Tianxia - Solo Playthrough

[Music] and good afternoon everybody. Thank you very much for joining me. Let me know if you can hear me and see me. Okay. And welcome to a solo playthrough of Tanzia, published by Board and Dice, which I believe is available right now, I think. So, I saw some photos this week on social media that various people who'd pre-ordered this game from Board and Dice were getting it.

So, hopefully everything is clear. You can hear me. Okay, we're all good. Um, and this is the first time that I'm filming a solo playthrough in the new studio. So, a little bit special. The green screen might fall down. I'm looking I'm pointing behind me. You can't see it cuz it's a green screen. Uh, but the green screen is set up behind me.

And yeah, hopefully everything's going to work. Okay, we'll see how we dive in. Now, I'm not going to be doing a full tutorial of this game today because I have already done a tutorial and playthrough for this game. So, I'm going to be explaining how the solo game works today. And if you haven't seen my multiplayer game, then you are going to get an idea of how the game plays out.

But yes, I'm not going to be focusing on a full tutorial of the game. If you do want to know how to play it, I have done a tutorial and playthrough video. Now, today I'm using a different method for looking at the chart. I have my iPad in front of me rather than the computer screen because the computer screen is way over there and I can't see it.

Uh, so I've got the iPad in front of me and I might just need to lean forward a little bit to read it because it's a little bit small on there. But anyway, what are we trying to do in this game? Well, this isn't a beat your own score game. This is we are playing against a bot, but the bot is a Paul friendly bot.

It is a lowmaintenance bot that is going to do things based on the cards that come out. I've played one round of this so far, and I was comfortable with how the bot played. There are some differences to the way that a human player would play. uh some key differences that we will explain later on, but yes, essentially we're trying to score more points than the bot, which is thematically it is somebody called Liu.

Yes, Liu. Uh now, you will have noticed that I've got the board sideways. The reason for that is this is one of those games with a with a long board. And if I had it the normal way up, I'd have to zoom out quite a way and therefore things would be uh a lot smaller. So yeah, I've got the main board sideways, which is probably how I would normally play it with other people around the table as well.

Um, yeah, I don't know. What would you do? Let me know what you think. Right. So, what we've done is we've done the setup as normal. For me, except I start with two coins, one rice, one stone, and one wood. So, you don't use the starting tiles that you normally use. I got two buildings and I chose I chose one of those starting buildings, but the rest of the game is pretty much set up as normal as if it was kind of a a two-player game.

I've chosen to play on the difficulty the hard difficulty there today. So, we've got four of these red cards in there. We've chosen uh we've chosen to play on that. Now, in terms of the bots, let me just press this button here and show you what we have on the bots board. So, this is the solo playerboard.

We have the walls here. We have three action markers. We have space for the jade figurines on the left hand side. What we don't have is we don't have the towers. So, you don't use the towers in a solo game, but you choose another player color and you set all of the rest of the pieces up. Liu has all of the little workers as normal.

And, and I don't know why yet because I didn't get this far, but you have nine of another color. So, there are nine of these of another color. I'm going to put them to side to them one side and I'm sure at some point the game will tell me what I need to do. Now, as well as configuring the overall difficulty of the game, we have two sets of cards here.

And what we have is we have the advanced cards. You'll see that there's a little A in the corner there. And we have the nonadvanced cards. And basically what you do is you decide well what you do is you pick four of the normal cards at random. you'll see that they're numbered and you replace them with advanced cards.

So from our set today, we have normal cards numbered one, two, five, eight, and nine, which means we have advanced cards 3, 4, 6, and seven. You should never have two cards of the same number. Now, what's going to happen is we need to keep them in separate piles because based on what round we're in, and there is a nice little solo player raid here, you can also set the difficulty of the bot.

So, we're going to set the difficulty to normal. If we were playing on easy, it would always use the basic cards, and you don't even need to use the advanced ones at all. But what's going to happen is in round one, it's going to take five basic cards and one advanced card. So, let's do that now. Let's pick one advanced card at random.

Okay. And then four of these. Sorry, five of these. Can't count. Five of these. So, right, four, five. Okay. And then those are going to get shuffled together. And then this is Liu's deck for the first round of the game. Okay. The other color is for the barges only. Okay, good to know. Okay, so that's the deck.

Then what we do is we're going to deal out the first two cards face up here. And then when the bot takes a turn, and it will always go second in the first round of the game, we are going to roll this dice. We're going to roll this dice. And that is going to tell us which card it's going to use. If we roll a one, two, or three, it's going to use this card.

If it's going to use a four or five, it's going to use this card. And if it rolls a six, who knows what it's going to do? Did I count four basic cards instead of five? Have I Have I done it wrong already? Uh, no. I think I'm I think I'm good. No, you're right. I missed a basic card. Okay, let's shuffle another basic card in.

Thank you. Okay, so yeah, we have six cards in total. And you can see here on the numbers that we've got two basic cards. I think the advanced ones are basically just a just a better version. So yeah, we'll get to the bot at the start of the game. Now, the other thing that is very common with a lot of solo modes, certainly the ones which I prefer, is the bot doesn't have any resources.

It has no money. It has no resources. It has no goods or anything like that. Anything it does is free and most of the tiles that it's collecting just removed from the game. It takes them and removes them from the game. The one thing that it is trying to collect is the jade figurines. And yeah, you will see that you will see that happening.

So, right, let let's jump in. It's my go first. I always start as the start player. And I'm just going to go through the objective cards that I've got for this game because you start the game with three objective cards. So, one of the objective cards is for being the highest on the white palace, which is over here.

Uh, and we've got we've got a dummy player marker on the four space because that's what you use when you're playing a one or a two-player game, maybe even a three-player game. And also the blue track. So, if I'm the highest on here, highest on here, seven points each. Second highest four points. Third highest two points.

I also have two objective cards for scoring my governors. So Chin, which is this region over here. Yeah, I've got that. So if I can install lots of governors here, well that's that's done both of these. So I'm tempted to go for these ones. I also want governors possibly in Yan or Han. Where's Han? Han over here.

So yeah. Now, one of the mechanisms that I do like in this game a lot is that these objective cards, you can throw them away for the resources printed on the top. And sometimes you have to do that because part of me as a gamer is like, "Oh, these are objective cards. These are going to score me points at the end of the game." But resources are quite tight in this game.

And sometimes when you throw a card away for its resources, that can give you exactly what you need at the right time. Just before we dive in, I wanted to say a big thank you to Board and Dice for sponsoring this video. This is a sponsored playthrough from Board and Dice. My job here is to show you how the solo game plays so that if you are interested in getting the game, you will see how it plays.

Or if you've already got the game coming, it will help you learn how to play. Because it's a sponsored video, you're not going to get any actual opinions from me if of this game in this video. I'm just here to to show you how it plays. But yeah, big thank you to Board and Dice for supporting the channel.

Right. So, what are we going to do? Well, on your turn, you have three choices. You can either pass, which I'm not going to do. I can send one of my workers to a barge as a trader and that costs one money. I do have two money. Or I can use one of my action discs, of which I only have three, and I can send them to one of the regions where I get to do a whole host of different things.

Now, I start the game with one stone, one wood, and one rice. And you can install a governor in some places. This one will cost one wood. Saw one earlier that cost zero. This one cost zero wood, which is which is pretty good. Um, but a lot of them cost two. So, in order for me to get some more wood, I need to send one of my one of my workers as a trader.

I think it's a trader barge. It's just got the icon. I think it's a trader, but anyway, send them onto here to get some wood. So, I could do that. That would give me two wood. And then when I went to one of the regions, I could install a governor. Yeah. Now, what I can look at is I can look at these.

We know that there's a 50% chance it's going to do this card. And if it does do this card, it's actually going to be placing a governor in way. And if it does this card, that's an icon I've not seen before. Thankfully, all of the icons are all explained in the back of book. I think it's going to Yes, it's placing it over there.

