 Full Disclosure: Starling Games sent me a review copy of Archmage. What is this game about? In Archmage, the world is bereft of magic and in a generally terrible state. But, behold! Men and women with magical talents have reemerged and are once again learning to use their powers! And one of them, when the planets finally align, is going to become... the Archmage. Archmage involves both area control and a truly fascinating magic system. Throughout the game, you will need to explore and control territory in order to acquire relics. You then use the relics to initiate apprentices into various schools of magic, gain the associated spells, and then use even more relics to continue to power those spells. On top of that, you can initiate your apprentices into higher levels of magic—something that can gain you a more powerful spell card, but can also cause you to lose the basic spells you had. And be careful, because you have a limited number of apprentices, and you need them both to control territory and to generate spells for you. The winner of the game will be the mage who has acquired the most points, and those points are determined by majority ownership of territory types on the board and—far more importantly—the number of high-power spell cards a player has acquired. How does it play solo? To play a solo game of Archmage, you must do battle with an automated opponent called The Warlord. While the Warlord doesn't cast spells, he does ravage your territory and starve you of the resources you need to gain and cast your own. His movement is controlled by two separate die rolls that determine the directions his path will take. To defeat the Warlord, you will need to have four master-level apprentices and control three out of five types of terrain that make up your land. You also have a limited number of turns in which to achieve this, so you'd better get going! Setup for solo Archmage is slightly different—there are four solo-specific spells that replace the interactive spells in your standard spellbook. You also don't use the master-level spells in solo gameplay, even though you will have master level apprentices.  Overall Thoughts
Archmage is a game that will stay with you for a long time after you play it. Although it seems a little complicated the first time you set it up, it's actually quick-moving and intuitive—but it also has enough depth to make you want to try it again, test out new strategies, and keep improving play after play. I'm still enjoying myself as I learn to combine different spells for maximum efficiency, and I'm not the only one. I tested this game out with students last week, and we had a blast. The kids were so into it that well after game club had ended, I found them waiting for their parents in the parking lot, still talking about strategy. When a game engages you that much, it's doing something right. I do have a few cosmetic quibbles with Archmage. I have the deluxe edition of the game, and while the foiled cards are beautiful, they are also difficult for me to really look at. That caused me quite a bit of frustration when I was first sorting them out. The rulebook also has weirdly tiny setup diagrams, and I did not enjoy squinting at small images of the pieces while trying to figure out what I was doing. I'm not that old yet! I also think that while Archmage has a serviceable solo mode, it's not a game you should buy for pure solo play. The Warlord can definitely put up a fight, but he doesn't cast spells, and his randomized movements are not as fun to deal with as your friends' active attempts to thwart you. Also, because the solo mode does not employ master level spells, you're missing out on game content in a way that is kind of a bummer. That said, Archmage is definitely staying in my collection. It's one of the most interesting games I have played in a while, and I can't wait to get it to the table again. I'm also hoping for some interesting expansion spells in the future! (Dare I hope?) Do I recommend it? Yes, but not for pure solo. Get it if you want a really good mid-weight game with a decent solo mode. 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.
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 Hey there solo gamers! As usual, Kickstarter has some interesting projects for you to look at—but hold on to your wallets, because there are some big projects coming in October that threaten to put us all in the poorhouse. 1. Lockup: A Roll Player Tale I'm very curious about this one. Lockup is a worker placement game designed by Keith Matejka and set in the Roll Player universe. The premise is that you control a prison gang that is trying to amass power and influence, with the ultimate goal of winning a chance at freedom by being chosen to fight in the colosseum. You'll have to hire crew and build powerful items—but you'll also have to make sure not to alert the prison guards to your illicit activities. I love this theme! Way to make worker placement exciting again.  2. Set a Watch Set a Watch is a cooperative puzzle game in which you and your friends try to protect nine seals—seals that hold back the Unhallowed—and prevent the world from being overrun by evil. In addition to tracking down and fighting evil, you'll need to manage your resources as you camp all over the countryside. This is definitely a puzzly one, so if you are into fantasy-themed puzzle games, this one might be worth a look.  3. The Stygian Society
