From the Mill to the Castle in Majesty: For the Realm
Recruit different citizens to build a village into a prosperous location and rival all the rest in Majesty: For the Realm.
There are some iconic sections of my game shelves that often send reminders of how many unplayed games await my decisions to play. Majesty: For the Realm does not include an official solo mode, yet I found one! Long has the box called to me with its artwork, and I finally had the chance to bring it to the table. Time for some realm building!
Game Overview
Game Name: Majesty: For the Realm
Publication Year: 2017
Designer: Marc André
Artist: Anne Heidsieck
Publisher: Z-Man Games
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Variant
Buildings form the heart of the village in a very pleasant panorama. A citizen is recruited each round to activate a matching location. Area majority plays a key role, and the collection of victory points forms the ultimate goal. It’s a simple solo experience, yet certainly an eye-catching one!
First Play
December 27, 2021
Complexity
2
Latest Play
December 27, 2021
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
20 Minutes
High Score
204
Game Area
26" x 20"
Low Score
198
In the Village
A selection of meeples provides the only resource ever used during play. No wood, stone, or clay hiding here!
I had a few issues trying to understand the rules. There were unclear instructions, plus a lot of questions about how the unofficial solo variant worked. But I made it!
Meeples help recruit citizen cards further down the row, which doesn’t necessarily make them an interesting sort of resource. They don’t offer any bonuses, either.
What kept me intrigued was the beautiful artwork that seemed to bring this land to life. Such a cheerful place!
Collecting Icons
I will note that the solo opponent kept pace pretty well, although this isn’t necessarily hard to do. It simply chose citizens randomly based on its own deck of buildings.
The artwork was quickly lost on me as I realized this was a game about collecting symbols, and nothing more.
Aside from a few attacks that flipped citizen cards, there was almost no interaction. With random choices, there was no way for me to predict which cards would be picked.
Buildings provided different ways to earn victory points, yet it all felt quite lightweight and minimally strategic.
Tokens Fit for Royalty
In a rather unusual twist, the card quality was mediocre for a card-based game, while the included tokens were pretty awesome! Plastic, but still very satisfying.
Since trading in tokens for higher values happened nearly every turn, I could understand why these were the focus.
Yet each time I gained victory points, there was a bit of a scramble to trade in the tokens. Far too much work.
This might be a better fit as an introduction to the mechanics of set collection and improving choices with more resources, but the theme doesn’t come through.
Types of Citizens
Perhaps, decisions would have felt more important had the citizen cards done something different. Each one offers a single symbol and activates its matching building.
I appreciated the lightweight nature of gameplay, but I didn’t feel like I was doing much of anything.
The way the solo opponent kept pace with me was just a product of the game’s core, but it was easy to plan to win various area majorities when final scoring happened.
Such lovely artwork, though! I enjoyed the color choices and sort of fairytale aspect to the illustrations. Beautiful!
When is Lightweight Too Lightweight?
I enjoy a lot of lighter games that typically play in 5-15 minutes and offer a very quick sort of experience. This one landed within that general range, so I took a closer look at why it fell completely flat for me. A lot of it comes down to my experience as a solo player and how my tastes have evolved, but there are a couple of key elements.
I. Choices and Challenges
First, even my light games give me meaningful choices and challenges. The card I choose has a purpose and I often need to decide which is the best of the available options. These are quick moments that often speed up with more plays. Like how my most-played solo game, Herbaceous, can be completed in 1-2 minutes! Speed gardening. Ha ha!
Yet I mentioned above how the solo opponent plays randomly, and nearly any card choice can work. This takes away that sense of discovering victory point paths, trying out new strategies, and figuring out the core elements that make a game fun. I almost could have chosen randomly, too, and not fared as poorly as might be expected.
II. Quick Round Sequence
Second, there needs to be a smooth transition from round to round. If I’m only spending a short period of time playing a game, I want to play! Moving cards around, making change, constantly doing calculations, and neatly splaying cards to show icons are all actions that take up time. In this sense, I felt like half of my time was spent on game management.
This is something that often enhances heavier games that can take hours to play. When done well, those cleanup phases help me pause momentarily, reassess the game situation, and stay focused on what I need to do next. Lighter, quicker games shouldn’t require this sort of upkeep, at least for me. When they do, I tend to get bogged down in the non-play.
III. Impressions and Expectations
Third, there are subconscious expectations about a game from its artwork, often stemming from the first impression of the box cover. Take a look at this one. The artwork has a fairytale-like feel, but look at the individual expressions. Almost everyone looks serious, or has a very slight smile. In my board game experience, serious usually means heavy.
Keep in mind, however, that these expectations are going to have extreme differences between individuals. This might be the most subjective of all, even above judging whether artwork is appealing or not! Just another not-so-short ramble about my own preferences as I keep digging deeper into some of the elements of solo games.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 and 2
Solo Mode: Unofficial Solo Variant
Play Details: Side A
Outcome: 204-181 and 198-171 (2 Wins)
As much as I appreciated the aesthetics, there wasn’t much in terms of gameplay to keep me interested. Judging by the awesome included insert, there were plans for a lot more cards. Had the buildings provided more impactful choices with intricate decisions, I would have had a much better time. Alas, not this time! It was still worth it to explore and have a chance to enjoy the panorama artwork.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
5
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
3
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
3
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the icons are easy to locate and different enough to ensure that they can be counted in a matter of seconds.
- The building card panorama creates a lovely visual that brings everything together to create a cohesive play area.
- During setup, buildings may be flipped since each side offers something a little different in terms of scoring.
- Lower-level citizens often help boost the victory points of some of the higher-level buildings.
- There is a sense of variety with the starting citizen cards since only 6 are pulled from a fairly large deck.
- Citizens with dual roles provide more compelling choices and often open up the available recruitment options.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Every building provides some sort of bonus, so the choices are rarely compelling with almost no challenge.
- The box size is too large with plenty of empty space, while the cards themselves are only of mediocre quality.
- Using the meeples to recruit citizen cards further down the line often means the first card gets ignored.
- Not all of the rules are clear and some of the wording leads to mistakes or too many ambiguities for a short game.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game with side A.
Continue the Conversation
Have you had a chance to play Majesty: For the Realm? Are there other lightweight solo games you enjoy, possibly despite some of their shortcomings? I have a feeling I might have a different opinion of this one depending on when I got into the hobby. It’s far too lightweight for me now, yet I hope there are those out there who enjoy discovering it!
I haven’t knowingly seen Anne’s work before, but the style reminds me a bit of Splendor (which wasn’t illustrated by her, though it was designed by Marc André).
It’s perhaps unreasonable of me but I also expect a game in something close to a full-size box to offer a bit more complexity than this.
I think choice is the most important element for me: the fewer choices I have to make, the less I tend to enjoy a game, even if it’s just a short filler. (There is also such a thing as too many choices, of course.)
Good observation about the artwork! And another part of the expectations. I hadn’t even considered box size in my assessment, but that definitely plays into it. This is also why I sometimes have a blast with smaller boxes when they feature a lot of decisions and strategies with few components.
Excellent point about choices, too! There are times when I enjoy having limited choices… Often when I’m too tired to think a lot, but still want to play a solo game. That sense of being overwhelmed with too much is also a problem, much like you said. Thanks for pointing this out!