Come along with me on my journey as I learn (from complete scratch) how to play Batman: Gotham City Chronicles in its newly released solo and cooperative modes! It’s a bit of a rough trip, but that experience has many moments along the way that will help inform whether this expansion is for you!

Batman: Gotham City Chronicles has been on Kickstarter multiple times.  Season 1 (see here) and Season 2 (see here) offered a ton of content and a ton of miniatures! The only problem for me was that the base game is a 1 vs. many game … neither cooperative nor solo.  Since this blog (CO-OP Gestalt) is all about  solo and cooperative games,  it didn’t make sense to pick it up!  As much as I love Batman and my Superheroes (see our Top 10 Cooperative Superhero Games), I had to pass on these first two Kickstarters…

The Season 3 Kickstarter (see here), however, offered an expansion for the game that makes it both solo and cooperative!  See the expansion box above!!  (It also offered an RPG, but that wasn’t what I was interested in).  I mean, that art also helps me like it! That’s a great cover!

This box (see back of box above) transforms Batman: Gotham City Chronicles from 1 vs. many into solo and cooperative! That’s something I might enjoy playing! 

So, this means I have to get quite a bit of stuff: the base game (see below) as well as the expansion! 

Wait … is this what I want to do this?

Trepidation

There was definitely some trepidation in getting this, because this meant that I had to get the base game … and it’s not cheap!

I also freely admit that some of my trepidation came from the Shut-Up & Sit-Down review of the original Gotham City Chronicles! (See link above) This is one of my favorite videos from those guys, but they pretty much trashed it. If you haven’t seen the video, there’s a link above! They do a good job of discussing gameplay and ideas … as well as destroying the game!

I love the Shut-up & Sit-Down videos, but over time, I realize that I am anti-correlated to their opinions! They loved Arkham Horror the Card game and hated Marvel Champions! I was completely the other way around! So, maybe I would love Batman: Gotham City Chronicles with the solo and co-operative expansion?

So, with some trepidation, I took the plunge and ordered the base game, some expansions … and the new solo/co-op expansion!

Day 0:  Ummm

I got two big boxes from Monolith in late June.  Ummm … I don’t have time to deal with this right now!  But I know exactly what this is!  I just don’t have time!

There’s a lot of stuff here.  I knew I’d have to “deal” with it.  Not now.  It’s very daunting … as excited as I was, I knew this would eat up a few days.  I wasn’t wrong.

Day 1: Unboxing 

I got a lot of stuff, but the first thing I opened was the solo/co-op box.

Two things stood out about the box: it’s surprisingly small and surprisingly sturdy! It’s a hefty box! See the picture above with a Coke can for perspective.

The solo/co-op box comes with both the English Directions/Cards and the French Directions/Cards.  There’s also a few language independent punch outs and a die.  Half of what I paid for was the French content, which I would never use.  That made me a bit grumpy.

The cards will be used to direct the AI in the solo/co-op games.  These are very readable: see above.

Unfortunately, there are production issues.   The rulebook contains the solo/co-op changes for the set-ups for the Scenarios from the game.  Although most of the English Scenarios are in English, both rule books had the last 10 or so Adventures in French!!  See above as I have the English rulebook and French rulebooks next to each other … and they are BOTH in French!!!  

If I ever want to play these Scenarios, I will have to use Google Translate to translate them to English.  That seems less than ideal.  I hope Monolith recognizes the problem and sends out another copy?  Or at least some kind of fix?  Monolith: please publish these scenarios in English on your web site so I can print them!!

Given how long I have been waiting for this, the solo/co-op box was a little disappointing: there’s not much here, it has a small but thick rulebook, it has some French content I will never use, and some scenarios are in French only.

Still Day 1: Rulebook

The solo/co-op rulebook basically gets an F on the Chair Test.   

The binding makes it so it can’t stay open on the chair next to me!  And the book is tiny.  And the font is tiny (because the book is small), so it’s harder to read.  I can’t put this on the chair next to me at all.  (There is an okay workaround, see below). 

