Which Solo Witch? Flying Into Witches of the Revolution
Overcome events with a coven of witches as the moon rises over the Revolutionary War in Witches of the Revolution.
Back to another game I haven’t played in years! Witches of the Revolution features a very unique theme, yet offers a pretty simple selection of mechanics. All sorts of characters abound in the midst of relics as the events of the war take shape in a horror-themed reality. I was ready to take on the strange events with this group of crafty witches!
Game Overview
Game Name: Witches of the Revolution
Publication Year: 2017
Designer: M. Craig Stockwell
Artists: James Mosingo and Alan Washburn
Publisher: Atlas Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Before time runs out, objectives must be completed by overcoming events. New recruits provide more powerful options to stack the icons. All sorts of possibilities exist in this realm, yet everything is rooted in the Revolutionary War. Only the witches can stop these strange tidings!
First Play
August 14, 2019
Complexity
2
Latest Play
August 3, 2023
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
9
Play Time
35 Minutes
High Score
7
Game Area
24" x 22"
Low Score
0
A Land of Compactness
One of my favorite parts of this game is how pretty much everything, aside from the player deck, is contained on a very reasonably sized board. No stretching here!
The theme, unfortunately, tends to melt away after a couple of rounds. Gameplay is mainly about matching symbols to overcome events over and over again.
A set of 4 objectives provides a random collection to help make each play a little different, but not by too much.
Managing the size of a deck with the flow of overcoming events is paramount to winning, which can be swingy.
Starting Seekers
Seekers form the entire basis of the starting deck. Their artwork is identical, and only the icons differ. That is some beautiful and colorful iconography, though! Easy to see.
This is a game about crafting a deck, yet shuffling advances the moon. Over time, this adds requirements to the events, thereby making the game much harder.
It’s wise to pay for an expensive card with a single card from the deck, although that’s not always possible.
Seekers are the weakest witches, yet they can be most useful in the right situation with certain events!
A Trick-or-Treat Start
Creating the event deck can be really annoying and time-consuming… There are 8 decks with symbols, and within them are easy or difficult events that can be mixed.
However, the event deck always contains a total of 40 cards. Setup can definitely drag on a little bit!
The first event I drew was pretty terrible, as it simply moved the moon along. You really do not want that track to advance quickly, but sometimes, it can’t be helped.
I had 3 blue symbols, or familiars, to overcome this event and make some progress on an objective. Relatively good!
Not Enough Steam
It was fun to remove events with the right symbols, but some of them were impossible with what I had in my deck.
More importantly, the tyranny marker moved closer to defeat with some events that weren’t actually tyranny events… So I didn’t have a chance to reverse its path.
In the end, I completed a single objective and was on my way to doing more when it all came to a quick end.
This actually felt like I was doomed from the start with the way the event cards came out. Maybe I didn’t make the best decisions, but there wasn’t any mitigation available.
Finding What Makes a Solo Game Tick
As I work on paring down my collection a little bit, it’s become increasingly important for me to identify the strengths of each solo game. It usually doesn’t require endless plays to understand how the theme and mechanics work together, and luckily, I’ve gotten pretty good at figuring out what works for me these days! Just a few plays are all I need.
I appreciate some of the aspects going on here, but ultimately, it feels like a very simple system. For the amount of time it takes to set up the event deck and play from start to finish, I don’t see the outcome being worth it for me. There are plenty of fun moments, though! It’s simply a case of this one not quite resonating with me anymore.
Note that I’m going through unplayed and underplayed games, and not all of them are leaving my collection! I’m making an effort to clear some space and get organized. Besides, I enjoy knowing I’ve had my time with a game, but will send it off to hopefully make someone else happy. Not every game is going to be for me… But maybe it’s for you!
Event Requirements
At a glance, some of these events might seem like they have minor requirements. However, there were a handful of other restrictions… And the moon tracker with +2 or +3.
I picked up a lot of relics early on, which were single-use and didn’t actually help build up my coven of witches.
Most of this loss came down to bad luck, though. I just didn’t have the right symbols, the moon track advanced quickly with events, and I couldn’t reverse tyranny.
Still, I enjoyed some aspects of this play and figured I could try again… These witches had to succeed!
Better Decisions
A-ha! I did much better the next time, ending the game with just 2 original seekers in my deck. I slowly built these up over time, focusing on spending cards one-for-one.
Relics helped out here and there, but this was the main strategy to consistently have a good chance to win.
I realize I could have even won a little sooner if I used a steward’s special ability, yet victory was still mine!
The order of the events made a big impact, too. There weren’t as many hard ones at the start, and tyranny was at its lowest point after just a handful of rounds. Nice!
Session Overview
Play Number: 8 and 9
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Outcome: 0, 7 (1 Win & 1 Loss)
Another thing that helped a lot during this second play was the moon track. It rarely moved, owing to some luck with the event and objective timing. Very cool! I loved seeing my deck take shape like this, but remembered that my previous plays have been similar. A loss is either very punishing with no way to do better, or a win happens without too much effort, courtesy of luck. I’m still glad I got to play this a final time before moving it along!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
7
Originality
Design & Theme
5
Quality
Components & Rules
6
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the artwork is very unique and helps get across the theme, particularly with the witches and relics.
- Recruiting can take some careful planning so as not to deplete a deck too quickly and get the best price possible.
- Overcoming events reward tokens that can be saved for future events, which can be very helpful to win.
- Nearly everything fits on the game board, making the required table space very reasonable and compact.
- Gameplay moves quickly without too many decisions to make each turn and practically no downtime.
- Special events in the recruit deck offer beneficial choices that often appear at the perfect opportunities.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Gameplay boils down to matching symbols, which is very luck-dependent at times and devoid of a theme.
- Creating the event deck during setup can take extra time for most difficulty levels, and the card order is random.
- The insert makes the box unnecessarily tall, and the overall quality of the cards is lower than expected.
- Some of the smaller icons are hard to see, while the rulebook is an odd folding pamphlet with scattered details.
Victory Conditions
Complete All 4 Objectives
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Win at least 1 game at the standard difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
Have you played Witches of the Revolution? Are there any other solo games related to witches, horror, or Halloween you enjoy? I had a great time during some of these plays! Although simple, it can be very satisfying to knock out events consistently and get the objective bonuses quickly. Now, I’ll happily send this one flying off to a new home!
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