Highest solo game

[FrankJones]

Tried that exercise some time ago, my best result is 527, with Prelude, Colonies, at Amazonis… and, of course, Point Luna corp: https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=858725581

So I usually discard dozens of games until get promising initial setup. There are some hints:

• As my friend says, cards are the best you can get in that game, so it should be Point Luna corp - it easily allows you to reshuffle the deck in 14th gen (or even 13th somitems).

• Of course, to draw so many cards Pluto colony should be in play. First put any usual colony on it from any card except two that allows placing on the same colony, then that two - with such setup you are able to draw lots of cards each gen from Pluto only. Another good is Miranda (animals + cards). Callisto with energy is third good - it allows you to visit all colonies when you have many fleets but experience luck of energy in the beginning. Titan with floaters is also good for points.

• Don't spend resources to keep cards that give you only points in most cases like Advanced Ecosystem, etc. - most probably you'll be able to get them in the end from reshuffled deck.

• Play Search For Life for the tag only, don't perform it's action until the end, it's fail when you discard AGT or AI.

• Have to evaluate when you already have lots of resources and start spending floaters for VPs, not for resources.

• etc.

In general, everything depends on luck, how fast you get most of discounts, projects that give you cards. It's possible to play most of useful cards, some of the cards are just useless e.g. cards that gives you just oxygen, they are suitable as dummy cards for exchange on Pluto or via Mars University. In the end the whole map should be covered. So plan how to place cities better. And don't spend money on standard Greenaries when you have enough plants to complete the map in the end.

Also with good luck 400+ is possible with any other corp.

I watched the entire replay. Fascinating.

I think you left some points on the table; 7-ish, by my count. Not saving a spot for Capital, not keeping your energy high enough to use physics complex on gen 14, playing more STD project cities than necessary before drawing Pets.

I guess the only way to guarantee getting 3 points on SFL would be to have no cards in the draw or discard pile and then sell a microbe card.

Discarding a card like advanced Ecosystems seems risky. You barely got to the reshuffle and only went a couple cards into the reshuffled deck, right?

Either way, very impressive. I've tried similar things with various games, but I quickly get frustrated restarting over and over trying to get the right setup.

[FrankJones]

This requires a lot more patience than I apparently have.

It took 25 or 30 resets just to get Point Luna and Pluto. Luna was also there, along with Enceladus and Titan.

Then came the ongoing barrage of.... garbage.

What percentage of the time does this actually go well?

I was bottom-decked on AI Central, Dev. Center, Mass converter, Antigrav, earth catapult, Mars U, Olympus, Earth Office, Sky docks, Media Group, and most of the other useful cards. I think I eventually saw Mars U but that was when I played Invention contest and I needed to take Deimos Down to just to avoid losing the damn game.

I managed to terraform on the final gen and score a whopping 124 points. That's pitiful. I can do that on the standard map without preludes or colonies. (Not often, but occasionally.)

[ft029]

I just got to the part where Tolik uses robo workforce to copy food factory, and then cycles to get... medical lab with 45 building tags, haha. And then finds martian rails with 0 energy remaining, alas.

Absolutely amazing game, super well done assembling such a beautiful engine.

[FrankJones]

It was fun to watch. The snowballing synergy was great.

The most interesting part of my game was when I played Media Archives in the final generation to get 22 MC back, but I had to pay 7 for the card because my only non space discount was -1.

Of course, the card I drew was ... media group.

[Tolik42]

I think you left some points on the table; 7-ish, by my count. Not saving a spot for Capital, not keeping your energy high enough to use physics complex on gen 14, playing more STD project cities than necessary before drawing Pets.

Of course, it's not ideal play, hard to keep everything in mind, do not miss anything and do not spend hours on that. I think theoretical maximum with the current setup is somewhere around 600.
Btw, firstly I tried to get max with Vitor, if you are lucky it's also quite good, sometimes it's funny when you play dozen of cheap cards in the same gen for free and get even more money from them. But it doesn't allow you to get so many cards as Point Luna.
There were few more games where I was close to 500.

Discarding a card like advanced Ecosystems seems risky. You barely got to the reshuffle and only went a couple cards into the reshuffled deck, right?

Yeah, probably I mentioned it wrong. It makes sense to do that only in first gens when each coin is too valuable to start the engine as early as possible. And if you are lucky enough you still are able to pick such cards from reshuffled deck. When you already have enough resources Adv Eco also useful for tags in the middle of game.
Btw, when you already have enough resources you have to get all the cards from the draw and from Inventors' Guild / Business Network, even all the useless cards to have enough cards for exchange. There are not too many useless cards. And it's a pity if you get good cards from Pluto / Mars University and nothing to exchange.
Playing Invention Contest and Business Contracts also can ruin your game but they are still worth to play when appropriate. For instance, in one of my latest Arena games from Contest I drew Earth Catapult, Research Outpost and Water Import. Hard choice in Arena and complete fail in solo when you try to max VPs.

Either way, very impressive.

Thanks.

[Tolik42]

I just got to the part where Tolik uses robo workforce to copy food factory, and then cycles to get... medical lab with 45 building tags, haha. And then finds martian rails with 0 energy remaining, alas.

I don't remember details of play, but yeah, there are always some unlucky situations. Anyway, if game is a good one in last gens you have resources you can't even spend anymore, no cards - no empty hexes.

Absolutely amazing game, super well done assembling such a beautiful engine.

Thanks.

[FrankJones]

I think theoretical maximum with the current setup is somewhere around 600.

I'm going to guess it's much higher. The theoretical max for base solo on the Tharsis map was shown to be around 525 points. (Using a rigged deck, of course).

With preludes and colonies and the Amazonia map, if the deck ran out perfectly, I would assume several hundred extra points can be added to that 525. The extra Jovians alone add a lot of points. The larger map adds a lot of points. Assume two of the 3 colonies are point-scoring; Miranda and either Titan or Enceladus. Then factor in all the extra cards with printed VP. And the additional cards have blue actions that give points each generation.

[Peach 2d]

Tolik – I think you’ve moved into a different dimension – pretty incredible to see such monster scores.
I’ve carried on with base game only, and after remaining “stuck” in the 170s range for high scores, I’ve had a few higher scores than that on Amazonis.

224 VP – Credicor - https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=882222040
199 VP – Ecoline - https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=881704664
187 VP – Tharsis Republic - https://boardgamearena.com/table?table=881835769

There’s a pretty decent range of corporations that will somehow allow a solid score, is my impression.

A different question comes to mind: how well would you say does solo game experience and skill translate to the competitive 2p/3p game format? I think the solo game has helped me get familiar with the game mechanics, cards, engine building and tempo, and given a solid appreciation for terraforming tracks, who controls them and how game length is likely to work out. And of course how I can influence that to my advantage. I’ve got a reasonable handle on 2p/3p game dynamics, interaction, denial, game length management, balancing milestones/awards with tempo and engine building, and with drafting and so on. But plenty of people who have never played a solo game in their lives will still run circles around me.