Elfenland Solo Game

[kerravonsen]

So, we were playing Elfenland yesterday, and my brother remarked that it was like solving a puzzle, and I said that it wasn't the kind of puzzle you could solve in a solo game, because it needed randomness to make it interesting. So my brother suggested one could play a solo game by putting tokens down randomly.

To explain, for those who have not played Elfenland:

Elfenland is a board game version of the Travelling Salesman Problem; that is, there are twenty cities on the board, all connected by a network of roads, and you have to travel to them ALL. But wait, there's more! There are four types of terrain (meadow, forest, mountain, and desert), and six forms of transport (boar, elf-cycle, magic cloud, unicorn, troll-wagon, and dragon) and these are limited depending on the terrain. Plus there are rivers and lakes, which can only be travelled on by raft. To be able to travel along a given road, you need two things: there needs to be a (legal) transportation token on that road, and you need to have matching cards in your hand for that form of transportation. Without going into too many details, game play includes taking turns putting tokens on the roads (and a road can only have one token), and then when everyone had put down tokens, then each person (using the cards in their hand) tries to travel across the game board as it is currently set up. Then the tokens are removed from the board, and the next round starts, where people put down new tokens on the board, and the journey continues. But it only continues for three more rounds, so you have a limited number of moves in which to make the full traversal.

So I tried my brother's suggestion, to put random tokens face down on all the roads on the board, turning them face-up and then removing the illegal ones, but it still wasn't interesting enough, because you didn't have the factor of having to revise your strategy when someone else put a token on a road you had intended to travel on.

So I had a think, and this is what I came up with. Rules in italics are where it differs from the multi-player game.

Solo Rules:

1. Deal yourself a random home-city from the deck.
2. Pull a random "hidden token" from the bag of tokens.
3. Deal yourself eight cards (make them more random by dealing two piles of cards and putting the second pile back on the bottom of the deck).
4. Picking travel tokens:
   • Put out five tokens, pick one token from the set, replace that token with a new one from the bag of tokens. (Alternatively, pick a random token from the bag.)
   • Repeat this until you have picked three tokens altogether. Put the remaining tokens back in the bag.
5. Placing the tokens on the board:
   • Place one of your tokens on a road.
   • Pick a random token from the bag, concealing what it is, and place it face down on a road adjacent to a previously placed token. Flip it over. If the token is illegal there, place it on the nearest legal road for that token.
   • Repeat until you run out of tokens or you pass.
6. Move your Boot on its journey by playing the cards in your hand, collecting the city-markers of the cities you visit.
7. End of the round:
   • Remove the travel tokens from the board.
   • If you have any remaining unplayed travel tokens, return all but one to the bag.
   • If you have any remaining unplayed cards, keep them.
   • Increase the round-count indicator.
8. Repeat from (1) until you have played four rounds, and hopefully made it back to your home city.

I've played these rules once, and it seemed to work. More playtesting will be required to see if it is too easy. Any of you out there (watervole) who play Elfenland are invited to playtest these rules also, and suggest improvements.

Comments

[watervole]

I think it could work, but I almost never play solo games...

Comes of being married to a gamer - there's always someone at hand to play with!

[watervole]

We normally play the version where you always draw 8 cards and can keep upto 4 unplayed cards from the previous hand. It allows for more planning, but still imposes a hand limit.

[kerravonsen]

Oh, that's an interesting limitation. Mind you, I don't think it's very common that someone has had more than four unplayed cards from the previous hand anyway!

[watervole]

It happens. I find it encourages people to join a caravan and use up three cards that way, rather than lose the ones over four.

[kerravonsen]

Indeed! Though it sets you on a quest for good two-person games. Mum & Dad's favourite two-person game was Upwords.