This one has been on my list for a while, like the theme and it has some good reviews for solo play. My only very minor gripe before I play is for a game of this price and component standard, not coming with a storage solution for ease of set up is just criminal. Not even any baggies, that is so poor 😞

Loving it so far, only partway through the first chapter, but taking my time to learn. I can see why people say its so difficult! I tried padding out the devour track a little to take a bit of pressure off myself. Its absolutely oozing with theme and surprisingly easy to learn and play once I got going. Really looking forward to continuing through it and eventually getting to the expansion campaigns! Anyone else enjoy soloing this one?

My kids are 10 and 12, both like to invent or adapt games to play alone, any really good solo games for this age group?

Just completed my first play through of this game against Sam, with ambient cowboy music playing in the background, such fun! Even though it could barely fit it on my table (a few tv trays not shown hold more components like poker chips, numbered bags etc) I managed it with a bit of creativity and bloody mindedness! After being so into Ashes, Final Girl, Unstoppable, and other card battler-type games for a while, this was my first foray into the Euro world. I had a great time with it even though I had to check the rules many times, normal for a first time thing like this I suppose. I really appreciate how smooth and easy Sam plays and makes you feel like you’ve got an opponent who scales with ya!

My biggest anxiety about this game was I've never tackled a Euro before, and I was afraid all the math and multiple resources and components would be more overwhelming than fun. But after tonight I can safely say that even if I don’t make great decisions all the time or have incredible foresight or anything like that, this isn’t the kind of game that punishes you too Hard for playing sub-optimally (at least on the lower difficulty level).

Genuinely feels strange to be moving on a board without dice or randomized cards dictating my movement points haha.

Oh, And for some reason, the cattle cards are so darn charming. A nice change from high fantasy / sci-fi battles and such in other games I’ve played a lot of I suppose.

I really don’t have any complaints except the board-hogging nature of it, but that also feels like part of the charm of the game. I’ll try to get another playthrough or 2 in before teardown, if only because cleanup is so time-consuming.

Anyhow, almost no one I know in real life has any interest in this stuff so it’s nice to share with the community here. Next up is Harmonies, which y'all also recommended a lot. 😃

Hi!

I already have and love Rome Alone and Behold Rome but my thirst is much bigger!

Are there any good Solo-Games with ancient Roman battles and problems? Maybe something in the Punic wars era?

I’m open for any recommendations.

Or something not belonging to those genres, but still thematic. That has not been released yet and which you are interested in.

I refer to Voidfall as a temporal puzzle (to distinguish it from the plethora of spatial puzzles out there) because its central tension is figuring out the best order to play your hand of cards.

Anyone who’s played the game knows that this is no simple task, and it leads to massive brain burn (in a good way). Actions are entwined on cards in sets of three, so even if you’d like to play one action on a particular card right now, the other actions on that card might work better if you played them later after setting them up better. Every single card in your hand has these difficult tradeoffs. And that’s before you add technologies, agendas, and crisis cards to the mix, each dictating (in divergent ways) the best order to play your cards.

This is the only game in my collection that has this core tension. Do you know of any other games like it?

I've played 3 of the 4 heroes and absolutely love it. This game is quick to learn, easy to setup and tear down and a blast to play.

I'm not sure how many people know about the solo card game Lobo, but I have been playing it for the last week and was hooked but frustrated by its difficulty and made a variant called "The Vanguard".

Feel free to try playing it. If you don't know what Lobo is, Totally Tabled made a "How-to-Play" video on it. So you can get the flow of gameplay down and add my variant to your game.

Lobo: The Vanguard by staffmemberj

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts! :D

EDIT: There was an error in my rule document where the example for Splits was under Over's rules. That is now fixed. I also added examples for how Overs work.

Prototyping a new game I created last night. Working title is called DungeonForge. I put it together in just over 24 hours with full mechanics and everything. It’s a roguelite rpg dungeon crawler tabletop game. I decided I will be making two versions of the game, one in card deck form and the second as a booklet with tables instead of cards. Reminiscent of 4AD a bit with a little bit of edge. Would you guys be down to see a development playthrough? Let me know in the comments.

Wow, World Wonders is awesome!!

The components are great, I love how tactile it is. The Automa is easy to run (flip a card, discard the thing) and the scoring is layered without being overwhelming.

I love the element of push your luck in the solo mode - should I spend/waste my remaining money to just take the monument now, or risk the AI discarding it on its next turn???

