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Anyone know if any decent solo games/wargames that are fun to play?

My number one is definitely Aeon's End. Such an incredibly smart design, where you can see how the designers were bent on putting at least a tiny player decision in every nook and cranny of the system. Flipping the deck instead of shuffling it is pure genius! Yeah, it requires expansions at some point to add new Nemeses and tricks to the players' arsenal, but whenever a new expansion is to be released I'm not annoyed by having to buy it - I just can't wait to play it! Set up is a bit clunky, but once I start I find myself playing again and again.

On the Ameritrash side, I like dungeon crawlers as a solo experience. Apart from Gloomhaven (which is top notch and playable solo too!) I think in most such games playing just one character doesn't give you a lot of options. Playing several gives a solo player a huge plethora of interlocking options and can be very satisfying. I have played Machina Arcana (4 explorers), Massive Darkness 2 (3 characters) and Hunters AD 2114 (4 characters). The last one is more of an open world RPG-like adventure game, but still worth spending time on it. There's a brand new fantasy version too.

On the Euro-style side, I adore the design of the automa for Terra Mystica (an outstanding game in its own right). Once I set it up, I played like 20 times consecutively, varying factions and conditions, ramping up difficulty as I went. Very fun and clever, but I'd recommend trying the game with living players first, to learn how it works.

What I didn't like, even though a lot of solo gamers consider it a Holy Grail, was Spirit Island. It was too predictable and mechanical and lacked emotion. But people love it, so maybe give it a try yourself? I wish I could have access to a good LOTR LCG collection, as it is apparently an awesome solo experience.

Star Trek Alliance Dominion War (I-III). I'm doing a Solo campaign since about one and a half years and it's just awesome.

You can try:
- 5 Parsecs from Home ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/337864/five-parsecs-from-home-solo-adventure-wargaming )
- 5 Leagues from the Borderland ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/359758/five-leagues-from-the-borderlands-3rd-edition )

Both are sandbox-like miniature-agnostic games (futuristic and medieval respectively) that can make some pretty involved campaigns.

Stargrave has a supplement book that adds a solo variant if you want a sci-fi zombie/horror survival campaign.

I've got a handful of solitaire board games, and I know of one or two miniature wargames that can be played solo.
Board games:
Warp's Edge: a fun little bag-building game where you are a space fighter pilot trying to fight off waves of alien ships and destroy their mothership. Your ship is equipped with a device that can revert time back to before the battle begins (only a certain number of times, though!), allowing you to plan out your strategies knowing what the enemy is going to do. There's even an expansion for this game that adds new challenges.
Proving Grounds: I haven't actually tried this one yet despite owning it for over a year now, but the premise is a gladiatorial fighting arena where waves of enemies attack. It's a fast-paced dice rolling game.
Under Falling Skies: You have to protect your city from an alien invasion, allocating dice to either defensive weaponry or research/power structures, or building additional structures. There's even a campaign you can play through. It's pretty fun, would definitely recommend.

Miniatures:
Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms: I recently looked into this game and apparently it can indeed be played solo (kind of a dungeon raid kind of thing). I don't have the game and can't speak to how good it is firsthand though.
Dune: War for Arrakis: Okay this is closer to being a board game with miniatures but there is a solo mode of the game. I have yet to play it.

Check out Snarling Badger Studios.
Reign in Hell has a solo play supplement that is free to download, but they (Adam Loper and Vince Venturella) came onto their own after that. They're making solo games with co-op and PvP modes instead of the usual other way around.

I've enjoyed Space Station Zero and expect the same from Deth Wizards.
Majestic 13 is probably great, but not a theme I'm interested in personally.

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/504579/Perilous-Tales?filters=0_40201_40014_0_0

This is top. Got a really really good scenario generator. You need 5 dudes, a 2x2 board and some classic monsters.

For wargames there's this valiant defence series consisting of battles for Castle Itter, Gdańsk Post Office and Lanzerath Ridge. From reviews it seems to be pretty good, but, similarly to so many other wargames, it's rather expensive for what is essentially a single scenario, at least for me.

Other ones that I have on my radar are Halls of Hegra and the automa expansion for Undaunted: Normandy (iirc the new, sci-fi Undaunted is playable solo out of the box too and in general the Undaunted series is praised for being an awesome wargame).

While stocks last, I do recommend Blackstone Fortress. There is also ALIENS: Another Glorious Day In The Corps, but I've sadly not played it...

For larger scale combat, Horizon Wars has a an AI algorithm for playing solo at any scale between 3mm and 20mm

Let me ask you this in return. What type of model collection do you have to play your solo games? It is all 40K Space Marines? A mix of Empire Fantasy, Warmachine Kador, and a few Imperial Guardsman?

