Solo Cards for Tide of Iron

In all my years of wargaming with miniatures or playing a solo RPG I’ve come to the conclusion that there is just no substitute for a warm blooded opponent or Game Master. It is hard to even attempt to replicate human independent agendas that can counter your moves and surprise you with bold maneuvers on the battlefield. Regardless, this fact has never stopped me from finding new ways to play miniatures, card games, or board games as a solo experience. It is my hope that you will find this set of solitaire cards useful in your own personal quest for a solitaire Tide of Iron opponent. The first section of this guide will discuss the solo cards. The actual set up of the game will be in the second section.

The idea for these cards came from past projects and a great deal of inspiration from Chad Mestdagh and his 2016, Solo System he developed and shared with the One Player Guild. Chad had the idea of creating multiple sets of cards so that people could use his system for a variety of games. I liked Chad’s adding personalities, his modified Mythic YES/NO system, targets, and random numbers to his cards. The Solo Tide of Iron Cards are a mashup of Chad’s ideas, and countless others who have thrown their ideas for an AI out there for people to try.

Preparing Your Cards

When cutting, keep in mind that each card is two sided.Simply cut the cards so that the top and bottom are still attached and fold. In the end you should have twelve cards. You will start each turn with a single stack with the green facing upright. The cards are large for easy reading and handling but also to provide enough space to maximize usage.

You can download the available cards here:

How do the cards work?

The Solo Tide of Iron Cards will help in making the decisions for the Tide of Iron opponent you are playing against but the decisions are limited in clarity so that the player can best determine how to follow through with an action. This system is meant to be flexible and open to interpretations as you play and is designed to create a unique tactical experience in solitaire. Ultimately, you have the final decision in every situation and if you don’t agree with a turn of events but you can always change the actions to make sense for your gameplay. The cards are only suggestions of what an opponent would do in any game so that as a solo player you can experience a sense of surprise as an element of your game. Here are a few helpful hints when using the AI:

• On the AI turn, always play in the best interest of your opponent.
• If when activating an AI unit the action suggestion seems foolish, don’t take it and use the YES/NO generator to gain clarity.

At the moment there are only 12 cards in the set as I work on new ideas and I run my playtesting. I hope that sometime in the future there will be additional sets that you can mix and match for expanded tactics.
For now there’s nothing wrong with printing out a couple of sets so you don’t have to shuffle more than once a turn. However, my strong suggestion is that you take the discard pile and reshuffle for each turn.

Anatomy of a Card

Each card helps to provide different information about what your AI opponent will do on the battlefield.
Most of the vocabulary on the cards are universal terms that will make it easy to decipher what actions will take place. For example, the term “unit” generally refers to an individual stand or vehicle and “cover” would be some sort of terrain that provides cover for the AI unit.

The categories of information on each card are:

• Initiative Token Portions
• Mythic type YES/NO system
• Random Order Generator
• Target priorities
• Random events
• Leadership personalities
• Target Identification
• Fire Types

1. Initiative Token Portions

The human player will commit a number of command tokens in their bid for initiative. Once the human player has committed their tokens you flip a card to see how many command tokens the bot will commit this turn. At the bottom of each card are the number command tokens the AI will play on the AI Initiative Card. Those results with ranges such as 1-3 mean that the bot will commit a range of command tokens to get the initiative. The bot will commit only enough to win initiative and if the bot cannot win initiative it will commit the highest amount of command tokens. The remaining AI command tokens will either be used to pay for command cards or will be added to the AI Initiative Card in future turns.

2. YES/NO Probability Generator

The top three boxes of every card have different probability
answers based on what yes or no questions you ask. Many games call these FATE questions that occur during your gaming. When a situation is unclear or you need a FATE direction, first ask yourself how the unit or opponent would play in the current situation. Your questions should be guided by the battle situation, the opposition or the difficulty of the situation or task. Is the question something that would probably happen? If that is the case you would use the “probably” FATE box underneath the heading. Perhaps you are unsure that the AI unit would engage in a certain decision, so in this case you would use the “unsure” FATE box underneath the heading. Once you have the question and the FATE probability you flip a card and look at the appropriate box for the answer to your question.

For example, a unit with a leader gets a move/fire command. Will the unit fire first or move first? Use the question to ask the FATE chart if the unit will fire first. Flip a card and look in the box and in this example the answer is NO. At this point I ask the FATE Chart if the leader run to a specific terrain for cover. Again, your interpretation of the cards is what you want to make happen in your games. This system is a great way for unique and unplanned events to happen in your games and hopefully it will help to provide the unknown we all crave in our gaming. There are degrees of decisiveness based on the original probability category you choose for your FATE question. The answer range is: Decisive YES, YES, Narrowly YES, Narrowly NO, NO, Decisive NO.

