The Darksworn Campaign in Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Delve into a story-driven campaign with unexpected surprises and brand new challenges in Valeria: Card Kingdoms.
While the base game solo mode for Valeria: Card Kingdoms was acceptable, there was a lot more I wanted. Luckily, I had a bunch of expansions to mix in! Specifically, I quickly switched over to Darksworn. With a brand new solo mode and a campaign to complete, I was excited for the possibilities! I reset everything, reshuffled, redealt, and got ready to play!
Spoiler Alert
Note that this post includes some spoilers for the entire expansion campaign across all 6 books. Nothing is spelled out specifically, but some of the contents of the later books are mentioned. I haven’t gone into detail about the story itself, though. Just be aware that you may see some cards and components that aren’t available from the very start!
Game Overview
Game Name: Valeria: Card Kingdoms
Publication Year: 2016
Designer: Isaias Vallejo
Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Solo Mode: Included in Darksworn
Those familiar with the base game will recognize the standard stacks of monsters and citizens. Yet with the story, blessings offer special bonuses and each chapter features its own task. The dice can be harsh, but walls can help hold off the monsters… Only temporarily, though!
First Play
Janaury 8, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
December 25, 2023
Expansions
5
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
14
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
128
Game Area
26" x 28"
Low Score
82
The Pages of Book One
Each book consists of a deck of cards and some possible additional components. The cards flip like the pages in a book, allowing the story to stay nice and condensed.
The one major change I made was to swap the locations of the blessings and chapter boards. Much easier to have all that text directly in front of me instead of a mile away!
I wanted more of a challenge, along with a little more structure in this solo mode. Too much to ask? I hoped not!
Many of the core gameplay elements remained the same, which seemed like the right decision to make. Onward!
Hold the Wall!
The dice continued to activate the monsters in their columns, but this was a little different. Walls provided barriers that the monsters had to get through.
At the very beginning, this allowed citizens to be recruited without the danger of rushing the end of the game.
It also added some more strategic decisions, especially since the monsters were shuffled together. No more easy battles immediately from the start. Much better!
These citizens could be returned, too, so there was a lot more control over how the stacks were depleted.
Entering the Lore
The chapters provide a mix of storytelling lore and actual gameplay elements, like tasks or major problems with a dice value or sum of 6. Watch out for those situations!
I was tossed right into the action, as is always fitting with these stories. No need to have a slow introduction. Boom!
It was the gameplay and new strategies that changed the game for me, though. The story was pretty good, too, yet I finally felt like I had challenging decisions to make.
Remember, though, that merging story-driven mechanics within a board game can be very difficult. Well done here!
Moving Away from Victory Points
One of the biggest changes with this campaign solo mode was how it completely did away with victory points as part of the victory condition. This turned into a matter of completing the chapter, or failing to finish the tasks before too many exhausted cards came out. However, this turned victory points into another sort of usable resource to spend.
Blessings provided the main way to trade victory points for other bonuses. The only downside was how the wardens and leaders provided almost too much of a bonus, or simply didn’t work with the way the rest of the monsters worked. Even with more content, the expansion removed some base game components from play. Not those awesome bosses!
Still, overall I liked the changes because there wasn’t an opportunity for me to win by a ridiculous margin. I either completed the chapter and won, or lost. I also didn’t miss the removed domains and dukes, since they felt like the weakest part of the solo mode. The challenge was in completing each chapter’s task quickly and efficiently.
The Greatest Enemy
I knew that the second book was meant to introduce a rather terrifying monster… But let me explain why I had to laugh out loud at what this reminded me of!
A Trail of Eyes certainly matched the appearance of this sudden foe flying overhead. Watch out for the eyes!
However, I was immediately brought back to the absolute nonsense of the obscure movie, Trail of the Screaming Forehead. Great memories of laughing at that one!
So I was taken out of the game slightly, yet I appreciated the random connection only I would have made. Ha ha!
From Task to Task
As each book progressed, chapters presented more of the story and different kinds of tasks. Monsters always loomed over the play area, along with trickier bosses.
Yet not all of the tasks were combat-oriented. I enjoyed finding ways to collect resources to build or do other sorts of activities that continued to advance the story along.
Many were not at all easy! For example, this task required an amount of each type of resource, with no wild magic.
Citizens helped a lot and I didn’t feel like I had any runaway resources. There was a clear direction forward.
Light at Midnight
Without spoiling anything too much, I enjoyed the twists and turns. There were some unexpected moments, and even the passage of time was a little different.
Yet through it all, it was the gameplay that really held things together. After having a mediocre time with the base game, this was very close to what I hoped for!
The only main downside was how the campaign ended and didn’t have any sort of branching storyline.
However, it’s possible to play through it again with more challenging monsters at a higher difficulty level.
Session Overview
Play Number: 5-10
Expansions: Many
Solo Mode: Included in Darksworn
Play Details: Books 1-6
Outcome: 6 Wins
There were some situations where the exhausted cards kept coming out and I had to race to solve some issues. A lot of the tasks forced me to adjust my focus from simply defeating monsters to avoiding the potential for worse outcomes. I enjoyed the whole story! It fixed a lot of my issues with the solo mode and provided a solid campaign.
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Progressing through the various books is interesting and presents many different situations and other tasks.
- Monsters are more of an element to control than the main focus of this story-driven solo mode with chapters.
- Walls help provide a little respite in the beginning so citizens can be recruited and resource production can begin.
- Overall play time is still quite short, even though it feels like a lot happens from chapter to chapter in each book.
- There is a great deal of variety with the different citizens, monsters, and events in the ways they can be mixed.
- Victory points are treated as another resource without needing to adjust a lot of cards from the base game.
– Cons (Negatives)
- There is a lot of time needed during setup and cleanup to collect and sort all of the needed decks for play.
- Adjusting the difficulty level takes a little more effort in determining the right monsters to shuffle together.
- Some of the text is too small to see from far away, so the recommended setup isn’t ideal for playing solo.
- Chapters can be a bit mixed, with certain tasks feeling a little too easy and others taking a long time to complete.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Book or Dungeon
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete Book One: The Prophecy.
Complete Book Two: A Trail of Eyes.
Complete Book Three: The Shores of Kosk.
Complete Book Four: Blackest Death.
Complete Book Five: Midnight Whispers.
Complete Book Six: The Final Breach.
Complete Dungeon Delve: The Forgotten Temple.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the hard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What is your experience with Valeria: Card Kingdoms? Do you prefer the base game solo mode, or has Darksworn made some positive changes for you? I was a little sad that the campaign ended, although I still have something else to try out before I’m done for now! This might not have turned the game into one of my favorites, yet it improved it greatly!
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