Compare this to the original Rulebook and Scenario Book for the base Batman: Gotham City Chronicles!  These two (above) both get about an A- on the Chair Test, as they stay open, are large, and can sit on the seat next to me so I can consult them easily!  It’s very frustrating that the solo/co-op book is so hard to consult.

After playing around a little, I realized I could use the  solo/co-op expansion box to “hold open” the rulebook!  See above as I carefully set the rulebook in the box, and it “kinda” stays open.   This is a workaround for The Chair Test: it wasn’t perfect, but it’s a hack that might help you too. At least now I can “kinda” hold the book open and keep it flattish to consult it …

But then came the moment I was dreading, but I was pretty sure I’d have to deal with eventually.  In the first paragraph of the solo/co-op rulebook were these words:

“Therefore, you must know how to play the regular multiplayer game before learning the Solo/Coop mode”

At this point, it was time to stop reading here and start learning the base game.  That took the wind out of my sails, so I stopped for the day.

Day 2: Base Game and Essential Stuff/Printing

So, it’s day 2: time to learn the base game!  

I was hyper-aware that the rulebook for this game was supposedly problematic, so I was very nervous heading into Day 2.

Apparently, I have Rulebook version 2.0: see above!! Have they fixed a lot of stuff up?  I think so … this rulebook worked for me.

I was able to (start to) learn the rules straight from the rulebook.  I had read a LOT of rulebooks, and this wasn’t that bad.  I think Monolith has really fixed it up since the original version.  There’s a decent set-up,  table of Contents, no Index (booo!), but at least it has a Glossary (yaaay!).  It was actually pretty good. 

However, I encountered my NEXT roadblock: “Where’s the Skills and Traits Booklet?” The Components page (above) references that, the Map Board References, and Skill Sheets. I did not have any of those????? It turns out, you had to order the Batcomputer Files expansion box (or get it from the Kickstarter). See this link on BoardGameGeek for the discussion. I happened to miss that you needed that when I ordered my stuff.

Hope is not completely lost: you can print many of the things yourself! The Monolith website has  most of the content listed so you can print it. 

So I couldn’t get the exact Skills and Traits rulebook, but I was able to print the two sheets above! They were good enough.

Unfortunately, much like the Scenarios in the solo/co-op rulebook, some of the content was still in French (even though the downloads were in the English section)! See below.

See above as the content is still in French (even though it’s in the English downloads area).

However, I printed most of what I needed.  The most important things seem to be:

• The Map Reference Sheets
• The Character Sheets
• The Skill Sheets (Villain and Hero)

The Map Reference Sheets:  The board above above looks super cool and thematic!  But you have no idea how to traverse it!  What’s on different levels?  Where are the walls?  Where does Line of Sight work?

The Map Reference Sheets have a much much more useful description of the topography!  See above.  Honestly, I can’t imagine playing without these!   I found it easier to print each map separately on its own sheet of paper (you can save some space by printing double-sided, but my printer isn’t great for double-sided).

The Character Sheets are just as important, as they take the icon-rich sheet like above …

… and condense it down to a readable sheet of abilities!  Again, I think having these is critical!  For my printer, it made sense to have each one on its own sheet (also, since you never know which heroes you will use, it makes sense to have each character sheet separate).

Finally, you should print the Villain Skills and Traits.  I wouldn’t go two-sided: you want both sides up.  You can’t play the Villains without this: period.  This information is in no rulebook that I have.

So, when I am playing the Heroes: the Hero sheet is right there! See above! So much easier to play!

And the Map Reference Sheet and Villain Traits are right there next to the Villain! So much easier to see and play!

I think Batman: Gotham City Chronicles is probably nigh unplayable without these extras. Make sure you get the Batcomputer Expansion Box (which has these sheets) or print them yourself from the Monolith website. These sheets DO NOT come with the base game.

To be clear: this game is unplayable without these.

Day 3: Set-Up and Reading 

After getting everything I needed, the next day was all about reading all the rules and setting-up the game.  These actually kind of went hand-in-hand, as I learned rules, I set-up the game and I set-up the game, I learned the rules.  See above as I get ready to play!

