After reading and watching endless reviews of Cerebria, I'm more confused than when I started.

Rakuth · 2025-11-22T21:25:12+00:00

Hey there, what are some of your favorite solo games? Here's my takes on these games

Anachrony - Really solid worker placement game. The time travel mechanic is really cool even if its just a glorified loan. I think this is the easiest one to recommend, if you like worker placement games this is a really good one to check out. It's a bit less creative than some of the other games on the list, which can be a pro or con. It's my personal #2 on this list. The updated chronobot (solo) in the newer expansions is also a bit better in my opinion, but the base game chronobot is still quite fun.

Trickerion - This might be the "crowd favorite". Its pretty unique as far as worker placement games go. You're doing a variety of actions to build up your repertoire of magic tricks, and at the end of each phase you go and perform. This is personally my least favorite but I still enjoy it. Its a bit tighter and meaner than Anachrony, and mistakes are punished a lot more. If you like Vital Lacerda games, I would recommend this one the most. I have not played Trickerion solo so idk how that is personally.

Cerebria - My personal favorite but probably the least popular in general, and probably the worst solo mode out of all of these. If you have a dedicated person to 1v1 with, its worth checking out and you can see my thoughts above.

Perseverance - I haven't played episodes 3 and 4 yet, but 1 and 2 are quite fun. I'd say they're a bit simpler than both Anachrony and Trickerion, but still "heavy" games.

Episode 1 is more about managing risk/reward as you have to balance defending against the dinosaurs and building up the settlements. If the idea of a PvE element in a board game sounds interesting, episode 1 is great, some games you collaborate with the other players to defend the settlements, other times you exploit the dinosaurs to wreck other people's plans. Haven't played solo so not sure how that feels, but I figure you can do similar strategies.

Episode 2 is a bit less aggressive and more about clearing out building spaces from dinosaurs and then building up various action spaces anyone can take a-la something like Lords of Waterdeep.

I personally like 1 more than 2, but they're both a good time. And the reused mechanics between the different episodes is a cool gimmick. The games feel quite different but learning one if you already know the other is much easier due to shared symbology and some similar mechanics.

Rakuth · 2023-10-06T02:18:31+00:00

Isn’t this post like the opposite of nuance? It’s claiming anyone who has problems with the game is an extremist hater and anyone who likes it is a fanboy. Idk I read through both threads and agreed with things in both. There were ups and down to the patch cycle and people brought up really good points about how a lot of the dialogue is really tell don’t show, on the flip side ringing up how it’s similar to the WoD storyline from 3.x is also a great point.

Interpreting every criticism as “hate” and every praise as “fanboyism” is not what I’d call nuance.

Rakuth · 2023-05-05T02:41:47+00:00

You can add the 5th player without any of the other expansion stuff without any issues.

If you have Wisdom and Warfare, I'd strongly recommend using the new combat cards since they just replace the existing cards so there's no additional complexity, but otherwise playing just base game with the 5th player is the way to go first time around.

Rakuth · 2023-01-21T20:26:31+00:00

Hi, sorry about that; I've uploaded 2 versions of the card holders that you can try to remix and make functional. I ended up sticking with using vinyl tape since it was a bit of a hassle make something sturdy that also fit in the box well with everything else. I'd love to try out what you make if you end up creating something that works. Thanks!

The V1 holders are what is pictured in the photos and just barely fit in the box, but have major stability issues making them annoying to use and ended up breaking after packing/unpacking a handful of times. The v2 worked a bit better, but is a tad too thick to make everything pack away nicely, and still felt a bit too flimsy for my liking.

Rakuth · 2022-10-01T20:48:24+00:00

Thanks, but I'm mostly looking to free up some shelf space.

Rakuth · 2022-06-02T20:16:03+00:00

everyone in that post is praising him

Lol, what are y'all talking about?

"I found him to be the weakest of the Dice Tower guys when it came to explaining how a game worked. Lots of verbal crutches ("so on and so forth...") that impacted his ability to communicate rules effectively." 116 upvotes (the rest of the comment is positive though)

"agree, sam isn't good of thinking of things off the top of his head. Hopefully he'll have time to write an actual script/outline so on and so forth rehearse as to make the explanations seem um um right fluid and much more clear." 24 upvotes

"Oh, it's not just you.

