At the end of 2022 I decided I needed to play more board games. I have a big shelf filled with games but my time playing them has dwindled over the years. When I first go into the hobby I had a few friends in my neighborhood who were just as interested in playing my games as me. It was easy to get a game night together on any random weeknight because we could just walk to each other’s apartments and have a good time. Slowly but surely, those friends moved from NYC to explore opportunities in the west. From that point on, it was maybe once a month, if that, I got to play board games. As the years progressed, that once a month average was reduced to maybe a year or more without playing a single game. My interest in board games hadn’t gone anywhere, just the people I could rely on playing on a regular basis. I had never thought about playing solo because, to me, board games were a social thing. Until I really thought about some of my favorite games, many of them are basically solitaire games with other people around. A friend of mine in a different state also pretty much only plays solo games. So for 2023 when I decided to do the 10x10 challenge (play 10 games 10 different times) I figured the best way to complete it was to invest in solo games. The first game I bought specifically because I heard it had a solid solo component was Paladins of the West Kingdom.
Paladins of the West Kingdom is designed by Shem Phillips and published by his own company Garphill Games. Over the years, Shem has developed a system of designing games in different settings, starting with the North Sea series. Unbeknownst to me, before purchasing Paladins I had played a Shem Phillips game already - Explorers of the North Sea. Raiders is a really fun pick up and deliver style game. Each player commands a longboat and a crew of vikings exploring the North Sea. As you explore, you reveal hexes that display what your vikings discover. Sometimes it’s chickens. Sometimes it’s a settlement. Sometimes it’s an enemy boat. When you find livestock you place the meeple of that animal on the revealed hex. You can choose to load the livestock onto your longboat or you can leave it there and hope your opponents don’t get to it first. For some reason I find a lot of joy in seeing my little longboat with two vikings and a chicken on it, sailing around the North Sea. To me, that visual is something that would draw in the random passer-by. After finishing the North Sea series, Garphill moved onto The West Kingdom series.
Paladins of the West Kingdom is the second game in the series, following up the successful Architects of the West Kingdom. I bought Paladins at the recommendation from a friend without knowing anything about it and to be honest, I’m so bad at it I’m not sure I fully understand it to this day. There is a lot going on in this game, I don’t even know where to start explaining it. In this game, you start your turn by picking one of three Paladin cards you draw from your personal deck. Each player has the same deck, but which cards you draw will be random each game and each round. That paladin has a special ability for you to use for the round. They also start you with 2 paladins of certain colors and gives you a bonus to your military strength, your political standing, and your standing with the faith. You use these attributes to determine the strength of some of the available actions. You also take a tavern card, which will give you four more meeples of different colors to place throughout your turn.
On your turn, you have a myriad of options before you. On the left side of your player board you have basic actions like gain money, gain provisions, recruit villagers, and upgrade actions on the right side of your board. On the right side of the board is where things really get intense. There are a number of actions here that cost 3 meeples each. Each action requires 2 meeples of specific colors and 1 meeple of any color. If you have the resources, you can use the upgrade action on the left side of the board to upgrade one of these actions on the right. Each right side action can be upgraded twice, leaving only one colored meeple spot revealed. Many of these actions also cost provisions or money and require a certain level of attribute to complete. These actions also raise attribute levels the more you perform them. The goal is to develop an engine where one action feeds another action, that feeds another, that feeds another.
Now, like I said, I bought this game for the solo mode and have only played it solo so far. The first few games made me feel like my brain was on fire trying to control everything. Not only am I thinking about my own strategy, but I also have to remember how to run the AI board as well. But I have to say, after two or three games, I understood the AI enough to make it feel almost like autopilot to allow me to focus on my own strategy. With that said - the only wins I have under my belt where either because I did something wrong or because I got very lucky with how the AI actions were timed.
This game is also about timing. When you decide to perform an action is crucial because you have only so many actions you can take per round so it’s important you get the right paladin out and utilize their benefit as much as possible. If you lose, it’s because you just didn’t play well. This sounds silly but there are games where you can play poorly and still do well because of random factors. When you lose Paladins, you mostly have only yourself to blame. I still have yet to get a real strong grasp of the strategy in Paladins but each time I play I want to reset and try again. I feel like I’m very close to truly understanding it but I’m not quite there.
With all that said, despite the crushing defeats and feel like a complete moron, I couldn’t be happier with it. The AI feels like another player playing next to you. The strategy is difficult but rewarding. If I had to complain about anything it’s that there’s no clear opening move strategy to help you move along. At the start of the game any new player, despite knowing the rules, could feel completely lost as to what to do first. The internal storage is also a complete mess. The components barely fit in the box. I bought a 3D printed internal storage solution but there’s still a 5-10mm raise on the lid. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than as-shipped.
Even though I love Paladins as a solo game, I don’t know if I would ever recommend it to anyone. It’s a very heavy Euro style game that is very punishing to new players. I haven’t played it multiplayer, so I’m curious to see how it goes and how it’s received by other players, but as of now, I’d say look elsewhere unless you are really into the hobby and want to get into solo gaming. It is solidly my favorite solo game in my collection, but I’m holding my breath on it being a hit as a multiplayer game.