Greetings Fellow Board Gamers!
The featured game for this article and video review is a game from Fireside Games, Remnants.
Remnants on Board Game Geek – here.
* Note – This is not a ‘How to Play’ or tutorial type article. This is a review of the game components and brief review of game play.
The world ended some time ago. Our days are dust and sand. We build what we need to survive from the remnants of the old world . . .
Remnants takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Each player builds a compound and fights to survive Raiders and mutant creatures. Send Survivors into the Badlands to roll dice in a real-time race for Resources, and then take turns spending those Resources to buy weapon, defense, and special development cards. When threats attack, roll dice and use abilities from cards you purchased to stay alive and fend off the assault. Designed by Matthew O’Malley, Ben Rosset, and our own Justin De Witt.
Remnants takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. Each player builds a compound and fights to survive Raiders and mutant creatures. The game is played in 5 phases: Scavenge, Build, Fight, Heal, and Cleanup. In the Scavenge phase, you send Survivors into the Badlands to roll dice in a real-time race for Resources. In the Build phase, you take turns spending those Resources to buy weapon, defense, and special development cards that enhance your compound. When threats attack, you’ll roll dice and use abilities followed by a Level 2 threat, and then finally face down the Raider Boss. After the final attack, the game ends and the player with the most Victory points is the winner.
If you like Mad Max, you should definitely be looking into this game!
Rules
I can’t think of any rule book from Fireside that’s given me serious trouble. Fireside is great about explaining things in detail and so their rule books tend to be thick and intimidating when you first pick them up. The rule book is detailed and covers just about every aspect of the game. We haven’t had a single question about Remnants that wasn’t covered in the rule book.
As a general tip, I recommend that you give yourself time to sit and read the rule book in its entirety. Then sit down with a friend or two that doesn’t mind trying to learn a new game so you can work out the ins and outs of the game. I’d do all of this before introducing it to a larger group. If your group likes learning new games together, then board out and game on!
Fireside has a link to the rule book, here.
Components and Game Play
You can find a review video on my YouTube channel that shows all of the components with a brief description and also a review of the game play.
You can follow this link directly to my video – HERE.
Summary
Remnants is not a difficult game to learn or play. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes to teach to a group. The complexity of the game comes in with the various RNG that’s in the game. You’re trying to accomplish whatever purchasing goal you have with the randomness of the Badlands cards and the dice. The development cards are different with each setup too, which I definitely like. You can bet that no two games will ever be the same. I also like that you don’t have to focus on defeating attackers in order to win. There are other ways to get the Flavor Pack VPs. I know they’re called “Flavor Packs”, but they totally look like Ketchup Packs. I almost want to buy a box of Ketchup Packs from somewhere just to use for this game. One of my favorite descriptive things from Remnants is this:“Victory Points are flavor packets because in the future, flavor is the most valuable commodity.”
Fireside is always good about putting player aids on the board, on cards to hand out, or somewhere in the game components. Once again, Fireside has not let me down! Your player board has a detailed turn order, which is really all you need once you’ve got the basics down.
I also enjoy the randomness of the attacking Raiders and the various ways you can set up the boss, like not revealing their Power Up card until the boss is actually attacking. It adds some suspense to the boss and I love it! We typically wait until we’re done with the Dread turn before flipping the Raider/Boss – which makes it that much more fun!
This game is loads of fun and it plays relatively quickly. If you like Mad Max or something similar (I LOVE Mad Max), you might like the feel of this game. It’s definitely got that Mad Max feel – you’re fighting against other players for resources and the opportunity to development your compound, while fighting for your life against the attacking Dread!
I would like to see additional Dread cards, either as an expansion/upgrade, or as an addition to a deluxe/collector’s edition of the game. I could also see miniatures and plastic tokens added as an upgrade pack or for a deluxe/collector’s edition and I would totally buy it!
The only complaint I have, has nothing to do with game play or anything really important. I wish there was a base piece or punch out spot on the player board for the turn player flag. I would love to see flag ‘flying’ over the turn player’s compound.
Buy or Bye?
Buy!!!
I hope to see expansions or upgrades in the future! This game deserves upgraded tokens! Even if you don’t dig the theme, give this game a try!
Have strategies or tips for this game? Leave them in a comment!
Have cool accessories or custom pieces? Show them off!
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