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Atoll
- 2 players
- 20–60 min
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Blast Radius
2024
Rules assistance for Blast Radius
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
- 2 players
- 20–60 min
- 5+
- Complexity 2.0/5
Rules assistant for Blast Radius
For 2 players
What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
Blast Radius is a board game released in 2024 for 2 players, 20–60 minutes per game, and ages 5 and up. It was designed by Mark Steere and its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Hexagon Grid, and Pattern Recognition.
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About the game
Blast Radius is a two-player game played on a hexagonal board of any size, initially empty. The two players, Red and Blue, take turns placing their own checkers onto the board, one checker per turn, starting with Red. Sometimes friendly and/or enemy checkers are removed immediately following a placement. A stack consists of one or more like-colored checkers. Each stack is surrounded by a REZ (radiation exclusion zone) with a radius equal to the stack height. Play You can place your checker anywhere on the board, subject to the following restrictions: You can't place a checker within a REZ, except on a friendly stack at ground zero. You must form the smallest stack that you can. [If you can place a checker on an unoccupied cell, you must do so. Otherwise, you must place on your smallest stack.] Upon forming a stack of height 2 or more, you must remove all stacks (enemy and friendly) within the newly formed REZ, concluding your turn. If there are no enemy checkers on the board at the conclusion of your turn, you win (except at the conclusion of Red’s first turn). Design notes Blast Radius is a very unusual game. It's about as far from [country x] Draughts as a game can be. Blast Radius was my attempt at a war game, though of course it's an abstract. I put the design through innumerable mutations over the course of a few months before finally arriving at something that worked.
Categories
Designers
Publishers
- Mark Steere Games
Questions and answers
Blast Radius supports 2 players according to the catalogue. This is the publisher’s listed player count, so the game is designed for exactly that number of participants. Variants for other group sizes, if any, are described in the rulebook of your edition, so check it before setting up a different configuration.
The listed playing time for Blast Radius is 20–60 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists Blast Radius for ages 5 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
Blast Radius has a complexity rating of 2.0 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
Blast Radius belongs to these categories: Abstract Strategy. Its main mechanics are Tile Placement, Hexagon Grid, and Pattern Recognition. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of Blast Radius are: Mark Steere. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists Blast Radius as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.