In Ragusa, it's possible to play solo - when doing so, you'll go head-to-head against The Patrician, a powerful aristocrat who rules with an iron fist.

Recently married into a second powerful family, The Patrician now operates with twice the resources, land and manpower as you.

To make matters worse, he has pulled strings around the city to reserve building sites and ensure he gets his way...

Setup

In Solo Mode, the Patrician uses 2 player boards, with 12 houses in different colors for each. You also have 12 houses, but when you begin the game, all colors will have placed three houses, according to the diagram below (assuming the player is Purple).

Each bot (Blue and Orange) starts with 3 Woodcutters, 3 Stone Quarries, 1 Silver Mine, 1 Vineyard and 1 Olive Grove. The player has 2 Woodcutters, 3 Stone Quarries, 2 Silver Mines, 1 Vineyard, and 1 Olive Grove.

Shuffle the Patrician deck (left) and randomly choose 6 cards from it (return the remainder to the box). Each card in the deck highlights 3 numbered locations in the city.

For each card, mark the matching locations on the board with a black house. These locations are reserved for the Patrician, and are unavailable to the player.

After placing the houses, shuffle the 6 cards and split them into two sets of 3, assigning one to each bot face-down. The spaces on these cards are the spaces those bots will use.

Then, shuffle the Bonus Deck (left) and deal 1 to you (face-up) and 1 to each bot (face-down). These will be revealed and scored at the end of the game.

Finally, shuffle the ship cards, and deal one on each space at the bottom of the board, adjusting the commodity prices accordingly as in the full multiplayer game.

Game Play

The game proceeds for 9 turns. Each turn, the two bots will place first, and the human player will place last. For each bot, the turn proceeds as follows:

• Shuffle the three Patrician cards and pick one

• Place one of the bot's available houses on a space marked on the card with the lowest available number (if a black house is there, replace it, these are only there to 'reserve' spaces). If all 3 spaces are occupied, discard that card and draw a new one.

• Activate the space. For houses on rural hexes, remember to update the resource markers on the bot's player board.

When placing on the Winery, Silversmith, Oil Press, Fishmonger and Cathedral, the actions work as usual (no decisions are required). For other spaces, bots use the action in the way that benefits them most, detailed below:

• 

  Rector's Palace

  Unlike the player, the bot will take two cards face down, and score both at the end of the game.

  
  
• 

  Wharf

  The bot will sell it's most valuable commodity. In case of a tie, it will sell the one it has more of.

  Exception: If a bot has houses round the Cathedral, and a set of three commodities, sell the most valuable commodity that doesn't break the set.

  
  
• 

  Market

  The bot will buy the most valuable good it can afford. If two or more goods are worth the most points, pick one that requires a commodity they have the most of.

  In case of a tie, pick the leftmost card. Exception: As above, do not break the last set for the Cathedral.

  
  
• 

  Mason

  The bot will place a wall on a space that scores them the most points (i.e. a space that touches the most houses and towers of its color).

  If multiple spaces score the highest, it will pick the one that contributes to its longest wall. If the tie persists, pick the 1st in clockwise order from the top corner of the Silversmith.

  
  
• 

  Architect

  The bot will place a tower that contributes to its longest wall:

  • Where possible, on a space that has no house on it

  • Assume the whole wall line will eventually be built

  • Find the longest uninterrupted stretch of walls / their color houses / their color towers / empty spaces, then place a tower on a space that extends it. If both spaces are blocked, find another stretch that can be extended.
    
    If none exists, place the tower on another empty space. Use the same criteria as the Mason to solve ties.

  
  

After both bots have placed, you may place one house on an empty space not reserved for the bots with a black house, and activate the areas in the same way (i.e. following the above rules when activating a bot's house, but making the decisions for your own).

End of the Game

After you've placed your last house, the game ends. Score the longest wall and the Cathedral sets as with the regular game, then reveal and resolve all the bonus cards.

If a bot doesn't have the 'Fish' end scoring bonus card, but has any other resource end scoring cards (Wood, Olives, etc). just before scoring it will convert its available Fish into the scoring resources, in the most beneficial way (e.g. if the bot has 5 Fish, and a scoring card for 2VP for Grapes and 3VP for Stone, it will convert the 5 fish into one Grape and one Stone, so gaining 5VP).

Track each of the bots points independently. The player wins if they score more points than both of the bot players (do not add their scores together).

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