I wouldn’t say that, personally. What you can’t see in the video is me referencing the crown handbook for literally every phase to check their priorities and negotiation options 😅😅
Played this solo 10 times so far. Twice more at 4P. Decision space is SO worth it solo -- yeah its a bit heavy on the "table lookup", but dang does it do a good job of simulating genuine negotiation. The AI really behaves intelligently, and is unpredictable unless you can memorize the whole Crown Handbook, which means that you're rewarded for smart flexible play and not for mathing out an algorithm to exploit. Favorite solo game ATM.
Thanks for the playthrough! I love this one, despite the niche appeal. So many little thematic rules that are easy to miss! Components are *mwah*. More board games should do things like the role cards that double as player aids. Someone on BGG put the Crown handbook in webapp form, which I found helpful for solo plays. Ricky also put together a list of 100 solo achievements (some of which are hilariously impossible). The one _meh_ aspect of solo is that a Crown chairman acts super dumb and usually will tank the company immediately if you lack promise cubes. Kinda forces you to draft or pursue chairman to have company success.
You did get a few rules wrong. For most of the first round, you didn't use peacock even though the Crown was on peacock. Peacock first round is actually really hard - the symbols are basically how much the Crown is "in" for the Company ('Bullish' vs 'Bearish' etc.). At Peacock it "wants" the Company to fail, so if you get that first round it makes the game quite difficult. The other main mistake was at 28:03 Having more than expectations just means you _don't_ go down. To go _up_ you need to pay out dividends more than expectations (in this case, that would be twice) which is rarely worth it (unless you expect the Company to fail and just want to get as much money as you can before it goes). I will say I'm very impressed with the Solo rules, it's one of the best ways of modelling negotiation I've seen. That said, I do not think this is a game I would recommend just for solo.
Thanks for both of those, and I didn’t realize what the different animal symbols signified. That’s helpful for sure to understand the “reasoning” of the AI
@@OneStopCoopShop Yeah, it seems like a game where it's either in your wheelhouse and you adore, or it's not and you don't. I'm hoping your group gets into it, and I find one that does as well.
Great playthrough. Would have loved to see it to the finish. Interesting contrast to Rick Royals video. It seemed quite brutal in his playthrough and yours almost seemed easy. To win I mean. Looking forward to more video's from you on this game!
No surprise that there were a few mistakes. Someone else has already pointed out that the company standing only increases if you pay out more dividends than expectations, which is not easy to do. I think you missed the opportunity to place an additional writer on the second turn when there were 4 vacancies. (This rule is printed on the family board.) But I think you had the right idea in being Chairman and sending all the money to the presidency you controlled.
You sir, have my respect. Although none of the concepts are very complicated, I found the game thematic but not streamlined at all. The multiplayer is manageable but needs a group that knows the game with multiple plays. I respect the effort in the solo mode but I just don't find the decision space to be worth the effort. It's a game that I love having but probably will never play.
It was pretty intense at times to constantly reference the different pages of the book for the priority of each AI action. But besides that cumbersome part, I enjoyed the solo a lot
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Thank you for showcasing the game Mike! Hope you enjoy playing. R.R.
Thanks Ricky! Great job on the solo mode :)
Mike is the expert of making complex games look easy! Nice job.
Aw shucks, thanks!
I agree, I played this twice solo and struggled the whole time with my nose in the crown book all the time
To be fair, my nose was in the crown book the whole time… off camera :)
I've purchase far to many games after watching one of his videos for that exact reason.
Very succinct. I was able to learn a ton of rules by watching this. It makes going through the rulebook much easier. Thank you
Awesome! Hope you have fun playing
Wonderful and clear video. Running the Crown seems more straightforward than the Wachan in Pax Pamir.
I wouldn’t say that, personally. What you can’t see in the video is me referencing the crown handbook for literally every phase to check their priorities and negotiation options 😅😅
Played this solo 10 times so far. Twice more at 4P.
