OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

All discussions regarding Board, Card, and RPG Gaming, including industry discussion, that don't belong in one of the other gaming forums.

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Daveman
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Daveman »

We much prefer LOTRs timer to Mansion of Madness. MoM has a timer, but its hidden and you only get vague warnings like "the chanting is getting louder, the ritual is nearing completion". Too many of our games ended abruptly with a simple "uh oh, you took too long" message.

LOTRs timer is in the open, and barring a few surprises (a good thing so the timer is slightly unpredictable) and players doing things they shouldn't like revealing new terrain at the end of their turn, it's largely predictable.
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hepcat
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

I didn't notice any kind of timer display in my first two scenarios of LotR:JiME. It just did what Descent has done to me in past games, which is throw more and more baddies at me until I finally died because I couldn't keep up. It did tell me in one scenario how to stop (or at least slow) the oncoming wave, but it still didn't tell me how turns I had in any way.

MoM does have a rather obscure timer system in that it has story elements and finales that trigger off an unseen countdown. That can be maddening, but it's a Lovecraft game so it makes perfect sense to me.
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Daveman
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Daveman »

Not a literal timer, but the Threat Bar. Large horizontal bar along the top of the app? At the start of a scenario it shows something like 0/40 (target number varies per scenario) and fills up per turn based on the number of players, unresolved Threat Tokens, etc. If you don't fulfill the scenario before the bar fills up, you lose. Doing or not doing certain things will sometimes add or subtract threat so it's not completely accurate.

Main difference being, in MoM you get a warning but have no idea if that means you have 2 turns left, or 5, or anything. LOTR you can look at the Threat Bar and generally be able to say "OK we have 2 turns to do XYZ".
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

Ah, i forgot about the threat bar. So THAT'S what that does. Thanks!
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by malchior »

Gloomhaven has been sitting on top of my bookshelf for quite a while now. I had plans to run the campaign with my usual suspects but covid-19 has cancelled that. I am not travelling for work so I think I'm going to kick off a run through it tomorrow or over the weekend.

I've watched the gameplay and campaign videos online and I'm thinking I'll run it w/ 3 characters. Any tips / gotcha I should watch out for? Has anyone even gone this route? I've tried searching the thread but Gloomhaven gets talked about a lot and a lot of it is the digital edition. :)

FWIW I had read long ago about the horrific setup/teardown and bought the Broken Token Organizer and glued it together awhile back so I'm all set there. We'll see if that helps.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

I can only say to use the apps to help manage everything. It was like night and day for me to try and play. I'm normally anti-app but it feels like in this case it's necessary. Way too many bits to try and keep track of otherwise, IMHO. With the apps, you can focus on the game play and not have the 37 chits per character/monster/NPC get in the way.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

I still don’t understand the complaints about the set up and tear down times. Compared to most dungeon crawlers it’s not bad at all.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by malchior »

hepcat wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 8:31 pm I still don’t understand the complaints about the set up and tear down times. Compared to most dungeon crawlers it’s not bad at all.
It can't be worse than finding a dozen bat tokens when playing House on Haunted Hill. That said the organizer was super nice so I don't feel bad about the extreme cost/time spent on it.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

Oh don’t get me wrong. I love a good organizer. You won’t hear me saying it was a bad buy.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Fishbelly »

malchior wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:26 pm Gloomhaven has been sitting on top of my bookshelf for quite a while now. I had plans to run the campaign with my usual suspects but covid-19 has cancelled that. I am not travelling for work so I think I'm going to kick off a run through it tomorrow or over the weekend.

I've watched the gameplay and campaign videos online and I'm thinking I'll run it w/ 3 characters. Any tips / gotcha I should watch out for? Has anyone even gone this route? I've tried searching the thread but Gloomhaven gets talked about a lot and a lot of it is the digital edition. :)

FWIW I had read long ago about the horrific setup/teardown and bought the Broken Token Organizer and glued it together awhile back so I'm all set there. We'll see if that helps.
I've only played Gloomhaven solo, and I had a difficult time with 3 characters at first. I played with 2 characters until I felt I had the basics down, then expanded to 3 characters (and occasionally 4). I still played with 2 from time to time, when I wanted to give my brain a bit of a rest. Nothing is particularly difficult, but there's a LOT that pulls you focus when you play 3 or 4 characters. Luckily, the game easily adapts to playing whatever number you feel like on any given day.

