What is this game about? Pocket Mars is a small-box game that aims to be a filler with some teeth. It's a card-based race to be the first player to get seven colonists to Mars. Colonists can be moved between Earth, your spaceship, and a set of buildings on Mars. To relocate your colonists efficiently, you need to make the right choices about how to play your cards. Depending on whether you keep them in your hand or put them in your "prep module" (i.e. facedown in front of you), you can take different actions and trigger different building events. You can even play cards from another player's "prep module" to perform actions associated with the buildings on Mars. The end of the game arrives when the first player puts all seven of his or her colonists on Mars, but victory is determined by the number of victory points. Some locations on Mars are worth more VP than others, so in addition to moving colonists around, you also have to make sure that they end up in the right place. How does it play solo? Pocket Mars has an official set of solo rules, but they are online. You can find them here. In the solo mode, you are still going for victory points, but you are competing against a simulated opponent—a rival company called DA. DA is surprisingly tough, not only because it will get a lot of actions (although you can sometimes block them) but also because the draw deck in this variant acts as a strict timer. You need to act fast to stand a chance. Overall Thoughts Pocket Mars is an inexpensive and functional solo game. It won't blow your mind, but it's fun to mess around with different card actions and try to gain advantages against DA. The game doesn't, however, entirely hit the spot for me. The card actions are interesting, but what you do in Pocket Mars doesn't particularly fit the theme—your actions often feel so abstract that they don't make much sense outside of the straight-up puzzle of the game. I struggled to get down the rules at first because none of them felt particularly intuitive. Also, for as many fun card actions as there were, it was rarely possible to set up satisfying card combos. I like to feel like my choices get me a bit further when I'm making tough ones. Do I recommend it? If you're looking for a cheap, small solo game, Pocket Mars might be worth a shot. It's not my favorite small footprint solo game—I'd prefer Friday or Mint Works for pocket-sized play. I am glad I tried it, but it's not going to stay part of my collection. Overall Rating: 2.5 stars 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh.
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I know you're shocked to hear this—there are a ton of solo-friendly board game Kickstarter campaigns going on right now! The ones I'm personally planning to spend big on still haven't hit yet, but there is plenty out there that is quite tempting... 1) Escape the Dark Castle Escape the Dark Castle was a successful KS project last year, and I am glad I backed the first printing and first expansion. It's a fun, old-school romp that has you facing obstacle after obstacle as you attempt to flee the dungeons of a creepy old castle. The art and flavor text are great, and the game is just fun overall. My students love it at game club, and it's also a fun filler on game nights at my FLGS. I think the game is good solo, but I am not so committed to it that I am getting everything plus the collector's box. There are about six days left in the campaign, and if you haven't gone for this one yet, it's definitely worth your consideration. I reviewed the game on this site, and I'll leave my own YouTube video about it here: 2. Solomon Kane This baby is waaaay out of my price range at the moment, but it's an interesting-looking game with a bunch of miniatures. It's a cooperative game in which the players are virtues who bolster Solomon Kane's faith and prevent the shadows from overtaking him. It's a chapter-based game with a lot of story to play through, and in addition to co-op mode, you can actually play it as a true solo using a special virtue called "Providence." I'm not 100% sure I like some of the thematic stuff going on in this game—there are some "tribal" and "Arab slaver" miniatures that caused me to raise an eyebrow—but I don't know the storyline well enough to make an informed comment. 3. Days of Discovery This is a quirky-looking little card game that is conceptually interesting. It's set in Portugal in the late 1200s, and it's about planning a journey to discover a new land. Not only that, but it's the first game in a series, which means that it's part of some sort of overarching story. In the first round of Days of Discovery, you must secure a patron, because why travel using your own money? Far better to find a rich person to sponsor you! Next, you'll gather your crew and collect supplies. And in the third and final phase of the game, you will finally sail off into to the distance in search of a new land. The art isn't the best, but the game itself seems interesting, and at $29 (including shipping in the U.S.), it's definitely worth thinking about. Boardgames & Bourbon has a nice video about this one, with comments on both the multiplayer and solo modes. Before I get into this post, let me say: I love The Dice Tower. I have been excited about Dice Tower