This one is a cooperative dungeon crawl designed by Kevin Wilson (Descent, Arkham Horror...) and deliberately constructed to encourage cooperation among players. A large part of the game is sacrificing yourself to help boost others, which ought to be strategically and thematically interesting. The game is set in 1800s Austria, and heroes will fight their way, floor by floor, to the top of a wizard's tower.  What is this game about? Arctic Scavengers is a deck building game set in a post-apocalyptic world, in which groups of people band together to scavenge for and fight over resources. Mechanically, it has some cool variations on deck building because each card may be able to perform multiple actions, but actions (drawing extra cards, digging in the junkyard, recruiting new cards) take place in a specific order and each card can only be counted towards a single action. Choosing how to use your cards each turn is a big part of your strategy. After the first three rounds, the game also includes skirmishes, in which players commit facedown cards to a battle at the end of each round of play. When the skirmish cards are revealed, the winner makes off with a "contested resource" to further build up his or her tribe. No matter what happens in Arctic Scavengers, the largest tribe wins—your ultimate score at the end of the game is based not on resources or fighting prowess, but on how many members you've recruited to your tribe during gameplay. You can thin your deck by removing people from your group, but you don't want to go too thin because each person in your tribe contributes to endgame scoring. All in all, Arctic Scavengers is a game that is all about tense decisions—how will you deploy your cards? Should you ditch that worthless refugee? Do you try to bluff during the skirmish to see if you can get your competitors to back out? The HQ and Recon expansions for Arctic Scavengers add some new mechanics, including tribal leaders (HQ) and new types of mercenaries (Recon). The solo rules for this game were originally published with the Recon expansion. My edition of Arctic Scavengers includes the base game plus both expansions in a single box. How does it play solo? Arctic Scavengers is a highly interactive game, which means that the solo mode needs to play very differently. There is a solitaire variant published in the Recon rulebook. To play solo, you need to shuffle up the contested resource cards along with rifles and thugs. Then you break those cards up into 7 skirmishes with increasing numbers of cards. You play as normal, except that each time you shuffle your discard pile, you remove the top card of your deck to represent your tribe's attrition over time. You are never forced to complete a skirmish at the end of the round, but the game does not end until you have fought the seventh battle. If you lose a skirmish, you also lose one of the cards you committed to the skirmish, which will impact your final score. In the solo mode of Arctic Scavengers, your score is based on the cards you have, rather than on the number of people in your tribe. You get 2 points per resource, and 1 point for every other card in your tribe. There is one major issue with the way the solo rules are written. They do not specify whether you should set up the junkyard—the location in the game where you send people to dig for resources like medicine. If you don't set it up, it can be impossible to recruit some types of mercenaries (such as those who require meds), so you can't do a purely random setup. If you do play with a junkyard, this problem is eliminated, but the solo game is easier because you can scavenge any number of times before fighting the seventh skirmish and bringing the game to a close. I checked BGG for clarification on this matter, but didn't see anything conclusive. Leave me a comment if you did!  Overall Thoughts
Arctic Scavengers is a very cool deck builder if you're playing with a game group—it creates an exciting race for resources, and the bluffing aspect of the skirmishes each round can be a ton of fun. The solo mode, however, doesn't work. Not only is there lack of clarity in the solo rules (see above), but the solo rules as printed create a boring game no matter how you interpret them. With no forced skirmishes, you can essentially just goof around until your deck is the size you want. Even though you have to discard a card every time you cycle through your deck and reshuffle, that hardly matters if you are able to recruit several cards each turn—something that won't be a problem with all of that time to gather up resources. And since solo is a beat-your-own-score game, you are basically being encouraged to string your game waaaaay out so that you can acquire as many cards as possible. And trust me, it stops being fun after a while. Several brave souls on BGG have created their own homebrew variants to make a solo version of Arctic Scavengers that works. I admire the effort, but for me, there are so many great solo games out there that I'd rather spend my time on a game that was truly made for me. Do I recommend it? For solo? No. Overall Rating: 1 star 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.  October is bringing with it some wallet-destroying Kickstarter campaigns, but in the mean time, there are some interesting September projects that are currently active on KS! 1. Everdell: Pearlbrook I didn't back Everdell the first time around, but the game was delivered promptly, turned out beautifully, and I'm hearing a lot of good things about it from solo players. It's definitely one of the prettiest games I've seen, and it seems like an enjoyable combination of tableau building and worker placement. I also love that the game has an AI opponent, which prevents it from becoming a beat-your-own-score game and allows the game to put up a bit of a fight against you. The Pearlbrook expansion will take the game beyond the forest and add some seriously adorable river creatures. Money is tight for me right now, but I have my eye on this one.  2. Tiny Epic Mechs If you're a fan of Tiny Epic games, then there's another one out and awaiting your support. Expect mechs with ITEMeeples, action programming, and lots of combat. The deluxe edition of the game is only $25, which is extremely reasonable. The current KS videos and rules do NOT include information about solo play, but Gamelyn Games has traditionally supported solo gamers, and Michael Coe has announced that a solo version of the game is in development.  