Thanks! Interesting question about a variable setup. There are certainly easier paths to victory with some evolutions and hex tiles. For me, it comes down to accepting that the variability is a part of gameplay. All of the losses happened even with some of the easier combinations, so this felt like I earned this one. My own solo game time is less about overall wins, though, and more about feeling like I’m having fun and learning.

It also comes down to what you personally consider a reasonable winning ratio. On the easy difficulty setting, I struggled to win once. Challenging and fun! Had I ended up winning over and over, though, it would have felt much less satisfying. That’s usually when I’ll increase the difficulty in some way, or even artificially choose certain variables that are harder to make sure I feel challenged. Perhaps that’s not possible in your situation, yet I completely understand where you’re coming from. An unsatisfying or seemingly unearned victory almost feels worse than a loss at times!

Thank you! I’m looking forward to the other modules after taking a few minutes to read through the rules. Finding the broodmother does take some experience and strategy. At first, I was stuck losing in the end because I had at least 8 hex tiles still left in the stack. Now I’m finding her most of the time, although victories are very rare. I hope you’re successful the next time you play!

(How do you feel about winning when the initial setup is variable like this? I’ve been getting some of this with The Crew: sometimes the goals for a particular mission are just much easier than other times, and I don’t always feel we’ve “earned” the win.)

Thank you kindly, Nathan! This was so exciting, I had to triple-check I didn’t make any mistakes. But who am I kidding? Even if I did, this still would have been a win. Ha!

Good luck when you play! The expansion changes the base game a lot, and I still have yet to try out the other smaller expansion eventually. Have fun!