Great playthrough. I found the solo play to be too easy in the default mode, and even the suggested tweaks in the rule book to increase difficulty don't quite solve the problem. I've found that adding a house rule along the following lines helps; make the AI duke visible, and it actively chooses citizens from a column that will score it the most bonus points from the duke card at the end of the game. Where the duke has no preference, it will actively prioritise emptying citizen stacks as quickly as possible to trigger the end game as early as it can.
@Functional Kali Thanks for watching, and agree, after you've learned the mechanics of the game, increasing the difficulty will be needed. Thanks for the additional alternative! :)
@@DaletheCasualGamer I should also mention that there are solo house rule suggestions on BGG as well. For me they go too far in the other direction and make the AI almost unstoppable! Love your content - keep doing what you do!
@@amitversion2 Good point. If I ever get the game, I should try that house rule myself. At least with how the rulebook describes its solo mode, if you find other solo modes in other games too hard for a while, Valeria can at least let you blow off some steam/stress with its much easier solo mode if you need a break from a long day, etc.
The art on the cards is amazing. While this game does not really seem like my cup of tea...I mean glass of wine...watching this video was really fun and incredibly relaxing. Look forward to seeing a more difficult version of the game, if you decide to do it.
Thanks for sharing the playthrough using the 2nd ed. Been looking forward to seeing it in action, especially with the solo mode. Looks pretty simple, but like the idea of increasing the difficulty with various house rules and curious about the Darksworn expansion campaign.
@Karl Montzka I've enjoyed the Darksworn expansion, but only played it solo, not in a group. I should have a look at that at some point on the channel. :)
You have the best rules/gameplay breakdown. Thanks for creating the video and giving some clearly explained basic. What did you say to your dice? They performed great.
Thanks for showing off the game. The tableau building of the game reminds me a lot about deck-building games, but in this game, your cards activate based on dice rolls, and you'll trying to build a well-rounded set of cards so that you can still benefit off almost every dice roll that there is in the game. At least the good part is that you cards are always available on the tableau rather than have to draw them, I agree that taking the rogues paid off a lot in the game, since 7 is the most common sum that it's roll off 2 D6s, and it's make them somewhat OP when 7s are rolled as often as you showed here. At least you weren't showing solo Catan here (if it had a solo mode), otherwise you would have a lot of visits from robbers instead. Anyway, I hope that you'll be able to use the 2 D6s more often in future games on your channels. The big numbers on those 2 giant D6s make it's easier to tell what numbers you rolled since they show more clearly on camera, and they seem to have work for you well in this video. I hope that you'll be able to bring them back in future videos that use 2 regular D6s, and I hope more games come out that come with dice like this game so that you don't have to use a magnifying glass and/or bring the dice up close to a camera to show us what was rolled on them.
@@DaletheCasualGamer I hope we can see those lucky dice more next year. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what other deck-building games you'll bring to the channel in 2022, as well as games that have some mechanics that feel like a deckbuilder, engine builder, etc. like Valeria. (Pretty much, X builder-type game)
You keep beating these solo games on standard mode fairly convincingly. You might want to give Solar Storm a shot. I still haven't gotten the right balance of action management down to beat it, even with all the wild resources in the deck.
@DrDibs Thanks for watching! That was my second play, and wanted to keep it "standard" for the how to play video. I have another play recorded with the 1st recommendation to up the difficulty, and then I went into the Darksworn campaign. Still want to come back to this doing both the games recommendations to up the difficulty. Still love the game, perfect for the hard day after work coming home just to wind down. :)
I like dice that look like the top of an optometrist’s chart. Especially after last night’s Rockin Eve. I’m not fuzzy. You’re fuzzy The abstracted combat is very interesting. Nice fast gameplay. The +10 area of the resource tracker gets really congested and I wish the tracker itself was an inset board. A solid bump to the table could mean disaster.
@JJE McManus I love the components, but thought the same thing for the tracker that it would have been great as a double board layer with spaces to hold the tracker in place. After my first play of Terraforming Mars, someone sneezed, hit the table ... and that was the end of that game. Had to reset and start over! lol
Thank you for the playthrough. I was wondering wether or not to get this one. It seems to me that it's the kind of game where once you've found the best strategy, there is no real reason not to do it every game, hurting the replayability. Maybe it's just me, but there does not seem to be a lot of decision making, more like going through the motion until the game is over, or I'm I missing something?
@David Pepin I'd agree with that statement. For solo play, the core box can definitely get "samey". It is a light tableau building game. The Darksworn expansion provides a campaign that will provide different options/choices. And of course other expansion would provide different citizens providing different powers. I find it a quick, light, relaxing game for solo ... and easy game to teach for competitive play. Would definitely recommend the Darksworn expansion for solo and option of coop play. Happy gaming! :)
@Gozzy Wozzy Correct, you count the VP at the end of the game, although I don't see any reason why you couldn't track it during the game. For the campaign expansion, Darksworn, you track during the game because you can spend for bonuses. Hope that helps, and thanks for watching! :)
Great playthrough. I found the solo play to be too easy in the default mode, and even the suggested tweaks in the rule book to increase difficulty don't quite solve the problem.
I've found that adding a house rule along the following lines helps; make the AI duke visible, and it actively chooses citizens from a column that will score it the most bonus points from the duke card at the end of the game. Where the duke has no preference, it will actively prioritise emptying citizen stacks as quickly as possible to trigger the end game as early as it can.