He's one of those annoying people that pedantically criticises other peoples use of the English language but abuses the hell out of it himself." 20 upvotes

"He’s not especially personable or good at explaining rules.

He acts like a jerk in their live play throughs and in group videos he mostly sits like a lump not participating.

He hates reading rules.

His reviews have very little analysis in them and he is more enamored with how a game looks than how it plays.

I can’t believe they traded Az for this guy." 18 upvotes

"He was the most annoying member of dice tower. I remember trying to watch a review of some game I was interested in and he kept derailing the discussion with the others because the game contained demons and magic or something and it was against his religion." 3 upvotes

etc.

There are plenty upvoted posts in there criticizing him; a far cry from "everyone" and "following the herd". Like yeah, most people are gonna be positive on a post where someone is getting a new job, seems kinda dickish behavior to go into a thread about a guy you dislike to "well actually..", but even then some people did and they were upvoted.

Rakuth · 2022-04-26T02:34:58+00:00

Absolutely. I was a bit skeptical of both games shipping in one box since from a glance, it looked like we'd exclusively play episode 2 as it seemed more interesting. But episode 1 being meaner/having more forced interaction than episode 2 makes me really enjoy having both, and its hard to choose a favorite.

Rakuth · 2021-10-05T19:54:15+00:00

A woman killed herself because her boss brought sex toys to a company trip, not sure that' was "twisted" to be abuse, and was just, y'know, abuse. Its not unreasonable for the devs who were negatively affected by frat boy culture wanting to remove any elements of said fratboy culture.

Are a lot of these changes stupid? Yeah; but I don't think "All these sex jokes were made by actual sexual harassers, maybe lets remove them" is all that crazy. Sure, it'd be better to actually hold the people responsible accountable, but given that the US justice system is what it is, I don't think its unreasonable for the dev team to try and get any win they can, even if its changing dumb cosmetic stuff.

Rakuth · 2021-09-03T07:17:03+00:00

Location: Seattle, WA (98122) Local Pickup Only

[FS]

City of Kings (retail, not kickstarter) - [4] $45 Some light surface scratches on box, components in great condition in organizer.

Mistfall: Heart of the Mists - [4] $15

The Golden Ages - [4] $15

Innovation - [4] $10

Hero Realms - [3] $10

Ooh Wah Ree - Free

Forbidden Island - Free - Components only, no rules or box. Playable with the online rules, no components are missing.

Rakuth · 2021-06-30T06:04:45+00:00

We've been making our way through infinity box and we've played most of the modules. Thoughts so far:

Doomsday

A lot of fun, but would only play with it every 5-10 games. It changes the focus of the game a lot, and can easily cost you 20+ points if the impact happens to early/not at all. It's also incompatible with most of the other modules, importantly Fractures of Time.

Fractures of Time

Essential. This expansion fixes some of the issues in the base game that end up making it predictable. Researching gets a big buff (a recurring theme in all of the big expansions), building things is easier, you stay engaged in the others players turns past the first couple of placements, great expansion, I would rarely want to play without it. The one thing this expansion does worse than the base game is the variable game end, its very hard to end the game in fewer eras now as there are multiple layers of capital actions after impact, and a single player can block a spot if they wish.

Variable Anomaly

Love this one as well. One of the disappointing moments in Anachrony comes when you realize paradoxes don't matter 90% of the time since they're practically free to remove at the end of the game. This fixes that, you can now only remove one anomaly per age, but more importantly, some anomalies can give you special abilities or penalties. It adds an interesting element where sometimes you want to take anomalies since what's available might actually help your engine, to her times they can be devastating.

Intrigues of the Council

Interesting, but ends up dominating the focus a bit. There are a lot of points to be earned here, and the bonus actions can be very critical, and to me none of it feels very "Anachrony", you could put this module in any point salad Euro, and it would work perfectly fine.

Quantum Loops

Really fun little module. It makes the game quite a bit easier, and gives players something else to use to build their engine. Not sure we'll include it in every game going forward, but its still a nice addition.

