Thanks for the playthrough! It's been super helpful as I learn this. I did notice a mistake at 1:59:00. You quelled two dissidents by removing two migrants from the map. But the rules state that "you cannot expend a Migrant if you have any Cities or Elders to lose". You didn't have any cities so you should have removed your two Elders instead.
At 2:34:15, shouldn't the dessert have to be placed where there is a city? I think Edward mentioned that as one of the rules of the solo, "you have to destroy a city, if possible".
I think there was a mistake that made it harder on him. At the 2:35 mark during that famine, he assumed that the diversity symbol on his current foundation could hold a dissident when it actually appeared to lack the icon inside the rainbow. Not all Diversity Rainbows have a spot to hold a dissident. So he only needed to kill one city to quell one dissident. (so three cities total) Additionally, when he deforested on that same challenge card (before the famine part) shouldn't he have had to kill a city with the climate chit move (when possible)? Since he had a city on a desert chit spot - Kill that city with the climate chit - Leaving 3 cities, to lose only 1 when rounding down on the Famine? Except the loss of the city during the Climate move would have produced one dissident that would have triggered revolution before the famine? Solo is very hard. After watching the original HC 4 player of Origins, I was hooked and bought TTS just to try it out since it was out of print at the time. It was an excellent tool as I was trying to teach myself and screwed up constantly at first. But a couple mouse clicks and its reset to start again. Received a real copy from my wife for Christmas and my local group enjoyed it. Couple Questions/Thoughts on Solo 1) I believe I read that when a disaster occurs that is related to a spot on the board (Tsunami for ex) but covered up by a climate chit, that the chit is removed, flipped and then placed per the 'must destroy city if possible' rule in solo play. 2) A big part of the solo game is the climate chit moves. Need to prioritize opening up access to get to city locations without climate chit spots. So I try to clear a path to the New World asap to get those safe city spots in North and South America. 3) With way more dissidents due to the 'Act of God' solo rule, you need to prioritize Foundations that give you diversity that has dissident spots. And plan out your Elder actions to have an occasional election with minimal elders out if you don't want to be swapping Gov't types every two or three turns. Thank you for ALL the videos HC!!!
You are right about the times he messed up the rules to his own detriment. Also, I am not one to care about mysticism especially this early in the game, there are many options to increase the culture tracks as game progresses; I'd only add mystics towards the end if you are missing 1 or 2 points there. When playing solo, welcome revolutions and crisis rather than fearing them, use them to your advantage. About your questions: (1) Yes, that's correct and he forgot to do it I believe on a couple of occasions. (2) Indeed, there are two 'safe' hexes which should be uncovered as soon as possible, as well as the ones with uranium and oil in order to prepare for a decisive win - if you think that's within reach. (3) That's one way to play it, you can also have a strategy of disregarding a ruling class for the whole game and focusing on getting ideas and foundations that can fully switch from one of the remaining classes to the other as revolutions happen. But that of course will also depend heavily on the market and the challenges that will show up. Solo priorities: Era I Menopause and Info 2. Aftewards, play in a way that allows increasing tracks steadily, adding ideas and foundations to your tableau in an opportunistic way, but Eurekas are more important. Shun Industry scoring if possible, those are the slowest tracks. Deliberately lose to crowd or zoonotic diseases to increase Immunology 'for free'. Build cities only when required for Invention. Era III and IV should be there to help boosting scores, as there are many more possibilities to use Invention twice in one go (both as an action and as an Eureka).
I'm learning the game and want to understand some strategic plays. Around 45:00, Edward does the first challenge of the gods in the game. He decides not to take the card and I can't understand why. Isn't the challenges card on the purple (politics) side just way better than the card he ends up inventing after? I mean it's the same bonus and he eats 1 extra diversity... Changing ruling class doesn't seem that relevant at this stage. Am I missing something?
I didn't see how the starting Ruling choice is made (or where is it in the rules). Just randomize one of the 3 or choose Culture when starting a solo game ?
Full disclosure: I have not played either of those solo (or MK at all). However, this game is not nearly as hard as it presents itself. If it's of interest to you, and you play either of the games you mentioned, you'll be totally fine.
Ah, I was wondering why you were saying the solo game was hard! I dunno if I missed it or if it was added to the living rules later, but Acts of God causing chaos change this from "basically free win" to an actual challenge...
Yeah it was an addition to the living rules, to make the solo game actually challenging :) I played my first solo without all that godly chaos and it was indeed a cakewalk.
I have to say, as a fan of the Bios trilogy in general and of Bios Origins in particular, both as a game and as a fun mechanical representation of how human society developed, I am also shocked by some of the blatant historical and scientific misinformation in the rulebook. I'm referring to the footnotes especially. Some of it is just false, who cares, Phil isn't an anthropologist, climate scientist or historian of technology or political ideas, it's a board game, fine, but some of it grossly and deliberately underplays the role of humans in climate change and moreover is at times borderline racist. Why insist on emphasising this toxic junk in an otherwise brilliant game?
Thanks for the playthrough! It's been super helpful as I learn this. I did notice a mistake at 1:59:00. You quelled two dissidents by removing two migrants from the map. But the rules state that "you cannot expend a Migrant if you have any Cities or Elders to lose". You didn't have any cities so you should have removed your two Elders instead.
