Tainted Grail is basically a very well written novel that you play through with a board game. There is a TON of content in that box.
Arkham Horror is an excellent solo deck builder. Like MTG style game, but solo. It's also a very high quality game. You will get lost in a money dump though. There are probably thousands of dollars in expansions. If you have the cash to blow it's worth it.
Dragon holt is basically a solo D&D RPG that is very light on gameplay, and very heavy on story, and character creation.
I haven't played the Vampire game.
I wish I had the money for AH card game, i suppose i can start small. Tainted grail is what I am getting, then dragon holt probably if I'm in the mood for something lighter.
What’s your budget? Even if you can only buy the Arkham horror revised core set, and the dunwich legacy campaign and investigator expansions that’s more than enough for a ton of gameplay and replay ability. You get 11 scenarios total and 10 investigators.
I own a decent chunk of arkham horror lcg and I agree with the general sentiment that it's a great game but I always prefer to recommend arkham horror 3rd edition the board game instead. It's not as expensive, takes less time to set up because you don't need to build decks, and is in my opinion, one of the best designed games I've ever played. The mechanics always seem to lead to great emergent story. If you want to get the arkham experience easier and cheaper I'd go that route.
Yup, agreed on Arkham Horror LCG being an awesome card game. I came into the game late, and is aware that it already has like 10 expansions or so since its inception. What I have decided to do is to only limit myself to buying 1 expansion per year, and the budget seems very manageable at that rate. There is definitely a lot of deckbuilding decision space already with just core + 1 expansion to get started.
It’s nearly 3am in Arizona and I am forcing myself, reluctantly, to go to bed after around 9 hours in front of Tainted Grail today. It’s really, really, good.
I have tainted grail kings of ruin, never played avalon, but I can confirm that the story is great, very immersive, thats why i think its better as a solo game, so you can read it at your own pace.
Kings of ruin supposedly fixed what made avalon a bit grindy/repetitive, in KoR you dont need to go out of your way to re-activate statues, which lets you really enjoy the actual story.
As for Arkham Horror, i recommend you stay away from the game, its actually awesome, and you will definitely want more than the core game, once you look around ArkhamDB you will want to try all the player cards, so unless you are ready to buy at least a couple Investigator expansions and 1 campaign, but it gets really expensive, real fast
I'm getting kings of ruin for sure.
But for arkham Horror card game. At first I found it dull but after checking it out more, I want it so bad. I can't stay away 😅. I might wait for blackfriday actually, maybe it will be on sale then.
When they released Kings of Ruin they also reprinted Fall of Avalon in a 2.0 edition that gets rid of most (if not all) of the complaints about the repetitiveness and grind of the original game. An update pack for Fall of Avalon 1.0 owners is also available.
Tainted Grail has good writing for a GAME. The average quality of writing for games is not good. But no game’s story is going to be as good as what a good novelist or screenwriter/director can accomplish.
I tried out final girl based on all the rave reviews. Idk if I just picked the wrong feature film as my first, but it was a huge miss for me. Played it once and haven't bothered since. Just wasn't fun. The Evo morph vanished for a few turns, I tried to scan but the dice didn't go my way. It popped out and one shot me. Just not very fun.
Evomorph is not the best starter film, because the killer sometimes dissapears for a while, leaving you to do what you need to….. the only issue is that being your 1st film, you dont have much experience on figuring a playstyle.
Some killers force you to run and save the girls first, others you need to hit and run, others are best when you face then straight on, or maybe the map focuses on getting all items or vehicle to succeed easier.
The evomorph has all of these, and it changes depending on the luck of the draw, i would recommend to start with the more straightforward killers (Season 1 - Hans / Season 2 Big Bad Wolf) so you get a grasp of how you want to play.
Also I recommend vetting the box of props from season 2, they include a “ultimate die” which you can add to your dice pool when you are understanding the game, and take it out once you get some practice (or use them all, kinda like using a gameshark to enjoy a brain-off game)
The evomorph, I guess it's called into the void, since I like Alien. I consider myself a pretty experienced gamer so I decided to start with a theme I like rather than a noob one.
If you want to try out an LCG, Marvel Champions core set has way more replayability than Arkham core set. It’s still something you can go crazy and spend hundreds of dollars on new campaigns and heroes and storage solutions. But the Marvel core set still feels like a complete boss battler game, with 5 heroes, 3 villains, a bunch of villain modular sets for variety and customization, and enough hero cards to have 4 very different decks built at once. The game plays great true-solo (controlling one hero), whereas Arkham LCG really requires 2-handed solo play.
