Radlands: Cult of Chrome Preview #27: Obelisk (new version)

[@aaronlee1060]

I love how Daniel steps back and breaks down what seems to the layman like a simple card game into complex games within games, again changing the meta and dynamic during gameplay. Screw your Molgar I'm actually trying to draw more cards and win without you noticing haha. I can't wait to try this. 🎉

[@TroyPeiffer]

I can’t wait to play this camp!

[@cubictony]

Will you do a quick video on the unreleased ones? I mean, you obviously can't reveal how they possibly work even if you did know, but based from the art revealed on the Roxley website, I am looking forward to "Peaceful Village" and "Boulder," I mean the latter is just a rock for a camp!

[@universityofradlands]

I hadn't thought about that. I guess I could see how many of the 9 new camps (14 minus the 5 replacement camps not previewed) are shown on the website. If it's a good chunk I could show them off though I'm not sure how interested people might be in that. I definitely wouldn't spoil any cards abilities unless Roxley did (not that I remember them all anyway 😄).

[@genmaverick117]

Enjoyed these preivew videos. Great job! And thanks to the misses for letting you do them at 2am. ;) Do you see Oblesik not being viable in Discord since there are two decks of cards to go through?

[@universityofradlands]

Yup, the misses is pretty awesome putting up with my crap 🤣 I'm not sure how this would work over webcam. I'd probably just let the obelisk owner try and mill their deck and not worry about the opponents deck too. 66 cards by yourself will be hard enough. But it's up to whoever is organizing the matches to rule on that. This one and asylum would have to be excluded I'd imagine because of their difficulty over webcam (in tournament play anyway, friendly matches players can do what they want.) That's how I would probably rule it if I was running one. Thanks for watching and commenting on the previews. Glad you enjoyed them. I'm excited to get some matches in with you when CoC drops.

[@cubictony]

This... is a beautiful improvement, dramatic even. I guess my only concern is if both players will play with their own decks (in reference to the webcam games you livestream), and by some chance that both play Obelisk. Though there is still the good chance that one could win the usual way, what happens when they reach the last card draw? Whoever clears out their deck first wins? Thanks for all the previews, University! I'm so looking forward to getting my copy soon!

[@universityofradlands]

Thanks for watching and commenting on so many previews. I really enjoyed the discussions. I'm not sure how that would work. I doubt many people would pick this for webcam play. I've never gotten through the whole deck playing it by myself. But I've never really tried either. I'd rule it as getting through your own deck and not including your opponents since all of the targeted draw and discard cards to mill through the deck would only be taking from yours.. But that would be up to the organizer I'd imagine to make that ruling.

[@apeach5054]

Will the expansion be available on Amazon this month? Or only for preorder?

[@universityofradlands]

I'm not completely sure. I'd imagine they wouldn't offer stock to retailers until the preorders have shipped (that would be the honorable thing in my opinion). That is most likely sometime next month. And keep in mind that Amazon would only carry the retail (linen card) version. The deluxe (synth cards) is sold exclusively on the Roxley website.

[@apeach5054]

@@universityofradlands that makes sense. I went ahead and preordered. I would have preferred Amazon for fast and free shipping but I’m a huge fan of this game so I don’t want to wait. I don’t have synth but wish I did!!!

[@universityofradlands]

@apeach5054 honestly the retail version is still really good. Great card stock. Tokens are still really sturdy. The art pops so much more as well. The synth loses some of the vibrancy and is a bit more muted.

[@AdmSyfq]

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…. that’s all I have to say 😮‍💨

[@davidlisteresq]

Interesting card. I don't think I've ever played a game that has gone through the entire deck so not sure if I'd use it. Edit: I commented before you explained it all. Actually sounds like a nice new tactic.

[@universityofradlands]

It's a fun camp for sure. Maybe more of a kitchen table camp like juggernaut than a tournament I want to take this seriously and win camp. Trying to pull it off is the exciting part and definitely adds a nice little twist to the match. Thanks for watching and commenting. I appreciate it 😊

[@m.coppens6234]

You explain that during play-testing you only won once or twice because of new-Obelisk's trait. Once or twice out of +- how many playtests is that? So it's very hard to pull off this new win-condition even if you focus on drawing cards, correct? If it's indeed hard to pull off, it's not entirely clear to me exactly why this is your favorite new camp; at first sight, this again looks like a camp I myself would not voluntarily pick. Is the fun maybe in the fact that both players have to adjust their play-style? I.e. the player with new-Obelisk grabs every chance to draw cards, while the opponent cannot play any card that makes them draw cards. So the fun being in limiting your opponent rather than in having more options yourself? My opponent and I are no Radlands-experts by any means, and we've never once managed to exhaust the draw-deck. Of course exhausting the draw-deck was never a goal up to now. Unrelated question: the designer mentioned yesterday that there are 6 final play-testers. Did you and the other play-testers have direct discussions/interaction with each other, or was it always 1-on-1 with the designer? Anyway, thanks for all your play-testing and your preview-videos!!

[@universityofradlands]

I enjoyed the play style change of the camp. I feel my opponents also had fun trying to stop it even if they weren't wanting to draw cards. I played with it about five or six times I'd imagine. Even if I didn't win with the obelisk condition that doesn't mean I lost the match overall. Sometimes you can't protect it and your opponent takes it out early. Then you are just playing a game of Radlands at that point 😄. The playtesting had around 30 to 40 playtesters at the start. This first part lasted threeish months and Daniel didn't play much this first part (if at all), he wanted playtesters to whittle camps down. A majority of this work was done by about 6 of us. That's what brought the camp count down from over a hundred to 41 new camps (and the adjustment of starting cards to command post). After playtesting is when Daniel and I continued to play more with the camps chosen and he would make little adjustments as needed. He also played with a couple other playtesters this way but the majority of this process was done by us. Thank you for all the comments and discussions with these preview camps. I really enjoyed the discussions 😊