I also highly recommend some of the recommended apps, as they speed up play tremendously. Just the fact an app kept track of wounds on monsters was a godsend, as I grew terribly weary of moving wound tokens around on the many critters I had to face.
Last edited by Fishbelly on Fri Jul 31, 2020 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Fardaza »

malchior wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 7:26 pm Gloomhaven has been sitting on top of my bookshelf for quite a while now. I had plans to run the campaign with my usual suspects but covid-19 has cancelled that. I am not travelling for work so I think I'm going to kick off a run through it tomorrow or over the weekend.

I've watched the gameplay and campaign videos online and I'm thinking I'll run it w/ 3 characters. Any tips / gotcha I should watch out for? Has anyone even gone this route? I've tried searching the thread but Gloomhaven gets talked about a lot and a lot of it is the digital edition. :)

FWIW I had read long ago about the horrific setup/teardown and bought the Broken Token Organizer and glued it together awhile back so I'm all set there. We'll see if that helps.
For the beginning, I recommend not using the solo difficulty bump. My game is in transit to my new state of residence, so I can't remember exactly what it's called. There's enough to keep track of as is.

FWIW I didn't use any of the apps. I liked moving the pieces around. It makes it actually feel like a board game. That said, I may switch to using the apps when I get it laid out at my new house.

Also, try to find a table where you can leave it set up if needed. I used a standard sized card table and a folding TV tray table. It was enough, but barely.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by malchior »

Fishbelly wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 10:26 pm I've only played Gloomhaven solo, and I had a difficult time with 3 characters at first. I played with 2 characters until I felt I had the basics down, then expanded to 3 characters (and occasionally 4). I still played with 2 from time to time, when I wanted to give my brain a bit of a rest. Nothing is particularly difficult, but there's a LOT that pulls you focus when you play 3 or 4 characters. Luckily, the game easily adapts to playing whatever number you feel like on any give day.
Gotcha - that tracks. I saw (via video) that the game scales the scenario out by number of players.
Fardaza wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:38 pmFWIW I didn't use any of the apps. I liked moving the pieces around. It makes it actually feel like a board game. That said, I may switch to using the apps when I get it laid out at my new house.
My plan is to use the app after I get a few games in. I want to understand how the mechanics work and no better way than to do the 'calculations' by hand. When it gets annoying I'll switch.
Also, try to find a table where you can leave it set up if needed. I used a standard sized card table and a folding TV tray table. It was enough, but barely.
I plunked down cash on a geek chiq Hoplite years ago so that's the plan. It's coffee table height right now (pending some custom furniture lifts coming this weekend) but I can set it up and seal up the table top to keep the cats away.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by malchior »

I ended up playing my first game - it probably took a lot longer than it should have and I made mistakes but sorted them out. For instance, I thought I was getting too much gold and after a re-read on looting I was. You don't pick them up like 'Sonic the Hedgehog'. :lol: I cut that down significantly.

I get why people rave about it. It's simple to run once you get the hang of it but hard to optimize. I went Brute/Spellweaver and the Brute was down to next to nothing with one guy left and I had him make a desperate run to open the Treasure Tile while the Spellweaver blasted him. I ended up playing at the recommended difficulty for the scenario despite the advice above. But only for one reason, the road event provided me a fairly fortuitous item that changed my outlook on it.
Spoiler:
I helped some Inox beat up some Humans on the road to the Black Barrow and they gifted the group with a Necklace of Teeth which grants a Heal+1, Self on every kill.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by $iljanus »

So on past Target runs I've been seeing Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion on the shelves. Even held it in my hands. I actually have Gloomhaven but after trying to organize the parts I just showed it aside. I'm going to Target again and between now and my arrival feel free to convince or discourage me from buying it...if I even see it of course.