So, it's placing it over there. And it's going to be fortifying and training soldiers, right? Okay. Interesting. Yeah. So, I know unless it rolls a six and unless that card is this region that it's not going to go there. So, I'm not in any big rush. Whereas, if one of those cards was there, I might want to go there earlier.

So, I think I'm just going to take a very simple first turn. I'm going to spend one money. Going to put it onto this barge here. And I'm going to gain myself one wood. Now, that worker that that trader on there is going to generate me one wood at the start of each turn as long as it sorry, at the start of each round as long as it's there.

There's only four rounds in the game, but what's going to happen is other workers are going to get added to here and it's going to push mine off. But that's fine because when you get it pushed off, it becomes a merchant and it goes to your playerboard and you get to do all sorts of cool abilities. Right, that's my go done.

So, now we're going to roll the dice and we've rolled a three. So, it's actually doing that first card. So, let's have a look at what it's doing. And it's actually going to do all of these things. Just going to get my pointy stick of power. So, the first thing it's going to do is it's going to place an action disc in way.

It's going to move up one on the palace associated with that region. Then, it is going to install a governor in the cheapest location in that region, the one that would cost the fewest wood. Then, after it's done that, it's going to place two uh soldiers. I think they're called soldiers. And it's going to place it in the place with the least strength.

I've just realized I've forgotten to reveal the card. I'll do that in a minute. Then it is going to place a trader on the barge that generates rice. And then after that, it's going to move up one on that track. So yes, I forgot to do this at the start of the round. I should have revealed this card. And this tells us where the nomad chieftains move down and how much stronger the attacks get.

So in region one, it's moving three spaces. And the strength goes up from uh should have been on four goes up to six. In the second region, two spaces and the strength goes up from four to seven. In region three, four spaces and the strength goes up by four. Wow. And in region four, it's moving six spaces.

Okay, it's arrived. There's going to be an attack. And the strength has gone up by one. Okay, so there is going to be an attack at the end of this round in this region. This one is close. It's probably going to get attacked next round. And this is already strength eight. So this is already already quite dangerous.

But we are playing on the difficult cards today. So there's going to be lots of attacks coming in. Right. Anyway, we're doing this. So the first thing it's going to do is it's going to place it action disc in way. Then it is going to advance one on the palace associated with way because these were placed randomly at the start of the game.

So it goes one up on the blue palace. Then it's going to install a governor in the region in way that is the cheapest. Well, that's this one. And as I mentioned earlier on, the only bonus tiles that it collects are the jade figurines. And only if it's already only if it doesn't have that type. So it installs a governor there.

And this tile gets removed from the game. We don't we don't need that at all. Then it's going to install two soldiers in the region with the lowest strength. Well, that's six. That's seven. That's eight. This is five. So, that's actually lucky in that it's actually installing them in the place that is about to be attacked.

And each warrior is going to contribute one strength. So, we still need three more to fight off the nomads. Then, it is going to install one of these onto the rice barge. And again, it doesn't bother gaining any rice, but in a multiplayer game, that's what would happen. Uh, this is my first solo play for this.

Yes, I' I've played it three times multiplayer, but this is my first actual solo play. So, uh, yeah, sorry if I don't play very well, but hopefully I'll play with the correct rules, which is the important thing. And then it's advancing again on the blue. So, it's gone up to there. Right, that's that card done.

I've resolved all of that card as much as possible. That card gets discarded and then you slide down. So the cards slide down. That goes there. And I'm actually just going to put this one face up on the bottom of the stack. No. In fact, no. I'll just put this one with the other cards that I didn't use.

Yeah, there you go. Right, that's it. It's over to me. It's my turn. So now I've got myself two wood. I could start installing a governor down here. Now the disadvantage with these buildings is these are all red buildings. They've all got passive bonuses. I say disadvantage. I like getting income buildings early on.

Let's have a look at my objectives again. Fan and Yan. So, I could go here and in the income phase, this is going to get me one point for every wall or soldier. Well, I don't have any walls or soldiers. Uh, turn order markers. Oh, yeah. Turn order markers are on two tracks. Thank you. Fixed. Yeah. So, I'm first and Liu is second.

Or does Yan. If I go to Yan, I actually get a bonus resource, but I can't really trade unless I throw that in. No, that's still not trading. I mean, I could do that. That's actually quite nice. The problem with this location, if I install a governor here, unless this is protected this round, that's going to rampage through and it's going to destroy that building, which is going to kill my governor.

So although that's a really nice building that I want to go on, if I'm not going to be installing, what is it going to do next turn? I mean, it might do that, but I can't I can't take the risk that it's going to do that. So that that seems a bit too much of a dangerous play. Let's instead Oh, and that's going to cost three.

Okay. Right. What I'm going to do is I am going to place my action disc on Chin. And that moves me up one on the white palace, which is this one. Uh, okay. Casper is saying for the barges, Liu uses the second color. Ah, right. Okay. Thank you. when you said for the barges, I thought you meant the neutral ones, right?

Okay, got it. So, I fixed that. Thank you very much. Um, yeah. So, I've gone to Chin. I've moved up there. Now, the ability of chin is that I can convert wood into helmets, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to install a governor. I'm going to spend two wood. We're going to install a governor here.

So, my passive ability is now building walls and towers cost one less stone. and I've got this bonus tile that I can use at some point in the game. That's it. That is my turn done. Okay, so we're now rolling the dice and we're seeing what we're going to do this time. We've rolled a four, which means it is doing this.

So, what it's going to do is it's going to place its action disc in Yan. It's going to get the palace bonus and it's going to Now, that is placing a governor. Yeah. So, we don't have the arrow on that one. There's no arrow down or arrow up. So, Casper, you can help me with this one. There's There's no arrow on this one.

Should that be an arrow down? Then it's going to install two more soldiers in the place with the lowest strength. Ah, is that lowest strength? No, it's not. No, that's not the lowest strength. That is actually um yeah, that's actually where the chieftains is the closest. Right. Okay. In fact, I did that wrong on the previous one.

I've just I've just realized on the previous card, I read it wrong. It's where the chieftain is the closest. So, I'm just going to fix that. Oh, no. It was that one. It's still that one. Yeah, it's still that one because that's where the chieftain is the closest. Um, okay. Governor always goes to the cheapest building.

Okay. So, that's missing a down arrow on that card. It's good to know. So, it's going to install another two knights. Then it on the ship of Yan. It's going to take I think that's two bonuses. It places a delivery marker on the ship in the depicted port on the first space from the right starting with the top ship in the indicated port.

Uh, okay. So the second space from the from the right and then it's going to move up on its lowest palace. And then it's going to get one point for every delivery marker that it's placed. Okay. So let's go through those. The first thing it's going to do is it's going to place an action disc in Yan, which is here, right?

Then it's going to go up the corresponding palace, which is black. So the black palace is here. So it moves up there. And then it's going to install a governor in the cheapest building in Yan. Well, there is only one. Now, I didn't want to go there because I said it was too dangerous, but Liu doesn't care about that.

I'll come on to the reasons why in a minute. Then he's going to place two of these soldiers in the place where the nomad chieftain is the closest, which is that one. So, actually, the strength there is now four. Still not enough. Still not enough. Then, I believe the ship in Yan, which is this one, just read this again.

places a delivery marker on a ship in the depicted port on the first space from the right starting with the top ship in the indicated port. So this is the top ship in the indicated port and it's placing a delivery marker and I believe the number two with the arrow means it's placing it on the second one from the right.

I don't believe it gets any bonuses from that whatsoever. If there are not enough spaces on the top chip, he adds a marker on the next ship in the same port if there is one. And then he gets a shipping marker in there. I think that's right. Let me know if that's right, Casper. Uh, there is only one building in the yard.

The arrow is not needed. Oh, that's why. Right. It's not missing an arrow. Thank you very much for spotting the obvious. There is only one building. Yes, small reminder. If Lemu loses, that's exactly what I was about to explain. So, I didn't build there because I felt it was too dangerous because if the nomads break through, I lose the governor and then it would have been a waste of time building it.

