Catching up on Games (8/27/23)

Recently, I was in the mood to get some solo games to the table, so there’s more here than I would normally have for 1 month.

Anno 1800

I had to get this back to the table after that first play. Such a clean, crunchy design. This time, it was a 3-player game, so we had a lot more trading going around. There was also a bit more competition for some of the buildings.

However, after this game and seeing some of the upcoming “advanced” rule changes, there do seem to be some hiccups. The main one is that the player(s) to get a purple worker out sooner is likely going to get a powerful lead. In our game, two players got a purple worker out early while I struggled to get one and had to dump 3 cards to re-draw before finally seeing one. That put me far enough behind that there was little I could do to catch up. The upcoming advanced rules (coming in an expansion they’ve been teasing for a while now) prevent players from having a worker card during setup that rewards purple. There are a couple other nice adjustments, but this seemed the biggest balance change after our second game.

Still, a really fun game. I’ll need to try the solo mode sometime.

Nusfjord

It’s been a while since I last played this (and we still haven’t played 3-player), so I brought this back out for a quick solo game. Decided to just use the herring deck.

I thought I had a good plan going into it, but I got a little too focused on the Lighthouse that didn’t turn out to be as effective as I hoped. Scored only 30 points. I posted a longer write-up here. Still a great game and cozy puzzle to unwind with. We’ll have to play it 3-player soon.

Scythe

I’ve played Scythe against bots on the app, but I’ve never taken the physical game for a spin solo. It definitely has a learning curve, but you eventually get into the groove of it.

I definitely wasn’t expecting the automa to be so aggressive. It gets right up in your face and keeps coming back. I had a few tense battles with the automa during the game. Scores came down to the second tie-breaker, we were so close. I won by 1 power. I’ll have to do better next time. Another larger write-up is here. Despite the learning curve, it was pretty fun. Playing the board game is more fun than the app, so I might bring this out again soon.

The Rivals for Catan

I’ve been in the mood for a good city/kingdom builder, but we don’t have many. I wanted to play solo, which reduces my options significantly, so I looked up a solo variant to try for Rivals. The long and short of it is the solo variant didn’t work very well. The game’s pacing was off with the “bot” not rolling dice, just taking a card. I’ll need to try a different variant (I found a few) and see if another one works better. I’d love to have a solo mode for this one; it’s a great game.

Rajas of the Ganges

It’s been years since we last played this one, so my brother decided it was time to revisit. I remember enjoying it last time, but I forgot how good it really was.

I think I used the same strategy last time (and I think my brother and our friend repeated their strategies too) but went heavy into trade goods and earning money. My bonus scoring token was for my ship, so wherever I had a good opportunity, I moved my ship along. I did have a bit of a struggle getting the right tiles to actually score my token as I had built in the wrong direction early on. Luckily for me, my opponents were fighting over buildings.

Once the end was drawing near (my money had been flying up), I drove my ship far upriver, then scored a bunch off my bonus token. Then it came down to just making a couple more trips to the market to sell my goods again and seal the victory. We’ll have to explore the expansions next, and preferably not in like 3-4 years.

Aquatica

I had been looking forward to this one. It’s a quick, streamlined card game with a bit of engine-building to it and a unique theme.

I did not expect it to be that quick. I don’t think any of us did. I was getting cards, building up, had one or two good turns, and it was suddenly over. I scored very poorly. Apparently, there isn’t much building up; you just go for the objectives as soon as possible because they don’t take very long to get. But, is a game that short very satisfying? We decided we’d give it one more shot with the expansion to see if it’s better then.

Shinkansen: Zero-kei

I borrowed this one from a friend after seeing it had a solo mode. The Japanese setting and style of the game also appealed to me.

I played twice solo, and while I enjoyed it overall, there were some issues that started to crop up. The events that are placed during setup randomize both the starting money and how many total actions you have over the course of the game, but both of these only affect the player, not the bot. So, just by the setup, you can have a harder time. The order the events come out can also hurt or help, especially with their special actions.

The randomness of the carriage cards that come out can affect both the player and bot, but more so the player because that’s how you take actions. The bot takes pre-determined actions regardless of the carriages they get. For the bot, carriages only bump a station and can give the bot some points for consecutive stations at end-of-game scoring.

