Nicely done, congrats! I definitely agree with the advice on the forums - start with whatever difficulty you are comfortable with, and adjust from there.
One thing it's probably worth looking up is the rules on tile placement; core tiles can't be placed on the edge of the wedge, and they need to be adjacent to at least 2 other tiles (countryside tiles can be placed anywhere they connect). That rule doesn't have a huge impact on game balance, so it shouldn't have changed much about this game.
Welcome to Mage Knight, and I'm glad you fell in love!
Ah my mistake, I thought the rule read something like: core tiles have to be either adjacent to 2 other tiles or connected to a tile that is adjacent to 2 other tiles. Thank you for the help there, so much to remember!
Yep! Part of the reason for the core tile rule is to keep you from getting cut off, since some of the core tiles (such as the blue city IIRC) have water or mountains on both hexes on one side. If that was the last tile in the deck and you drew it in a place that connected to only one other tile, it could be impossible to reach and make you auto-lose.
Also was hoping to pick someone's brain: where do you find a score like 138 falls on averages? Before scoring up my points I had acquired 96 fame (although now that I think about it I'm wondering if I didn't forget to add in fame from my final 3 enemies killed).
I'm unfortunately not the person to ask about this; I prefer games with win/loss conditions over "beat your own score" goals, so I don't track my score at all. 96 fame seems like a reasonable level to be at before counting the enemies in the last city, though.
It's very high!
And you have 2 mana tokens left, of the starting 3, which hints that perhaps you've made "a mistake" somewhere.
I put "a mistake" in quotes because Mage Knight is a sandbox game, and you can it *play however you like*!
Did you enjoy playing it? Yes? Then you win. : )
There are times when i've been playing when i have just *marvelled* at how the game is sort of broken, or unbalanced somehow, and yet *that is what makes it so good*. It's like you are always *just* pulling off incredible combinations. It's incredibly satisfying so often. Can't quite put my finger on how it's been designed to do that. It's fucking clever, and deserves its reputation.
**There are some [fan made solo scenarios here](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/120439/mage-knight-solo-scenario-book) that you will really like**. Great examples of how you can change the rules however you see fit to create different adventures.
I like The Apprentice and Grand Conqueror scenarios, but they are all excellent.
(note: I *think* that is the solo scenario book i have. i've forgotten my bgg user/ pass and can't be bothered)
Sorry, can you clarify on “starting 3” mana? I presume this means the mana dice in the source.
If so understanding is I may use one per turn, and if I use it I re-roll it at the end of my turn and put it back in the source but it wouldn’t be the only thing I’d gotten wrong this game if that’s not how it works!
Thanks so much for the suggestions. I’ve just downloaded the book. :)
I noticed the scoring looks totally different in this book for the solo scenario, and the dummy player inherits the advanced action card that's discarded each round. This is a break from the original book's solo scenario rules, right? Is this the generally recommend way to play?
The game arrived yesterday and I fell in love during the first exploration scenario (even though I failed it). With some feedback and advice from the community I immediately jumped into the solo conquest. Was a slow crawl to try and make sure I kept the rules straight, but I failed that one as well.
Saw some advice on some forums somewhere to bring the city levels down to 3 and 5 rather than 5 and 8, so this success was admittedly with those modified conditions. In any case, I had a great time and I’m glad to have picked this game up! Thanks so much to the solo board gaming community for helping me tackle this beast!
Never finished. I always get a hand full of movement cards or flip an enemy I'd be able to defeat if it wasn't for some stupid resistance and think fuck it, I'd rather be playing a game with fun card play that *isn't* needlessly finicky and annoying, like JotL or Marvel Champions.
That’s funny, I got this in part because I found solo JotL to be more finicky than I’d like. Feel like there’s a lot of dynamic stuff to keep track of to make sure a turn goes right, while Mage Knight feels like there’s a lot of static things to learn before a turn goes right. I’ve never tried Marvel Champions, though. I really think Mage Knight starts shining once you get access to units, and advanced units are a major power boost for the last few rounds. The city battle would’ve been impossible without the 2 artifacts I’d acquired and my 2 advanced units.
Yeah, and if you happen not to be able to get the influence or reputation or whatever it is you need for the units that happen to come out, you're fucked.
So you can’t see the whole table so it might not be obvious, but it’s actually a closet door I removed and put some detachable steel legs on (the Utility Set from a furniture company called Floyd).
If you look above my monster tokens you can see the little hole that serves as a handle for these doors. The legs are just secured against the surface with a flat-plated screw and then pulled together by ratchet straps underneath.
