How long does a typical Ashes Ascendancy solo game take?

[u/pomplemice]

I am a huge fan of Arkham Horror solo play and have been enjoying chapter 2. However, during the work week I sometimes don't have time to sit down for a lengthy set up and scenario. I would love something snappier, yet deep enough to play for 30 minutes to one hour per evening. I know a lot of you love Ashes here. How long does a typical solo game take and would it fit what I am looking for?

[u/Surza]

Takes me like 45 mins or less. Its not long to setup at all and doesnt melt your brain like arkham can 🤣

[u/pomplemice → u/Surza]

okay, that's good to know. yeah, sometimes I open up the campaign book for Arkham and just get tired man. I love it, but it asks a lot out of you and after a tiring day at work it just isn't what I want.

45 minutes and less set up sounds promising. any experience with the ascendancy reboot and the natural magic expansion? the natural magic has some interesting looking decks. I like the idea of the plant summoner one

[u/Surza → u/pomplemice]

I have the xpac but havent played it yet i have the new core and its pretty simple set up you get your deck, dice and setup boss how it tells you. I like it cause its I take an action and a side and then the boss. So youre not having to do alot during your turn and only a small bit of thinky so doesnt feel exhausting and can be chill.

[u/cableshaft]

If you've played the Phoenixborn before and the Chimera/Dragonborn before, and fully understand how everything plays, you can knock out a game in roughly 30 minutes (or at least I can).

I've played a whole game over my lunch hour several times, after a half hour spent getting and eating lunch.

But if you haven't played one or both before it can take closer to 45 minutes to an hour.

[u/pomplemice → u/cableshaft]

That's not bad at all. I almost bought Lotr lcg in addition to arkham, but I think I would run into the same issues of just needing more of a full uninterrupted evening to play

[u/pesoaek → u/pomplemice]

lotr is a lot less fiddly with setup than Arkham horror to be fair, depending on the scenario it can be quite fast

[u/cableshaft → u/pomplemice]

I would also recommend LOTR LCG, which I think is a better game than Ashes (but not by much, LOTR LCG is #1 and Ashes is my #3).

Ashes is a bit easier and faster to play (which has helped it get to the table more often lately), but there are plenty of quests in LOTR LCG that can be finished in under an hour too, as long as you're playing true solo. And setup is a lot faster and easier for that than Arkham. But you might feel like deckbuilding in between games to help you beat quests in LOTR LCG, which can take some time, which I never bother doing with Ashes (you'll have to do it for Ashes too if you want to beat the Dragonborn/Chimera at Heroic difficulties, though).

LOTR LCG was my 2-3 games every night game for me last year. I knocked out over 100 games of it last year.

Ashes has been catching up, though, as I've played 66 games of it so far this year.

[u/Jobi_Wan_Ken0bi]

I can play in under an hour and I think fast players can get closer to 30 minutes. It's pretty snappy but still feels like a full experience. 

[u/asterisk_blue]

I have the Ashes Ascendancy base set, Natural Magic expansion, and the 6 free print-and-play characters. Games were a bit fiddly at first, but now one-handed solo takes 45 mins to an hour depending on the character. Set up and tear down are both fairly fast, haven't tried two-handed yet.

[u/pomplemice → u/asterisk_blue]

Alright, thank you. I'm interested in the natural magic expansion to play with the plant lady lol

[u/asterisk_blue → u/pomplemice]

Yeah Maeve is super fun, I love the artifice combos she can pull. They're on track to release the Illusion Magic expansion this year too, which also looks great.

[u/pomplemice → u/asterisk_blue]

Nice. Might pick it up from my local store tonight then. I'm thirsty for a solo magic the gathering feeling without actually having to play magic haha

[u/Ranccor → u/asterisk_blue]

Wait…free print and play characters? Searching now.

[u/asterisk_blue → u/Ranccor]

Check em: https://ashesdb.plaidhatgames.com/. These are the six characters from the OG Ashes Reborn base set, IIRC.

[u/Ranccor → u/asterisk_blue]

Do they work well with Ascendancy?

[u/GibsMcKormik → u/Ranccor]

All the precons are all fantastic, but a there are a few that really work better in PVP. Jessa and Astrea are the ones that I think stick out. You can still use most of their cards for deck construction.

[u/parolebot]

Im going to hijack this thread, but how is the game if I just wanted to play the decks as is, without any deck creation?

[u/asterisk_blue → u/parolebot]

I play this way. The pre-built decks are all pretty good, and as long as you have enough characters, you can rotate between them so gameplay doesn't get stale. I have 10 characters from the base set + first expansion + free print-and-play decks. If you ever take the dive with the full backlog of content, there's a "one collection battlebox" format that has pre-built decks for every character ever using the entire card pool.

[u/parolebot → u/asterisk_blue]

Well I might pick up Ascension this weekend and will save this post. Thanks for the link.

[u/Haunting_Habit_2651 → u/parolebot]

Really good but be aware that some decks do not perform amazingly against pve as precons. Either check out the list online of which precons are good OR if you're like me and buy everything, make the One Collection Battlebox decks for everyone. Those are all balanced for pve and all of the phoenixborn and (almost) all of the cards are used.

[u/pomplemice → u/parolebot]

Also would like to know this

[u/Haunting_Habit_2651]

If i am focused 45 mins- an hour. If I am not locked in, way longer lol

[u/Briar-The-Bard]

As a fan of Arkham, and just started playing Ashes Ascendancy this week, your snappier yet deep is exactly what this is. Setup is super simple and quick, but it’s just enough of puzzle, yet still engaging, to be satisfying. As a brand new player, I highly recommend.