Something is wrong with myself, if I started to play boardgames alone again. Last time was probably 20+ years ago. And now again From the other hand I think, this is nice ability for myself and my son likes may "playable" behavior a lot

Ok. To the "business" then. Yesterday I played testing game with 4re + Dragon expansion, Dragon tower + Alternative ending hidden. Used 4 characters: Rider, Conjurer, Pyroblaster and DeadlyCutter. Used dragon scales, every 3rd is changing Dragon king, used dragon wrath - outraged version also used 1strenght cone bonus for begining and 5trophies for leveling up until lvl5, Then 6 for lvl6, 7 for lvl7 and so on. Additional thing, I calculated all dragons scales, when player wanted to "buy" another strength/craft cone. Example: char has starting strength 2, 2 additional red strenght cones, 2 red scales and 1 yellow scale. Then his current strenght level is 2+2+2+1=7 and for one more red cone he needs to deliver 8trophies. This works very well and really stops leveling to the unbelievable heights

I was impressed to play myself alone for 4 chars. It really opened different thinking about each char.

Conjurer is very very VERY powerful in the begining. Especially if somebody opens any fountain or leaving small creature undefeated. She usually conjures and takes all remaining stuff easily. Add also her spell casting ability. Then possibility to conjure dragons and then kill them with pleasure. Very strong combo! One tip: if there is 2-4dragons drawn in some space - nobody will go for them. But Conjurer can conjure them one-by-one to the empty space and then to kill them easily with pleasure. I dislike one card then from Green dragon deck: Temple imitation plus if green dragon is king, you may add up to 3 when you pray. It was one more unbelievable source to grow up stats for Conjurer. Luckily there are destruction spell for that

Pyroblaster was also very powerfull. From turn1 he can hunt for dragon scales, maybe to avoid green dragons in the begining. After he pyroblasts 2-3 red or yellows and collects some scales, then he may try to grow his stats using normal encounters. When he got magic object, which doubles strength/craft of your collected dragon scales, then pyroblaster was almost ready to tear to bits everybody. Ok, not everybody, but dragons only Sentinel still stands like titan against him Rule for leveling up worked mostly at Pyroblaster. Due to lot of scales, he needs to catch much more trophies for the next cone.

Hunter with his deadly cut was not so successful in the begining. Because Conjurer made nice work killing dragons. So after some period I understood, that Hunter may then hunt Conjurer Hunter has good strenght stats. Another tip for hunter - to go to the middle region. He is able to build raft. There he can be alone for a while, because for other chars it is not so easy to climb in. Saying this - monopoly is monopoly everywhere All trophies is yours then.

Rider was so unlucky. She didnt get dragon really for long time. Conjurer easily took easy trophies from the way. Then Rider blankly rided on her feet around the table, getting to loose to the Str/Cr>8 dragons and then looking for healing posibilities. After a while he got dragon skull object, mounted a dragon and things started to go forward as required. After such long begining I came to conclusion, that Rider is not so powerfull, if other players doing their work smart. Prevent raider to take dragon and then this char is useless

Conclusion. I didnt finished game. It took about 2.5 hours of play and some chars were almost ready to go to the Tower. But I stopped this play, it was too late What I liked most - rule for leveling up. It really prevents chars to grow up their stats when they are too successful It gives time for their oponents to catch them or at least to be on appropriate level. Also this rule creates some uncertainty - am I ready to go to the tower and then to meet dragon king or whatever other Ending. Because in my other games final boss dragon was just a small rat against very powerfull players (20+ craft/strenght).

Till next review