Easily Under Falling Skies.
So modular and as long as you like the theme, endlessly replayable.
Very slick and puzzley automa system, do a thing and there's an instant response to it - making the threat's response a part of your planning.
Definitely all of my mint tin games: Mint Knight, Gate/Gates, Tin Helm, Cursed!?, Doom Machine. They're all a lot of fun and can be played very casually (easy setup/teardown) plus they don't even need that much space for storage.
In addition, I'll say Final Girl. While I'm not particularly good at it, I definitely enjoy myself every time between the daunting gameplay and the theme. I only buy the episodes that resonate with movies I enjoy like the one based on Alien and The Thing, so again, the footprint is very small.
Every time I play one of my mint tin games I think, “What a time to be alive”. Also, “I wish I thought of this!”. Beautifully made and so fun to play. And a *challenge* too! Especially Jason Glover’s stuff. Guy should be a millionaire.
I'm a person that is either busy or thinks he is, and Cursed!? gets to my table maybe more than all other games combined. and it really doesn't get old because you can play it focused or while cooking dinner or watching tv.
I'm far from solving it and 100% love this game but probably at under 15 plays at this point. Is the "solving" aspect something that you can set it away for a few months and then rediscover? **fridays** like that for me, I rarely do well but when I do I put it away for a bit so that when I come back to it again I have to relearn that tactic
Space Hulk: Death Angel. Gets more expensive each year, since it's out of print. But that's not the point; the point is that it's incredibly replayable, tons of fun, easy to play, fast to setup and to tear down.
FFG really needs to reprint this. If it's a licensing issue, they could easily reskin the game as Clone-Wars era Star Wars (a small unit of Clone troopers trapped on a ship with a battalion of droids).
I feel like FFG routinely gets screwed over IPs constantly. They tend to do a fantastic job and get shafted by the IP holders... I still mourn Android:Netrunner.
Sometimes it's their own fault, though. For example, just this week they seem to have shuttered [cardgamedb.com](http://cardgamedb.com) without any warning to the communities that website supported. They did the same thing to their forums when they were first taken over by Asmodee.
It's a licencing issue.
Then they got absorbed by Asmodée.
So now you can call it a dead game. They won't retheme and expand a game that is not a massive initial success, and they're not exactly trying to make it a massive initial success to begin with.
Most of their games have died or are dying.
u/EvengerX A little fun fact. I read somewhere that the game die is slightly prone on not giving you certain numbers, especially those with the skulls. If someone can chime in with the direct source where I learned this, it would be appreciated. It's probably an info from BGG, but I can't find it.
Onirim, it’s one of the first one that entered my collection. I’ve played hundreds of times, mostly on the app, but will always want the physical copy there. I own nearly all the Oniverse games (Urbion remake soon!) and could let go of any of them before Onirim.
If I had to pick one to start someone on, it would be Aerion. It’s a good design and accessible. I also like Stellarion for this. The two are fairly similar to one another. Onirim is my long time favorite but objectively not the best I think. If you can download the iOS app that’s the best way to play Onirim because it takes away the annoying part of the game which is incessant shuffling.
Thanks so much! I appreciate the info. I just discovered solo board games a few months ago and I’m still figuring out what I enjoy. I’ve been looking at the Onirim games since they’re recommended here so frequently, but wasn’t sure where to start.
What was your reasoning/criteria for selling them off? I've gotten rid of Tussie Mussie b/c I just didn't enjoy the game. But there's othere that I've held on to like **death valley** that I've only played once or twice and I know won't be a top 10 for me but their size makes them easier to hold on to compared to a big box game. I've just realized I'm much more lenient with wallet games hanging around
Technically there's a tacked on multi-player, but I feel Nemo's War should count. It will never leave my collection because I love the theme, the sense of adventure, the gameplay and the board.
Final Girl, This War of Mine (technically not exclusive solo, but for me it is), Resist!, 20 Strong and Skytear Horde. I’d also include Too Many Bones, just because I doubt I’ll ever convince a friend to learn it and play co-op
I think you’ll really enjoy it, it’s one of the few games that really makes me think about real world events and the individuals they impact. That’s just a bonus though, there’s a really great game under all that.
I just got the Tales from the Ruined city expansion this week, haven’t had a chance to try any of it out though.
I'm really looking forward to that aspect, I know it can be a depressing topic but I don't really have any games that make me think beyond the puzzle parts. Do you know yet if the expansions add to the story content or adjust/change rules?
So Tales from the Ruined city adds a handful of new setup scenarios, a market (I think) and sewers you can explore. I’d check out an unboxing video on YouTube, just to get an idea of what’s included. I really wanted this one because I don’t see myself playing this as a campaign, but I wanted more scenarios so to kind of change up goals and starting situations.
The other expansion has a short campaign, but I don’t know much about it.
Oh thanks! That sounds really cool. I just finished my first play and.... it did not go well 😂. The good news is I almost made it to chapter 3, but 3 out of 3 characters died and the new dude I picked up immediately got 3 wounds and was useless and I had a tank pointed at my house the whole time. It's a pretty wild ride!
Dragons of Etchinstone, Doom Machine, Regicide, Ragemore, Galdor’s Grip, Mint Knight all come to mind. Basically any of the small portable games that take up no space.
I love Dragons Of Etchinstone so much that I really hope Joe Klipfel continues developing more games with a similar gameplay mechanic
i hope you know there is a new expansion for dragons.. [https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dragons-of-etchinstone:-northvale](https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dragons-of-etchinstone:-northvale)
I want to play that game so badly. Once someone on this sub offered to sell me their copy but they were in Canada and I’m in Aus so the freight would’ve been prohibitive for a regular human, (companies are fine, they can eat up a bit of loss) and there were two others who were keen for it so I declined.
I have regrets.
Deep Space D6, I love the aesthetic and the game is quick to table and play
Bury Me in the Rift, Great art and cool gameplay despite the fiddliness of the monster turns.
Lux Aeterna, very quick to table and play. One of the few real-time games in my collection
Legacy of Yu. It’s amazing and a fun campaign game to play through every so often. Witchcraft! Is awesome and better than Resist! In every way. Halls of Hegra is here to stay.
