J'ai une âme solitaire: Solitaire Boardgaming Megathread!

So I have a little bit of a bug to want to play a new solo boardgame, having played a bunch of Darkest Night and Eldritch Horror. I was at ye local awesome game shoppe in DC earlier today and was intrigued by a couple of titles, both by Stonemaier Games.

The first is Scythe, which I know gets glowing reviews all around. My question would be how the solo variant plays, and if it is good enough to warrant a purchase for solitaire play alone?

The other is a game called Charterstone. It looks like a kind of a worker placement hybrid legacy mechanic thing?

Anyone have any experience and care to weigh in?

I have no experience with these particular titles but I’ll weigh in anyway… ;)

From what I’ve read Viticulture (essential edition) is generally considered the best of the Stonemaier games, esp. w/ regards to solo play. So how come that one’s not on the list!? :)

Apparently they all have well-developed solo modes that don’t feel tacked on so I’d say you’re probably good. I’m sure someone here has played them so let’s see what they say though!

I haven’t played either game but I’ve seen Scythe pop up on the BGG solitaire thread quite a lot. People seem to enjoy it as a solo game. I’ve considered picking it up myself for some soloing. I probably would if I didn’t have a fairly big boardgame backlog already.

Viticulture is pretty awesome. There’s a digital version of Scythe coming out in the near or distant future on Steam so might want to hold off to try it there first. I’ve played the solo mode and it was fun though.

Oh god, no on both counts. No no no. No! Those are not solitaire designs, and chucking a randombot into the mix to represent someone at the other side of the table is a sad compromise. Those are not the games you’re looking for, @triggercut.

Here are a couple of solitaire games I am seriously digging lately that I intend to write up for the front page shortly.

No joke, this is a really solid design with a metric ton of affection for the source material:

https://www.amazon.com/Modiphius-Entertainment-MUH050042-Thunderbirds-Co-operative/dp/B016KP7AKG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517118177&sr=8-1&keywords=thunderbirds+board+game

And this little gem is something I can’t say about many solitaire games: unique.

https://www.amazon.com/Alderac-Entertainment-Group-Unicornus-Knights/dp/B071KXHLSQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517118186&sr=8-1&keywords=unicornus+knights

-Tom

What you’re saying about those Stonemaier games kind of jibes with what I sort of figured from reading about the solitaire variants at BGG: people didn’t play those modes because they were good, but rather because they were there.

I have negative affection for Thunderbirds, but Unicornus Knights looks interesting. Thinking about that or just taking the big plunge on Nemo’s War.

Both Scythe and Viticulture have the Automa style solo modes which tries to simulate human opponents in PvP games. I greatly prefer this style to the “beat your own high score” solo modes common in other PvP games.

(Of course, cooperative games are more natural fit for solo play.)

Has love bloomed on the battlefield for any of your generals yet, Tom?

So I just finished my first game of Eldritch Horror, the globe hopping, Big C is coming to get you game. I played it solo against Azathoth. It took about 3 hours.

And man it was fun! The countdown timer seems to be a great mechanic, I imagined this mind boggling horror travelling down a giant tunnel to come devour us all.

I picked the explorer because he seemed well rounded and was good at recruiting help. So an expedition and clue ended up both being at The Pyramids, so I spent a few turns there. All the while portals kept popping up. Finally I left the desert and took a tour of Europe. After a distraction resolving a northern lights mystery, I went to America because there were portals everywhere. Monsters started spawning around the world, I went a bit insane closing portals in America and the Old One was getting closer. Recovering in San Francisco I realized I was way behind the curve, that my artifact hunting in Cairo and picking up scholars in London pubs may have doomed me. My only fight was with a witch in Arkham and maybe a vampire ambushed me in San Francisco.

But that’s where it ended. I ran out of Mythos cards in San Francisco and the world ended as I looked out over the Bay.

Still, a fun game. I listened to some old timey 20s flapper music in the beginning and then switched to some creepy ambient when the end was near. Nice to be boardgaming again, if even alone. Now that I know the mechanics I think I can be a little faster, both playwise and pacing wise. Next time I’m going to try Cthulhu, it looks like he rises from Ryleth in the ocean if you take too long.

Eldritch Horror is one of my favourite games. The first expansion (Forsaken Lore) is easily considered a must have, especially for replayability with the base game largely a result of adding some more (needed) cards for the base game old ones.

It has been mentioned in this thread before, but the Fantasy Flight business model has flogged Eldritch Horror quite a bit though. Each expansion tends to add more “stuff.” I’m a sucker and I pick it up, but that more stuff adds more bloat to the game under the guise I convince myself that it sounds cool in theory. I do like the fact that the new expansion coming soon will have a campaign mode that sounds interesting. But then there’s the personal stories for each investigator that sounds like another wrinkle to add to the game.