I really don't like super heros and marvel and all those. Was never into it. However, I love HP Lovecrafts world, so if I'm gonna spend a lot of money it's gonna be on that.
Another option is to preorder the second printing of **Earthborne Rangers** which is a sort of open world exploration RPG that utilizes LCG style gameplay. It’s a long campaign that I think lasts 30 sessions, and is replayable as well.
You can also play AH true solo with house rules but it is difficult. There are a lot of mods on BGG to balance out the difficulty, but there’ll be a lot of board game ‘purists’ that will tell you it ruins the spirit of the game because it’s supposed to be crushingly difficult.
Ignore it. I play it true solo with altered rules and I have fun.
Rove, sprawlopolis and the rest, food chain island, skulls of Sedlec, Rove from buttonshy if you like puzzly games. They also have an active discord with weekly challenges for all the above.
20strong is probably my most played in '24 along with its too many bones deck.
I d also suggest Hadrian's Wall with its free pnp campaign.
Is there a game LIKE too many bones but like not over $100? Too Many Bones sounds like everything I’m looking for in a game but it’s hard to save up for with other bills/commitments. Or would you say it’s worth saving for?
It’s my favorite game and I have a massive collection. Lol. So I would say worth it but Undertow is a stand alone expansion and would be a nice entry point though slightly under $100. Goodluck!!!
https://chiptheorygames.com/store/?store-page=Too-Many-Bones-Undertow-p97858867
Some of my favorites include: Paladins, Final Girl, Carnegie (try it out for free on BoardGameArena.com), Too Many Bones, Gaia Project, Robinson Crusoe, and Spirit Island.
Personally, I've yet to play a game that had a compelling story. Not a single game that I've played (Oathsworn, Tainted Grail, Etherfields) had an interesting enough/well written story that if it were book, I'd continue reading it. I far prefer games where the story "emerges" from the gameplay itself (i.e. Nemesis, Frostpunk)
Damn, reason why tainted grail is on top of my list is because people saying the story is good. I hope I'm not disappointed.
Nemesis is on my list 2 but for gameplay really.
I've never been a "fantasy" book reader and apparently, the writer of Tainted Grail actually is a book author. I still thought the writing was pretty terrible, but maybe it's typical of this genre. YMMV.
Happy about the Frostpunk shout-out! What a gem of a game: brutally difficult game if you can't get your resource engine up and running in time.....but man, the game just drips with theme and tough survivalist decisions. Easily one of the best city-builder simulation out there
Frostpunk is one of my highest rated games, but didn't mention it in my original list because I realize it's a polarizing game. For me, it has the PERFECT amount of narrative, introduced by events on the text of cards. I absolutely love it. Way better than This War of Mine (which I actually didn't like).
EDIT: The reason that I think Frostpunk is polarizing is that it's incredibly hard to win and it suffers from cascading failure. If you make a bad move or get handed some really bad luck, there's practically no way to recover -- making the game not very fun to continue. But my solution to this is simply abandon the game at that point as I see no point in being a glutton for punishment.
Due to you saying you're looking for story, I'll throw out agemonia for a suggestion. I haven't played it yet but do have it ordered. It has very high reviews for a great storyline. It's not as combat heavy as many games of the size and type, but that's your call for interest or not. If you like combat heavy, divinity original sin is out there, and it is quite difficult in my eyes (so far, not done yet) being a pretty new board game player.
Spirit Island
Marvel Champions
Final girl
These 3 cover pretty much all my solo needs. They've all got a huge amount of content to keep the variability up.
5 months into the hobby and I bought Arkham Horror LCG and… oh wow. I don’t need anything else for solo in a while. Although I’ve been playing Mini Rogue in Game Board Arena and it’s fun!
Spirit Island, Final Girl, Aeon's End, Warp's Edge and Death May Die are my top solo boardgames! Jaws of the Lion is a bit of a stretch since I found it way more fun to play with others but it plays alright solo. If you want to try out solo euro games then Anachrony and Voidfall are must tries. I usually don't play euro games but these two slap.
Arkham Horror LCG is pretty good but you have to spend at least for $100 for it to finally be playable, no joke. The core set is basically a tutorial with 2 terrible scenarios and a decent one out of 3. Make sure you have the cash to dive in but imo the price is too much for a cardgame.