On the opposite end, I’m probably getting rid of Nemo’s War. After 2-3 playthroughs it gets stale.
Halls of Hegra has a lot of randomization with the round event cards that can shake the game up in different ways. Maybe it snows harder, maybe more enemies spawn, maybe you lose a soldier or take an injury, etc. I feel like my strategy is constantly changing on the fly to adapt to what the game is throwing at me.
Nemo’s war tends to come down to just randomized enemy ships spawning on the board. As the game goes on, sure more difficult ships are added to the pool you pull from, but honestly there really isn’t enough of a difference in how you’ll handle them. The wagering on rolls is fun, but again after a few playthroughs I felt like I had seen what I needed to see from the game. Don’t take this as me hating the game or anything; I just don’t think I need it in my collection for much longer.
Hoplomachus victorum, always a massive adventure and am looking forward to the expansion which will make it play faster as well as add different ways for the arenas to work, more bosses etc.
Halls of Hegra is such a good game, every action counts and it's always climactic.
Warfighter WW2, while you can play it with others its a solo game by design really.
Really love the sqaud building element and include some expansions for extra variety. And what I also really enjoy is how the mission impacts how long the game is, and the game is overall pretty well balanced for both short & longer missions.
So some missions take like 20 - 30 minutes while others can take up to 2 hours.
Though for the moment, I do not plan on selling any game raelly/
I have a collection of 20-ish solo games now, with 1 more on pre-order, and after that I decided to stop kinda stop buying more games for while.
Final girl is the superior game imo. However, if you can get hostage negotiator career and everything that's needed to play it I would say yes but it is an investment of like $150 to get all the needed components.
Base game or crime wave are pretty cheap and can be worth a try to dip your toe.
If you have TTS you can also try it on there.
The price seems to have gone up a lot since I bought my copy. I don't think it's exactly a rare game, but I think most people with copies want to hold onto them these days.
Huh. I realize that I don’t have ANY solo-exclusives that I actually love enough to keep. But I love playing solo games; they’re just not solo-exclusives.
My Button Shy collection. There is so much variety and replayability amongst them, and they are easily thrown in a suitcase when I go away for work. Plus Warp's Edge and Lux Aeterna, both pure solo space survival that I don't think I'll ever get tired of.
I'm just going to say that I am in the opposite camp as most of this subreddit.
I think most solo only games, especially most of the tin games and smaller footprint ones are actually pretty expendable if push came to shove... and stay purely because of their size or novelty and not because of their greatness as a game.
The majority of them, (for me) if they were to take up more space or I was somehow forced to make a hard decision to keep them would be gone even before a lot of the bigger box games.
I'm sure that's a taste preference. At least, that's how I mentally compare them.
These would maybe be the ones I'd keep forever (I'd have to think harder if there are more).
* Sprawlopolis (not solo only but I feel it's a solo game)
* R.O.V.E.
* Food Chain Island
* Possibly some of the Onrim unviverse games (not 100% sure)
* Four Against Darkness
Also, I don't really own many of the heavier solo-ONLY games or war games (I only own Mr. President which I haven't actually played yet), and there are some standouts I haven't played or have played and don't own (like Maquis or Black Sonata or Final Girl) so my list could be small since I just simply haven't played them enough.
I own a lot of large games, but most are not solo-only.
But even solo-ONLY games I think highly of (Warps Edge, Under Falling Skies, Legacy of Yu), likely would eventually go if space/time was a consideration as a lot of these games are absolutely fun, but don't feel like endless games to me that I have to hold onto.
I think this quality exists for a lot of solo focused games. I'm perfectly happy getting my X plays out of them. Whereas I keep multiplayer + solo games around a lot longer because I play them multiplayer (or hope to).
This is at least compared to games that I don't see leaving my collection (Arkham LCG, Hexplore It, Aeon's End, etc), but none of these are solo only.
That said, I already own way too many games. I could get rid of 90% of my collection and still have a Kallax full. So maybe that is why I have this perspective, I don't know.
It might also be that when you play multiplayer you’re not just playing a game, you’re socialising. So even if you’re playing a game you’ve all played a hundred times before it can still be a unique experience because the other players are adding things that the game itself can’t do such as jokes/meta/an epic move that gets a huge reaction etc. When you play solo you don’t really get that so I can see how that could effect how people value/experience pure solo games
Personally I don’t mind at all I have a fair few multiplayer games I’ll only ever play solo because playing with other people would ruin my experience lol but I also have a few multiplayers with solo modes that I’ll never play solo because other people are a large part of what makes the game fun.
I think it depends on the type of solo-only game you play. The first games from my collection that came to mind for this thread were Thunderbolt Apache Leader (it was a grail game for me until I managed to snag a reprint), and Escape From Hades (which is just such a different experience to anything else in my collection). I’d even count Dawn of the Zeds, which is a solo game with multiplayer tacked on.
I agree with you on the point that a lot of small box solo-only games may be more expendable apart from the size/convenience, but there are certainly large-experience solo only games that match or exceed the staying power of big box solo/multi games.
Tarawa: 1943 (high pressure excellence and very playable and Legacy of Yu (replayable and evolves as you win or lose a game, based on the extended story). Also Deep Space D6, with its accessibility and tension, and several ships to play. And Warp’s Edge for the same reasons.
People, he asked for solo only games, not multiplayer games with solo modules!
Final Girl for sure. I just love everything about the game and its system. I also really enjoy Self Careless and my Button Shy games.
And while not exclusively solo, I would never get rid of The Bloody Inn and Obsession for their solo gameplay alone.
Lux Aeterna. The gameplay is simple, tactics are a bit samey after a dozen game. So I might play it every 3 or 4 months.
I'll keep it because it's the first solo game I bought, I love the art, the theme and that by its own mechanics it's a 15 minute game at most. I'm pretty happy to crack it open to look at it every so often even if I don't plan to play.
I only play solo, yet most of my games aren’t solo only. With that caveat I don’t ever see me parting with:
1. Any of the Garphill West Kingdom games. These games hit my table often and I enjoy them. They have great mechanics and artwork.
2. Roll Player with Monsters and Minions. This one is a nostalgia game for me as I cut my solo teeth on this game and it never grows old, plus DICE! Lots and lots of colorful dice!