Or you might think, and this is a clever part of the multiplayer game, if another player has installed a governor here, you're kind of like, "Yeah, whatever. I kind of don't care that the nomads break through because it's your building that's going to get wrecked." Well, if L if Lee Moo loses his governor, I lose three points.

So, there is a there is an incentive to actually protecting it to stop the the the bot from getting hurt. Um, but yes, let me know if I did the shipping. He places two delivery markers. Okay, two delivery markers. That's what the number two is. And he goes on the spaces from the right. So, that one and then that one.

Okay, I think we got that right. Next, what's he doing next? He is moving one on his lowest track. Uh, track that is advanced the least. Well, he's at the starting space on there and there. So, it's one of those two. And there is a priority. So he always prioritizes red, then black, then blue, then white.

So he's going to move up on that track there. Right. Finally, he's going to get one point for every one of these markers on the board. He's got a point. He's winning. Right, that's it. I think I've done that right. Thank you for the corrections. But that card is now done. That slides along and it is now my go.

Well, so I now do have an incentive to trying to stop the attack coming through here. And I can do that by building a wall. And thankfully, because I've got this passive effect, my walls are one cheaper. So even though I only have one stone, one stone is enough to build one wall. So I think that's what I'm going to do.

So I'm going to place my action marker over here. And we are going to be going up any of these. Now, which one do I want to go up? Let's go up. Let me just have a look at my objective cards again because I might try to do all three of these. It says I'm going to go up the white track. There you go. Right.

And then I'm going to spend one stone and my extra discount to build one wall. Now, you can build as many wall pieces as you want. So, this is a little bit inefficient, but I'm doing it anyway. So the wool's going to go in there and that's going to give us the one strength that we need to fight off those nomad chieftains.

Now Liu is going to get the most points for that because he's contributed the most strength to it. But that's it. Now what else can you do when you go to there? That's it. That's what you do when you go to there. Okay. So that's my go done, right? What's Liu doing? Six. Okay. We've rolled the six. Now I assume this is how it works.

Let's just double check this. I can't see it being any different. Action phase. Roll the dice. Um, designate which card or the top card from the deck. Yeah. Okay. So, we're now going to reveal the top card from the deck. And it's that one. So, we didn't know what he was doing, but he's going to install he's going to place his action disc in Chin, go up the palace, install a governor.

He's going to place another two warriors on exactly the same track. Then he's going to put a worker onto the thing. And then he's going to do that. Right. Okay. So, he's placing this in here. He doesn't pay for it. He's going to advance one on the white palace. He's going to install a governor in the cheapest building, which is going to be that one.

And it's a jade figurine. So, he does take that jade figurine because he doesn't already have the black cap. That's that done. Then, he's going to install two of these here. So, we've easily defeated him. And in fact, those warriors are going to stick around. We get two more strength. Then he's going to place, and it's one of the other colors onto the wood barge.

Slowly move me along. And then it's going to move one up the blue track. So, it moves up the blue track. And it does, if one of these was a jade figurine, it would take one, but because none of them are a jade figurine, it just removes the one from left to right if you were looking at the board from that way.

So, that's gone. Out of the game. That card is done and gone. We don't reveal that one, but that is it. You'll notice that he's used his action markers. So, what's going to happen on his fourth turn? He's not going to do the top ability on the card. He's going to do the other three, but he's not going to do the top one.

And then if he were to have a fifth turn, he just passes on the fifth turn. But I know he's going to pass on the fourth turn. So, my go. I've got one action marker left. If I was to pass early and I forgot to reveal the round bonus tiles, I'm going to get first choice of these. Now, there's a jade figurine there and it's the purple one.

So, if I pass now, which I don't really want to do, but if I did, I could take that jade figurine. If I don't, then Lee Moo is going to pass and he's going to take the jade figurine. But I don't think I want to. I think I'm going to spend one money and we're going to place this on here and we're get going to get some stone.

Right. All right. It's my go done. So, Liu, it's a three. Okay. So, he doesn't place his action disc. So, we we skip the first part of the card. But then, wow, it's placing a soldier everywhere. So, it puts one soldier there, increasing the strength to one. Uh, one soldier there, increasing the strength to one.

One there, increasing the strength to one. And another one here, increasing the strength to eight. Then he's placing a trader on the place, I believe, where he's got the least. It says, yeah, places a worker in a barge with the fewest of his workers. So that's there. So that goes on to there. Okay. Right.

Next, uh, he passes. So, that's it. He has now passed. And he will take one of these if it's a jade figurine that he doesn't already have, which is that one. So, it goes there. And then I can technically keep playing as long as I want. I don't I mean, I've got this action marker. I might as well use it.

I might as well place it because that moves me up a palace track. Yeah. Okay. So, Oh, he also gets to step on a track, does he? Where's the step on the track that I've missed? I've missed that. Oh, same as a player, but at no cost. Okay, I've missed that. I've missed that in the rules. I'm just going to find where that is.

So, is that when he passes? Uh, Okay, so when he passes, he takes the tile with the jade figurine that he doesn't already have. If such a tile is available, otherwise he removes the leftmost one. Then he gains advancements on the palace. Oh, sorry for those. Yes, that's the thing. I'd forgotten that.

It's when he passes. So he's basically because he's got at least one jade figurine, he moves up one on a palace and it's going to be well these three are the lowest, so he prioritizes that one. Yeah. So, what a human player does when they pass is that they can spend money to move up on the tracks based on how many jade figurines they have.

And of course, Liu, being the cheater that he is, doesn't need to spend money because he's got one jade figurine. He moves up on one track. Right. Meanwhile, where am I going? What am I doing? I don't know. I don't want to go to I haven't got any money. So, I'm going to have to go somewhere which is free, which is here.

This is the only place I can go to. But what am I actually doing there? I'm just going to move up on a track. I'm not going to be able to do any of the actions. And this is this is a rules question that I had last time. And thankfully, Casper's here. Can I just go there to move up on a track and not do any of the actions or must I actually do one of the things available?

If I have to do an action, then I'm not actually allowed to go here. Because the different actions that you can do are you can install a governor, which I can't do because I don't have any wood. You can exchange resources for goods only if it says so. And you can do a shipping action, which I can't do.

Okay. You can do up to three actions. Okay. So, I can do Well, I'm not going to do any. That's That's the thing. I'm not going to do any action whatsoever. I'm just going to go up the palace track and I'm not going to do any of the actions. Yeah, it says you perform each of the actions once minimum Oh, minimum of one.

Okay. Apparently, it is an action, right? Okay. Well, that's all right. So, I can I can do that then. So, I'm going to go here and I'm going to use the one action is I'm going to move up on this track. There you go. Right. And that's it. That is Then I pass. On my next turn, I pass. And which one of these do I want to take?

Well, I'm desperately short on money. So, I'm going to take that one. And I'm actually going to use it straight away to get myself two money. Also, if I had any jade figurines, I could now use them to move up the track. Right now, we do the attack. So, what we do is we look at our strength, which is eight, and we compare it to the strength of the nomads, which is five.

So, we have won. Hooray. So what happens is the player who contributed the most is going to get seven and then the player who contributed the second is going to get 14. But then what we do is we look at the strength of the nomads is five. That is reduced by one because of the walls or the wall. So now we have four strength left which basically kills these four soldiers.

But every soldier that dies generates a victory point in honor. And then these slide to there. And that goes to zero. And there isn't any left, which means there is no rampaging through. So that's going to go back to the start. And the strength is going to reset to five because we're about to go uh Hey, I've got this wrong.

The strength is four. The no the the nomad strength is five because that's what it's going to be for round two. So we've currently now only got one wall and three soldiers. So our strength is four. Uh what else do we do in cleanup? We remove the last bonus tile from the round track. So that's gone. We don't need that anymore.

Uh, everybody takes back their action markers. Come here. Here. Right. We remove all of the ships that were here. So, they sail. There we go. All of the rest of the ships move along. And any ship that was full also sails. And then we get new ones coming in. Here's ones I've prepared earlier. And we update the turn order.