Estimated arrival time is 20 minutes.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by malchior »

$iljanus wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:36 am So on past Target runs I've been seeing Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion on the shelves. Even held it in my hands. I actually have Gloomhaven but after trying to organize the parts I just showed it aside. I'm going to Target again and between now and my arrival feel free to convince or discourage me from buying it...if I even see it of course.

Estimated arrival time is 20 minutes.
Lol. FWIW with the Broken Token organizer the time to go from boxed to ready for scenario set up was 2 minutes (I timed it). I didn't time scenario set up but it wasn't more than another 10 minutes. That was unboxing the tuck boxes with the monsters, shuffling cards, building the map, etc.

On another note, scenario 2 is a real bitch. I didn't even come close to beating it but I had a *lot* of bad beat attack modifier draws. Like got the big bad to 1 HP left and then drew a curse card on the killing blow.
Spoiler:
He then threw open another door and unleashed even more baddies on me and that was all she wrote.
Back to town for some re-supply I suppose before taking a 2nd whack at it.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

$iljanus wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:36 am Estimated arrival time is 20 minutes.
Bird in hand has value, but if for some reason it's OOS at your local Target, GameNerdz is offering it for $39.99 with free shipping if you use the coupon code SAVE20. Link here.

:D
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by $iljanus »

The board game shelves had all sorts of interesting games. D&D starter sets, not one but two different Bob Ross games, the Villianous games, that Pan Am game that I think Lorini mentioned which looks cool and appeals to my memories of actually flying Pan Am, Top Gun, The Shining, Jaws, Pandemic but alas no Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion.

Like the Pon Farr however the feverish desire for the game has passed and instead I spent a bunch of cash on really boring domestic items. But the cellar will be more organized than my Gloomhaven game by the end of the weekend!
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Skinypupy »

$iljanus wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:22 pm The board game shelves had all sorts of interesting games. D&D starter sets, not one but two different Bob Ross games, the Villianous games, that Pan Am game that I think Lorini mentioned which looks cool and appeals to my memories of actually flying Pan Am, Top Gun, The Shining, Jaws, Pandemic but alas no Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion.

Like the Pon Farr however the feverish desire for the game has passed and instead I spent a bunch of cash on really boring domestic items. But the cellar will be more organized than my Gloomhaven game by the end of the weekend!
I played “Bob Ross: Art of Chill” at my brother’s house and it was fantastic. I came in very skeptical, but it was quite fun.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by malchior »

I hadn't heard of it that Bob Ross game but it looks really intriguing. I could see putting on an episode in the background and have a happy little game.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by YellowKing »

I found PANDEMIC: RAPID RESPONSE on the clearance shelf at Target today for $12 so I grabbed it. I know it's not the best-reviewed of the Pandemic titles, but for the price I figured it was worth throwing in the collection. I'm not a big-fan of real-time games as they stress me out, but I'm such a fan of the series that I have a rule to pick up any Pandemic title I don't own whenever I see it at a historic low.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

$iljanus wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:22 pm
Like the Pon Farr however the feverish desire for the game has passed and instead I spent a bunch of cash on really boring domestic items.
Congratulations, you’ve ruined similes for everyone.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by YellowKing »

Played another neat little solo puzzler tonight in a GenCon demo called UNDER FALLING SKIES.

Alien ships are coming down from the top of a 5-column board Galaga/Space Invaders style, and you're tasked with completing a research track before 1) your base takes too much damage or 2) the alien mothership descends all the way down.

Each turn you roll 5 6-sided dice, 3 gray and 2 white. You then place these dice on action spots in your base which will trigger different things at the end of the turn. Orange spots scramble fighter jets, which will blow up ships that have reached explosion spaces on the board, as long as you have dice in those spots equal to or above the value of the explosion. Green spots generate research points which move the research tracker up and allow you to win the game. And yellow spots generate power, which is used to pay the cost of scrambling jets or generating research. A final "placeholder" spot at the top of your base gives you no actions, but does reduce the number of spaces an alien ship will move by 1.

