you heal somebody they can't do anything but in this case they could actually still like attack that turn the labor camp for zero water lets me kill one of my own people but then i get to repair something and that could include even a camp and finally the oasis and have an activated ability but it says if you have no people in this column they cost one less to play in this column so i can get to people like here for free often and your starting hand size is determined by these card values on the left here so
• 06:00 - 06:30 i'm going to draw three cards let's see i got two events truce return all people to their owner's hands immediately oh and actually i forgot this one is taken out in solo play because the otoma has no idea how to deal with it doesn't have a hand but i got another event ooh attack all unprotected enemies and it happens immediately that's amazing when they get like a lot of people played so i'll probably be using that later a banish costs one to play but then after one time i can kill any enemy and the pyromaniac lets me attack an unprotected camp only but for one waters that's pretty good now the player always goes
• 06:30 - 07:00 first the otoma always goes second and the first player only gets one water the first turn just as a little like handicap so i'm gonna play my pyromaniac i'll play him on the oasis to get him out for free since i have one water left i'm gonna get my water silo to my hand to give me an extra water later oh wait silly man forgetting the basic rules of the game i should have drawn extra card why am i getting all these events okay high ground is a zero cost event it's one time when it triggers i rearrange all my people and this turn all the opponent's cards are unprotected oh wow so i could attack camps even if they had people in front of them that's a pretty awesome card we're gonna discard it for
• 07:00 - 07:30 water yeah hopefully i'll draw some people eventually all right beginning to the otoma's first turn they do not have two or more people so they're gonna use the arcade and they'll put down a punk and there's a few rules for how they place people but for now they just place in the leftmost space you can look at the detailed rules document for explanation of how they place all right now they're going to draw their two cards first they get a scientist for one he lets them discard the top three cards of the deck and use the junk effect of one of them for the automa they just discard a single card for the junk effect he's gonna go there to guard the garage they got a vanguard for one they do a damage then the
• 07:30 - 08:00 opponent does the damage back to them interesting oh and when they enter play they give them a free punk and so they have filled their board in very short order and punks are the lowest priority cards for the automa so they want to guard a stronger card so in this case it's going to go in front of the scientists to protect him man i got a ton of people all right let me draw a card amuse consistent water generation or i can damage somebody with it i think strafing is the way to go because they just have such a crazy number of people out so let's do that first and because it's
• 08:00 - 08:30 a zero it just triggers immediately and it says it injures all unprotected enemies so regular enemies gets turned they are damaged and they cannot activate their ability but punks die after one hit awesome so now their railgun is exposed with my last water heck yeah let's do my pyromaniac attacking unprotected camp that's gonna get his railgun halfway dead now unfortunately camps can still use their ability even when they're damaged all right now let's see i could get another water with my water silo now that they don't have a consistent way to hurt me yeah let's go and get the muse out in
• 08:30 - 09:00 case she can give me more water um that destroys a person to undamage something and this lets me repair somebody and they become ready oh man she could even repair herself and then get me water right away so i like her being there it requires a scar in my water silo though to get one extra water all right that was a great turn thank you strafe for saving my butt all right over to the otoma they're not gonna use the arcade because they have at least two people they're gonna resolve two cards all right they can never do events they're just gonna do their raiders which starts at two time will advance the beginning of each turn until it attacks me then
• 09:00 - 09:30 another event they're just gonna get an extra water this is not great for them for draws they've got four water uh first they want to attack with their railgun they always prefer doing direct damage if they can and they prefer attacking bases over people so even though the pyromaniac might be more dangerous to them they're going to attack the labor camp and they've got two water left i think they would use the uh scientist the atomo rules say that they have to prioritize dealing damage when you get into like other effects it's kind of less clear okay so that guy's going to advance the raiders and then they'll use the garage to do the raiders one more time which means they immediately trigger and sorry i
• 09:30 - 10:00 didn't explain that every time you do the raiders event again it just advances one space so i have to damage your base of my choice which i guess will be the oasis but i'm feeling good that they didn't actually get to attack any of my people and my muse is gonna give me some more water all right i get to draw a card give me a person please oh there we go a mutant ooh and they can deal damage or repair somebody and they damage themselves but with like the atomic garden that wouldn't be too bad okay so let's uh let's play them for one oh let's go and use the amuse to get us an extra water um heck yeah pyromaniac gonna destroy their rail gun whoo all
• 10:00 - 10:30 right now we've got two water left and yeah you know it's not one you use too often we're gonna spend two hours to draw an extra card you can always do that oh my gosh i'm getting all these events this one costs four but damages every camp they have wow all right all these events being top decked they're kind of making the game weird for both of us uh but here they go they actually got somebody that can play oh man it is a three coster zeto khan okay the first event you play each turn is zero time that includes raiders let's see for one water they draw three cards men discard three cards and how i did is they just
• 10:30 - 11:00 draw one card and that's not exactly what his ability means but that was the easiest way to kind of do this all right and you can freely change the order people the otomo wants to protect their most valuable cards they're going to put him behind the scientist and they got a second card to resolve oh it's another three cost person but they can't pay for her so they're gonna get a punk and protect the vanguard because again punks are a lower priority even than damaged people damage people are usually the lowest so yikes they've got a pretty powerful person and a lot of protection for all their people okay that early canon made me feel a bit confident i