3. Warfighter Modern — Shadow War I have been itching to play Warfighter for a long time now, and this does look really good. This Warfighter game will pit U.S. soldiers against North Korean enemies, and you will need to choose the best soldiers and gear for the job as you complete the game's missions. It looks great, and I'd be very interested in backing the base game at $60—EXCEPT that I have some issues with the way this Kickstarter is being run. At the $60 pledge level, you can purchase add-ons but you do not get stretch goals. If you want stretch goals, you have to back at the next pledge level to the tune of $110. That is a HUGE jump, and I can't say that I consider that good Kickstarter practice. Companies want to make money, I know, but I wouldn't want to back a game and then feel "not good enough" to get stretch goals.  What is this game about? Cosmic Run: Rapid Fire is a roll and write game that is much more action-packed and spatially challenging than other R&Ws I have played to date. In Cosmic Run, you are a space colonist trying to make your way to new planets, blazing a trail through the stars as you dodge space mines and develop technologies that will both assist you on your journey and give you victory points at the end of the game. The game is for 1–2 players. In a two-player game, you draft dice that allow you to race your opponent while dodging attacks and trying to knock enemy ships out of the game. In the one-player version of the game, you play against an automated opponent called Zorlord. (He is not as charming as Star-Lord.) How does it play solo? As I just mentioned, Cosmic Run: Rapid Fire features a solo opponent called Zorlord. He is a difficult opponent because he can beat you in three ways: by destroying one of your ships, by earning a higher technology score than you, or by advancing one of his ships to a new planet before you get all three of yours to their destinations. He can be brutal! Even worse, you can't attack him... but he sure can attack you. To mimic dice drafting while playing against Zorlord, you reroll the dice each turn and give Zorlord the die that lands furthest away from you—or, on the last turn of the round, the die with an attack symbol on it. Sometimes he doesn't roll very well, but other times, you just can't catch a break and it makes for a crushing game.  Overall Thoughts
Cosmic Run: Rapid Fire is special among roll and write games because it does a great job of enabling player interaction, even in the solo mode. That, combined with the interesting tech trees and the frantic race for new planets, makes for a highly exciting game. I enjoy it solo, and the game does put up a good fight. Sometimes, however, Zorlord makes enough "bad" decisions (because of how the dice land) to give you a decided advantage against him. Cosmic Run shines brightest as a two-player game. You can play the two player game with or without attacking each other, which means you can either blow each other's ships to smithereens or just do a lot of passive aggressive hate drafting. No matter which way you play, you will have fun! Do I recommend it? If you want a more interactive roll and write, then yes. Expect a good but occasionally spotty solo mode (it's a dice game, randomness happens). Also expect a pretty juicy two-player game, especially if you've been craving a roll and write that is a little bit mean. Overall Rating: 3 (3.5 for the 2-player game) 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 solo gamers! There are plenty of projects to admire on Kickstarter this week, including a couple that I'll be backing myself. 1. Football Highlights 2052 If you have been reading my site for a while, you know that I love a game called Baseball Highlights 2045. Now there is a Football Highlights 2052 from the same designer, and I am all over it. Cyborg football players? Drafting your dream team? Quick and clever cardplay? Football Highlights 2045 will include all of these things, and while I am looking forward to playing it two-player, I also trust Mike Fitzgerald to have a solid solo mode for this game. And at $33 for the base game, the price is right.  2. Draconis Invasion: Wrath I haven't played this deck builder myself, but I have heard plenty of buzz about it. Draconis: Invastion is a fantasy deck building game that is raising money for a reprint as well as for an expansion. You (and up to 5 other people) will need to fend off the forces of evil, while also managing fear and fatigue. From what I can tell, Draconis: Invasion is a pretty typical deck builder with a nice fantasy theme. If you're into that sort of thing, it's probably a good one to look into.  3. Machina Arcana: From Beyond