Con since badges went on sale. I have been a contributor to Token Punch Lunch (formerly Throat Punch Lunch!) for well over a year, and I am the Kickstarter correspondent on Every Night is Game Night, which recently became part of the Dice Tower Network. I am planning to go to Dice Tower Con, have a fantastic time, and follow all of the rules. But we really need to talk about the news update from June 20. Here is the relevant text: Alcohol is not allowed in the gaming areas, even during after hours events! If you want to drink, there are other places to do it than in the convention center. Another convention recently had several issues with people consuming alcohol and doing inappropriate things. We have a strict no-tolerance policy on alcohol and sexual harassment. I would rather ban 100 people for life than let them ruin the con for 3000 people. I am aware that The Dice Tower has a family friendly vibe, and it makes perfect sense to prohibit alcohol in areas where there will be young children. The ban isn't even what annoys me about this announcement. It's the justification that follows: "Another convention recently had several issues with people consuming alcohol and doing inappropriate things." I feel patronized by The Dice Tower's attempt to "protect" our community from sexual harassment by implicitly chiding us for our drinking habits. This news update is an obvious response to sexual harassment that occurred at this year's Origins convention, some of which reportedly involved alcohol. We do not yet have more than rumor to go on, however. Those stories are for those who were impacted to tell when they are ready. In the meantime, Dice Tower Con has gone and "solved" the sexual harassment problem for all of us. Apparently, the real culprit in all of this isn't sexism—it's Blue Moon. And not the board game. This is a false solution to a very real problem. The real problem is sexism. And last I checked, alcohol turns people into sexists the way Ambien made Roseanne Barr tweet about Valerie Jarrett. In fact, the alcohol ban creates an entirely new issue: In an attempt to "solve" the problem of sexual harassment, Dice Tower Con has accidentally fallen back onto familiar—and unwelcome—territory. When women are asked about cases of sexual harassment or assault, some of the first questions they hear are "What were you wearing?" and—most importantly for this conversation—"Had you been drinking?" Those aren't the right questions to ask, and they aren't the actual problems we need to solve. It's not a topic I discuss much, but I'm a woman in gaming. And I'm not interested in paternalistic "protection." I want to be respected as a professional—and that includes being trusted to make my own judgments about what to drink. Sexual harassment is a serious problem in our community, one that causes tremendous pain to the men and women who experience it. Every single person in the board gaming community deserves both to be safe and to have fun. That includes feeling safe while having a drink with friends—or not having one, depending on personal preference. We can't let ourselves off the hook by implementing policies that make us feel like we've taken action, but that don't solve the underlying problem. What is this game about? Like the original The Castles of Burgundy—which I still haven't played--The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game is focused on building up an estate. The game is mostly spent acquiring building cards, then adding them to your tableau. Your ultimate goal is to earn the most victory points. You can earn points in a number of ways, but your primary goal will be to create "triplets" (three building cards of the same type) in your estate. You can also produce goods, or, in a pinch, you can trade in worker and silver cards for some sweet, sweet VPs. Your card purchasing power is based not on actual dice, but on the die values printed at the top of each card. Each round, estate cards are laid out in rows that have certain die values. You can make purchases from those rows based on the die numbers printed on cards in your hand. To help you modify those numbers in your favor, you can use worker cards to adjust die values up or down. To get access to more cards, you can acquire and then spend silver to take extra actions and draw extra cards. How does it play solo? The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game has built-in solo rules that give you an AI opponent—not a beat-your-own-score mode. Your opponent is called "Aaron," which stands for "An Almost Real OppoNent." Your goal is to stay ahead of Aaron for each of the game's five rounds. If you finish a round and find that Aaron has more victory points than you do, you automatically lose the game. Aaron will acquire a set number of cards every round. Sometimes those cards don't hurt you at all. Other times, he'll pick up some killer combos and beat you early in the game. The heart of scoring in The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game is acquiring triplets, and then getting the bonuses that come with being the first to build a triplet of a particular building type. If you don't act fast, Aaron might beat you to those triplets, depending on what cards he gets. Overall Thoughts Trying to tell someone about