That's it. Right. Round two. Let's make sure I get this right first. First of all, we display the bonus tiles. What do we have? Three points, one wood, and exchange a ring for five points. Then we draw and resolve a nomad attack card. So nomad attack card for round two. Okay. So in region one, it's going to move four spaces.

So there's an attack strength goes up by one. So there's an attack of strength seven coming in over there. This is going to be a disaster, right? This one, region two, is moving three spaces and the strength goes up by two. Not a disaster yet. This one, two spaces, there is an attack. Strength goes up by three.

We're going to get absolutely pummeled. And in here, it moves one and the strength goes up by four. Okay, we're in trouble. we are in a lot of trouble. And then what we're going to do is we're going to do these action cards again. So in round two of the game, see if I can count this time. We get four basic and two advanced.

So basic, advanced, basic, advanced, advanced, advanced, basic, basic, basic. Right. So four of these. One, two, three, four, and two of these. One, two. Okay. And then these get shuffled. Okay. And then we're going to put one there. And we're going to put one there. And then we're going to put four here.

Right. Then we do income. So, I get one stone and one wood. I didn't put anybody on here, so I don't get anything. One stone, one wood. And my ink building on here, which moves me one up on one of the tracks. And I'm actually going to move up on uh I'm going to move up on this track. And I'm going to take this red jade figurine before he does.

Yeah. So, that's going to go there. And then we didn't do this in round one, but in a one to three player game, we add neutral workers to each of the barges and anything that gets pushed off becomes a merchant. So I'm I'm still there for the moment. Right now we go to the action phase and it is Lee move first.

The dice there. Okay. Three. So it's this card here. So he's placing that over here and he is going up on the palace that he's the least in. So one, two, one, one. And he prioritizes black over white. So that moves to there. Then he's going to put a soldier in each region. Good lad. It's not going to be enough, but you know, 10 out of 10 for effort.

So, one goes in there, one goes in there, another one in there, and another one here where we don't need it at the moment, but we will do at some point. Then he is placing on the barge where he's got the least on. Well, he's got them on all three. So, there's a tiebreaker here that he goes on the rice one, which is here.

Then, if this was round three or four, he passes. It's not because sometimes he can pass early, but he's not doing. So, that gets discarded. These slide along that goes there. And that's the bot. I I don't know if you're if if you're like me and you like relatively simple bots, this one's fine. This one's fine.

My go now. I I feel that this game is already slipping away from us in terms of attacks. What's going to happen is this one's going to break through. It's going to cause mayhem. It's going to kill some governors. I'm going to lose some points. This one's going to break through. It's got strength 11.

It's going to cause absolute devastation along here. These two are not attacking this turn. What can I do about it? Well, the good thing is this passive ability means that every wall that I build and every tower that I build is one cheaper. So, if I can collect loads of stone and go there, I can just build loads of walls at the same time.

I think I probably want to protect at least one of these areas. And I'm thinking the one with my governor in because I'm selfish. And yeah, and I've also got these cards. I I don't need to keep these cards. Yeah, that one's really good. I've just noticed every time you install the governor, you get four points.

Wow. Okay. So, what are we doing? Are we going to go and get some more stone? The problem is the stone barge is going to cost me two money to get that stone, but it means that I will push my own merchant off, which means I will get a merchant, which is good. Taff. Really good. H the other thing I can do is I can just throw this away for two stone.

That's probably my best bet to be honest and and just give up on this objective. Yeah, I think that's probably my best bet. So, this is a free action. You just remove that from the game. And I'm I'm actually going to get two stone and another stone. Three stone. So, I've got five. So, if I was to build walls, that one would cost me one.

That would cost me two. That would cost me two. Yeah. With the red attack deck, there is a high chance that one or two attacks will go south. Yes. Yeah. You're not going to be able to protect everything. I'm picking my battles and I'm choosing which ones I want to keep. I think I want to keep that one.

So, potentially I could build I could build two walls and a tower with that five stone. I could build two walls and a tower. That would be four strength. Then all I need to do is install a soldier. I don't have any rice, but I could get some rice. That would mean going there again. You can't do both, can you?

There's they're separate actions. We're going to do it. We're going to spend five stone and we're going to build a tower and two walls. And I'm going to build them here. So tower goes there. Wall number one. Wall number two. That is going to increase the defense of that region by four. So it's now at six.

It's one short. So what's going to happen is it's actually going to destroy there. But then it's not going to be able to get to here. So that's gone. But that's safe. I mean, I will lose three points for that, but I think that's okay. That's okay. That's my action. I went there. Oh, I move upon one of the palaces.

In fact, that's not my What's going on here? Did I place the wrong marker or did I say I was going there and then not actually do it? Yeah, I said I was going there and I didn't actually place my marker there. So, unfortunately, I've got to pay one coin because there's somebody already there, but that's fine.

I think it's still worth it. Yeah, that counts as one region, I believe, for paying costs. And you have to pay one for every marker that's already there, even your own. Yeah. If there is an additional benefit, you may Yeah, you must pay one to the general supply for each action marker already there.

Yeah. So, I had to pay one coin to do that. Then I paid the five stone. Then I built the walls. Yeah, we're all good. I've caught up. Right. Fantastic. Okay. So, that's my go done. Did I move up on a track? Is that what I forgot to do? I think I forgot to move up on a track. I think I'm just going to move up on that one.

Okay, let me know if I did forget to move up on a track and if I've now corrected it. So, next it is Liu's turn. It's a four. So, Liu is sending an action marker to Chin, which is here. Okay, moving up on the white palace, which is that one. And then installing a governor in the cheapest building, which is here, which is a black J.

Ah, so he can't have that. So I think what he does, I think he removes that from the game. Installing a governor. If there is a bonus tile with a jade figurine that he doesn't have, he claims it. Otherwise, it's removed from the game. Yep, removed from the game. So, that's that done. Uh, yeah, nobody chat.

Casper was over there for a couple of minutes. Nobody else has said anything in the chat. So, either everybody else has fallen asleep or nobody spotted it. Um, I was trying to work out when I went here whether I'd moved up on one of the tracks or not. So, I' I've gone back and I've I've given myself a movement, but I don't know if that's that's correct or not.

So, it's done that. It's done that. It's installed the governor there. Then, it's going to install two of these in the area which it is the closest. Now that's that one or this one. And there is a tiebreaker on here that it's that one. Ah, so it's done it. It's put two soldiers in there increasing the strength by two.

So that area is now safe. Okay. I hadn't moved up a trike. Thank you. Right. Then it is going to install one of these to go and get some wood. Aha. Right, that has finally pushed that off, which means I get a merchant. And I'm going to put them on there. Think I'm going to put them on there. Not sure.

I mean, that that ability is really good. It It's gained any jade figurine presumably from the board. You may place a jade figurine of the same kind of you already have on your playerboard. You may Oh, no. Right. You may. It allows you to place a jade figurine of the same type. Yeah. Okay. No, I'm just going to go with that one.

I'm just going to go with the resources. So, it's done that. It's done that and it's pushed that off. And then it moves up on the blue, which is that one. I think I forgot to move it up for white. Yeah, I I I forgot to move it up for white. So that goes. Okay. Thank you, Anita. But it's always good to have confirmation because I'm always sitting here nervous whether I've done something right or not.

So please keep me on my toes. That's all done. We resolve that card. New one comes in and it is now my go. Right. So that area is safe and we're both contributing the same, but he's going to win the tiebreaker cuz he's got a soldier. That's fine. None of these are going to get destroyed. This area though, this whole area is going to get absolutely destroyed.

It's coming in with 11 strength. There's two soldiers defending it. That means there's nine left. It goes to here, destroys that. Then it goes down to six. Then it goes here, destroys that. Then it goes down to four, destroys that. Then it goes here, and we're going to lose a boatload of money or points.

So, ideally, I want to try and protect this a little bit if I can. How How am I going to protect that? I have no stone now cuz I spent all of my stone over there. Going to get absolutely wrecked here. My only options I mean I've got these I've got these objective cards. I could throw these away. No, there is there is another option.

