Evacuation - Solo Playthrough & Review

[@cmorebits]

Hi Paul: nice playtrough video. Just finished my first ever solo game of Evacuation. I've had a peek at your video to get me started and checking on certain actions. Seems we both managed the same score of 52 for a first time solo. Not that bad! And yes this game is great and so is the solo mode. agreed 100%

[@pascalcharland1403]

Thank you so much for the delightful solo playthrough! I tend to wait for some honest solo reviews before blindly jumping on the hype train. We have really similar solo tastes regarding the AI... So thanks for screaming at me "Now, go get that game ASAP"!!!

[@marklambert84]

This looks great, thanks for the solo playthrough! Looks like another game that is really tough to get the score the rulebook says, but maybe that is better than it being too easy. You did seem to do everything so am keen to know how to get more points! Thanks again Paul :)

[@bookaddict777]

Thanks for the solo playthrough of this one, Paul! I am looking foward to receiving my pre-ordered copy at some point and am sure I will be coming back to refer to this video once I do.

[@georgioschalikias4883]

Thank you for the solo mode display !!! I do not know who like it more you or us the viewers !!!!

[@andrewplatt5164]

Another fantastic playthrough, Paul!

[@RasmusNicolajWest]

Looks like a fantastic solo game. I really like that is is fast an with a simple automata. And It also look cool multiplayer. Another great sales video made by Paul 🙂

[@richardcrozier-jobber7502]

My friend and I have just finished our first play together. I bought him the game for his birthday and he had played it himself 9 times in the last week but it was my first play. I had watched quite a few videos including the two from Jon Gets Games. Their Friendly Ties video gave me an edge over my friend. What was clear from that was that you really have to nail and focus on the end game scoring cards you draughted at the beginning as they provide the majority of your final score. I did this big time averaging 17 on the three cards. They require a mindset change in this game that the real goal is to max these as much as possible. Like you my friend thought he had done really well, just like Anastasia in the Friendly ties video, by evacuating his planet and opening up all the biomes but he missed that this was not what the scoring cards were after. He scored 48. I scored 65 and only had one satellite beyond the transition that opened up the dessert biome and that was for the last round. My progress scores for the four rounds were 5, 6, 5, 6. Now these scores were also possible as we used the advanced cards with me discarding the high point cards. It was also because one of my goals was to achive the low score bonus as much as possible and I did that every round which alone racked up 21 points. In the last round my friend asked me why I even built my forth spaceship as it was 'no use', an extra 6 points thank you very much as another goal was to build ships. I even now realise I could have put my last factory from the old factory onto an empty ship I left at that planet with a different play of my last two turns improving my score by two but I hadn't spotted that option. So for those dissappointed with their score my tip is to really focus your whole game on the scoring cards you select. What a game though, easily my favourite of the last 12 months and I have only played it once myself.

[@m-sousa]

Nice playthrough Paul. I really liked my multiplayer sessions of Evacuation. I am quite pumped to trying it solo It took me a while too (and someone else's comment on BGG) to understand how to easily spot the correct track for 2p. So, besides being the one with more bonuses, the correct track is the one that is adjacent to a coloured line running along it: starting in white, then orange, green and blue. I am realizing now those are the colours of the biomes where a player can settle [mind blows] I don't get why so many people are having problems with the infrastructure cards. Resources always show up squared and production in a circle. The rulebook also mentions it in the first pages

[@GamingRulesVideos]

I spotted that too. Would have been better if it said this in the rulebook :)

[@m-sousa]

@@GamingRulesVideos For sure they could have made it easier to understand xD

[@m-sousa]

Btw, you were so fast to answer. I was not expecting that ahahah (so much that I edited my original comment ups)

[@shatnershairpiece]

It’s always fascinating to me how rulebooks can still be bad and missing essential information. I think there would be people that could be hired to double check these things for ease-of-use. Is this really a skill that is lacking in the industry? They seem to have people that can design the games . They have people that can do the artwork, yet there always seems to be a problem finding people that can write and explain how a game works. Do you think this is because writing/comprehension skills are fast disappearing? Let’s face it. The majority of the population still writes ‘loose’ when they mean ‘lose’ so maybe this is not surprising.

[@SteelBreeze021]

1:07:20 I’m very new to this game but when the technology update said you could settle in the sea region for ‘free’ your progress markers had not unlocked the sea region for settlement yet. Perhaps the ‘free’ part was not to pay a steel for each settler? I’m not sure if the required threshold needed to be reached also. What do you think? Great play through by the way. Thank you.

[@GamingRulesVideos]

I'm pretty sure I read in the glossary that you can do this even if you haven't yet unlocked the sea area, but I will double check.

[@SteelBreeze021]

You are correct, sir! I found the guide and yes, you can use this technology even if you can’t yet settle in this biome. Well done and thanks again.

[@klaus3856]

I like what I see in Evacuation but am put off by the lack of definition in the solo mode scoring (are the score targets meant with or without the advanced actions module?, with or without the line majorities module?, generous bonus variant?). I saw your annoyance at the end, but you played the least high scoring set of modules. The Underwater Cities expansion had a similar too high winning objective versus the base game (I needed to house rule & eliminate quick start to make 125 points achievable)

[@personmcperson5740]

I found the rule book somewhat confusing. I understand the individual words, but the overall meaning remains a mystery. But a great game, and a good video.

[@Gingerperson1234]

Easy to follow playthrough, although I am pretty sure that you forgot to get your technology benefits a couple times, such as the free resource at for the transition year 1 (I think you got sidetracked by the rewards for the action costs but I could be wrong). You also missed your free factory from your level two technology during year 3.

[@GamingRulesVideos]

Yeah, probably missed a load of stuff :)

[@briancline4173]

I gave up being disappointed in not meeting the point thresholds in Suchy games long ago. They are brutal and, for me at least, it is nearly impossible to meet the "success" standards he sets (i.e. Woodcraft, Praga). But, I still have a blast playing his games.

[@JuliusCorvinus]

The beard suits you well.

[@GamingRulesVideos]

It's now gone :)

[@ilqrd.6608]

Paul! You look fresh and amazing

[@GamingRulesVideos]

Seriously? I was struggling with fatigue and exhaustion and went to bed shortly after this.

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Vladimir Suchy solo modes - kick you when you're down! :P And no you don't need a complex AI - if anything, complex AI's put me off as it's too much fath to mess around with. I mean in Sentinels, I control 3 decks. In Spirit Island I just use one Spirit. Solo can still be simple to operate. So far, Evac probably does rank 2nd to Underwater Cities, but yeah it owns all the other DG titles. Though I think I still prefer CGE's Pulsar 2849 to it.