Revisiting Concordia as a Solo Game and Meeting Contrarius

Expand across the Roman Empire in specialized cities with the help of carefully played experts in Concordia.
Although I love playing some older classics in my collection, I have to admit that a lot of the solo games that hit my table are relatively new. Most have been published within the last 2-3 years… Time to go back in time! My husband picked up the official solitaire expansion for Concordia, and it was about time I returned to this awesome game!
Game Overview
Game Name: Concordia
Publication Year: 2013
Designer: Mac Gerdts
Artists: M. Fahrenbach, M. Gerdts, and D. Mayer
Publishers: PD-Verlag and Rio Grande Games
Solo Mode: Included in Concordia: Solitaria
Many maps exist for this series, all with random resource production across the many cities. Gameplay revolves around choosing cards to play for distinct actions, while the solo opponent reacts with limited randomness. It all plays out in a tense match of expanding and producing!
First Play
August 13, 2023
Complexity
3
Latest Play
August 13, 2023
Expansions
5
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
140
Game Area
32" x 26"
Low Score
123
Clever Storage
This is a game I haven’t played in many years, but there was much celebrating over here… Apparently, Ganesh lists it as one of his favorite games of all-time!
An official solo and cooperative expansion came out a few years ago. I just never felt the pull of the game, though.
However, I forgot about these clever mechanics. Storage is always limited in a clearly defined warehouse. Paying for more colonists opens up more space, which is valuable.
A set of cards provides actions to take, while the solo opponent, Contrarius, reacts accordingly each round.
Beginning in Roma
There is a booklet with historical information that I had a lovely time reading through! It was a needed break from the setup, which involves a lot of randomized tiles.
Each city produces a specific resource, but these can change from play to play. Provinces can be more or less desirable, with some routes offering better advantages.
Whether by land or sea, colonists can travel! A nice feature of this solo mode is its compatibility with every map.
Larger maps, like the standard Imperium version, are a little easier, and I stuck with the easiest difficulty settings.
Contrary Contrarius
The action cards work much the same way that they do in multiplayer, with a simple action to follow. Contrarius simply reacts according to what’s stated on the card.
With dice to randomize some elements, this worked amazingly well! I could plot out what I wanted to do, while ensuring that Contrarius didn’t get a major lead.
In this way, I had a lot of control, yet had to balance out what was good for me against what Contrarius would get.
Since it was so long since I played the game at all, I took this first play as an opportunity to remember the flow.
Trouble in the West
Oh, how neat! The way houses expanded along the routes to fill in the cities felt so awesome. Contrarius and I started off in Roma, then went our own ways.
Although our houses could occupy the same cities, it was quite expensive for me to do so. On this huge map, the western provinces were firmly held by Contrarius.
This should illustrate how easy it is to adjust the difficulty level with the chosen map… Watch out for close quarters!
I was relatively pleased with what I accomplished, mostly because I felt like I was remotely competitive.
Expanding My Reach
My focus was on the eastern portion of the map, where Contrarius had just started to build in near the end.
I probably built in too many brick cities, which were the least valuable. However, those provided me with plenty of resources to keep on expanding into other cities.
Had I planned better, I could have locked Contrarius out from placing a house in Syria. Remaining on sea and land routes can be an excellent blocking technique!
This was an experience that kept me fully engaged as I worked out my strategies without feeling overwhelmed.
Appreciating the Classics with New Content
I figured there would never be a way to play this one solo. A lot of my multiplayer games are there purely for group play, and I never expect to bring them to my solo table. However, the release of this solo expansion was quite a surprise!
Maybe it’s hard to define exactly what fits in with the “classics” yet I’m pretty sure this is one of them, at least from my point of view. It’s been around for over 10 years at this point and offers the best combination: Simple rules and deep strategy. To be able to check it out from a solo perspective is awesome, particularly with the way Contrarius operates!
Having a name for the solo opponent is excellent, too, as I found myself shaking my head and yelling when the random dice rolls revealed the options I hoped against. Bad Contrarius! Ha ha! More than anything, though, this doesn’t feel like a tacked on solo mode purely meant to make money. It’s an interesting new way to play for a wider audience.
You never know what might happen with multiplayer games! I’m not one who thinks that every game should have a solo mode, yet when one unexpectedly comes along, it’s a nice surprise when it turns out to be so awesome.