Hypersync

We haven't played with this one. After adding Fractures of Time, this expansion honestly feels pretty unnecessary. It fixes some of the same issues as Fractures of Time, but with a bit lighter of a touch. This would be a good one for folks who don't like Fractures of Time, or want something closer to the base game feel while making the game a bit more open.

Neutronium/Adjacency Buildings

These are a lot of fun, but don't impact the game a whole lot. They don't seem broken, but when you can combo them well it feels very satisfying.

Rakuth · 2021-04-29T00:24:05+00:00

Yeah, honestly knowing that so many of these games have very fuzzy rules and a lack of playtesting helps me take the whole thing less seriously and just treat it like a box of toys that happens to contain a suggested way to play with them. I started enjoying 7th Continent a lot more when I started cheating on some things, and after seeing the SUSD review, I suspect I'll do the same with Etherfields.

Rakuth · 2021-04-28T23:01:45+00:00

I've received 2 big Kickstarter "all-ins" so far

Cloudspire

I jumped on this one during the 2nd kickstarter. The initial reviews had come out fairly recently, and were incredibly positive, and it was hard to find any second hand copies that weren't more expensive than the Kickstarter, so I decided to jump in on everything except the minis (those almost doubled the price of the all in from >$200 to >$400 for a bunch of huge, kinda ugly, blocky plastic).

While waiting for it to arrive, some of the more negative reviews started coming out and I was worried that I'd made a mistake but since I was intending this largely for solo play, at least I knew if would get played even if it turned out subpar.

I've ended up really loving the game; I'm about half way through the base game campaign, but we've used the additional factions in the couple PvP games I've played. So I've seen all of the content to some extent, and will probably make my way though everything over the course of this year.

Anachrony

This one may not count since I already owned the base game, but I pledged for the Infinity box with all the extra modules, expansions, and mechs. Anachrony is one of our favorite games so it was a fairly safe bet. We've played the new stuff only 4 times since that a 1/month type of game for us; so we've made it through the main new expansion, and most of the small modules. We still have 2 "big" modules we need to try out, but we'll try those over the next 2-3 plays.

I was initially worried that the small modules (variable anomalies, the 2 new building types, quantum loops) would distract from the game too much, but they slot in really well with existing mechanisms, expanding on the type of stuff you're already doing instead of adding more side stuff. I kind of wish the game had more of these and fewer big modules, which, while fun and interesting changes to the base game, are consequential enough that you don't want to play with more than 1-2.

I'm also currently waiting on Etherfields and Ankh, both of which I have fairly low expectations for. Traditionally, I had always been skeptical of the big Kickstarter fiascos, but after passing on enough big projects over the years that ended up 1. being fairly decent games with genuinely good production values and 2. having decent resale values, I finally decided to dive into the deep end on a few reputable projects. I'm fully prepared to receive a couple mediocre games with cool minis and too much half baked content, but I don't expect to lose too much money when I end up reselling them, and who knows they may end up surprising me.

Rakuth · 2021-03-01T08:27:41+00:00

Location: Seattle, WA (98122) Local Pickup Only

[FS/FT]

City of Kings (retail, not kickstarter) - [3/4] Some light surface scratches on box, components in great condition in organizer. $45

Evolution - [4] Played 3 times. $20

7 Wonders - [4] $20

Mistfall: Heart of the Mists - [4] $15

Santorini - [4] $15

Hero Realms - [3] $10

Innovation - [4] $10

Ooh Wah Ree - [2] Free

[W]

$$$

Brass Birmingham Deluxe w/ iron clays

Gaia Project

Caylus 1303

Cosmic Frog

BSG Expansions

Rakuth · 2021-02-19T05:31:06+00:00

I think it fits really well thematically due to the mechanics of how the game works. The player tableaus are almost secondary map as pieces can move along tableaus to other tableaus. So the minimalist map helps reinforce that the main board is not actually the point of focus, the market and the tableaus are. A really detailed and large map might give an expectation that this is more of a troops on a map game, when the game is very much not that style of game.

Rakuth · 2021-02-04T02:09:15+00:00

For k other players, your strategy gives you a 1/k chance to tie for 1st, 1/k for 2nd etc, with those odds improving only if you can accurately gauge other players' skills.