3. Targeting Charts and Modifiers

This handy chart provides the targeting information the bot will need to destroy your units. This part of the card tells you three things:

1. Which human unit becomes the target of the bot unit's fire.
2. What modifiers will you use for the chart directly below?
3. What type of fire will the Bot unit use? Before adding modifiers you start with a BASE result which you can find by the red highlighted box. Then you add up the adjustments to this targeting box by moving your result either up or down as per the situation modifiers. Once you are finished with adjusting the targeting with the modifiers you can get your final type of fire. In the example to the right the BASE result is Normal Fire but when calculating the modifiers you take into account that the target is pinned (down 1), the target is in cover (down 1) and that the target has an officer (up 1). The end result is that the fire will be suppressive fire for this target.

4. Random Order Generator

These charts that can be found on the card side are the major engine of the AI. When enemies engage in battle there are objectives that need to be completed. This simple order generator will make decisions for your AI opponent. At the top of each of the tables on  each card you will find headings that describe either specific units or specific types of order behaviors. (Please note that playtesting will help to refine these actions to better fit their situations) Each heading on the card is the top of the chart.

The orders are below each heading. Here are the various order headings:

1. Light Infantry - As defined by the rulebook, any regular, elite and leader figures on a stand.
2. Heavy Infantry - This category encompases both MG figures and mortar figures.
3. Tanks/Halftracks - This category is used for all vehicle units
4. Defending/Gun - This category is for use when the AI is in a battle scenario where the AI is in a defensive posture or is guarding objectives or command objective markers. This can also be used when adjacent to an enemy unit.

5. Random AI Order Action Generator

This Solo Card table will give you an idea of how the AI units will behave in a combat situation. The Solo Card AI orders are designed so that the AI opponent will behave differently depending on the battle situation,ranges involved or other modifiers. The Solo Tide Cards are based on the premise that units will behave in predictable ways in certain situations. Remember, if the result seems unrealistic than ignore the order but see if the YES/NO Probability Generator will help give you clarity.

6. How find out the orders for an AI unit

1. Flip a card for each figure/unit and find the (#4) Order Heading fits the unit's situation or type.
2. Find the highlighted box under the appropriate heading (#5). This highlighted box is the BASE AI order without any modifiers. Notice at the bottom a line of red highlighted order boxes. This red row (#5a) is used as the BASE level order for any units that are pinned/disrupted or sustained vehicle damage. For example, an infantry unit base that is missing two figures, or a vehicle with a damage token would use this BASE level of orders instead of the yellow highlighted box that is used for undamaged units. Regardless of unit status, the BASE level orders are modified by the ACTION CHART MODIFIERS regardless of the status of the AI unit.
3. Find if the AI unit’s orders will be modified by the list of situational modifiers (#6). Use the list of modifiers to see if the AI unit’s orders are modified and adjusted by either moving up or down the order heading starting from the colored highlighted box for that order heading and adjusting due to modifiers.
   1. Action Chart Modifiers - These modifiers will help the AI unit adjust to the battle situation. Here is a list of the modifiers used to modify your result to either go up or down before you have the action order. All modifiers are cumulative but no two of the same are included. For example, if a stand had 2 elite infantry on the stand the result would only go up by 1 and not 2 because you can not have identical modifiers in the same calculation.
      1. Down 1 - No enemy in normal range, AI unit is within move range of objective/com point, scenario where AI is attacking
      2. Up 2 - enemy in normal range, adjacent to enemy, officer on AI stand
      3. Up 1 - Elite on AI stand , adjacent to friendlies, height adv. Defending objectives/ scenario defensive
      4. Up 3 - within 2 of the enemy Down 1d6 - defending Obj. in cover (full move out of range)

For example: On the above card example, the highlighted shows that the light infantry stand with three figures would begin the process with the assault order. However, because there is an empty slot because of an earlier casualty we would adjust this order down one square to the concentrated fire order directly below the original order.

7. Additional Card Information

This section of the card provides rules for OP Fire, what to do with out of range bot units, consolidation ideas, and process reminders.

