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Game Info
Year
2018
Collection
Mechanic profile
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Vibe profile
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Description
Several millennia ago, the tiny planet Solenia lost its day-and-night cycle: Its northern hemisphere is forever plunged into darkness, and its southern hemisphere is eternally bathed in sunlight. Your mission is to carry on your ancestors' honorable task of traveling the world to deliver essential goods to the inhabitants of both hemispheres. While the Day people want you to deliver the rarest gems and stones, the Night people sorely need wood and wheat to survive. Be efficient and outpace your opponents to collect the most gold stars by the end of the game!
A game of Solenia plays out over 16 rounds, and in each round, each player plays one card from their hand onto an empty space of the 5x5 game board. You can play the card on either:
A floating production island, to gain as many resources as the value of the card you played of the type corresponding to this space
A floating city, to fulfill a delivery tile by delivering the resources depicted on it.
You must play your card adjacent to the airship in the center of the playing area or adjacent to another card of yours already played. When someone plays a 0 card, the airship advances one space, then at the end of your turn, you remove the back edge of the board, give players resources based on the cards they have on this strip of the playing area, flip the strip over (turning night to day or dawn to dusk or vice versa), and place it on the other side of the game board.
The game ends when each player has played all 16 of their cards. The player with the most gold stars wins!
—description from designer
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 4
This page: 4
Sentiment:
pos 4 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 0 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–4 of 4
Video 8foj-Uidr28
Meeple University Review at 0:28 sentiment: positive
video_pk 64831 · mention_pk 158397
Click to watch at 0:28 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Fast-paced and quick to start a new game if one player gets ahead.
- Brings something new to the deck-building genre with its unique currency system.
- Satisfying deck thinning and permanent gem source mechanics.
- Enjoyable art style.
- Good fit alongside other deck-building games.
Cons
- Can be frustrating at times, particularly when a game is running away.
- Can have a lot going on in the play area, requiring careful tracking to avoid mistakes.
Thematic elements
Comparison games
- Star Realms
- Hero Realms
- Splendor
- Dominion
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- combos — Cards have combo mechanics where playing another card with the same icon or keyword in the same round grants an extra effect, enabling engine building.
- Currency system — Features three distinct gem currencies (red, blue, green, and wild) required to buy and activate cards, adding a layer of strategic decision-making.
- Deck building — The core mechanic involves building a deck with cards purchased from a market, drawing hands, playing cards, and discarding them. It's compared to Star Realms and Hero Realms.
- Hand Retention — Players can hold on to two cards between rounds rather than discarding everything, which helps mitigate some frustrating aspects of deck building.
- Point accumulation — The game is a points accumulation game where the goal is to reach 60 influence. Players can gain influence or take points away from opponents via corruption.
- Raising (Deck Thinning) — Players can 'raise' cards, removing them from the deck. Raising two cards, including a specific gem, turns it into a permanent, free-to-use source of that gem each round.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- what makes this game quite different is that there are three currencies so there's red blue and green gems
- so there'll be a big part of this game that is about raising cards out of your deck getting a lean mean deck as well as getting free permanent gems on the table
- i love love love the gem mechanics
- it can be very frustrating at times i have definitely found moments of frustration to the game through the game but you know that's that's i say that that's and that's end game frustration when it's kind of running away from you anyway
- i just think they've built something here that is different it really stands it apart from other deck builders i've played
- it's almost like splendor where you get the you get the card and it's a permanent source of gem it has that feel it's not splendor it's not that but has got that feeling of efficiency and a permanent money currency
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video -VdhuKITA2I
Meeple University Playthrough at 1:42 sentiment: positive
video_pk 64458 · mention_pk 157919
Click to watch at 1:42 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Innovative three-gem currency with a persistent engine-building mechanic
- Fast-paced deck-building with clear tension and escalation
- Striking and thematic artwork described as distinctive
Cons
- Can require careful tracking of seals and permanent sources, which may be fiddly
- Some cards or interactions were described as potentially broken or very powerful, requiring rule clarification
Thematic elements
Comparison games
- Hero Realms
- Star Realms
- Dominion
- Splendor
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Corruption vs. Influence track — Players gain influence to reach 60, while corruption effects can deduct influence, affecting endgame results.
- Deck building — Players start with a 12-card deck, draw six, purchase from a market using gem resources, then discard and redraw.
- deck manipulation — Certain cards allow looking at top cards, drawing, and choosing which to keep or discard.
- Deck-building with market — Players start with a 12-card deck, draw six, purchase from a market using gem resources, then discard and redraw.
- End-of-round finish condition — The game ends at the end of a round when a player reaches 60 influence; the highest total wins.
- Influence Points — Players gain influence to reach 60, while corruption effects can deduct influence, affecting endgame results.
- Permanent vs temporary resources — Some gems become permanent sources, while others are spent as temporary resources for actions.
- Race to accelerate — There is a 'race' action to remove cards from a deck to accelerate toward sources.
- Raise-to-source mechanic — Some gems can be raised to become permanent sources that provide ongoing effects across rounds.
- Sealing and conversion — Cards can be sealed and become sources or be played with special interactions; seals persist as part of gameplay.
- Three-gem currency and color-specific costs — Gems come in blue, green, and red; card costs are paid in specific gem colors with wild gems available.
- Top-deck manipulation — Certain cards allow looking at top cards, drawing, and choosing which to keep or discard.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- this is a deck building
- the final tally is higher this one we had a lot of expensive cards at the start it forced us into gems early
- it's old grimy but i don't know it's like it's not quite grimy but it's got a titanic movie or something
- the three currency thing
- the first person to get to 60 influence
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video P17loDrHtdU
Meeple University Rules Teach at 0:05 sentiment: positive
video_pk 64169 · mention_pk 157651
Click to watch at 0:05 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Astronomy, star clusters, planets
- Night skies / astronomy-inspired
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Astral tiles and bonuses — Close a dark branch by flipping an astral tile, then place it to resolve bonuses.
- Caching in star clusters — When drafting a star cluster, players can cache it for a planet on the planet track.
- Compound Scoring — Star clusters score points based on the number of stars and their adjacent connections.
- drafting — Players draft two tiles per drafting phase from available options in rows.
- end-of-game scoring — Final scoring considers star clusters, planets, skies, and objective tiles.
- End-of-round cleanup and replenishment — Leftover tiles are returned; if no planets remain on the track, clusters are swept and replenishment occurs.
- Planet scoring — Planets score only if they have no adjoining connections.
- Star cluster scoring — Star clusters score points based on the number of stars and their adjacent connections.
- tile placement — Place drafted tiles onto Skies with positional restrictions (adjacency to existing features, circular vs. straight edges).
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Solani draws its inspiration from Navajo traditions of astronomy
- Solani is played over 12 rounds
- Drafting and tile placement game
- secondly you'll score points for stars
- this point each player's Maps will be completely full
- to play Solani we hope that you enjoyed this video
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video Zfj7gsiZ6mc
Sir Thecos Review at 3:12 sentiment: positive
video_pk 9687 · mention_pk 104607
Click to watch at 3:12 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Unique moving landscape mechanism
- Special game design
Cons
- Rarely played solo
Thematic elements
- Resource management
- Space exploration
Comparison games
- Black Angel
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Moving landscape — Tiles move as ship progresses, similar to Black Angel
- Resource management — Managing resources with unique card mechanism
- Tile/Map Shifting — Tiles move as ship progresses, similar to Black Angel
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- I want to make sure the games I own actually get played more often
- In each episode of the series, I'll show you four games for my to sell pile
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–4 of 4