• 11:00 - 11:30 guess but still i'm feeling great that my muse is left alive oh my gosh i got another event famine each player starting with you destroys all but one of their people so i would keep like one of my one persons and then they would keep zetocon they're most valuable persons i don't know if that's a good winning strategy for me gosh with this i mean it seems kind of dumb to not do the muse for plus one water and then spend all four of it to get my bombardment going so again it's gonna damage every camp and then for each destroyed one i would draw a card which right now is
• 11:30 - 12:00 none it's gonna take a while to fire off though and actually you know what i'm gonna go ahead and discard banish activate my raiders they'll be right ahead of the bombardment of time at two and that way i'll get kind of like a one-two punch and hopefully destroy one of their camps with that that is all my money meanwhile over here they can't use the arcade and they can't use that oops so they're going to do their raider event and this is the nasty part of zetocon remember the first event each turn is a zero so this immediately hurts one of my camps so i guess that okay and then their second card a scout and they are gonna play them because they uh do
• 12:00 - 12:30 not have three or more undamaged people so that's one water and let's see that if they want to attack with the garage and then they would want to use zetocon's ability i guess which is less than draw another card because they don't use events and ooh get their raiders going again okay but this time they actually have to wait for it wait i'm sorry the garage got the raiders going so this actually pushes it forward okay now the one good thing for me here is that they don't have much direct damage it's all about their raiders so they can't really hurt my guys which might be bad for them all right bombardment and raiders advanced they're almost triggering i get another card hey
• 12:30 - 13:00 it's finally a person so when you play a wooden soldier they give you a card draw but then you have to damage them sounds pretty good to me let's protect my muse i guess zoom out a bit so you can see everything so he hurts himself but i get a card draw i knew it's a hold out costs two normally it would cost zero if they're put in the column of a destroyed camp which doesn't help me at all yet use my muse to get back a water you know what i feel dumb for not doing this before but my mutant can attack for free but he has to damage himself so
• 13:00 - 13:30 boop i'm gonna try to kill the scientist to get to zetocon and then i can use my atomic garden then i can use my atomic garden to repair the mutant and take this off he's ready again and we'll do it again and kill the scientist and then he says yes famine lets me damage a person by discarding it so boom no more zetocon immediate raiders for them at least for now and i've still got one water i guess i'll get my water silo i think me mom for the automa the raiders advance and again two cards so first a rescue team costs one they enter play
• 13:30 - 14:00 ready so you can use them right away and for zero water you can return a person to your hand and the otome uses this just for one use they'll take one cost people and basically throw them back into their hand to play them again immediately so at the moment they don't care about zito khan because they have no sure way to make him come back to life so the rescue team's gonna come in and that's right they are ready so we'll just put that to the side and second card or their own family they're gonna deal damage one of my people which will be our friend the mutant all right like i said they'll use the rescue team to take the vanguard and then they immediately play them again for one water they only do that with one water
• 14:00 - 14:30 people then i guess they just have a lot of ways to do their raiders so they'll go and trigger the raiders once and advances them immediately which means they got to lose one of these places well the oasis isn't doing anything unless they actually kill my pyromaniac i don't need the discount so there we go all right now my turn i'm going to get a card and then my raiders fire off and they consider their rightmost camps less important so there we go the arcade is damaged and i'm about to bombard it and kill it yes all right the muse is gonna get me a fourth water now let's see uh i haven't used this yet but i think i'm going to kill one of my guys to repair one of my camps i don't want them to
• 14:30 - 15:00 like surprise kill me with another raider and let's go and use the little atomic garden trick again to untap this guy and then tap him to do a damage i guess i'll just finish off zedocon i still got two water oh i could put the hold out here for free let's do that behind the pyromaniac because the holdout has a more consistent attack i still have two water jeez i'm gonna draw a card for the cult leader try get something better ooh vigilante can deal damage to people consistently uh sure i think well i'm gonna have one extra like water left over nothing to do with it so
• 15:00 - 15:30 you know what i'll just spend two to draw a card a gunner attack all unprotected enemies that's amazing for the situation we're in currently all right don't tell me i haven't really been able to get any damage going although now they got the vanguard back but uh we're looking pretty good okay call leader is going to redraw because they already have three ready people so they're not going to play that assassin they can put out the raiders and the redraw and plus one a lot of his turn so they'll have four alright so let's see they will attack and then the opponent does damage back well actually if i'm being strategic i don't want to give them the chance to hurt the scout first so let's go bam bam that will make the raiders go off immediately luckily i
• 15:30 - 16:00 repaired my labor camp so there we go and then they'll do a damage and i'll do damage back to them and let's see let's see they would want to hurt the muse first because she's both protecting a more priority thing and then she's also on damage with their one water left they will get their water silo for next time will there be a next time bombardment so i damage every base boom boom am i gonna draw a card for each destroyed base yikes okay i got a ton of people i can't even fit all of these people ooh the high ground will make
• 16:00 - 16:30 every card unprotected so i could attack their garage directly yeah let's go and play that for free it'll trigger next turn i should be able to win this turn shouldn't i let's see okay i can discard the mutant for one attack which would yes trigger the rescue team then my holdout can attack somebody for one and then i can attack an unprotected camp for one that'll be bam and bam all right so there you go a win against the otama my uh victory rate is maybe about 50 or a bit higher i got really lucky this game getting their rail gun so early and also they did not get a lot of direct
• 16:30 - 17:00 damage although they were raiding me really successfully they could not handle all of my units but you can adjust the difficulty pretty easily basically just give them fewer or more card draws a turn so if you want it really easy they only get one card draw a turn kind of medium is switching off between two and one then you can go up to two and three switching off or just go up to three cards a turn if you want to lose yeah i hope you enjoyed it hope radlands looks cool i'm definitely enjoying it both for competitive and with my solo mode thanks for watching everybody let me know your thoughts in the comments good gaming and i'll see you at the next stop