This is a game that wasn’t really on my radar, but of course, when someone talks about a solo game they like, I am interested. And on the One Stop Co-op Shop Discord, Trailblazers was mentioned. And the box for Trailblazers by Bitewing Games looks cool and the game play and solo game play sounded interesting. So I bought it and now I’m playing it over on Malts and Meeples to see if Trailblazers is a solo game for you.

Trailblazers

Now, let’s talk about what drew me to Trailblazers. When someone mentions a solo game it isn’t like I automatically go out and buy it. Though with my game collection you might think so. But, no, I do look into games and figure out if I’d like it.

What works for me, or I should say, interested me is the route building and card laying. I like games where you are creating paths. I also like it when you can overlay cards, to improve what you are doing. It’s a multilayer strategy, really, to get a good score in the game. Because you might do a less than ideal play with the plan to overlay it to get a great play in the game. And I utilized it a few times.

And there is a twist that I really like. I really like that you don’t start with all your main locations on the board. You build out trails one round around either rivers, hiking trails or kayaks. Then you build the next round about the one you had and a second one. Final two rounds all three of them. So you add in decision space as you go. But you also lose decision space as you go because you’ll have surrounded locations.

I also enjoy the solo play. As I said in the stream, it’s a drafting game. But to simulate the drafting you go from a hand of eight cards down to four. That makes it closer to a multiplayer game of Trailblazers which I think that sometimes the solo version of the game lacking in that. And I also like the scaling of the solo play. It isn’t beat your score, it’s beat your score and add in other challenges to make it harder or trickier.

Upcoming Streams

So tomorrow at 8 PM Central, join me for 90 through 81 of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition. You can find the link to that here. See what games make that section of the list. I believe that there are some new games and definitely some games that have moved around on my list from last year. So see how the new list compares. And that’ll be every Wednesday for a little while, possible week off around Thanksgiving, so into December.

And then on Monday, join me for another solo board game. There is a chance I might just play Trailblazers again because I enjoyed it that much. But more likely, now that I’m remembering, it’ll be opening up Doctor Who Magic the Gathering set. I should have a collectors box in to open up, though maybe I’ll try to find another time to open it so I can keep up with my solo gaming. I have other games like Number Drop and Iron Helm that I want to get to the table as well.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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