1. Opportunity Fire (OP Fire) - Depending on your comfort level and time. Here are two ways you can do OP Fire:
   1. This is my preferred way to deal with OP Fire. Please notice that Infantry units use 1d6 and MGs and vehicles use 2d6 when getting a result. First, find the distance to the target to find your base number to succeed. To succeed and trigger OP Fire the AI needs to roll a modified result over the target number or above. Your dice roll is modified by terrain. For example, you move your unit within 7 hexes of an MG in OP Fire mode. Since you entered a hex in the LOS (line of sight) of the MG the bot would roll a dice and in this case your unit is in a rough terrain hex so the bot dice roll would be decreased by -1. IF the bot rolls a 5 the MG would have a final roll of 4 and would not open fire. However, if the bot rolled a 9 and modified this to 8 because of the rough terrain the OP unit would fire on your unit since a result of 8 is greater than the base number of 7 target hexes. In the case of an AI infantry unit the only difference is that the AI only used 1d6 to get the final result.
   2. If the above mentioned way is too complicated for your tastes my suggestion is that you can use the YES/NO Probability Chart to get your results which would decide if a bot unit who is in OP Fire mode will or won’t fire at your unit.
2. Combined Fire and how to use the Yes/No Probability Generator Chart to figure out which AI units participate in the attack:
   1. Units in same hex as the active unit will use the “Probably” column to join see if they join the attack
   2. Units adjacent hex as the active unit will use “Unsure” column to see if they the join attack
   3. Other units going from closest to the active unit will use “Probably Not” column to see if they join the join attack
   4. Continue checking units till you get a NO result.
3. Damaged AI Units with 1 figure who are in a hex with another unit that has a space available will do a Squad Transfer with a YES result using the “Probably” column of the YES/NO Probability Generator Chart.

Solo Tide of Iron Set Up and Game Play

Game set-up - There are no special rules for game set up, equipment, placement of enemies at this time. I encourage you to outfit and place the enemy as you see fit. I use a random placement of units after I have placed all my units. Any ideas for this section without being too complicated would be helpful. My preference for the bot unit set up is to put all bot units in OP Fire mode temporarily. This gives the bot the ability to fire on the human player's units from the beginning, especially since many scenarios have time limits and in most cases the first two turns are the most critical in any battle. During the first turn, if I feel that an enemy bot would stay in OP Fire I consult the probability generator, otherwise I will flip for the current order.

Scenario Starter suggestion: 163 New Player Scenario 1 - Infantry

Activation Marker Sequence

1. Collect a numbered Activation token for each bot stand, gun, or vehicle. For example, if the bot has ten units total then you would gather ten numbered chits (1,2,3,4,5…)
2. Human player lays down activation markers on the units that will activate on your turn. This should be a number of markers equal to the number of unit activations
3. An AI Activation Marker is randomly distributed to every enemy unit with the number side down. Below are some ideas for activation markers.
4. To find the #1 AI Activation Marker you need to start revealing activation markers farthest from the foremost enemy marker and work your way forward flipping markers until you find the correct number. Once you find the correct number stop flipping until the next activation. Only flip hidden markers when looking for the number starting with the most distant marker. Continue to flip over activation markers to find the next activation number.
5. Once the bot has completed all actions for this turn, gather up all of the revealed activation tokens that were not used and randomly redistribute them back to enemy troops that are not fatigued. For example, this turn the enemy bot activated markers 5 and 6 but in the process I flipped over markers 7 and 10. At the end of the turn I would gather up activation markers 7 and 10 and return them randomly face down to those enemy bot units not fatigued for the next enemy bot turn.
6. As enemy units are eliminated you will reduce the number of activation markers to fit the correct number of enemy units.
7. If the AI has active paid Strategy Cards, treat each card as a unit that can have an activation token.

Strategy Cards

The AI bot cannot have more than 3 active Strategy Cards at any one time. The AI will pay the cost for any cards before putting it into play, however, if the AI has enough command tokens to pay to put a card into play, assign that card an action marker as if it were a unit to be activated. Any cards drawn over three are discarded. The AI will pay for cards in the order they were distributed.

Defensive Stance Idea

In games where the AI needs to be in a defensive stance and won’t necessarily have units moving forward I use a simple chart modification solution. I have been using the “Off Board Indicator Tokens” as a way to throw some variation to a unit's desire to stay defensive. Gather up a full set of off board indicator tokens for one color. Next, without looking, randomly draw a token and place it underneath that enemy AI unit. When an AI unit has a token underneath it and you are using the action chart on the Solo Card, use the number on the token as a “DOWN” modifier when looking for that unit's chart result.

Next Steps:

I hope that these Solo Cards for Tide of Iron provide some inspiration for your future solitaire games. Even as I put the finishing touches on this version of the Solo Cards I already have some changes in mind for the next version. If there are enough suggestions or I  find more ideas I hope to create a dozen more cards or maybe some battle specific sets...who knows.

See you on the battlefield!

Ray Gaer
BGG - Raygun1966
Email - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.