Hello friends. In the last newsletter, Paladins & Spirit Island both won the popular vote.
was our tie break in the Atopia discord (He voted for Paladins). You can vote for the next game I play by voting in the poll at the bottom of the article.Today’s solo adventure?
Paladins of the West Kingdom by Shem Phillips & S J Macdonald. Published by Garphill Games.
This is a game that fills its box. It’s no bigger than it needs to be. I would consider its table presence on the bigger side. Look how the solo mode takes up my entire coffee table:
In Paladins (solo), I’m not entirely sure what the theme is precisely, but generally you are competing with a ruthless AI that will be ahead of you every step of the way. You will balance your Faith, Strength, and Influence in order to spread the gospel, build up garrisons, defend your city, and fortify your surroundings. You’ll steal, attack people, use people, convert people to your side, and try to appeal to the king. Your brain will melt as well.
SETUP:
Setup for solo is as easy as setting up another player just about. The AI gets its own board (just flip any board over for the AI side), it gets its own tokens as well. Depending on the difficulty you’re playing (I played normal) the AI gets extra green houses to give it a head start on a few of its actions. The AI has its own deck of action cards. The Townsfolk and Outsiders are drafted out like usual. You begin with 3 Silver and 1 Provision.
Setup is almost the same as a 2 player game, which is great. If you’ve played before, you don’t really have to learn a new routine. If you’ve never played before, you’re basically learning the multiplayer game and I think that’s awesome.
GAMEPLAY:
Paladins is played over 8 rounds. You’ll start each round with 6 workers. (This is determined by a tavern card you draft with the AI and the Paladin you choose this round.) Occasionally you can rollover a worker or 3. You’ll alternate turns with the AI placing your workers out to accomplish various tasks in your city.
There are 12 actions to consider each turn. It will overwhelm you your first time playing. But if you can push through the confusion, you’re going to have a ton of fun. (In later rounds you’ll have up 17 different actions to consider, this game is WILD!)
In general, the left side of your board gives you actions that require less workers and gain you resources of some kind. You can make actions on the right sight of your board a little cheaper to accomplish, you can earn money or provisions, you can turn a worker into a criminal, and you can gain the trust of a townsfolk. It’s a lot to consider as you only get about 3-4 actions per turn.
The right side of your board offers you actions that are much more expensive. (at first) these will usually allow you to gain resources and end game points. In order to take these actions, you’ll not only need the workers and resources, but also the right amount of Faith, Strength, or Influence. It’s the big puzzle of the game. Where to put your weight in actions in order to get ahead of the extremely talented AI.
The AI has access to the same actions as you, but a deck of cards determines what it does. They can work in your favor at times, but often its turns are very efficient and nearly every game I’ve played, the AI has maxed out each attribute earning it the max 60 points. I usually can only max out 1 attribute (I average around 30-40 points usually here.)
The AI begins each round with a fresh batch of workers (It doesn’t have to worry about colors) of 3 + 1 per round. (It begins the last round with 11 workers and you only get 6. This game will test you.)
After the AI takes its turn, you’ll refresh the townsfolk and outsiders similar to the multiplayer game (you discard 2 cards each instead of 1) and try to do better next round.
My Thoughts:
It took me about 90 minutes to play this game. I did my best to maximize my turns and stay above water as the AI continued to climb each of its attributes. (It maxed out at 60 points) I only managed to score 42 points in that section. The AI beat me 97 to 85. Most of my strategy centered around getting all of the green houses, all of the commissions, all of my possible slots for conversions, and all of the absolve actions. But it wasn’t enough! Like I mentioned earlier, the AI starts the 8th round with 11 workers and I started with 6. Thankfully there were options to gain more workers, but as I prepared to take that action on the next turn, the AI would draw a card that would take that action away from me. I’m almost convinced it became sentient.
I love Paladins. It’s a phenomenal solo experience. I had a good time playing it at 2 players as well. I can see some analysis paralysis happening with more players and it’s nice to have the time to think it all through in the solo mode. This game loves icons and there’s a lot going on. It took me several hours to get into the swing of things. I’ve played it maybe 5 or so times now over the past few months and it always feels like a fresh puzzle every time.
My favorite mechanisms and experiences from this game:
The paladin selection is interesting. Draw 3 pick one to play, 1 to place on the top of the deck and 1 on the bottom. The cards you decide to put on the bottom of the deck, come back up in the last few rounds, so if you made the right choices early on, you can give yourself the desperate boost you need!
The AI is simple to maintain while also allowing it some depth to build tension. I love the little track that makes its decisions when drafting cards. Every time its token loops around it earns more points for the end game. Instead of keeping track of its money and resources, it just earns points. Genius.
I really like the dance of workers, actions, and attributes. You can’t focus on just one area, some actions are impossible to continue if you don’t have enough attributes. This constantly forces the player to re-evaluate their position. It’s very engaging.
I can’t recommend this game enough, if you’re an avid gamer or just someone looking for a challenge, this is it. It’s a great solo experience and I think there’s a lot to learn and love about it.
I paid $42 for this gem of a game back in September 2023. Hands down the best bang for my buck so far in board games. It’s half the size and cost of so many popular board games.
I'm a big fan of all the Garphill games. They do really well with their solo modes (for their non solo-only games). My favorite is Raiders of Scythia, but I've heard that the solo mode for Viscounts of the West Kingdom is quite good. I've not played the South Tigris game(s), but those also look quite good!
Great post! I've really enjoyed the West Kingdom and North Sea series from Shem. Each one has an interesting take on worker placement, and Paladins is no exception.
I'd need some additional plays, but Paladins might be my favorite vs. Architects and Viscounts. (They are all good though!!)