INTRODUCTION

Given how Euro styled board games in general can be described as “multiplayer solitaire” it is somewhat surprising that Stefan Feld, one of the leading designers in the industry, has created so few games that feature an actual solo mode out of the box. With the exception of Luna which was published way back in the dark ages of 2010 and a solo mini expansion to The Castles of Burgundy there has not been a whole lot of solitaire focus in Feld’s creative output. When publisher Pegasus Spiele announced that Bonfire, the latest board game design from Herr Feld would feature not only artwork by Dennis Lohausen but also an honest-to-God solo mode it is safe to say that the solo board game community got pretty excited including yours truly.

Full disclosure: a review copy of Bonfire was kindly provided by publisher Pegasus Spiele.

COMPONENTS

It is no secret that I have been a huge admirer of the illustrious work by Dennis Lohausen for quite some time, harking back to my first experience of the quintessential dice placement game The Voyages of Marco Polo. Based on the illustrations and art that is on display in Bonfire I have to concede that this is Lohausen’s finest work to date, showcasing an art style that fuses Avatar with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by using a colour palette of predominantly cool blue and turquoise tones. It just goes to show that Euro styled board games can transcend beyond thematic settings of trading in the Mediterranean whilst being draped in fifty shades of brown. The game features a plethora of custom shaped wooden bits and pieces for the various resources and the player markers, creating a pleasingly tactile aspect to the game. Although I have to admit that the Guardian meeples to no small extent reminds me of the air dancers one might find outside the local car dealership, a similarity that does bring a smile to my face even though I personally find the actual design to be somewhat wonky. It bears mentioning that although visually pleasing, Bonfire is to a certain degree a fiddly game in terms of the sheer number of tokens and chits that needs to be sorted and randomised as part of setup. It is the sort of game that would benefit greatly from the inclusion of a cloth bag to pull tokens from but this is definitely entering the realm of nit-picking on my part, overall the presentation and component quality is top notch.

OVERVIEW

“It began a few months ago, when the Bonfires atop the towers of the nearby cities darkened. Now they are fully extinguished. We gnomes do not live in the cities, but rather in the forests close to it. But we also need the light and energy the Bonfires provide! Perhaps the Guardians of Light know more – after all, they created the Bonfires as the light of the distant sun was barely enough to survive.”

Darkness ascends over the enchanted forest as the light from the Guardians slowly fades into oblivion. As a tribe of gnomes, you embark on a perilous voyage to restore life to the sacred realm by completing tasks bestowed by these ancient deities thus igniting the bonfires of old. As is the case with any Euro board game design worthy of its salt, this is achieved by gathering victory points in an attempt to establish the best gnome clan leader in all of the magical forest. In true Stefan Feld fashion, Bonfire is comprised of many tightly interlocking game mechanisms, all of which present different avenues of strategy. At a cursory glance one would be forgiven for thinking that Bonfire is a complex game based on the sheer quantity of various tokens and icons upon icons. But in terms of rules overhead the game is actually surprisingly accessible, rather the intricacy that is present in Bonfire stems from how each action is linked to one another.

Whether you are recruiting new gnomes for their special ability, plotting a course through the archipelago to collect tasks, or triggering a procession of Guardians through your city you need to spend Action Tiles. These are acquired by adding Fate Tiles to the central grid of your individual player board which represents the city. Each Fate Tile depicts three icons that correspond to the various actions one can perform on their turn. When adding a Fate Tile to the city grid you gain an equal amount of Action Tiles to spend on subsequent turns, the twist is that adjacent icons already placed in your city can create synergetic effects to newly placed Fate Tiles, rewarding you with additional Action Tiles. This “Tetris light” aspect of the design makes Bonfire almost feel like dare I say an action programming game, as you carefully need to formulate and more important prioritise what you want to achieve for the next couple of turns. Taking a particular tile might reward you with a plethora of one type of action that might not be the best suited for your current strategy, alternatively you have the option of converting two Action Tiles into a single that counts as wild. This fusion of autonomy versus “making lemonade out of lemons” by only being able to select certain Fate Tiles creates a really unique experience, on paper it sounds somewhat convoluted but it in practise it works beautifully.

One important aspect of Bonfire that bears mentioning are the gnomes, specifically their unique powers. These magical creatures can be recruited to your city for the princely sum of a certain type of resource as depicted on the chosen gnome card. In the world of Bonfire there are two types of gnomes that inhabit the enchanted forests: Specialists and Elders. Once recruited to your city, the Specialist gnome provides you with a permanent and powerful ability. Some make the basic actions more potent, like granting additional movement with your ship or gaining double amount of resources when a Guardian of a particular colour makes a procession through your city. Other gnomes have powers that allow you to bypass the fundamental core structure of the game, like for instance granting you the ability to choose which type of resource to spend as opposed to the stipulated one. There is however one thing all the Specialists have in common: they are all so ruddy good! In fact, there have been several instances where I got so caught up in tinkering with my little game engine that I completely forgot about the Elders. Now there is some food for thought… Anywho, unlike the youngsters of the magical gnome clan the Elders presents an avenue to instantly earn victory points making them hugely important towards the end of the game. I also really like the fact that the Elders are indeed older versions of the Specialist gnomes, although purely cosmetic it is still a nice touch.

