Ashes Reborn (Again) and an Excellent Solo Expansion
Battle a Chimera as a unique character with custom abilities, spells, and units in Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn.
For many years, my husband and I collected Ashes Reborn: Rise of Phoenixborn and all it offered. Our 2-player games were few and far between, although my deck was amazing and granted me victory time and time again! I didn’t think it would be a solo consideration until Red Rains – The Corpse of Viros was released. Well, back to this amazing world!
Game Overview
Game Name: Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn
Publication Year: 2015
Designer: Isaac Vega
Artists: Thander Lin, David Richards, & Fernanda Suárez
Publisher: Plaid Hat Games
Solo Mode: Included in Red Rains – The Corpse of Viros
With a pre-constructed or custom deck, all sorts of characters are available to create interesting card combinations. Dice provide resources for spells and units to take on a Chimera with deadly aspects. It’s a duel to the death with many strategies and cards to try out each time!
First Play
May 18, 2023
Complexity
3
Latest Play
May 19, 2023
Expansions
27
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
24" x 24"
Low Score
N/A
Rulebooks… Reborn?
I sometimes have a particular way about learning new solo games, so a lot of rulebooks don’t work the best for me.
All the same, I found myself sifting through a trio of rulebooks to find everything I needed to get started. It was a lot, all spread out in somewhat confusing sections.
The solo or cooperative expansion includes a pair of rulebooks that are designed to split out beginner and expert players… But both are needed for the full rules.
Note, though, that this system tripped me up as I’ve played it over the years, so this wasn’t all that surprising!
Choosing Cards & Dice
First, early apologies for showcasing the special promo dice sets that are extremely hard to find. I promise that the base game dice are also beautiful! I just love these, though.
The nice part about this system is that a deck may be fully customized, along with a pool of 10 chosen dice.
Dice symbols act as resources, with higher values used to pay for some of the better abilities. They also offer their own powers to be used as a possible side action.
This is a clever way to give a lot of power to decks: Using a lot of the same dice is powerful, but is not the only option.
Coal Roarkwin
My first real choice was to find my first Phoenixborn. As of the writing of this post, I had a whopping 28 to choose from… And some had different Phoenixborn powers. Wow!
I went back to the base set and literally looked for the first one mentioned in the rulebook. Hello, Coal Roarkwin!
There are so many possibilities here, yet I’m someone who can get overwhelmed with too many choices. Coal was relatively straightforward to understand, thankfully.
Next, was I ready to build a custom deck? Absolutely not. Ha! I appreciated the pre-constructed deck option. Easy!
The First Five
Was this pre-constructed deck flawed? Possibly, yet I wanted to get a feel for the system and understand how Coal’s deck was designed to work. Onward to play!
The really nice element of play is the ability to choose the First Five. In simple terms, the starting hand of 5 cards isn’t drawn randomly, but set before shuffling.
Pre-constructed decks come with recommendations, but these can be changed to play a deck a little differently.
I was excited! This was my first time seeing a lot of these cards, and I had a Chimera to take down with Coal!
UberTrayz Storage
There aren’t an unnecessarily large amount of tokens, but it’s important to keep them organized during play. I found another use for my collection of UberTrayz!
My only complaints about the numbered tokens are that they’re double-sided with different amounts, and different denominations use the same size.
With that said, though, these are very useful during play and show all the information necessary at a glance.
Was it time to play yet?! Nearly… I had to set up the solo opponent, otherwise known as the monstrous Chimera.
A Clear Play Area
Such a nice design! The Chimera has all of its components neatly organized on a board that even boasts cutouts for dice to be placed. Watch out for the Red Rains tokens…
In a nutshell, the Chimera uses a set of aspect cards that provide obstacles to deal with. Its dice are rolled to try to power up its ultimate and determine its behavior.
Quick? Absolutely! I had to reference the rulebook a few extra times, yet that’s definitely on me and how I learn.
Play goes back and forth as a Phoenixborn uses dice to pay for abilities, spells, and units as the Chimera fights back.
Excellent Initial Roll
Luck was on my side with my first roll! I had a couple of high-tier symbols, and mainly mid-tier symbols.
The very lowest basic symbol isn’t bad, though: Cards may be discarded to change dice to different sides, and basic dice are typically used with many cards in a deck.
Naturally, with this relatively great starting set of dice, I wasn’t exactly positive what I wanted to do. So many choices! It was all about just understanding the rules.
Gameplay really did flow very smoothly, though, and I estimated a play would likely last around 3-5 total rounds.