> What are your top solo board games?
**Comancheria**
**Fields of Fire**
**Mage Knight**
**Dawn of the Zeds**
**Liberty or Death**
> What would you recommend out of these?
LoD is mostly just reading through the story written for you. 1000YOV is largely creating / writing your own story. The latter is my preference.
I enjoy narrative games solo more than traditional ones, which tend to be more fun with other players.
My suggestions:
Tainted grail
Etherfields
Sleeping gods
7th continent or 7th citadel
Non narrative, I've really enjoyed Hoplomachus Victorum
Arkham Horror LCG is very good solo but be aware of the cost to keep it going! Base + a full campaign is about 200$
I have played multiple awakened realms games (tainted grail, iss vanguard, Etherfields, this war of mine). I literally just sold my copy of Etherfields this week.
The gameplay is way too lose and the plot is almost nonexistent due to the “dream” aspects of the game. For me, the story is what makes awaken realms special. It does do some really interesting things with the map and is super impressive in that way; however, the other aspects of the gameplay loop (specifically card play, masks, etc.) didn’t justify it.
Out of all of those games, I’d recommend tainted grail without hesitation. You may need a house rule or two to address some grinding issues but otherwise this is my favorite game of all time. I’m buying kings of ruin this week.
Tainted grail is still on top of my list after checking out almost all the games suggested. I'm getting Kings of Ruin tho, not fall of avalon. I've heard they addressed a few problems and it's overall better. Ty.
I understand, and I also bought Etherfields warily, after watching several reviews. But I must say I'm really liking it, I like the setting and find it a very creative game. Having said that, I understand it's not for everyone. Watching a playthrough of the first chapters for any of these games can help a lot to identify if you may like it!
I second checking out the People’s Choice list that birl_ds posted. It has been a great guide for me for several years leading me to investigate games I did not think I would be interested in.
I too started my solo board game journey with Mage Knight though I wanted to play it with my son. Spirit Island was the next one.
I'm a big fan of deck building. The problem is when playing solo most deck builders aren't as good compared to higher player counts. The ones that do hold for me are GI Joe Deck Building and Imperium Classics/Legends/Horizons.
My favorites so far:
Zombicide: Black Plague
Isle of Cats
Call to Adventure
Everdell
Sagrada
Terraforming Mars
Canvas
Wyrmspan
Arcana Rising
(and hopefully I'll love Viticulture solo)
Games I homebrewed solo versions for and play more than the multiplayer versions:
Astra
Taverns of Tiefenthal
Art Society
Splendor
Stone Age
Disney Villainous
Pack & Stack
Champions of Midgard
(and I hope to get a solo version of Small World to the table soon)
Arkham Horror LCG is my forever game. Incredible deckbuilding, awesome scenarios, and also doubles as an incredible co-op experience.
Final Girl is great as well and doesn’t require a significant investment. Fantastic scenarios, great modularity, and endless possibilities.
Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is another great solo experience. Doesn’t take up as much space as base Gloomhaven and is awesome to play!
+1 for Final Girl. Easily my top solo and a top 3 board game overall. Hoplomachus Victorum is a very close second for solo; nothing else provides such an epic experience.
For which one? Victorum isn’t that bad for what it is, and it’s easy to preserve the game state and pop it in/out. I prefer to leave it set up for multiple plays though.
Ah, gotcha. I’ve got all the big boxes, so it takes a bit longer than it would if I just had a couple sets sitting around. That said, it’s still maybe 15-20 minutes, which isn’t too bad I think.
But I hear you: it’s not a quick solo experience. If I want to pull something off the shelf to get a few plays, I don’t reach for Final Girl. I usually leave it set up for a few plays too.
Haha I’ve had a couple short games, but on average they’re 37 minutes, so a good return on the setup time. But if I want short setup and short playtime, there are plenty of other solos that work well.
If you are into sci-fi and adventure genre for solo experiences, you can take a look at Rogue Angels. It is not out yet, but the prototype can be tested on Tabletop Simulator.
It is inspired by Mass Effect, and have elements like character personalities, companion relationships, and many choose your own adventure style paths through its story.
