I just started playing Creature Caravan but didn’t like the automa that comes in the box. It doesn’t use its card effects, it doesn’t really interact with the player except for the side boards, and it took me a bit too much out of my own turn. And in the end it’s rather random which cards (and therefore how many points) it gets. So here is an attempt to both make the solo mode more “stable”, faster to play, and more challenging. I’ve dubbed it “Veteran Mode” in honour of the variant Ryan posted a while ago to make Distant Skies harder 😀
I think this variant is already fun to play, but still in an early stage. This thread is mostly to get interested people involved early and collect feedback on difficulty. I’ll add pictures to illustrate concepts somewhere down the line as the mechanisms become more stable. Let me know what you think in the comments and have fun!
Latest update: Dev 7, 2024
Story
Things have gotten deadly in Arzium. Reaching Eastray is no longer an option but the only way to survive and lingering for too long on our way will certainly mean our end. But we can’t just rush there and leave others behind!
General
All rules from the base game stay the same except for the changes mentioned in this variant. However, this completely replaces the solo mode mentioned in the rules and the victory condition. The automa will not use any resources or cards but will move over the map, place camps, and compete for market trades and zombies. The variant will likely also work for 2-3p games and with an arbitrary number of automa, but I have so far only tested it solo against two automa. I also haven’t tested it with the expansion yet.
Remember: the normal limit for your caravan (12 creatures) applies unless a card modifies it and as usual no creature can be removed/replaced once it is placed into the caravan. Also keep in mind the game allows you to do a re-roll at the start of each turn.
Winning The Game
In order to win the game, you will now need to achieve two things:
- Reach Eastrey: If you don’t have at least a single camp on Eastrey, you automatically lose.
- Reach 100VP: If after scoring you have less than 100VP, you lose. You likely didn’t pick up enough creatures or they didn’t work well together.
Only if both conditions are fulfilled does it count as a win. Victory points are tallied as described in the normal rules. Automa do not count VP and cannot win.
Setup
Set up the game as usual but do not use any player/automa boards for the automa. Instead just take the tents and cubes of two non-player colours and place them somewhere off the board. These represent the two rival caravans that compete with you. Automa don’t get any starting resources or cards.
After you have chosen your starting position, roll a single D6 for each automa and place their caravan token in the respective row, counting from top to bottom.
Turn
You are always first in turn order and perform your turn as normal. Once you’re done, for each automa roll 4D6 to figure out its movement for that round. From their current position, count one space per die and place a tent on the target space after applying all four dice:
1 = One step up
2 = One step up and on step to the right
3 = One step to the right
4 = One step down and one step to the right
5 = One step down
6 = No movement for this die
Example: 4, 3, 6, 1 results in going two squares to the right (the upward-movement of the 1 is canceled by the downward movement of the 4).
Most of the time, it doesn’t matter in which order the dice are counted. If the path would however lead the automa over the top or bottom edge of the board, try to change the order of dice so the path stays within the bounds of the board. If the path still moves outside the board, clamp it against the edge (e.g. a 2 over the upper edge becomes just a move to the right instead of up and right). For now, still keep the caravan token on the square where it started the turn.
Re-roll: Count the distance between the start and target square in horizontal and vertical (not diagonal) movements. If the distance is greater than 4, remove the newly placed tent and re-roll all dice. Also if the target tent isn’t at least one step closer to Eastrey (e.g. automa would move only up or down), re-roll all dice.
Now check the shortest path between the start and target square. If it passes through (or stops on) at least one red canyon, it will place a single cube on the lowest available coin trade. If it passes through (or stops on) at least one blue mountain, it will place a single cube on the lowest available bag trade. If it passes through (or stops on) a zombie square, it will fight the lowest available zombie. If there are multiple shortest paths, the automa will try to maximise the number of cubes it places, followed by the lowest VP cube it can place. If there still should be an ambiguity, roll a die to choose between the available options. If the automa runs out of cubes, it will no longer place any for the rest of the game.
Finally, move the automa’s caravan token to the target square and proceed with the next automa.
End of Turn
Important: you (and the automa) ignore board effects for squares that already have a tent in them from a previous round. So if there is a tent on a zombie square, moving through it neither causes the player to get a zombie token nor allows it to battle one. Same for towers, chests, etc. However, card effects (e.g. “gain three food when passing through a water square”) still apply.
Zombie Squares
Trying to rush through zombies has become more challenging. If you enter a zombie square and do not fight it, put the zombie token with one of your cubes on top of it (as a marker) on the zombie board. Place it underneath the column of the lowest still available zombie (i.e. that doesn’t have a cube on the lowest of the three spaces in that column and you have not fought yourself already). This counts as that many negative VP at the end of the game.
Optional / Under Consideration
Rules in this section are ideas I’m toying with but haven’t fully tested yet:
- Limiting dice: A die used for an action can only be up to two pips higher than the action indicated (e.g. an action requiring a 1 can only be triggered with a 1-3, no longer with a 4-6). This is an idea to counter that rolling higher dice is always better than lower ones.
- Co-op mode: If there are multiple human players, all of them have to fulfil both victory conditions or they lose collectively. If multiple players end their turn on the same square, they can trade members of their caravan, food, coins, fruits or bags (not cards on their hands) however they chose. If multiple players end their turn on the same zombie square, they combine their combat values and place their cubes on top of each other on the side-board. This means they will split the VP at the end of the game.
- More competition: an automa doesn’t only place a single cube per type (coin trade, bag trade, zombie) per turn but can place multiple. E.g. if it is moving through multiple zombie squares, it will place multiple cubes. Also automa will no longer avoid zombie squares but actually prioritise moving through them, thus fighting even more zombies.
- Negative effects: if an automa ends their turn on a tower, all human players have to discard one card from their hand. If it ends on a fruit, each player removes one fruit. For chests, players have to discard half their collected chests (rounded up).