The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game makes the game sound dull. I just read over my first paragraph and thought, "This game sounds so freaking boring." But it really isn't. The game has a weirdly meditative quality that makes me want to play it several times in a row every time I get it out. I love wringing as many advantages as I can from the cards I've been dealt, and The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game gives me plenty of opportunities to do that. Trying to stay a step ahead of Aaron can be surprisingly challenging, and it adds a lot of drama to each round. Playing against Aaron can also, however, make the game very swingy. I like to plan ahead and follow a set strategy across multiple turns. The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game forces me to play against type and make a lot of short-term decisions. The goal of the game is to defeat Aaron round to round, so you sometimes have to go for immediate victory points at the expense of your long-term plan. Also, as you might have guessed from the description above, Aaron is an unpredictable opponent: Depending on the cards he gets, he sometimes starts slowly and earns very few points during the first few rounds. Other times, he will get multiple early triplets and run away with the game. You have to be okay with that to have fun playing The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game. Do I recommend it? It depends. The Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game has no theme to speak of, and you will only enjoy it if you like pure card manipulation with the goal of getting more victory points. If you're that kind of gamer, then you're going to have fun. If you want something that feels less mechanical, run away now. I personally do enjoy CoB: TCG, and I am glad that I spent the $10-–12 I spent on it back in the day. I still pull it out for a game from time to time because it's a relaxing way to spend an evening. Overall Rating: 3 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh. Hey gamers! As usual, I have a few interesting Kickstarter projects to report on. And an onslaught of new projects is coming! We'll concentrate on this week for now, though. 1. Knot Dice Knot Dice is a game in which you roll and place gorgeous custom dice to create beautiful Celtic knots. It's a puzzle game that has several modes, including some that accommodate a single player. There are only 3 days left in this Kickstarter, and I almost missed it entirely. Fortunately, Colin from the One Stop Co-Op shop mentioned this game on a podcast and clued me in. His playthrough is here. Those pretty green dice are mesmerizing, and justify a closer look. 2. Goblivion I love a good tower defense game, and Goblivion combines tower defense with deck building. It's a cooperative game that can be played solo, and it also has a solo-only mode. Goblivion offers a number of card combinations for variability. The illustrations are cute and family friendly, and the game only takes 30 minutes—but it also cites Dominion and Stronghold as influences, so it seems to promise an engaging strategic experience as well. I am thinking about this one for sure. 3. Trickerion You may already have played Trickerion, which is a sumptuous worker placement game about competing magicians. It hasn't had a solo mode until now—the KS campaign is for the expansion, which includes rules for solo play. If you already liked Trickerion and wished that you could play it solo, the time is now! What is this game about? The most flippant way to describe Elder Sign is "Cthulhu Yahtzee." You and your fellow players (if you aren't playing solo) are investigators exploring a creepy museum in the 1920s—a museum that holds the key to preventing an Elder God from entering the world and destroying all that we hold dear. To win the game, investigators must collect enough elder signs before they run out of time and the Ancient One awakens. To do that, they need to hold onto their health and sanity while successfully examining locations within the museum (and sometimes within the mysterious other world that is connected to it). To learn a location's secrets and to stay unharmed while doing so, players need to visit those locations and roll specific combinations of dice. Although there are spells and items that help to mitigate die rolls, Elder Sign is still very much a game of luck. Each time a player fails to roll the correct combination of dice demanded at a given location, he or she must subtract one die from the pool and try again. If the player succeeds, he or she gains the items—sometimes including elder signs—shown on the location card. In the case of failure, the player faces the negative consequences detailed on the card. How does it play solo? Because Elder Sign is a cooperative game with no hidden information, it is very easy to solo. I recommend controlling at least two investigators in order to take advantage of special abilities. Overall Thoughts As I have noted before on this blog, Elder Sign is a game beloved by many, but it falls flat for me. I don't find the dice rolling mechanics satisfying. Even with items and spells, if the dice aren't with you, you are stuck. I prefer to feel like I have more "power" over my dice, so I can do something even with bad