Solo fishing with the Silent Angler

*I wrote a post about my first solo game with Freshwater Fly . Then something happened, I had to reload the page... and it all dissapeared. So - I'll try again*

Today was only my second day back to work since April. It feels like I've already worked 4 or 5. 😂 It's amazing how your body fatigues just throughout the work day when it's not used to it for a while. But I'm so happy to be back in the studio with clients.

After a couple great days back to work, I thought it'd be a perfect time to relax and try the solo mode in Freshwater Fly. This is a 7-day campaign where you head out on a fishing trip with your buddy, the Silent Angler and visit (potentially) four different fishing locations. However, you can only visit the next location on the adventure map, if you beat your fishing buddy. Whoa.

The back of the rulebook gives you your solo fishing trip adventure map, journal and guidebook. I downloaded the pdf to my tablet and tracked that way so I don't waste a lot of paper on the many trips I'm sure I'll be taking. 😀

I really enjoyed the different elements in this campaign/fishing trip log...

-Each location has a different setup on the board

-Each location has different personal goals for the Silent Angler (as your reel board has for you)

-In the journal section are various tools you can acquire by earning badges (think XP like in dungeon crawlers for example). You begin Day 1 with a free badge and it's recommended to take the 1A momentum token, which I did since that's the only momentum token you get until you earn more with badges.

-The guidebook is where you can track how many of each species of fish you catch (catch a handful of one species and earn a badge). It even has badges for when you catch the big ones! Cool!

I'm so impressed with the theme throughout every bit of this game!

A little ways into Day 1 of our fishing adventure I realized two things;

1) My fishing buddy, the Silent Angler is not overly talkative (at least he doesn't scare the fish away) 😂

2) As seen in the pic, I had already caught 3-fish and was fighting one on my line. I was feeling pretty good really. The Silent Angler had 3 at this point as well. But all it takes is for your buddy to pull out a couple bigger ones from the stream and suddenly you start to panick a little bit. It really can throw you off.

The mechanics in the solo mode are really great. Not hard to run, and just fantastic in my opinion. The hatch tokens work a bit differently than the multiplayer game, especially because they're never replaced. So as the day goes on, the decisions become much tougher; which fly to tie on, where to cast (especially when the dice work against you), and which fish to try to go after for the most points (which your fishing buddy sometimes decides he wants it first 🙄)

As our day was coming to a close, I realized how fun this solo mode is (and is going to be as I move through the week). The campaign will be absolutely replayable for many fishing trips to come, and I also feel that if you just wanted to do a "day trip" with the Silent Angler you could totally play it that way as well.

When the Silent Angler and I arrived back at the cabin, we had to total up our VPs (like all fisherman do). Like the multiplayer game, when someone catches 7-fish the game ends after that round. Well didn't my quiet friend pull two out of the stream to finish me off. Ouch. 😋

I learned after my first attempt at the game last time that the scoring can be a bit much to try to do in your head. It's not difficult. There's just various elements to score. So being back at the cabin, I grabbed a pen and paper and jotted down the score for each individual element and then totalled them together. It was much easier for sure. And my fishing buddy gave me a nod of approval which I thought was quite nice. 🤣

I'm very excited for Day 2 of our weeklong fishing trip. The Silent Angler even told me he'd go easier on my during the next day. Although, I'm not sure I believe him, it was nice of him to say something at least. 🤣