Graduating with Top Honors in Guild Academies of Valeria
Manage a busy academy with different classes designed to prepare graduates for quests in Guild Academies of Valeria.
Last one in the Valeria universe I own! Well, for now. Guild Academies of Valeria intrigued me from the start, thanks to a very unique theme and more involved mechanics. Being able to run and expand an academy with faculty, classes, and various students sounded so awesome! Without hesitation, I set out to see if I knew the first thing of academia. Ha!
Game Overview
Game Name: Guild Academies of Valeria
Publication Year: 2023
Designer: Stan Kordonskiy
Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Over the course of 4 years, an academy takes shape. New faculty members must be recruited to train students of different expertise levels. Classes expand in order to prepare to complete quests… All while influence with the council members must be considered. Such a cool premise!
First Play
December 26, 2023
Complexity
4
Latest Play
December 26, 2023
Expansions
1
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
1 Hour
High Score
92
Game Area
48" x 26"
Low Score
73
Solo Mode Errata
Before you dive into the game, be aware that 2 of 4 solo cards are missing a vital step. This will affect 1-2 of 3 actions performed each round, which has quite an impact!
The fix is simple, in that every dock action should begin by calling out drafting the lowest value die for the solo opponent. Easy to remember, but not obvious at first.
I don’t mean this as a negative, yet during my first play, missing those draft steps made gameplay rather strange.
There is a PDF download for new cards, but it’s easy enough to remember that first step. Just don’t forget!
A City of Learning
This play area is impressive and amazing, holding most components on or directly next to the board. Every spot is important in some way, and everything is connected.
Dock spaces at the bottom offer dice to choose from, along with a corresponding action. The neat part? The value of a die determines the gold cost of the associated action.
Why not just go after the low dice? A-ha! Those are the students, and they graduate after passing a value of 6.
Lower value dice require more training, so there is a very clever tradeoff in student education and immediate costs.
Randomized Setup
Asymmetry is built into the setup process, courtesy of a random faculty member and students. Lots to consider with those, along with a wild headmaster.
Also part of setup is a random school tile, which can set the stage for a specialty… Or not! Plenty of choices.
Generic classes are available to cover the bases with education. This is very much about knowing when to plan student graduations and maximize all of the rewards.
Victory points are quite important, meaning that each round must be optimized as much as possible.
Out Into the World
Graduates aren’t simply here to find a generic career in the world of Valeria… They need to head out to complete quests immediately after earning their diplomas!
All of the quests feature specific requirements tied to the type of students. They steadily get more difficult with more dice, but also much better rewards to collect.
Timing graduation is vital, though, as each graduate must head out into the world immediately. No one carries over…
So it often pays off to slowly educate some students when they won’t contribute to quests that round. Learn more!
When Complexity Makes Sense in Every Way
I rated this one as a fairly heavyweight game after getting into the flow, yet it’s a case of a design that’s complex for many good reasons. A lot of Valeria games fall into the lighter realm, which makes many of them very easy to get into! This one steps away from that convention, but the experience turns out to be very intriguing with the mechanics.
Gameplay only lasts for 4 rounds, so every round counts. There isn’t necessarily an engine that builds up over time with so few rounds. Instead, it’s more about understanding how the pieces interact and how to choose the optimal paths.
Students, represented by dice, are the cornerstone, but their starting values play into how much gold must be spent on an action. Then, providing an education comes down to having a mix of faculty and classes to earn rewards. Graduation must be timed carefully to complete quests, often focusing on a particular type. Oh, and remember the council!
There is a lot to keep in mind, and any wasted resources definitely stand out. I found every decision to be interesting, though! Better choices will come with more experience. I appreciate games that aren’t easy to win early on from getting lucky. Putting in the time to understand the intricacies between the elements and phases is worth it to earn a victory!
Helpful Solo Cards
The solo mode works beautifully, with a solo opponent who interacts with the board and does a lot more than serve as a blocker. There are some tough choices to make.
I appreciated the inclusion of solo reference cards for the phases, as this made it unnecessary to look at the short solo rulebook except for a few small things.
Drafting dice and choosing actions become risky endeavors, as nothing is guaranteed to remain available.