rolls. While the art is really good, I don't feel the Lovecraftian theme very strongly, either. The flavor text on the cards doesn't make up for the fact that I'm not really doing anything that feels like making progress through a creepy old museum. If I'm going to play a game set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft, I'd rather play a more story-driven game set in the same universe, like Eldritch Horror. If I'm going to play a dice game, I'd rather play one with a more satisfying sense of progression, like One Deck Dungeon. Do I recommend it? No, I don't. A lot of solo gamers would disagree with me, but I think the dice rolling mechanics are so luck-driven that they are unsatisfying, and that the theme isn't applied richly enough to make up for it. I have heard many times that some of the expansions vastly improve the Elder Sign experience, but I don't want to throw good money after bad. If you find yourself deeply attracted to this game, however, there is an app—try that before you sink more money into a physical copy. Overall Rating: 2 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it! 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh. Spoiler Alert: There aren't any Kickstarter campaigns that are really catching my eye this week—at least not any that I haven't already written about. I do back a lot of Kickstarter projects, and I love getting a shiny new game in the mail. But this week, I want to take a moment to appreciate older games that are still wonderful for solo play. I love my game collection, and I'd love it even if I never got a new game in. (Although I hope that never happens.) Here are some games that continue to age gracefully: 1. Star Realms Star Realms is one of my most played games. I love deck builders, and I love games that are small enough to slip into my bag. The original box isn't even around anymore because my boyfriend and I destroyed it by taking the game with us everywhere. I am excitedly waiting for the Frontiers expansion, which I did back on Kickstarter. But the solo scenarios from the Gambit expansion are still good, and I also love this game as an app and as something fun to play on a coffee date. I'm waiting to give it a full review until I see the new solo scenarios that come with the expansion, but the fact that few games in my collection see as much table time as Star Realms has over the years says a lot. 2. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game When I finally realized I'd never have enough money to keep up with Magic: The Gathering, living card games became an extremely appealing alternative. Sure, there would be a lot of cards to buy, but at least I'd know what was in each expansion pack before I bought it. The Lord of the Rings LCG allowed—and still allows—me to scratch my deck construction itch, while also getting to have marvelous adventures throughout Middle Earth. I don't have everything for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, but I have a lot, and this game alone could keep me entertained for years. And while Arkham Horror is the newer, sexier solo-friendly LCG from Fantasy Flight, I still find myself returning to Lord of the Rings. I love the theme, and the game is just really good. 3. Ghost Stories I'm not entirely sure whether I love this game or whether it annoys the heck out of me. Check back after I write a review for it. But Ghost Stories is still one of the ultimate brutal co-op games, and I haven't yet stopped going back for more punishment. In it, you are Taoist monks seeking to protect a village from several ghosts, and especially from Wu Feng, the Lord of Hell. If you want to exorcise merciless ghosts, try to coordinate monks to deal with threats on multiple fronts, and potentially get smacked around no matter what you do, then Ghost Stories is a great choice for you. You will feel intense pride when you finally manage to confront Wu Feng, and even more intense pride when you FINALLY beat him. What is this game about? Castle Panic is a cooperative tower defense game in which you (and possibly some friends) work together to battle evil monsters who are trying to destroy your castle. The premise is simple: Destroy all monsters in the onslaught and win, or fail to protect your castle and lose every tower. Every turn, random monsters are drawn from a cup/bag. Some are run-of-the-mill goblins and orcs, but others are more challenging boss monsters with special effects. It is also possible to draw special events that add a little spice to the proceedings. To battle the monsters, you deploy castle cards from your hand. You can discard (or trade) and replace limited numbers of cards to battle the monsters more effectively. You can also work together to rebuild your castle walls and fortify your defenses. While the base game is fairly vanilla, there are several expansions that make Castle Panic more interesting and challenging. I personally feel that The Wizard's Tower is a must-own—it adds harder monsters, but also fun magical spell cards and the possibility of fire damage to both yourself and your enemies. For added spice, you can try The Dark Titan, which adds even more difficult enemies but also a cavalier to help you, and Engines of War, which adds in some sweet catapult action. How does it play solo? Castle