Greetings, Knights! We are already counting days to the beginning of SPIEL 2018 – the biggest game fair in the world organized every year in Essen, Germany. There you will have a chance to play the prototype of Waste Knights: Second Edition and enter Australian badlands. Before it happens, we wish to shed some light on the matter of the game board, on which you will have your adventures.
In the last article you learned about the Open World and the choices directing and shaping the story of the currently played scenario. Now it is time to see what happened to Australia and why you must fight for survival.
Although Australia was never a particularly hospitable place, after the Scourge – an ecological and nuclear catastrophe triggered by the machinations of the megacorporation Cerbero – it has become even more dangerous: feral animals attack humans on sight, mutated freaks of nature freed from secret labs roam the outback and the only law in the wastelands is the club law. Earth, water and air hide lethal threats that you must overcome in order to see another dawn.
HELL OR HIGH WATER
In Waste Knights: Second Edition you travel around a huge, 6-panel game board measuring 84 by 56 cm (33 by 22 inch). It features the map of the broken continent of Australia. The country has completely changed after the cataclysm. You will have to scout it and learn the lay of the land by visiting both completely new places and ruins of real cities that once proudly stood around the coast. Depending on the vehicle you use – its speed and tank – you will cover longer routes to get to your destination. And believe us – there will be plenty to see.
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Particular spaces belong to one terrain type: highway, desert, scrub, mountains or crater, the last of which cannot be normally crossed. The terrain type impacts the cost of entering a given space (in Movement Points) and the Wasteland deck from which to draw at the end of your movement – it is easier to encounter a gang on a desolate highway and a mutated beast in toxic swamps, after all. On the way you might also get into more trouble if any spaces on your route contain Radiation, Biohazard or Threat icons. Additionally, when you perform the Explore action in order to scavenge for the much needed resources (Fuel, Meds and Ammo), the terrain will determine your findings.
DESOLATE AUSTRALIA
The fact that Waste Knights: Second Edition is set in Australia – albeit a ruined one – means that the board must contain places known from our world. Yet, you should remember that Australia after the Scourge is both a shadow of its former self and a place of new beginnings – a reality that is being rebuilt by the survivors every single day. That is why besides normal spaces the map also contains almost 40 special locations, each with unique artwork. They hide tens of narrative plots that you will experience during your journeys. You will recognize many places – Uluru, Cairns or Kangaroo Island – but many more were founded after the Scourge among the ruins of former cities, factories, mines or secret Cerbero facilities. As you play one scenario after another, you will be thrown among those wondrous and terrifying places, each time learning something new about their history. At the same time any encounters in those locations will have a truly unique feel. All this will merge into a vista of a living, breathing world for your characters to dive into.
JEWELS OF THE FALLEN CROWN
Barren desert stretching to the horizon, highways full of rusted car wrecks, ghost towns stripped bare of resources, radioactive jungles where mutated animals lurk… It is hard to find a safe haven in the wasteland, but humans still live there and fight for their own. When you feel like you need a moment of respite, you can drive to one of the few cities scattered around the continent. No matter if you choose New Sydney – the self-appointed capital of the Waste, look for rare goods in the pirate harbor of Alice Offsprings or choose to cross the land looking for Carcassville, the legendary mutant metropolis, in each city you can count on the support of specialists. The Mechanic will repair your damaged car, the Quack will heal the most grievous injuries while traders from the Stalls will offer resources and gear – as long as you have something for barter. Similarly to the special locations, the cities will also trigger unique stories depending on the scenario and the narrative path that you have chosen.
OUTBACK AWAITS
When you start playing Waste Knights: Second Edition you can be sure of one thing only – you will experience unforgettable adventures full of dramatic choices and exciting plot twists. The whole continent will be the sandbox where your will to survive and resourcefulness will clash with innumerable dangers of the ruined world, of whom you are unlikely heroes. It is time to boldly enter the wilds and earn your place among the Waste Knights!
We encourage you to visit the Galakta booth at the SPIEL fair. You can find us in Hall 2, booth B-136 where you will have an opportunity to play the prototype and learn more about Waste Knights: Second Edition and our other projects.