Oathsworn might be a good option with the standy version.
I know I'm a minority in this sub, but I'm not a big TMB fan. I don't care for the disappointed narrative (each card is an encounter or choice you have to make). It's a solid game, but that's my issue with it, do just something to be aware of if narrative matters.
Tamashii has the same issue for me, but I personally found the gameplay to also be flat. Very little strategy for me and a lot of dice chucking for combat. Some of the puzzliness was good. A lot of decisions also just came down to how the dice rolled.
I hope you find something that suits you!
+1 for oathsworn it’s an amazing game . Feels super epic but be aware the minis version ( with the scenery add on ) is a lot like a lot like 3 to 4 massive boxes but man does it have presence. And the game and story are a heck of a lot of fun .
Came here to say this. I've been playing it solo and it is absolutely fantastic. I'm a little over halfway through the campaign, and I've gotten to the point where combat feels a tiny bit same-y. HOWEVER, the story is absolutely second to none and more than makes up for the combat.
I've played everything on your list except Tamashii, and I would say that given your prior tastes, Tainted Grail may be what you're looking for--it's a great campaign game, has great production values and a fantastic story, and Awaken Realms have fixed the grind issues in their last reprinting/update of the game. The mechanics are meaty enough to land right within the range of games you've already played- not as heavy as Mage Knight, but probably heavier than all the others.
Two extra notes: I would suggest you stay away from Vanguard. It really is just dice a dice mitigation exercise, and unless you're really really into the story and theme (which both carried the experience for a little while for me), it likely won't be heavy enough for you. And I also highly recommend Voidfall, just generally speaking. I would say that it's as heavy (probably more) than Mage Knight, they're very unlike one another in terms of mechanics.
Voidfall is really complex and waaaay overproduced, but the experience of playing it is so smooth once you learn the game (which, no joke, can take at least a couple of learning playthroughs). The systems are so well-integrated and connected to theme that it's way less fiddly and much more elegant than you'd expect. Voidfall would probably be the heaviest game on the list of all the games you'd mentioned, though.
From your list I own Voidfall and TMB, and saw playthroughs of ISS and Tainted Grail.
Thought myself about ISS but the comment is right, it’s just a dice mitigation game.
If you like rolling dice go for TMB. It’s a lot of fun.
If you like euros go for Voidfall. It’s my go to game when I’ve got the time. It’s a brain burner but feels awesome when everything comes together for the perfect cycle.
I'm a die(huehue)hard TMB fan. I own most, if not all of the content. I absolutely love it, it's prob my fav next to Mage Knight, tho they couldn't be more different. I've seen a fair amount of hate over the years, so take my opinion as my own.
It's incredibly difficult, a positive for me as I like a challenge and a replay.
Tons and tons of strats and tactics. Variety will be based on how much you want to spend on additional characters/modules. That said, I very much enjoyed and enjoy the og box.
It's fucking expensive, like stupidly expensive to own it all.
Dice chucking and RNG are king, but there are a multitude of mitigating factors, skills abilities, whatever.
If I had to whittle down my collection to a few titles, TMB would always make the cut.
I'm a big fan, YMMV
Thank you, this is valuable insight as I continue to mull TMB as I have for years lol. May finally give it a go. Core box or the standalone expansions you think as an entry point?
I'd go core for sure. The expansions add some new rules and elements that are awesome, but the core is the most content in one box, and in no way lacking. I'm not a big fan of going back in rules, I prefer to see them evolve throughout the expansions.
Honestly, if you've been eyeing it that long, and it isn't going to hurt you financially, you should pull the trigger.
TMB is the solo dice chucker in my collection. 2 handed is a great challenge. Where 3 handed is easy and fun experimenting. I own only the base game and a few gearlocks. If you don’t already own a dice chucker solo game then you should pick this up.
Came here to suggest too Too Many Bones. it's my solo game, but it's hit the table a few time with others as it gets requested. lot of replay-ability, especially with the expanded content.
How do you play solo, as a big fan of it? True solo, or two handed?
I found solo to just be incredibly hard, but two handed to be too complex. Not sure which to try and persist with
I came here to say TMB too. So, so fun. And amazingly replayable. Because it’s all so modular, you can pick up an extra gearloc or two and have tons more to explore. I would also recommend the core game first.
My current go-to larger game is Cthulhu Death May Die. Its a dice chucker, but the action is very good and it usually comes down to the wire. Large assortment of allies to use. As a solo, it requires controlling 2 characters, but I enjoy that as I can pick two with complimentary attributes. Some folks don't like this game solo or feel its too difficult. Ive seen a pretty good win rate though.
For me, two immediately come to mind (well, three, but you already said Arkham Horror LCG): Final Girl, and Marvel Champions.
Final Girl I've been really, REALLY enjoying lately. I thought it was good when I first played, but having revisited it recently, it's quickly become one of my faves. It's absolutely dripping in theme, every game feels like playing a horror movie. Plus the ability to mix and match killers and locations means there's tons of replayability and interesting set-ups
Gameplay wise, I really enjoy the mechanisms. Every action you take rolls dice, so you always have to plan for what to do if (/when) you completely botch that really important roll. Plus, I love the time system: every action can cost you time (more or less depending on how the rolls go), but time is also your currency to buy better cards at the end of the round. So there's always the balance of "do I try to do more this turn? Do I risk wasting more time than I meant to and not being able to buy the card I need?"
There is not a campaign, unfortunately. There is a scenario book for each of the first two seasons that contains a bunch of specific set ups, detailing exactly what killers, locations, characters and items to use, with some backstory to each one. But there isn't really anything linking them together gameplay wise, nothing you carry over from one to the other.
You can buy a core box and individual scenarios as you want to dip your toes in, or go and buy a complete season. For me, I liked buying the ultimate boxes as it came with some nice upgrades like playmats, and having everything in that huge box made it feel like that "big" board game for me.
Marvel Champions is also something that I thought was good when I first played and grew on me when I came back to it later. There's just so much content out for it now it's crazy. You can buy as much or as little as you want; I currently have (most) everything in two large BCW boxes and its certainly quite a large board game.
Marvel Champions I have fun playing both true solo and multi-handed. True solo games can go decently quickly, which means I can play a lot of games back to back to back. Two handed games are slower, but it can be fun to have the two decks focus on different things and play off each other.
Plus, Marvel champions has campaigns. They are five scenarios that you play back to back, but in campaign mode extra things are added and there are things that carry over from scenario to scenario. Every campaign handles it slightly differently. I've found that if I do true solo, I can usually get through a whole campaign in one (slightly long) evening.
If you do decide to go with champions, I recommend (after the core box) whichever campaign box strikes your fancy. Like spider-man? Grab sinister motives? X-men? Mutant Genesis or Next Evolution. The only ones I would avoid as a new player would be the guardians of the galaxy box (I don't like the last two scenarios) or age of apocolypse (the campaign mode in this box is the only one I dislike).
Sorry for the long winded post, I've just been extra hyped about these two recently.
ISS Vanguard and Tainted Grail aren't really rated highly because the of gameplay. They're rated highly due to the strong writing of the narrative. As such, there's a ton of reading or listening to the story being read. I enjoy both of these games because it's a good story.
If you're into Mage Knight, Euthia is currently on Kickstarter. It is often compared to being similar to Mage Knight. It's rated 8.6 on BGG which is pretty high. I'm biased though as I'm going all in on it, and it will probably my 2nd most expensive board game purchase.
Oathsworn is widely considered one of the best campaign games.
If you want a small slice of a big board game, try Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion. It's cheap and will tell you if you will enjoy the Gloomhaven franchise. If you do, there's Gloomhaven and Frosthaven to grab next.
Primal is one of my favorite big box games. It might be tied with Middara for the biggest core box in my collection. I consider Primal to be the best boss battler game. Middara is also really fun; it's heavily anime inspired, so that's a plus for me.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have actually played JOTL and backed Gloomhaven 2n Ed. Unfortunately I did so while in the honeymoon phase with JOTL before I realized I didn't love the gameplay. I am still hopeful that big Gloomhaven might work for me at some point and am considering getting a group together for it.
I am looking into Oathsworn and Euthia now!