[https://www.suntzugames.com/rogue-angels.html](https://www.suntzugames.com/rogue-angels.html)
----------------------------
If you want some post-apocalyptic setting, then you might want to try Frostpunk, which is also a really tough game. For the cyberpunk feel, you can try Nanolith, or perhaps Phantom Epoch as a merge of sci-fi and fantasy. :)
Well, you will probably throw mine out the window, but Terraforming Mars and Terraforming Mars:Ares Expedition’s solo mode are awesome, and both are great at higher player counts. I also am a huge fan of roll & Writes and of that category I think Dinosaur Island is one of the more interesting. No rolling, only coloring category I recommend Cartographers, but use color pencils. Lastly, a game that is just good fun and again good at all player counts from 1-5, but has great artwork and makes something I’d never think could be a board game = Parks.
A bit of a different rec, but The Light in the Mist is a unique game with a beautiful story told in a way that doesn’t force you into any kind of order.
It is very puzzley with basically pictures on tarot cards that you use to solve a puzzle.
Arkham horror can get pricey but I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Also, dollar for dollar as a solo player, I have gotten exponentially more value from it than any other game.
I have almost all of the content and you have absolutely no reason to get it all at once. As another comment said, getting the revised starter plus Dunwich and nothing else will keep you occupied for many play throughs and multiple variations of play styles. If you get the bug (as most of us do), you can then buy one more campaign and investigator box, and do the same thing.
Going at this pace, a few hundred dollars will get you an extraordinarily large number of hours. Obviously that is not a small amount of money but most large campaign games cost the same or close to it.
Word of warning though, Arkham can be pretty crunchy. What I personally love about it is the marriage of crunch with campaign storytelling. The mechanics are designed so well and it doesn’t feel fiddly at all or overwhelming to keep track of characters/inventory/stats the way some campaign games can. But the actual gameplay is very cerebral and new players often find it unforgiving. Once you get the hang of it though you’ll be building powerful decks and having a blast
I sincerely recommend the 1000 Year Old Vampire game. It’s a mix of writing your own story with prompts given to you by a choose your own story element. It does ask a lot of the player and found it worked best as a collaborative story with a GM and a player and maybe 1 or 2 observers who could help with storylines.
I strongly recommend AHLCG, and my absolute favourite is Marvel Champions (though it's a harder sell if you don't like marvel). Some others at the top of my list are Fields of Arle, Pax Pamir 2e and Railroad Ink
If you like marvel, I've really enjoyed Marvel Champions. It's a similar concept to Arkham Horror. I'd say the main difference is of course theme, but Arkham is more story based while MC is more Villain based. Both are very fun tho!
I did find arkham a bit more difficult on solo than MC.
I've heard good things about how the story in Pandemic Legacy emerges and how it affects the players. You could two hand it and play solo very easily. But I agree that most of the good stories are just good for board games from what I've seen. Sleeping Gods and Jaws of the Lion didn't impress me.
Tainted Grail is basically a very well written novel that you play through with a board game. There is a TON of content in that box. Arkham Horror is an excellent solo deck builder. Like MTG style game, but solo. It's also a very high quality game. You will get lost in a money dump though. There are probably thousands of dollars in expansions. If you have the cash to blow it's worth it. Dragon holt is basically a solo D&D RPG that is very light on gameplay, and very heavy on story, and character creation. I haven't played the Vampire game.
Nice thing about Arkham Horror LCG is you can spread out the purchases over time, so while it is a money sink, it’s not all at once.
I wish I had the money for AH card game, i suppose i can start small. Tainted grail is what I am getting, then dragon holt probably if I'm in the mood for something lighter.
What’s your budget? Even if you can only buy the Arkham horror revised core set, and the dunwich legacy campaign and investigator expansions that’s more than enough for a ton of gameplay and replay ability. You get 11 scenarios total and 10 investigators.
I own a decent chunk of arkham horror lcg and I agree with the general sentiment that it's a great game but I always prefer to recommend arkham horror 3rd edition the board game instead. It's not as expensive, takes less time to set up because you don't need to build decks, and is in my opinion, one of the best designed games I've ever played. The mechanics always seem to lead to great emergent story. If you want to get the arkham experience easier and cheaper I'd go that route.
Yup, agreed on Arkham Horror LCG being an awesome card game. I came into the game late, and is aware that it already has like 10 expansions or so since its inception. What I have decided to do is to only limit myself to buying 1 expansion per year, and the budget seems very manageable at that rate. There is definitely a lot of deckbuilding decision space already with just core + 1 expansion to get started.
