Villages of Valeria: From a Wide Spot in the Road to a City
Rebuild a new capital city from a selection of interesting buildings while welcoming adventurers in Villages of Valeria.
There was a time when I wasn’t so sure what I thought of Villages of Valeria. My journey through the Valeria series has been quite interesting, and definitely made me appreciate this one even more! The idea of building a village from scratch is excellent, and this is a solo game that doesn’t take too long to play. Time to showcase my city planning skills!
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
With a set timer that makes optimal choices important, a village slowly takes shape. More resources offer better ways to spend coins on everything from small wagons to enormous monuments! Adventurers might even be persuaded to move in as the city becomes established…
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
All of the Expansions
I previously mixed in all of the expansion content, and this seemed like the perfect way to play! Although not every single card works for solo, the majority can be included.
In a rather fun optical illusion that maybe only I see… Do you spy a horse’s head in a halter facing right? It’s not actually there but I managed a pretty neat overlap!
After taking a quick look through the rules, I was most excited about using just a small portion of the buildings.
Solo features a deck of just 35 cards, which means there could be anything mixed in and ready to be constructed!
Fun Market Decisions
The majority of my time was spent focused on picking up the multi-purpose building cards. These could also turn into resource production, or simple coins for spending.
I nearly forgot how excellent this can be! Even the large adventurers deck has a lot of variety, owing to only a few cards showing up during each play. And the monuments!
As I started to play, I was struck by how excited I was over gameplay, only to realize I was done in a mere 15 minutes.
Time flew by and I just wanted to keep playing over and over. That’s the sign of an excellent and fun sort of game!
The Builders Guild
Since the building cards are random, it’s never known what will be found during each play. Some decks are just better than others, yet that discovery is part of the fun!
I lucked out and found a lot of building bonuses. By the end, I was able to add most buildings for practically nothing. Very well done to the hardworking citizens!
Hilariously, my scores actually started to decrease as I got used to a single deck. Luckily, I wasn’t about to give up.
With such a quick play time, it’s hard not to find an aspect to enjoy during the losses. Every village is great!
Flock of Adventurers
It doesn’t happen with every play, but I often find myself building the village first before thinking about adding any adventurers. They can be quite expensive and picky!
Yet the Emerald Stronghold seemed to indicate a pretty nice village. I managed to add a fair number of these characters, all of whom added victory points.
There are also some fun moments when adventurers turn up who work together to provide even better bonuses.
So much to discover and love! There are definitely some combinations I still have yet to master and understand.
The Tricky Part of Mastering Randomization
It might seem easy enough to offer a huge number of cards to constantly create a different deck to use with each play. But this isn’t so easy to do in terms of finding the right balance. That’s not to say every play should be perfectly balanced, either: This is a game where there are going to be better opportunities with specific cards, and that’s OK!
For me, the frustrating part of a random design is when the clearly better cards don’t get shuffled in during setup. They stand out, and with everything else equal, scoring well just feels impossible. The nice part of this game is how each card is multi-purpose. There are also duplicates, yet identical cards can never be built. Lots and lots of neat choices!
Although I might have some of my favorites, card abilities often interact so a card isn’t going to be terrible in every situation. I’m still finding neat combinations! And if nothing else, cards can always be used to develop resources or collect a coin. There is the fun of discovering what’s available in the deck, often leading to multiple plays. Awesome!
Session Overview
Play Number: 13-18
Expansions: Many
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 49, 46, 37, 29, 69, 53 (1 Win & 5 Losses)
Definitely not my finest hour! Although I suppose I won in some way, scoring in every single scoring tier during this session. Ha! I loved these titles and the little bit of flavor text. This was a wonderful solo experience that’s been getting better with the expansion content. The variety keeps everything interesting, and I enjoy how quickly each play flies by. Just need to work on my city planning. A lot!
%
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)
- Discovering what’s available in the building deck is part of the fun, as only a small portion of cards are used.
- Multi-purpose building cards provide tons of different options, and there really aren’t any truly bad cards.
- Limited coins help ensure careful planning with which buildings to construct and when to recruit adventurers.
- Play time moves along quickly and never feels like it drags on at any point, often leading to back-to-back plays.
- All of the artwork is beautiful and adds a lot to the setting, making it feel like a village taking shape with residents.
- Duplicate cards exist, yet they often lead to more interesting decisions since only 1 of each building may be added.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Card artwork is covered up by stacking the cards by icons, but the play area can get very large without any overlap.
- With the expansion rules split up so much, including additional solo rules, it isn’t always easy to jump back in.
- Some adventurers and buildings aren’t suited to solo, although it’s easy to simply exclude them during setup.
- Scores vary wildly based on the building deck, and there are some combinations that are difficult to win with.
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 do you like best about Villages of Valeria? Do you have a particularly high score you’re proud of? I enjoy the solo puzzle of this one, particularly with how unpredictable the building cards can be. Something new seems to pop up all the time! Being able to play in such a short amount of time makes this one even more appealing. Absolutely love it!
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