Resurgence

Resurgence is a self-published Kickstarter from the designer of Endless Winter and Rurik, which—as far as I remember—seemed to appear around Essen without me having noticed it on the fair’s lists. It is also one of those productions that I am simply happy to see on the table: the ruins of Moscow, the shelters, and the missions give it a clear, ever-present identity, rather than feeling like a theme pasted onto mechanisms. Overall, it looks and feels polished, with a slightly different character from the usual euros.

At its core, it is a bag builder and worker placement game. Players move through a post-apocalyptic Moscow, trying to survive among the ruins, upgrade their shelter, and complete missions. Its initial setup can easily make you expect either a hard Ameritrash adventure or an overly bland cooperative game, but it ultimately takes a much cleaner euro direction.

Progress comes through bag management, worker placement, and an economy that is absolutely tight. That pressure does not merely work as bookkeeping: it ties theme to decisions and makes survival feel genuinely constrained. There is also plenty of interaction, even if the game does not advertise it at first glance, so you do not end up simply and quietly building your own personal shelter.

I am not sure Resurgence has endless replayability, but I find it a very interesting, honest, and demanding medium-euro proposition, with all the good qualities I expect from the category and a theme that genuinely supports the experience. Its only real obstacle may be availability: I do not know whether it will ever reach a large retail print run, so finding it may require a little searching.