In Salamandra by Grrre Games, you’re a scholar competing to harvest magical vegetation, restore sacred lands and prove yourself worthy of becoming the next Great Druid. 

Over the 2 days and nights of the Festival of Litha, place and activate apprentices to gain resources, build fields, brew cauldrons and visit the Salamander temple. Resources can’t be stored so you gain and spend them immediately.

Once on the board your apprentices are (almost) never moved; they remain and are activated once a round. You’ll add new apprentices every round and so your placement of workers = the building of your engine.

Work towards public objectives and gain faith cards which build your engine and contribute to end game scoring. 

Solo mode

In the solo mode you play against Rudolph. In round 1 he will place 1 apprentice, in round 2 he’ll place 2 and so on. He gains an increasing number of points at the start of each round based on difficulty, takes apprentice spaces, claims objectives and competes for faith majority, but he doesn’t place field tiles. If you have fewer points than Rudolph at the end of a round, you lose which adds a nice element of peril! 

Rudolph places all his apprentices at the start of the round which I really liked. While this doesn’t mimic a real opponent, not having to interrupt my flow to run the automa was appreciated.

Rudolph is simple to run as an automa, however doesn’t act quite like a real opponent. In particular he doesn’t add new field tiles which means the shared area is a lot smaller with less variety. If you want an automa that replicates the 2p experience this isn’t that, but it still works really well as its own puzzle.

I found the structure of the rulebook and set up a little confusing, but the rules themselves are pretty simple so this shouldn’t be an issue after your first game. Though I wouldn’t have minded a reference card!

Finally, the component and production quality is fantastic – this is visually stunning game, no doubt about that.

Overall I really enjoy Salamandra, in particular the snowballing number of apprentices you have to activate each round, thought it’s one I prefer at 2p+ rather than solo.