Panic explicitly caters to solo players and has built-in solo rules. It plays very smoothly as a solo game, without the player having to control multiple hands of cards. Overall Thoughts Castle Panic is not necessarily a game that experienced gamers will favor for solo play. The base game quickly becomes easy to beat, although there are some ways to handicap yourself and make it more difficult. That said, I very much enjoyed Castle Panic when I wrote about it in 2016, and I still enjoy it. The expansions, especially Wizard's Tower, add some fun and variety that truly improve on the base game. If you mix in several expansions with brutal monsters, you can really ramp up the difficulty. I wouldn't say that Castle Panic is a go-to solo game for me, especially not at this point—my tastes are continuing to evolve as I spend more years in our hobby. It is, however, a permanent part of my collection. I still pull it out sometimes as a "comfort game" when I want to unwind. And most importantly, it's a great game to introduce to newer gamers. I have played it with friends who are new to the hobby and with endless numbers of students, and it's a hit every time. I also highly recommend Castle Panic as an entry-level game for solo players. It can be made sufficiently challenging to grow with you a while after you have mastered the base game, and it's very easy to learn or even to teach yourself. Castle Panic has an extremely clear and well-illustrated rulebook, which makes it accessible to gamers in general and to new soloists in particular. Do I recommend it? If you are looking for an entry level solo game or a game that can be enjoyed both solo and with your family, then Castle Panic is a very good choice. Just make sure to pick up at least the Wizard's Tower expansion. Once you add that one in, you won't want to play without it. Overall Rating: 3.5 stars Rating Scale: 5 stars — I love it. 4 stars — I really like it. 3 stars — I like it. 2 stars — It's okay. 1 star — Meh. Full disclosure: A review copy was kindly provided to me by Side Room Games. What is Black Sonata about? Black Sonata, designed by John Kean, is a solitaire deduction game based on a real historical mystery: the identity of the "Dark Lady" from Shakespeare's sonnets 127–154. The object of the game is to deduce her identity by gathering clues about her, then to confront her with them. To collect clues, you must find the Dark Lady as she moves through Shakespearean London. Her movements are determined by a deck of cards with symbols that give you a hint as to her current location. If you are in the same place at the same time and successfully search for her, then you will receive a clue card that gives you information about her identity. If you fail, she further eludes your grasp. Clues are particularly interesting in this game. At the beginning of Black Sonata, one clue card is randomly selected and placed facedown beneath the game board. This card will represent the Dark Lady for the game. Every other clue card will have symbols on it, and each will also give you hints about which symbols it might or might not share with the card that represents the Lady herself. Figure out which three symbols are on the Dark Lady's card, and you can confront her and win the game. The symbols on the clue cards also, however, represent actual historical information about the women you are investigating. Each clue card features a possible candidate for Dark Lady, as well as symbols that represent things about her life. On each woman's card, you can find out whether she was married, whether she was musical, whether she had courtly connections, whether she was a bit promiscuous... Getting a sense of the lives and personalities of different historical figures while you search for the Dark Lady gives Black Sonata a lot of added interest. Not only that, but the clue collecting process in the game is just fun. The location cards in Black Sonata can be arranged in several ways to add replayability and to increase difficulty. And the way that you check for the Dark Lady's location is ingenious. Rather than completely flip a card and ruin the mystery, you check whether she is in a given location using a tiny hole in that location's card. When you put a movement card on top of a location card and flip them over together, you will either see the Dark Lady's silhouette—meaning that you've caught a glimpse of her—or you will get nothing but a blank space. There are several ways to lose Black Sonata, which makes it important to be efficient and aggressive in your search. If you cycle through the location deck three times, you run out of time and lose the game. But don't get too aggressive: The cards you use to guess the Dark Lady's identity are limited, which means that too many reckless guesses can also cost you the win. On top of that, the more clues you have amassed, the faster the deck cycles, meaning that you must chase the Dark Lady all the more quickly before she melts back into the shadows of history. What I like about Black Sonata Unlike our Dark Lady, I won't be cagey: I love Black Sonata. Not only do I love games that are rooted in actual historical events, but until I played this one, I had not realized that solo hidden movement games were even possible. The fact that John Kean