This rulebook is 60 pages. Yep, it’s longer than Gloomhaven’s rulebook (I remember that the original Gloomhaven rulebook is 56 pages)! And this is just the base game! I methodically went through all the rules to understand the base game. And before you say, “Why didn’t you just watch the video?” (which there is one), I find that videos don’t work for me: I like to be able to go back and look at rules in written form.

And don’t forget, I still have to read and synthesize the solo rules! So this was a full day.

There’s been a lot bad press about how bad the Gotham City Chronicles rulebook is: I didn’t think it was that bad, but I also had version 2.0.

Day 4: Solo and An Icy Welcome

In the Missions Book is a list of all the Scenarios (see above) and how many characters come into play!  I chose, for my first solo play, a true solo experience with one hero:  “An Icy Welcome!”  You can absolutely play solo with multiple characters, but especially after last month’s solo experience with Weirdwood Manor, I prefer true solo to learn the rules for complex games!

I finally got everything set-up to play Batman vs Mr. Freeze!  “An Icy Welcome!” See above!! The board is all set-up with cool minis, the Map Reference is next to it, Batman is below with his reference sheet, the co-op scenario changes are to my right, the Villain’s board and set-up are to my leftish, while the rulebook is on a chair next to me, and finally the Villain sheet is on the table … within reading distance if I need it!  Whew!  It’s a bit much to get everything set-up!

The full Scenario is described in the “Missions Booklet” that comes in the main game (see above).

The changes to the co-op/solo mode Scenario  are described in the solo/co-op book. See above.

In this Scenario, Batman has to collapse an abandoned subway line to stop Mr. Freeze from getting access to the Bank!  To do this, he has to traverse the map, fight Thugs and Brutes (and maybe Mr. Freeze), and prime 3 bombs to stop the plans of Mr. Freeze!

To prime the explosives, he has to roll 3 successes!  See above as Batman primes one of the three bombs with 3 successes!

And then, heartbreakingly, Batman fails to prime the last bomb on the last turn!  Batman loses!  This is an especially frustrating roll (no successes at all), because you need at least 2 rerolls to fix it!  Batman loses in the last turn!  Arguably, this was incredibly thematic and tense, but it still kinda sucked to lose.

Here’s the thing: I had fun playing this, but operating the solo/co-op AI is a lot of work.  I mean, a lot of work.

The AI is pretty straight forward to operate, (basically the AI does one of three things: attack, protect, or advance), but it still is a lot of work.  On Batman’s turn: I do a few things and I am done.  On the AI’s turn, I have to activate every mini of interest! For example: the AI above activates the Villain group in position 1 in the river; it happens to be the Thugs: so, we have to activate all three Thugs!  Each Thug mini activation requires thought: “Can I actually complete this operation?”  Basically, if you can’t “complete” the action (you can’t attack, you can’t move, or you can’t advance), you have to fall through the next action (which is why all three actions are listed on the card).  So, for every Thug on the board, you can have to make a determination of what to do!  Which is work.  And then, they may attack! Or advance! Which means further work … for each mini!  

And then you have to do that AGAIN for the next column on the card.

Every AI activation card is a lot of work.  You get used to it, but then you still have to consult the Scenario to see what the special rules are for the villain.  And remember, these rules for the AI are ON TOP of all the rules in the base game!  Remember that 60 pages of rules for the base game?

There’s a lot of work to set-up (it took me a few days to get there, but once you get it, it’s not quite as bad), there’s a lot of work to run the AI, and there’s a lot of work to tear down the game after you win/lose. The solo player has an inordinate amount of work to keep the game going.

And yet, in spite of all the maintenance needed to operate the solo mode, I still had fun. I was Batman, counter-attacking, using Parkour to move around the city, using Martial Arts, throwing Batarangs, and just being Batman! “I’m Batman!”

My biggest complaint was just everything is decided by dice. In the final round I lost, not because of something I did wrong, but because I rolled badly. There are lot of places where rerolls are built-in, and you can always choose to use your action cubes for rerolls, so it’s not pure chance. But it was still frustrating.

Day 5: Solo and Deadly Riddles

With one solo game under my belt, I wanted to try another solo game and see how things went. This time I have to save the civilians (the orange minis)!

This time, I chose “Deadly Riddles”! In this one, Batman has to save 4 Citizens and/or solve riddles that the Riddler has put forth!  