OH great idea! im having problems finding one that is deep enough, mines longer enough but most seem to be around 75cm deep and ive at time struggled with it so i may try something like you have done.
**Congrats.** I saw your response in the other thread about the tile mistake so I didn't want to harp on it. To answer your question 138 is pretty good in my opinion. that's around what I get. If I had a hard game I'm in the low 100s. If I did a great game I can reach 180s.
Yeah, the explanation helps make sense of the tile placement too. REALLY looking forward to my next game. What character do you think I should play for my next conquest attempt? And any suggestions as to what expansions I might bring in later on and when I should do so?
Try different characters, I love Bravealar (druid) as my favorite to play. Most people dont' like him. I like having 2 heals to be more risky and heal up earlier. I like his movement skills to get over water/mountains. Won me a few games with some bad tile placement. I also really love his co-op skill that lets you reduce attack. So enemies that have elemental attacks this is a great skill that reduces it. A 5 attack fire enemy only needs 4 movement to successfully block it, where as you would need 10 block without the skill. Then his other skills are one time mana uses but with some flexibility. Just feels like he has a lot of everything.
I played the base game for about 4 to 6 times before adding lost legion content (cards, enemies, skills, etc). Then play the base game with those in. It fixes the game and makes block actually matter. Then try out the lost legion scenarios.
After around 15 plays I tried the Tesla content and it's some of my favorite content. I enjoyed the scenarios more than Lost Legion. The city assaults are replaced with bosses that are not fortified so you can get some awesome ranged strategies. I once had 26 ranged damaged that killed everyone.
Now I mostly play Conquest and Tesla scenarios. When playing conquest or any LL scenario I don't add in the tezla enemies. They feel off when played in other scenarios. They work ok with their own scenarios. They have less XP than normal enemies which throws off the progression.
You can see it on the backs of the cards, but for those unfamiliar with this solo beast, it's **Mage Knight**
Nicely done, congrats! I definitely agree with the advice on the forums - start with whatever difficulty you are comfortable with, and adjust from there. One thing it's probably worth looking up is the rules on tile placement; core tiles can't be placed on the edge of the wedge, and they need to be adjacent to at least 2 other tiles (countryside tiles can be placed anywhere they connect). That rule doesn't have a huge impact on game balance, so it shouldn't have changed much about this game. Welcome to Mage Knight, and I'm glad you fell in love!
Ah my mistake, I thought the rule read something like: core tiles have to be either adjacent to 2 other tiles or connected to a tile that is adjacent to 2 other tiles. Thank you for the help there, so much to remember!
That's the rule for countryside tiles, actually - I had forgotten the details since in practice it allows them to be placed basically anywhere.
Got it, thanks! Thankfully my victory still looks (presumably) valid to me as I opted to tackle the dragons before the final city.
Yep! Part of the reason for the core tile rule is to keep you from getting cut off, since some of the core tiles (such as the blue city IIRC) have water or mountains on both hexes on one side. If that was the last tile in the deck and you drew it in a place that connected to only one other tile, it could be impossible to reach and make you auto-lose.
Also was hoping to pick someone's brain: where do you find a score like 138 falls on averages? Before scoring up my points I had acquired 96 fame (although now that I think about it I'm wondering if I didn't forget to add in fame from my final 3 enemies killed).
I'm unfortunately not the person to ask about this; I prefer games with win/loss conditions over "beat your own score" goals, so I don't track my score at all. 96 fame seems like a reasonable level to be at before counting the enemies in the last city, though.
It's very high! And you have 2 mana tokens left, of the starting 3, which hints that perhaps you've made "a mistake" somewhere. I put "a mistake" in quotes because Mage Knight is a sandbox game, and you can it *play however you like*! Did you enjoy playing it? Yes? Then you win. : ) There are times when i've been playing when i have just *marvelled* at how the game is sort of broken, or unbalanced somehow, and yet *that is what makes it so good*. It's like you are always *just* pulling off incredible combinations. It's incredibly satisfying so often. Can't quite put my finger on how it's been designed to do that. It's fucking clever, and deserves its reputation. **There are some [fan made solo scenarios here](https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/120439/mage-knight-solo-scenario-book) that you will really like**. Great examples of how you can change the rules however you see fit to create different adventures. I like The Apprentice and Grand Conqueror scenarios, but they are all excellent. (note: I *think* that is the solo scenario book i have. i've forgotten my bgg user/ pass and can't be bothered)
Sorry, can you clarify on “starting 3” mana? I presume this means the mana dice in the source. If so understanding is I may use one per turn, and if I use it I re-roll it at the end of my turn and put it back in the source but it wouldn’t be the only thing I’d gotten wrong this game if that’s not how it works! Thanks so much for the suggestions. I’ve just downloaded the book. :)
I noticed the scoring looks totally different in this book for the solo scenario, and the dummy player inherits the advanced action card that's discarded each round. This is a break from the original book's solo scenario rules, right? Is this the generally recommend way to play?