There is an option because if I was to move up on the white palace, I land on space five. I can drop that strength down by two. That's not going to help, is it? Uh, what else can I do? If I had a helmet, I could get a helmet and then I could spend a helmet and exchange it for two soldiers. Where do I get a helmet?

I can go here. That gets me a helmet. Yeah. And there's also the rewards for the ships. I'm not really doing the ships much. Yeah. Okay. Let's have a think. If I was to spend money, I can get a rice. I can spend a money to get a rice or a wood. The wood is going to allow me to install another governor.

That's not going to help me at this stage. It's really not, is it? I can't just say screw it and and not bother with that because the penalties are going to be huge. So that's the thing. Do I just try and protect it a little bit just to stop it going beyond the ear and accept the fact that that's going to get trashed?

I think that's probably what I'm going to have to do. It's just a shame I don't have another. So, I think I'm going to go and get myself some wood and then at least I can install another governor. Do I want to install another governor? Okay. Yeah, that's what we're going to do. I'm going to spend one money and I'm going to send this guy onto here.

That just goes back there and I get myself some wood. Right, Liamu's third turn. Uh yeah, I don't know what happens when he would add more troops. I don't think he can cuz I think he's all out of troops. Six. He's doing the unknown. And it is. So, he's placing an action disc here. Uh he's moving two spaces up on his lowest one.

So, that's this one and this one. So, he moves up to there and up to there. And he takes Well, he's already got that one. So, he already takes that one. And he doesn't have that one. So he takes that one. Okay. So that's that done. Yeah. I can use the dice to track them. This is good. Right. He's going to build a wall.

Awesome. Where you building it? You're building it in the place where you have the least walls, but you're prioritizing cuz you're an idiot. That one. We don't need that one. Fool. Build there. these these Chinese emperors what they like. Right. Then he's going to place one uh where he's got the least which is either there or there.

The tiebreaker is stone. Aha. I've got another merchant. Excellent. Right. Does that change anything? I'm not sure. Then he's going to pass. Yep. Because this is round three. So he passes. So that's it. Now, when he passes, because he's got three Jed figurines, he's going to move up on his two lowest palaces, which is he always prioritizes red.

So, red and then black. Okay, that's it. He's done. He only did three turns this round, so he has passed. Those go there. I've got plenty more things to do, but whether they're going to be any good or not, I don't know. What was I very excited about? Oh, merchants. Right. I'm going to remove those merchants.

So, I remove those and I get stone, wood, and a rice. Okay. Now, does that change things? I'm not sure it does. No. I mean, I've got a stone, so I can build one piece of wall, but I don't have the three money to go there. So, I could go here and that would get me a helmet. And then I've got my bonus tile to use the helmet to deploy two soldiers.

I could. I don't know whether I want to. And then I could install the governor here, which is currently safe. but is potentially not safe for the future. There's also down here. I could install a governor here. Oh, no. That's that's And there's these ships. I should be looking at these ships. Although, I don't have any goods whatsoever.

I'm need so many goods for these. I mean, I've got the wood. Where can I convert the wood? That's over here. Don't want to go there cuz that's going to cost money. I've got no money at all. Right. So, I can't go any any of the barges because I don't have any money. How do I get money? I could go here.

Could go here and install the governor here. That would get me two money. Is this safe? Well, it is for the moment. It's probably not going to be next round, but next round's next round. And it does move me up on the red palace, which is here. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to do it. So, I'm going to go to Well, I could go here.

Oh, that's good. Oh, well, we just worked out that that's going to get trashed. Or is it? So, if I can get two soldiers in here, that'll put the strength up to four. So, seven's getting through. So, it goes there, destroys that, reduces the seven down to four. Carries on here, destroys that, reduces the strength down to two, goes here, destroys that.

Yeah. Okay. Two strength is not going to be enough. So, I think I'm going to go here. I'm going to take a bit of a risk. I'm going to go here. I'm going to move up on the red palace which is there. And then for two wood, I'm going to install a governor here. And the bonus tile is two money, which I'm going to use straight away to get two money.

Right. Okay. Happy with that. Now that passive ability is every time I go over here, I get a free soldier and some rice. Now I can go on the barges. Yes, I think that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take two consecutive turns. I'm going to spend two money. I'm going to go on there and on there.

And that's going to get me one stone and one rice. One stone and one rice. And I'm now happy because I've got one on each barge, which means I'm going to get some income next turn. And I've still got this left. So I could go I either need to get that helmet or I need to build soldiers. And building soldiers is is not not possible.

And I can get helmets there or here by spending money. I don't have any money. So, I'm going to go here. I'm going to go to Zhiao. And first thing I do is I'm moving to move up on the black palace. Then I'm going to gain a helmet cuz I gain a good. And then I can spend any amount of stone for jewelry.

Now, I don't really want to spend my stone because I'm using that to build walls, but jewelry is nice because then we can use the jewelry here. If I was to go down here later to get some more bonuses. Well, that's going to be Yeah, it's probably worth it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to spend the two stone to get myself two two gold rings.

There we go. Right. So, I did that. I did that. I did that. I think we're done. Uh, shouldn't the bot take a tile when it passes? Yes, it should. You're absolutely right. Thank you. It should have taken that one. Well spotted. Right. I think that's me done. So now I'm going to pass. I have one jade figurine and unfortunately I don't have any money.

So I can't do that. But what I do have I got this jewelry. This jewelry I can spend for five points. That's a lot. That is a lot. But I'm going to I'm going to keep that tile. So I've passed. I've kept the tile. That tile is going to get discarded. I don't use any jade figurines. Okay, so there's something else I forgot to do.

Spend the helmet to add two soldiers. Definitely doing it. It's not going to be enough. It's definitely not going to be enough, but that's fine. That is fine. Right, attack phase. So over here, we are victorious. Uh we have nine strength and they've got seven coming in now. Liu has contributed the most of that and gets seven points.

I'm not winning this game. I can tell you that right now. Uh but then 1 2 3 4 five strength is absorbed by the walls which means those two soldiers die which is another two points and then our strength. So that now goes back and the strength for round three is uh is six and our strength is 1 2 3 4 5 six ours is seven.

This area is not getting attacked. This area is getting attacked. So if an area gets attacked you still you still give out the points I believe. Um yeah you award prestige. So the prestige is again seven and I get four. But then we do the battle. So yeah, the the wool the wolves and the towers reduce the strength.

There is none. And then what we do is we basically uh we kill those. So one, two, three, four. Killing one, two, three, four. So orange gets two points and I get two points. Okay. But now unfortunately the nomad strength is not zero. It's seven. So, we move the Nomad Chieftain to here. That building gets wrecked, which means it's going to cost one extra wood to build it there later on.

There's additional cost to building um yeah, replenish the bonus tile next to it if the space was empty. Decrease the nomad strength by three. One, two, three. Is it still positive? It is. So, it moves to there. Kills that governor. I lose three points. Um, yeah. So, that gets wrecked as well. We put another additional cost marker above that one.

And then we reduce the strength by two. Is it still positive? Yes, it is. So, it moved to here. It wrecked that building. Okay. Is it still positive? Yes, we are still positive two. So each player loses either one money or three points for each nomad strength remaining. And when I say each player, it's just me.

I lose six points. I believe Liu doesn't lose points for attacks. Attack phase. He does not lose prestige for the excess nomad strength if the chieftain reaches the end of the path. Such a cheat. Right. So that goes back to the start. Uh our strength is zero and their strength is six. ready for the next round.

Okay. Yes. I I actually quite like the fact that you're having to defend his stuff. It gives the game a little bit of a a little bit of a twist because otherwise you'd be like, "Yeah, I don't care about that." Right. I think we are done. Cleanup phase. Already got rid of that action markers come back.

We are halfway through the game and I I I'm already being defeist and I'm already saying I'm not going to win this game. And that's fine because this is my first time properly playing the solo mode. But for all I know, this might be one of those games where the bot is going to score loads of points during the game, but then at the end I might come back with final scoring.

