J'ai une âme solitaire: Solitaire Boardgaming Megathread!

Well of course you do. It’s a solitaire game!

(Sorry, but I can’t resist. It’s like Peter Seller’s hand at the end of Dr. Strangelove.)

-Tom, co-op denier

Okay, yes, you guys who got Comancheria are cooler than me. BUT! I just opened up Aeon’s End, which I am super hyped about! I’ll let y’all know how it goes.

The first two RftG expansions are great so if you’ve already ordered it, no worries. But in my opinion the solo game is no where as near as good as just playing with the Keldon’s AI version. The only thing to be careful of is that if you have a normal group, Keldon’s AI will school you so hard that it’s likely you will improve more quickly than your opponents.

http://www.keldon.net/rftg/

Oh sweet, I didn’t know about that - I’ll have to take it for a spin! Shame there’s no tablet version but I can dig out the old Mac Air.

edit: Oh wait, this is a computer version of the game? I thought it assisted with the tabletop version in some way, to drive AI opponents. How is this even legal?

[quote=“Syzygy, post:443, topic:73690, full:true”]The first two RftG expansions are great so if you’ve already ordered it, no worries.
[/quote]

The first two? You don’t recommend finishing the arc with the third one (been thinking about it)?

“Rio Grande Games is the publisher and holds all the copyrights for the images and card names. They have graciously given permission for me to distribute these, though they may not be redistributed or used for any other purpose.”

So that’s how! :)

Nevertheless, I think I prefer to play with the physical cards.

Please share when you do play Aeon’s End. I’m looking at a pre-order from a local store.

I’d recommend playing the shit out of base RftG+Gathering Storm+Rebels vs. Imperium as that’s a nice sweet spot for range of card variety and strategies. And then only adding on The Brink of War once you’ve thoroughly explored that space and want even more variety.

It may even be worth exploring the newer “arc” of base RftG+Alien Artifacts or base RftG+Xeno Invasion rather than going towards the full first “arc” with all three expansions. Speaking of which I didn’t realize RftG: Xeno Invasion was out! Anyone played it? I also have an unplayed copy of Roll for the Galaxy at home so I really need to start playing more race again.

Oh, and a quick BGG search shows that a new version of Keldon’s has also been created to support Xeno Invasion. Wow!

I’ve got a game of Comancheria well underway, after spending a considerable amount of time reading the rules, taking notes, and making my own player aids. Games like this – basically, anything from GMT – require a real commitment.

I’m near the end of the first of four historical phases (they get increasingly difficult), but I already like how you feel much more powerful than you ever were in Navajo Wars. The Comanche kick some ass and take some names. There are other tribes everywhere, and plentiful buffalo for hunting, and relatively laid back Spaniards to the west with whom to trade. Now I’m wishing I started with the trade ability so I could stock up on guns. An epidemic event laid low a bunch of my men, but whatever, food is plentiful so there are plenty more men where they came from. Besides, it freed up a whole mess of breathing room by wiping out other tribes. Yay, disease!

-Tom

My wife ended up trying out Friday before I did. I was watching the Cowboys game and she was playing it next to me. Listening her gave me a general idea how to play. It took her maybe 5 or 6 starts to win the easiest difficulty. I saw how much fun she was having so I read the instructions during the games downtime and started a game of my own after the Cowboys won.

I destroyed cards pretty aggressively by losing the first several battles and made good use of the destroy card power when I got it. My health got pretty low, maybe down to 3-5 so I started to worry that I was a little too aggressive, but then I had some pretty nice cards in my hand and was able to win battle after battle and ended up beating both pirates! I was pretty happy. There is an asterisk next to that victory though - I realized that when I entered the yellow round I forgot to pay the yellow cost during the first battle, so I got that card for a little cheaper than I should have. After that I was careful and didn’t make the same mistake.

I bump it up to the next difficulty next game probably, or maybe I’ll play one more at beginner to make sure it wasn’t a fluke that I ‘mostly’ won.

Seems like a good pickup for the $13 or so that I paid for it.

Ok, Robinson Crusoe is seriously cool, and this new edition has very easy to understand rules (I heard previous editions’s manuals were lacking).

Really thematic and challenging. Just played the first scenario several times, each making less and less rules mistakes. I don’t think I got everything right yet, but I’m close (the only one I think I missed in my last attempt was the two injuries per character not eating at night. I was doing one injury).

Still waiting for my copy of Crusoe. Pre ordered at Cool Stuff and still does not have in stock. Was hoping for this or Comancheria for my 4 day weekend but neither showed up…thinking of hitting the local game store to just pick something new up!

I wonder if there’s an upgrade pack, the way they did for the Z-Man to CGE transition on Tash-Kalar. I don’t really want to buy Robinson Crusoe over again for a few updates.

First off, I wanted to thank Tom for that snippet of Comancheria action! I’d love to hear more if and when you’ve got it!

Second, a new Oniverse game approaches!

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/zmg49003.html

Nautilion! Anyone heard anything? This went completely under my radar.

There will be, although it doesn’t appear to be out yet. It’s supposed to be mostly a combination of stuff that has already been available and a copy of the new rulebook. I printed out the rulebook last week so I will probably pass on the rest.

I have had a pre-order in at Coolstuff for several months. I’m actually getting all the Oniverse games in one order, plus the Arkham Horror LCG and a few Christmas gifts for the kids (Lanterns, couple of Pokemon starter sets). Unfortunately, for some reason CSI’s delivery on Nautilion has been held up and I’m at the point where I’m going to need to remove it from the order so I can get the rest of the things by Christmas.

Overall the buzz I’ve seen for Nautilion puts in the middle-to-upper rankings of the Oniverse games, although it’s going to be somewhat dependent on how much you like dice rolling as a mechanic.

In a way, I couldn’t care less whether it die rolling. I mean, I care, but not because I feel one way or another about rolling dice. But because Shadi Torbey is so good at building compelling solitaire experiences around distinct gameplay dynamics: a deck of cards in Onirim, hold-back-the-tide-of-invaders (and deck management, if you’re playing the for realz version) in Sylvion, and tile drawing in Castellion. Whatever he does next with die rolling I’m eager to discover.

-Tom

I’m glad you posted the link to Nautilion. They’re all on sale, and sixteen bucks a pop is a great price to round out my collection of Oniverse games (I only have Onirim).

My copy of Warfighter WW2 came in today. Merry christmas to me! I’ll dive into it probably Christmas night after everyone has settled down.

I also have to finish my first game of Comancheria - so far I’m really liking it. Although games like this take so long I don’t see me every getting “good” at it. My first game is going well enough. I’m just going to play through the early period and it looks like I’m in good shape to win it but you never know with the enemy actions. I’ve never played Navajo Wars but I read people stating it’s kind of complicated. This game the rules are very clear, the only issue (and Joel T. even says this multiple times in his videos) is it’s a very nested kind of game. So you can start one procedure which might push you into a second procedure which could push you into a 3rd. You just have to remember to pop out in the properly - it can be easy to forget where you are. Other than that I’m not finding anything complicated, intricate might be a better word for it.

Let me know how your Comancheria game goes. I’m having a much harder time with it than Navajo Wars, and frankly, I think it’s missing a lot of what made Navajo Wars so good. But I’m enjoying beating my head against it. I’m on my ninth game and I think I’ve figured out a mandatory opening strategy: forget Lower Arkansas and expand into Llano Estocado. We’ll see how that goes in game nine.

-Tom