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20 Strong: Solar Sentinels Deep Dive
What the Community Thinks About 20 Strong: Solar Sentinels
Solar Sentinels is the deck that comes in the 20 Strong core box from Chip Theory Games, and reviewers split sharply on it. Board Games UnLocked ranks it number one among the 20 Strong decks, calling it what the original design was made for: the system at its most streamlined, which is where they think 20 Strong shines. One Stop Co-op Shop puts it at number two, describing it as 20 Strong "distilled to its simplest components," and says that in some ways that shows the game off at its best. Neon Gorilla calls it a tossup for their favorite deck and the first one they would recommend getting to the table. Board Game Critique goes the other way and ranks it dead last, 11th out of 11: not a bad deck, they say, but "a tutorial dressed up like a game."
Core Mechanics That Define 20 Strong: Solar Sentinels
Push Your Luck Dice Management
The system runs on 20 dice in five colors: yellow, green, blue, purple and red. Board Game Critique explains that red is the most reliable and yellow the most likely to betray you when you need it, and Totally Tabled counts the hit faces: red has four, blue three, green two and yellow one. Dice you roll are exhausted, and at the end of each encounter your Recovery stat decides how many come back. Board Game Critique calls Recovery the stat that quietly shapes the whole game: over-commit and you head into the next encounter with a smaller pool. Board Games UnLocked sees the push your luck element as more strategic and acceptable because the game is short.
Choosing Which Enemy to Fight
Totally Tabled's setup splits the enemies into three stacks of 15, with four boss cards set aside. You clear your way through the stacks and then take on a boss. Board Games UnLocked says this is where the puzzle lives: with only three decks, you see three enemies right there and pick which one to fight. Orange-striped enemies are mandatory, so as Danielle's Board Game Channel explains, if one is showing you have to choose it. Defeated enemies give you items, some permanent and some one-time, so which enemy you go after matters as much as how you roll.
The 20 Strong: Solar Sentinels Experience
Quick and Straightforward
Speed is the most common thing reviewers praise. One Stop Co-op Shop says you can knock out a game in 20 or 30 minutes, with no merchant and no items except those the enemies drop. Board Games UnLocked puts it at 30 minutes, 45 at most, and says it is the shortest of the decks they ranked, where the others run closer to an hour. Neon Gorilla values how easy it is to get to the table, with very little need to refresh on the rules.
Swingy Runs
One Stop Co-op Shop is upfront that 20 Strong is a fairly random dice game: some games you die almost immediately, and some you level up so much that you bomb the competition out of existence. They lost some games very quickly through bad luck and destroyed the final boss in others. They argue Solar Sentinels fits that swinginess best because it is so quick. Board Game Critique found the first few plays genuinely tense, dying repeatedly to the final boss while learning what each enemy could do.
What Makes 20 Strong: Solar Sentinels Stand Out
Missions That Change the Boss Fight
Optional mission cards add goals to each run. Totally Tabled suggests leaving them out for your first couple of games, and Danielle's Board Game Channel notes they are not recommended for a first game. In Board Games UnLocked's playthrough, every mission left incomplete made the boss harder by giving it more enemies to deal with. Neon Gorilla found the missions a thorn in their side all game, and once had to skip one and go straight to the boss, which boosted the boss. One Stop Co-op Shop says the missions give you different things to focus on, so the way you level up varies more than in other decks.
A Gateway to the Whole System
Because it comes in the box, Solar Sentinels is how most players meet 20 Strong. Board Game Critique concedes it teaches the system without overwhelming you, "the grammar textbook before the novel." Board Games UnLocked says setup is as simple as popping out a deck and picking a hero and a boss, and points out that some of the six double-sided heroes are universal and can travel to other 20 Strong decks. Neon Gorilla calls it a really great first play. They came in excited to see what Chip Theory could do with a brand new IP, and the theme reminded them of Starship Troopers.
Potential Drawbacks
Strategy That Flattens Quickly
Board Game Critique's central complaint is that the game solves itself. The first sessions kicked their teeth in, but by play five they were coasting. Once you learn that maxing Recovery first is almost always right, they say the strategy collapses into one decision tree, with no loot system, no branching encounters and nothing that meaningfully changes your hero over a run. Board Games UnLocked also notes it has fewer heroes than the other decks and only four bosses.
Thin Theme
Both critics and fans find the setting generic. Board Game Critique says there is no atmosphere and no story hook, just a generic space hero stabbing generic space monsters until a generic space boss. Board Games UnLocked says in an earlier review that it is not thematic at all: there is not much art, the bosses are not that exciting, and they barely look at the names. That review's biggest complaint is the storage solution, which they call basically useless.
If You Enjoy 20 Strong: Solar Sentinels
The natural next step is another 20 Strong deck. Board Game Critique calls the Too Many Bones deck the best entry in the system, because it turns bad luck into progress, and calls the Cloudspire deck a masterpiece of mechanical translation. The Hoplomachus: Victorum deck is the third launch deck, and Board Games UnLocked says it has more variety than Solar Sentinels. One Stop Co-op Shop's favorite is Tanglewoods Gold, whose day and night cards slowly turn more dangerous as you play.
What Reviewers Are Saying
"By play five, we were coasting. By play seven, we'd basically stopped touching it. Once you internalize that maxing recovery first is almost always the right call, the strategy collapses into one decision tree."
— Board Game Critique
"20 Strong when you boil it down is a fairly random dice game. It can be swingy. You can have games where you die almost immediately. You can have games where you level up way too much and just bomb the competition out of existence. And Solar Sentinels in a way fits that model and type of gameplay the best because it's the quickest."
— One Stop Co-op Shop
"Of all the three decks released I was actually most excited about Solar Sentinels. I think it's because I'd already played so much Too Many Bones, and that it's my favorite game of all time, and I've played Hoplo. I was just really excited to see what Chip Theory could do with a brand new IP and a brand new gaming system."
— Neon Gorilla