With some practice from the previous scenario, operating the AI was a little less work.

I still had to consult the solo/co-op book quite a bit, because each scenario has differences that need explaining!  See above!! What I really want is for the solo/co-op book to be two separate books! One for the Scenarios (which I can keep open with a decent binding), and one for the actual rules (which I can consult when I have questions)!   

Set-up was better, as I knew what I was doing.  See above!!! I moved the Missions Book to a chair next to the Rulebook chair (see my left), I kept the solo/co-op book in the box (see my right), but I moved the Villain Traits and Hero’s Traits to the table so they were easier to consult!  In general, the set-up was easier, as I knew where everything was.  The set-up doesn’t quite as daunting this time.

The maintenance on the AI turn was still a bit much.  I think I fudged it a few times.  It almost feels as is the AI needs a flowchart: there are a lot of rules to operating the AI that can get lost in the sea of rules of Batman: Gotham City Chronicles.

The second game actually was a loss as well!  On the last turn, Batman failed to roll 3 successes on three dice … just like the first game!

This was heartbreaking, as Batman moved through the Drones to solve the final riddle of the Riddler, spent most of his points, but could NOT roll three successes, even with a reroll!  It was very frustrating. Again.

Things went better for the second game: set-up was quicker, the AI was a little easier to run, and tear-down was quicker.  Still, the AI was a chore to run.

Cooperative Play: Two Weeks Later

Because of the nature of game groups, it took about 2 weeks (after my solo game plays) to get some cooperative play in.

I did forget some rules and had to look some stuff up in realtime, but my friends were patient with me.  Over about 2 hours, we were able to get the game set-up and played!

 

Now, we did miss a few rules as we played (mostly Villains traits), but the game moved fairly smoothly once we got going.

The solo burden I had setting up the game was now shared: Sara looked for the character sheets and displays, Sara helped set-up the board with Teresa, and I unpacked all the Villain cards.  It certainly helped that I set-up the game by myself a few times; I was able to direct my friends in shared set-up.  This “set-up burden shared” actually kind of made the game feel more cooperative!  That’s a crazy thing to say, but we were all so “invested” in the game because we all spent so much time setting up.  I guess you could call that the equivalent of “Stockholm Syndrome” for board games! Nevertheless, we all felt involved in the game because we were all invested in the game because we all set it up!

The game itself seemed to have its own cadence based on the Scenario we chose: Batman was the fighter, Catwoman took out the Bombs (the real goal of the scenario), and Orphan was there to “lure” the Villains away from Catwoman.  It’s not quite what we planned, or maybe even wanted, but based on our powers, that’s how we won.  

Just like there was the “shared burden” for setting up, there was the “shared burden” of maintenance per turn.  Teresa and Sara helped execute the maintenance (moving/attacking/protecting) while I tracked down rules.   I became the default rules-guy (since the game is so rules heavy), and Sara and Teresa helped keep the game moving.

One of things that we enjoyed was there was no turn order: players can spend energy however they want, in whatever order they want, to execute their actions!  I’ve said it many times: Player Selected Turn Order makes a game feel that much more cooperative! We can decide (as a group) the order in which we want to play, engaging the group in cooperative strategy.
      “Let me set-up Catwoman so she can get to the bomb: I’ll clear the way! “

So, I liked this cooperatively: me and my friends had a good experience.  The girls liked the game, but they just noticed “there are a lot of rules here“!  I had to explain to them that our enjoyable two-hour session was the evolution of many days and reading and printing and set-up!  I had gotten to the point where I could shepherd the cooperative experience fairly well.  And that made a potentially horrendous experience into something fun and palatable.  We had fun.

The game was better cooperatively, but I think it’s only better cooperatively if the solo player has gone though all the pain to get through a couple of games.  Said another way, this is good cooperatively, but only if there’s a good shepherd.  A good shepherd can help guide the players through the rules, help distribute the “shared burden” of set-up, help distribute the per-turn “shared burden” of maintenance, and keep the game flowing.   I think this can only happen if the shepherd is experienced enough in the solo game.

