The Interesting Solo Strategies of Under Falling Skies
Research the mysteries of an invading alien fleet in a race against time and a mothership in Under Falling Skies.
Onward with my exploration of Under Falling Skies! Whereas the introductory mode provided a great tutorial about all of the moving parts, the full game mode promised a lot more. Different cities, variable difficulty levels, and robots were all ready to join the fray. This exciting solo game was all about descending ships… But my opinion was ascending!
Game Overview
Game Name: Under Falling Skies
Publication Year: 2020
Designer: Tomáš Uhlíř
Artists: Petr Boháček and Kwanchai Moriya
Publisher: Czech Games Edition
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Dice placement is the key strategic element, and every column holds a single die. Values determine the strength of each room, but also control how quickly alien ships move towards the city. Research must progress at a steady pace while protecting the city itself remains a priority!
First Play
May 1, 2023
Complexity
2
Latest Play
May 3, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
4
Play Time
30 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
12" x 28"
Low Score
N/A
A Full Experience
Reasonably content with my skills, I moved into the full game mode with new cities and dangerous skies.
New York introduced a limit on robots, or static dice that decreased with each use. Also, technically this should be labeled New York City… But I’ll allow it. Ha ha!
Flipping over a random sky tile resulted in some immediate challenges. More symbols and chances for the mothership to move made my choices more important.
The way the difficulty can be controlled is very fun, though, and helps build up knowledge. Very nice!
Light Speed Ships
Unsurprisingly, the alien ships moved a lot quicker and I was on my toes the entire time! I found some great choices in the mix, even moving lots of ships to other columns.
There is a lot to learn through gameplay, which is one of the major strengths of the game. Honestly, I had so many, “A-ha!” moments during every play. It was awesome!
That’s not to say that there was an easy flow… New York took damage and I had to give up some of my best ideas.
Dice were both excellent and a curse… When I rolled high, I thought it would be the greatest. Until I saw the ships.
Robotic Research
I didn’t utilize the robot that much, mainly since I was still trying to piece together a coherent strategy. But then I spotted a way to utilize a valuable robot.
Beginning at a value of 5, this was the best choice to keep the research flowing along. It wasn’t easy with the mothership low in the sky and lots of damage.
Yet it was a success with about a round to spare! I felt pretty proud of this moment and my useful decisions.
That’s another highlight of this solo game: Decisions are all meaningful, and never did I throw away any dice.
Moving to the Capital
With my success in New York, I decided to keep the difficulty level the same but move to Washington, DC.
Each city comes with a different assortment of rooms, which adds variety and ties in with the special ability.
I was more concerned with the random tile I flipped over… The lowest one was peppered with mothership movement symbols, which was going to be a major challenge!
Yet I had some ideas about what I could do, provided the dice worked in my favor. Pre-planning was another fun part of the experience… Although the dice betrayed me!
Full Information and the Fun of Solo Planning
A lot of solo games add randomness to each round so it’s more about having an overall plan, but reacting to what’s presented. Being able to see everything from the first dice roll offers a lot more control, yet this is awesome! It isn’t like I make the same decisions over and over. Alien ships inform these choices, as do my own goals.
That research track can be absolutely diabolical at times, particularly when the mothership reverses a bit of progress. But guess what? It’s another piece of information that isn’t hidden, so it’s possible to plan ahead. In this way, I tried to time it so I would only revert back without losing much in terms of research. Entirely strategic!
Between rounds and before dice rolls, I can get an idea of what I’m trying to accomplish. If the dice work out, excellent! Yet it’s also more about finding contingencies and working out how to make the most out of every dice roll.
Space Penguin Craft
Run away! That adorable space penguin who led these aliens was at it again. This time, though, there was no mistaking what that mothership looked like.
We now know that flying popcorn tricycles are a thing to seriously fear. Can you imagine this floating down out of the clouds?! A real horror movie in the making. Ha ha!
I will say that this random Calico Critters sidebar is actually quite thematic in terms of upcoming figures.
Are there more penguins? Oh, definitely! Just make a mental note to laugh when you see what they come with.
The Last Attempt
Try as I might, I saw that I was just a little shy of reaching the proper research level. It wasn’t that I planned poorly… Actually, had I rolled low on a die, I would have won!
It was my management of energy and research. The trio of connected spaces cost a lot to power up, which may have been my undoing. Yet it was so very close!
The excavator didn’t get far enough, either, so that was another element where I could have done better.
But again, this came down to the very end and I could see where I could improve. Fun and challenging!
Session Overview
Play Number: 3 and 4
Solo Mode: Designed for Solo (Included in the Base Game)
Play Details: Full Game Mode
Outcome: 1 Win and 1 Loss
I got a little greedy moving lots of alien ships into a single column. It was a viable strategy, yet I kind of forgot to… Knock them out of the sky. Oops! Still, I learned more about the game’s strategies. This single loss wasn’t at all a wasted opportunity. That’s important to note, too: Never did I feel like I lost early on and couldn’t recover. Let’s just hope I can improve my alien deflection techniques!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- There are plenty of ways to change the game during setup to allow for lots of variability and challenges.
- Dice provide options, rather than randomness, so that each decision is a useful piece of the puzzle.
- It’s not the case that all dice need to be high values to do well: Low values can be very strategic and useful.
- Ships descend in a predictable manner, yet optimizing the available dice is a main part of the experience.
- A fairly small number of components are used outside of the campaign mode to keep the play area small.
- Icons are easy to locate, while the overall color scheme is very bright, rather than faded or monotone.
– Cons (Negatives)
- It can be a lot to plan ahead and see all of the available moves for the different ships as they descend.
- Although minor, it can be easy to dislodge the tracker tokens on the tiles when moving the ships or mothership.
- Some of the rules may require some clarifications at times, leading to lots of rulebook referencing.
- Flipped sky tiles are slightly misaligned, which seems intentional, but can still stand out a little too much.
Victory Conditions
Reach the Top of the Research Track
- Overall Goal Progress 80%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game in the introductory mode.
Win at least 1 game in the full game mode.
Win at least 1 game with New York City.
Win at least 1 game with Roswell.
Win at least 1 game with Washington, DC.
Continue the Conversation
How well have you done with Under Falling Skies? Is there a difficulty level or city that continues to be a challenge for you? I’m ready to keep going to see how well I can do with more flipped sky tiles! Gameplay seems simple enough to understand, yet there are a lot of ways to improve. I’m having a great time with this one and my space penguin. Ha ha!
About the misalignment you mentioned according to some comments at Reddit it seems like a production issue not present in all copies. My copy also has this, I don’t mind it after several plays.
This game is awesome, currently playing the last stages of the campaign. It’s quite brutal, despite I play with only one sky tile reversed. It seems that depending on the reversed tile it can change the difficulty or needs to play entirely different for the same city or scenario rules.
Great job with the blog!
Ah, good to know that it’s a minor production issue! It’s very minor, and only threw me off because I like having my tiles perfectly aligned. I just consider that part of the added difficulty now. Ha ha!
Good luck with the end of your campaign! I’m looking forward to getting there soon once I’m a little more comfortable with the decisions. So much fun looking through the various strategies and learning something new each time.
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!