Four Horsemen: Discovering a Great Solo Experience
Battle the forces of evil and save the world in a clever threat management system featuring unique heroes in Four Horsemen.
I can’t get enough of this game! Four Horsemen arrived on my table as sort of a novelty, and I figured it would be decent to hold my attention. Truthfully, it’s the only solo game I’ve been playing for nearly a week… And I have no plans to stop! The theme is quite different and leans into religion and mythology in a thematic way that creates a memorable experience.
Game Overview
Game Name: Four Horsemen
Publication Year: 2024
Designer: Jeremy Rowley
Artists: P. Amaya, P. Maza, F. Parente, & N. Stavarache
Publisher: Win-Win Board Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
An apocalypse scenario sets the stage for an overarching threat to the world. Horsemen threaten to advance and demons appear across the continents, yet heroes use divine powers and relics to stop the danger! It’s all very strategic and comes down to planning how to survive to the end.
First Play
May 13, 2025
Complexity
3
Latest Play
June 1, 2025
Expansions
3
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
14
Play Time
55 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
32" x 30"
Low Score
N/A
Judeo-Christian Heroes
The base game includes a couple of different pantheons, which change many elements. Decks require sorting and shuffling, so I stuck with the Judeo-Christian pantheon.
After the tutorial scenario, the first full game felt even more exciting! I got to move onto the higher-tier relics halfway through play, and these all offered something very unique.
Michael was also very interesting to play as. Definitely not the same sort of experience as Gabriel. Plenty of variety!
And it was just so satisfying to figure out solutions, plan several rounds ahead, and simply enjoy the game’s puzzle.
Against Beelzebub
I stuck with the lower complexity scenarios and moved onto Beelzebub. Looking lovely. Ha! Events and the final ritual helped make this play feel even more different.
As I’ll mention later on, even using the same decks felt very different with the high degree of variability.
Only a small number of events were used, so I rarely saw duplicates across 5 plays. Relics were a little more repetitive, yet the most useful ones differed from play to play.
Michael managed a resounding victory that still took plenty of prepping… And those horsemen were on the move!
The First Defeat
Multiple options exist to tailor the difficulty level, and it was only after I played for a bit that I realized I had upped it a little bit by following active event restrictions. No problem!
It was Raphael who fell to Cronus in the first loss. This may sound odd… But it was awesome! I didn’t want to feel like I had gotten to the point of figuring it all out. Definitely not.
With a fallen hero, the horsemen advance much quicker. There was a cascading effect here that I couldn’t stop.
It was due to a nuclear disaster, though: See the effect of stage I? Divine powers were blocked, and that did it!
An Exciting Re-Match
I reset by randomizing some elements, yet I really wanted Raphael to earn a victory over Cronus. Described as a support character, I definitely saw the challenges.
However, I carefully crafted my relic deck to find options to interact with demons and move the horsemen back.
It worked in the best way! The final hour went by well enough, but the ritual required Raphael to lose another divinity point. Being fallen, this would move a horseman…
Not the cascading effect! But I realized there were just enough followers to use Divine Restoration first. Victory!
Capturing the Best Sort of Board Game Feeling
Several evenings, I’ve had hours set aside to play this game over and over. It would have been no problem to play, reset, and play again. That’s often what I do when I’m exploring a solo game that resonates with me. But this time… I stopped at a single play each day. It had nothing to do with feeling bad or not wanting to continue playing. On the contrary: I loved it!
It’s hard to describe the mix of emotions that creates the situation, but I left each play feeling like I accomplished a lot. I could feel myself smiling and it felt like I had the perfect game session. And that’s also taking into account my defeat.
I suppose it comes down to quality over quantity. After playing for about an hour, I had all the awesome features I wanted to find in a game session: Making clever choices, overcoming the odds, thinking I had lost only to find a way forward, uncovering a cool strategy, seeing a new way to approach a puzzle, and feeling like I spent my time well. All boxes checked!
Now, that doesn’t mean I expect every play to be amazing. Yet I think I also enjoy spacing things out a bit. This isn’t a campaign, so there’s no need to race through scenarios. I’m simply taking it all in and loving this board game experience.
Interesting Choices
I seem to overlook talking about the best mechanic: Cards! This is the core part of gameplay, and it is amazing.
Every card has a different effect when placed in boon, use, or sacrifice. But there is a limit to these, and some events even block relics with specific keywords. Very, very tricky!
Sacrificing a relic takes it out of the game completely, although the ability is typically very powerful.
Starting relics are often best to sacrifice early to clear them out of a deck, yet this isn’t always the case. So many things to think about, and every round made me feel very clever!
Overcoming Despair
To complete this session, I wanted to close out the pantheon before I had to redo the event and relic decks. It’s not a major process, but it does take a bit of work to sort cards.
And so it was Uriel who took on Despair. Again, I was impressed by how different this felt, even without any special rules to keep in mind. That victory condition…
Maintaining low corruption might seem obvious, but divine powers are unlocked with higher corruption. Decisions!
With excellent relics, it was still a very close call for Uriel. Despair nearly won over… But the world did not fall today!
Session Overview
Play Number: 2-5
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Michael, Raphael, and Uriel vs. 3 Scenarios
Outcome: 3 Wins & 1 Loss
Barely any followers were left at the end! Also, I ended up reducing Uriel’s corruption so that Confusion was disabled… Talk about the wrong choice when I needed the horsemen to slow down! Yet I still puzzled through it all and made it to the end. All of these plays were enjoyable, and I feel like that doesn’t even describe the feelings well enough. No surprise that this remains on my table and I can’t stop playing!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
8
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
10
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
10
+ Pros (Positives)
- Every round presents its own puzzle that rolls up into the entire scenario, and finding solutions is very satisfying.
- Tons of variety exists between the elements, and this can be enhanced further by switching to a different pantheon.
- Play time moves quickly with a smooth sequence of play made even easier with a helpful reference card.
- Although there can be rare edge cases, the rules are generally straightforward and are reinforced thematically.
- The apocalyptic theme may seem dark and depressing, but there is a real sense of hope as a hero saves the world.
- Choosing how to use relics is excellent with all sorts of strategic layers and choices without feeling overwhelming.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Many of the upgraded components are a bit disappointing, such as a neoprene mat that’s dark with hard-to-see icons.
- The art is a bit on the darker side and some pieces are zoomed in to the point of being noticeably pixelated.
- Switching pantheons requires a bit of work in sorting through cards based on icons, which are rather tiny.
- Some of the graphic design choices feel unpolished, including a font that can be hard to read and lower contrast.
Victory Conditions
Meet the Requirements and Perform the Ritual
- Overall Goal Progress 33%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game as each Judeo-Christian hero.
Defeat all of the base game scenarios. (5/16)
Win at least 1 game as each Greek hero. (1/4)
Continue the Conversation
Have you ever played Four Horsemen? Do you have a favorite hero or scenario? I continue to be surprised by how much this one has to offer in terms of the moving puzzle. Thinking through my cards, planning ahead, and saving the world all seem to be exactly what I want in a game right now! Up next is a new pantheon of heroes, along with some expansion content!
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