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Mage Knight studio’s next game features 10 unique factions

Contemplate The Sphere.

The next upcoming board game from the studio behind Mage Knight, Wizkids, will include 10 unique factions for players to choose from.

Called Free Radicals, the sci-fi board game takes place in Sphere City, an interconnected series of communities that find themselves competing against one another to lead society into the future. Built atop The Sphere, a technological marvel that has caused humanity to achieve advancement far faster than anticipated, Sphere City is home to 10 vastly different factions - each one of them believing that they can lead society into the next stage.

A board game for two to five players, Free Radicals sees players choosing between the different available factions and attempting to gain enough resources, data, credits, knowledge and favour in order to prove that they are the group to take charge. Each faction will have its own unique set of mechanics for players to learn, as well as goals to achieve and challenges to overcome. Free Radicals’ available factions include the Farmers - whose agricultural methods involve players placing domino-style tiles to grow crops - Couriers, a faction that uses drones to deliver the city’s packages, and a faction that creates beautiful hardlight constructs called the Artisans.

Free Radical Layout

Depending on whichever faction a player chooses, they’ll have a certain set of goals to complete that are unique to them, as well as shared research tracks to move along. Besides pushing their own agendas, each faction can also attempt to assist another’s research into the mysterious Sphere in order to earn more favour and additional rewards. However, players will need to be careful not to help out their rivals too much, or else risk giving their opponents a leg-up. By gathering favour, resources and advancing on the research tracks, players can collect victory points and win the game.

Free Radicals was designed by Nathan Woll, whose previous releases include Treasure Cats, a board game in which players become cats trying to find valuable items in different locations in order to score victory points.

Cover image for YouTube video

Apart from Mage Knight and Free Radicals, Wizkids is best known for publishing the horror board game Fury of Dracula (Fourth Edition) - a title in which one group of players attempt to hunt down Dracula, who is controlled by another character - as well as the party game Dungeons & Dragons: Rock Paper Wizard.

Free Radicals is set to be released in February for a retail release price of $60 (£44).

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Free Radicals

Tabletop Game

About the Author
Alex Meehan avatar

Alex Meehan

Senior Staff Writer

After writing for Kotaku UK, Waypoint and Official Xbox Magazine, Alex became a member of the Dicebreaker editorial family. Having been producing news, features, previews and opinion pieces for Dicebreaker for the past three years, Alex has had plenty of opportunity to indulge in her love of meaty strategy board games and gothic RPGS. Besides writing, Alex appears in Dicebreaker’s D&D actual play series Storybreakers and haunts the occasional stream on the Dicebreaker YouTube channel.

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