Delivering goods as a trucker in the Post-Apocalyptic Wasteland can be fun for you and up to four friends. Check out this week’s board game review!
The Wasteland is a barren mess of sand dunes, radiation and hostile maniacs, which makes for an interesting day’s work at the Wasteland Express Delivery Service.
Wasteland Delivery Express Service, or WEDS as all its friends call it, is a 2-5 player pick up and deliver game. It was designed by Jonathan Gilmour, Ben Pinchback, and Matt Riddle and published by Pandasaurus games. While a little on the medium to heavy side for gameplay, WEDS is an amazingly fun game, with a typical game taking roughly 90-120 minutes to play.
Wasteland Express Delivery Service $89.95
Take on the role of the half-insane drivers for the last delivery company left of earth: the Wasteland Express Delivery Service. In order to scratch out a living in this deranged universe, drivers will deliver goods and guns between the handful of settlements pockmarked throughout the hellscape that you call home and take on missions from the handful of factions still trying to hold onto the last dregs of civilization.
Course, none of this is easy. Inhabiting the post-apocalyptic wasteland are unhinged characters set on unleashing mayhem at every turn. If you want to survive, you’ll have to battle through the psycho raiders who occupy the void between cities. Maybe the world can be saved, maybe you can bring humanity back from the brink. Band the world back together to fight back against the void. Then again, what the f*&% do you care? You’re here to get paid and live another day free. Outfit your truck, get loaded for bear, hire some allies, get paid, and just keep on truckin’.
In WEDS you play as a truck driver in the post-apocalyptic United States tasked with delivering food, water, and weapons to various settlements. Along the way, you will encounter raiders in the form of roaming trucks or you can drive into their enclaves in order to pillage cargo from them. There are multiple contracts you can fulfill in order to make money or claim first class priority contracts needed to win the game.
Each player has a fully customizable truck as well, you can buy extra storage, guns radiation shields, missiles, sleeper cabs, and much more. The possibilities are endless. You can also hire allies to ride with you for special added abilities. And each character has a unique ability which may affect your play style or strategy.
The board is made up of tiles that are completely modular, so no two games are the same. This added to the various different contracts you have so many levels of variety. The components are amazing! The raider trucks actually have space in their beds to hold the 3-D cargo. Every one of the many chits is very clearly printed and your money, which is called $crap, are all different sized washers. Each player board has a grid outline of the vehicle which you can place different upgrade tokens on in order to get special abilities. As you fight raiders or drive into radiation zones, your truck can take damage which will cover up your cargo slots hindering your trucks capabilities. This can always be repaired if you have some extra money or $crap rather.
One of the shining features of WEDS is the included storage trays. Created by the third party company Game Trayz, the game has all its components set up into special trays designed to organize everything you need to play for easy setup and accessibility. Without these trays, I would imagine setup and breakdown would take up most of your group’s game time. More and more games are utilizing this company’s trays and I applaud this decision. Everything is clearly laid out and labeled. Even the Mod Shop has a special tray with all the prices clearly labeled for each truck mod.
WEDS features amazing themed artwork that evokes many popular post-apocalyptic themes such as Mad Max, Fallout, and even The Postman. This game will aesthetically appeal to all fans of those movies and games. The game when set up for play is very visually striking and looks great on the table. And the Game Trayz make it look even better.
Overall, Wasteland Express Delivery Service is an exciting and enjoyable experience. While on the long side it’s fun and fast-paced. With awesome components, beautifully themed artwork, and deep gameplay, I highly recommend this game for your collection.
