I just got Rival Cities in the other day and thought it would have been great if a solo mode would have been in the box. Since there isn’t, I of course started creating one myself 😀
This is still in development, but it plays surprisingly well for a first attempt. I will continue to tweak it as I go, happy to hear feedback here on difficulty and clarity of the rules.
Latest update Mar 30, 2025
Story
The city of Altona is gaining popularity and as the underdog is winning many hearts. Play as Hamburg against it and reign supreme with efficiency and wit.
General Idea
The automa will not actively try to win, but wear you out. Every turn, it checks the actions within reach and chooses the one that allows it to tie with you in court cases, ships, popularity, or partners cities and otherwise invests in resources and factories to prepare itself for your next move.
All normal rules apply except where explicitly for two modifications:
- For the automa, the first three (instead of two) steps are free, the fourth and firth cost one resource each, and every further step 2 resources as normal.
- The automa gains 2 additional hearts after the last step in the end of season phase.
The automa will try to make use of partner cities and ship effects as best as it can.
Setup
Set up as normal but take the rules summary board off the main board and put it next to the board. Your resources, ships, etc will go underneath the board and the automa’s above it. Arrange them so it’s easy to see where you or the automa might be currently in the lead. E.g. place ships in the left most column (your’s below and its above the board), in the next column the partner cities, next won court cases, etc.
You are the starting player. Give resources to you and the automa accordingly, with the automa choosing furniture as its third resource.
Turn – Determining The Current Objective
When it’s the automa’s turn, it first will check in which of the three dimensions it is currently trailing you (=the human player has more of it than the automa). Its “current objective” will be whatever dimension it is the furthest behind the human player. If there are multiple, use the following priority: ships > won court cases > cities > popularity > in-progress court cases. For the in-progress court cases, sum up the vote values for or agains the automa on all three tracks. If the sum is in favour of the human player, the automa considers this its current objective.
If on the other hand the automa is doing as well or better than the human player in all those criteria, it has no current objective and will use a different set of priorities to basically prepare itself for future turns (see below).
Tip: Place a marker (e.g. a furniture token) on the main board next to the current priority (e.g. the ship market, the partner city display, the popularity track, or the court cases) to help visualise it. If there is no current objective, remove it from the board.
Turn – Trying to Achieving The Object
The automa will then move (paying resources for anything beyond the third step) to the closest action that will allow it to achieve its objective:
- Ships: if it has enough resources and there is a ship action available, it will buy a ship. It buys the cheapest ship (number of resources), then most stars, then beer > cloth > leather > skin. If there is no ship action in reach or it does not have enough resources yet, check the first three actions in front of the ink well and choose the action that would produce/gift it the most resources it could utilise to buy a ship.
- Partner cities: shuffle the cards in the market and give the automa one at random, then place the rest back on the board. It will only take a partner city from the human player if there are none left in the market. It chooses the city with the cheapest upkeep (letter being considered the most expansive) > improves production > most stars. If there are ambiguities, shuffle the affected cards and choose one at random. If it can’t take a city and there is an action or bonus action to get letters within three steps of the ink well, it will take that instead. If otherwise it has buildings it can’t pay the upkeep for yet, it will try to get those resources.
- Court cases: it will choose the next court case action unless it has no matching resources at all. If the first court case is in the -2 to +1 range, the automa will invest in it. If that’s not possible, it will try to maximise the number of steps it moves on any of the three tracks. It spends resources as many times as the court case allows. If two court cases would result in the same number of advances, choose the one that is farther away from the deck (=will be scored sooner). If a court case action is within reach but it doesn’t have any appropriate resources, check the first three actions in front of the ink well and choose the action that would produce/gift it the most resources it could utilise to invest in a court case.
- Popularity: The automa will either take the next heart action it can reach or invest in a court case that will give it a heart as a result of doing so, whichever is closer to the ink well.
If there is no action it can do for its current objective, it will move up to three spaces and do one of the following:
- If it is trailing as well in another criteria and it can do something for it, it will do so.
- Use a bonus action card it already owns to fulfil its current objective (e.g. its current objective is to buy a ship, it has a ship bonus action card on its hand and there is no ship build action with the next three actions in front of the ink well). The automa will only spent a letter if doing the regular action will help it have a bigger impact on the objective it is aiming for (e.g. the resources it gains enable it to buy a ship using the ship action on the bonus card). The automa will move to the action space closest to the ink well unless it needs to move to a specific space because it has to use a letter to do the bonus action successfully.
- Use a bonus action card if it is currently lacking resources to fulfill its objective and it has one that would give it some it can utilize.
- Pick up a bonus action card that shows the symbol of the action needed to pursue its current objective.
- If it has city partnerships it can’t pay the upkeep for yet, it tries to produce them.
- Otherwise it will default to picking the non-bonus action that is closest to the ink well it can perform (e.g. skip court case action if it doesn’t have resources to do any of them). If that is a split action, it prefers the right side and only picks the left it can’t use the right side.
Turn – No Objective
If the automa has no current objective (because in every dimension it’s doing as least as well as or better than the human player), it will move a maximum of three spaces and pick one of the following priorities:
- Use the “switch court cases” action if the first case is +2 or higher in favour of the human player and the second case is only +1 or lower in favour of the human player (i.e. it tries to prevent the human player from gaining the card but doesn’t mind if it gets a star)
- Use the donate action to buy stars
- If it has less factories than the human player, it tries to get one
- If it has less resource tokens than the human player, it tries to produce as many resources as it can (using all unspent factories it has)
- Otherwise it will default to picking the non-bonus action that is closest to the ink well it can perform (e.g. skip court case action if it doesn’t have resources to do any of them). If that is a split action, it prefers the right side and only picks the left it can’t use the right side.
End of Season
Proceed as normal. The automa will only pay upkeep for a partner city to either keep tied with the human player in number of cities – or – if it is the last round (to keep the stars printed on the card for end game scoring). Note: if either case is true, the automa will reserve resources/letters to be able to upkeep them and not spend those during the round. Place the resources for the cities it needs to maintain on the cards as a reminder.
However, if the automa has “survived” another season, it gets +2 additional hearts at the very end of season end phase. This is its popularity bonus and will compensate for it never choosing popularity itself as its round objective.
End of Game
Score as normal. However, a tie in stars is a win for the automa independent of who has the bell.
Effects of Partner Cities and Ships
The automa will try to use the effects available to itself as much as it can, as long as it doesn’t directly prevent it from achieving its current objective. If there is any ambiguity or choice, the human player is to choose what is the best move for the automa. Any immediate effect (e.g. two free court case actions) is utilised even if it doesn’t match the automa’s current objective.
Special clarifications:
- Ship 17: The automa from now on always considers the next four actions instead of three actions where the rules above mentioned them.
- Amsterdam: the automa will prioritise doing the basic donation action over getting resources for a current objective, but not over achieving its objective directly