I love that I don’t have to remember to move a round tracker.. when the board runs out (or the population track is full) the game ends.

I also appreciate that the loans aren’t super brutal - get 2 coins, payback for 3.

Highly recommend for polyomino puzzle lovers who want a few extra levels of complexity.

I have a full collections of Marvel Champions, Star Trek: Captain's Chair and Voidfall. But as a dad of 2 young kids I struggle to find time to set up and play those.

I do find myself with short periods of 15-30 minutes to play, so I'm looking for some suggestions for solo games that can be set up, played and put away in that time span.

As you can see I love strategic card games, but I'm open to anything. I have already played Friday to death. Can you help me find some games that might fit my current situation?

EDIT: well thanks everyone, at least I've got my Christmas list done!

No I didn’t win my first game. But I finally got the basics down and understood why people rave about this game.

It’s a problem that the game seems so overwhelming and complicated

It took me multiple times out on the table and watching videos before I was able to even play a reasonable first turn. That’s not so great and it makes sense why people bounce off.

But the magic of this game appears once you internalize all the well balanced options and trade offs of each cycle. And when I pulled off my first double invasion by spending a trade token so I could get torpedos, regroup my ships and invade all on one turn to get the glory tokens I needed to score the galactic event at the last moment. Chefs kiss.

But at what cost? The crisis board was filled up as I ignored crisis after crisis and the corruption on my board was going to slow me down if I can’t take care of it. LOL. But I had a plan! (Which didn’t quite work out) It was great.

It is a lot of time to get going in this game but I promise if you get thru the learning curve the game opens up and is not difficult at all and very rewarding. Also it helps if you have a table where you can leave it out.

After seeing so much praise about Voidfall and STCC on this reddit I've been tempted many times to jump in, but I think I would be doing myself a disservice at this moment with how heavy they are.

That's why I am really looking forward to Chivalry. According to Turczi it's a little lighter and especially streamlined on top of being a bag builder which I am looking for, plus a theme that speaks to me. So suffice to say I am really hyped for seeing what this game is about and been looking for more info, therefore, if you happen to go to Spiel Essen and have an interest in this game, I would love to hear your thoughts about it!

It has taken me a bit to finally table this one and I think I got it mostly right. I'll need to play another one now that I've gotten that first instructional game out of the way. I'll get a better read on how fun the game might be when I'm not flipping back and forth in the instructions constantly.

I’m curious about this one. Has anyone here played it?

Hey everyone,
I’ve been eyeing The Old King’s Crown after seeing great reviews for its solo mode, specifically the Simulacrum designed by Ricky Royal. Translating a game centered on bluffing and area control and card placement into a solo experience sounds like a huge feat.
Yet, I rarely see it discussed here compared to solo staples like Deckers, Pax Pamir, or Voidfall.

A lot of reviews I see pretty much rave about the solo mode and only have gripes with the multiplayer version of the game because of the barrier to entry, rules, etc.. But claim no issues and praise the solo mode.

Is it just too new and still making its way onto shelves? Or is it a case of initial hype fading over time? For those with multiple plays, how does the bot hold up? Does running the Simulacrum feel like a smooth tactical puzzle or an administrative chore? Most importantly, without human opponents, does the AI manage to replicate the tension of hidden card play and bluffing?
I found a free web version to try out, (that is done incredibly well btw) so I'm working through the rulebook to give it a spin online before deciding on a physical copy. (Here is the link)
If you’ve played it solo, what’s your take? Is it worth getting strictly for solo play?

(Edit: After further looking into many more reviews and recommendations, there seems to be a common consensus that the game is absolutely brilliant and worth to by both solo and multiplayer CONTINGENT on if you are able/willing to suffer threw the first 10 games or so, give or take))

Im new to the game and bought it about 3 weeks ago, ive watched playthroughs and read the guide many times. Ive played about 10 solo games and a few of them with 2 spirits and ive never even come close to winning. Is this normal and the game is really this hard or is it more likely im doing something wrong?

I have no link to the creator, but there is a lack of 18xx games with solo modes so I thought people here might be interested.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gothagames/1863-marsala-express?ref=ksr_email_mktg_auto_user_watched_project_launched

If anyone is interested in 18xx games with solo modes, I can also say that Railways Of The Lost Atlas is very good! And as it's just been reprinted it's probably easy to get.