It’s nearly 3am in Arizona and I am forcing myself, reluctantly, to go to bed after around 9 hours in front of Tainted Grail today. It’s really, really, good.
Omg man 😂. Fall of avalon or kings of ruin?
I have tainted grail kings of ruin, never played avalon, but I can confirm that the story is great, very immersive, thats why i think its better as a solo game, so you can read it at your own pace. Kings of ruin supposedly fixed what made avalon a bit grindy/repetitive, in KoR you dont need to go out of your way to re-activate statues, which lets you really enjoy the actual story. As for Arkham Horror, i recommend you stay away from the game, its actually awesome, and you will definitely want more than the core game, once you look around ArkhamDB you will want to try all the player cards, so unless you are ready to buy at least a couple Investigator expansions and 1 campaign, but it gets really expensive, real fast
I'm getting kings of ruin for sure. But for arkham Horror card game. At first I found it dull but after checking it out more, I want it so bad. I can't stay away 😅. I might wait for blackfriday actually, maybe it will be on sale then.
When they released Kings of Ruin they also reprinted Fall of Avalon in a 2.0 edition that gets rid of most (if not all) of the complaints about the repetitiveness and grind of the original game. An update pack for Fall of Avalon 1.0 owners is also available.
Avalon. I’ve got its stretch goals and red death waiting in the wings. It’ll be a while before I consider Kings of Ruin.
Is the story good? It's one of the reasons I want to get the game. People are saying it's good but another comment says it's not that good.
Tainted Grail has good writing for a GAME. The average quality of writing for games is not good. But no game’s story is going to be as good as what a good novelist or screenwriter/director can accomplish.
Fair point. I'm still getting it tho.
Go AZ! Love that there are many of us here riding out the summer in AC with boardgames. :)
I’m still planning to mix in some golf. 20 years and the heat hasn’t killed me yet.
You are clearly a masochist. :) Enjoy the links!
Final Girl is spectacular. Like everyone else, Spirit Island however I’ve yet to play it (just picked up Horizons Spirit Island though)
I tried out final girl based on all the rave reviews. Idk if I just picked the wrong feature film as my first, but it was a huge miss for me. Played it once and haven't bothered since. Just wasn't fun. The Evo morph vanished for a few turns, I tried to scan but the dice didn't go my way. It popped out and one shot me. Just not very fun.
Evomorph is not the best starter film, because the killer sometimes dissapears for a while, leaving you to do what you need to….. the only issue is that being your 1st film, you dont have much experience on figuring a playstyle. Some killers force you to run and save the girls first, others you need to hit and run, others are best when you face then straight on, or maybe the map focuses on getting all items or vehicle to succeed easier. The evomorph has all of these, and it changes depending on the luck of the draw, i would recommend to start with the more straightforward killers (Season 1 - Hans / Season 2 Big Bad Wolf) so you get a grasp of how you want to play. Also I recommend vetting the box of props from season 2, they include a “ultimate die” which you can add to your dice pool when you are understanding the game, and take it out once you get some practice (or use them all, kinda like using a gameshark to enjoy a brain-off game)
What feature film? I know everyone says start off on one of the “beginner” films to minimize the killer rules.
The evomorph, I guess it's called into the void, since I like Alien. I consider myself a pretty experienced gamer so I decided to start with a theme I like rather than a noob one.
Surprised you didn’t enjoy it, I think that film gets fairly high praises. Shelf it for a bit and come back to it!
If you want to try out an LCG, Marvel Champions core set has way more replayability than Arkham core set. It’s still something you can go crazy and spend hundreds of dollars on new campaigns and heroes and storage solutions. But the Marvel core set still feels like a complete boss battler game, with 5 heroes, 3 villains, a bunch of villain modular sets for variety and customization, and enough hero cards to have 4 very different decks built at once. The game plays great true-solo (controlling one hero), whereas Arkham LCG really requires 2-handed solo play.
I really don't like super heros and marvel and all those. Was never into it. However, I love HP Lovecrafts world, so if I'm gonna spend a lot of money it's gonna be on that.
Another option is to preorder the second printing of **Earthborne Rangers** which is a sort of open world exploration RPG that utilizes LCG style gameplay. It’s a long campaign that I think lasts 30 sessions, and is replayable as well.
Idr this one. Ty! Will check it out.
