Expanding Villages of Valeria with Lots of New Solo Content
Construct buildings and welcome adventurers into a pleasant town with all sorts of options in Villages of Valeria.
It’s been ages since I last brought Villages of Valeria to my solo table! My collection has grown over the years to encompass a lot of expansions, so I figured it was the right time to mix everything together. That’s never a bad idea… Right? Ha ha! In any event, I was excited to give some more attention to constructing my own little fantasy village!
Game Overview
Game Name: Villages of Valeria
Publication Year: 2017
Designers: Rick Holzgrafe and Isaias Vallejo
Artist: Mihajlo Dimitrievski
Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Resources must be produced to construct a variety of buildings, each of which falls into a category. Many offer abilities as the village takes shape. With the right choices, adventurers may visit to take up residence. Even the most impressive monuments might rise from the ground up!
First Play
May 2, 2019
Complexity
2
Latest Play
December 23, 2023
Expansions
8
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
18
Play Time
15 Minutes
High Score
99
Game Area
24" x 22"
Low Score
22
Expansions Galore
It took me a little time just to wrap my head around all of the new content I was about to add in. Nothing was overly complicated, but it’s nice to know what to expect.
Not everything is compatible with solo. Still, I managed to use something from every expansion I had in the box!
This matching castle grounds card created a fun scene with the standard starting castle. It also gave me another way to produce a resource right from the start.
Arguably, this does make it a little easier, yet this also comes with the added price of discarding a card.
A Developed Area
Buildings must be constructed, yet both gold and resources are needed to make that happen! Rather than constructing a building, it may be turned into a resource.
In this way, more expensive buildings may take shape later on. I had a really nice development chain going on with this village. Plenty of available resources!
The management of gold is quite tricky, though, as it’s only possible to save up a maximum of 7 gold at once.
Production only ties up this gold for a few turns, yet it’s vital for recruiting adventurers or building monuments.
Charming Villages
I nearly forgot how lovely the artwork is! I spread out these buildings a little more to admire them, yet stacking them was a great way to focus on the important details.
Only 35 building cards are used with each solo play, and with all of the expansions, I saw roughly 1/3 of the cards.
There were plenty of tough decisions, and the fact that a building can never be duplicated added more planning.
Finding building synergies and interactions was so much fun! With all of the variety, I couldn’t be quite sure what else might be hiding in the deck. Such a great time!
Welcome to Town!
Aside from buildings, there were all sorts of adventurers who could be recruited. The trick was to match their requirements in the already constructed buildings.
It wasn’t always easy to make everything work together, and it cost precious gold to bring these characters in.
However, this added a lot to the experience! Many provided instant benefits or bonus scoring conditions.
When the deck started to run low and the end game was in sight, choosing the last few buildings and adventurers made for an exciting conclusion. My villages were great!
Exploring the Various Expansions for Solo
I managed to use at least a few cards from every expansion for my solo plays, yet there was a decent amount of content I had to exclude. Some of these award victory points for having the most icons, which is a direct comparison to other players. There might be a way to compare against the discards, but that’s not a recommended way to play.
This solo mode never felt like it was the highlight of the game, but I do think there is a great game here! Below are some of the details about the top expansions for solo content. However, I also used the following:
- Bard Promo Card: This adventurer rewards victory points for final collected gold and is solo-compatible.
- Events: Events slow down the game and many are not solo-compatible, but there are 4 adventurers to add in.
- Guild Halls: More events and new buildings are not solo-compatible, but there are 4 adventurers to add in.
- King’s Herald Promo Card: This adventurer rewards victory points for sets of buildings and is solo-compatible.
- Rahdo the Guild Master Promo Card: This adventurer only looks at a majority, and is not solo-compatible.
Overall, all of the expansions change up scoring a little bit. The original solo scoring tiers may not be as accurate when mixing together all of the content, although this seems easy enough to adjust over time! If the solo experience seems worth it, adding in the expansions with mostly solo-compatible content provides more variety and choices.
Landmarks
Expansion- 5 landmark cards not for solo.
- 5 adventurers not for solo.
- 12 buildings are for solo.
- 35 landmark tokens not for solo.
- Does not add any solo mechanics.
Architects
Expansion- 6 architect cards not for solo.
- 7 adventurers are for solo.
- 24 buildings are for solo.
- 5 castle grounds are for solo.
- Adds a new wild starting card.
- Offers a lot of variety and new choices to the solo mode.
Monuments
Expansion- 8 monument cards are for solo.
- 4 adventurers are for solo.
- 0 buildings are included.
- Adds to the solo recruit action.
- Adds new choices for scoring.
Monumental, Watson
Initially, I totally ignored all of the new monuments. These cost a whopping 4 gold to purchase, and then it takes additional time to develop and build them up.
So I made it a point to focus on a monument of my very own. Guess what? It was awesome! The Holzgrafe Memorial was the talk of the land from far and wide.
Granted, this took up a few extra turns. But I had some build bonuses with extra resources to help me out.
I don’t know if building a monument every play makes sense, yet it’s certainly an excellent option to have!
Recruitment Season
My final play saw everything go right for me. Early on, I picked up build bonuses and even generated gold with nearly every turn… And the recruit action was discounted.
By playing my cards right, I balanced my gold and managed to chain together recruit actions. My entire village was swimming with newly recruited characters!
This led to my highest score by a considerable margin, yet everything seemed to be in order. Time to celebrate!
A lot of elements of the expansions seem to increase the scoring potential, yet I still enjoyed the challenge.
Session Overview
Play Number: 9-12
Expansions: Many
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 52, 31, 50, 99 (3 Wins & 1 Loss)
That last village was a well-tended affair with the right kinds of buildings. Such a fun collection to put together! I was very happy with the end result, although I was a little shocked by my score. A lot of that came from a handful of adventurer cards included in the expansions. I may need to look at increasing the victory scoring threshold, yet this was a wonderful time after getting this game off my shelf!
%
10 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
9
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
8
+ Pros (Positives)
- The artwork is beautiful and charming, adding a bit of personality to each adventurer and building in a village.
- Many expansions provide new cards to mix together for more variety and other options to discover during play.
- Decisions are rarely obvious with the available actions, and figuring out how to make the most of the cards is fun.
- Play time is very quick with the building deck acting as a sort of timer and allowing for final round planning.
- Not too many icons are used and the majority are simple to understand after playing the first few times.
- Only about 1/3 of the cards will be seen each play when using all of the expansions, leading to interesting choices.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Not all of the expansion content is compatible with playing solo, so some expansions offer little new content.
- Certain cards add new scoring opportunities that can lead to very high scores, throwing off the balance a bit.
- The rules aren’t as clear as they could be and require some research to understand some cards or icons better.
- Solo involves achieving a high score, which can be fun, but the lack of goals or objectives can feel rather stale.
Victory Conditions
Score 60+ Points
- Overall Goal Progress 67%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 50 points.
Score at least 90 points.
Score at least 100 points.
Continue the Conversation
What are some of your favorite aspects of Villages of Valeria? Are there any expansions you prefer to play with? I nearly forgot about this solo game, and I had a wonderful time returning to it! The new content added plenty of new options I didn’t even realize I would be interested in. The quick play time and feeling of crafting a village are excellent!
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