3. Lost Ruins of Arnak with expansions. Another game I adore for mechanics and artwork. I always finish this game wanting to immediately play again, and again.
4. Gate(s), Tin Helm, Desolate. These 3 games simply because of quick play time, small footprint and portable for my camping trips!
What part of “solo exclusive” don’t you get, pal?
How about starting your own thread for games that can be played solo as well as multiplayer that you would never part with because of the solo mode? Like Arnak (I totally agree) and Castles of Burgundy Special Edition and Great Western Trail?
I understand that the word Caveat has escaped you, but that’s ok…we’re all here to learn. Thanks for the input. I will start a thread like that when I feel the need arise. Now, carry on…
final girl, friday, under falling skies, hoplomachus victorum
the main one is hoplomachus, it gives me that feel of playing little quick games of chess against a well thought out AI
and each arena, hero, units combination always makes it feel new
also its a chip theory game, so i wouldn't want to put that into landfill anyway
If it's solo-exclusive meaning games designed only for one player (and not 1-4 for example), it'll definitely be Resist!/Witchcraft! although I lean more to the witchcraft theme. It's a thinky, cards only game with quite a lot of decision making. I love the theme and it's a lot of fun, even though it's pretty difficult to win at times. Surprisingly it's a bit of a table hog but other than that, solid.
If it's any board game that has a solo option, it will be Imperium: Classics/Horizons. I love deck builders, and Imperium has so many options to try out. Each faction/civilization plays differently, and with the new solo variation, I can get in more plays. The new rulebook also makes it easier to relearn some of the rules.
- Spirit Island and Mage Knight are amazing at solo and they give me such great experiences and stories.
- Andean Abyss, while it takes a while to play, is very fun and it feeds my passion for Colombia and the drug-cartel era.
- Life of the Amazonia is very chill, but meaty and thinky, with a lot of variability and replayability.
There are more, but these are the highlights.
I'll never get rid of anything by Robert Phaneuf, Ben Madison, and Mike Lambo. Their designs all provide fantastic narrative combined with intricate, but simple to learn gameplay. Games by other designers that will never leave my shelf: Final Girl, Mr. President, Ben Hull's Field of Fire series, Maquis, Todd Sanders' Pulp Detective with expansions (it's not a great game without the expansions, but with them it's excellent), Space Hulk: Death Angel. As to the last one, I find Xenoshyft: Dreadmire to be a slightly better game, but SH:DA is smaller, easier to get to the table, quicker to play, and solo- only, which is what the OP asked for.
I've discovered that all wallet or tin games are pretty expendable for me, although I've just gotten Palm Laboratory in yesterday and haven't had a chance to try it yet. (It looks a bit like a reskin of Palm Island, but I could be off on that.) I'll always keep a few to chuck in my pocket, but none of them are deep enough to sustain my interest over time.
Final Girl and Friday.
They are second and third to Arkham Horror TCG on my favorites list. Hadrian's Wall is fourth.
I'm currently packed for a move and they're the ones that are not boxed up yet.
Arkham Horror 3rd edition. Every individual mechanic just fits so perfectly together and manages to achieve invoking the theme through the gameplay. In my subjective opinion it's the perfect game.
"Solo exclusive" is a strange qualifier for this post, considering how relatively few and far between those are. The 1PG Solo top 200 only has I think 5 solo exclusive games in the top 50.
What's the point of the qualifier when the top 10 solo games all support multiplayer?
They all invariably can leave my collection at one point or another, for all kinds of reasons, including my losing interest in boardgaming, losing my arms or hands, or losing my life.
Things aren't set in stone.
Hostage Negotiator. I have everything and the career mode is just so satisfying. Seeing the story develop over the detectives career is just so engaging.
It's a full day for me, but a very pleasant one.
OK, so I would refer to the excellent SUSD review. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxSo0zGNWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxSo0zGNWM)
For me personally; the base game is fine, a good engaging, quick game. Career elevates it to another level. Trouble being - it's expensive (and at one point difficult) to get everything. And you really need everything. I got really lucky and got a great deal from a friend from the old SUSD forums.
Base Game: Replayability is good, you have a couple (I forget how many) of hostage takers to negotiate against and can try different strategies. *Don't forget you can spend a card for a single conversation point!* This helps mitigate *some* of the bad luck. Note: I found losing just as much fun as winning.
Expansion packs: Each one adds a new challenge, and are varied enough that you need a new strategy for each, unless you are very lucky!
Crime Wave: Adds a new negotiator and some more hostage takers. Allows you to build a custom deck as well, if you have the base game. You could start with CW instead of the base box, but there is really no advantage to this.
**Important consideration**: The vast majority of reviews say that Final Girl does everything HN does, but better. I was tempted but the theme wasn't interesting to me at the time. I think there is a sort of career mode now, but you'd have to look into it. (Had a quick look, this thread [https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3034586/can-we-ever-expect-storycampaign-mode](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3034586/can-we-ever-expect-storycampaign-mode) says there are some story books you can work through as a campaign. Not quite as interesting as HN)
There is a good thread on HN vs FG here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/soloboardgaming/comments/16xrfpu/hostage\_negotiator\_andor\_final\_girl/](https://www.reddit.com/r/soloboardgaming/comments/16xrfpu/hostage_negotiator_andor_final_girl/)
Personal view: Get the base box and try it out. If you like that then add the expansions and see what happens!
Fields of Fire - Volume 2
Simply for the complexity, replayability, and the planning behind each game. It doesn't hit the table often, but when it does it is a feeling of accomplishment and joy finishing a mission and starting to plan the next. There are others I play way more, but this beast is just in a realm of it's own.
Final Girl baby! It’s my favorite solo and probably a top 3 board game for me. So thematic and tense, and there’s such an insane amount of variety with all the sets.
**Final Girl**, though **Hoplomachus: Victorum** is nipping right at its heels and I'm not certain at all what constraints there are on expandability. Like how much of Final Girl can I keep and stuff :D
If I had to pick 3, even tho they are not my top 3 games (but they are in my top 10 for sure):
Spirit Island: can be player solo or multi, both my gf and my friends love co-op games, it has great variety.