You can also play AH true solo with house rules but it is difficult. There are a lot of mods on BGG to balance out the difficulty, but there’ll be a lot of board game ‘purists’ that will tell you it ruins the spirit of the game because it’s supposed to be crushingly difficult. Ignore it. I play it true solo with altered rules and I have fun.
Earthborn Rangers Spirit Island Gloomhaven (jaws of the lion)
Rove, sprawlopolis and the rest, food chain island, skulls of Sedlec, Rove from buttonshy if you like puzzly games. They also have an active discord with weekly challenges for all the above. 20strong is probably my most played in '24 along with its too many bones deck. I d also suggest Hadrian's Wall with its free pnp campaign.
20 strong is on my list, but right now I'm looking for a game with a story as well. Will check out the others tho, ty.
Too Many Bones
Is there a game LIKE too many bones but like not over $100? Too Many Bones sounds like everything I’m looking for in a game but it’s hard to save up for with other bills/commitments. Or would you say it’s worth saving for?
It’s my favorite game and I have a massive collection. Lol. So I would say worth it but Undertow is a stand alone expansion and would be a nice entry point though slightly under $100. Goodluck!!! https://chiptheorygames.com/store/?store-page=Too-Many-Bones-Undertow-p97858867
Some of my favorites include: Paladins, Final Girl, Carnegie (try it out for free on BoardGameArena.com), Too Many Bones, Gaia Project, Robinson Crusoe, and Spirit Island.
How do you enjoy Robinson Crusoe? Hard to get into or don’t pick it up fairly quick? Been eyeing this for a bit since so many people recommend it.
Same question from me :)
Spirit island and Robinson crusoe are on my list! Ty Need a game with a story now
Personally, I've yet to play a game that had a compelling story. Not a single game that I've played (Oathsworn, Tainted Grail, Etherfields) had an interesting enough/well written story that if it were book, I'd continue reading it. I far prefer games where the story "emerges" from the gameplay itself (i.e. Nemesis, Frostpunk)
Damn, reason why tainted grail is on top of my list is because people saying the story is good. I hope I'm not disappointed. Nemesis is on my list 2 but for gameplay really.
I've never been a "fantasy" book reader and apparently, the writer of Tainted Grail actually is a book author. I still thought the writing was pretty terrible, but maybe it's typical of this genre. YMMV.
Happy about the Frostpunk shout-out! What a gem of a game: brutally difficult game if you can't get your resource engine up and running in time.....but man, the game just drips with theme and tough survivalist decisions. Easily one of the best city-builder simulation out there
Frostpunk is one of my highest rated games, but didn't mention it in my original list because I realize it's a polarizing game. For me, it has the PERFECT amount of narrative, introduced by events on the text of cards. I absolutely love it. Way better than This War of Mine (which I actually didn't like). EDIT: The reason that I think Frostpunk is polarizing is that it's incredibly hard to win and it suffers from cascading failure. If you make a bad move or get handed some really bad luck, there's practically no way to recover -- making the game not very fun to continue. But my solution to this is simply abandon the game at that point as I see no point in being a glutton for punishment.
Due to you saying you're looking for story, I'll throw out agemonia for a suggestion. I haven't played it yet but do have it ordered. It has very high reviews for a great storyline. It's not as combat heavy as many games of the size and type, but that's your call for interest or not. If you like combat heavy, divinity original sin is out there, and it is quite difficult in my eyes (so far, not done yet) being a pretty new board game player.
Agemonia seems fun, but I think I like Divinity more. Ty for the suggestions. I might be adding divinity to my list!
Spirit Island Marvel Champions Final girl These 3 cover pretty much all my solo needs. They've all got a huge amount of content to keep the variability up.
5 months into the hobby and I bought Arkham Horror LCG and… oh wow. I don’t need anything else for solo in a while. Although I’ve been playing Mini Rogue in Game Board Arena and it’s fun!
Spirit Island, Final Girl, Aeon's End, Warp's Edge and Death May Die are my top solo boardgames! Jaws of the Lion is a bit of a stretch since I found it way more fun to play with others but it plays alright solo. If you want to try out solo euro games then Anachrony and Voidfall are must tries. I usually don't play euro games but these two slap. Arkham Horror LCG is pretty good but you have to spend at least for $100 for it to finally be playable, no joke. The core set is basically a tutorial with 2 terrible scenarios and a decent one out of 3. Make sure you have the cash to dive in but imo the price is too much for a cardgame.
* I'm new to solos myself, have been enjoying all of these. Especially Final Girl.