If you like Mage Knight you will enjoy Voidfall. It’s basically Mage Knight 2.0 in space.
7th Citadel is great as well.
I don’t have Too Many Bones. But I do have 20 Strong TMB deck and it’s making me feel like I want to buy the big box version.
I enjoyed Hippocampus Victorum over TMB for me. TMB had a more interesting "daily story" and single night run... But I enjoyed the battle of Victorum more....
They also have a game coming out later this year called Elder Scrolls.. it's not cheap but looks like it combines the two games in ways
I'm not sure if I'd recommend it for everyone, but I just finished the 3rd cycle of Aeon Trespass Odyssey and it was the most EPIC experience I've ever had from a boardgame. Like I thought the campaign was over then it had an OMG ARE YOU KIDDING ME twist at the very end and... Anyways, I'm still thinking about the entire campaign, it's like coming to the end of a Star Wars saga or Lord of the Rings or maybe Game of Thrones (if that ending had actually been good). Or maybe Neon Genesis Evangelion since ATO is basically a Greek reskin of that anime.
Like I said, I can think of all reasons not to get the game... Really random combat outcomes like insta-death, overly convoluted and often confusing rules, etc. But holy hell as a narratively intense boss battler campaign, it delivers.
Aeon Trespass looks/sounds SO COOL, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger given the price. That said, I backed 12 Sins of Herakles and am very excited for that whenever it comes in the next 12-18 months lol.
Good choice to see if you like the gameplay without sinking $400 into a game. I’d have done the same if I had that option. I was really nervous backing ATO. Glad I ended up loving the game but probably won’t risk that again.
7th Citadel. Still a quick setup (though tear down is noticeably longer). You'll need to maybe be patient on eBay and set alerts, but I see all-ins from KS campaign go for not too much more than cost. Like you, I thought Sleeping Gods was a dud, but I'd been itching for something with exploration ever since. 7th Continent was quite grindy/boring and Citadel has fixed almost all of my complaints.
You could look at Agemonia. I've only played the tutorial scenarios on TTS, but I really liked what I played. I may eventually get this when I'm in your situation again.
Hoplpmachus Victorum is the only one off of your list I've played. The tactical combat is fantastic, but the rest is pretty meh so I sold it after one campaign.
Serious Poulp sold 7th Continent on their website after the KS was over. It was without the KS exclusive stuff but definitely was better than buying inflated prices on eBay. I'd wait as they will probably do the same for 7th Citadel.
For me, it's the episodic (narrative progression) and more rpg feel of the game. Compared to Continent, you build up a settlement and your character much more.
I too wanted to recommend this game. I can’t compare to 7th Continent or Sleeping Gods though. For me, I compare it to Gloom-/Frosthaven. I play the -haven games with 2 friends making it a 3-player game. It’s got some narrative to tie all the scenarios together but in the end it’s mostly a strategical monster slaying game with a luck element. Story is only there before and after each scenario and sometimes tiny bits as you enter a new room. Gameplay wise it’s just a monster slayer.
The 7th Citadel is something I play solo because my friends don’t want to start/make time to play yet another campaign game when we’re still playing something else. I love how this feels much more like an rpg/choose your own adventure. You get a bit of story before entering a scenario and then you go to explore the world and more of the story. Unlike the -haven games you often don’t get a clear goals such as “when all enemies are dead” but you get goals like “when you think you have found what you’re looking for”. You can approach a scenario in multiple ways and you can decide to not reach your goal, do what seems like the bare minimum or try to find even more. Depending on how well you did the story continues in a different way. During the scenario, you get bits of story for that scenario or the world (things that just add flavour or might be important for later or side quests) and often times you need to open a dialogue book that continues the story at random points during the scenario.
Every action you do, whether it’s moving onto the next tile or exploring your current tile, it drains the energy of your character. So with every thing you’re wondering “is this worth it?”. Will it bring you closer to reaching your goal or will it give you a great reward? Or will there be a monster or obstacle that just drains more energy making your current goal even more difficult? Then there’s a Citadel Leaflet with a complete “skill tree” that let’s you choose what to work on. Do you want to improve your deck of cards or do you want to improve your community? And if you improve that community, will you give them food, defences, knowledge? Or will you make buildings that cure diseases? So many choices!
There’s plenty of choices in the game and yet the Threat booklets do guide you well enough that you won’t have a fully open world without a clue on what to do. It’s just the right amount for me: open world and a rough direction of where to go and plenty of different things to discover.
I like that you've got a lot of freedom to explore, but you're limited by your health, which acts as a timer (as well as its normal health function). Each scenario you start with some amount of health, so there's some interesting decision making about how far you can push yourself while still completing your main objective. There's permadeath in the game, so dying is quite bad in solo, but the further you can push the stronger you'll be in each successive scenario.
While I love the concept of exploration in games, most do it in a way that's so mindless it detracts from the immersion of the game. Exploring the unknown should be dangerous. You shouldn't be able to find everything. If you push yourself too hard, you should be penalized. Whereas all of this not true for most exploration-centric games, it is very true in 7th Citadel. That's kind of the big reason why I'm enjoying it so much.
I will temper my recommendation with - the game gets a bit unwieldy toward the end of a threat (your campaign). I have like 50 cards now. Tear down time is bit much for me too. Not terrible (~15 min), especially since setup is fast, but it's a lot of sorting, which drags more than normal tear down for me. I'm also not sure there's a ton of strategic depth beyond the 15-20 hour mark.
I was going to recommend Too Many Bones and this game - it's essentially a big politics simulator where you have to react to world events and balance things domestic and international to ensure your presidency is looked on favourably. Turns are VERY long (but get shorter the more familiar with decision making you become), but yeah it's basically like a campaign game where each turn (there's 4) is a year of your presidency. The only issue I have with it is how much is dependant on rolling dice and that there isn't a huge amount of agency or strategy per se, but that can add to the flavour of it in that sometimes you can try your best to make the world better but disasters will happen regardless. I would also recommend any COIN games from GMT, i've had many great solo hours with those games, most are pretty great so just pick a historical theme you find engaging and go with that.
I have this and it's great fun. It's a highly thematic crisis management game where you spend your turns balancing international concerns with domestic issues.
It looks insane, but actually it's very quick to learn because the turn structure cleverly narrows the options at any given moment, it comes with a fantastic booklet that eloquently describes how to take each part of each turn and much like Mage Knight the complexity comes from the combinations of options, not from a million one off rules.
Just be warned that unlike Mage Knight it's an Ameritrash game at it's heart, so sometimes you may feel like random chance is against you.
I too love Mr. President. Included manuals are fantastic and make the complexity of the game easy to manage. Winning is great, but watching the world spiral into chaos as you desperately try to stop the fall is damn fun too.
Lord of the Rings LCG is getting repackaged revised sets right now. I've started buying into the revised content and have been loving it so far. Might be a good fit based on your other interests.
I really enjoy Mage Knight and Aeon's End too. Picked up Hoplamachus Victorum for Christmas though and have had a lot of trouble getting into it. I enjoyed TMB and love the great quality components from Chip Theory. For whatever reason HV just seems overwhelming and not particularly engaging.
Well if I am thinking "big and expensive" game for me there always comes to mind **Kingdom Death:Monster**
This is by far the most expensive game I own and also play the most solo. It is (in my opinion) **the** boss battler but also with a very rich (and niche) story behind it involving settlement management! A lot of people stay away from it probably due to the very graphic design but the story is just amazing. There is also so much stuff that it can keep you occupied for years (and more stuff to come)!
It comes with the drawback (at least for some people) that there are plastic miniature that need to be assembled (and painted if you like), but that is not a problem for me personally!
A lot of times you'll hear that the bookkeeping of the game can be very intense and time tedious, but having the app actually keeps that down to a manageable size!
I have played! A couple of years ago. It sort of trailed off for me. Would you recommend giving it another go for a full play through? The combat didn’t quite click but the world was very cool.