Who knows? I doubt it. Doubt it very much. Ships. So those ships are gone. These three go along. Here's two I prepared earlier. Right. Update the turn order. Done. Round three. Here we go. Right. I mean, it's not too bad. We're having an attack here. So, it's moving six with a strength of one. So, actually, that's fine.

That's absolutely fine because we've got enough strength. Yes. And I'm actually contributing the most there. That's good. But we're getting attacked here at strength 10. This only moves one and this one is moving two. Okay, we're okay for now. Next round is going to be absolute devastation. Uh, the killed governor was orange.

Yes, he was. So, yeah. So, this area is being attacked this turn, but it's safe. This area is being attacked, and he's going to get absolute devastated. Wow, it's tough. It's really tough. Okay, so we've done that. We are revealing three bonus tiles. Two. Three. And now we are doing income benefits.

So I get to move up. Well, barges. I get one of each. Yes. So I get some stone. I get some wood. I get some rice. Nom nom nom. Right. Then buildings. I move up on one of the tracks. So, I'm actually going to move up. Yeah, I'm going to do it. I'm going to move to here. And I can drop one of the strengths down by two.

And I believe also add a soldier. I think that's what that is. Just going to double check that in the rules because they are they are all in here. Pretty sure they're all in here. Uh, okay. Tell me if that's right. I think that's right. I think I'm dropping the strength down by two on one of these and I'm adding a soldier.

Is that right? So, how far are we short? We're five short. We can do something with that. Yeah, I think we can do something about that. Okay, so I've done my income building there. I don't have any other income buildings. Nope, I don't. So, we add neutral workers. Comes in. That comes in. That comes in.

And that goes back there. Right. Okay. Action phase. We've not set up the actions yet. So, this is round three. We're using three basic and three advanced. So, the bot's actually getting harder. Yes, I'm not complaining about the difficulty. I'm saying it is hard. I'm not complaining about it. Right.

One, two, three. And yes, if I was more experienced with the game, I would be handling this better, I think. Okay. One, two, three. So, those are our six cards. What is it going to do? First turn. Round three. It's the random one. Okay. So, we couldn't predict it. Wanted to do that. I wanted to go there.

So, it's placing its marker here. It's moving up its two lowest tracks, which is that one. And then they're all the same. So, it prioritizes red. It's up to that one. Then, it's building a wall and it's building a wall in the place where it doesn't have it has the least walls, which is everything except there.

And it prioritizes them in this order. So, it's building a wall there. Well, that's good. That's one strength. Then it is placing a trader on a barge and it's wherever it's got the least. And the tie is stone. So, that comes off. There you go. Uh, I don't think it gets anything for that. And then is if it was round three, it would pass.

It's not passing. So, that's that card done. Right. Mer. Come on, Paul. You're only like 25 points behind. I've got lots of rice. I don't have much in the way of stone. I've got one worker on each barge. So, I don't have any money, so I can't go to the barges. So, it is just this. We are looking at potentially just going places to move up palace tracks.

I've got two wood, so I could install another governor. I need to be looking at these objectives as well. I need to be in Han and Yan. I kind of don't want to go here. This is really dangerous. When this gets attacked, that's going to really really be dangerous. So again, that's that's really ruling out this this place might be safe right now.

It might it might be safe. I don't know because that might not actually come down. If it does, we're in trouble. Big trouble. But I don't have any money, which means I can't go there. I need the money to be able to go there. And when I do go there, I do get a worker and some do get a soldier and some rice.

But how do I get the money? Well, that's the tricky thing, isn't it? How do you actually get money in this game? I don't know. I don't know how you get money. Bonus titles. Yeah, money is so tight. I mean, there's money on here. This is how you get money. I have two rings. So, if where were the rings wanted?

Down here. Yeah, I can do this. I could do two deliveries of rings here and that would get me loads of money. Right. We've got to do it. We've absolutely got to do it. So, I'm going to Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to Right. Okay. I go up on the red palace. Red palace is going to move me to there. I'm going to take the purple figurine.

Okay. There we go. Next, I am going to install the governor. I am going to spend two wood. I'm going to install the governor in this damaged building here, which gets me this, which I can use to take two different resources whenever I need to. But now what I'm doing is I'm going to ship twice to here because this ship that's currently in shoe only needs jewelry.

So I'm going to spend two jewelry and I'm going to go on I'm going to go there and there. So that gets me one money and two points and then another money. So it's it's four money and four points. Well, there you go. Suddenly I have the monies. Two, three, four. Yeah, that's how you get money. It makes sense.

Thematically you're you're selling goods. Okay. Is that my go done? I think so. I did that. I did that. And I did that. I did all of the things that's possible to do. Right, Lee moves turn two. It's the six again. Just cannot predict what he's up to. So, he's going to Chin. He's moving one up on the white palace, which is there.

And then he's installing a governor in the cheapest building. Now, the cheapest building is that one. So, he's got a second governor in there. Then he's installing two soldiers in the place where it's the closest. But unfortunately, this is the tiebreaker. So, he's going in here, even though we don't need it in there.

Ah, the jerk. Okay. Then he's installing a trader on the wood barge. And then he's moving one up on blue. moves to there. Right. Okay. That's him done. My go. So, we have the money. We have the rice. We can start placing soldiers on the board. And I think that's what we need to do. So, I'm going to go over here.

I have to pay one money for that because there's already a disc there. But whenever I do that, I gain a soldier and I gain a rice. So, gain some rice and I'm going to gain a soldier. The soldier is going to be here, which moves our strength up to five. Is that right? 1 2 3 4 5. Yes. And then I'm going to spend one.

So, two, four, and I'm going to trade that in for a rice and a stone. And then I'm going to spend two more rice. So that's three soldiers. One, two, three. Take that, nomads. That's it. I've protected both of those areas this turn. Awesome. Uh, did I forget to move up on a track? I did. I get to move up on one of the tracks.

Hm. Let's go up on this one. Okay. Right. Next, Liu's third turn is the six again. Right. He's going to Xiao, which is there. He moves up on the black palace, which is this one. He then installs a governor in the cheapest building in there, which is that one, discarding that tile from the game. Then he places two soldiers.

He's only got one. And again, the tiebreaker is here. He loves that place, so he can't place the second one. Then he's placing a trader on the stone one. Oh, that's me. Oh, that kicks mine off. What do we want to do with this one? I'm going to go here. Then he's going to get one point for every wall.

He has built two walls, so he gets two points. And that was his third turn. So he might take a fourth turn. Right. My go. Do I want to pass? No, I don't want to pass. Um, I have three money. I can go. I can go here. I can get loads of stuff. I can spend that money. Oh, is that going to be good? I think it might be.

Got my governors in the wrong place. Yeah, I'm I'm scoring very little points for these at the end of the game at the moment. Yan and Han. Well, I was talking about going to Han, but I don't have the wood to place a governor. Um, I mean, I could go on a barge. It would cost me two, but then I'd get that back.

Is it Is it worth it? I don't know. Don't know if it's worth it. Um I mean, it would get me three uh four more points at the end of the game as well. That's actually really good. Oh, if only I had the two wood. Let I can do it. I can do it. Right. I am going to spend two money because I am placing a worker on this barge.

So, you pay one plus one for everyone that's on there. So, I pay two money. I get some wood, right? But then that kicks that off who I put here and then I remove them to get a wood and a stone and a rice. There you go. That's what I'm going to do, right? Lee moves fourth turn and it's a three. So, he's not going to pass, but I believe, and Casper will correct me on this if I'm wrong, I believe he automatically passes on his fifth turn.

So, he's placing a disc in where he doesn't he doesn't have a disc. He's placing two soldiers on the board. He can't He doesn't have any soldiers. He places a trader on the rice one, which goes here. Doesn't really do anything. And then he's going to move one up on the blue temple, which is there. And that's all he does.

So yeah, just let me know if I'm right that he does pass on his fifth turn. Correct. Fifth turn is a pass. Okay. So I'll just get rid of the cards and that will remind us that he's passing on on the next turn. My go I had a plan. What was the plan? Um I've got the two wood. It was to go to Han. Except I don't have the money now.

