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You don't have to be mad to work here, but you won't last long if you're not

A review of Wasteland Express Delivery Service

By Alan WalkerPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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Sometimes a Box of Frogs looks like the sane option

Imagine if you will the world has gone Mad! Imagine the collapse of the economy, the collapse of society, and all out war have engulfed the globe. Now take those thought and imagine them in a Post-Apocalyptic film series primarily set in Australia where the lead character is played by Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy. Get the picture? Now imagine if you will you are a courier working for the Post-Apocalyptic equivalent of DPD, UPS, FEDEX, or the Royal Mail. Grab your gun and make sure you've got plenty of Guzzoline as we drive at breakneck speeds to deliver the mail

Welcome to Wasteland Express Delivery Service

The Box

Story

Welcome to the Wasteland, war has ravaged the land but man has persisted. You are a courier for the Mojave Wasteland Express Delivery Service delivering food, water, ammo and other packages to outposts and settlements dotted around the game board.

Game Mechanics

Action Points

Dice Rolling

Market

Modular Board

Pick Up and Deliver

Variable Player Power

Number of Players

2-5

Play Time

90 mins - 2 hours

Down Time

Action Selection and Planning

The Board

How Does It Play

It's not a difficult game to play, once you have mastered the rulebook it becomes a easy enough game to play. After setting up the board based and establishing the market each player is given three faction cards, one from each faction (Oracles of Ceres, New Republic Army, The Archivists). Each player then chooses their courier from one of the six character boards in the game. Each character is different; you may get more movement points with one, but an other allows you to star with armour. Make sure you way your options up before selecting the character you want. Each player is then given their character's respective vehicle and standees plus 10 $crap (in game money) and 5 action tokens.

The aim of the game is to complete Priority First Class Contracts by completing the delivery objective stated on the card. Players won't necessarily have all the resources to do this and will have to resort to completing faction quests, smuggling runs as well as buying goods and selling them to settlements in need in order to make enough money to ensure they have the resources needed in order to complete First Class Contracts. Each round the players have up to 5 action points to spend on the following actions: -

1. Movement

You can spend up to 3 action points on movement going from once location to another. As each octagonal space is on made up different sections it costs one movement point to move between these individual sections. If you travel through an irradiated space roll the RAD die to check for RAD damage.

2. Purchase

If you have the right amount of$crap you can purchase water, food, or ammo from an outpost that has surplus. When purchasing just make sure you have enough storage spaces in your vehicle for the amount of supplies you are buying.

3. Delivery

If you have the requisite cargo for a PFC, Faction Quest, Smuggling Run or just delivering to a settlement in need, you can put up to 2 action points in delivery.

4. Outpost Action

You can spend up to 2 action points on Outpost Actions. Outpost Actions maybe taking another Faction Quest, or purchasing artefacts, upgrades, mods, or just getting repairs

5. Pass

Pass is where you put unused action points. It also marks the end of your turn

There is more to this than just delivering supplies to here there and everywhere. What sort of Post-Apocalyptic wasteland doesn't have roving bands of raiders looking for a fresh target to prey upon? There are 4 raider factions in this game; The Eyeless, The Railmen, The Nein-Nein, and the Bonesaw. All four have an Enclave at each side of the board, but only the Railmen, Nein-Nein, and Bonesaw have raider trucks which move about the board. When you end your movement phase, if that space has raider icons then those respective trucks will move towards the nearest players. If you move through a space with a raider truck you have the option of whether to engage with it or not. If you choose to fight the raiders you move all your movement points into combat.

When it comes to combat you have take the top card from the Raider Truck deck, he card will tell you what raider you are facing as well as what their defence value is. You roll two dice, plus any more from modifications to your truck and if the value is greater than the defence value then you win. You get to take the raider's loot, the card will tell you what to replace the loot with, you can then move the truck to the furthest corner of the board from you and discard the raider card. If your attack fails you take 1 damage to your truck, if the damage occurs in a storage space then you must discard the cargo within. Mark all damage done by placing a damage token in an available space on your truck. If you choose not to engage the raiders roll the yellow raider check die to determine if the raiders get a lucky hit on you as you pass through their space. When engaging Raiders in an Enclave be sure to draw from the Raider Enclave Deck and follow the same combat rules you would as if you were engaging a raider truck

Of course no Post-Apocalyptic wasteland would be complete without modifications to your vehicle, and W.E.D.S. is no exception as long as you have the $crap. As space is at a premium you will need to plan your load out carefully, or you can buy a trailer to carry your cargo whilst you keep the mods in your vehicle

Permanent Modifications include: -

Armour - Absorbs 2 Damage Points, place a damage token on the Armour to mark the first point, then remove the armour after the second point.