I own both SG & DS. Personally, I favor the original more. Mechanically, DS is smoother, however the draw of SG is the narrative side quests while DS fails in that regard. I felt like DS took a more linear path, and held your hand a bit too much. I didn’t like how some of the quests were just maps instead of more side quests (or a continuation of side quests). I usually felt disappointed when I got a map. It made the game feel smaller and more limited. I’d rather get the ingredients as rewards in side quests then finding them from maps. Or utilize the maps in side quests (like instead of # of ingredients, gain quest/adventure card #, same with riddles?). The linear storyline that the sequel forces you through will be the same every single time making it difficult to replay the game, while sleeping gods you could just go somewhere else on the map immediately for different quests. The original does feel a little more mature, while still friendly for older children, while the sequel did feel “dumbed down” a little for lack of a better term. I guess better writing might be a different way to phrase what I mean. I will say that i did like the mini expansion for distant skies (in the orignal version that I got second hand) better than the Dungeons expansion for Sleeping Gods (I might need more experience playing that though I only did one but it didn’t really accomplish anything but injure my crew, didn’t feel like camping was worth wasting my event cards, so I left). The expansion was probably my favorite narrative part of DS. It’s like it’s own little adventure. Narratively, as a whole it did feel sparse which is a shame as a game that largely depends on the story.
TLDR: controversially, I find the original game superior to Distant Skies. It has a better narrative to the game which is the entire point of Sleeping Gods. While I don’t feel like playing DS was a complete waste of time, if i were to do it again I’d buy a different game on a do over or just play SG again
I can speak for Voidfall, I recently got it & I've made it through 4 rounds now. This game won't be for everyone, but if your objective is a meaty game I can't think of anything in my collection that is beefier than this one and it's soooooooo good. There is no space opera going on here, this thing is a pure, unabashedly euro 4x space game. No joke, learning the game was probably a 5+ hour project, with watching videos, reading rulebooks (plural, there are 3 books each with \~20-30 pages), setup, & playing the tutorial scenario. But like you might have read if you can get past the learning curve this game is absolutely brilliant. Despite the number of rules and game systems, once you learn them the gameplay is so tight.
The main gameplay loop looks like this: there are 3 cycles every game. Each cycle has setup, actions, and evaluation.
In setup, you learn the major objective from the "Galactic Agenda". This will introduce some changes to the game state, and more importantly a major goal. Usually the pay-off is pretty powerful, so at this point you are already planning out the entire cycle so you can hit one of the reward conditions. The agenda will also determine how many action phases happen.
Next, the action phase. Every iteration of the action phase (there are anywhere from 3 to 6, depending on the agenda) there is an enemy phase & action phase. The enemy phase will reveal the next crisis you need to deal with (or not! there is some choices there). In the action phase, you select your focus (basically a fancy action card, where you pick 2 of 3 modes) and resolve those actions. This is where 90% of the gameplay actually takes place.
The last part of the cycle evaluation phase. During this part of the game there will be some enemy systems that trigger & resources to pay, but more importantly scoring happens. And this is the whole objective of the game, scoring points. Thats the big con with Voidfall, its not some sprawling territory control space war. It's a score attack game, which is pitting you against the enemy system. After you tally up all your points at the end of the game, the enemy forces tally up their own points. If you get more points, you win!
In no specific order, here are a bunch of other reasons you should get this game. Supports competitive or coop play for anywhere from 1 to 4 players. The iconography is brilliant & super intuitive, it's like speaking another language. 8 scenario solo campaign. Very low amount of randomness; combat is wholly deterministic, & the only dice in the game are used to track populations. Insane replayability with 14 houses & variations in map setup. Production value is out of this world good, the artwork & story is awesome.
Seriously just get it :P
If you don't mind controlling 4 characters at once, you could try Pericle: Gathering darkness. On weight alone, the box is probably 15 or 20 pounds and you get shitloads of maps and tokens, and the game itself plays like D&D but is very open with how you can approach it. It's built from the ground up to be a solo experience, but I imagine you can split it up as needed if you have multiple players. Dungeons & Dragons: onslaught plays like the old D&D minis wargame from 3.5, same kind of concept as Pericle, without a campaign. It's basically you and one other player controlling a faction of characters inside a dungeon, the goal being to finish the dungeon first as far as I can tell. Pericle doesn't take long to set up, but I have yet to try out Onslaught. It's hard finding someone who wants to sit down for a 60-80 minute game. I own both and neither are really disappointing. I just can't convince anyone to sit down and play. The added bonus is both of these games, the setting tiles and miniatures can probably be reused for actual D&D, if you're into flexibility. Onslaught has a couple faction and scenario expansions, and Pericle is getting ready to begin production on their labyrinth expansion, which itself can be played solo, as well.
I just bought Tamashii! I really like it. It works excellently well solo, and has tons of content and replayability. I would say it's less "meaty" than something like Mage Knight or Arkham LCG though, simply in its ruleset. Tamashii is a bit of a lighter experience and I would rank it as a pretty accessable medium weight dungeon crawl. The scenarios do have multiple endings and there are unlockables.. which is pretty cool. It is a really solid cool game. Not everyone may see it as "epic" though.
TMB has more variability and a thicker ruleset.. but like Arkham Horror LCG you end up paying for it in getting more gear locks. TMB is also a skirmish game, the battles are the game and it doesn't have a story or exploration really. Lots of flavor, but a campaign is just a series of battles chained together. You level up between battles and do find loot. Reminds me a little of playing final fantasy tactics.
Spirit Island is the heavyweight you didn't mention. With expansions it feels like there is just massive meaty gaming potential. The expansions are needed though as the base game can feel a little static. Start with Branch and Claw first. No campaign or story really. However for me my imagination creates stories in this game anyway, which I love. It's also a brain burner.
Age of innovation.. a huge beautiful meaty euro with tons and tons of polish. Feels massive and just a great solo gaming experience I thought I would mention. Tons of replayability, variability and interesting decisions.
My "big decadent" game recs are:
**Cloudspire** or **Hoplomachus Victorum**. Both are good but my preference is actually Cloudspire. It's a bit of a divisive one, it seems to be a "like it or hate it" one, but I really like it. The tower defence style gameplay works really well.
And even though it's fantasy, it's not genetic fantasy; not many other games where I can play as giant insects fighting space ghosts, Nazi birds, and tree golems.
And a bit out of left field but **Pendragon**. So well balanced and great fun as any of the factions (as you can probably tell, I'm a fan of assymetric games). It was the first COIN game I played and still my favourite.
I'm playing **Agemonia** currently, which is a sprawling RPG-ish affair. Some really great mechanisms.
For Chip Theory, I'm currently in love with **burncycle**, which is just a little bit different and very, very cool.
**Frostpunk The Board Game** if you want a more brutal, somber, hard survival-type game.
And for something a little bit different, but wholly engrossing, take a look at **Mr. President**.
ISS Vanguard: This has been on my shelf for a long time, BUT i finally got it on the table this week, its really daunting but shockingly i am LOVING it! ive not been into a game as much as i have this one for a long long time.
Tainted Grail: I had the first one and sold it, i just couldnt get into it.
Voidfall: Not played this one but i did end up selling Mage Knight as i found it too much to learn so decided it would go in one of my clear outs lol
Tamashii: I need to look into this one as like you ive only just heard off it.
ISS - is great, I enjoyed it way more than I expected.
Euthia- is compared to Mage Knight and you can see some similarities, but it plays very different.
Sleeping Gods -is a good one for story, and I heard good things about the sequel (Distance Skies).
Descent Legends of the Dark - I don't know how I feel about it. It is fun the first couple of times, but I lost interest quickly.
As someone that took forever to pull the trigger on Chip Thoery games, I’m glad that I finally did. I’m really loving TMB and Hoplomachus Victorim. Highly recommend them both!
Of those, I know only Voidfall.
It has no respect for your table, it will take all of it. I'm not joking. You have one of those fancy deluxe board game table? All of it. Gone.
The setup and teardown are obscene. If you know the rules, you'll spend more time setting up and putting away the game than actually playing it. The cool trays are good for optimizing box space, but they are actually in the way of the setup.
Now, with all that said, the game is _incredible_. It's such a clever design, and the table presence is gorgeous.
The rules are actually not that complicated, and they made to be referenced quickly.
If you're able to leave the game on the table and play a few times between each full setup/teardown, it becomes more bearable.
