Overview of Solo Game The Mission

 A unique solo game about the first ten centuries of Christianity.

 In November 2021, the results of the Charles S. Roberts Awards, awarded among tabletop wargames, were published. It was in this list that the name of one of the nominees caught my eye - The Mission: Early Christianity from the Crucifixion to the Crusades. Incredible theme! I couldn't pass.

PLAYING WITH OURSELVES

 So, today I have on my desk The Mission from White Dog Games. It's a solo game: the player creates his own difficulty on the map by handling game sequences and distributing random events, such as the appearance of heresies or schisms. I will say right away that this format of games seems to me to be a big disadvantage. The element of human communication is removed from the game, which (in my opinion) is the most important thing in any board game. On the other hand, if this game was made as a confrontation between churches or communities (conventional Catholics against Orthodox), then, most likely, the game would acquire a sarcastic tone. In this regard, it seems appropriate to me to play even solo games together with someone, consulting and discussing game situations.

 Here it is all the more appropriate, as the game provides a good reason for an excursion into the history of Christianity and even demonstrates some authorial attitude to the processes inside the church (more on this below).

 According to the author, the game is Tower Defense. In the center of the map is Jerusalem, six paths lead to it, consisting of squares of cities or regions. We send apostles (and later bishops) to preach in these areas and create new communities. The behavior of pagans is decided by a roll of the dice, each community has its own "difficulty" of appeal.

 In addition, each region is under one of the political controls. First it is the Roman Empire, then Byzantium, which begins to be tormented by barbarians, and then Muslim troops. This political situation imposes its own complexity: it is more difficult for us to eliminate heresies and convert communities outside of political influence, but we can try to convert some barbarians or send a preacher to these regions, or translate the Bible into the local language. In general, the player has several levers of influence on communities. The bigger and more cohesive your church is, the more resources you can gather to further expand it and solve current problems.

GAIT STRUCTURE

• Historical Phase: Here, new elements are introduced into the game every few turns.
• Secular Phase: This is where you gather resources, move armies and battles, heresies, epidemics or local kings arise. All actions in this phase are automated - this is "game flow".
• Religious Phase: This is already the "player's turn", when we make all the decisions, spend resources and move the chips.

SMOOTH DIFFICULTY CURVE

 The wording in the game is very clean, written concisely on the one hand, and with attention to detail on the other. I really liked that the author even discusses the nuances of the design of the tokens, if, for example, they act the same, but are designed a little differently for the relevance of the story (like, for example, the Gentile community with a sun and pre-Christian Jews with a menorah).

 Another nice solution is the smooth introduction of new elements into the game. You start the first two turns with the command of apostles (sounds!) and only have a couple of rules in place. Then bishops and patriarchs are added, it becomes possible to build monasteries and translate the Bible. Then nomads appear, the fall of the Roman Empire takes place.

 There are only two modes in the game: the full campaign and the Jihad scenario, which is equivalent to the final part of the game, the most intense. I think that replayability is enough for 2-4 games, especially if you still play with someone. It took me two nights to play an introductory game, and I stopped on turn 16 (out of 27).

DIVING IN HISTORY

 The game has a kind of narrative at the junction of design and rules. A short reference explains in two lines who the Manichaeans are or what Opanas the Great is famous for. There are even examples of the main languages of the ancient world.

 In the mechanics of the game, as it seemed to me, you can see a Protestant accent. The fathers of the Church, preachers and theologians are presented here as great ascetics who are a kind of "super-weapon" against heresies and paganism, but if they fail, they can raise the counter of the "dark ages". The author explains that such people often raised topics that the hierarchy would like to keep quiet about, and this in turn led to discord in the church. A similar approach to church councils: according to the rules, each of them shares a single church at first, literally making life difficult for the player (although in Orthodoxy there are even days of commemoration of such councils as definitely good events).

CONCLUSIONS

Pros:

• unique theme;
• clean, comprehensive and clear rules.

Cons

• solo games are the first step to schizophrenia)
• at the first meeting it seemed too easy.

 If you can find a fellow religious scholar who is either passionate about the subject, or if you're having fun with yourself, then for a night or two, this game will be a fascinating immersion into the ancient world of faith and struggle. It is especially nice that the game can be officially bought digitally for further independent PnP printing.