It's fine. I go to Han. I move up on the blue palace which is here which is rubbish. I then spend my one remaining money to get myself a ring. Sure. I then spend two to install a governor here which gets me that jade figurine. And I now have an income bonus of one point per wall or soldier. He's not going to be as good as I thought because all those soldiers are going to get killed.

But that's fine. That's fine. I've got um I've got a governor there. So that's it. I think I don't have any action markers left. I don't have any money left. I can't do anything else. So he's going to pass. Passes. He takes that one. He's already got that one. So he gets rid of that. Uh, and then I Oh, and when he passes, he moves up two different palaces, which is going to be that one and that one.

And then when I pass, I don't have any money, so I can't move up on tracks. But I am going to take a I'm going to take that one. And I'm going to use it straight away to get one stone, one wood. Who' have thought Paul's getting resources? That's the part of the game I understand. Get resources, build stuff.

Right. So, we've both passed. Now, we do the attack phase. So, here this is all good. The nomads are coming in with a strength of seven and we've got 10. So, who's contributed the most? I contributed four. Liu has contributed six. So, he gets the the seven points and I get the four points. And then one, two, three, four, five.

If it goes down to two and then two of those soldiers die and it's at zero, which means he gets two more points. He's on 50. He's on 52. Uh, let's go back there. Right, the nomad chieftain goes back to the top. Their strength set to seven. Ours is 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. Ours is eight. Okay. And then in here, eight coming in.

I contributed the most. Yay. I get seven points. He gets four. Oh, I forgot. You also get bonus points for protecting the governors. Apologies. I might have missed this in round two. But whoever got the most prestige is going to get an extra seven points for protecting all of those governors there. Here, I got the seven, he got the four.

Uh, and that's assuming they don't break through, which they're not. So, I'm going to get an extra two. And then one is taken up by the wall. And then the other seven are taken up by these troops. So I get five, he gets two, and they're all dead. Yeah, it is a rule which I have forgotten before, and I'm pretty sure I forgot that in round two.

Yes, victory points equal to the number of protected governors after the battle has been resolved, no matter whose those governors are. So I I definitely missed it in round two. Apologies for that. But that's it. That's the attacks done. That didn't manage to break through. So that goes back to the start.

Our strength here is only one. Their strength is six. No, sorry, not six, seven. It's about to be round four, right? Cleanup phase. That disappears. We get our action markers back and we're about to go into the last round of the game. Who do we think has won? I'll give you a clue. He's not called Paul.

probably called Lee ships. That ship goes, that ship goes. These move down. You do move two down each time. I I I am moving two down each time. I'm just checking that you do move all ship tiles in the Yan region. Yeah. So, we need this one and I need one more at random. You go. Okay. So, those have come in.

We've taken our action markers back. Uh, update the turn order. Yeah, turn order is there. Final round of the game. Reveal those. And here we go. The last card. And in round four, you add an extra two. So, in region number one, it's moving two spaces plus another two spaces. No attack. So, we can ignore that.

That's that's gone. That's finished. In region two, it's moving five plus two. We are having an attack. And strength goes up by one. So the strength is eight here. Bad. In this region, it's moving three plus two. It's five. We have an attack. Strength has gone up to 11. We're going to get absolutely smashed to pieces here.

And in the final region, it's moving three. There is an attack. And the strength goes up by three. It's off the top. Right. This is it. It was nice knowing you, but China is about to get utterly destroyed and there's not much we can do about it. I mean, I'll try me, but it's not looking good. Right, let's let's do the cards.

So, advanced, advanced, basic, advanced, basic, basic, basic, basic, advanced. It's three and three. One, two, three. And three of these. One, two, three. Give them all the shuffle. One's going to go there. One's going to go there. One's going to go there. Right. Okay. So, Liu's first turn. It's the six.

You do like being unpredictable. Okay. So, placing an action marker in Yan, right? Moving up the palace corresponding to the region, which is black. So, it moves up to there. It takes this one fabled silver jade figurine. Silver jade figurine. Yeah. Uh and it's placing a governor. And again, there's no arrow on that one because there's only one building in Yana.

Next, placing two soldiers in the region where it's the closest, which is either that one, that one, or that one. Tiebreaker is this one first. There is a little icon on here to say that that's the one that it's choosing first. Then it's placing two of these on the ship in yan from right to left. So that's that's gone.

That's that's full now. And then it's moving up the one that it's the lowest in, which is that. And then finally, it's going to get one point for every shipping marker. Should be a shipping marker here. So it gets two points. Seems quite weak, but that's what it's doing. Right, that's that done. My go remember this is the last round of the game.

Here we're getting crushed by we're seven short. Here we're nine short and here we're nine short. It's just painful. What can we do? What can we do? I can try and collect as many stone as I can and build as many walls and towers as I can, but it's not going to help too much. I have some jewelry. I could send the jewelry to here, except they want jewelry and something else.

I don't have something else. However, we're looking for my tracks. Is that going to help me? No. Nope. Nope. Nope. Right. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I got four stone with my discount. That means I could build that tower. Not sure that's going to help that much. Um I mean, I do get a bonus when I go here.

It's probably worth going there. Yeah, I'm going to do it. I'm going to go here because it's free and I'm going to get my bonus of a soldier and a rice and the soldier is going to go. So, which one of these do I want to protect more than anything else? I don't really know. I mean, probably this one because this uh not this one, this one because this one's getting me the most points at the end of the game for having a thing in hand and the the the difference is less.

So, we'll go there. I'll build a soldier there. That was with that. And then we're going to build a tower spending four stone. Build a tower there, which gets another two. So, that's going to be safe. I'm pretty sure that's going to be safe. And I forgot to move up a track. I get to move up one track of my choice when I go there.

Let's go up here. And I'm going to take this and I'm going to use this to activate this income building. I believe that's an income building. Yeah. Oh, I've got this income building. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I forgot to do something at the start of the round. I completely forgot my two other income buildings on the board.

I should have had three points for the walls. I didn't have any soldiers. So, I'm owed three points for that. And I can flip over one of my other bonus tiles. So, I would have flipped over probably the one that's got two money on it, which I would have then flipped back. Right. Okay. Fix that. So, ink and building.

No, I'm not going to use that yet because I could use it here once I've built more stuff. Am I going to be able to build more stuff? I am. No, I I might be able to. Yeah, I might be. I'm just trying to get as many points as I can. Okay, I think I'm done. Right. What's Liu doing for his second turn? It's a one.

So, he's placing an action marker in two. Bless you. He's moving up the palace corresponding to Chu, which is red, which is this one. So, he moves up to here, taking that away. And then he installs a governor in the cheapest one here, which is that one, and it removes that from the game. Then he's building a wall on the place with the highest strength.

Well, this has got the high strength, so he builds a wall here, which moves that up by one. Then he's placing a delivery marker on the boat in chew. So it goes there. There. And then he moves up on the red. Moves up to there. Okay, that's it. That's done. That moves to there. That moves to there. Okay, my go.

So I'm going to do it. I'm going to go here again. I'm going to pay one money because I'm I've already there. But when I go there, I get a rice. Rice. Rice. Maybe rice. There you go. Rice. And I get a soldier. And the soldier is going to go here. And then I'm going to spend two rice to install another soldier here.

Okay, got one rice left. Yeah. Okay, I think that's it. Did I forget to place a blue shipping marker in the previous round? I did. Yeah, when I shipped to here, I should have placed a blue shipping marker. Thank you. I don't think that's going to get me anything, but it's good to know. Um, so yeah. So, I've gone there again, and I've put more soldiers on the board.

I'm really trying hard to protect this region, and I'll just let the other two get blown to smitherines. Right. Okay. Lee moves third turn. It's a one. So, it's going to Xiao. It's advancing on the palace from Xiao, which is the black one, which is there. He moves up these tracks. He's installing a governor.

