Cracked this out over the weekend for the first time in 18 months or so. Really happy with how my set up is looking nowadays.

I’m playing progression style and midway through the Against the Shadow cycle which is brutally difficult and very close to unfun at times.

But on the 5th attempt (resorting to ‘sleazy mode’) I beat the Druadan Forest and then beat Encounter at Amon Din on the first attempt - although it was a nail biter with one deck eliminated and the other scraping by on 45 threat!

Had my first two plays today. After seeing what Adam Kwapinski could do with a euro in Teracotta Army, I knew I'd have to eventually try this and see if it was a fluke - it wasn't. Maybe nothing quite as innovative as Terracotta, it still has plenty of nice twists on a bit of a specialization euro. The dice aging mechanic is neat. Aging dice to retire as advisors makes your Archon stronger, and/or also gives points - but, retiring strong dice to govern districts is also equally, if not more important as they can score you big points if you build your towers. Plenty of variable powers and randomization, that while not changing the game will keep plays different too.

So, yeah it doesn't reinvent anything, and it doesn't have any one "omg" mechanic. It's a solid euro that I'm happy to call my 10th B&D game.

I was using the PNP Bot by Turczi, and its pretty straightforward to operate, not as "player like" as some bots, but keeps everything moving and you definitely need to be aware of trying to get in his way. The book also contains a more "relaxed" solo mode with a set score to beat.

For people who have played this, is the expansion worth it?

Hi guys. My job currently means I'm in a hotel half the week and am using the train to travel back and forth. Are there any sci fi related solo games that you guys could recommend? Thanks

I really struggle with this game. I like It’s a Wonderful World, so was enticed by the pitch of this being similar but offering a different take. Well, turns out I suck at it and most of the time get handily beaten by the bot.

I might finally be starting to get the hang of it, though. Or just got very lucky. On the first round I managed to build a single building. Then two more on the second round and then realised I’d be going for aggression rather than trade. Got great use of some of the cards you tuck under the buildings and then managed to swap two of them out for Jarls on the last round.

Do hit me up with your strategy tips though. I’m planning to do nine more plays at least before Christmas.

In For Northwood, do I have to take the trick if I have two cards of the matching suit? I have laid down a 4 of claws. In my hand, I have a 6 of claws and 1 ofclaws. I don’t want to win any other tricks. May I play the 1 and discard it, since I’m still following suit? Thanks!

I have at least 100 games of this under my belt, but since I’ve finally started trying the campaign I am getting absolutely demoralized by loss after loss after loss. I have lost 26 out of my last 30 games playing the campaign. And I’ve rarely gone above zero threat level (i.e. number of flipped sky tiles). I scored -11 in both of my completed campaigns, and I’ve lost my first two games of my third campaign inches from the top research space. (MANY of my losses were one or two spots from victory.) Playing the game is starting to feel like self punishment.

I know to not obsess over shooting down ships, but it’s also important because you can’t have a bunch bearing down on you at once especially at the end when you need to push research. I also know to push the excavator early so you can do big research ASAP. I’m careful to manage my energy so I can afford to do what I want. I have been using my ally characters in effective situations. I have really big turns sometimes. I avoid hitting spaces that move the mothership down unless I really need to skip an impending excavator reversal mothership action. But it’s not enough. Even on easy difficulties the campaign scenarios seem tuned so high that you have to be practically perfect to have a chance.

I love this game in theory and recommend it all the time, but my love for it grew when I was just playing basic one-off games. Now that I’m trying the campaign it’s just repeatedly making me feel like I’m stupid. And the way the scoring works, you have to flip some tiles to have a chance of achieving a score above zero, no matter how many games you win. It really feels like the game is missing opportunities to slow the mothership or prevent/heal base damage or something. It seems outrageous that someone who has played this game as much as I have would have such an absolutely putrid win rate partway through my third campaign, and after playing countless one-offs.

One thing I know is I’m not taking enough advantage of command rooms, but that doesn’t apply to every scenario because they don’t all have those.

The Kickstarter delivered this week, and it is such a beautiful production. It had a bigger footprint than I had expected, so had to set up and play on the floor as the dining table was occupied by kids crafting and my table for games was just a tad too small (something that hopefully will be rectified soon!).

Paul Grogan (Gaming Rules) has done some really good how to play videos (base game and solo) which I watched when released), and gave the rulebooks a though read. They are great rulebooks - the order is clear and there are lots of examples. Each player also has 2 reference aids which was really helpful.

Yesterday I gave it a go. My first play, without set up time, took 4hrs! I did take it really slow, checked that I was doing things correctly. Using both reference cards and rule book. Taking my time to consider options (good job I was playing solo!). I played on easy mode and beat the solo bot 158 v 122.

Once kids were in bed I had another go. This time setting up on medium level. This give the Solo Id a head start, and really made a difference to how quickly his engine get started resulting in a solo bot win 162 v 134. Play time this time (with much less rules checking) was 2hrs 5min. I was still slow as there are so many different options, so this time will reduce.

Very much enjoyed the game!