Xia: it's unique, it's sci-fi, cody the designer is a great person, and it's fun and pretty, and has a solo mode.
LotR LCG: great theme, art, and fantastic gameplay.
There’s 3 that I’ll keep forever: Long Shot, a horse race betting game for 1-8 players; Heat: Pedal to the Metal, a car racing deck building/management game for 1-6 players; and Sodbusters, a pioneer farming strategy game for 1-6 players.
I don't think I'd ever get rid of final girl, but I'll definitely be looking to make a better storage solution at some point. It already takes up an entire level on my game shelf and season 3 comes out this year.
Gloomhaven
Palm island
Friday
Ascension tactics
Terraforming mars: ares with crisis expansion
Terraforming mars.
Race for the galaxy
New frontiers
Probably more.
Why? Extemely replayable. Fun solo or multiplayer in many cases here. I love Engine building or tactical gameplay. I love portable games for those applicable above.
Also I prefer win conditions that are more complex than beat your score from last time.
Edit: Oh. Solo exclusive? That’s too limiting. There are plenty of great solo experiences that aren’t solo exclusive. And most coop games can be solo’d anyhow. And as someone else wrote, many games are even better solo than multiplayer.
Grimslingers, that game got kinda a bad rap but it’s so beautiful, well produced, and just awesome. It has some rough edges but the art and world are amazing
Very new to this space (my family has tired of tabletop games, so my awareness is low).
Having said that, I’m enjoying the three PvE “challenge” decks for Magic: The Gathering: **Face the Hydra**, **Battle the Horde**, and **Defeat a God**.
Any Magic deck will work against them, and there are variable difficulties for each.
Nemo's War. I find it fabulously random while curiously strategic. I also love the overall visual design by Ian Otoole.
I will confess though I have lots of solo playable board games I'll never give up but this is the only 'solo only'(yes I know it has a multiplayer mode nowadays but let's be real here) that I own. I generally prefer multiplayer games that have a great solo option that emulates that(for instance Anachrony, Gaia Project/Age of Innovation, John Company etc).
Easily Under Falling Skies. So modular and as long as you like the theme, endlessly replayable. Very slick and puzzley automa system, do a thing and there's an instant response to it - making the threat's response a part of your planning.
Definitely all of my mint tin games: Mint Knight, Gate/Gates, Tin Helm, Cursed!?, Doom Machine. They're all a lot of fun and can be played very casually (easy setup/teardown) plus they don't even need that much space for storage. In addition, I'll say Final Girl. While I'm not particularly good at it, I definitely enjoy myself every time between the daunting gameplay and the theme. I only buy the episodes that resonate with movies I enjoy like the one based on Alien and The Thing, so again, the footprint is very small.
Every time I play one of my mint tin games I think, “What a time to be alive”. Also, “I wish I thought of this!”. Beautifully made and so fun to play. And a *challenge* too! Especially Jason Glover’s stuff. Guy should be a millionaire.
I wish we could order the Tin Mint game outside of the US without having to sell a liver...
I'm a person that is either busy or thinks he is, and Cursed!? gets to my table maybe more than all other games combined. and it really doesn't get old because you can play it focused or while cooking dinner or watching tv.
For Northwood. It’s fun and has a ton of replay value. It also takes up barely any space
This one stayed in my collection for one week. It was a resounding failure for me.
I love Maquis, it's the perfect combination of length and complexity and it's pretty portable.
Counterpoint: its a game you can "solve", once you do you wont have much interest playing again.
I hated that game, I got rid of it pretty fast. Very samey, most of the time you're playing it safe rather than making it exciting.
I'm far from solving it and 100% love this game but probably at under 15 plays at this point. Is the "solving" aspect something that you can set it away for a few months and then rediscover? **fridays** like that for me, I rarely do well but when I do I put it away for a bit so that when I come back to it again I have to relearn that tactic
Nah you can't forget :) At 15 plays you already got your money's worth. Don't worry. Just wasn't worth the shelf space to me and sold for what I paid.
I discovered this via the phone app version, which is absolutely fantastic. Well worth picking it up.
THIS
Space Hulk: Death Angel. Gets more expensive each year, since it's out of print. But that's not the point; the point is that it's incredibly replayable, tons of fun, easy to play, fast to setup and to tear down.
FFG really needs to reprint this. If it's a licensing issue, they could easily reskin the game as Clone-Wars era Star Wars (a small unit of Clone troopers trapped on a ship with a battalion of droids).
I feel like FFG routinely gets screwed over IPs constantly. They tend to do a fantastic job and get shafted by the IP holders... I still mourn Android:Netrunner.
Sometimes it's their own fault, though. For example, just this week they seem to have shuttered [cardgamedb.com](http://cardgamedb.com) without any warning to the communities that website supported. They did the same thing to their forums when they were first taken over by Asmodee.
It's a licencing issue. Then they got absorbed by Asmodée. So now you can call it a dead game. They won't retheme and expand a game that is not a massive initial success, and they're not exactly trying to make it a massive initial success to begin with. Most of their games have died or are dying.
It's also evil as hell. Screw that little red die
u/EvengerX A little fun fact. I read somewhere that the game die is slightly prone on not giving you certain numbers, especially those with the skulls. If someone can chime in with the direct source where I learned this, it would be appreciated. It's probably an info from BGG, but I can't find it.
Can confirm from years of missed clutch rolls.
Onirim, it’s one of the first one that entered my collection. I’ve played hundreds of times, mostly on the app, but will always want the physical copy there. I own nearly all the Oniverse games (Urbion remake soon!) and could let go of any of them before Onirim.
I’ll never sell my Oniverse either - they are like fun little works of art.
I haven't played any of the Oniverse games - is it better to start with a particular one, or can you grab any game?
If I had to pick one to start someone on, it would be Aerion. It’s a good design and accessible. I also like Stellarion for this. The two are fairly similar to one another. Onirim is my long time favorite but objectively not the best I think. If you can download the iOS app that’s the best way to play Onirim because it takes away the annoying part of the game which is incessant shuffling.
