BOX
OF
DELIGHTS
RICKY
ROYAL
MYSTIC VALE
Mystic Vale was a tough one to solo. Some ideas relied too much on the right cards appearing at the right time to score big, and others relied on a lot of luck. With some variants, either the long game or the quick rush for VPs became the only viable strategy. But with the variant you now see below, either is viable, and you will see cycling of lots of cards, just like in a multi-player game.
MYSTIC VALE SOLITAIRE RULES by Ricky Royal
You will be competing against the “King of Darkness”. The King of Darkness is basically a timer, and you are in a race to achieve the most victory points. If you end the game with more VPs than the King of Darkness then you are victorious. You can rank your games by trying to beat your best margin of victory.
SETUP
Give the King of Darkness thee 5VP tokens (for a total of 15VPs).
Set up the game as normal, except you will place only 13VPs in the VP Pool, and you will use only 9 Level 1 Advancements. Use only 1VP tokens in the VP Pool.
GAMEPLAY
There is really only one player in this game: you. So, take consecutive turns until game end, with the following changes:
DISCARD PHASE
For every Level 2 Advancement you bought during the Harvest phase, remove the right-most Level 1 Vale card from the game.
For every Level 3 Advancement you bought during the Harvest, remove the right-most Level 2 Vale card from the game.
For every Advancement you bought during the Harvest, remove the advancement directly above it on the table, from the game.
For example, if you bought the left-most level 1 advancement during Harvest, then remove the left-most level 2 advancement from the game. If there is no card to remove, then there is nothing to remove (!)
Replenish Vales
Before replenishing, shift all Vales to the right and fill from the left.
PREP PHASE
After completing the Prep Phase, and only if you have reshuffled your discard pile at least once during the game, give 1 VP token, from the VP Pool, to the King of Darkness; If there were no VP tokens left to give, then the game ends immediately.
GAME END
For every 1VP token after the 6th that the King of Darkness has won, give him an additional 5VP token.
For example, if the King of Darkness finishes the game with 8 1VP tokens, give him an additional 10VPs. Together with the 15VPs he started the game with, this will net him a total of 33VPs.