Broker - Allows you to gain an extra 2 $scrap when making a delivery.

Cargo Hold - Comes in two forms, Green for General Storage, White for Weapons. Each storage can only hold one item

Digger - Allows you to dig for buried treasure. Only used during the Big Dig Public Contract

Gunner - Roll one additional die during combat

Machine Gun - Add +1 to any die roll during combat

Nuclear Vault - Allows you to transport nuclear weapons. Only used during the Questionable Decisions Contract

RAD Shield - Allows you to move through irradiated areas without having to roll the RAD die

Sleeper Cab - Allows you to carry 1 additional ally

Turbo - Allows you to move one additional space per movement action

Temporary Modifications include: -

Delivery Bonus - Earn an extra 5 $crap during deliveries, does not apply to 18+ $crap missions

Escort - Move your vehicle to anywhere on the board

Missile - Adds 2 hits to your final roll during combat

All temporary mods mus be discarded after use

Along with the mods you can buy, you can also get allies to help you on your way. All allies do different things so choose your allies wisely

Market

One of the most interesting aspects of this game is the market. Each resource (water, food, ammo/weapons) has a base cost. Food - 2 $crap, Water - 3 $crap, Ammo/Weapons - 4 $crap. As the delivery aspect of this game is centred around Supply & Demand, the market reflects what the delivery cost of each resource. Throughout the game each settlement will request a certain resource, when that resource is delivered the demand tile is replaced by a new demand tile. This changes the prices in the market. The lower the demand for a resource, the lower the cost and vice versa. A quick way to make money in this game is to pick up and deliver the most demanded resource.

Endgame

First player to complete 3 Priority First Class Contracts wins the game

Game Components

125 Modification Tokens

1x Grand Lord Emperor Torque (for any Event or PFC that requires him to be defeated)

6x Player Vehicles

3x Raider Trucks

25x Action Markers

75x Resource Tokens

18x Character Standees (3 of each character for PFC Contract Marking)

6x Not Welcome Standees (When you make a normal delivery to make money, the settlement will mark you as not welcome due to you fleecing them for resource they wanted, it only lasts until you make a delivery to another settlement)

10x Combat Dice

1x Raider Check Die

1x RAD Die

60x 1 $crap

30x 5 $crap

15x 10 $crap

6x Player Dashboards

1x Mod Shop Reference Board

1x Market Board

16x Terrain Octagons

21x Location Tiles

5x Nuclear Bombs

20x Artefacts

40x Damage Tokens

15x Dig Tiles

22x Supply Tiles

36x Demand Tiles

10x Trailers

60x Progress Markers (10 for each character)

16x Ally Cards

9x Raider Truck Cards

16x Raider Enclave Cards

10x Event Cards

15x Vision Quest Cards

8x PFC Cards

45x Faction Cards (15 for each Faction)

1x Shop Tray

Theme

A Post Apocalyptic Mad max meets Royal Mail/FEDEX/UPS/DPD/MyHermes* Game

Replay Value

There is significant replay value as there are a lot of different aspects to this game to explore. The unofficial Solo Mode (available on BoardGameGeek) makes this game more challenging, adding to the replay value.

Favourite Part

There's a lot I like about this game. I like: -

The theme - I'm a sucker for Post-Apocalyptia

The components - they are well designed and fit the theme of the game

The little details - The designers have included storage trays for all the components and they are all designed to fit together in a certain way

Game Trays included making storage of the components easier

Least Favourite Part

Some of the artwork for the Allies and Raiders could've been given a little more consideration. Yes it's a post-apocalyptic game and anyone who has seen Mad Max or played Fallout knows that in the lawless wasteland there is no such thing as morals and human decency, and just about every bad guy is depraved lunatic. However, there are a few characters where they artists have taken one too many liberties.

Some of the artwork in the game

The Bottom Line

This is a good game, it's on that cusp between lightweight and medium weight meaning that it's accessible for both new and experienced board gamers.

I'd recommend this game to anyone who is either a fan of Post-Apocalyptic games, or those who want to play an economic game with a difference

This game gets 9 out of 10 $crap. It's a good game let down by the occasional piece of inappropriate artwork (which is purely down to personal opinion, other people may have different views regarding the artwork in the game)

*Delete as appropriate

Game Designers: Jonathan Gilmour, Ben Pinchback, Matt Riddle

Game Artists: Noah Adelman, Riccardo Burrchielli, Josh Cappel, Scott Harman, Jason D. Kingsley

Publishers: Asmodee, Pandasaurus Games

product review
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About the Creator

Alan Walker

Part-time Avid Gamer, self appointed nerd, and volunteer Karate Instructor

Long time reader, first time blogger

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