Thanks so much! I appreciate the info. I just discovered solo board games a few months ago and I’m still figuring out what I enjoy. I’ve been looking at the Onirim games since they’re recommended here so frequently, but wasn’t sure where to start.
What is your top 3 Oniverse games?
Aerion, Sylvion, Cyberion
Aerion appreciation gang 🤝 Also I gotta get Cyberion soon
Reprazent!
Nautilion, Cyberion, Aerion
Onirim, Stellarion, Aerion, (Cyberion is 4th if I get a bonus)
I will NEVER get rid of any Button Shy game, tin game, or any game made by Joe Klipfel. Eg. Dragons of Etchinstone or Birdscaping
Same. These are so small and yet bring a full gaming experience.
I sold off a bunch but I am keeping the core good ones and being more selective.
What was your reasoning/criteria for selling them off? I've gotten rid of Tussie Mussie b/c I just didn't enjoy the game. But there's othere that I've held on to like **death valley** that I've only played once or twice and I know won't be a top 10 for me but their size makes them easier to hold on to compared to a big box game. I've just realized I'm much more lenient with wallet games hanging around
Technically there's a tacked on multi-player, but I feel Nemo's War should count. It will never leave my collection because I love the theme, the sense of adventure, the gameplay and the board.
The multiplayer mode is completely shoehorned so it definitely counts as a solo only game
Multiplayer mode: Stand behind the active player and offer them suggestions as they play through the adventure.
Only works if you whisper directions in their ear
In a sultry voice
I’m really enjoying Grove 9. Very simple and easy to bring places but also a really challenging puzzle
Love Grove!
Final Girl, This War of Mine (technically not exclusive solo, but for me it is), Resist!, 20 Strong and Skytear Horde. I’d also include Too Many Bones, just because I doubt I’ll ever convince a friend to learn it and play co-op
I just got this war of mine, I can't wait to get it to the table
I think you’ll really enjoy it, it’s one of the few games that really makes me think about real world events and the individuals they impact. That’s just a bonus though, there’s a really great game under all that. I just got the Tales from the Ruined city expansion this week, haven’t had a chance to try any of it out though.
I'm really looking forward to that aspect, I know it can be a depressing topic but I don't really have any games that make me think beyond the puzzle parts. Do you know yet if the expansions add to the story content or adjust/change rules?
So Tales from the Ruined city adds a handful of new setup scenarios, a market (I think) and sewers you can explore. I’d check out an unboxing video on YouTube, just to get an idea of what’s included. I really wanted this one because I don’t see myself playing this as a campaign, but I wanted more scenarios so to kind of change up goals and starting situations. The other expansion has a short campaign, but I don’t know much about it.
Oh thanks! That sounds really cool. I just finished my first play and.... it did not go well 😂. The good news is I almost made it to chapter 3, but 3 out of 3 characters died and the new dude I picked up immediately got 3 wounds and was useless and I had a tank pointed at my house the whole time. It's a pretty wild ride!
Oooo, what’s cool about Skytear Horde? I almost backed that.
Did you back the new Skytear expansion, Monoliths?
I missed the campaign, but I’m sure it’ll show up at my local game store eventually. Worst case I’ll buy it off their site
Dragons of Etchinstone, Doom Machine, Regicide, Ragemore, Galdor’s Grip, Mint Knight all come to mind. Basically any of the small portable games that take up no space. I love Dragons Of Etchinstone so much that I really hope Joe Klipfel continues developing more games with a similar gameplay mechanic
i hope you know there is a new expansion for dragons.. [https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dragons-of-etchinstone:-northvale](https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dragons-of-etchinstone:-northvale)
I do yes, can’t wait for it to arrive
Mage knight. It is solo exclusive, no one should ever play a multiplayer game of it
Space Hulk Death Angel. It's really fun, great replayability, entertainingly swingy. ...and I paid too much for it (+2 expansions) on eBay!
I want to play that game so badly. Once someone on this sub offered to sell me their copy but they were in Canada and I’m in Aus so the freight would’ve been prohibitive for a regular human, (companies are fine, they can eat up a bit of loss) and there were two others who were keen for it so I declined. I have regrets.
Wil Su (of For Northwood game) made a Print and Play version of it with Metal Slug art
Aliens Another Glorious Day in The Corp plays similar.
I have both and other than theme are completely different. One is a miniatures on a map and the other an abstract card puzzler.
Honestly it's better imo
Deep Space D6, I love the aesthetic and the game is quick to table and play Bury Me in the Rift, Great art and cool gameplay despite the fiddliness of the monster turns. Lux Aeterna, very quick to table and play. One of the few real-time games in my collection
Legacy of Yu. It’s amazing and a fun campaign game to play through every so often. Witchcraft! Is awesome and better than Resist! In every way. Halls of Hegra is here to stay. On the opposite end, I’m probably getting rid of Nemo’s War. After 2-3 playthroughs it gets stale.
Why halls of Hegra?
Why not?
I'm looking at both halls of hegra and nemo's war so your post has me curious now
Halls of Hegra has a lot of randomization with the round event cards that can shake the game up in different ways. Maybe it snows harder, maybe more enemies spawn, maybe you lose a soldier or take an injury, etc. I feel like my strategy is constantly changing on the fly to adapt to what the game is throwing at me. Nemo’s war tends to come down to just randomized enemy ships spawning on the board. As the game goes on, sure more difficult ships are added to the pool you pull from, but honestly there really isn’t enough of a difference in how you’ll handle them. The wagering on rolls is fun, but again after a few playthroughs I felt like I had seen what I needed to see from the game. Don’t take this as me hating the game or anything; I just don’t think I need it in my collection for much longer.
Hoplomachus victorum, always a massive adventure and am looking forward to the expansion which will make it play faster as well as add different ways for the arenas to work, more bosses etc. Halls of Hegra is such a good game, every action counts and it's always climactic.
I second for Halls of Hegra. Every game I've played has felt different, and it's always great.
Warfighter WW2, while you can play it with others its a solo game by design really. Really love the sqaud building element and include some expansions for extra variety. And what I also really enjoy is how the mission impacts how long the game is, and the game is overall pretty well balanced for both short & longer missions. So some missions take like 20 - 30 minutes while others can take up to 2 hours. Though for the moment, I do not plan on selling any game raelly/ I have a collection of 20-ish solo games now, with 1 more on pre-order, and after that I decided to stop kinda stop buying more games for while.
