Redsky is a science-fantasy game where iron-age civilizations compete with each other for land and resources, unaware that they’re secretly inside the hull of a massive spaceship. In the end, the mysterious Overseers who run the spaceship unleash the apocalypse on the iron age civilizations below. Almost everyone will die. In Redsky: The Boardgame, you lead a civilization in the hull from its heroic founding, through its golden days of empire, and then try to survive the apocalypse. Whenever a player loses control of their last city, they are eliminated from play. The winner of the game is the most virtuous survivor!

During setup, players create a unique and modular world map. Each player then chooses a faction and places their starting city. Each game, you settle new cities and place villages to gather five resources: Food, Wood, Ore, Gold, and Culture. You spend these resources to upgrade your cities, raise armies, and more. You roll d8 dice in intense battles over land and resources, and modify die results with combat abilities. Gain new utility and combat abilities by developing your own unique culture with powerful Virtue and Vice cards.

The winner of the game is the survivor with the most Virtue Points (each Virtue card is worth +1 and each Vice card is worth -1). To unlock Virtues and Vices, players first spend Culture to align with their Elements of choice (Redsky’s six philosophies). Each point along an Element’s 4-point track unlocks a new card for them to buy. A new Vice is unlocked at +1 and +3, while a new Virtue is unlocked at +2 and +4. Once unlocked, Vices are free, and tempt players with immediate bonuses to help expand their empire. Virtues come with strong abilities of their own, but are very costly, so players have to balance buying Virtue cards and preparing for the devastation of their cities. You can try to defend yourself and collect the most Virtues, or collect Vices and go on the attack to become the only survivor! You can also adopt a hybrid strategy, where you only try to eliminate players with more Virtues than you.

Redsky: The Boardgame is played over 8 Rounds (standard length) or 5 Rounds (quick length). Each Round, beginning with the player with the first player token, players take Turns doing up to 2 Actions. Players continue taking Turns–proceeding clockwise–until everyone has taken 2 Turns (i.e. up to 4 Actions). There are a total of 9 Actions to choose from in any combination. At the start of each Round, a new Event card is drawn. The first 4 Event cards give players free resources and opportunities to grow. The last 4 Event cards unleash the apocalypse. Oceans will rise. Your armies will be consumed by horrifying plagues. Your cities will burn. Only the most strategic players will survive.

—description from the publisher

Games