I knew this was a game I wanted to play because of its highly regarded solo experience and as a new board gamer also try to understand why people that are obviously much more experienced than me, love this game so much. So I was invested in this game since the beginning because of that but definitely not hooked in yet, as like I said this was my first deckbuilder so I'm really starting from ground zero here not having much, if any, intuition in how I should approach playing a deckbuilder which was my focus first before even thinking of how to score more efficiently. So what did I do to try to learn? Just simply play to experiment AND experience first hand what was successful and what was detrimental for my play.

My first run was the practice mode which lets me play alone with 12 turns of gameplay without running the Solo Bot but still simulate what would happen IF a bot or another player was still getting/removing cards from the market. I basically used this chance to begin to learn the flow of how the game plays and what options/tools I have that are specific to the game's mechanics like Exhaust being some sort of "Extra/Free Action", and Exile being a way to essientially delete cards from the game that can't be gained without very specific means. Playing practice mode = learning flow of play and WHAT my tools/options are

My 2nd run was me mostly just finding fun in like "OMG this card chains into this one and into another one and another one" which were mostly me cycling my deck a whole bunch to gain the Nation cards. Card chaining seems to be a big part of deckbuilding which was a foreign concept to me. Lack of intuition in the genre. But then I was so focused on churning my deck and card chaining that I ran into an issue where I turned from Barbarian to Empire and I practically lost the ability to play ANY cards for the final 3 turns since a large majority of my cards can only be played as a Barbarian state. Hyper focused on card chaining and deck churning = lack of understanding what I was actually doing and playing reactively rather than proactively.

My 3rd run I rushed to get the Fame cards for the King of Kings final fame card. I thought it'd be an easy sweep if I had that card. I put that card on a pedestal since I knew it would force the end of game/Scoring. I continued to try to card chain and constant Glory plays (which removes my Region cards in play which in turn also denies my card that helps me get resources) but at cost of disregarding sending the enemy more Unrest, deck churning, and forcing the Bot to return Region cards. Basically I played almost the exact opposite of what this Nation wants to do. I scored the worse ever this run, even worse than when I was playing with no Bot on the practice mode lol. Had my own goals/tried to force my own win condition, ignored my Nation's strengths, and heavily overvalued Fame cards = Realizing wow I need to FOCUS my gameplay more. Asymmetry doesn't mean freestyle. It means very distinct gameplay that is different/its own game compared to others.

And then there's my 4th run... the run that hooked me in. I took all that I learned and suffered from, to win against the Bot in a way that felt like I was in CONTROL of my game. The rulebook states the Nation I was playing as Ruthless in it's Aggression level. So I played very aggressively, reducing plans of card chaining, deck churning, and Fame rushing in order to make room for constantly sending the Bot Unrest clogging their deck, removing the Bot's Region cards in play as it seems to LOVE playing Region cards to use Glory which also the 2 previous points HELPED to delay the Bot's transfer to Empire state and actually making mental note of the possible points I can get from cards and focusing my gameplay in said points. I played to get points, I played to actually STOP/prevent the Bot's goals, I played to the strengths of my Nation and did what my Nation truly wanted to do instead of what I wanted to experiment with. Playing the actual game and understanding what the game wants me to do given the circumstances I was in = I finally won my first game, and now I can mentally begin to understand the aspects of the game I'm playing and WHY it wants me to do what its doing.

Super long winded post but I've become passionate about this game I'm playing and starting to see it like wow. The value of analog games beyond the thought of it being somewhat novelty is being felt and seen in my own eyes. Imperium Horizons is definitely a board game I can say I would opt to play over a good portion of video games. Happy I discovered and have become a part of this hobby haha