Image: Rose Gauntlet Entertainment

Introduction

It’s funny how one’s personal taste changes over time. Back when I was taking my first trembling baby steps into the world of modern board games, I remember getting beyond excited at the prospect of playing games themed around slaying hordes of zombies or orchestrating grandiose clashes on the battlefields of space. And even though I still thoroughly enjoy the latter of the two, there’s no denying that I have adopted a somewhat more tranquil taste regarding themes in board games as of late. The success of games like Wingspan, Meadow, and Cascadia just goes to show that I’m not alone in enjoying nature-themed board game designs that all feature gorgeous artwork and production quality. Today we are taking a closer look at Keystone: North America, the debut release from publisher Rose Gauntlet Entertainment. Is this nature-themed game capable of going toe to toe with the aforementioned giants of the genre? Let’s find out!

Full disclosure: A review copy of the deluxe edition of Keystone: North America was kindly provided by publisher Rose Gauntlet Entertainment

Components & artwork

For a debut title from a first-time publisher. I am beyond impressed with the level of quality that Rose Gauntlet Games have infused into Keystone: North America. Featuring over 70 unique illustrations of wildlife and fauna the game is nothing short of a visual tour de force and one that is sure to impress when fully displayed on the game table. It’s the sort of game that is as aesthetically pleasing to behold as it is enjoyable to play. Thick cardboard tokens and linen-finished cardstock further solidify my overall positive impression of Keystone: North America as a solid debut title in terms of component quality and art direction. It’s worth mentioning that the deluxe edition that was provided by the publisher includes a neoprene centre mat for neatly organising the card market as well as the various tokens. In addition, this edition of Keystone: North America also includes double-sided player boards with one side featuring colourful illustrations in the same vein as the rest of the game. Although visually arresting, these upgrades have no impact on the actual gameplay and I for one would be equally content playing just the retail edition of Keystone: North America.

Gameplay

“In any arrangement or community, the “keystone” is considered one of the most vital parts. In a marine ecosystem or any type of ecosystem, a keystone species is an organism that helps hold the system together. Without its keystone species, ecosystems would look very different. Some ecosystems might not be able to adapt to environmental changes if their keystone species disappeared. That could spell the end of the ecosystem, or it could allow an invasive species to take over and dramatically shift the ecosystem in a new direction.” - Natural Geographic encyclopedic entry

In terms of gameplay, the solo mode in Keystone: North America retains all the rules and mechanisms that make the game such an enjoyable experience. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that this is a game that puts its best foot forward when played in solitaire. This is due to the fact that there is vanishingly little player interaction to be had beyond someone taking a card from the market before you had the opportunity. As a result, Keystone: North America almost feels tailormade for solitaire play. Especially once you consider how much work went into the solo-specific challenges included in the field journal. But I’m getting ahead of myself. In Keystone: North America you take on the role of a biologist, tasked with creating a delicate ecosystem of wildlife and fauna. Over the course of the game, you will add species cards from the central market onto your individual player board whilst simultaneously trying to fulfil the criteria of your secret objective card in the hopes of creating the most diverse and prospering ecosystem. The core game loop is incredibly straightforward. On your turn, you can perform one of two actions. Either take a species card from the central market row known as the field and add it anywhere onto your own board to either create or expand an ecosystem. To quote the rulebook, “an ecosystem is created when two or more cards with matching habitats have been arranged in ascending or descending consecutive numerical order.”

Similar to other solid solo board game designs, what this translates into is a delightful puzzle; one where you are constantly agonising over the most efficient way of placing species cards onto your individual player board. And here’s the kicker: you can only score one ecosystem per row or column. In other words, do you gamble on being able to add say three or even four connecting species cards that not only share habitats with one another but also are arranged in consecutive numerical order? Sounds easy enough but believe me when I say it’s a tall order! Or do you play it safe; trying to create smaller ecosystems and instead boost their end-of-game point value by adding research tokens? This brings me to the second of the two main actions of the game: use a skill. Depending on the solo scenario being played, a set number of skill tokens are available from the central play area. The effect of each token varies but the majority of them allow you to either add research tokens onto specific species cards, which grants one additional victory point per token at the end of the game or rearrange cards on your individual player board to better optimise present future ecosystems. When playing the use skill actions, you can resolve the effect of a single skill token and then flip it to its exhausted side. Alternatively, you can resolve the effects of all skill tokens on their exhausted side followed by flipping them back to their active side and then advance the round marker by one.

What I love about the skill tokens is that not only do they provide some flexibility and an alternative avenue for victory points by boosting smaller ecosystems. The active side of each skill token also shows a discard symbol, forcing you to remove a specified number of cards from the central market row. This may initially seem like a bad thing but for the solo player it’s quite the opposite, as this built-in mechanism creates a churn of the card market thus preventing stagnation. Often times I found myself activating and reactivating the skill tokens so as to be able to discard cards from the market in the hopes of a more favourable selection of species cards to choose from on subsequent turns. The fact that resetting the skill tokens advances the round marker is another elegant way of preventing the solo player from abusing the discard mechanism and a further testament to how well the different aspects of Keystone: North America hangs together. That being said, it's worth mentioning that this is a game where the luck of the draw makes up a large part of the overall design. You do have options to manipulate the card market as previously mentioned but there’s still a large portion of Keystone: North America that boils down to sheer luck. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy games that hand me a bag of lemons and ask me to make sweet lemonade but I suspect this aspect of Keystone: North America might rub some people the wrong way.

Like Cascadia, the solo mode in Keystone: North America is built around a number of interconnected scenarios. Each scenario presents a challenge that increases in difficulty and complexity. Where the initial scenarios simply task you with reaching a designated end-of-game victory point value, the latter ones do indeed present a considerable hurdle to overcome with specified starting species cards and intricate conditions that needs to be fulfilled at the end of the game in order to be eligible to progress to the next scenario of which there are whopping twenty to seek your teeth into. But the solo mode featured in Keystone: North America is more than just a collection of tactical puzzles to best. It’s a lovely story, one that unfolds through entries into your very first field journal as a newly graduated biologist. It may not be Pulitzer material but nevertheless, the solo field journal goes a long way in instilling a thematic integration to the tactical puzzles and further cementing Keystone: North America as primarily a game geared towards the solitaire player. As an added cherry on top of the already delicious cake, the solo mode also features six sealed envelopes containing… well, I’ll leave that for you to discover on your own.

Final thoughts

After spending a considerable amount of time solo-playing Keystone: North America, I can only conclude that this is nothing short of a gem of a game. What publisher Rose Gauntlet Entertainment has achieved with its debut title is a board game that feels almost like it was tailored for the solitary player. It's the kind of game where I found myself on numerous occasions saying to myself "just one more game" and that's saying a lot considering I have the attention span of a smaller rodent. If you are someone like me who thinks the term multiplayer-solitaire is a complement and enjoys tactical puzzles then Keystone: North America is well worth your solo board gaming time.