This is probably only Bios Origins solo playthrought, thanks a lot.
Would love to see Megafauna.
Well, i would like to see now a Bios: Megafauna 2E solo playtrough :-)
Or a full Bios series run
wonderfull!
At 2:34:15, shouldn't the dessert have to be placed where there is a city? I think Edward mentioned that as one of the rules of the solo, "you have to destroy a city, if possible".
I think there was a mistake that made it harder on him. At the 2:35 mark during that famine, he assumed that the diversity symbol on his current foundation could hold a dissident when it actually appeared to lack the icon inside the rainbow. Not all Diversity Rainbows have a spot to hold a dissident. So he only needed to kill one city to quell one dissident. (so three cities total) Additionally, when he deforested on that same challenge card (before the famine part) shouldn't he have had to kill a city with the climate chit move (when possible)? Since he had a city on a desert chit spot - Kill that city with the climate chit - Leaving 3 cities, to lose only 1 when rounding down on the Famine? Except the loss of the city during the Climate move would have produced one dissident that would have triggered revolution before the famine?
Solo is very hard. After watching the original HC 4 player of Origins, I was hooked and bought TTS just to try it out since it was out of print at the time. It was an excellent tool as I was trying to teach myself and screwed up constantly at first. But a couple mouse clicks and its reset to start again. Received a real copy from my wife for Christmas and my local group enjoyed it.
Couple Questions/Thoughts on Solo
1) I believe I read that when a disaster occurs that is related to a spot on the board (Tsunami for ex) but covered up by a climate chit, that the chit is removed, flipped and then placed per the 'must destroy city if possible' rule in solo play.
2) A big part of the solo game is the climate chit moves. Need to prioritize opening up access to get to city locations without climate chit spots. So I try to clear a path to the New World asap to get those safe city spots in North and South America.
3) With way more dissidents due to the 'Act of God' solo rule, you need to prioritize Foundations that give you diversity that has dissident spots. And plan out your Elder actions to have an occasional election with minimal elders out if you don't want to be swapping Gov't types every two or three turns.
Thank you for ALL the videos HC!!!
You are right about the times he messed up the rules to his own detriment. Also, I am not one to care about mysticism especially this early in the game, there are many options to increase the culture tracks as game progresses; I'd only add mystics towards the end if you are missing 1 or 2 points there. When playing solo, welcome revolutions and crisis rather than fearing them, use them to your advantage.
About your questions: (1) Yes, that's correct and he forgot to do it I believe on a couple of occasions. (2) Indeed, there are two 'safe' hexes which should be uncovered as soon as possible, as well as the ones with uranium and oil in order to prepare for a decisive win - if you think that's within reach. (3) That's one way to play it, you can also have a strategy of disregarding a ruling class for the whole game and focusing on getting ideas and foundations that can fully switch from one of the remaining classes to the other as revolutions happen. But that of course will also depend heavily on the market and the challenges that will show up.
Solo priorities: Era I Menopause and Info 2. Aftewards, play in a way that allows increasing tracks steadily, adding ideas and foundations to your tableau in an opportunistic way, but Eurekas are more important. Shun Industry scoring if possible, those are the slowest tracks. Deliberately lose to crowd or zoonotic diseases to increase Immunology 'for free'. Build cities only when required for Invention. Era III and IV should be there to help boosting scores, as there are many more possibilities to use Invention twice in one go (both as an action and as an Eureka).
Is your deck setup per the solo advanced rules (8/4/4/2)? Epoch I seemed to have fewer cards.
I'm learning the game and want to understand some strategic plays. Around 45:00, Edward does the first challenge of the gods in the game. He decides not to take the card and I can't understand why. Isn't the challenges card on the purple (politics) side just way better than the card he ends up inventing after? I mean it's the same bonus and he eats 1 extra diversity... Changing ruling class doesn't seem that relevant at this stage. Am I missing something?
I agree with you
I didn't see how the starting Ruling choice is made (or where is it in the rules). Just randomize one of the 3 or choose Culture when starting a solo game ?
Is this harder than mage Knight or Gaia project
Full disclosure: I have not played either of those solo (or MK at all).
However, this game is not nearly as hard as it presents itself. If it's of interest to you, and you play either of the games you mentioned, you'll be totally fine.
Ah, I was wondering why you were saying the solo game was hard! I dunno if I missed it or if it was added to the living rules later, but Acts of God causing chaos change this from "basically free win" to an actual challenge...
Yeah it was an addition to the living rules, to make the solo game actually challenging :) I played my first solo without all that godly chaos and it was indeed a cakewalk.
God King theocracy foundation have diversity but no dissent. You cant store dissident there
I have to say, as a fan of the Bios trilogy in general and of Bios Origins in particular, both as a game and as a fun mechanical representation of how human society developed, I am also shocked by some of the blatant historical and scientific misinformation in the rulebook. I'm referring to the footnotes especially. Some of it is just false, who cares, Phil isn't an anthropologist, climate scientist or historian of technology or political ideas, it's a board game, fine, but some of it grossly and deliberately underplays the role of humans in climate change and moreover is at times borderline racist. Why insist on emphasising this toxic junk in an otherwise brilliant game?
akplmn I’d love to hear more about this if you would please elaborate?
@@ormstunga7878 He can't. He is just repeating what was taught to him in class.