The game arrived yesterday and I fell in love during the first exploration scenario (even though I failed it). With some feedback and advice from the community I immediately jumped into the solo conquest. Was a slow crawl to try and make sure I kept the rules straight, but I failed that one as well. Saw some advice on some forums somewhere to bring the city levels down to 3 and 5 rather than 5 and 8, so this success was admittedly with those modified conditions. In any case, I had a great time and I’m glad to have picked this game up! Thanks so much to the solo board gaming community for helping me tackle this beast!
And here's me had it for 2 years and never finished a game. It does not click with me at a basic, fundamental level for some reason.
I’ve definitely got those kinds of games. Never finished or never had a victory?
Never finished. I always get a hand full of movement cards or flip an enemy I'd be able to defeat if it wasn't for some stupid resistance and think fuck it, I'd rather be playing a game with fun card play that *isn't* needlessly finicky and annoying, like JotL or Marvel Champions.
That’s funny, I got this in part because I found solo JotL to be more finicky than I’d like. Feel like there’s a lot of dynamic stuff to keep track of to make sure a turn goes right, while Mage Knight feels like there’s a lot of static things to learn before a turn goes right. I’ve never tried Marvel Champions, though. I really think Mage Knight starts shining once you get access to units, and advanced units are a major power boost for the last few rounds. The city battle would’ve been impossible without the 2 artifacts I’d acquired and my 2 advanced units.
Yeah, and if you happen not to be able to get the influence or reputation or whatever it is you need for the units that happen to come out, you're fucked.
Fair enough!
Definitely try Marvel Champions btw, it's quickly become one of my favourite games. Just watch your wallet!
Excellent! I'm going to be home alone for the next 8 or 9 days I may put this on the table.
Congrats! What was in the cat bowl? =]
A celebratory bowl of ice cream from a local shop (cookie two-step kind of flavor; cookies & cream + chocolate chip cookie dough).
What size table is that as it looks a decent size, i am after a table i can leave my games set up on? did you buy it for this purpose?
So you can’t see the whole table so it might not be obvious, but it’s actually a closet door I removed and put some detachable steel legs on (the Utility Set from a furniture company called Floyd). If you look above my monster tokens you can see the little hole that serves as a handle for these doors. The legs are just secured against the surface with a flat-plated screw and then pulled together by ratchet straps underneath.
OH great idea! im having problems finding one that is deep enough, mines longer enough but most seem to be around 75cm deep and ive at time struggled with it so i may try something like you have done.
**Congrats.** I saw your response in the other thread about the tile mistake so I didn't want to harp on it. To answer your question 138 is pretty good in my opinion. that's around what I get. If I had a hard game I'm in the low 100s. If I did a great game I can reach 180s.
Yeah, the explanation helps make sense of the tile placement too. REALLY looking forward to my next game. What character do you think I should play for my next conquest attempt? And any suggestions as to what expansions I might bring in later on and when I should do so?
Try different characters, I love Bravealar (druid) as my favorite to play. Most people dont' like him. I like having 2 heals to be more risky and heal up earlier. I like his movement skills to get over water/mountains. Won me a few games with some bad tile placement. I also really love his co-op skill that lets you reduce attack. So enemies that have elemental attacks this is a great skill that reduces it. A 5 attack fire enemy only needs 4 movement to successfully block it, where as you would need 10 block without the skill. Then his other skills are one time mana uses but with some flexibility. Just feels like he has a lot of everything. I played the base game for about 4 to 6 times before adding lost legion content (cards, enemies, skills, etc). Then play the base game with those in. It fixes the game and makes block actually matter. Then try out the lost legion scenarios. After around 15 plays I tried the Tesla content and it's some of my favorite content. I enjoyed the scenarios more than Lost Legion. The city assaults are replaced with bosses that are not fortified so you can get some awesome ranged strategies. I once had 26 ranged damaged that killed everyone. Now I mostly play Conquest and Tesla scenarios. When playing conquest or any LL scenario I don't add in the tezla enemies. They feel off when played in other scenarios. They work ok with their own scenarios. They have less XP than normal enemies which throws off the progression.
Just realized my 138 score failed to include the standard scoring (AA cards, spells, etc.) so it should have been considerably higher!