Exploring Solo in Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne
Find the perfect balance of units, relics, and spells on the quest to claim power in Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne.
The simplest way to get an unplayed solo game is to… Get it to the table! Sounds obvious, but I’ve often shied away expecting the rules and setup to be too much. Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne received an official solo variant a couple of years ago. I’ve enjoyed it as a multiplayer game, and I had to wonder why it took me so long to try it solo!
Game Overview
Game Name: Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne
Publication Year: 2019
Designer: Paul Dennen
Artists: D. Herring, K. Jackson, R. Ramos, and N. Storm
Publishers: Dire Wolf and Renegade Game Studios
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant
A small starting deck of cards slowly builds in power as new purchases provide powerful relics or spells. Units are typically short-lived, making every round count in terms of damage. The goal is to whittle away the solo opponent’s health in a set amount of time and claim the throne!
First Play
January 22, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
January 22, 2022
Expansions
1
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
4
Game Area
22" x 20"
Low Score
4
Fun Little Battles
Most units only last a single round, either to defend against opposing units or stay out and try to deal damage.
The early-game usually involves limited units and tiny slivers of damage. As a deck gains more relics and better units, the late-game often features larger battles.
Units are quite varied, even featuring this awesome Iceberg Warchief. With the right card synergies, additional units can be summoned. Watch out for the Yeti!
In multiplayer, it’s a very clever system that works well and feels different enough to warrant a play now and then.
Staying Compact
Since the solo opponent only needs space to keep relics and current units, the play area typically stays quite small.
Although I love the cards and the varied artwork, the various tokens seem a little underwhelming. They serve their purpose, though, so no major complaints from me!
Each time my deck was reshuffled, the solo opponent would level up. At level 7, automatic defeat set in.
So there was an incentive to increase the size of my deck, which isn’t quite in line with the multiplayer game. There, sometimes it pays to quickly cycle through valuable cards.
Baubles and Masks
Relics provide some of the best benefits, often staying out the entire play to offer special abilities. Many often work together… If they can be purchased early on!
I found that this pair worked nicely. The Ancient Bauble didn’t really kick in until much later, but the Mask of Torment helped deal some extra damage as I healed.
My play area remained fun and interesting. Alas, I found the solo opponent to be very mechanical and confusing.
There were extra rules, exceptions, and no real sense of being connected. Just random draws and card plays, sadly.
The Cycle of Card Life
Gameplay felt very balanced, in that our health dials were always very close together. Indeed, both of my plays came down to the final round for me to barely win!
Yet it felt almost… Hollow? Don’t get me wrong: This is a very enjoyable multiplayer card game! The solo simply fell completely flat for me with far too much randomness.
The solo opponent always played the face-down card on top of the deck, and some of these were poor choices.
It almost felt like a solo variant designed to learn the game, rather than create an ongoing and fun challenge.
Can Too Much Balance Upset a Game’s Fun?
A balanced game is one that rarely, if ever, gives a player a sudden edge in scoring terms. Asymmetric games can still be balanced, offering various characters or factions their own equal ways to move ahead. Unbalanced games can be frustrating, often leading to unexpected point swings or apparent unfair advantages in special circumstances.
With this solo variant, I could see how balanced it was. The solo opponent and I traded attacks, staying very close and not pulling ahead by more than a few health points at a time. Even when I did a great deal of damage, I was usually on the receiving end during the very next round. It felt very balanced… And yet something felt like it was missing.
Game design is far from an easy task, and balance issues are often a key component. Yet when a game boils down to being perfectly balanced, where is the fun? I felt forced to build up my deck to avoid cycling through it too much. I couldn’t adopt a defensive or healing strategy: There was a timer to defeat the solo opponent that seemed arbitrary.
The solo experience removed a lot of the multiplayer choices and strategies, unfortunately. It was mostly a matter of doing about 1-5 damage each turn, then absorbing an almost equal amount. Balanced, of course, but the fun in exploring what the cards could do was gone. It was all a balancing act up until the final round. Going first was the key.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Solo Mode: Official Solo Variant
Play Details: Standard Difficulty Level
Outcome: 4-0 and 4-0 (2 Wins)
I was proud of my second play when I paired the Emerald Ring with Rolant, the Iron Fist. Endurance! This allowed him to stay out round by round, while the relic made him even stronger. Maybe a little overpowered, but quite a fun combination! But these are combinations possible in the multiplayer game, which is where gameplay shines. I don’t expect to play solo again, despite the nice artwork.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
3
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- There are a number of different factions represented in the cards with excellent artwork and clear iconography.
- Many cards work together to create interesting synergies that aren’t always obvious from the beginning.
- Units are typically short-lived for a single round and must contribute to either offense or defense, not both.
- A deck takes shape fairly quickly as new cards are purchased and added, while relics offer unique abilities.
- Pure offense is often a viable strategy, but finding ways to heal or stop damage provides another strategic angle.
- Each round flows pretty smoothly with limited decisions, allowing the play time to remain fairly short and quick.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Since the solo opponent gains a level each time the deck is shuffled, gathering units quickly is the only strategy.
- There are a lot of edge cases to understand with the solo variant, which takes time away from the experience.
- Although balanced, gameplay often comes down to the final turn and simply staying on par with damage dealt.
- Certain turns result in very little happening for the solo opponent based on luck, leading to a minimal challenge.
Victory Conditions
Defeat the Solo Opponent
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you think of Eternal: Chronicles of the Throne? Does it remind you of any other solo games? I appreciate the effort that went into offering an official solo variant, but this feels like a game best suited for multiplayer. Playing solo is more about learning the mechanics. Still, I had a few bright moments and enjoyed trying out the solo variant!
The thing that struck me looking at this was the absence of even brief flavour text on the cards (compare something like Aeon’s End or Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn). I wonder whether that might also have contributed to it feeling a bit flat?
That might have been part of it! I seem to be leaning towards more narrative lately, even if that comes from simple flavor text. A lot of the artwork is very evocative, yet I think it helps if you play the digital game. My husband enjoys this a lot more because I think he knows the world and setting better than I do. Still makes for a good 2-4 player experience, though! Just not something I’ll be returning to for solo.