Battered
Some time ago (well, probably over a year now) Athena suggested that not every post needed to be about a new game - we could also revisit games we'd already covered and tell how they held up. So, even less restrictions, cool.
Today I played a few sessions of Atiwa again. It had been over a year. Impressions after my first fifteen plays can be found in an End Times post of 2022.
Back then I found two obstacles to my enjoyment: a goal that is set too high to reach for mere mortals, and a static locations market, while there's more variety in multiplayer. I said that I could house rule these things, but I don't like doing that. Guess what. Three months later the publisher told us to do exactly that in a thread on BoardGameGeek. Turns out there had been very good reasons for the static market in solo, but he proposed a variant that would make more strategic choices possible. Also he suggested to consider 110 points a win going forward. The same number I had come up with. So now I had nothing left to complain about anymore.
Except I still suck at playing Atiwa solo. And not getting closer to 110 after 17 solo plays is kind of tough. The problem is, that I have a lot of fun when I play Hallertau, and I think the puzzle in Oranienburger Kanal is fantastic. So when I want to pick a game by Uwe Rosenberg to play, there's too much competition.
I will however keep trying at least until I've played it 25 times. I'm a slow learner and a handful of people have reported high scores on BGG. The change to how the location market works is great so I really only have myself to blame now. The solo game does feel a bit like a points optimising puzzle that you're going to solve once, so I think after that the solo challenges (printed in the rulebook) are the way to enjoy this game. That way you get to try different strategies. And don't get me wrong, there is fun while playing, when you send off bats to plant new trees for example, or how the production phase works.
Anyway, in the first report I was too harsh on Atiwa. With the variant rule and the lower goal my frustration has gone. I'll let you know when I reach 110 points!