SETI, for me, was the most exciting game of 2024 (How come it didn’t make the Kritik’s prize of Spiel des Jahres?) and when I brought it home from ZATU Eastercon 25 I couldn’t wait to get it played. Fortunately, I have a table big enough to hold its space depicting and space enveloping layout and some willing opponents to play with and my first game was fun, if lengthy and there’s the potential problem.
SETI has over 200 cards that can be used in different ways to eke out your turns in a style reminiscent of its CGE stablemate Lost Ruins of Arnak. Add to this the varied options provided by the innovative rotating wheels of the Solar System and the new opportunities provided when the Alien species appear and you have not so much the possibility of Analysis Paralysis but its inevitability and that means one thing, for me, solo play.
Sensory Enjoyment Takes Imagination
SETI‘s premise of long, lonely nights sweeping the stars with your array of telescopes or probes, like Voyager, on eternal passages through the planets, chime not with the cut and thrust of competive play but resonate with the solo pursuit of gaining incredible results after deep analysis of your collected data.
Solitaire play, then, allows you to ponder as long as you like on the myriad permutations of play open to you without some fretful opponent chivvying you before they slip into deep sleep rather than space.
So is SETI Solo up to it? Yes, definitely.
System Employs Tight Instruction
SETI is designed from the ground up to support solo play with 5 full pages of rules and examples, with 24 Solo objectives and 19 action cards and 5 levels of difficulty for “the Rival” (yes in a manner reminiscent of a restoration comedy your auto opponent is referred to throughout as the Rival)
So SETI is set up as for a normal 2-player game including the 2 neutral milestone markers. The Rival has their own player board and a set of Action Cards.
The Rival player boards are on the back of the normal player boards, ranging in difficulty from 1-5. This affects whether the rival starts with an additional Advanced Action card and the number and make-up of Objectives (not used in Level 1) that you the player will have to try and meet.
The Rival’s board does not have any recesses for Tech Tiles as it can not use their benefits directly just spaces for the 3 different stacks. Similarily their computer just has 6 data token spaces. It does, however, have a Progress track of 12 spaces. This shows which Tech Tile it might take and is advanced 1 step every time it would take an Energy, Credit or a card and 4 steps if it would tuck a card. After every complete circuit it gets an extra Advanced Action card which gives it an extra turn per Round.
So Every Turn’s Important
Solo play sees you play like you normally would with no changes to the basic game you’re just trying to maximise the VPs gained for your research team. The Rival plays by turning their top Action Card and performing one of the actions on it. There will be multiple possible actions, most of which will be conditional but there will always by one action the Rival can perform. You read down the list to see if the Rival meets a condition like having 6+ Publicity or a full computer to analyse etc and if one is met that Action is taken. Otherwise you end up with the standby Action which is usually a Scan. This is no soft option, by the way, as the Rival always get to place 3 data signals rather than the 2 the player normally gets. This 50% uplift really makes a difference as Sectors are won and computers fill with data.
The Rival will pass when, at the start of a turn, there are no Action Cards left to draw. As usual if both sides have passed the Round ends. The first to pass rotates the Solar System and draws a card, if this is the Rival it discards the top card and moves its progress track on by one. The player will choose one of the cards available to them as normal. End of Round sees only the player get their resource income.
The first player marker gets passed on and the new Round starts. After 5 rounds the game ends and only the player gets to score any of their Gold Milestones. Highest score wins and for Level 1 solo difficulty that’s it. Not too challenging.
Starts Easy Then Increases
But Level 2 and above introduces Objectives and Level 3 + means the Rival starts with an extra Advanced Action card (i.e. an extra turn) in their deck.
Objectives come in 3 levels of difficulty. An objective stack is built prior to the start, always with 2 level 1s on top followed by increasing numbers of the level 2s and 3s for a total of 10 at Level 1 difficulty up to a daunting 17 at level 5. These Objectives are a ticking timer but are things you normally do in the course of a game. There are always 3 to work on and each one you complete you take and replace with the next from the stack.
At the end of the Round you must hand in a number of completed objectives equal to the current Round number: 1,2,3 or 4. For any that you are short the Rival advances the Progress Track by 3 spaces. Every loop of this 12 space track adds an extra Advanced Action card to their deck and lengthens their turn.
In addition any uncompleted Objectives at the end of the game count as 5VPs for the Rival. So not completeing any Objectives at all on a level 5 game could mean the Rival advancing 30 spaces on the Progress Track, gaining an extra 2 to 3 Turns per Round and a potential 85 point VP bonus at game end! Better focus on getting some completed then!
Strategy Encourages Thinking Imaginatively
This, then, is what makes Solo SETI great. While even Level 1 is useful in rehearsing the basic mechanics the higher Levels force you to focus on trying to use the interaction of the cards, data and resources available to you to maximise your turns and try to tick off those Objectives.
Don’t get discouraged in the earlier Rounds as the Rival seems to pull away, especially if you’re up against tough Objectives, because at the end only you will score Gold Milestones. Try to max out the big ticket multiples to counter the free VPs the Rival will get for your uncompleted Objectives.
By the way you get to choose who goes first and I naturally jumped in for myself. It can be better, however, to let the Rival have the privilege as not only do you get the extra VP at start but they may well prime Sectors up with Signals allowing you to come in to pick up the 2VPs and make winning a Sector easier.
Strenuous Exercise Try It!
I creamed the Rival at Level 2 with my Gold Milestones. Just beat it at Level 3 because I didn’t complete many Objectives. Steeling myslef for Levels 4 and 5!
Personally, I think this is the best way to play SETI, taking your time to develop winning combinations whilst suffering the frustration of being 1 resource short of making that killer move.
But, maybe, if I just did that first ……
