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In Sagrada, players take on the role of skilled artisans who use their expert planning and clever craftsmanship to create a stained glass window masterpiece for the Sagrada Familia. Each round players take turns drafting glass pieces represented by dice and carefully choose where to place each within their window. As the rounds progress each glass piece becomes increasingly harder to place but the tools at your disposal will assist you. Creating a window to the preferences of your admirers will gain you additional prestige as you compete to become the master artisan.
Solo Mode Overview
In Sagrada’s solo mode, you are aiming to beat a target score of the total of the dice remaining on the round tracker. The setup up is similar to a multiplayer game with a few small changes. During the set up you will not be placing out any favour tokens, these are replaced by a different mechanic. Place in front of you two public objectives, two private objectives and between one and five tool cards depending on the difficulty you wish to set.
Each round you will pull four dice from the bag and roll them, from there you will take two turns. On your turn, you can draft a dice as you would in the multiplayer game or you can use a dice from the draft pool to use a tool. The dice used for the tool must match the colour of the square shown in the top left corner of the card. Once a dice has been placed on this square the tool cannot be used again then the card and dice are removed from the game.
Once you have taken both turns in a round all remaining dice in the dice pool will be placed on the round tracker making sure to keep the dice showing the value that was on them in the drafting pool.
After finishing the tenth and final round, add up the total value of the dice on the score tracker, this is the target score you are trying to beat, the dice on the toolcards are not counted towards this total. Then calculate your score as normal however you lose three victory points for every open space as opposed to the normal one victory point. If your victory point total is greater than the target score value then you win.
How It Plays
I am going to open with my opinion from the get-go, I am not a fan of this solo mode. Though on the surface it appears that not too much has changed and that it should play pretty similarly to the multiplayer experience, it does not. The biggest issue being that the total score on your unused dice is going to be used for your target score.
When playing in the multiplayer game you only really need to focus on the public objectives and your one private objective, and while yes other players can become obstacles to achieving your goal by drafting the dice you want, you never have to take a dice that does not align with one of your objectives to stop that dice being used against you.
That is the issue in this solo mode, I could be working towards one of the variety of shades objectives or the light shades objective but knowing a five or six value dice will make that target score higher than any victory points I would gain from my objective makes me more likely to focus on filling my window with as many high-value dice as possible.
I’m a fan of solo modes in board games that minimise the change in gameplay from the multiplayer game, which unless it is stated completely that they are aiming for otherwise is probably most people's assumption when buying a game that caters to a range of players including solo. I want to be able to pick up this game when my gaming group is busy or when I want a break from a screen and it be the same or very similar experience I liked the game for with the multiplayer. So this game misses the mark on it.
The solo mode does feel like a little bit of an afterthought as it also only takes up a very small section at the back of the rule book comparatively to other solo modes in games.
So Does This Mean Don’t Get This Game For Solo
Potentially. Think of the solo mode in this game as a little bonus to buying the multiplayer game, as the normal game is a fun creative pretty game, which may occasionally lead to you getting mildly angry at another player when they draft the perfect dice for your window before your turn. I would not suggest you go out of your way to get this game just to play its standard solo mode.
However.
After a few games of being frustrated with how this solo mode works, I went exploring forums for a way to improve the solo experience with the game. The answer came from user @dukefanblue2005 on Board Game Geek, he had created an Automa mode for this game. From the brief description, it seemed like the sort of thing I was looking for and he has previously created similar modes for other publisher's games that have then gone on to be published by the games publishers, which gave me hope for this mode.
For those who don’t know an Automa in board games is an AI opponent that allows for a solo game experience to have a similar play style to that of having a human opponent. The Sagrada Automa worked as expected, working to beat the AI rather than some number based on remaining dice and felt very similar to a two-player game. It’s the solo experience I was seeking. He has made variations to work with Sagrada’s expansions and has a lot of information and tutorial videos to help clear up any questions you might have from the written instructions.
I’m still not sure I would suggest buying this game just for solo with the knowledge this fan-made Automa exists but it is something to note if you are interested in the game for both the multiplayer and solo game modes.
So Many Pretty Dice
Components, the easy praise of this game. If you like translucent coloured dice you're in luck the game comes with 90 of them in five different colours.
But in all honesty, this game initially won me over with the components, the frames you slot your window card in are technically an extra flair but add so much to the game as they created a multilayer board where your drafted dice sit snugly. They took time to have the artwork look like windows and features you would expect to see in the Sagrada Familia and this extra mile that other publishers might have seen as adding cost at no additional benefit they saw as a way to sell the theme even more.
Final Thoughts
I would not recommend going out and getting this game for the solo mode as it is. It’s flawed and does not give the same gameplay as the multiplayer game. If you are looking for a great multiplayer game that has the solo capability just make the purchase more based on the multiplayer side of things not the solo side of things.
But if you are still tempted you now know that there is a fan-created Automa that makes for a better and more balanced solo game experience.
Pretty Game, with good multiplayer, but not so good solo.
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