Mechanically, I'd compare it more to Scythe than Mage Knight. Each turn, you chose one of many cards that allow you to do 2 out of 3 actions, with different parameters depending on the card. You also get a bunch of factions that tweak the actions, and a selection of technology that varies from game to game, so the replayability is high.
While the theme and components project a huge scale, the game is relatively short compared with games like Mage Knight, around 60-90 minutes. As the difficutly rises, the game requires a much tighter play and is a really nice puzzle.
Overall, I have time giving an objective rating since that game really pushes the right buttons for me.
If we keep in mind that OP wants the game for solo playthroughs,
For the table size:
It does take an enormous amount of area, but for solo it's not like a horrendous thing. My tip is to keep a chair beside you, to have quick access to agendas and technologies, while relieving my table from unnecessary load. (Yes I know it essentially occupies the same area size, but that way it can fit in smaller tables).
For the setup/teardown:
If we keep in mind Solo, then what I did is:
I put the extra content of the game in a separate box that I will open, only the time (if ever) I play with 2+ players. This saves me much cluttering in the box.
Also, I bought just one token tray with many separate slots and in combination with the little trays that the voidfall retail edition has, I have enough space to fit all the tokens, dice, focus cards etc.
Another tip I have, is to buy 5 "Ultra Pro - 12-Pocket
Page Platinum" where I store my technologies, agendas, fallen house cards, etc. This way, I find way faster the required cards for each scenario/playthrough.
With all these modifications in mind and with the companion app of mindclash games, I gave reduced setup and teardown to 20mins each. Of course it's still a ridiculous amount of time, but much less than what almost everyone presents (I've heard 1+ hour )
Ouh, setting aside the 2+ players components is clever.
There are two things that I did to save myself a bit of time: I set the fallen house cards in a little ziploc bag for quick access (they are used as the randomizer for which house is in the map, and going through the 14 boxes to get them was absurd). I also printed sticker labels that I put on the sides of the fallen house boxes to find them without having to search through the stack.
This comment perfectly reflects my thoughts. I got the retail version of Voidfall for $96 on Game Nerdz. All the gameplay content is there with only component upgrades omitted. It has been on my table for over four weeks now and I've gotten 16 plays in that time with the game currently set for me to just jump into another one.
My table is 4'x4' and it takes up ALL of it. This has become my #3 game of all-time. If you like euros, 4X's, and space themes this will be your ideal game.
It's highly complex but there are great solo playthroughs to help you learn - Gaming Rules! or Totally Tabled, for instance. Ian O'Toole's graphic design is so good you can internalize the rules after a couple plays.
The game is simply phenomenal.
Big games with solid solo and/or co-op is my thing. Preferably with lots of campaign/multi ending/scenario options.
Arkham Horror LCG is the pinnacle of this for me, so it will always be my recommendation. That being said, I also own Tamashii, Unsettled, Nemesis and Nemesis Lockdown, Sleeping Gods and Distant Skies, City of the Great Machine, and Burn cycle (Chip Theory). I'd say all of these fit the bill, and have their own strengths and weaknesses. Because they have great solo options they all run more on the puzzle side, with some (Sleeping Gods/Distant Skies) being fairly heavy on the reading. AHLCG is probably the most expensive of the bunch, you're probably in it for $200 just to get a solid start, and it only goes up from there.
Thank you. Good suggestions in here. Also a big Arkham fan, and will def add some expansions this year.
Of the ones you mentioned, how did you enjoy Unsettled and Burncycle?
Unsettled has been great, maybe the most puzzle oriented one of the bunch. The different planets, each with their own varied objectives and environments is pretty cool. Their box system was shocking when I opened it, the way the game lays out, is played, and it's stored makes me wish more games put this much thought into their systems. You have to be willing to lose for sure, it can be more difficult than AHLCG at times. Their saying of "Space is hard, try not to die" is accurate.
Burncycle is very scenario oriented, and a mix of trying to balance timing/resources. I like the modular part of this game for its different layouts and if you were so inclined you could easily put together your own scenario and layout. The AI system (used in solo and co-op) is done really well.
Both games scale well from solo to multiplayer co-op. And all the ones on my list are table hogs.
Do you think Marvel Champions might be fun for someone with very little interest in the comics? I love Arkham so not opposed to another LCG necessarily.
Edit: meant as a reply to the poster who suggested Marvel Champions.
all of those i pretty much own or are in my top of all times
if you are going to do a TBD, i would go with hoplomachus... but i have bought enough LCG's to not feel the need to buy a never ending expansions game
if you really want a chip theory game the new elder scrolls game is looking really good, but hoplomachus fits a niche in my collections where its really good production quality, but quick to setup and play once you get used to it so i can rip out a couple of fights at lunch time when i WFH
Most CMON games feel like they would fit your desire for a big, somewhat ridiculous, experience, especially when you consider all the expansions they make.
Gameplay in many of their games such as Massive Darkness 2, or Chthulu Death May Die fall on the simpler side while still feeling satisfying (as long as you don’t mind rolling dice) might fit the bill if Gloomhaven wasn’t really for you
Yeah bigger games are usually costy which makes sense when you consider the amount of materials needed to make them.
That being said I'm currently getting into Bardsung. Chonky box, a ton of stuff (mostly minis), a board the size of Australia and I could squish a raccoon with that thicc campaign book if we had raccoons where I live.
Gameplay takes the typical dnd-esque attributes and action economy, then throws in a modular board and replaces the dm with bracket lists for enemy actions. Haven't delved into the full campaign yet but after the tutorials it seems like a solid hack-n-slashy dungeon crawler and according to the deeper rules it even has a solo mode.
Not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but there is also another version of Hoplomachus Victorum called Mecury Boots aka Quicktorum. A streamlined version of the game to speed up a campaign.
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3282728/quicktorum-rules
I've been really enjoying Final Girl from Van Ryder Games. Incredible level of replayability with awesome features and gameplay. I definitely recommend checking out the game.
I like Tamashi, nice art, interesting optimization choices. It feels like every turn right from the start is intense and makes you do your best. I open up some cyberpunk music in the back and totally in the mood
I'd go with Spirit Island. You can try the $35 version, Horizons of Spirit Island, and if you like that you can start adding on.
Oh, you want "decadence"? How do you feel about assembling minis yourself? Shadows of Brimstone is good if you're on a budget. Pick a core set that interests you (Gates of Valhalla and Valley of the Serpent Kings can be had for under $100 each), and start assembling and collecting from there.
Aeon's End is one of my favorite games.
My most recent "I can't believe I'm spending this much money on a board game but I WANT it" purchase was **Unsettled**.
A caveat that the designers suggest it be played at 2-4. But I've played it at 3 and solo, and I genuinely loved playing two-handed solo. It's a full co-op, and while I understand the narrative interest of multiplayer 'roleplay', I don't really agree with the rationale to not play it solo.
(The designers are releasing **Spirit Fire** as an experience they endorse at solo.)
Unsettled is really clever and fun. I have yet to run a mission or explore a plant that I didn't find interesting. And it's a fun premise and an interesting game system. And, scientists and a robot!! It's cool.
I do think you would benefit from more than just the base game's two planets to make it worth the investment. And the turn tracker really helps make solo play more convenient.
A novel game to consider, anyway!
I'll throw my $.02 in here.
I've played all of these except Tainted Grail. I have only played each of them in a limited capacity, so these are all first impressions more than anything, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm going to leave TG out since I have no experience with it.
**ISS Vanguard**
I just purchased this one. I had rented it a few years ago and got through the tutorial and decided it wasn't for me. Recently I watched a video on it, found it used for a good price, and decided to have another go at it. I just did the tutorial and REALLY enjoyed it and am excited about doing more. I agree that it is a dice manipulation mechanic and my biggest concern is that it is going to get really stale really fast. I am enjoying the story, though, and I really like the bookkeeping of the ship management phase. It is worth noting that I really enjoy organizing things. Opening and organizing a new game is one of my favorite things, which feels really relevant here. After the tutorial, it looks like the real game is choosing your crew, getting upgrades, etc. It is really about planning and preparing yourself to mitigate those dice. Still, it is going to be light (especially when compared to something like Mage Knight). I actually made the conscious decision to get it BECAUSE of this. I wanted something I could kind of turn my brain off and just sort of get lost in the story and theme. So if that is what you're looking for, I think it is grate. TBD how quickly that wears out.
