In order to promote discussion on Lemmy, I’m doing micro-reviews for my favorite boardgames by genre. Please join in, provide your reviews, flame me for my terrible taste or to suggest a category for tomorrow!

Today’s game is Solenia

Score: 8/10

Positives:

  • Easy to teach

  • Feels like a classic euro game, with very unique elements

  • Very clever card use

Negatives:

  • You can get really screwed with unfortunate card draw

  • Low player count is better, in my opinion

The review

Solenia is a planet that no longer has a day-light cycle. Instead, half of the world lives in darkness and the other in constant sunlight. Your job is to go around the world and deliver goods to both emispheres. People in day-cities will want goods only available in the dark half and vice-versa. All players control a single airship that will be going around the world, collecting and delivering goods.

Image credit to Cindy Hauri on bgg, source here

During your turn you will have 3 cards in your hand and you will play one of them. You place the card in any place adjacent to the airship (airship space included). All cards contain a number on the top, a hole in the middle and a bonus portion on the bottom. When you place the card on the map, a resource will be visible through the hole and you will get X amount of that resource, X being the number of the top the card. When you place a card with the number 0 on the top, you don’t get any resources but the airship moves forward! After the airship moves, the last portion of the board is removed, flipped and placed as the first portion of the board. If it was a night portion, it will now be a light portion! This is a fantastic idea to simulate movement around the globe. If any cards were on the portion of the board that was removed, their owners gain the “bonus portion” of the cards. Typically these will be aditional resources. The game ends when you run out of cards.

So how do you get points? Similar to other games such as Century: Spice Road, you have objectives tiles that you must fulfill. There are always 5 day-city objectives and 5 dark-city objectives. In order to complete a dark-city objective you must deliver the depicted goods to a dark-city (eg: 1 wheat, 1 wood), and in order to complete a light-city objective you must deliver the depicted goods to a light-city (eg: 2 stones, 1 water).

I think Solenia is yet another hidden gem. The game is very light, short, approachable to people from all ages and feels like a proper euro. This is an excelent gateway game to euro games. The theme is fantastic, going around the world is implemented in a really creative way. The gameplay itself is not particularly revolutionary, fetch and deliver goods has been done a thousand times. The game has merit on the simple way it delivers its premise. The cards with a hole in a middle? I had never seen that before, what a clever and simple way to give me a meaningful choice. When you first move forward with the airship and flip the last portion of the board feels like an Eureka moment “oh wow, we’re actually moving around the globe”. It’s a bit boring when everyone decides to move forward at the same time and you have to do it over and over, for that reason I would recommend lower player counts, 3 at most.

I don’t know why this game didn’t take off, I think it checks all the boxes for a successful game. It’s pretty, light, enjoyable, on the cheaper side, unique. I play a lot of euro games and obviously this isn’t going to feel as satisfying as a Brass: Birmingham game… but my mother isn’t going to play Brass, is she? This? This she can easily play and enjoy. Definitely worth checking out.

Context Information

Honorable mentions

  • Century: Spice Road - I can’t believe this game is only rank 308. Engine building at family weight? Count me iiin.

  • Furnace - This game feels way heavier than it’s weight implies. The rules are simple but the gameplay feels deep. Still, it’s a fantastic engine-building game with a VERY clever bidding mechanic. I think Furnace is a better game than Solenia, but I don’t think my family would be able to enjoy it.

  • Chinatown - My friends tell me that this game transforms me into a different person. Not sure I would call it an euro game but I had to put it somewhere. This is a negotiating game, you’re going to spend the entire game trading locations with other people or selling them for money or both. Check this one out!