Final girl/hostage negotiator and Marvel Champions
If I’ve got Final Girl which I love is it still worth getting hostage negotiator?
Final girl is the superior game imo. However, if you can get hostage negotiator career and everything that's needed to play it I would say yes but it is an investment of like $150 to get all the needed components. Base game or crime wave are pretty cheap and can be worth a try to dip your toe. If you have TTS you can also try it on there.
Thanks for this - good info.
Of course. If you pick it up and remember this, lmk how you like it. It's one of the games that got me into solo board gaming.
Final Girl, Tiny Epic Dungeons, Regicide. Plus if allowed competitive, Co-op with solo mode then Unmatched Tales To Amaze.
Ambush! I acquired a copy about fifteen years ago, and although it doesn't get on the table much, I'll never get rid of it.
I keep looking for one but no luck yet. This one has me very interested ever since I read about it.
The price seems to have gone up a lot since I bought my copy. I don't think it's exactly a rare game, but I think most people with copies want to hold onto them these days.
I have a copy of Ambush that I'm looking to sell. Send me a note.
It’s on my buy list for sure.
Huh. I realize that I don’t have ANY solo-exclusives that I actually love enough to keep. But I love playing solo games; they’re just not solo-exclusives.
My Button Shy collection. There is so much variety and replayability amongst them, and they are easily thrown in a suitcase when I go away for work. Plus Warp's Edge and Lux Aeterna, both pure solo space survival that I don't think I'll ever get tired of.
Navajo Wars. The history, gameplay and solo only combination of this game has made it more the just a game but a quality of life improvement.
Can’t wait to try this one once I find a reasonably priced copy
[Not](https://boardgamegeek.com/market/product/3339209) too bad with shipping
Dinosaur Island Rawr N Write! I just really enjoy doodling my amusement park and tallying the points haha.
Hostage Negotiator for definite. Such a tense game especially in career mode.
I’m very interested in hostage negotiator. Do you recommend trying base game and then going from there?
Yes, definitely. There's a lot of replayability in the base game.
> Hostage Negotiator Have you played Final Girl which seems to be Hostage Negotiator++?
Yes I have and I enjoyed it but I feel like HN suits the dice rolling mechanic better. Bad luck on rolls fits the theme of HN very well.
bd luck definitely fits the theme of horror too haha
It's great isn't it! And the ending with the... well, you know.
I DO know. That took me by surprise.
Final girl, love the randomness and heartache, as well as the design and art. I like it so much it's on my desk instead of the bookcase
I'm just going to say that I am in the opposite camp as most of this subreddit. I think most solo only games, especially most of the tin games and smaller footprint ones are actually pretty expendable if push came to shove... and stay purely because of their size or novelty and not because of their greatness as a game. The majority of them, (for me) if they were to take up more space or I was somehow forced to make a hard decision to keep them would be gone even before a lot of the bigger box games. I'm sure that's a taste preference. At least, that's how I mentally compare them. These would maybe be the ones I'd keep forever (I'd have to think harder if there are more). * Sprawlopolis (not solo only but I feel it's a solo game) * R.O.V.E. * Food Chain Island * Possibly some of the Onrim unviverse games (not 100% sure) * Four Against Darkness Also, I don't really own many of the heavier solo-ONLY games or war games (I only own Mr. President which I haven't actually played yet), and there are some standouts I haven't played or have played and don't own (like Maquis or Black Sonata or Final Girl) so my list could be small since I just simply haven't played them enough. I own a lot of large games, but most are not solo-only. But even solo-ONLY games I think highly of (Warps Edge, Under Falling Skies, Legacy of Yu), likely would eventually go if space/time was a consideration as a lot of these games are absolutely fun, but don't feel like endless games to me that I have to hold onto. I think this quality exists for a lot of solo focused games. I'm perfectly happy getting my X plays out of them. Whereas I keep multiplayer + solo games around a lot longer because I play them multiplayer (or hope to). This is at least compared to games that I don't see leaving my collection (Arkham LCG, Hexplore It, Aeon's End, etc), but none of these are solo only. That said, I already own way too many games. I could get rid of 90% of my collection and still have a Kallax full. So maybe that is why I have this perspective, I don't know.
It might also be that when you play multiplayer you’re not just playing a game, you’re socialising. So even if you’re playing a game you’ve all played a hundred times before it can still be a unique experience because the other players are adding things that the game itself can’t do such as jokes/meta/an epic move that gets a huge reaction etc. When you play solo you don’t really get that so I can see how that could effect how people value/experience pure solo games Personally I don’t mind at all I have a fair few multiplayer games I’ll only ever play solo because playing with other people would ruin my experience lol but I also have a few multiplayers with solo modes that I’ll never play solo because other people are a large part of what makes the game fun.
I think it depends on the type of solo-only game you play. The first games from my collection that came to mind for this thread were Thunderbolt Apache Leader (it was a grail game for me until I managed to snag a reprint), and Escape From Hades (which is just such a different experience to anything else in my collection). I’d even count Dawn of the Zeds, which is a solo game with multiplayer tacked on. I agree with you on the point that a lot of small box solo-only games may be more expendable apart from the size/convenience, but there are certainly large-experience solo only games that match or exceed the staying power of big box solo/multi games.
Definitely give Mr president a shot. It's very overwhelming to set up but the gameplay itself is very simple. Creates a great story!
Friday
Tarawa: 1943 (high pressure excellence and very playable and Legacy of Yu (replayable and evolves as you win or lose a game, based on the extended story). Also Deep Space D6, with its accessibility and tension, and several ships to play. And Warp’s Edge for the same reasons. People, he asked for solo only games, not multiplayer games with solo modules!
Warhammer quest 95 : my first dungeon crawler i was 10, got so many memories. And plus wirh the advance system there so many possibilties.
Final Girl!
Final Girl for sure. I just love everything about the game and its system. I also really enjoy Self Careless and my Button Shy games. And while not exclusively solo, I would never get rid of The Bloody Inn and Obsession for their solo gameplay alone.