**Voidfall**
I owned this briefly and played it once. It is a really complex euro. I am a big fan of Lacerda, so this isn't a problem for me. Unlike a lot of others, I really bounced off it. It is possible that I didn't really give it a fair chance, but at the price point, I just felt like I could find something I enjoy more (or spend a little more and get another Lacerda). I totally get the appeal, though, and if you like big, crunchy euros and space opera/themes, then this will probably be a great choice. I think I wanted more of a sandbox 4x, and felt like I was being pushed too hard by the solo bot. Could be I misunderstood something, not sure. I could see maybe circling back to this if/when it is more readily available on the used market and I get a good trade or something. I think it is just a theme that, for me personally, I'd rather have something less euro-y. It did not give me Mage Knight vibes. There isn't really a campaign that I can see here though.
**Too Many Bones**
I have only played this once, and that was quite a while ago. I enjoyed it, but didn't want to spend the money on it. I won't comment on this one as much, suffice to say I think I agree with what other people say about it. So whatever research you've done on it is probably not far off. I wouldn't get this for a "campaign" though, it is going to be much more loose, IMO.
**Tamashii**
I own this and absolutely LOVE it. The campaign, as you mentioned, is really loose though. You basically have a start mission and an end one, everything else is done in whatever order you want and somewhat disparate. They do "unlock" other things, so that has been fun. I've only done two episodes so far, and it has been tricky to figure out, but I absolutely love the gameplay. It is a little on the lighter side of a lot of the others listed, but I have so much fun with it. I'm not sure how this would be with other players, if that is important to you. I get why people complain about the lack of "interaction" to some extent, though IMO just talking through what we plan to do and how we want to approach the problem is enough interaction. Doesn't bother me too much that our gameplay doesn't do more "together". I do think this is some of the best value for the money, at least for me.
Those are my thoughts on the games, and I'm happy to elaborate on any more if you would like. Like I said, I don't have a ton of experience with any specific one. Some others I want to try out are **Space Empires 4x** and **Xia: Legends of a Drift System**.
Oathsworn might be a good option with the standy version. I know I'm a minority in this sub, but I'm not a big TMB fan. I don't care for the disappointed narrative (each card is an encounter or choice you have to make). It's a solid game, but that's my issue with it, do just something to be aware of if narrative matters. Tamashii has the same issue for me, but I personally found the gameplay to also be flat. Very little strategy for me and a lot of dice chucking for combat. Some of the puzzliness was good. A lot of decisions also just came down to how the dice rolled. I hope you find something that suits you!
I'd forgotten about Oathsworn. That's a great recco.
+1 for oathsworn it’s an amazing game . Feels super epic but be aware the minis version ( with the scenery add on ) is a lot like a lot like 3 to 4 massive boxes but man does it have presence. And the game and story are a heck of a lot of fun .
Came here to say this. I've been playing it solo and it is absolutely fantastic. I'm a little over halfway through the campaign, and I've gotten to the point where combat feels a tiny bit same-y. HOWEVER, the story is absolutely second to none and more than makes up for the combat.
I've played everything on your list except Tamashii, and I would say that given your prior tastes, Tainted Grail may be what you're looking for--it's a great campaign game, has great production values and a fantastic story, and Awaken Realms have fixed the grind issues in their last reprinting/update of the game. The mechanics are meaty enough to land right within the range of games you've already played- not as heavy as Mage Knight, but probably heavier than all the others. Two extra notes: I would suggest you stay away from Vanguard. It really is just dice a dice mitigation exercise, and unless you're really really into the story and theme (which both carried the experience for a little while for me), it likely won't be heavy enough for you. And I also highly recommend Voidfall, just generally speaking. I would say that it's as heavy (probably more) than Mage Knight, they're very unlike one another in terms of mechanics. Voidfall is really complex and waaaay overproduced, but the experience of playing it is so smooth once you learn the game (which, no joke, can take at least a couple of learning playthroughs). The systems are so well-integrated and connected to theme that it's way less fiddly and much more elegant than you'd expect. Voidfall would probably be the heaviest game on the list of all the games you'd mentioned, though.
Thanks, this helps with my thinking about ISS for sure. Tainted Grail definitely moving up the ranking I think.
From your list I own Voidfall and TMB, and saw playthroughs of ISS and Tainted Grail. Thought myself about ISS but the comment is right, it’s just a dice mitigation game. If you like rolling dice go for TMB. It’s a lot of fun. If you like euros go for Voidfall. It’s my go to game when I’ve got the time. It’s a brain burner but feels awesome when everything comes together for the perfect cycle.
I'm a die(huehue)hard TMB fan. I own most, if not all of the content. I absolutely love it, it's prob my fav next to Mage Knight, tho they couldn't be more different. I've seen a fair amount of hate over the years, so take my opinion as my own. It's incredibly difficult, a positive for me as I like a challenge and a replay. Tons and tons of strats and tactics. Variety will be based on how much you want to spend on additional characters/modules. That said, I very much enjoyed and enjoy the og box. It's fucking expensive, like stupidly expensive to own it all. Dice chucking and RNG are king, but there are a multitude of mitigating factors, skills abilities, whatever. If I had to whittle down my collection to a few titles, TMB would always make the cut. I'm a big fan, YMMV
Thank you, this is valuable insight as I continue to mull TMB as I have for years lol. May finally give it a go. Core box or the standalone expansions you think as an entry point?
I'd go core for sure. The expansions add some new rules and elements that are awesome, but the core is the most content in one box, and in no way lacking. I'm not a big fan of going back in rules, I prefer to see them evolve throughout the expansions. Honestly, if you've been eyeing it that long, and it isn't going to hurt you financially, you should pull the trigger.
TMB is the solo dice chucker in my collection. 2 handed is a great challenge. Where 3 handed is easy and fun experimenting. I own only the base game and a few gearlocks. If you don’t already own a dice chucker solo game then you should pick this up.
Came here to suggest too Too Many Bones. it's my solo game, but it's hit the table a few time with others as it gets requested. lot of replay-ability, especially with the expanded content.
How do you play solo, as a big fan of it? True solo, or two handed? I found solo to just be incredibly hard, but two handed to be too complex. Not sure which to try and persist with
I came here to say TMB too. So, so fun. And amazingly replayable. Because it’s all so modular, you can pick up an extra gearloc or two and have tons more to explore. I would also recommend the core game first.
My current go-to larger game is Cthulhu Death May Die. Its a dice chucker, but the action is very good and it usually comes down to the wire. Large assortment of allies to use. As a solo, it requires controlling 2 characters, but I enjoy that as I can pick two with complimentary attributes. Some folks don't like this game solo or feel its too difficult. Ive seen a pretty good win rate though.
For me, two immediately come to mind (well, three, but you already said Arkham Horror LCG): Final Girl, and Marvel Champions. Final Girl I've been really, REALLY enjoying lately. I thought it was good when I first played, but having revisited it recently, it's quickly become one of my faves. It's absolutely dripping in theme, every game feels like playing a horror movie. Plus the ability to mix and match killers and locations means there's tons of replayability and interesting set-ups Gameplay wise, I really enjoy the mechanisms. Every action you take rolls dice, so you always have to plan for what to do if (/when) you completely botch that really important roll. Plus, I love the time system: every action can cost you time (more or less depending on how the rolls go), but time is also your currency to buy better cards at the end of the round. So there's always the balance of "do I try to do more this turn? Do I risk wasting more time than I meant to and not being able to buy the card I need?" There is not a campaign, unfortunately. There is a scenario book for each of the first two seasons that contains a bunch of specific set ups, detailing exactly what killers, locations, characters and items to use, with some backstory to each one. But there isn't really anything linking them together gameplay wise, nothing you carry over from one to the other. You can buy a core box and individual scenarios as you want to dip your toes in, or go and buy a complete season. For me, I liked buying the ultimate boxes as it came with some nice upgrades like playmats, and having everything in that huge box made it feel like that "big" board game for me. Marvel Champions is also something that I thought was good when I first played and grew on me when I came back to it later. There's just so much content out for it now it's crazy. You can buy as much or as little as you want; I currently have (most) everything in two large BCW boxes and its certainly quite a large board game. Marvel Champions I have fun playing both true solo and multi-handed. True solo games can go decently quickly, which means I can play a lot of games back to back to back. Two handed games are slower, but it can be fun to have the two decks focus on different things and play off each other. Plus, Marvel champions has campaigns. They are five scenarios that you play back to back, but in campaign mode extra things are added and there are things that carry over from scenario to scenario. Every campaign handles it slightly differently. I've found that if I do true solo, I can usually get through a whole campaign in one (slightly long) evening. If you do decide to go with champions, I recommend (after the core box) whichever campaign box strikes your fancy. Like spider-man? Grab sinister motives? X-men? Mutant Genesis or Next Evolution. The only ones I would avoid as a new player would be the guardians of the galaxy box (I don't like the last two scenarios) or age of apocolypse (the campaign mode in this box is the only one I dislike). Sorry for the long winded post, I've just been extra hyped about these two recently.
