Desolated: Duel (2022)

About this game

Desolated, an engine builder for 1-2 players (1-6 with multiple copies). Harvest materials, optimize exploration, make trades and influence orbital councils for dominance and ultimately victory. The first player to dominate 5 councils, wins the game. Start the game by dividing material-cards, trade-cards and council-cards facedown into individual decks; shuffle and reveal 5 of each. Then give each player 4 material-cards. This is their starting hand. The first player is decided by drawing a material-card and revealing the card number. Highest number is the starting player. In turn order, clockwise around the table, each player has two phases. In the first phase, draw 2 material-cards into your hand. In the second phase, either play a material card to optimize your engine, trade for influence or dominate an orbital council. The game contains 130 cards of amazing art work and high quality cards, printed on a special 330 gr/sqm triplex paper of casino quality, assuring zero transparency. Easy to shuffle and resistant to worn-out. —description from the designer

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 1 to 2. It has a designed solo mode.
• Rules load. At 2.2/5 this is a mid-weight game — expect a proper rules explanation before you start.
• Age. The publisher suggests 12 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.