managed to come up with a way for solo players to enjoy this mechanic is absolutely thrilling to me. I also love the deduction and strategy required to win a game of Black Sonata. Even if you know where the Black Lady is, you still need to position yourself so that you wind up in the same location that she's in—something that is easier said than done. And the logic puzzle presented by the clue cards is delightful. Because the deck cycles more quickly as you catch the Dark Lady and gather clues about her, you need to try to deduce as much about her as you can given as little information as possible. The whole process is deliciously addictive. Whenever I finish a game of Black Sonata, I want to play it again. The historical flavor of the game is also a huge bonus for me. I found myself looking up each of the candidates for Dark Lady and learning a lot of things I didn't know before. I also ended up reading Shakespeare for the first time in a long time, just because the snippets from his sonnets that are included on the location cards piqued my interest. The game made me feel like I was starring in my own version of Possession, uncovering a great historical secret that would net me a lifetime of research grants. Possible concerns about Black Sonata I have only one concern about Black Sonata. I have a very good memory, and if I play this game a lot of times in a row, I can often remember the symbols on a card if I have already had it recently. This is even more likely now that I've actually gone and read up on these women, and can now connect the symbols to details about their lives. In some ways, this doesn't change gameplay all that much. Even if you know which symbols are on the Dark Lady card, you still need to gather enough clues to "prove" that you're right, and then you still have to corner the Dark Lady and reveal her identity once and for all. And the movement decks add a lot of variety to the game. But it still takes a bit of the mystery out when you know who the Dark Lady is and just have to prove it. That said, you have to play the game a lot of times in a row for this to happen to you, so you're going to get your money's worth well before then—and even if you do have a memory like a bear trap, you'll be able to enjoy it again after giving yourself a rest. Should I back it? I am going to back Black Sonata, without question. The design is brilliant, the game is engaging, and I think that all solo gamers—especially those who enjoy hidden movement games and deduction puzzles—should try it. This game is like no other solo game I've ever played, and it's a delight to lose myself in the search for the Dark Lady. I feel confident recommending this one. Play Through: If you want to check out some gameplay, click below for my preview video! The Kickstarter wheel keeps on turning, so I'm here this week with more projects to talk about! And of course, there are many more interesting-looking games to come. 1. Villagers I have been hearing a lot of buzz about this one. It's a card drafting game in which you draft new residents for your village, all of whom have special talents that hopefully fit well together. You also need to balance your food supply and building capacity. It's a game of maximizing your resources and building the most profitable village possible. The art is simple but distinctive, and the game has a solo-specific mode: Players must manage to profit despite the interventions of an angry and temperamental countess, who forces players to work around events that add challenge to the game. If that sounds like your sort of thing, this project may be worth a look. 2. New Corp Order In New Corp Order, you are the CEO of a major company who is trying to manipulate media outlets to generate good press about yourself. It brands itself a euro-style hand management game. It is also learnable in five minutes, which means players should be able to pick up the game and quickly get around to actually playing it. You can only take one of three actions per turn: Acquire a share of a media conglomerate, lay down conglomerate cards to actually infiltrate one, or use your power within an infiltrated conglomerate to take over various media outlets. However, choosing the right action at the right time could present a challenge. 3. Fantastic Factories Fantastic Factories is an engine-building dice placement game for 1–5 players. Your goal is to manufacture as many goods as possible, as quickly as possible. You can achieve that by building factories that work together in various interesting combinations. Figuring out how the factories can work together is a major part of the fun. To staff your factories, you place workers (dice). Each factory has a different worker requirement, but you can use "training facilities" to manipulate your dice and get the values you need. You can also hire contractors to help you achieve your in-game goals. Most excitingly (for me, anyway), the solo mode is played against an opponent called "The Machine," which means it will be more than a beat-your-own-score gaming experience. This one looks like a lot of fun, and I chose to back it myself. |
AuthorMy name is Liz Davidson, and I play solo board games. A lot of solo board games... Archives
August 2021
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