[Under Falling Skies](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/306735/under-falling-skies) is the best solo game I have by far!
I've checked it out. Looks good but not for me personally.
> What are your top solo board games? **Comancheria** **Fields of Fire** **Mage Knight** **Dawn of the Zeds** **Liberty or Death** > What would you recommend out of these? LoD is mostly just reading through the story written for you. 1000YOV is largely creating / writing your own story. The latter is my preference.
I enjoy narrative games solo more than traditional ones, which tend to be more fun with other players. My suggestions: Tainted grail Etherfields Sleeping gods 7th continent or 7th citadel Non narrative, I've really enjoyed Hoplomachus Victorum Arkham Horror LCG is very good solo but be aware of the cost to keep it going! Base + a full campaign is about 200$
First time seeing etherfields, it looks great honestly. Why is arkham Horror lcg so damn expensive?? Might remove it from the list. Ty
I have played multiple awakened realms games (tainted grail, iss vanguard, Etherfields, this war of mine). I literally just sold my copy of Etherfields this week. The gameplay is way too lose and the plot is almost nonexistent due to the “dream” aspects of the game. For me, the story is what makes awaken realms special. It does do some really interesting things with the map and is super impressive in that way; however, the other aspects of the gameplay loop (specifically card play, masks, etc.) didn’t justify it. Out of all of those games, I’d recommend tainted grail without hesitation. You may need a house rule or two to address some grinding issues but otherwise this is my favorite game of all time. I’m buying kings of ruin this week.
Tainted grail is still on top of my list after checking out almost all the games suggested. I'm getting Kings of Ruin tho, not fall of avalon. I've heard they addressed a few problems and it's overall better. Ty.
I understand, and I also bought Etherfields warily, after watching several reviews. But I must say I'm really liking it, I like the setting and find it a very creative game. Having said that, I understand it's not for everyone. Watching a playthrough of the first chapters for any of these games can help a lot to identify if you may like it!
Avoid Etherfields!!!
I just finished act 2 of my first Victorum game. Messing up a number of rules, but I'm catching them and trying to fix, so far it's fantastic!
I'm new as well, check my post history I got really good responses when I did this same question about 2 weeks ago.
Noted! Ty.
Isofarian Gaurd is so good.
Ty for this! Briefly checked it out and it looks so promising so far. Will look more into it.
Arkham Horror is the best option on your list. So so so good.
I second checking out the People’s Choice list that birl_ds posted. It has been a great guide for me for several years leading me to investigate games I did not think I would be interested in. I too started my solo board game journey with Mage Knight though I wanted to play it with my son. Spirit Island was the next one.
I'm a big fan of deck building. The problem is when playing solo most deck builders aren't as good compared to higher player counts. The ones that do hold for me are GI Joe Deck Building and Imperium Classics/Legends/Horizons.
My favorites so far: Zombicide: Black Plague Isle of Cats Call to Adventure Everdell Sagrada Terraforming Mars Canvas Wyrmspan Arcana Rising (and hopefully I'll love Viticulture solo) Games I homebrewed solo versions for and play more than the multiplayer versions: Astra Taverns of Tiefenthal Art Society Splendor Stone Age Disney Villainous Pack & Stack Champions of Midgard (and I hope to get a solo version of Small World to the table soon)
Arkham Horror LCG is my forever game. Incredible deckbuilding, awesome scenarios, and also doubles as an incredible co-op experience. Final Girl is great as well and doesn’t require a significant investment. Fantastic scenarios, great modularity, and endless possibilities. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is another great solo experience. Doesn’t take up as much space as base Gloomhaven and is awesome to play!
+1 for Final Girl. Easily my top solo and a top 3 board game overall. Hoplomachus Victorum is a very close second for solo; nothing else provides such an epic experience.
Setup is way to long for it
For which one? Victorum isn’t that bad for what it is, and it’s easy to preserve the game state and pop it in/out. I prefer to leave it set up for multiple plays though.
Final girl. Takes to long to set up IMHO.
Ah, gotcha. I’ve got all the big boxes, so it takes a bit longer than it would if I just had a couple sets sitting around. That said, it’s still maybe 15-20 minutes, which isn’t too bad I think. But I hear you: it’s not a quick solo experience. If I want to pull something off the shelf to get a few plays, I don’t reach for Final Girl. I usually leave it set up for a few plays too.
My game can be over in that time. It’s a good game but overrated.