Still, it’s pretty easy to run solo, and it’s a tight economy with not many actions during a game. It’s a neat puzzle and I’m really interested to see how it differs in multiplayer. Not sure I’d play again solitaire.

I did a full write-up of my two sessions, with a rules overview, here (first) and here (second).

Trickerion

My friend has owned this since backing the collector’s edition, but it never actually got played. He even bought a fancy insert for it. Well, we finally played it. Now, it’s not our first Mindclash game. We played Anachrony a long while ago, and I was pretty lukewarm on it. We’ve played the first two episodes of Perseverance as well. Episode 1 was okay, but we all enjoyed episode 2 more. I was never really sure if I was going to like Trickerion.

Even though many people say they didn’t like it the first time they played it, we all really enjoyed it. I’m not sure, but I might have enjoyed it the most. One thing I wasn’t sure about was the actual trick mechanic; the square tokens placed onto the performance cards, trying to match icons. It seemed like the one part of the game almost completely abstracted. Well, it is, but it played a pretty minor role in the game. For the most part, we were looking at specific performance cards for bonuses, and mostly checking for links if we could link our own or if there was an opening we already knew was there. Most of our attention was spent planning tricks and trying to make sure we had enough actions to prepare multiple tricks at once.

But everything else felt really good. I had worried a bit about how negative some of the interactions might get (my brother prefers hardcore multiplayer solitaire), but it really wasn’t too bad. It is a long game though. We were around 4 hours. But, on the plus side, it really didn’t feel like 4 hours.

Rage CCG

I’m a sucker for collectible card games, but I just don’t have money for them, normally. But this old thing was one I collected as a kid in the mid-90s. I don’t even remember what sparked my most recent urge to bring it out, but I decided it was time to properly organize my collection. I think I’ll do a larger blog post going over the game, my history with it, and my collection.

But this isn’t one I’ll get to play properly. It’s meant to be played in larger groups as there are cards that interact with multiple opponents. You can play it 1-v-1, but a few cards won’t work. I mean, the main hurdle is the messy rules, even when using the updated rules compendium (last updated in 2018). So, of course, I decided to fiddle with trying to make a solo mode. There are enemies (neutral opponents you play from your deck) and battlefields (added in a later set) that can act as the opposition.

The basic idea is that you make a small deck of enemies to face, then put a large enemy on the bottom to act as a “last boss”. Nexus Crawler from the Umbra set is great for that because it’s huge and can use really strong combat cards. I’ll include my drafted rules in the upcoming blog post, but I go into it some with my session report here.

Destinies

I’ve played 2-player before, and I enjoyed it so much, it made it to #7 in my top 100 last year. That might have been overly generous, but I did really enjoy it. My brother decided he didn’t like multiplayer, so I didn’t play it again until I decided to try it out solo.

I replayed the standalone scenario and tried the noble (only character that hadn’t been played yet). It was fun seeing the differences in story. I chose the destiny of trying to gather a party to hunt the werewolf. I go into details about the session and spoilers here.

I still really enjoy the game, but I’m just not often in the mood for an app-assisted game. So, it’s hard to say how often I’d actually bring this one out. I’d love to have something like this without the app.

Pocket Master Builder

Remember earlier, when I said I was looking for a city builder with a solo mode? Well, I went looking for one and it just happened that a brand new one had come out that ticked all the boxes. And it was very cheap. So, during a recent online sale, I added a copy to the cart.

It comes from designer Wei-Min Ling and illustrator Maisherly, both of EmperorS4 fame but as their own new company, Maimin. It’s basically some cards, cubes in 2 colors, and two sets of rules. Now, the rules already have a reputation for being… not great. They needed editing from a native English speaker, as there are lots of strange wordings and errors. But it’s mostly there once you get past the errors. There are some cards that are clarified in the solo rule sheet, and there are a couple of rules and edge cases not covered.

That aside, it’s such a clean, puzzly game with tight resources, very straightforward turns, and even a simple solo mode that’s easy to run. And for the price, it’s an easy recommendation for a cozy solo game. I can’t wait to try it 2-player (it’s only 1-2).