Xia Solo: Quest to be a Legendary Legend!

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In this episode of Solo Playthroughs, Greg presents Xia: Legends of a Drift System*! One of the utlimate "sandbox experiences" in all of board games, Xia gives the player a space ship and an expanding galaxy to explore. To reign supreme in this galaxy, the commander of each ship embarks forth in pursuit of Fame Points, and Fame Points can come in about a dozen different ways. You can shoot down other ships, be an outlaw, promote trade among the various planets, mine for relics, complete missions, upgrade your ship to a bigger and better ship, and a whole host of other things...all in the same game! And, even in the solo game, you are not alone in this galaxy, as a host of NPC ships promise to present a unique set of obstacles in each game, while trying to garner Fame Points for themselves. Watch to see if this humble little ship have what it takes to become the most famous ship in the Drift System!
*=Sellsword mini-expansion, upgraded credits, and replacement pieces sent as a review copy by Far Off Games
#xialegendsofadriftsystem #soloplaythroughs #soloboardgames

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

NOTE: Please see the comment below from Iain Odlan with some rules clarifications. Notably, 1) You can recharge markers for free when on a planet; 2) Ice damage melts during a business phase so you don’t have to pay 1,000 to fix it; and 3) You cannot buy the final point you need to win. Thanks, Iain! ---- Got this one out a couple days later than planned, which is something that will likely continue to happen in the upcoming weeks, so bear with me; Mrs. Playthroughs likes to keep my schedule pretty crammed these days! :) Looking forward to hearing some people's experiences with Xia! Happy Gaming! Greg

[@Fallub]

You perfectly summarized the game in the first 5 minutes - thank you for the playthrough.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Thanks, Philipp! I’ve really enjoyed branching out a bit these past few months and Xia is such a different type of experience that I’m happy to feature it.

[@davismcnevin8795]

Great playthrough! I will echo the statement that it's a shame you won't do any more solo playthroughs of Xia. I can listen to your narrative indefinitely. I did want to let you know there was a mistake that you suffered unnecessarily with regard to Ice Damage. When ending your turn on a planet (or Kiln) the Ice Damage simply melts, so no need to spend the cash. You could've maybe used that for something more useful. And it is hard to remember the bit about line of sight and hiding in the asteroid fields, but it is an essential tactic when dealing with a bothersome Enforcer or Scoundrel. There is just so much to love in this game.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

I appreciate the comment, Davis! I may loop back to Xia in the future - tastes in games definitely change over time. At this point, there are just too many other games that I prefer to play. Either way, thanks for the tip about the ice melting - I indeed could have used that money for something more useful! :)

[@iainodlin]

Nice playthrough; thank you. It's a pity you're not going to do more, but I get it. Especially when you get a string of lousy rolls like you did at the start. Errors: At 1:17:03 and 1:22:35 (likely other places too), when you're on a planet, rearming your markers doesn't cost energy [Rules, page 10]. It's relatively minor for a Tier 3 ship, but potentially very important. Also, 1:26:16: Ice damage melts for free during the business phase on a planet. [Embers rules, page 5] And 1:31:12: You cannot purchase the last Fame Point needed for victory [Rules, page 3]. You had many other options for FP though, including restructuring your turn to buy it penultimately, so no big deal. Congratulations on the win!

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Thanks for taking the time to write all this out, Iain! I’ll be sure to reference your comment in my pinned comment above. Glad to see I was mostly making things harder on myself. 🤣 Since I did have to sell a GTS at the end to get up to 5,000 credits, I’m curious as to an alternate path to my 20th point. Anything obvious I was missing? Chances are the NPCs wouldn’t have crossed 20 anyway, so I ultimately could have probably blasted the Scoundrel on my next turn.