Hi!

I recently started playing Everdell and have been loving it! I mostly play 2 players, or solo.

I’m contemplating getting Mistwood, but I have a hard time justifying spending money to get Mistwood knowing that Unrigged exists. Mistwood also looks a tad more complex to use, which I’m not sure would be a good or bad thing, experience-wise…

Curious to see if people who’ve tried both would have any thoughts to share on their solo experience with Unrigged vs. Mistwood?

Thanks!! 😊

Halfway through my first playthrough, trying not to die, learning the rules/flow then i remembered im actually supposed to be completing an objective... Woops

Great game

Everyone said how good Imperiums is so I picked up Imperiums Legends recently and setup for my first game last night. Who would ever assume that a mid size card game could take up so much table space. And all the deck sorting and then having to resort the commons deck cards again at the end of each game. For those that have played it, is the juice really worth the squeeze here?

I have in my collection Wyrmspan, Dune: Imperium and Robinson Crusoe. While I love all these games and they have different mechanics, I would like to have more games that aren’t so foccusing on getting resources to do actions. I also have Dorf Romantik and I really like the tile laying/map building, but unless it’s a really different game, I am also not looking for this.

What games would you suggest for me to have different types of mechanics than these in my collection?

I am eyeing Discordia (2022) that is on sale in an online store in my country. I love Roman themed games and it seems to have gotten decent reviews, it plays solo and the mechanic of it being a worker placement game where you try to get rid of your workers to win seems interesting twist in the formula, but I haven't really seen it discussed in solo gaming circles. Has anyone here played it, and how do you feel about it?

Some of you might remember my previous posts about Solo Sleuth, a project I've been working on to rank and filter solo games using BGG data. If you're curious, you can check it out at https://solosleuth.com/rankings

I've been testing a new feature to give solo game recommendations, and I thought I'd share it with you all to get some feedback. It's pretty straightforward -- you enter a game, and it tries to suggest similar games that are good for solo play. It uses things like theme, mechanics, weight, and solo ranking to do this. Each result will say what tags it has in common with the game you searched for.

If you're interested, you can try it out here: https://solosleuth.com/recommendations

For example, I plugged in Marvel Champions, and you can see what it came up with here: https://solosleuth.com/recommendations?gameId=285774

I'm still working on getting the recommendations right, and I could really use some help from fellow solo gamers. If you've got a moment:

1. Try searching for a few games you know well
2. See if the recommendations make sense to you
3. Let me know if anything seems way off

I'm really just looking to make this useful for our community, so any thoughts or suggestions would be great.

As the title says, I just won for the first time and I just needed to share with somebody. What an excellent game! This win makes me want to play more and more.

How have y’all enjoyed Regicide? For a “free game” I think it’s stellar!

Definitely Arkham horror for me

What can I say…this is an interesting on coming off the last Mindclash game. One hand I want to say it’s quite brilliant in its simplicity, but there is just some thing about the Woodwalkers movement that just hasn’t clicked for me, and makes me think I’m only getting it right about 75% of the time.

However, given how easy it is set up, it’s super easy to run it back and restart. Love the metal components, but the card stock is pretty weak. Judgment is still out of this one, but I have played it everyday since receiving it, and that rarely happens for me.

Picked this one up from Amazon for $28 this week while it was on sale. It’s a bit of a table hog! I love the IP so this was a pretty easy buy for me. Rules seemed a little overwhelming at first, but I had a good handle on it after playing a few turns. Ended up saving the President with 2 hours left. If I had to play one more turn, I would have lost the game (would have had to turn a timer card over, and it happened to be the “New York Wins” card). I’m going to consider this a “conditional win” since I’m sure I messed up the manhole rules.

I did enjoy my play through, and look forward to playing more. Seems to work pretty well solo, but it is lacking the treachery options you have in multiplayer. Anyone else that has this one - what are your thoughts on the game?

Crusades , Templar ect… I have looked thru BGG but I couldn’t really find anything , I can’t really get into two handed , playing chess against my self style games but rule complexity and cost are not deciding factors. I have added a couple great solo WW2 games to the library recently but occasionally I get an itch for some midevil action . Any info would be helpful thanks and happy gaming grognards !!

I had a relaxed morning today trying out Ultra Tiny Epic Galaxies. A bit fiddly and maybe a bit too easy of an opponent but fun! I especially loved that I could play it on the couch.

Looking for new solo game.

Madly in love with Spirit Island, which hopefully gives an idea of the complexity/flavour/gameplay style I enjoy.

Dawn of the Zeds sounds amazing. Big fan of zombie horror. But it's so damn expensive.

Any good alternatives to recommend? That hit the same spot on game quality & theme (doesn't have to be zombie horror necessarily, but would like that).

Or is DOTZ worth the money still?

The collection has changed a lot in the last few years and a lot of games have left as my tastes and tolerances for fiddly bits has changed. Its nice to now have roomy shelves to showcase my collection better!

I found this game and it sounds fun, but I don't know if I can play solo. If it have, is it fun?