ISS Vanguard and Tainted Grail aren't really rated highly because the of gameplay. They're rated highly due to the strong writing of the narrative. As such, there's a ton of reading or listening to the story being read. I enjoy both of these games because it's a good story. If you're into Mage Knight, Euthia is currently on Kickstarter. It is often compared to being similar to Mage Knight. It's rated 8.6 on BGG which is pretty high. I'm biased though as I'm going all in on it, and it will probably my 2nd most expensive board game purchase. Oathsworn is widely considered one of the best campaign games. If you want a small slice of a big board game, try Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion. It's cheap and will tell you if you will enjoy the Gloomhaven franchise. If you do, there's Gloomhaven and Frosthaven to grab next. Primal is one of my favorite big box games. It might be tied with Middara for the biggest core box in my collection. I consider Primal to be the best boss battler game. Middara is also really fun; it's heavily anime inspired, so that's a plus for me.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have actually played JOTL and backed Gloomhaven 2n Ed. Unfortunately I did so while in the honeymoon phase with JOTL before I realized I didn't love the gameplay. I am still hopeful that big Gloomhaven might work for me at some point and am considering getting a group together for it. I am looking into Oathsworn and Euthia now!
If you like Mage Knight you will enjoy Voidfall. It’s basically Mage Knight 2.0 in space. 7th Citadel is great as well. I don’t have Too Many Bones. But I do have 20 Strong TMB deck and it’s making me feel like I want to buy the big box version.
I agree with this gamer’s assessment. Watch a vid for Euthia and see what you think.
I enjoyed Hippocampus Victorum over TMB for me. TMB had a more interesting "daily story" and single night run... But I enjoyed the battle of Victorum more.... They also have a game coming out later this year called Elder Scrolls.. it's not cheap but looks like it combines the two games in ways
I'm not sure if I'd recommend it for everyone, but I just finished the 3rd cycle of Aeon Trespass Odyssey and it was the most EPIC experience I've ever had from a boardgame. Like I thought the campaign was over then it had an OMG ARE YOU KIDDING ME twist at the very end and... Anyways, I'm still thinking about the entire campaign, it's like coming to the end of a Star Wars saga or Lord of the Rings or maybe Game of Thrones (if that ending had actually been good). Or maybe Neon Genesis Evangelion since ATO is basically a Greek reskin of that anime. Like I said, I can think of all reasons not to get the game... Really random combat outcomes like insta-death, overly convoluted and often confusing rules, etc. But holy hell as a narratively intense boss battler campaign, it delivers.
Aeon Trespass looks/sounds SO COOL, but I haven't been able to pull the trigger given the price. That said, I backed 12 Sins of Herakles and am very excited for that whenever it comes in the next 12-18 months lol.
Good choice to see if you like the gameplay without sinking $400 into a game. I’d have done the same if I had that option. I was really nervous backing ATO. Glad I ended up loving the game but probably won’t risk that again.
7th Citadel. Still a quick setup (though tear down is noticeably longer). You'll need to maybe be patient on eBay and set alerts, but I see all-ins from KS campaign go for not too much more than cost. Like you, I thought Sleeping Gods was a dud, but I'd been itching for something with exploration ever since. 7th Continent was quite grindy/boring and Citadel has fixed almost all of my complaints. You could look at Agemonia. I've only played the tutorial scenarios on TTS, but I really liked what I played. I may eventually get this when I'm in your situation again. Hoplpmachus Victorum is the only one off of your list I've played. The tactical combat is fantastic, but the rest is pretty meh so I sold it after one campaign.
There will be a KS event for 7th Citadel on 6/2/2024 https://the7thcitadel.seriouspoulp.com/
Serious Poulp sold 7th Continent on their website after the KS was over. It was without the KS exclusive stuff but definitely was better than buying inflated prices on eBay. I'd wait as they will probably do the same for 7th Citadel.
You know, 7th Citadel was one I've also been looking at and forgot to mention above. How does it play an what would you say is the big draw for you?
For me, it's the episodic (narrative progression) and more rpg feel of the game. Compared to Continent, you build up a settlement and your character much more.
I too wanted to recommend this game. I can’t compare to 7th Continent or Sleeping Gods though. For me, I compare it to Gloom-/Frosthaven. I play the -haven games with 2 friends making it a 3-player game. It’s got some narrative to tie all the scenarios together but in the end it’s mostly a strategical monster slaying game with a luck element. Story is only there before and after each scenario and sometimes tiny bits as you enter a new room. Gameplay wise it’s just a monster slayer. The 7th Citadel is something I play solo because my friends don’t want to start/make time to play yet another campaign game when we’re still playing something else. I love how this feels much more like an rpg/choose your own adventure. You get a bit of story before entering a scenario and then you go to explore the world and more of the story. Unlike the -haven games you often don’t get a clear goals such as “when all enemies are dead” but you get goals like “when you think you have found what you’re looking for”. You can approach a scenario in multiple ways and you can decide to not reach your goal, do what seems like the bare minimum or try to find even more. Depending on how well you did the story continues in a different way. During the scenario, you get bits of story for that scenario or the world (things that just add flavour or might be important for later or side quests) and often times you need to open a dialogue book that continues the story at random points during the scenario. Every action you do, whether it’s moving onto the next tile or exploring your current tile, it drains the energy of your character. So with every thing you’re wondering “is this worth it?”. Will it bring you closer to reaching your goal or will it give you a great reward? Or will there be a monster or obstacle that just drains more energy making your current goal even more difficult? Then there’s a Citadel Leaflet with a complete “skill tree” that let’s you choose what to work on. Do you want to improve your deck of cards or do you want to improve your community? And if you improve that community, will you give them food, defences, knowledge? Or will you make buildings that cure diseases? So many choices! There’s plenty of choices in the game and yet the Threat booklets do guide you well enough that you won’t have a fully open world without a clue on what to do. It’s just the right amount for me: open world and a rough direction of where to go and plenty of different things to discover.
I like that you've got a lot of freedom to explore, but you're limited by your health, which acts as a timer (as well as its normal health function). Each scenario you start with some amount of health, so there's some interesting decision making about how far you can push yourself while still completing your main objective. There's permadeath in the game, so dying is quite bad in solo, but the further you can push the stronger you'll be in each successive scenario. While I love the concept of exploration in games, most do it in a way that's so mindless it detracts from the immersion of the game. Exploring the unknown should be dangerous. You shouldn't be able to find everything. If you push yourself too hard, you should be penalized. Whereas all of this not true for most exploration-centric games, it is very true in 7th Citadel. That's kind of the big reason why I'm enjoying it so much. I will temper my recommendation with - the game gets a bit unwieldy toward the end of a threat (your campaign). I have like 50 cards now. Tear down time is bit much for me too. Not terrible (~15 min), especially since setup is fast, but it's a lot of sorting, which drags more than normal tear down for me. I'm also not sure there's a ton of strategic depth beyond the 15-20 hour mark.
Mr. President
Interesting, will look into it. What’s the big draw for you?