Only one die can be placed per column, and placing a die will automatically move the alien ship in its column down the same value as the die. One other catch - your base is underground, and at the beginning of the game only a few action "rooms" are available. To unlock more rooms, you'll also have to move your digger through the base excavating more spots. This also costs a die and energy.

The aspect of the game I really enjoyed is that die placement not only affects what you do each turn, but also what the enemy does. So every placement is a balancing act of maximizing your opportunity while simultaneously minimizing the enemy's opportunity. In addition, the order you place the dice can also be crucial. White dice ALWAYS trigger a re-roll of all remaining dice. So you'll have to decide when you can afford to take a chance on getting new values on your remaining dice pool.

There are lots of other things going on here that I didn't touch on - the mothership descends a row every round, which can trigger effects like causing cave-ins (which move your digger backwards), energy loss, or even spawn extra alien ships. There are also spaces on the board which, if an alien ship enters, may cause it to switch columns, or trigger the mothership to descend a row immediately.

I REALLY enjoyed this one but it is quite a brain burner and SUPER puzzly. However, I don't mind my solo games being puzzly as I enjoy the challenge. The game releases in Q4 to retail, and the guy said it would be in all the big box stores (Amazon, B&N, etc.) He also mentioned that the retail game will have a campaign mode, and ships with multiple reversible tiles so you'll get different base configurations, different research tracks, different alien ship boards, etc. Looked like a lot of replayability. Neat game and I'll definitely be adding it to my wish list later this year.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by $iljanus »

hepcat wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:36 pm
$iljanus wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 2:22 pm
Like the Pon Farr however the feverish desire for the game has passed and instead I spent a bunch of cash on really boring domestic items.
Congratulations, you’ve ruined similes for everyone.
I try my best! :lol:
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by wonderpug »

YellowKing wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:16 pm Played another neat little solo puzzler tonight in a GenCon demo called UNDER FALLING SKIES.
...
I REALLY enjoyed this one but it is quite a brain burner and SUPER puzzly. However, I don't mind my solo games being puzzly as I enjoy the challenge. The game releases in Q4 to retail, and the guy said it would be in all the big box stores (Amazon, B&N, etc.) He also mentioned that the retail game will have a campaign mode, and ships with multiple reversible tiles so you'll get different base configurations, different research tracks, different alien ship boards, etc. Looked like a lot of replayability. Neat game and I'll definitely be adding it to my wish list later this year.
Thanks for the impressions. Just recently I saw it getting some praise in a solo boardgaming subreddit as well. Sounds overly puzzly for my personal tastes, but I'll have to keep an eye on it.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Fardaza »

YellowKing wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:16 pm Played another neat little solo puzzler tonight in a GenCon demo called UNDER FALLING SKIES.
Saw it on BGG the other day. It did look pretty cool. I wishlisted it to remind me when it comes out.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Skinypupy »

I have three full days off this coming week, with the kids at school and the wife at work. A glorious 8 hour stretch with the house all to myself. There will be solo board games galore. 8-)

First one up will be Mage Knight. I’ve been wanting to give it another go, but simply haven’t had the time or energy. In poking around online to refresh myself on the rules, I came across this absolutely fantastic new tutorial series from Modern Cardboard. Sorry Ricky Royal, you’ve been replaced. This guy does a fantastic job explaining the setup and gameplay.

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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Skinypupy »

I just found out that 7 Wonders Duel has a print & play solo variant. That doesn't suck.

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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by coopasonic »

Huh...
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by AWS260 »

I closed out Labor Day with a solo, two-handed play of Spirit Island. (I think I've only played it with another person once; I basically think of it as a solo game.)

Thunderspeaker + River Surges in Sunlight proved very effective against the invaders. They each grabbed a high-damage major power early on, which kept colonial towns and cities in check while building up fear relatively quickly.

I continue to love this game. The different spirits' abilities are hugely evocative, and their power curve vs. the invaders' relentless expansion is so well balanced. And there's so much to explore, with the different spirit combinations, invader nations and scenarios. I know the expansions are supposed to be very good, but I still have a lot to dig into in the main box.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

I'm slowly going through Too Many Bones Undertow, and I think I broke the game on the 2nd day.