Cooperative steampunk horror dungeon crawl. If that sounds like your sort of thing, then Machina Arcana is for you. The core game is $50, and the premium one is $75. I will be honest, I don't personally see anything in it to make it different from all of the other dungeon crawls sitting on my shelf that offer campaign play and that never see enough table time. But if you particularly dig steampunk themes, this may scratch an itch that all of the fantasy games out there can't quite reach.  What is this game about? Palm Island is a point-scoring, resource-generating game that can be held in the palm of your hand. There are only 17 cards in a base deck, and seriously, no table is required! You'll go through your deck eight times, after which Palm Island is over and it's time to see how you did. You make progress in the game by rotating and flipping the cards in that deck, both to generate more resources and to upgrade your cards. At the end of the game, you check your total score—the higher the better, naturally. Once you've gotten accustomed to the base game, you can add "character" cards and try to earn "feat" cards to spice things up a bit. The game can also be played solo, cooperatively, or competitively. One box contains enough cards for two people, but you can play with up to four players if you have two copies of the game. How does it play solo? Palm Island is perhaps best as a solo game. It offers other modes, but it's a game about looking at your own cards that are in the palm of your hand. As long as you don't mind trying to beat your own score, it's perfectly suited for solo play—and for quick, portable play. You can very easily take it anywhere. My copy has plastic cards that can handle just about anything, and it came in a sturdy little deck box that is easy to toss into a backpack. If I want to carry only a 17-card deck, the game comes with an even smaller carrying case for me to use. Overall Thoughts Palm Island is good fun for what it is. There is plenty of strategy involved in getting the highest score. You need to look at the order of your cards (you can do that at the very beginning of the game, although not once you start!), decide what you can or should upgrade first, and generally make smart decisions. The way that you can rotate and flip cards to upgrade them is very clever, and there is a lot of satisfaction in getting to know what your options are and making better and better in-game decisions. At the same time, there is only so much new stuff to see in such a small deck. I have definitely been developing "favorite" strategies that I lean on again and again.  Playing Palm Island during an oil change. (Seriously!) I also love that Palm Island is quick and portable. While I wish I had more time to play longer and heavier games, that's not the reality I live in right now. The game isn't, however, quite as manageable as I'd like. The plastic cards are a little bit slippery, and while rotating and flipping cards is no problem, I sometimes have a hard time handling my deck when I have the full amount of resources ready to spend (you flip resource cards 90 degrees so you can see them when contemplating future upgrades).
There is a natural comparison between Palm Island and another palm-of-your hand card game that game out this season, which is Maiden's Quest. I think there is a place for both games in your collection, especially if you're really into games that are both solo and portable. But I personally prefer Maiden's Quest. Between the two games, Palm Island is much more accessible and straightforward. It's also less innovative. Manipulating resources is fun, but it's nothing new. Maiden's Quest is much more ambitious in scope, and has several different princesses and villains that force you to manipulate your deck in different ways. It has difficult-to-interpret rules and a lot of little quirks, but it's got a lot more charm, and it's a meatier game (which you may not prefer in a handheld game, but I do). Both games are good, but if you're up for paying the price of admission, I think Maiden's Quest is the more interesting game to own and play in the long run. Do I recommend it? I do recommend Palm Island. It is quick, enjoyable, easy to learn, and easy to take with you all over the place—even more so than a game like Mint Works, which previously held the crown for me as "ultimate portable game." (I'm still waiting on Sprawlopolis, which will be my first purchase from Button Shy.) It has the limitations you'd expect from a very streamlined game, but it serves its purpose well, and I'm having a good time with it. 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  After a couple of low-excitement weeks, Kickstarter is picking back up. Hold onto your butts—especially if you keep your wallet in your back pocket! 1) Pax Pamir, 2nd ed. Pax Pamir is a game set in Afghanistan and that focuses on Afghan struggles for power after the fall of the Durrani Empire. It's semi-cooperative: Players will need to work together towards common goals, but there is only one winner. Ricky Royal designed the original solo mode, and will also be working on the solo variant for the new edition of this game, which automatically catches my interest. The second edition of Pax Pamir is also supposed to be much more streamlined than the original. Cole Werhle, who is also the designer of Root and John Company, has made it clear that he is revisiting one of his earlier designs and applying what he's learned over the years. I'm interested in this one, and would have already gone for it if the price weren't so high. (Think $70, dang.)  2) A Thief's Fortune
A Thief's Fortune is a card drafting/engine building game that involves both thievery and time travel, as well as a cool Aladdin vibe. Each player in a multiplayer game represents a different possible future of the same character, which is conceptually quite interesting. The solo version of A Thief's Fortune involves pursuing specific achievements within a solo game. Slickerdrips has a nice playthrough on the KS page, and I generally like his taste in games. And at $36, the price is right for this game. (Although shipping will run you an additional $10.) |
AuthorMy name is Liz Davidson, and I play solo board games. A lot of solo board games... Archives
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