Civolution - Straight Up Solo with John LaRuffa

[@GamingRulesVideos]

Great job

[@JohnLaRuffa]

Thank you! And thank you very much for a great rules video for this game!

[@elqord.1118]

What an amazing game. One of the best of recent years

[@JohnLaRuffa]

Agreed!

[@briancline4173]

Feld is on a tear recently! Bonfire, Marrakesh and now this game. All instant classics IMHO. Civolution reminds me of my favorite game of all time, Feast for Odin, in that there is a tremendous amount of depth and decision space with fairly minimal complexity (regardless of the BGG weight rating). Like Odin, I sense that I'll be able to put this away for a couple of months and not have to re-watch a rules video to replay the game, a trait I definitely treasure in a game.

[@JohnLaRuffa]

I certainly agree although the dice rolling is more constrictive than AFfO, but the feel in complexity and sandboxiness certainly is.

[@phinori]

This is probably my favourite game of this year (few unplayed games excluded). It's a game with over 4.0 weight in BGG that was surprisingly smooth to learn at that weight but what's even better is how rarely I've had to even glance at the player aid or rulebook from second game onwards. It's a great game that is a masterpiece of board game design and to top it off, it has a simple automa for solo play that competes with the player on pretty much every aspect of the game. I don't know the history of the project but I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that Feld had been cooking for a long time before finally perfecting it.

[@JohnLaRuffa]

Indeed! What a great game. I don’t think the weight at 4.0 makes sense to be honest. More like a 3 to me. I think it is one of those games that once you learn it, it is easy to keep in mind for the future and can be played right from the player aids at that point.

[@boriskirov3953]

Awesome game! Thank you for the review, also showed me I am playing one of the solo cards wrong and in the process, overshooting bots scoring😂

[@JohnLaRuffa]

Oh! Glad I could help! It is SUCH a good game!

[@florianschoppler4001]

Love this Game!

[@dannyverbraeken7729]

Thanks John for another great video. I'm still waiting for it to be delivered. Always wonder how you can manage to learn all those games. Do you ever sleep sometimes ?

[@JohnLaRuffa]

Learning is not the hard part. Remembering how to play them 1 month from now is the hard part. Probably because I go from game to game to game…I am the source and solution to my own problems :). Thanks for watching!

[@dannyverbraeken7729]

@@JohnLaRuffa Your videos are always a great help in deciding what to buy, and also have a look and feel how it plays.

[@JohnLaRuffa]

@dannyverbraeken7729 perfect! That is what I am going for! Thanks!

[@kitcarpo4745]

I've been looking for such a vid, thanks John.

[@JohnLaRuffa]

You bet!

[@crepusculo1027]

Man I really admire you. Where do you get the brains and energy to learn and play so many games, and then do such awesome reviews 😅 When I grow up I wanna be like you haha (I'm already your age haha).

[@JohnLaRuffa]

It’s funny because I seem to be driven by my own internal whip to get things done once I get a game. I think after doing things for this channel for 6 years I have just formed a habit that nags at me if I have unplayed games and then unreviewed games. So that has been keeping me motivated. But right now, some of these new releases have been so absolutely amazing, it’s just an incredible rush to play them! If I am being honest, I am getting exhausted as of late from trying to keep up the pace. When I finally get the rest of the Essen releases that I have preordered, I am going to take a breadth and spend some time just doing play through videos for a bit. My brain can only handle so much 😆!

[@laurencesingh3948]

@@JohnLaRuffa Looking forward to those playthroughs! The reviews of new stuff are great but nothing like getting to table and just play some of your favourites.

[@JohnLaRuffa]

@laurencesingh3948 I like a good mixture of both. It is slightly stressful to do a playthrough video compared to some of my other ones, but it’s still fun to do. That being said, I want to get a few of these great games that I have documented in that way. So, stay tuned!