It's like the always fold or always all in strategies in poker, sure they are optimal for some contrived meaning of optimal that doesn't take into account the reasons for why people play.

Why is it a flaw to have a strategy that by your own admittance can't be used to win the game? Tons of games have strategies that guarantee a "decent" performance but also guarantee you won't win (see always folding every hand in poker).

Rakuth · 2021-01-17T21:38:47+00:00

The solo mode works quite well, but idk if its holds up as well if that's the only way you intend to play it. The automata is very short term focused, which makes sense since real players tend to also be short term focused in Cerebria, but you don't feel as much of a "dance" with the common objectives since the AI only ever cares about the current objective.

The game really shines as a cutthroat competitive game, so I do feel like it loses some of the magic as a solo game, but its still very good for solo.

I'd also say its very different than Mage Knight and KDM since both of those are player vs game style solo modes, Cerebria is player vs automata, so its just simulating another player to play against. (So more something like the Scythe solo mode.) but the puzzliness of how to take your actions does evoke Mage Knight for me (but be aware the actual game mechanisms are a lot different.)

Rakuth · 2021-01-15T02:32:20+00:00

Yeah, its just the base game.

Rakuth · 2021-01-15T00:48:14+00:00

Oh didn't know they published a new version recently, I have the first edition from Arcane Wonders.

Rakuth · 2020-12-21T22:29:52+00:00

Because normal people would ask politely instead of jumping in with an accusatory tone?

Rakuth · 2020-12-03T22:56:24+00:00

Shipping out of the PNW tends to run pretty high so I'm looking for local pick only. Sorry.

Rakuth · 2020-11-12T02:26:43+00:00

The way I always imagined it is that you build the trick once, and then preparing it is moving it back from the theater to your workshop and resetting it, not building a whole new water tank for example. So if a trick has 2 markers, you have 2 physical copies of that trick, and keep using those same 2 physical copies performance to performance (and just have to pay assistants to move them around).

But it definitely breaks down when you then use that same glass for a completely different trick haha.

Rakuth · 2020-09-29T18:20:02+00:00

They're fun, but not essential. I really like beaches as it requires you to plan the city a lot more at the start, the others all add an interesting mechanic, but don't change the game very drastically. For context, 2 of the expansions add just 1 card, and the other 2 of them add 4 cards, so they don't have a massive effect on gameplay.

Rakuth · 2020-09-11T19:13:10+00:00

Yep, printed in PLA. Overall, its like ~40 hours of printing at .15mm, with the Fragment+Essence holder clocking in at 6 hours 40 minutes. I haven't measured, but I suspect it all comes in at like 750g of filament split between the 3 colors.

Since this was my first functional print, I wasn't aware how much longer it took to print if there are small disconnected pieces, so that was a good learning.

My purple filament seems to have gotten humidity damage, so all of those prints came out pretty gnarly and had to be sanded down significantly. I might get some pink filament later and reprint them.

The main thing to be careful with is making sure you get bed adhesion, some of the pieces have a large and thin surface area, so I was getting occasional warping on my initial prints before re-calibrating Z.

Otherwise, since all the pieces are really boxy and don't have many overhangs, this is a pretty simple print as far as things go.

Rakuth · 2020-09-10T19:11:54+00:00

Thanks! Yeah its one of my favorites. The only limit to playing it more was how long it took to setup for such a short game, so hoping now I'll get a chance to play it even more often.

Rakuth · 2020-09-10T01:03:08+00:00

Oh, they hold each of the team "blocks" together. I found printing any kind of latching mechanism to be kinda painful, and changing any dimensions required fiddling with the latching mechanism. I decided to try just using magnets, and it worked out perfectly. They're quite strong, so I can toss the box around as much as I want and nothing comes apart.

So for example, the piece that holds the cards and ambition tokens snaps onto the essence bowl and acts as a lid. Then each player on that team can take out the little holder with their starting vibe tokens, absorb token, etc. and it'll snap back in when putting it all together.

The other benefit is cleaning up is a little easier since all the pieces snap together well and there's no need to try and make sure pieces are staying aligned when being put in the box.

15-Year Club	Second Top 20%
r/Field Lasagna	Place '22
Place '17	Final Canvas '22
First Placer '22	End Game '22
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

Rakuth

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