Fatal Aspects
In actuality, my first couple of plays ended after just 2 rounds and my Phoenixborn taking far too many hits. Oh, my! Nothing seemed to be going right for Coal.
Every aspect is face-down to start with, so flipping it over brings a nasty surprise. This example was the undoing of a lot of work, helping to trigger the Chimera’s ultimate.
It felt a little discouraging, to be honest. Each unit lasted against a single aspect, and my spells did very little.
There was a strong sense that this was too hard for me to figure out. However, I pressed on in the hopes it wasn’t!
The Age-Old Question: Is It the Game, or is It Me?
Keep reading on, and you’ll find a pleasant surprise as I rolled into my third and fourth plays. But there is no denying that I had some initial frustration. My husband, who is well-versed in this system, pointed out that I chose one of the pre-constructed decks that might struggle a lot against the Chimera. It might be best to switch to a custom deck.
Well, challenge accepted! I admit that this sort of card system where I need to know my deck inside and out often gives me some trouble. The optimal moves and choices aren’t as clear to me as they might be to others, so I find myself defeated early on. Sometimes, it’s just an indication that I need to move on and accept the game isn’t for me.
However, with all of the praise I’ve read about the expansion in the solo community, I was determined to at least give it a chance. That initial frustration and disappointment was still there as I forged onward, but I adjusted my expectations and reminded myself of something important… I struggle with these games, that’s OK, and it could just be me!
Although far from perfect or exact, I can usually separate out whether my issues are with a game or from my own doing after a handful of plays. Not every game works for me, whether it’s a well-known classic or some random title practically no one has heard of! The distinction is important, though, since I can still recommend games I rate poorly.
Making Sense of a Deck
Despite my initial problems and somewhat questionable grasp of the rules, I wasn’t about to give up. I went back and chose my own set of First Five. I had some ideas!
Again, I faltered. However, whereas I struggled to reduce the Chimera’s health by 1/3, I saw a glimmer of hope as I lost with it down to under 10 of 30 health remaining. A-ha!
Then, after battling it out and watching Coal damaged with just 2 health left, it happened: The Chimera fell!
I put out a bunch of units and cast a bunch of helpful spells at the right time. What a rousing victory after the losses!
Corpse of a Corpse
Take that! The Corpse of Viros sounded like the Chimera should already have been defeated, but I turned it into a right proper corpse, thank you very much. Ha ha!
My final turn was so exciting as I tried to figure out how to defeat it. I could get it down to 1 of 30 health… Hmm.
I thought I might get it on my next turn, but flipping over another aspect would be dangerous. It didn’t seem likely.
That is, until I realized I could use Strengthen on my Iron Rhino that was waiting to attack. That raised the attack by 2, allowing me to defeat the Chimera with a little oomph!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-4
Expansion: Red Rains – The Corpse of Viros
Solo Mode: Included with Red Rains – The Corpse of Viros
Play Details: The Corpse of Viros Standard 1 (Fury)
Outcome: 1 Win & 3 Losses
That was worth all the effort! I could even continue on with the campaign that would see the Chimera get a little more powerful to see how Coal might fare. I wasn’t at all an expert, yet I was thrilled to understand how the deck worked with its different card combinations. This is a wonderful system I can’t wait to keep on exploring!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
10
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
9
+ Pros (Positives)
- Decks can either follow a pre-constructed format or be completely custom, which offers a lot of options.
- Although there is a lot of content, trying out the solo mode only requires the base game and Red Rains expansion.
- The way dice provide resources or are used themselves is very interesting and adds to the fun of creating a deck.
- Being able to choose the First Five offers a helpful start to avoid the need to mulligan or re-draw a starting hand.
- Play is very smooth once the rules are understood, with the total time needed around 30 minutes or less.
- Figuring out the possible card combinations is very fun, while the Chimera offers a great, customizable challenge.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The rulebooks have important information scattered around, and it can be a little hard to get started playing.
- A custom storage solution is likely needed to store all of the cards and keep them neatly organized to build a deck.
- Some of the aspect cards are extremely difficult, particularly when combined with some other face-up aspects.
- Double-sided tokens use different values, but are the same color and size to make things a little tricky to track.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Chimera
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game against the Fury set.
Win at least 1 game as Coal Roarkwin.
Win at least 1 game at the standard 1 difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Ashes Reborn: Rise of the Phoenixborn? Are you struggling against the Chimera, or do you have some excellent decks you’ve used? I’m excited to keep on playing so I can dig into all of the cards! This single solo opponent might seem static, yet there are plans for more solo expansions in the future. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
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