Once I understood this sequence, the solo opponent took maybe a minute or so to run each turn… Very quick!
Educating the Masses
With my little academy starting off on the right foot with a Drill Yard, I found myself in need of a proper faculty member. With that, new students arrived, ready to learn.
The neat part here was how I could flip a die over to its other side. That turned the low-level student into someone almost ready to graduate in a short time.
Other sources of education points allowed me to celebrate the first set of graduates, destined for greatness in Valeria.
I can’t quite explain how awesome this all feels! The mechanics tie into the theme so well with clever choices.
A Growing Academy
Plenty of new classes needed to take shape for me to find other ways to educate incoming students and make the most of my faculty. No slacking off around these parts!
Another subtle element are the monument spaces where tiles intersect. Complete these pedestals, and a special reward might offer a one-time bonus or victory points.
If this all sounds like a lot, it definitely it! This is a rather heavyweight solo mode, but one that works so very well.
My attention was completely absorbed in working out the puzzles, and making up a few small stories. Fun times!
Council Influence
Don’t forget the council! Amidst everything going on at an academy, a major element happens outside of the grounds… And with influence over the council members.
Each provides a special bonus, and placing a trio of banners takes time and precision. Lower council members provide ongoing bonuses, and they’re the starting point.
But by the time the final round ends, banners should be moved to the high council members for victory points.
It all serves to create a balance of figuring out when to move banners to give up abilities for final scoring.
Questing Away
Could I enjoy this game any more? Apparently, there was another way! Although the quests themselves might seem a little standard in terms of the requirements… Artwork!
I loved some of the nods to the other games in the series and the general sense of irony in some of them. It was hard not to want to always curse the whiskey. Ha ha!
Seeing the progression was also great, as these became harder and harder to complete with the available students.
Council members definitely helped out, as did some better choices with the drafted dice. But still, I was no expert.
Back to Square One
After my first play, I corrected my understanding of the solo action cards… Still wasn’t anywhere near winning, though! Every element was often so nuanced.
My next attempt allowed me to appreciate the level of variety in all of the components. Although I saw some of the same tiles, everything progressed very differently.
I put my earned monuments to use, too, and felt like I did a better job about picking useful prestige tiles.
Although my score improved markedly, I was still a very long ways from coming anywhere close to victory. Ha!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 73-98, 92-107 (2 Losses)
At the very least, my second academy seemed to really lean into training spies and tailors. I imagined the main draw was some sort of fancy spy attire, only available to graduates. That made all the sense in the world with a fantastic motto: Be fancy-dancy as a spy and don’t die. So catchy, right? Ha ha! I definitely didn’t come close to figuring out the pieces to this puzzle, yet I absolutely loved the entire experience. Can’t wait to return to play!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
10
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
9
+ Pros (Positives)
- Managing an academy is a unique theme that comes through with all of the components, mechanics, and actions.
- Drafting dice strikes a balance between student knowledge and gold costs, which is a very interesting decision.
- The solo opponent is easy to run with minimal effort and downtime, thanks to simple rules and reference cards.
- Figuring out how to optimize each round with the way all of the elements interact is a fun and engaging puzzle.
- All of the components are high quality with thick wood or cardboard, along with fantastic and colorful artwork.
- There is a great deal of variety in nearly everything, particularly with the randomized setup for starting tiles.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The iconography, particularly for the dice, is far too similar and hard to see at a glance in many instances.
- Without knowing about the solo card errors, initial gameplay may feel a bit odd or broken when it’s excellent.
- Every element is tied together rather intricately, and this can lead to extra time to consider every possible option.
- Some rules aren’t as clear as they could be with some icons not fully explained and a few rulebook example issues.
Victory Conditions
Score 20+ More Victory Points
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Reach the maximum level on the quest track.
Score at least 100 points.
Win at least 1 game.
Continue the Conversation
Have you had a chance to play Guild Academies of Valeria? Do you have any memorable anecdotes about your classes and students? I really enjoyed how there were so few in play that it was easy to mostly remember what they all did. Such a lovely and unique theme for a game! Gameplay was even better than I expected, and this is one I plan to play a lot!
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