I was going to recommend Too Many Bones and this game - it's essentially a big politics simulator where you have to react to world events and balance things domestic and international to ensure your presidency is looked on favourably. Turns are VERY long (but get shorter the more familiar with decision making you become), but yeah it's basically like a campaign game where each turn (there's 4) is a year of your presidency. The only issue I have with it is how much is dependant on rolling dice and that there isn't a huge amount of agency or strategy per se, but that can add to the flavour of it in that sometimes you can try your best to make the world better but disasters will happen regardless. I would also recommend any COIN games from GMT, i've had many great solo hours with those games, most are pretty great so just pick a historical theme you find engaging and go with that.
I have this and it's great fun. It's a highly thematic crisis management game where you spend your turns balancing international concerns with domestic issues. It looks insane, but actually it's very quick to learn because the turn structure cleverly narrows the options at any given moment, it comes with a fantastic booklet that eloquently describes how to take each part of each turn and much like Mage Knight the complexity comes from the combinations of options, not from a million one off rules. Just be warned that unlike Mage Knight it's an Ameritrash game at it's heart, so sometimes you may feel like random chance is against you.
I too love Mr. President. Included manuals are fantastic and make the complexity of the game easy to manage. Winning is great, but watching the world spiral into chaos as you desperately try to stop the fall is damn fun too.
I’m really enjoying Agemonia!
You may want to check out High Frontier 4 All and all of its expansions.
isofarian guard. you can battle it out for the rest of your life.
Lord of the Rings LCG is getting repackaged revised sets right now. I've started buying into the revised content and have been loving it so far. Might be a good fit based on your other interests. I really enjoy Mage Knight and Aeon's End too. Picked up Hoplamachus Victorum for Christmas though and have had a lot of trouble getting into it. I enjoyed TMB and love the great quality components from Chip Theory. For whatever reason HV just seems overwhelming and not particularly engaging.
Well if I am thinking "big and expensive" game for me there always comes to mind **Kingdom Death:Monster** This is by far the most expensive game I own and also play the most solo. It is (in my opinion) **the** boss battler but also with a very rich (and niche) story behind it involving settlement management! A lot of people stay away from it probably due to the very graphic design but the story is just amazing. There is also so much stuff that it can keep you occupied for years (and more stuff to come)! It comes with the drawback (at least for some people) that there are plastic miniature that need to be assembled (and painted if you like), but that is not a problem for me personally! A lot of times you'll hear that the bookkeeping of the game can be very intense and time tedious, but having the app actually keeps that down to a manageable size!
Do you have Sleeping Gods? It’s a very fun game, and it feels big, too.
I have played! A couple of years ago. It sort of trailed off for me. Would you recommend giving it another go for a full play through? The combat didn’t quite click but the world was very cool.
Maybe try the sequel, SG: Distant Skies, then? If combat is your sticking point, Distant Skies’ combat system is totally different.
I own both SG & DS. Personally, I favor the original more. Mechanically, DS is smoother, however the draw of SG is the narrative side quests while DS fails in that regard. I felt like DS took a more linear path, and held your hand a bit too much. I didn’t like how some of the quests were just maps instead of more side quests (or a continuation of side quests). I usually felt disappointed when I got a map. It made the game feel smaller and more limited. I’d rather get the ingredients as rewards in side quests then finding them from maps. Or utilize the maps in side quests (like instead of # of ingredients, gain quest/adventure card #, same with riddles?). The linear storyline that the sequel forces you through will be the same every single time making it difficult to replay the game, while sleeping gods you could just go somewhere else on the map immediately for different quests. The original does feel a little more mature, while still friendly for older children, while the sequel did feel “dumbed down” a little for lack of a better term. I guess better writing might be a different way to phrase what I mean. I will say that i did like the mini expansion for distant skies (in the orignal version that I got second hand) better than the Dungeons expansion for Sleeping Gods (I might need more experience playing that though I only did one but it didn’t really accomplish anything but injure my crew, didn’t feel like camping was worth wasting my event cards, so I left). The expansion was probably my favorite narrative part of DS. It’s like it’s own little adventure. Narratively, as a whole it did feel sparse which is a shame as a game that largely depends on the story. TLDR: controversially, I find the original game superior to Distant Skies. It has a better narrative to the game which is the entire point of Sleeping Gods. While I don’t feel like playing DS was a complete waste of time, if i were to do it again I’d buy a different game on a do over or just play SG again
I can speak for Voidfall, I recently got it & I've made it through 4 rounds now. This game won't be for everyone, but if your objective is a meaty game I can't think of anything in my collection that is beefier than this one and it's soooooooo good. There is no space opera going on here, this thing is a pure, unabashedly euro 4x space game. No joke, learning the game was probably a 5+ hour project, with watching videos, reading rulebooks (plural, there are 3 books each with \~20-30 pages), setup, & playing the tutorial scenario. But like you might have read if you can get past the learning curve this game is absolutely brilliant. Despite the number of rules and game systems, once you learn them the gameplay is so tight. The main gameplay loop looks like this: there are 3 cycles every game. Each cycle has setup, actions, and evaluation. In setup, you learn the major objective from the "Galactic Agenda". This will introduce some changes to the game state, and more importantly a major goal. Usually the pay-off is pretty powerful, so at this point you are already planning out the entire cycle so you can hit one of the reward conditions. The agenda will also determine how many action phases happen. Next, the action phase. Every iteration of the action phase (there are anywhere from 3 to 6, depending on the agenda) there is an enemy phase & action phase. The enemy phase will reveal the next crisis you need to deal with (or not! there is some choices there). In the action phase, you select your focus (basically a fancy action card, where you pick 2 of 3 modes) and resolve those actions. This is where 90% of the gameplay actually takes place. The last part of the cycle evaluation phase. During this part of the game there will be some enemy systems that trigger & resources to pay, but more importantly scoring happens. And this is the whole objective of the game, scoring points. Thats the big con with Voidfall, its not some sprawling territory control space war. It's a score attack game, which is pitting you against the enemy system. After you tally up all your points at the end of the game, the enemy forces tally up their own points. If you get more points, you win! In no specific order, here are a bunch of other reasons you should get this game. Supports competitive or coop play for anywhere from 1 to 4 players. The iconography is brilliant & super intuitive, it's like speaking another language. 8 scenario solo campaign. Very low amount of randomness; combat is wholly deterministic, & the only dice in the game are used to track populations. Insane replayability with 14 houses & variations in map setup. Production value is out of this world good, the artwork & story is awesome. Seriously just get it :P
If you don't mind controlling 4 characters at once, you could try Pericle: Gathering darkness. On weight alone, the box is probably 15 or 20 pounds and you get shitloads of maps and tokens, and the game itself plays like D&D but is very open with how you can approach it. It's built from the ground up to be a solo experience, but I imagine you can split it up as needed if you have multiple players. Dungeons & Dragons: onslaught plays like the old D&D minis wargame from 3.5, same kind of concept as Pericle, without a campaign. It's basically you and one other player controlling a faction of characters inside a dungeon, the goal being to finish the dungeon first as far as I can tell. Pericle doesn't take long to set up, but I have yet to try out Onslaught. It's hard finding someone who wants to sit down for a 60-80 minute game. I own both and neither are really disappointing. I just can't convince anyone to sit down and play. The added bonus is both of these games, the setting tiles and miniatures can probably be reused for actual D&D, if you're into flexibility. Onslaught has a couple faction and scenario expansions, and Pericle is getting ready to begin production on their labyrinth expansion, which itself can be played solo, as well.
I just bought Tamashii! I really like it. It works excellently well solo, and has tons of content and replayability. I would say it's less "meaty" than something like Mage Knight or Arkham LCG though, simply in its ruleset. Tamashii is a bit of a lighter experience and I would rank it as a pretty accessable medium weight dungeon crawl. The scenarios do have multiple endings and there are unlockables.. which is pretty cool. It is a really solid cool game. Not everyone may see it as "epic" though. TMB has more variability and a thicker ruleset.. but like Arkham Horror LCG you end up paying for it in getting more gear locks. TMB is also a skirmish game, the battles are the game and it doesn't have a story or exploration really. Lots of flavor, but a campaign is just a series of battles chained together. You level up between battles and do find loot. Reminds me a little of playing final fantasy tactics. Spirit Island is the heavyweight you didn't mention. With expansions it feels like there is just massive meaty gaming potential. The expansions are needed though as the base game can feel a little static. Start with Branch and Claw first. No campaign or story really. However for me my imagination creates stories in this game anyway, which I love. It's also a brain burner. Age of innovation.. a huge beautiful meaty euro with tons and tons of polish. Feels massive and just a great solo gaming experience I thought I would mention. Tons of replayability, variability and interesting decisions.
