Looking for a fun and funky game that’ll last the whole night? Look no further- the Neon Gods board game has you covered!
Neon Gods is a 2-4 player area control game by Isaac Vega and published by Plaid Hat Games. A typical game plays in about 30-120 minutes This is a reimplementation of City of Remnants published in 2013.
Neon Gods: $59.99
Get yours for less at Miniature Market
It’s the future year of 2009, and blurpin’ ain’t how it used to blurp.
You’re a little fish in a day-glo sea, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. The world’s gone corporate and sanitized, but that just means there’s more demand for that black mark merch humanity craves. So pull your gang to gether and carve some territory out of the neon-soaked nighttime of downtown.
When the uptownies come looking for sin, you’ll get ’em what they need. But you aren’t alone out there. The shadows are swollen with brute joovs lookin’ to take what’s yours. They’ll kill your best yoots, get your customers dusted, and steal your blocks. You can’t let that happen kid, so get you some big guns and some killers to use them.
Neon Gods is a story of street gangs set in a kaleidoscopic near future of heightened reality. Start your own (legitimate) businesses, and watch them flourish. Recruit the finest disillusioned ne’er-do-wells to hold your territory, and purchase black market resources that’ll give you the edge. Be prepared to fight for what’s yours because opponents will muscle in on your territory; defend your territory or shed some blood to take over what others have built. And don’t forget the cops, who clearly don’t have anything better to do than harass innocent business owners such as yourself.
The world may not think much of you, but in the back alley glow of the neon night, you can be a god.
Contents:
1 City Board
4 Player Boards
1 Recruitment Boards
4 Player Blurp Markers
1 First Player Token
1 Round Marker
64 Gang Figures
10 Event Cards
46 Gang Member Cards
24 Starting Gang Member Cards
4 Work Cards
4 Player Base Tiles
10 Tunnel Tokens
16 Skyscraper Tokens
10 Factory Tokens
10 Watchtower Tokens
10 Monument Tokens
10 Owl Tokens
15 Andy Tokens
50 $ Tokens
30 Product Tokens
16 Dead Zone Tiles
3 Pink Battle Dice
3 Blue Battle Dice
3 Green Battle DiceAges: 14+
Players: 2-4
Game Length: 60-120 minutes
In Neon Gods you are the member of one of four prominent gangs trying to take control of the city. You can recruit new gang members and build factories and even move product in order to earn enough “blurp” to be the top gang. Blurp is victory points, and you want this. Your path to victory requires spreading out and taking control of as many spaces as possible. Two things stand in your way, however; rival gang members and “Andies,” the android police force.
Neon Gods is very much an area control game with some deck building elements. As you recruit new gang members you also gain another figure to add to your force. This will allow you to spread out more as well as beef up your defenses and maintain area control. Each of these new members adds better dice and actions to help you.
Each player starts with only six cards as well as a figure to represent each one. You can play up to three a round for their various abilities. Some allow gang movement, card draw power, money gain, building actions or even sell product. After playing cards you then move two figures and resolve any battles from moving into a contested zone. These contested zones may be occupied by rival gangs or Andies. This will cause combat to occur.
Combat in Neon Gods is very interesting. Each player secretly chooses three cards either from hand or drawing blind from the deck in any combination. Then when the gang members are revealed instead of the actions, you gain the colored dice depicted. Highest roll wins which is boosted by gang members in the zone and adjacent zones. My favorite thing about combat is that you are never without cards.
They may not be ideal but at least you are always able to have three dice. The dice have different levels of effectiveness. Pink has the most hits blue the fewest. Green is about midrange but some faces have dollar signs. These let you steal money from your opponents. Winning a fight earns you one blurp each.
Another feature of Neon Gods is building structures. You can make watchtowers to help defend zones. Factories can be built to manufacture a product which can be sold for money. Monuments can earn more blurp but must be in the same zone as a skyscraper which also earns extra points.
At the end of every third round there is a daylight phase. This is when you score for area control. You gain one blurp for each zone you control as well as any structure bonuses. Then after round nine, you have a final daylight phase and the game ends. The winner is the player with the most blurp. The tiebreaker is hilarious, first one is whoever has the pay in-game money. If the tie is still not broken, then the tied players have a staring contest to determine the winner.
I really enjoyed this game ever since playing a demo at GenCon. I was excited to finally acquire this at my FLGS. The theme is fun and really makes for a wonderful cyberpunk/sci-fi aesthetic. Neon Gods has beautiful art by Igor Wolski and everything just pops with color.
My friends and I even had a themed game night for our first session it added to the fun. The miniatures look awesome and have that same bright neon color. Also, there are owls you can unleash on your opponents, who doesn’t love owls?
If you want an area control game with a splash of color and a fun theme, then Neon Gods is a great addition to your collection.