I am so thoroughly impressed by this game after one play. While I’ve overall enjoyed the Solo Game of the Month series, they can be hit or miss and there’s some games (looking at you, Storybook Saga) that have been disappointments. Drawing Dead though, is such a great solo implementation of poker and I’m already excited to explore the other playable characters.

In this game, you will choose a character who comes with four unique ability cards (more on these in a moment) and an additional ability on their character card. You’ll be progressing through three Gates, behind which are Bosses, and along the way you’ll be dealing with Minions. Defeat the third Boss, and you win!

At the start of a turn, you’ll deal 6 cards out from a 52-card deck into the River. Then, the enemies activate - each Minion and Boss in play have two active effects that are dependent on the cards in the River. Each enemy has two attacks, a primary and a secondary. For example, one Minion’s primary effect (which simply means the one they’ll first try to perform) is to heal 2 damage from all enemies if there is a 3-card straight in the river, while its secondary effect will deal a damage to your character if there are two Infernal (black suits aka Clubs and Spades) cards in the River.

After they’ve all gone, you’ll draw three cards into your hand, and on your turn you’ll play one to the River, discard one to activate its ability, and then the third card can either go to the Gate (if it fulfills the Gate’s card conditions, one example being to have 3 or more cards that are each < 7) or to your Bank (basically storing cards so you can use them on a future turn).

Playing a card to the River is straightforward. It basically gives you a seventh card from which you can then try to make poker hands. Next, each card in the 52-card deck has an ability associated with it. For example, any “3” will let you increase or decrease the value of a card in the river by one, while a “10” will let you draw four cards from the deck and then you can exchange those cards with one’s in the River to try and make a better hand. The card abilities are helpfully written on the cards themselves. Finally, each Gate requires a certain amount of cards, again meeting whatever the requirement may be for that specific Gate, before it’ll flip over and you reveal a Boss.

Remember those ability cards I mentioned near the beginning? Each one has attacks, heals, or other effects that trigger if 1) the River has the type of hand, such as a pair or straight, required by the ability and 2) you choose to activate that ability. Once you’ve played your three cards (and there’s so much thought that goes into how to maximize your River, progress through the gates, activate abilities, etc.), you’ll then choose a hand to activate one of your abilities. Defeating Minions will give you rewards, like +/-1 tokens or suit change tokens, healing, and more. Defeating a Boss will actually level up, letting you choose cards that make your abilities even better.

At the end of your turn, you’ll reveal new minions to meet a minimum threshold set by the Gate or Boss, reveal the Boss if the Gate has been completed, and all cards will have been discarded from the River. Rinse and repeat until you lose all your health or run out of cards!

I haven’t even discussed the fact the playable Characters are two-sided, where losing enough health causes you to flip; or that any cards not played in a hand during your ability activation step are actually “Lost” and don’t go to your discard pile (although there’s way to shuffle some back into your deck). If you activate the same ability twice in a row, like two straights back to back, you’re actually damaged for that, so it’s important to vary your plays. There are twelve Bosses, split into three tiers, so there’s plenty of Gate/Boss variety, along with 20 Minions (which aren’t just cannon-fodder, as I only saw 8 in my game). Also, the game plays in about 45-60 minutes and it’s a relatively small footprint.

Overall, as I think you can tell, I really enjoyed this game. I know it’s only one play, but I haven’t clicked with a solo game like this in quite a while. If you like poker, I think this game is more than worth a try! Thanks for reading!

I bought Arnak awhile ago and played it a dozen times but I haven't touched it since. I've been putting off buying the Missing Expedition. Does the campaign significantly change the game, or does each scenario just have minor rule changes? Also for those who have played the full campaign, do you usually replay the regular game or a scenario when you play solo?

Played my first game of Vestige this evening, and really enjoyed it! Any fans (or haters lol)? For most of the game I did feel pretty aimless though, but maybe that’ll change as I start to understand more of the strategies. Apparently this is also a spin-off of the game Vindication which I’ve also never played. But yeah, fun first play against the Nemesis Dunecrest.

Finally tracked down doom machine. Been excited for this one. I love the tin, but feel like the cards need sleeved. Even though they decent quality, still look like they peel up easy, one already has small lift mark on edge. So I put them in sleeves, but now they don't go back in the tin. I got the dice and markers in the tin, and everything together in a deck box. I feel safer about the cards lasting, but bummed it's not all in a nice small tin. Anyone else sleeve em?