In order to restore light to the city your brave gnomes need to set sail and head out to sea, loading their ship with offerings so as to appease the Guardians that inhabit the islands of the surrounding archipelago. At the start of the game the islands are seeded at random with task tiles, symbolising the need to prove your worth before these harbingers of light will return to your city and ignite the bonfires. Each task shows a condition that once met will earn you a certain amount of victory points depending on the difficulty level of the aforementioned undertaking. For example, the easier blue tasks might ask of you to simply have a single gnome in your tableau depicting a specific resource, whereas the most difficult yellow tasks require a great deal more resources but also reward you handsomely if fulfilled. However, getting to an island is not enough and in order to collect a task token you need to present offerings so as to appease the Guardians.

Each island on the board has an associated resource cost like blossoms, seashells or fruits to name but a few. In addition, you also need to add one of your Offering Tiles to replace the slot where the task token was collected from. The more offering tiles a player has on a particular island the greater the cost will be for adding additional offerings on future turns. One aspect of Bonfire that I really appreciate is the amount of variety the game features. There are over sixty Task Tiles, depending on player count there will be at most thirty of them randomly placed on the ten islands during setup creating a huge variety and replay ability. But by the same token, no pun intended, the sheer amount of iconography can be borderline bewildering at times, especially if you are new to the game. It took me several plays before I got to a point that I felt comfortable interpreting the symbology without having to constantly refer to the appendix of the rulebook. Now to its credit the rules document does an admirable job at presenting and detailing every single card or token of importance, just be prepared that there is a non-trivial learning curve as to internalise the symbols that Bonfire presents to the player.

Once acquired, the task token is allocated to one of the seven circular slots on your individual player board. If you meet the requirements of a Task Tile, as a main action you can Ignite a Bonfire which flips the tile over showcasing the amount of victory points it will reward you during the final tally. As an added bonus for bringing light to the darkened city you are then able to send one of your minions, known as Novices, to be accepted into the High Council of gnomes. Centred around the actual bonfire are spaces, each containing a powerful bonus action. One might allow you to relocate your ship from its current location to any island of your choosing without paying for movement, another slot of the High Council grants you a new Guardian which is immediately added to your path. If you are really clever and manage to time this action exactly right, you will then be able to pull of some pretty impressive combo moves. But this aspect of Bonfire is not just a mere rewards piñata, it also serves as the in-game timer. Depending on player count, once a certain number of Novices has been added to the High Council the game begins the Countdown Phase signalling the approaching end. This phase lasts a mere five turns so make sure that you have all of your ducks lined up in a neat and orderly row before the clock runs out.

THE SOLO MODE

One knows they are in for a solitaire treat when the first paragraph of the rulebook states “The game is mostly independent of the player count.” Like sweet music to my ears. When playing Bonfire solo, you will be competing against Tom; an automated opponent whose actions are stipulated by a deck of just eight cards making this an extremely approachable solo mode in terms of upkeep. This becomes even more apparent when taking into consideration that Tom never collects any resources, nor Fate or Action Tiles. Once you have finished your turn the top card of the automated opponent’s deck is flipped face up and resolved. Seeing how there are many options to be had in regard to taking actions on the main board you would think that the solo mode in Bonfire would require an intricate flowchart for prioritising valid targets. In practice the solution is as simple as it is elegantly executed.

If an action calls for Tom to make a choice, you reveal the next card from the deck of gnome specialists. The resource symbol on the given card is used to influence where the neutral player executes the action in question. For example, if the solo card instructs Tom to collect Specialists cards from the display and the revealed gnome card shows a berry well then Tom simply acquires all the specialists with matching resource symbols. However, if there are no valid targets then nothing happens whereupon play passes over to you. But just because the solo mode is effortless to manage does not result in a neutral opponent that is easy to overcome, quite the contrary. When it comes to collecting Task Tiles and portals Tom is an absolute beast, racking up a considerable amount of points for the final tally as a counterweight for not collecting any resources or additional venues of points over the course of the game. Further adding to this pressure is the fact that the neutral player will add Novices to the High Council as previously described, thus accelerating the in-game timer. This behaviour on behalf of Tom forces you as the solitaire player to be brutally efficient, trying to outpace the neutral player before it has a chance to trigger the countdown phase which based on personal experience is easier said than done seeing how I have yet to score a single win.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As someone who considers the expression “multiplayer solitaire” to be a compliment rather than a pejorative I can safely say that Bonfire is one of the best (solo) board game experiences of this year bar none, proving that sometimes less is indeed more. There is something about designing a board game where every single mechanism interlock with one another that borders on being an artform, like a high-precision instrument or an expertly crafted wristwatch. With Bonfire Stefan Feld has shown once again that he truly is a master within the sphere of Euro board game design by creating a game that initially might give the impression of being incoherent but soon reveals itself to quite the opposite. If you are someone who enjoys medium-weight Euro board game designs and relish in the proposition of playing them solitaire, then I wholeheartedly recommend Bonfire.