In the solo game, use whichever side of the home board you like. You will need a second set of Vikings of a different color.
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Place 1 Viking (2 Vikings in the short game) of one color (here: red) on round space 1 at the "Banquet Table", and another 2 Vikings each on spaces 3, 5, and 7 (the latter only in the long game).
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Place 2 Vikings of the other color (here: yellow) each on round spaces 2, 4, and 6.
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Place 5 Vikings of the first color (red) on the Thing Square, and 5 Vikings (6 Vikings in the short game) of the other color (yellow) on the "waiting space" of your home board.
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Remove the remaining Viking of the second color from the game. (In the short game, remove 1 Viking of the first color instead).
Play the game as though it were a multiplayer game, taking one turn after another. Since you do not have any opponents, leave the Vikings from the previous round on the game action board, blocking the action spaces. This is why you have Vikings of two colors.
Course of a Round
Play the first round as in the multiplayer game. In phase 12, do not take any Vikings from the action board. Instead, move the 5 Vikings of the other color from the "waiting space" to the Thing Square. In round 2, you receive 2 additional Vikings of the other color.
At the end of round 2, leave the Vikings you placed in round 2 on the action board and return the Vikings from the first round to your home board. Place these Vikings in round 3. Continue play in this fashion until the final round.
Notes on the Phases of a Round:
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Once you are familiar with the solo game, you can skip phase 3. If you would like to know which exploration boards are available in any given round, check the appendix on page 15. It will also tell you how big the reward for exploring a specific board is.
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Always skip phase 6. (You have the privilege to always be the first player).
In the solo game, I prefer to lay out more mountain strips during setup than required. I use a pencil to mark how many of those mountain strips are available to me at each time. This way I can go much quicker through phase 11 and enjoy the game more.
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In phase 12, you can look at the "Banquet Table" to see which Vikings you must remove from the action board.
A final score of 100 is considered a very good score for the solo game. In the long game, you can get there with experience, but in the short game this is rather difficult to achieve. If you like the challenge, be our guest and beat it. (Due to the blocking Vikings, the solo game usually has lower scores than the multiplayer game).
If you like, you can look through the light brown occupation cards and choose one for the start of the game, instead of drawing one at random. This way you can explore specific aspects of the game.
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