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Time To Explore
Have you ever wanted to explore Baghdad and chart the skies but can’t find anyone to come with you? Don’t you worry because Garphill Games has you covered, for this is the premise of Wayfarers of the South Tigris. Luckily, this game also has a solo mode, meaning you can map out the stars without any interference from your friends. There’s a fair bit to go through, so let’s jump straight in.
Solo Differences
Wayfarers plays exactly the same for the human player – taking your turn by playing dice and workers out to the different action spots and competing them as necessary. Between your turns though, you’ll have an AI to deal with. Happily, this AI isn’t too tricky to manage. First you need to set the game up like you do for a two-player game. For the AI set up, flip over one of the player boards to the AI side, choosing whichever AI focus you feel like playing against.
This can be Space, Upgrades, Townsfolk or Journalling. The AI player does gain a Yellow and a Blue worker but doesn’t gain dice. You will need to use the other two unused player markers on the AI board, one in the bottom left on the Comet track and one on the top left of the Resource track. The AI player’s colour icon goes on the Journal track as normal and plays second, so set them up as a second player in the regular game. Shuffle the six scheme cards and place them facedown. These will determine the AI’s turn and if they will take an action or rest.
On an AI turn, reveal a scheme card. Move the marker clockwise around the Resource track equal to the silver value on the card and resolve any effects of the track if the marker moves over it, such as gaining a comet, applying influence or gaining a townsfolk card. Then resolve an action. If possible, the top action is resolved, and if not, the bottom action is resolved. Only one action is resolved per turn. Some of the actions have familiar iconography, such as paying influence to gain a card, but others introduce the Focus action, which is specific to the AI you’re playing with.
If at the beginning of a turn, the AI has three scheme cards with the same colour revealed, the AI will rest instead and not draw a new scheme card.
The rest action has a few steps, but ultimately it will involve gaining a card or upgrade tile and Journalling. When gaining a card, or upgrade tile, there’s a few rules over prioritising which card the AI will take, depending on their position on the Resource track or the sum of the values on the two most revealed Scheme cards. That number will relate to the diagram in the middle of the resource track and shows you which card to take, ignoring any prerequisites. Placing workers uses the same prioritising rules, and you’ll then take the action for the AI that is shown in that spot. Only workers of the matching colour can be used on each action spot.
Journalling is the last thing we need to look at that changes for the AI. Firstly, the direction they take when given a choice is dependent on which colour of Scheme card is in the majority. Upwards if it’s blue, downwards if red. You also need to look at your own positioning when journalling for the AI because this will impact the number of influence from the black guild the AI will expend to move an additional space. If the AI is behind you, it costs one influence. If they are level with you, it costs two, and if they are ahead, it’ll cost three influence.
The end of the game in Wayfarers of the South Tigris is triggered in the same way, with one player reaching the end of the Journaling track. The AI gets a final turn if they are the one to trigger the end game. Scoring is pretty easy for the AI. They score 1VP for each Townsfolk they’ve gained; 2VP per Water or Land card; 3VP for each Space card; 4VP for Inspiration cards; then add any VPs on the Upgrade tiles and Guild Majorities. The AI doesn’t score the Comets but they do make an impact on if you have the majority or not for your scoring.
Final Thoughts
I absolutely adore the West Kingdom series, so I thought I’d love Wayfarers of the South Tigris. So far, with two playthroughs, both solo and competitive, I’m yet to be convinced that I love it. I enjoy it quite a bit, enough to want to keep playing and exploring. That said, this is a review on the solo mode, which is that the solo mode is as good as those in the West Kingdom Trilogy. The turns are pretty snappy because it’s a straightforward flow chart on what happens and it progresses the game fairly quickly. At least, as fast as this game seems to be. You lose the AP of an opponent, but you still have a pretty long game. That said, once you come to the end of the game, you have a pretty good understanding of how to play, which I think is the best thing of this type of solo mode.
Don’t expect to win though. This game is incredibly tough. When I played, I lost to the AI by 40 points. I did make the mistake of playing against the Space AI though, which does mean they got a lot of 3-point cards. I enjoyed myself though, and I think the more I play, the better I’ll get at this game. If you have a couple of hours to kill and want to explore the game, I can recommend it.