This game would have been a disaster if we tried to learn everything “as a group”.  My friends would have bailed, and I would have been left with an expensive toy.   Learn the game solo: if you like it enough, keep playing a few more games until you become a good shepherd.  Only then should you bring this out cooperatively!  At that point, the shepherd will run the game smoothly with the “shared burdens” of set-up, maintenance, and tear-down making the game an enjoyable cooperative experience.

Reflections

Now that I have played enough, here’s some things to keep in mind.

Since this is solo/co-op: you can rewind the game if you want.  In my second game, I chose to pursue solving an “elaborate riddle”, so I started down that route … but after I got to the room of interest, I forgot about hindrance rules!  With the Riddler in the room when I tried to solve the riddle, I realized I needed one more success: WHICH I COULDN’T GET on the dice I had?? So, I backed everything up and took a different tact.   In the 1 vs. many game, you could never do that because that’s basically cheating! But, since the alternative is to start over, the solo/co-op mode can just “rewind time” and try again with minimal effort.   This “rewind” helps take some of the sting out of the incredibly long set-up and tear-down of the game.  In that way, the solo/co-op makes the game better.

I also think this is a lifestyle game: this is a game with so many rules, especially with the new solo/co-op rules, that unless you play this frequently, you are likely to forget the rules.   Case in point: See the previous section on Cooperative Play! After only 2 weeks, I started to forget some rules!  If this is only a game you pull out from time to time, I think it’s much harder to get back into it.  

I have a group of friends who play FrostHaven once a week: they all love Fantasy and don’t mind the complexity of that world.  I could see me and a group of friends playing Batman: Gotham City Chronicles once a week … but I don’t have any friends who love the Batman world as much as myself.

Counterpoint To Shut-Up & Sit-Down

I previously mentioned the Shut-up & Sit-Down video where they trashed the game. I want to reflect on a major point they made during their video, now that I have some experience with the game:

0) “We like hitting each other”.  One of SU&SD’s complaints is that the game requires players to be judicious about how they use their energy, rather than just beating each other up!  I actually like the thinky aspect of the game!  It makes it a puzzle!  And this thinky-ness is incredibly thematic, especially for a Batman game! Batman is all about being smart: knowing when to rest, knowing when to attack, and knowing when NOT to attack!  I think the way this works is quite clever, so I completely disagree with SU&SD‘s point on this.

Conclusion

I don’t think I can, in good conscience, recommend the solo/co-op expansion unless you adore Batman. The solo/co-op mode had so many production issues (French/English issues, rulebook form factor issues, needing separation of Scenarios and Rules issues, small book factor, binding issues), and there is so much maintenance per turn to operate the AI, I can’t objectively give this more than a 5.5/10. The solo/co-op mode works, but there are a lot of issues.

And then the randomness of the game with the dice can also be very frustrating, especially after spending so much time in set-up, AI operations, and tear-down.

Despite all these issues, I subjectively am going to give this expansion a 7.0/10.0. Why? Because I did really feel like Batman moving around, trying to be “smart” about how to use my energy, fighting only when I needed to (like Batman does), and trying to figure out the puzzle of trying to stop the bad guys! I can finally play Batman! I enjoyed the set-up with the minis, I enjoyed putting the board together, I enjoyed the experience, even as much work as it was. But, realize this is a me-rating: if this were a fantasy game, a space game, a Smurfs game, an Aliens game, I would probably hate this game. But the Batman theme makes me like this game: I like living in this world with these Heroes and Villains!

At the end of the day, can I recommend getting Batman: Gotham City Chronicles if you just want the solo/co-op mode? You’ve seen my journey: from knowing nothing, to set-up, to reading rules, to printing augments, to reading expansion rules to finally playing solo and co-op!! It was quite a rough road to get there! But, you know yourself better than me! Maybe all you needed was this solo/co-op expansion to finally dive into Batman: Gotham City Chronicles! Decide for yourself based on everything you’ve seen here!

If you do pick this up and want to play cooperatively, I think it’s imperative that someone plays the game solo to become a shepherd for the game. Without a good shepherd, I think the cooperative game will end in disaster. With a good shepherd, the cooperative game will be a fun experience! But it’s a very thin line!