Decision space is SO worth it solo -- yeah its a bit heavy on the "table lookup", but dang does it do a good job of simulating genuine negotiation. The AI really behaves intelligently, and is unpredictable unless you can memorize the whole Crown Handbook, which means that you're rewarded for smart flexible play and not for mathing out an algorithm to exploit.
Favorite solo game ATM.
Glad you're having such a good time!
This is one of the best and most impressive solo systems ive ever seen, and for such a beautiful and high quality game too!
@@-Markus- Agreed. I'm already pushing 30 plays.
Thanks for the playthrough! I love this one, despite the niche appeal. So many little thematic rules that are easy to miss! Components are *mwah*. More board games should do things like the role cards that double as player aids.
Someone on BGG put the Crown handbook in webapp form, which I found helpful for solo plays. Ricky also put together a list of 100 solo achievements (some of which are hilariously impossible).
The one _meh_ aspect of solo is that a Crown chairman acts super dumb and usually will tank the company immediately if you lack promise cubes. Kinda forces you to draft or pursue chairman to have company success.
Yeah, too many loans you silly crown!!!
You did get a few rules wrong. For most of the first round, you didn't use peacock even though the Crown was on peacock. Peacock first round is actually really hard - the symbols are basically how much the Crown is "in" for the Company ('Bullish' vs 'Bearish' etc.). At Peacock it "wants" the Company to fail, so if you get that first round it makes the game quite difficult.
The other main mistake was at 28:03 Having more than expectations just means you _don't_ go down. To go _up_ you need to pay out dividends more than expectations (in this case, that would be twice) which is rarely worth it (unless you expect the Company to fail and just want to get as much money as you can before it goes).
I will say I'm very impressed with the Solo rules, it's one of the best ways of modelling negotiation I've seen. That said, I do not think this is a game I would recommend just for solo.
Thanks for both of those, and I didn’t realize what the different animal symbols signified. That’s helpful for sure to understand the “reasoning” of the AI
This is one of those games I own, but sadly never expect to play. Seeing this is a delight.
We will see if it stays for me. If my game group likes it, probably. If not, I’ll have to see if solo is enough on its own :)
@@OneStopCoopShop Yeah, it seems like a game where it's either in your wheelhouse and you adore, or it's not and you don't. I'm hoping your group gets into it, and I find one that does as well.
Great playthrough. Would have loved to see it to the finish. Interesting contrast to Rick Royals video. It seemed quite brutal in his playthrough and yours almost seemed easy. To win I mean. Looking forward to more video's from you on this game!
Clearly I'm better at the game than the guy who designed the solo mode! (just kidding)
Not watched it all through yet but this seems like it would be perfect for adapting to a new Republic of Rome game
Oh that’s a cool idea! I’d love to see more negotiation solo modes if they work as well as this
No surprise that there were a few mistakes. Someone else has already pointed out that the company standing only increases if you pay out more dividends than expectations, which is not easy to do. I think you missed the opportunity to place an additional writer on the second turn when there were 4 vacancies. (This rule is printed on the family board.) But I think you had the right idea in being Chairman and sending all the money to the presidency you controlled.
Thanks, forgot that one! I added subtitles now for both the writer error and the previously noted company standing error.
You sir, have my respect. Although none of the concepts are very complicated, I found the game thematic but not streamlined at all. The multiplayer is manageable but needs a group that knows the game with multiple plays. I respect the effort in the solo mode but I just don't find the decision space to be worth the effort. It's a game that I love having but probably will never play.
Yeah, I don't think "streamlined" was what anyone in the design team was going for, for better or worse ;)
Did you had a review for it?
Sadly no, it didn’t go over well with my competitive group (they aren’t big into negotiation) so I haven’t played it much since the video
@@OneStopCoopShop got it
Did you like the solo mode?
It was pretty intense at times to constantly reference the different pages of the book for the priority of each AI action. But besides that cumbersome part, I enjoyed the solo a lot