by Simonjohn
I have played the expansion 7 times solo now and love it. Whereas I enjoy Agicola both with and without FOTM, I can't imagine going back to the Arles base game, even though it always rivalled Agricola as my favourite game.I have found the solo scores to be higher, which I think is expected, but it would be interesting to hear other players' experiences.
It is difficult to take into account learning curves, but my solo scores seem to be 10-15 points higher with the expansion. My 7 solo scores range from 113.5 to 129.5, averaging 123. I generally get a couple of red buildings, but don't focus on them aggressively, the only aspect I always pursue is vehicles, and now, ships.
I am finding that whilst set up is only slightly longer, and the number of turns is unchanged, the expansion takes longer to play mainly down to more frequent bouts of AP, which are also the reason I haven't played 2p against my wife, whose patience and enthusiasm for long games appears to have plateaued.