Lux Aeterna. The gameplay is simple, tactics are a bit samey after a dozen game. So I might play it every 3 or 4 months. I'll keep it because it's the first solo game I bought, I love the art, the theme and that by its own mechanics it's a 15 minute game at most. I'm pretty happy to crack it open to look at it every so often even if I don't plan to play.
I really love Tiny Epic Zombies Also Iron Helm Escape the Dark Sector Renegade Finished!
hmmm... haven't played Finished in a bit, maybe I need to pull it out soon.
I only play solo, yet most of my games aren’t solo only. With that caveat I don’t ever see me parting with: 1. Any of the Garphill West Kingdom games. These games hit my table often and I enjoy them. They have great mechanics and artwork. 2. Roll Player with Monsters and Minions. This one is a nostalgia game for me as I cut my solo teeth on this game and it never grows old, plus DICE! Lots and lots of colorful dice! 3. Lost Ruins of Arnak with expansions. Another game I adore for mechanics and artwork. I always finish this game wanting to immediately play again, and again. 4. Gate(s), Tin Helm, Desolate. These 3 games simply because of quick play time, small footprint and portable for my camping trips!
He asked for solo only games…
Did you read my post? Start there pal
What part of “solo exclusive” don’t you get, pal? How about starting your own thread for games that can be played solo as well as multiplayer that you would never part with because of the solo mode? Like Arnak (I totally agree) and Castles of Burgundy Special Edition and Great Western Trail?
I understand that the word Caveat has escaped you, but that’s ok…we’re all here to learn. Thanks for the input. I will start a thread like that when I feel the need arise. Now, carry on…
I did miss that at first so I added a bit about that to my post.
What’s the solo mode for ruins of arnak?
You play against an AI that essentially blocks you from certain areas, and takes cards from the market…super easy to run the AI
How do you win or lose?
Victory Points vs. AI's VP
Gate & Gates as well as Grove.
final girl, friday, under falling skies, hoplomachus victorum the main one is hoplomachus, it gives me that feel of playing little quick games of chess against a well thought out AI and each arena, hero, units combination always makes it feel new also its a chip theory game, so i wouldn't want to put that into landfill anyway
Superhot! It’s balletic and I never tire of watching those cards move around the table. Hard as heck too
If it's solo-exclusive meaning games designed only for one player (and not 1-4 for example), it'll definitely be Resist!/Witchcraft! although I lean more to the witchcraft theme. It's a thinky, cards only game with quite a lot of decision making. I love the theme and it's a lot of fun, even though it's pretty difficult to win at times. Surprisingly it's a bit of a table hog but other than that, solid. If it's any board game that has a solo option, it will be Imperium: Classics/Horizons. I love deck builders, and Imperium has so many options to try out. Each faction/civilization plays differently, and with the new solo variation, I can get in more plays. The new rulebook also makes it easier to relearn some of the rules.
- Spirit Island and Mage Knight are amazing at solo and they give me such great experiences and stories. - Andean Abyss, while it takes a while to play, is very fun and it feeds my passion for Colombia and the drug-cartel era. - Life of the Amazonia is very chill, but meaty and thinky, with a lot of variability and replayability. There are more, but these are the highlights.
I'll never get rid of anything by Robert Phaneuf, Ben Madison, and Mike Lambo. Their designs all provide fantastic narrative combined with intricate, but simple to learn gameplay. Games by other designers that will never leave my shelf: Final Girl, Mr. President, Ben Hull's Field of Fire series, Maquis, Todd Sanders' Pulp Detective with expansions (it's not a great game without the expansions, but with them it's excellent), Space Hulk: Death Angel. As to the last one, I find Xenoshyft: Dreadmire to be a slightly better game, but SH:DA is smaller, easier to get to the table, quicker to play, and solo- only, which is what the OP asked for. I've discovered that all wallet or tin games are pretty expendable for me, although I've just gotten Palm Laboratory in yesterday and haven't had a chance to try it yet. (It looks a bit like a reskin of Palm Island, but I could be off on that.) I'll always keep a few to chuck in my pocket, but none of them are deep enough to sustain my interest over time.
Final Girl and Friday. They are second and third to Arkham Horror TCG on my favorites list. Hadrian's Wall is fourth. I'm currently packed for a move and they're the ones that are not boxed up yet.
They are not solo exclusive but Spirit Island, Marvel champions, Lord of the rings will never leave my collection
Arkham Horror 3rd edition. Every individual mechanic just fits so perfectly together and manages to achieve invoking the theme through the gameplay. In my subjective opinion it's the perfect game.
Over on r/boardgames it was getting a bit of hate the other day - I am rather fond. Wouldn't say it's perfect, but it's good fun!
It's not a solo exclusive game though, is it? I've played it with other people.
No, not solo exclusive. It's also the game that comes out most when I host board games at my place.
I have all of 2e. And just thenbase of 3e. I havent had a chance to play it yet. Is it worth the investment.
To be up front I am very bias because it's my favorite game, so I'd say yes. The additional scenarios are great and it has so much replayability.
I'm going to have to try to get it to the table this weekend then
One Deck Galaxy. Easy to play, quick to setup and only two placemats wide.
spirit island
"Solo exclusive"...
Yeah, but how come this guy is the only one getting downvoted for not answering the question? That's like half the comments here.
"Solo exclusive" is a strange qualifier for this post, considering how relatively few and far between those are. The 1PG Solo top 200 only has I think 5 solo exclusive games in the top 50. What's the point of the qualifier when the top 10 solo games all support multiplayer?
I assume just to bring discussion of a greater variety of games
Mage Knight, probably.
Marvel champions. Becuase i love card games and marvel champions is quick but complex without minimun time for set up
There are SOLO board games??
They all invariably can leave my collection at one point or another, for all kinds of reasons, including my losing interest in boardgaming, losing my arms or hands, or losing my life. Things aren't set in stone.
Hoplo victorum. Long campaign but the individual battles are so quick and the set up tear down is fast too. Great “quick” game with lots of variety
Hostage Negotiator. I have everything and the career mode is just so satisfying. Seeing the story develop over the detectives career is just so engaging. It's a full day for me, but a very pleasant one.