Haha I’ve had a couple short games, but on average they’re 37 minutes, so a good return on the setup time. But if I want short setup and short playtime, there are plenty of other solos that work well.
If you are into sci-fi and adventure genre for solo experiences, you can take a look at Rogue Angels. It is not out yet, but the prototype can be tested on Tabletop Simulator. It is inspired by Mass Effect, and have elements like character personalities, companion relationships, and many choose your own adventure style paths through its story. [https://www.suntzugames.com/rogue-angels.html](https://www.suntzugames.com/rogue-angels.html) ---------------------------- If you want some post-apocalyptic setting, then you might want to try Frostpunk, which is also a really tough game. For the cyberpunk feel, you can try Nanolith, or perhaps Phantom Epoch as a merge of sci-fi and fantasy. :)
Well, you will probably throw mine out the window, but Terraforming Mars and Terraforming Mars:Ares Expedition’s solo mode are awesome, and both are great at higher player counts. I also am a huge fan of roll & Writes and of that category I think Dinosaur Island is one of the more interesting. No rolling, only coloring category I recommend Cartographers, but use color pencils. Lastly, a game that is just good fun and again good at all player counts from 1-5, but has great artwork and makes something I’d never think could be a board game = Parks.
A bit of a different rec, but The Light in the Mist is a unique game with a beautiful story told in a way that doesn’t force you into any kind of order. It is very puzzley with basically pictures on tarot cards that you use to solve a puzzle.
Arkham horror can get pricey but I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Also, dollar for dollar as a solo player, I have gotten exponentially more value from it than any other game. I have almost all of the content and you have absolutely no reason to get it all at once. As another comment said, getting the revised starter plus Dunwich and nothing else will keep you occupied for many play throughs and multiple variations of play styles. If you get the bug (as most of us do), you can then buy one more campaign and investigator box, and do the same thing. Going at this pace, a few hundred dollars will get you an extraordinarily large number of hours. Obviously that is not a small amount of money but most large campaign games cost the same or close to it. Word of warning though, Arkham can be pretty crunchy. What I personally love about it is the marriage of crunch with campaign storytelling. The mechanics are designed so well and it doesn’t feel fiddly at all or overwhelming to keep track of characters/inventory/stats the way some campaign games can. But the actual gameplay is very cerebral and new players often find it unforgiving. Once you get the hang of it though you’ll be building powerful decks and having a blast
My top solo games are Arkham lcg and too many bones. So much variety and great choices in each
-Too many bones -Gloomhaven/frosthaven/jaws of the lion -Oathsworn -Sleeping gods -All really good solo games!
Aeon's End (New Age in particular) Gloomhaven Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion
I enjoy ugly gryphon inn and hive in five
I sincerely recommend the 1000 Year Old Vampire game. It’s a mix of writing your own story with prompts given to you by a choose your own story element. It does ask a lot of the player and found it worked best as a collaborative story with a GM and a player and maybe 1 or 2 observers who could help with storylines.
I strongly recommend AHLCG, and my absolute favourite is Marvel Champions (though it's a harder sell if you don't like marvel). Some others at the top of my list are Fields of Arle, Pax Pamir 2e and Railroad Ink
I love Friday. So simple to set up, takes up little space, great blend of strategy and luck. Used to play it every morning to get my mind going
If you like marvel, I've really enjoyed Marvel Champions. It's a similar concept to Arkham Horror. I'd say the main difference is of course theme, but Arkham is more story based while MC is more Villain based. Both are very fun tho! I did find arkham a bit more difficult on solo than MC.
Arkham Horror LCG is fantastic! I also like the Lord of the Rings LCG for true solo. Both got me through the early days of Covid-19!
I've heard good things about how the story in Pandemic Legacy emerges and how it affects the players. You could two hand it and play solo very easily. But I agree that most of the good stories are just good for board games from what I've seen. Sleeping Gods and Jaws of the Lion didn't impress me.
Final Girl
Final Girl, for sure.
Fallout solo was amazing for me (with Atomic Bonds) because of the replayability and the tense stories.
Got this on wishlist, bit difficult to find in Greece tho 😭 Seen a couple playthroughs and the game looks amazing.
Get it from Amazon? Or from another country, like lexshop .ro
I love the fallout video games and world generally. Never thought to check out the board game. Ty
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/324731/2023-peoples-choice-top-200-solo-games-1-200
Cthulhu DMD