Antiquity is a game that adapts itself very well to solitaire plays: They permit you to to familiarize with the game system for the first time, to find out about the options you get with the different saints, and to learn to resist to play it without learning it first, and finally they lighten the burden of the temporary absence of an opponent.

A good way to train against oneself is to lay out only two tiles adjacent to each other and to begin, hoping to win before the game system overwhelms you by famine, pollution or lack of resources.

But this exercise, even if it allows you to get a better knowledge of the mysteries of the game, does not even come close to a face-to-face game, in particular to its most dense form, in a two-player contest.

The more you play Antiquity the more you discover that it derives its magic from its grinding system, but even more from the pressure, even aggression from the other players.

Playing alone, your style changes: You will probably not take the time nor space to build a Dump, you will not experiment with investment in Inns if it is not just to gain access to outlying resources, you will not manage famine and pollution very strictly. To make these solitaire games more dynamic, you find a proposal to introduce random events in the following text.

Setup

Create a map from 3 tiles, in the same way as for a two-player game but without the opponent's start tile. Before you you have your start tile, one (tile 1) above it to the left, and one (tile 2) above it to the right.

Both upper borders of tiles 1 and 2 form the entry points for your virtual opponent (these are the borders that would normally lead to your opponent's start tile in a two-player game).

Each of these borders has 9 hexes. Number them 1-9 for the left tile and also 1 to 9 for the right one.

Take 4 explorers, one of each resource type, and remove two of them randomly and without looking at them. Add 4 more explorers, one of each type, and distribute the 6 explorers randomly and face-down on the 6 exploration hexes on the 3 tiles.

Get a 10-sided die and a turn number marker.

Game Play

The game is played exactly as it is in a multi-player game with the following exception:

After phase 7 (Explorer), and before phase 8 (Famine) begins, roll the die and look up the result in the table given below. Before you start the game, you must decide on the difficulty level you want to play.

Look up the result in the appropriate column and for your current turn number; depending on the die roll, you will get either no event, one event or two events. Apply the event results as described below the event table. After that, continue with phase 8 (Famine).

When the virtual opponent appears for the first time in the game you must determine his entry point onto one of the central tiles. Roll the die; on a roll of 1 to 5 he will enter the left tile, and on a roll of 6 to 10 (10 = 0 on most dies) he will enter the right tile. Roll again to determine the exact hex (1 to 9) on which he will appear (re-roll if you roll 10).

After the victory check in phase 10 advance the turn marker.

Event Explanation

• Famine +1/+2

  Rise the famine level immediately by 1 or 2

• Explorer -1

  Remove one Explorer from the map; take the one closest to your opponent's Inn or, if no such Inn has been placed yet, the one most distant from your start City. (Do not look at or act upon the Explorer in any way).

• Inn

  Immediately place one Inn on the map, using a token from an unused player color. If this is the opponent's first Inn on the map, determine its point of entry as described above, otherwise place it by a new roll of the die:

  • on a roll of 1 to 3, count starting from the lower left edge of the opponent's previous In;
  • on 4 to 7 count down from the lower edge of the opponent's previous Inn;
  • on 8 to 10, count starting from the lower right edge of the opponent's previous Inn.

  Place the Inn two hexes distant, three if the opponent's Stable is active.

  If the previous Inn is adjacent to water and the opponent's Harbor is active (see below), place the new Inn as far away from the previous one as possible and as close to your closest City as possible.

  Finally, if the roll of the die results in an impossible placement position, re-roll.

• Pollution N

  Take N Pollution tokens and place them in the next Pollution phase, before placing your own. Place them as close as possible to your own possessions, starting either from an entry hex (determined as described above) or from a City or Inn.

  If possible the opponent will try to pollute hexes in your Zone of Control.

• City

  Build a City for your opponent, in the neighborhood of one of his Inns and as close as possible to one of your own Cities, according to the normal rules of the game. Ignore this event if the opponent already has a City on the map.

• Dump - Stable - Harbor

  Mention of these buildings means that they are active for your opponent for the next round, regardless of your die roll. Consider this when placing your opponent's Inns, City or Pollution.

The Saints

While all saints are playable in the solitaire game, San Giorgio poses an obvious problem (remember, with San Giorgio, you win when you have all your opponent's Zone of Control in your own Zone of Control).

In the solitaire game, San Giorgio's victory condition is assumed to have been achieved when you have in your Zone of Control all 18 hexes of the upper borders of tile 1 and 2, plus all hexes in the Zone of Control of Inns and Cities your enemy may have built on the map.

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