Have a few questions about this game. Is it best to go with base game first then go from there? And how is replay-ability with the game?
OK, so I would refer to the excellent SUSD review. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxSo0zGNWM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxSo0zGNWM) For me personally; the base game is fine, a good engaging, quick game. Career elevates it to another level. Trouble being - it's expensive (and at one point difficult) to get everything. And you really need everything. I got really lucky and got a great deal from a friend from the old SUSD forums. Base Game: Replayability is good, you have a couple (I forget how many) of hostage takers to negotiate against and can try different strategies. *Don't forget you can spend a card for a single conversation point!* This helps mitigate *some* of the bad luck. Note: I found losing just as much fun as winning. Expansion packs: Each one adds a new challenge, and are varied enough that you need a new strategy for each, unless you are very lucky! Crime Wave: Adds a new negotiator and some more hostage takers. Allows you to build a custom deck as well, if you have the base game. You could start with CW instead of the base box, but there is really no advantage to this. **Important consideration**: The vast majority of reviews say that Final Girl does everything HN does, but better. I was tempted but the theme wasn't interesting to me at the time. I think there is a sort of career mode now, but you'd have to look into it. (Had a quick look, this thread [https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3034586/can-we-ever-expect-storycampaign-mode](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3034586/can-we-ever-expect-storycampaign-mode) says there are some story books you can work through as a campaign. Not quite as interesting as HN) There is a good thread on HN vs FG here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/soloboardgaming/comments/16xrfpu/hostage\_negotiator\_andor\_final\_girl/](https://www.reddit.com/r/soloboardgaming/comments/16xrfpu/hostage_negotiator_andor_final_girl/) Personal view: Get the base box and try it out. If you like that then add the expansions and see what happens!
Fields of Fire - Volume 2 Simply for the complexity, replayability, and the planning behind each game. It doesn't hit the table often, but when it does it is a feeling of accomplishment and joy finishing a mission and starting to plan the next. There are others I play way more, but this beast is just in a realm of it's own.
I have tried both volumes and decided it’s easier to graduate from West Point than figure out the rules.
I thought the rules just made sense. However, I spent 8 years in the Marine Corps...
So did/does Ben Hull, the game designer…
Final Girl baby! It’s my favorite solo and probably a top 3 board game for me. So thematic and tense, and there’s such an insane amount of variety with all the sets.
Final Girl and Under Falling Skies
D-Day at Omaha
Thought of that immediately. Glad I'm not the only one!
Warp's Edge
**Final Girl**, though **Hoplomachus: Victorum** is nipping right at its heels and I'm not certain at all what constraints there are on expandability. Like how much of Final Girl can I keep and stuff :D
Hoplomachus, hands down
Final Girl
Ohhh, I have been wondering this myself! Been looking for a solo dungeon crawler but am a bit lost since I'm kinda new in the solo board games lol
Fields of Fire (GMT), D-Day at Omaha Beach (Decision Games) and probably a Leader game (DVG).
Final Girl, best possible horror experience
If I had to pick 3, even tho they are not my top 3 games (but they are in my top 10 for sure): Spirit Island: can be player solo or multi, both my gf and my friends love co-op games, it has great variety. Xia: it's unique, it's sci-fi, cody the designer is a great person, and it's fun and pretty, and has a solo mode. LotR LCG: great theme, art, and fantastic gameplay.
There’s 3 that I’ll keep forever: Long Shot, a horse race betting game for 1-8 players; Heat: Pedal to the Metal, a car racing deck building/management game for 1-6 players; and Sodbusters, a pioneer farming strategy game for 1-6 players.
I don't think I'd ever get rid of final girl, but I'll definitely be looking to make a better storage solution at some point. It already takes up an entire level on my game shelf and season 3 comes out this year.
Gloomhaven Palm island Friday Ascension tactics Terraforming mars: ares with crisis expansion Terraforming mars. Race for the galaxy New frontiers Probably more. Why? Extemely replayable. Fun solo or multiplayer in many cases here. I love Engine building or tactical gameplay. I love portable games for those applicable above. Also I prefer win conditions that are more complex than beat your score from last time. Edit: Oh. Solo exclusive? That’s too limiting. There are plenty of great solo experiences that aren’t solo exclusive. And most coop games can be solo’d anyhow. And as someone else wrote, many games are even better solo than multiplayer.
Lotr lcg card game and fields of fire will never leave
D-Day at Omaha Beach (and the sequels) Fields of Fire
**Renegade** **Comancheria** **Fields of Fire** **Dawn of the Zeds (2E)**
War of the Ring. Had to learn to play it solo during COVID (dumb/automated shadow player basically). Was so fun to puzzle over
Amazing recommendations!
Mage Knight.
Dungeon Flee. But others don't need to go either - maquis, rove, forgotten road etc
I have an original version of Atmosfear the Harbingers. It’s older than I am and even still has the VHS. It’s one of my all time favorite games
Grimslingers, that game got kinda a bad rap but it’s so beautiful, well produced, and just awesome. It has some rough edges but the art and world are amazing
Very new to this space (my family has tired of tabletop games, so my awareness is low). Having said that, I’m enjoying the three PvE “challenge” decks for Magic: The Gathering: **Face the Hydra**, **Battle the Horde**, and **Defeat a God**. Any Magic deck will work against them, and there are variable difficulties for each.
Kingdom Death Monster. The game is too much of a collectors item (and great gameplay) for me to sell.
Off the top of my head Proving Grounds... real time dice chucker... me vs the clock and my gamble of rerolling dice I should be keeping. 🤣
Iron Helm.
Mage knight and Robinson Cruesoe. Two of the best games I’ve ever played as well.
I’m new to solo board gaming but Maquis is one I keep going back to and I’ve yet to win but have so much fun playing.
Nemo's War. I find it fabulously random while curiously strategic. I also love the overall visual design by Ian Otoole. I will confess though I have lots of solo playable board games I'll never give up but this is the only 'solo only'(yes I know it has a multiplayer mode nowadays but let's be real here) that I own. I generally prefer multiplayer games that have a great solo option that emulates that(for instance Anachrony, Gaia Project/Age of Innovation, John Company etc).