He can't run out of people. So, no governor. Then he installs two soldiers. He doesn't. Then he installs a trader on the stone boat, which is here. And then he gets one point for every wall. One, two, three. Remember, he's 50 points ahead of me. That's it. That's his third turn. He's going to be taking five t four turns this round.

Right. My go. There's not much else that I can do. Um, moving up tracks at this point going to get me a few points at the end of the game. Maybe I've got this jewelry, but I can't really use it. Well, I can use it for five points, so I'm probably going to dish it in for five points. I got one wood and one rice.

I've got one money, but I could go on here. This gets me a stone. I don't think that's going to do anything if I passed early. Oh, we've got some minus twos on here. So, I can protect that region. So, that's fine. That's absolutely fine. So, yeah, I think I'm just going to go here to move up there because I believe if unless I've got this wrong, that gets me second place.

But I'm not doing anything else here because I don't have any cloth. Yeah. Okay. That's that's it for that. Right. What you're doing for your fourth and final turn, card number two. So, it doesn't place any in hand. Doesn't place any soldiers. It places this on the one that it's got the fewest on with the tiebreaker being wood.

And then it gets one point for every palace that it's three or higher. Well, that's that's all of them. So, four points. But that's it. That's it. Last turn of the game. me. I don't think I've got a last turn. I think I pass. So, I pass first and I take that and I reduce the strength of that by two.

I'm going to take that as a victory. And I don't have any. Oh, I do have I do have money. I have money. So, I can advance at one of the tracks. Oh, let's do it. Let's advance to there, which gets me one of these objective cards. Boo. That's not actually going to get me anything because I can save it and get two points for every good that I've got.

Or I could actually just spend the jewelry to get five points. So, I'll just do that instead. Five points. Uh, which means I've got this, which I don't need. So, I'll throw it away to get some resources, which I'm not going to need, but I think they're probably worth something at the end, right? And then Liu passes and moves up twice on his lowest tracks.

So, that's this one. Removing Oh, no. It needs that. and this one. Removing that. Okay. And then when he passes, he moves up on his three lowest tracks. That's crazy. So, one, two, three. Right. And now we do the attacks. So, there is an attack here. I've protected it the most. So, I get seven points, putting me on 52.

He gets four points. Uh the walls in the tower reduce the strength by three. One, two, three. So three soldiers die, which is those three, which gets me three more points. Two, three. And then because I protected two governors, I get two more points. Now that's them done here. Yeah, we're in trouble here.

Massive trouble. So first of all, he's going to get seven points cuz he protected it the most. And then those two die, reducing the strength down to nine, getting him two more points. But then stomp, stomp, stomp. I'm not going to bother adding the costs in because we're at the end of the game here.

So it goes there. Then we reduce the strength by three. It's still positive. So it goes here, destroys that. Then we reduce the strength by two. It goes here, destroys that, which is mine. Then it reduces the strength by one. And there's three left. So, unfortunately, I lose nine points. Oh, I forgot to do my thing.

Sorry. I did forget to activate my income building and I was going to do that. That was going to get me one, two, three. It's going to get five points. Okay. So, I now lose nine. Ouch. And then here you get seven. I get four. They then get through. So the wolves take up two. There's 12 left. Four soldiers die.

Getting him four points. Okay. And then they're here. So those two governors die. I lose six points. Then we lose three strength. One. Two, three, and it goes to here, and that governor dies. And then we lose another two strength. Two, and it goes to here, and that one dies, and I lose three more points.

Uh, and then we lose another Well, and then there's four strength left. The four or five strength left? I think there's five. It was on 14. I think the walls knocked it down to 12. I think there was two soldiers and then three, two. Yeah, there's five left. So that's another 15 points. Wow. I should have I should have somehow saved money.

I should have saved money at the end of the game. This is brutals. Okay. And then no points for bonus government. Is that Is that right? >> I think that's right. Wow. That's the last attack done. Cleanup phase. We don't need to bother with the cleanup phase. So, we now do end of game scoring. Gulp. Am I going to score 70 points in end of game scoring?

Absolutely not. In fact, the way that it works against the bot for end of game scoring is it says if you survive until the end of the fourth round, because you if you ever reach zero, it's it's game over. You've lost. Um, but if you survive till the end of the fourth round, then you have won the game.

Put the game away, celebrate, and go and have an ice cream. It absolutely says that honestly. Now, it says you score prestige points as normal, but there's no limit to how many objective cards you can score unless you're playing an emperor difficulty. So, end of game scoring. Does he score? I'm sure he scores for the palaces.

Liu scores prestige points for the palace and the jade figurines on his playerboard. Okay. So, sorry. Okay. So, jade figurines, he scores 15 points. One, two, and then another 13. So, he's on 113. I'm going to use these as 50s. And I'm on 33 at the moment. How many Jade figurines do I have? I have three, which is six points.

Yep. There. Right. Next. 742 for the palace tracks. So, he's the highest on this one. So, he gets seven. And I'm second highest. So, I get four on this one. He's the highest. He gets seven. I'm the second highest. I get four on this one. He's the highest. He gets seven. And I'm not the second highest.

I'm the third highest. So I get two. And then on this one, surprise, surprise, he's the highest. He gets seven. And I get another two. Yay. I'm on 51 again. Right. Next. Score up to three objective cards. Don't worry, this is where I'm going to come back. This one is worth 30. Oh, no. Three. So, number of governors in Chin and Yan, one.

So, three points. One, two, three. Done. And this one. Number of governors in Chin and Han. I have one in there, one in there. I've got two. Seven points. Yeah, not quite 70. Next. For every five resources, goods, and money, you get a point. I got one, two, three, four, five. One point. The stuff that I've got left.

Uh, the player with the most prestige points wins. So, yes, you can tell it was my first game. That is brutal. That is punishing. But if you are put off because this was too hard, let me just remind you, I played with the hard attack cards. You can make the game a lot easier by playing with the easy attack cards of which they are this color.

And that is a lot easier. Now, this isn't in the rules, but you could even mix and match. You could, if you wanted to, take two of these and two of these and shuffle them, and each round you get one. So, I I I don't see why you can't do that. Not in the rule book. The rule book says to use either the red ones or the brown ones, but I can't see why you couldn't shuffle them.

The other thing is as well as the overall difficulty level for how strong the nomads are, you can customize the difficulty of the bot and I played on normal today. There are four different levels of customization for the bot. The reason why I lost today is that this was my first time playing it solo and I was relearning the base game.

It's been a couple of weeks, two or three weeks since I played the base game, so I was a little bit rusty on it. I think if I played the solo game again, I think I'd do better. But I'll be honest with you, I would probably tone down that attack cards because the strength of the attacks here was just absolutely punishing.

The fact that I was losing nine points, 12 points, 15 points, but that was me. That was on me. I I didn't really take that into account whereas I should have been. Um, so yeah, you can customize the difficulty, but if you like a really hard game, then play it on the difficulty level that I've played today and you will find it a big challenge.

As I mentioned at the start, this is a sponsored playthrough video, so you're not going to get any opinions from me about whether I like the game or not. What I will tell you is the solo mode is a Paul friendly solo mode. It's all very clear and I would recommend doing what I did, putting the dice on the card, going down and just remembering to do each of the steps.

I didn't have any problem running the bot. The only times today where I tricked myself up was when I forgot to take a bonus or forgot to do something. And that's not the game's fault. That's that's on me. Um, but yeah, it it played really nicely. So yeah, that's it. We are all done for today. Thank you very much for everybody for watching live.

If you are watching this back afterwards, please give me a thumbs up, leave a comment, let me know if you found the video useful. And as always, I do rely on the financial support of my Patreon campaign to keep the channel going. So, if you like the content that I create and you want to support me directly, you can do so at patreon.com/gaming rules.

Next Friday, I will be back in the afternoon with a solo playthrough of Thei, the other new board and dice tea game for this year. I've already done a multiplayer game of that a couple of weeks ago and I'm looking forward to that. That's next Friday, same time, same place, same green screen, solo playthrough of FE by next Friday.

I will see you all then. Cheers everybody. Bye-bye. [Music] [Music]