Publisher: Daily Magic Games
Player Count: 1 Player
Game Length: 30-45 Minutes
Complexity 2/5
Siege of Valeria is a solo, tower defense game set in the popular board game world of Valeria. With your castle walls surrounded by a hoard of monsters, supplies running thin and no help in sight, you’re tasked with rousing your troops for one final defense against your ever advancing foe.
During the game you’ll arm yourself with a handful of dice and assign them to enemy cards, earning actions to supplement your efforts. While the troops are trouble, it’s the enemy siege engines that will decide the battle. Defeat the siege engines and raise up champions to power your defense or fail, losing you the castle and the protection of your people. Are you up to the task in this dice-driven, strategic solo battle to the death?
ON YOUR TURN
The play area features your castle wall with 5 turrets you’ll be tasked with protecting throughout the enemy’s surge. A 5×5 grid of enemy troop cards are placed beyond the wall forming 5 columns each facing 1 of the castle turrets. The first 4 rows contain enemy troops while the 5th row consists of siege engine cards.
Each siege engine has an ability that is activated based on its range in relation to the wall. This may mean a siege engine can carry out an action against you if it reaches the 3rd or 4th row of the battlefield for example… and these siege engines will advance. In fact, all the enemy troops will advance if you fail to stop them.
Setup with a handful of red and blue dice representing strength and magic, you’ll roll the dice and begin to map out your plan of attack. Of course, an activated siege engine may require you to re-roll a 5-pip dice, lose a single die or even cause damage to a turret. This is what the siege engines do, which is why it’s so important to stop them before they get in range. Unfortunately, your attack can only target the closest enemy card in each column… But the enemy wasn’t expecting one thing – the mind of a brilliant military leader (whose brilliance may vary from game to game) – but with the ability to scheme and plan your way across the battlefield.
Each enemy card has a defense value and action. To defeat the enemy, you’ll need to apply the necessary dice value which could be a single die or multiple dice. Once defeated, used dice are exhausted and you earn the enemy card and the action available to help you in the future. These actions might allow you additional dice strength, earn new dice to roll, tactical actions on the battlefield or provide you with a way to execute a discounted “overkill”. Overkill actions allow you to defeat an adjacent enemy for a fraction of their defense.
Once all your dice are exhausted, the enemy advances forward and new troops join in the battle. Any troops in the first row you failed to defeat caused damage to that column’s turret. If a siege engine sits in that position at the end of the turn you instantly lose the game. With each defeat of a siege engine, you gain a champion card to sit atop your castle wall. These champions offer single or multi-use offensive benefits as long as they are around.
Each round also includes an optional event deck that can be a pain in the rear. These cards often limit your actions or add strength to certain troops in play.
It’s a tall challenge, but If you can defeat 13 siege engines before you exhaust the enemy troop deck, lose a turret to invaders or fail to defeat a siege engine knocking at your door, you’ll be victorious and the kingdom will celebrate your greatness.
ARTWORK & COMPONENTS
The artwork is beautifully done by accomplished board game artist, Mihajlo Dimitrievski. He always brings color and personality to his illustrations and I never feel cheated as he uses every inch of a card or player board to bring value to the theme and experience.
The components are limited to a player board, decks of cards, red and blue dice and small wooden tokens to mark damage or upgrade an enemy character. The cards are good quality and I feel everything in the box is sturdy enough to support many solo adventures.
PROS & CONS
➕ Quick Setup gets you into the game almost immediately
➕ Fantastic artwork immerses you in the theme of the game
➕ Simple AI actions make for less upkeep and more game action
➕ Think-y system is challenging and rewards inventive strategy and combos
➖ Rulebook is a little hard to follow, but rules are fairly simple overall making this minor gripe easy to overcome
➖ More of neutral point, but there is a lot of luck from how the dice fall to how the enemy aligns for their attack. There are ways to mitigate the dice, but some games end sooner than others.
WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS GAME?
Obviously the theme will affect your opinion of this game, but fans of dice-rolling and more straightforward castle defense games are going to find a lot to like. I also think a big selling point is the game’s limited AI upkeep and interesting decisions which let you enjoy more action and less downtime.
WHAT’S THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GAME?
The best thing about this game comes when you defeat an enemy. You immediately gain the card in possession and have the opportunity to use it to your benefit. Every enemy card carries a “good” action. I typically expect a few stinkers I wouldn’t use in a game like this, but I enjoyed all the bonus actions you can earn. Some actions are stronger than others, and you’ll need them since this game can be a challenge.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m a huge fan of how the gameplay in Siege of Valeria is so streamlined. The accessibility and game length is perfect for a solo player looking to pick up a quick game after dinner or right before bed. The mechanics are simple and quickly take a backseat allowing you to spend the majority of your time wrestling with the perfect decisions.
A big part of what makes the process so sweet is the limited AI upkeep. The simple AI is a breeze to activate, yet doesn’t compromise anything by dumbing down your opponent. While I appreciate a meaty AI, I have run into so many that complicate the flow of the game or dumb down your opponent to the point where you can’t even enjoy it. Siege of Valeria brings a really nice cost/reward balance to this solo experience.
This is a challenging game, but one that rewards you as opposed to beating you down. Defeat isn’t always absolute and victory typically leaves room for improvement. I was almost immediately able to begin building a strategy from turn 1 and I really appreciate the system of defeating an enemy and then being able to use that card for your own benefit. This provides an opportunity to really plan out your attack, gain the most out of your dice and even drop a couple enemy-defeating combos in there. The position of the siege engine cards brings a good, consistent level of anxiety to the game. While the defeat of the siege engines are essential for victory, you have to always manage the unending barrage of troops or they’ll breach your castle wall. This tension creates some really interesting decisions that force you to get creative and take advantage of your circumstances… a mentality the publisher encourages.
This is a tower defense game that strips away any fluff or fat and pits you right in the middle of the action. There is a champion deck and event deck that provide variability, but each game plays out differently with just the placement of the enemy troops and the ability of each siege engine. It’s challenging in a really good way and minor victories are really satisfying. This is a game that’s easy to get to the table and provides a fun and challenging experience that should delight a growing community of solo gamers.