How in the World?!
Final scoring took me a moment to work out, but it was a quick effort once I followed the rules. Which, by the way, are a compact set with reference cards. Much appreciated!
In a very interesting ending, I tied with Contrarius. And don’t think that’s the 40-point mark… We both ended up with 140 victory points! What are the odds of that?
Of course, that meant I ultimately lost, yet I was very pleased with my initial effort. Not too far off from a win!
My downfall was probably the end of the game, when I let Contrarius pick up the extra 7 victory points. Never again!
Stacked Bonuses
Another fantastic element of this game are the action cards. Purchasing more of these is always worth it, but the choices aren’t always as obvious as one might think.
Not only must the additional actions be taken into account, but the final scoring bonuses must be considered.
Maybe things would have gone a little differently had I purchased another Minerva card. Yet would I have had the same actions available? Perhaps not.
I wasn’t entirely certain how I could improve my score, although at least I knew I was on the right path!
Better Expansion
Setup still took a little bit of time, although laying out the resource tiles provided a nice way to start working out a strategy. This time, I had a better idea of what to do.
The weaver card was even more powerful this time, as I made it a point to have a house in practically every cloth city. Much better, and cloth is the most valuable resource!
I diversified in some ways, although it was hard to expand into every single province. Many featured great choices.
Even though gameplay was the same, this felt different… Before I knew it, final scoring was already happening!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Expansion: Concordia: Solitaria
Solo Mode: Included in Concordia: Solitaria
Play Details: Standard Difficulty with Imperium Map
Outcome: 140-140, 123-122 (1 Win & 1 Loss)
Talk about the narrowest of victories! I was beyond excited when this turned out to be the outcome. This may not always be the case, yet the tight scoring definitely indicates a nicely designed solo mode. With expansions, other maps, and higher difficulty levels, I can see a long life ahead for this very interesting puzzle. So much fun!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- Being able to see how the solo opponent will react to every card is a neat puzzle that’s not about the best actions.
- The map has a beautiful table presence with a vintage appearance and a detailed historical booklet about the areas.
- All of the wooden pieces stand out on the map, making it easy to locate colonists and houses from afar.
- Purchasing new cards is not only about enhancing specific actions, but also picking up the best scoring cards.
- Variable difficulty levels and a clever campaign to move up in difficulty add nice ways to adjust the challenge.
- Other expansions and maps are compatible with the solo mode for plenty of variety and interesting gameplay.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Setup can take a noticeable amount of time with laying out the city tiles and preparing the map and sorting cards.
- Calculating the solo opponent’s reachable cities and preferences for building takes a little getting used to.
- The card display is a little far away when playing solo, which can make seeing some icons a bit difficult.
- Randomizing the city resources is great, yet it can affect the difficulty if a single resource is in one main area.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 75%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 140 points.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game with the Imperium map.
Score at least 150 points.
Continue the Conversation
What do you like about Concordia? Have you played any older solo games recently? This is a game I often wonder why I don’t play more with my husband, yet I’m thrilled about how well the solo mode works! I had an excellent time and enjoyed the interplay between my best choices and giving up something to Contrarius. Can’t wait to play on more maps!
Funny that I bought Concordia at the end of last year with its solo expansion (I never played Concordia before). It probably was a podcast with David Turczy telling how much he loved the game and its mechanisms that led me to buy it because I felt it was a “classic game” I should give a try.
I think it could be a good addition to my collection, but up to now, I have been neglecting the game… so many others to explore… I tried it, I played about 3 times, but it is way too few games to get even the slightest idea of what I should do in the game in order to do well score-wise.
Still, what I liked in Concordia is this: a simple set of rules, both core and solo, and the feeling of an expansion over a geographic map. It occurred to me that this feeling was missing in many of the games I own and I craved for it.
Glad to see you enjoyed the game so much! I look forward to learn the game more in depth in due time.
I’m right there with you with having so many games to explore! This is one I’ve played a few times over the years, but like you, I don’t know exactly what to do to do well. I have some general ideas, yet I definitely need some more practice.
Great points about what you like about it! The map is something I hadn’t thought of, yet you’re right: I don’t have a lot that feature an overall geography of an area, which adds something nice. I need to pay attention to what other solo games offer that!
Thanks for the kind words, and here’s to hoping we both defeat Contrarius the next time we play!