Path of Light and Shadow: Solstice

After years of war, the fight for the throne has spread beyond the seas. On distant shores, among ancient temples, artifacts of enormous power await, guarded by a race that walks between light and shadow. Solstice is an expansion for Path of Light and Shadow that expands on the content of the base game and adds several new modules to it. Designed by Travis R. Chance and Nick Little and illustrated by Naomi Robinson, it allows games for 2 to 4 players, ages 14 and up, lasting around 90 minutes.

The Solstice box comes to the top! Among the new components that this expansion incorporates we find a mini-board with the new provinces of the Underworld kingdom, 4 player panel extensions, 187 new cards (including the new title cards, solitaire cards, relic cards and the different faction cards), 24 megalith tokens, and the rules for solo mode.

In Solstice, players will have the opportunity to travel by sea to the Trastierres, the kingdom of the Viratis, a new faction that will encourage them to stray from their moral path. Players will be able to explore these new lands in search of megalithic ruins where relics that grant unique powers await.

The Viratis are unique in several respects. For starters, they introduce a new mechanic, doubt. Whenever a player suffers any amount of doubt, he must reduce his current level on the Morality gauge by that amount. For example, if a player is Pious, suffering 3 Doubt points will mean gaining 3 Cruelty points, while if he is Cruel it will mean the opposite, ie gaining 3 Piety points.

The Viratis also upgrade their cards differently than other factions. As with Numerai cards, any combination of Work and Strength can be used to upgrade them. Furthermore, the Viratis are divided into two tribes, the Njorv and the Anthyzum. Finally, when upgrading any Viratis card in a kingdom deck, you have the option to choose one of two possible upgraded cards. This allows the Viratis to have more card availability and versatility than the other factions.

One of the main novelties that this expansion incorporates, in addition to the new provinces, the relics and the Viriatis faction, are the title cards, which will make each player start the game asymmetrically. These cards, dealt randomly and secretly, have two sides that correspond to each of the alignments. Thus, in addition to the benefits granted by said card, the players will already begin to move their Morality indicator towards the Pious side or the Cruel side from the beginning of the game.

In Path of Light and Shadow, players compete to build the most prosperous empire, developing technologies, forging alliances, conquering provinces and kingdoms, or upgrading their population cards. All this while defining their morality through their actions. With this expansion, the strategic possibilities are multiplied by putting more cards, more territories and a new faction at the players' fingertips. In addition, it incorporates a solo game mode in which a single player must face a horde of distant invaders.

Solstice cannot be missing in the toy libraries of lovers of civilization games. A challenge for the most brainy that predicts dozens of highly disputed games. Will you manage to take your nation to the top by making the best decisions?