[@charlesrasnake1062]

This Charlie guy seems nice. I’m sure he really appreciates you getting replacement pieces for him.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

He’s the best! 🤣

[@kombainasable]

thank you very much for the playthrough! shame won't be seeing more of this from you, but there is plenty of games you play I enjoy anyways. I would say I care about theming, but do not care about fluff. would not bother reading Xia, but when I read, it's good. from mechanics oriented approach I see it as a risk management game with high failure rates. thelatter part can be easily infuriating for many gamers and it's ok. if you get past it, it adds weight to successes and pushing luck, too. another thing harder to approach is that typically in risk management with dice you have weighted outcomes, eg how with 2 dies rolling 7 is 6 times more likely than rolling 2, which makes it easier to "feel" what is risky and what is not. but with embers you get some that mitigation in other ways. decisions are still impactful and clearly differentiate players by skill in MP games for high amount of target points due to token catch up mechanics. certainly a divisive game, but also in a league of it's own (most other adventure games do not go remotely as much into risk management).

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

All amazing points, Jonas - thanks for sharing! Compared to other popular sandbox games that I’ve played (Western Legends being the main one), I greatly prefer Xia because of its depth and interesting decision spaces. I just find it more fun with friends than solo for me. 🙂

[@madquest8]

The economy board is too complicated for me LOL I just play without it.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

I can see that! I like the idea of it but it was definitely tricky to really understand it.

[@PhoenixKnight08]

Filming this game was a total nightmare, and let’s not talk about sleeving it. 😀. Looking forward to seeing how it unfolds!

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Hey Eric! Yeah - this game is not shy about taking up your entire table! 🤣

[@PhoenixKnight08]

@@SoloPlaythroughs As I’ve discovered in the few times I’ve had it out. Hopefully after I get moved and get the new place laid out (hopefully with a bigger table setup), I can get it out and not stress over space.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

No doubt. And games just seem to be getting bigger and bigger. My table is HUGE and almost every new game makes me wonder just how going to get it on camera.

[@PhoenixKnight08]

@@SoloPlaythroughs I’ll probably start being alarmed when games ever get to a point that they make the Arkham Horror files look small. Granted, I’m somewhat new to tabletop gaming, but that’s my frame of reference for big footprints.

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Speaking of Arkham, even some of those Edge of the Earth scenarios were ridiculous!

[@inwoolee4051]

Random question: have you tried ark nova solo yet? Curious to know what you think. Thanks :)

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Hey Inwoo! I’ve played Ark Nova 4-5 times, but I don’t own it and I have not played it solo. I can see it being a good solo experience…but probably not one that I would love all that much personally. If you like Terraforming Mars solo, I think you’ll really like Ark Nova solo - and probably more as it is a much better game than Terraforming Mars IMO.

[@inwoolee4051]

@@SoloPlaythroughs I find myself having similar tastes to yours. Do you think Ark Nova isn't deep/complex enough?

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

@@inwoolee4051 It’s plenty deep and complex. Mechanically and thematically, it’s just not the kind of game I enjoy playing solo. I also limit how much I play solo games that I play competitively with friends. But the game presents a really nice puzzle to the player on multiple levels. The only thing I don’t love about it is pertains to the fact that it’s really hard to balance a huge deck of unique cards…and I can imagine this leading to some frustrations in solo play when the types of cards you need just never show up.

[@robertdascoli949]

Ah, another impossibility expensive game that I want to buy now. I really got to unsubsibcribe from this channel.

[@CptBumFlufff]

It is available as an addon here gamefound.com/projects/far-off-games/arydia-the-paths-we-dare-tread 😉

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Ha! My last two review copies, I ended up spending money on the relevant Kickstarter to get some additional content so perhaps I should unsubscribe from this channel, too! 🤣

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Thanks for adding this here, Dan! Didn’t realize Far Off Games was still in the pledge manager phase for their latest game. 🙂

[@CptBumFlufff]

@@SoloPlaythroughs You're welcome, also sorry.... 😀

[@SoloPlaythroughs]

Ha! Well said.