Tiny Epic Kingdoms - Solo Variant: “The Dark Armies”

by Christopher Melenberg

Setup
 Set up your own race as normal;
 Place all 7 black meeples on a randomly chosen territory card. The dark armies double up on forests first,
then mountains;
 Choose a random faction to play against;
 Dark Armies start with 1 of each resource;
 Randomly determine the start player;

Game Play
Actions
 When it is your turn: choose an action and carry it out (as usual, you may not collect resources instead of
performing the action, but you may skip doing the action);
 When it is the Dark Armies turn: roll a d6 to determine which of the 6 actions are chosen (roll a die until one
of the unchosen actions comes up), however the Dark Armies don’t actually carry out the action (they take
no actions until the end of a round). You may then carry out that action or collect resources as usual, if you
wish.
 At the end of a round (i.e. after 5 actions have been chosen): the Dark Armies now perform the following
actions:
o Move the Dark Armies tower level and magic level up by 1;
o Add 1 of each resource to their available resources;
o Send one of their minions to attack you, if possible (except if they just completed their tower).

War
 When you attack: you chose resources for your bid then roll a d6 to determine the Dark Armies’ bid. When
you go to war against the Dark Armies they do not spend resources;
 When the Dark Armies attack: they will always attack in the priority of forests; mountains; plains, unless
they are missing a land type in which case they will attempt to regain that missing land type. If they are
missing more than one type of land, they will follow the same priority as above. After resolving the battle,
the Dark Armies must spend resources equal to their attack number. Spend all Mana first. If the Dark Armies
have resources that are less than 6 when attacking, roll a die until a possible result appears;
 Unlike in the regular game, the Dark Armies can war against your final player cube, thus eliminating you;
 If you win a war, you “capture” the defeated army and keep its cube in front of you (for game-end bonuses).

Special Defence Bonus

When the dark armies attack, you get a defence bonus equal to whichever is lower: your tower level or your magic
level. For example: if your tower is level 2 and your magic is level 1, you get a defence bonus of 1.

Game End
The game ends when either the Dark Armies complete their tower OR all of their armies have been defeated OR you
are eliminated. If you are eliminated or the Dark Armies complete their tower they summon an unstoppable evil to
the land: you lose. Should you defeat all of their armies before they complete their tower, you saved the day!

Note: on the final round in which the Dark Armies complete their tower they do not then send an army to attack you
– the game is over.

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 Tiny Epic Kingdoms - Solo Variant: “The Dark Armies”
by Christopher Melenberg

Scoring
You get points normally for number of armies, magic level (and bonuses), and tower level. Additional points are
scored as follows:
 +1 point for each Dark Army you captured due to winning a war;
 If all Dark Armies were defeated, you get bonus points depending on how quickly they were defeated.
Count the number of steps remaining for the Dark Armies to complete their tower:
o 1 Step: 1 VP
o 2 Steps: 4 VP
o 3 Steps: 9 VP
o 4 Steps: 16 VP

Score Rating
 < 5: You just held on
 5 - 9: Nothing special
 10 - 14: A decent finish
 15 - 19: A memorable affair
 20 - 24: The stuff legends are made of
 25+: An Epic!

Variants
Want to make your solo game easier or harder?
 Easiest: Dark Armies start with no resources + Easier + Easy level settings;
 Easier: Start with a region of your choosing + Easy level settings;
 Easy: On your turn, you may take resources instead of carrying out the action or doing nothing;
 Normal: As per these rules;
 Hard: Start with a region that has a single forest and mountain region and 3 plains;
 Harder: Dark Armies ignore resources entirely + Hard level settings;
 Hardest: Start with only 3 resources of your choosing + Harder + Hard level settings.

Dark Armies Faction Card

Instead of using a random faction to play against, use the Dark Armies Faction Card from the last page of this
document for the Dark Armies.

Note: Choosing to play against this Dark Armies card instead of a random faction will make each of the Easiest to
Hardest variants a lot harder. This is highly recommended!

Want less randomness to your game?

For bidding on War resources: Roll the Dark Armies die before choosing whether or not to spend resources. This
makes the game easier too, of course.

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 Tiny Epic Kingdoms - Solo Variant: “The Dark Armies”
by Christopher Melenberg

Score Pad
Date Your Faction Dark Armies’ Faction Variant Level Score

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 Tiny Epic Kingdoms - Solo Variant: “The Dark Armies”
by Christopher Melenberg

Dark Armies Faction Card

Original variant thread on BoardGameGeek: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1104375/solo-play-dark-armies

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