If you’ve ever fancied yourself as Earth’s last line of defence against an alien invasion, Under Falling Skies delivers that experience in an intense, strategic solo board game format. With a unique dice-placement mechanic and a thrilling campaign mode, it’s a game that keeps you on your toes and your brain engaged.
Quick Facts About Under Falling Skies
- Designer: Tomáš Uhlíř
- Publisher: Czech Games Edition
- Players: 1 (solo game)
- Playtime: 20–40 minutes
- Genre: Strategy, Dice Placement, Solo Game
- Complexity: Medium
- Best For: Fans of solo strategy games, puzzle-solving, and sci-fi themes
What’s Under Falling Skies All About?
Picture this: alien motherships are descending, and it’s up to you to defend the city while researching a counterattack. It’s a tightrope of risk management, resource allocation, and tactical decision-making. Your dice rolls determine what actions you can take—but higher rolls also bring the alien ships closer to destruction.
This is no simple roll-and-move affair. Every decision matters. Deploying dice in certain locations triggers specific effects—gaining energy, expanding your underground base, shooting down enemy ships, or advancing crucial research. It’s a game of trade-offs: the most powerful actions tend to move the alien forces faster toward your city.
How to Play Under Falling Skies
At its core, the game revolves around a few key mechanics:
- Dice Placement: You roll five dice each round and assign them to different action spaces, balancing their effectiveness with the inevitable movement of enemy ships.
- Base Expansion: As you progress, you’ll unlock new rooms in your underground base, giving you more powerful options.
- Energy Management: Every action consumes energy, and running out leaves you vulnerable.
- Research Victory Condition: The only way to win is by advancing your research track before the aliens destroy your city.
You’ll play through a series of escalating scenarios in a campaign mode, each introducing new challenges, cities, and special rules that keep things fresh and engaging.
What’s in the Box?
For a solo game, Under Falling Skies is surprisingly well-packed with components:
- A modular board featuring different city layouts
- Dice in two colours (white and grey)
- Enemy ship tokens
- An underground base board with upgradeable rooms
- Campaign book with a branching narrative
The production quality is top-notch, with thick cardboard components and well-thought-out graphic design that makes the game easy to read at a glance.
Playing at Different Player Counts
Now, Under Falling Skies is a solo game. However, it works well as a cooperative experience if you’re playing with a partner. Taking turns making decisions or discussing strategy can be a fun way to involve others, even if only one person is physically rolling the dice.
Expansions & Variants
The core game already includes a robust campaign, but if you’re looking for more, fan-made variants have emerged that tweak the difficulty or introduce house rules for two-player experiences. As of now, no official expansions have been released, but given its popularity, who knows what the future holds?
Digital Versions & Online Play
Good news for those who love digital board games: Under Falling Skies is available on Board Game Arena. While it remains a solo experience, the platform makes setup and score tracking seamless, letting you jump straight into defending Earth from extraterrestrial doom.
Similar Games Worth Checking Out
If you enjoy Under Falling Skies, you might also like:
- Friday – A solo deck-building survival game with a similarly tense decision-making process.
- Warp’s Edge – Another solo space-themed game, but with a bag-building mechanic instead of dice.
- Onirim – A solo card game about escaping a dream world, offering a similarly puzzly challenge.
- Deep Space D-6 – A solo dice-placement game where you fend off alien threats, though it plays quite differently.
Final Thoughts
Under Falling Skies is an exceptional solo board game, offering deep strategy in a small box. It’s challenging, rewarding, and refreshingly different from the typical roll-and-move style of dice games. If you enjoy solo gaming with a strong puzzle element, this one is a must-have.