@Functional Kali Thanks for watching, and agree, after you've learned the mechanics of the game, increasing the difficulty will be needed. Thanks for the additional alternative! :)
@@DaletheCasualGamer I should also mention that there are solo house rule suggestions on BGG as well. For me they go too far in the other direction and make the AI almost unstoppable!
Love your content - keep doing what you do!
@@amitversion2 Good point. If I ever get the game, I should try that house rule myself. At least with how the rulebook describes its solo mode, if you find other solo modes in other games too hard for a while, Valeria can at least let you blow off some steam/stress with its much easier solo mode if you need a break from a long day, etc.
The art on the cards is amazing. While this game does not really seem like my cup of tea...I mean glass of wine...watching this video was really fun and incredibly relaxing. Look forward to seeing a more difficult version of the game, if you decide to do it.
@writerguy911 Yep, the art really got me into this game. I've got many more plays recorded ... I really love this game. :)
Thanks for sharing the playthrough using the 2nd ed. Been looking forward to seeing it in action, especially with the solo mode. Looks pretty simple, but like the idea of increasing the difficulty with various house rules and curious about the Darksworn expansion campaign.
@Karl Montzka I've enjoyed the Darksworn expansion, but only played it solo, not in a group. I should have a look at that at some point on the channel. :)
You have the best rules/gameplay breakdown. Thanks for creating the video and giving some clearly explained basic. What did you say to your dice? They performed great.
@Stewart King Thanks! And those dice were awesome, I need to contact the publisher and see if they just sell dice for my other games! :)
Thanks for showing off the game. The tableau building of the game reminds me a lot about deck-building games, but in this game, your cards activate based on dice rolls, and you'll trying to build a well-rounded set of cards so that you can still benefit off almost every dice roll that there is in the game. At least the good part is that you cards are always available on the tableau rather than have to draw them,
I agree that taking the rogues paid off a lot in the game, since 7 is the most common sum that it's roll off 2 D6s, and it's make them somewhat OP when 7s are rolled as often as you showed here. At least you weren't showing solo Catan here (if it had a solo mode), otherwise you would have a lot of visits from robbers instead.
Anyway, I hope that you'll be able to use the 2 D6s more often in future games on your channels. The big numbers on those 2 giant D6s make it's easier to tell what numbers you rolled since they show more clearly on camera, and they seem to have work for you well in this video. I hope that you'll be able to bring them back in future videos that use 2 regular D6s, and I hope more games come out that come with dice like this game so that you don't have to use a magnifying glass and/or bring the dice up close to a camera to show us what was rolled on them.
@Daniel Schaublin Haha! Yep, I would have been in serious trouble in Catan!
And those are some nice dice, and seemed to like me ... for now. ;)
@@DaletheCasualGamer I hope we can see those lucky dice more next year. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what other deck-building games you'll bring to the channel in 2022, as well as games that have some mechanics that feel like a deckbuilder, engine builder, etc. like Valeria. (Pretty much, X builder-type game)
You keep beating these solo games on standard mode fairly convincingly. You might want to give Solar Storm a shot. I still haven't gotten the right balance of action management down to beat it, even with all the wild resources in the deck.
@DrDibs Thanks for watching! That was my second play, and wanted to keep it "standard" for the how to play video. I have another play recorded with the 1st recommendation to up the difficulty, and then I went into the Darksworn campaign. Still want to come back to this doing both the games recommendations to up the difficulty. Still love the game, perfect for the hard day after work coming home just to wind down. :)
I like dice that look like the top of an optometrist’s chart. Especially after last night’s Rockin Eve. I’m not fuzzy. You’re fuzzy
The abstracted combat is very interesting. Nice fast gameplay. The +10 area of the resource tracker gets really congested and I wish the tracker itself was an inset board. A solid bump to the table could mean disaster.
@JJE McManus I love the components, but thought the same thing for the tracker that it would have been great as a double board layer with spaces to hold the tracker in place. After my first play of Terraforming Mars, someone sneezed, hit the table ... and that was the end of that game. Had to reset and start over! lol
Thank you for the playthrough. I was wondering wether or not to get this one. It seems to me that it's the kind of game where once you've found the best strategy, there is no real reason not to do it every game, hurting the replayability. Maybe it's just me, but there does not seem to be a lot of decision making, more like going through the motion until the game is over, or I'm I missing something?
@David Pepin I'd agree with that statement. For solo play, the core box can definitely get "samey". It is a light tableau building game. The Darksworn expansion provides a campaign that will provide different options/choices. And of course other expansion would provide different citizens providing different powers. I find it a quick, light, relaxing game for solo ... and easy game to teach for competitive play. Would definitely recommend the Darksworn expansion for solo and option of coop play. Happy gaming! :)
I spent my money this month already... too much stuff I am getting to order more stuff... but nice try in making me do it...
@idjester But it's only the 4th of the month!!! What games have you purchased to go over budget already?
@@DaletheCasualGamer when you see my unboxings you will know... should be 3 or 4 in the next week..
@@idjester lol
When you defeated the monsters, you didn't score any VP on your tracker. Is that an oversight? Or do you only score VP during endgame?
@Gozzy Wozzy Correct, you count the VP at the end of the game, although I don't see any reason why you couldn't track it during the game. For the campaign expansion, Darksworn, you track during the game because you can spend for bonuses. Hope that helps, and thanks for watching! :)
Game looks cool. Can’t find it though 😢
Miniature Market has some in stock ... www.miniaturemarket.com/dmgvck101.html , and Amazon ... amzn.to/3WuWxuh
Hope that helps!
Great playthrough!
I just finished playing solo of this game and it was extremely boring..🤮