just grabbed version 2, solo question

[forcedperfect]

Hi all! 

As the title says, I just grabbed and skimmed version 2 a few minutes ago.  Looks great, and the few bits that confused me from the first edition are smoothed over and explained nicely.  Well done, Mike and crew!  I'm excited to take a few boards down to the nerd store and start spreading the gospel as time allows.

One of the things I was looking forward to most in the new edition was the add-on of solo/ co-op rules.  My wife and I love playing co-operative games, and as she's the main person I play with since the baby came along, it was a big selling point.  I didn't realize that the solo rules were only in the card deck, and I don't have them yet.

So while I wait to re-generate my nerd budget and grab those, can anyone summarize the mechanics of the solo game for me?  I've looked over Sheerluck's old solo rules, how do they compare?

Thanks again to the UMW gang, I've loved this game for a couple of years now, it's nice to have some fresh life breathed into it.

-Phil     

[Basement Dweller]

The solo rules are card based in effort to avoid giant random tables.  The cards determine randomly which models activate and what they do.  The cards also provide some boosts to the bad guys so you don't know exactly what will happen or if you have left enough space to keep your boos safe.  The amount of command skill the bad guys have determine how many cards you draw...and therefore how many activations they have.

The mechanic does require that you move the models (no magic in those cards) either aggressively or cautiously based on the card drawn. 

The effort put in was to make the bad guys a little unpredictable...at least a little bit to avoid you know knowing exactly what they are going to do.  Because of this, the bad guys don't always make the best decisions, so the rules attempt to provide them boosts here and there so you don't always win.

Hope that helps explain it a little bit...please let me know if you need any more information.  I have been thinking of putting up a solo demo game (or even start a campaign) so maybe I should get on that...

[horridperson]

I was wondering about the solo rules as well.  I'd be really interested in checking out an example of solo play basement dweller or even better a campaign.

[richstrach]

I second that, I'm mostly going to be playing this solo and would be very interested in a report of a typical game.

[Basement Dweller]

I can start a new one and photograph it...I ran through lots obviously while play testing and wouldn't mind going through it again now that I have the fancy cards and not the paper cut-out ones.  I have also painted some of the new models and so it would be nice to get them on the table as well.

Okay...will get this going this week...I have to now go and make my starter list...

[styx]

Since we are on the topic of the cards, what is up with the odd cards that just look like advertisement cards, what the heck are these?

[Basement Dweller]

Hahaha...well...umm...that was a good idea that didn't work out as planned.

Mike can probably explain it better than me, but since there were a few cards not needed in solo, the idea was to take advantage of those and get those "advertisement" cards printed, pull them from all the decks and use them for another purpose.  Of course, all the decks were individually wrapped and not just boxed, so in the end the cards were not pulled from each deck to leave the decks sealed...and so every deck has "bonus" cards that serve you no real purpose unless you want to leave them around your friends to help entice them to join the madness...

[Argonor]

Sounds like a Treshold operation to me....   

[Uncle Mike]

 

[styx]

Well, I don't mind handing mine out to interested folk. I suspected that may have been the intent, still the story was by far more enjoyable than my theory for free advertisement! 

[forcedperfect]

Thanks for offering to put up a demo, BD!  That'd be great, I'd love to see them in action. Today's my first day off since grabbing the new rules; assuming the beast what squawks will take a nap this afternoon, the wife and I will dive back in.