I find that the main limiting factor is more about what your all ready have to miniatures and terrain. Then, the game comes after that.

 Easy E wrote:
Let me ask you this in return. What type of model collection do you have to play your solo games? It is all 40K Space Marines? A mix of Empire Fantasy, Warmachine Kador, and a few Imperial Guardsman?

I find that the main limiting factor is more about what your all ready have to miniatures and terrain. Then, the game comes after that.

I have 40k Knights, Custodes, some Assassins, a smattering of Marines, some FoW SAS jeeps, and an Adeptus Titanicus Army.

Nothing like I used to have years ago.

I'd give Rangers of Shadow Deep and Space Station Zero a try. Lots of great scenario driven play.

It's a bit older, but anyone interested in solo gaming with a full reaction system should check out THW. They've been at it for a couple decades and have got just about every genre covered.
https://twohourwargames.com/
Free rules here to get a feel for whether you will enjoy the system that most of their games use.
https://twohourwargames.com/collections/free-rules
Oddly, their 5150 rules -probably the best for your 40k minis collection- are now carried by Rebel Minis .
https://rebelminispress.com/collections/sci-fi-games

Thanks for the advice.

I would after many tries stick to computer games or computer moderated wargames. Its very hard to get a solo system you don't end up exploiting.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
I would after many tries stick to computer games or computer moderated wargames. Its very hard to get a solo system you don't end up exploiting.

I disagree. Games designed from the ground up as solo/cooperative experiences have such choices embedded in the rules (unless they are designed sloppily, that is).

For example in many dungeon crawlers, if movement of enemies by the closest route towards PCs has spaces that are equally distant, it's for players to choose where enemies go. So bunching up enemies in Gloomhaven so that they are ripe for an AoE hit isn't exploiting anything, it's how you play this game and how you need to play it if you want to beat it at higher difficulties.

Similarly, in Aeon's End any choice that isn't specified (like "any character takes 2dmg") is left to player choice. It wonderfully adds to the already huge range of interesting decision points during the game and no such choice is ever an exploit - it's how the game is supposed to be played.

Hmmmm, that model selection will make is harder. It is not just sci-fi, it is big, stompy robot Sci-fi.

However, I am pretty sure Nordic Weasel games has a "4 Leagues" style game about mecha pilots. However, the name is escaping me at the moments. Can the forum help a brother out?

I've mentioned it a few times before but Knights are ideal solo adversaries; tough, powerful and few in model count. A bit of inspiration from the snow battle from Empire Strikes Back and you can easily play out marines slowing the advance of the Knights.

1) Use a long-width board rather than a square one. You need time to deploy while the Knights advance into firing range.
2) You are going to lose, but when? How long can you hold out? What narrative goal are you holding out for?
3) Scouts might run ahead to plant booby-traps and maybe spot for your long range weapons...
4) Your Marines might not have heavy weapons in their arsenal, so why not have it so that they can man a gun turret?
5) As the Imperial Walkers' target was the shield generator, maybe the Knights objective is to destroy certain structures.
6) Each of the Knight pilots could have random personalities and personal goals( don't laugh ).

Coming up with soloist scenarios does take some iteration outside the box, and you need to embrace a ruleset as a toolbox rather than a strict set of guidelines - you will probably need to change or add rules as you go.

DakotaRidge wrote:Thanks for the advice.

You're very welcome. I hope you find what you're looking for. They aren't my usual cup-o-tea, but I've been following their development for some time and the last couple decades have seen alot of increase in the quantity and quality of Solo and Co-op wargames.

The_Real_Chris wrote:I would after many tries stick to computer games or computer moderated wargames. Its very hard to get a solo system you don't end up exploiting.

If you want a computer game and you want something that's aimed at a very competitive experience I suppose that you're probably right. However, if one desires a tabletop miniature experience then a computer game will never satistfy.

Wide open solo systems that attempt to simulate a regular tabletop battle between two players will be more open to exploitation. In some ways even a game with a highly effective reaction system will harken back a bit to the classic solo play experience of one person simply doing their best to play both sides of an engagement (nothing wrong with that by the way).

However, if you're looking for something narrative where the rules provide much of the resistance and opposition, there's a wealth of good options. Further, a good campaign-via-scenario system like Rangers of ShadowDeep or Space Station zero should provide plenty of challenge as one works through missions of increasing complexity within the confines of specific playtested scnearios. Modern rules writers really have done some amazing things in crafting great scenario-based pay for solo and co-op gamers.

 Easy E wrote:
Hmmmm, that model selection will make is harder. It is not just sci-fi, it is big, stompy robot Sci-fi.

However, I am pretty sure Nordic Weasel games has a "4 Leagues" style game about mecha pilots. However, the name is escaping me at the moments. Can the forum help a brother out?

Weasel-tech?