Image

As part of the encounter card I had to draw 4 enemies and after setting everything up, I notice one of them has DODGE listed as an ability. I go to read up on this and it indicates that I cannot damage this enemy with attack dice. I just started the game and have no special attacks (like poison) or upgraded abilities (like traps or animals that auto attack) so I guess I just run around the mat for 7 rounds and try to dodge the angry chimp until we're exhausted?

This game is hitting a little too close to real life.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Isgrimnur »

It's almost as if people are the problem.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

Yup. The only thing I've read suggests all I can do is run around. Ghille has no companions, traps or other auto damage on Day 2 of the game, at least as I've configured him. So yeah. it's not just dice that hate me - chips apparently do as well.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

I thought you had sold off all your TMB stuff because you didn’t like it all that much? Or am I thinking of someone else? :?

Also, I think there are memes about how much folks hate that ape.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

I had the original box, yes and was very, very frustrated with it. When I picked it up, it was right before they did a update and fixed rules and the muddy prints on the cards that I owned (but couldn't read). It kinda soured me so yeah, I got rid of it.

However, it's been a few years and it still is consistently listed as a Top 10 solo game, so I figured I'd dip my toe back in and pick up Undertow as it's smaller, cheaper and more refined.

I am feeling better about this than i was back in late 2017 when I tried the original, that's for sure. Though this chimp is..something. I mean, if I can hope around and get him to start every turn next to the other enemies, he's going to blind-rage attack them first before moving. So it's definitely an interesting mechanic. I guess I'll see how it goes. Lesson learned here, but never doubt I have the worst luck.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

I think you’re just going to have to take the loss on that battle.

What I find interesting is that I’ll look at a character like Tantrum and think, “He looks boring.” Then I’ll play him and realize I’m having a blast with building up the character. The only thing that bugs me about the game (and I’ve harped on this before) is that there’s some battles you can lose in the very first round as you’re usually completely naked if you don’t get the initiative. Getting one shotted can be frustrating. That’s one of the reasons I usually play two handed these days.

Oh, and I got the notice my treasure trove storage case is shipping soon.

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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Tao »

I don't own Undertow but looking at that board I am wondering if the difficulty is jacked up. Some of those look like they should be 5 PT baddies. I know in core TMB there are usually special instructions for playing single player when drawing your Baddie Pool to tone down the difficulty, that looks brutal. On the positive side the Chimp only has 2 health so as long as you get to the final round with just the Chimp and at least 3 health you could still pull out a win. I've definitely taken to thinking of the game as a Rogue-like, where you can instantly lose at almost any time. I've had more than one game where we just said, screw it clear the board and lets start over.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

Yeah, this was a Day 2 special card that added two Mechs to the 2pt draw. To (I guess) make it easier the card instructions say whatever monsters spawn only have 2 health each, but I apparently randomly selected one of the worst 1pt monsters ever.

I'm also not sure if I'm making it more complicated for myself, but I read not to start with Stanza and instead use Duster. However, I was having a hard time trying to get my brain around using the associated pet, so I just swapped out to Ghillie.
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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

Ok, I think I might have puzzled it out. At the end of Day 1, Ghillie should have scouted the enemy stack by rolling a D6 (which I did). I did discover the Acrobat Chimp was going to be pulled, but I didn't really understand what it meant. At that point, I should have realized it was unbeatable by me and cycled it face down to the bottom of the stack and started Day 2 not knowing what the new top 1pt baddie was.

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Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by hepcat »

Good catch. It’s easy to forget that scouting can be a powerful asset.
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Smoove_B
Posts: 54567
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:58 am
Location: Kaer Morhen

Re: OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

Post by Smoove_B »

The best thing about solo is I can go as slow as I need to and rewind things when I'm doing it wrong. :D

I did that and of course the new enemy that came out is one that cannot be targeted in the first round of combat, but that's just a minor setback in comparison. Progress!
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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