web version is buggy and oddly balanced:
opening chest causes non-stop confetti.
The game is basically over if you have a day without producing food. (which is totally likely given that you don't start with food producing buildings)
Thanks for the rules explanation. This explains a lot.
I read a lot of board game rules, and to me, there still seems to be some confusion between "Green card in the deck" and "Green card draws". If I understand correctly, you have 3 Green Steel ledger/Green card draws at the start, and each subsequent turn you gain Green Steel ledger/Green card draws based on unused blue steel (plus unused green steel)?
You start with a pool of 4 green cards in the green card deck, and you can get more via parlor upgrades. I assume this doesn't get you more green steel ledger/ draws.
The carousel seems slightly wonky when you have more "Green Steel ledger" than green cards, but it seems it just shuffles the green discard? This also messes with the blue card that is based on cards in the discard.
As such the benefits to getting more green cards in the green card deck doesn't really increase your ability to build track, just changes the distribution of green card bonuses?
Some parts of the rules I could not figure out from the rulebook:
How much green steel do you get at the start of your turn?
Why would you ever increase the number of green cards?
What is the order of operations when laying track?
I think the wiki rulebook needs to have more "algorithmic" descriptions of resolving each action.
Otherwise, really neat solo game.
A major bug with worker movement playing on browser with mouse and keyboard.
When you move a worker to a new space and not build anything, I assume when you click on another worker, the old worker should change to "moved" while the next worker should "take focus". Instead, the next worker becomes "moved" while focus is stuck on the first worker.
There's a strange tension with this game. On the one hand, I like how there is a risk/reward tension with plant selection and planting (should I gamble where the fungus will spread? Should I buy the safe lily?)
On the other hand, since it's quite obvious that crystalids have the most point density (puffball surrounded by 4 bells is impractical), so getting a high score boils down to RNG if you get enough crystalids in the market once you can afford them.
I enjoyed this game enough that I grinded until I got a 3x crystalid in shop 4, then I bought nothing but shovels and fertilizers and more crystalids, for a final score of 255 + 10 = 265 high score.
I think this game would function really well as a "roll and write", where everyone gets the same unknown order of plants and garden layout,
Anyways. Really lovely game, and great execution.

Fun little game to figure out.
12 days first try. 9 days second try
Once each worker digs up about 100$, start buying coffee (around once you hit copper)
AFTER buying upgrades at the end of the day, buy as many coffees as you have workers to get an extra "day".
More resource spawns can sidetrack your miners. Also rock and iron end up being the limiting resource for more dig power.
I looked into it and figured it out. It was mostly on my side. If the save game (that triggers on completing the tutorial) fails, when you enter the "real game" it spawns the tutorial box.
Probably a very niche bug, which only triggers for people who won't be able to save their game anyways.
P.S. I really enjoy these historical simulation board-gamey games.
Really fun game. Neat idea for needing to "flip flop" instead of just att/def growth.
First try: 1347; pickaxe at (26,15), didn't realize double and reverse were pickup consumables, Went into final room with fire, then reversed for win.
Would be fun to try to optimize it. Do you know what the maximum possible score is?
Interesting basic setup, once I understood what was going on, the maze building puzzle was quite interesting, having to build for access to cats, space to dodge, the forced tiles in order.. But also, every round I would build basically the same way... the randomly selected cat doesn't affect my choices at all.
Also, the text is completely unreadable at some resolutions. Paired with how fleeting the cat description and lack of stats, everything is confusing. A easy fix is a encyclopedia of cats and maybe bestiary with stats.
I really enjoy economy / escalation games. I really like the writing for the roach too.
I managed to get a perfect rating with no retries (after knowing exactly what would show up, and doing a few test runs)!
Two main pieces of feedback:
1. Make your engine deterministic, and not affected by game speed. I find myself having to slow down the game to make sure my towers hit.
2. New game after losing is too easy, and for economy / escalation defense games, when it's too easy, the player can get really sloppy and still win. Decisions no longer matter. I much prefer resetting with no (or very little) carried resources, but better information on upcoming waves.
Great job!
I can never resist anything HoMM3. Nobody has managed to capture that magic since, and we need more people trying. Good luck.
Note: You can dupe units by drag-dropping to open the split unit menu, then clicking on an empty slot to move the unit, then confirming the position in the split unit menu. This was very funny when I met the mirror match.
Just wanted to say, this is an amazing piece of art and design. It's just so... elegant.
My one suggestion is maybe a mulligan for the initial draw, or a way to manipulate your initial hand. The reason being, many builds snowball, so a terrible initial hand can lose you the match. Outside of the tournament, and challenge run attempts, I found myself resetting if it didn't get a good starting hand, as this felt faster than playing a middling hand. I sometimes overdid it, and tried to force a semi-rare initial hand. (optimizing the fun out of the game).
P.S. Does the efficient achievement require being in challenge mode vs casual mode?
A nice evolution of an old formula. Excellent basic design, and pacing.
Really enjoyed it, but not sure if it has longevity.
My feelings and experience of playing the game:
Being frustrated by how my ships were getting destroyed before realizing that there are different ship types.
Being frustrated by losing all my ships to an asteroid field
Feeling good about figuring out all the ship types
Being frustrated by the alien swarm thing.
Being underwhelmed by the defense station
The nukes feel really nice.
Losing to the destroyer because I didn't understand how it worked, and I played a fast offense and had no missiles to defend against the initial meteor burst.
Doing a lot of busywork, moving ships around.
Winning by accumulating 1000 ships on the central planet before defeating the swarm.
Suggestions:
Make asteroids less punishing, more more explicitly dangerous.
Let people choose if a planet builds a defense station or missile base. Alternatively, certain planets are "defense station planets" and certain planets are "missile base planets"
The final boss appearing even if the swarm is not eliminated, and absorbing the remaining swarm. The timing can be dynamic/