As far as replayability goes, with all expansions, it has nearly limitless potential. But with all expansions, I played recently with a group of 4 and found the process draining after spending upwards of 4 hours fighting a losing battle. Solo is good though, I can leave it on my table and do a round, then step away. That’s the sweet spot for me.

I could really do without the extra boards of the big box expansions, and I agree that the geography gets diluted a little bit with gates for exploration spaces and explorations in cities, but the variety they add does work for me (specially in the Ancient Ones department). If you avoid the big boards (just don’t pick the AO or the preludes) they don’t add much time to the gameplay either.

But yes, I also play mostly solo, and that’s why I’m looking forward to the campaign expansion, which along Cities in Ruins seems to really add new mechanics that move the game in interesting ways, instead of just adding content to a game that didn’t need any already a couple expansion ago.

But yes, I’d also love for it to be the last expansion. Enough is enough.

If I were now to advise people on what expansions to get, I would say Forsaken Lore (it’s really not an expansion, but an excised part of the game), and then the other small box ones. You would get all the good bits of the expansions (focus, Mystic Ruins, destroyed cities) without the clutter (gates for expedition spaces and sideboards). And much cheaper than the big box ones.

You also miss out on a whole bunch of investigators and Ancient Ones, which do much more to vary the experience than (Focus aside) largely unnecessary new mechanics and boards and things. Although at least the small box expansions for Eldritch do have those in them, which I don’t think was the case for its predecessor Arkham Horror.

I think I still prefer Arkham, myself, because you spend so much less time just moving around (you can get anywhere in a turn or two and still get to do fun stuff along the way) and rolls are less punishingly skewed against you (same math but less dice, in Eldritch). I get that you’re globe-hopping in Eldritch and that was sloooow back in the 1920s, but I find it tedious even so. They’re both high on my list, though. Just avoid Elder Sign (except possibly in the lavishly produced app version). None of the depth or flavor of either, all of the randomness and then some, and a distinct trend towards failure spirals.

Ok, so Unicornus Knights is really good. Thanks @Tom for making me notice it.

The first play is a little bit confusing, with all the different characters and the Fate cards (always try to attack with opposite gender characters!).

But on the second playthrough I notice offensive character stands have a red background, and defensive ones a blue background, so managing the enemy move was much simpler and I just kept my enemy cards in two rows, one with turn start effects and other without. It moved at a brisk pace. Just barely beat that playthrough on the last princess move (four player characters and a princess-tactician with 10 soldiers and 40 resources). But I might have made a couple rules mistakes. Specially changing the character playing order sometimes, which I think it’s not legal (gonna read the revised rulebook now). Also, the tactician was key to delay her charge into the capital.

I also found it’s very useful to take a city in one of the center tiles and have a character just spam collect/recruit + send. And that Gato guy is amazing,ignoring all supply rules and self healing 2 hits for 2 actions.

I just bought this after reading your posts and watching the Rahdo play it. What am I going to tell my wife? I just bought Gloomhaven last month…

Thanks a lot, guys!

Let me start by saying I’m glad Unicornus Knights is getting the recognition it deserves! A gem, that one. I love the creator’s attitude toward making games, too.

Second, I just finished losing my first game of the new Darkest Night. Man, this game is just…perfect. Jeremy Lennert could teach FFG how to do expansions. Each one slid into the gameplay so seamlessly, it felt like it had been there all along. No muss, no fuss, no added play time. Now they’ve bundled them all together and it fits beautifully. The mystery cards, which are the parts that’re new to me, work perfectly as a thematic way to get closer to those precious holy relics. The sparks are great, too, as a way to gain more control over critical dice rolls.

A hugely diverse cast of heroes, gameplay that flows elegantly, agonizing choices and yes, buckets of dice. Perfect.

I just bought the first edition right before the second was announced so I resisted backing. Might have to pick it up eventually though.

It’s a great game in any edition, I just think it got better and better with each new release. So if I am right, you have a lot to look forward to :)

One thing I want to add is that I think Darkest Night is absolutely a solitaire game. I don’t think I’d enjoy it at all if my play time was cut down to a fourth and I only controlled one character. I love choosing my party and starting powers, too, which is obviously not possible in multiplayer. Finally, the game has a strong “alpha player” component: turns are taken in the order the players wish, so it is a good idea to organize what all the characters are planning to do before you do anything- and the finale practically demands careful organization of character moves and actions to bring the necromancer down. Great fun if you’re alone, no fun as one-of-four.

I’ve mainly played it with other people and think it’s great fun that way. But it does stand out as one of very very few boardgames I’ve ever enjoyed by myself, as well.

There will be a bridge expansion that will bring 1st ed. games up to date with 2nd ed.