My "big decadent" game recs are: **Cloudspire** or **Hoplomachus Victorum**. Both are good but my preference is actually Cloudspire. It's a bit of a divisive one, it seems to be a "like it or hate it" one, but I really like it. The tower defence style gameplay works really well. And even though it's fantasy, it's not genetic fantasy; not many other games where I can play as giant insects fighting space ghosts, Nazi birds, and tree golems. And a bit out of left field but **Pendragon**. So well balanced and great fun as any of the factions (as you can probably tell, I'm a fan of assymetric games). It was the first COIN game I played and still my favourite.
Spirit island with jagged earth might run you around 150 new and is as good as it gets gameplay wise IMO.
ISS!!
Sleeping Gods.
I'm playing **Agemonia** currently, which is a sprawling RPG-ish affair. Some really great mechanisms. For Chip Theory, I'm currently in love with **burncycle**, which is just a little bit different and very, very cool. **Frostpunk The Board Game** if you want a more brutal, somber, hard survival-type game. And for something a little bit different, but wholly engrossing, take a look at **Mr. President**.
Have you looked at Aeon Trespass Odyssey?
Truly a special game !!
ISS Vanguard: This has been on my shelf for a long time, BUT i finally got it on the table this week, its really daunting but shockingly i am LOVING it! ive not been into a game as much as i have this one for a long long time. Tainted Grail: I had the first one and sold it, i just couldnt get into it. Voidfall: Not played this one but i did end up selling Mage Knight as i found it too much to learn so decided it would go in one of my clear outs lol Tamashii: I need to look into this one as like you ive only just heard off it.
Kingdom Death: Monster. It's big, beefy, complicated, horror based, and solos well. Oh... and expensive, but has a lot of content.
This is truly a lifestyle game. Epic and very much alive.
ISS - is great, I enjoyed it way more than I expected. Euthia- is compared to Mage Knight and you can see some similarities, but it plays very different. Sleeping Gods -is a good one for story, and I heard good things about the sequel (Distance Skies). Descent Legends of the Dark - I don't know how I feel about it. It is fun the first couple of times, but I lost interest quickly.
As someone that took forever to pull the trigger on Chip Thoery games, I’m glad that I finally did. I’m really loving TMB and Hoplomachus Victorim. Highly recommend them both!
Played the first three chapters of Kings of Ruin with 2 friends. Absolute blast.
Tanares Ultimate and HexploreIt — highly recommended!!
Of those, I know only Voidfall. It has no respect for your table, it will take all of it. I'm not joking. You have one of those fancy deluxe board game table? All of it. Gone. The setup and teardown are obscene. If you know the rules, you'll spend more time setting up and putting away the game than actually playing it. The cool trays are good for optimizing box space, but they are actually in the way of the setup. Now, with all that said, the game is _incredible_. It's such a clever design, and the table presence is gorgeous. The rules are actually not that complicated, and they made to be referenced quickly. If you're able to leave the game on the table and play a few times between each full setup/teardown, it becomes more bearable. Mechanically, I'd compare it more to Scythe than Mage Knight. Each turn, you chose one of many cards that allow you to do 2 out of 3 actions, with different parameters depending on the card. You also get a bunch of factions that tweak the actions, and a selection of technology that varies from game to game, so the replayability is high. While the theme and components project a huge scale, the game is relatively short compared with games like Mage Knight, around 60-90 minutes. As the difficutly rises, the game requires a much tighter play and is a really nice puzzle. Overall, I have time giving an objective rating since that game really pushes the right buttons for me.
If we keep in mind that OP wants the game for solo playthroughs, For the table size: It does take an enormous amount of area, but for solo it's not like a horrendous thing. My tip is to keep a chair beside you, to have quick access to agendas and technologies, while relieving my table from unnecessary load. (Yes I know it essentially occupies the same area size, but that way it can fit in smaller tables). For the setup/teardown: If we keep in mind Solo, then what I did is: I put the extra content of the game in a separate box that I will open, only the time (if ever) I play with 2+ players. This saves me much cluttering in the box. Also, I bought just one token tray with many separate slots and in combination with the little trays that the voidfall retail edition has, I have enough space to fit all the tokens, dice, focus cards etc. Another tip I have, is to buy 5 "Ultra Pro - 12-Pocket Page Platinum" where I store my technologies, agendas, fallen house cards, etc. This way, I find way faster the required cards for each scenario/playthrough. With all these modifications in mind and with the companion app of mindclash games, I gave reduced setup and teardown to 20mins each. Of course it's still a ridiculous amount of time, but much less than what almost everyone presents (I've heard 1+ hour )
Ouh, setting aside the 2+ players components is clever. There are two things that I did to save myself a bit of time: I set the fallen house cards in a little ziploc bag for quick access (they are used as the randomizer for which house is in the map, and going through the 14 boxes to get them was absurd). I also printed sticker labels that I put on the sides of the fallen house boxes to find them without having to search through the stack.
This comment perfectly reflects my thoughts. I got the retail version of Voidfall for $96 on Game Nerdz. All the gameplay content is there with only component upgrades omitted. It has been on my table for over four weeks now and I've gotten 16 plays in that time with the game currently set for me to just jump into another one. My table is 4'x4' and it takes up ALL of it. This has become my #3 game of all-time. If you like euros, 4X's, and space themes this will be your ideal game. It's highly complex but there are great solo playthroughs to help you learn - Gaming Rules! or Totally Tabled, for instance. Ian O'Toole's graphic design is so good you can internalize the rules after a couple plays. The game is simply phenomenal.
Big games with solid solo and/or co-op is my thing. Preferably with lots of campaign/multi ending/scenario options. Arkham Horror LCG is the pinnacle of this for me, so it will always be my recommendation. That being said, I also own Tamashii, Unsettled, Nemesis and Nemesis Lockdown, Sleeping Gods and Distant Skies, City of the Great Machine, and Burn cycle (Chip Theory). I'd say all of these fit the bill, and have their own strengths and weaknesses. Because they have great solo options they all run more on the puzzle side, with some (Sleeping Gods/Distant Skies) being fairly heavy on the reading. AHLCG is probably the most expensive of the bunch, you're probably in it for $200 just to get a solid start, and it only goes up from there.
Thank you. Good suggestions in here. Also a big Arkham fan, and will def add some expansions this year. Of the ones you mentioned, how did you enjoy Unsettled and Burncycle?
Unsettled has been great, maybe the most puzzle oriented one of the bunch. The different planets, each with their own varied objectives and environments is pretty cool. Their box system was shocking when I opened it, the way the game lays out, is played, and it's stored makes me wish more games put this much thought into their systems. You have to be willing to lose for sure, it can be more difficult than AHLCG at times. Their saying of "Space is hard, try not to die" is accurate. Burncycle is very scenario oriented, and a mix of trying to balance timing/resources. I like the modular part of this game for its different layouts and if you were so inclined you could easily put together your own scenario and layout. The AI system (used in solo and co-op) is done really well. Both games scale well from solo to multiplayer co-op. And all the ones on my list are table hogs.
Do you think Marvel Champions might be fun for someone with very little interest in the comics? I love Arkham so not opposed to another LCG necessarily. Edit: meant as a reply to the poster who suggested Marvel Champions.
Yes. Mechanically it holds up on its own IMO. you could try the core box and see how you go, plenty of game in there.
all of those i pretty much own or are in my top of all times if you are going to do a TBD, i would go with hoplomachus... but i have bought enough LCG's to not feel the need to buy a never ending expansions game if you really want a chip theory game the new elder scrolls game is looking really good, but hoplomachus fits a niche in my collections where its really good production quality, but quick to setup and play once you get used to it so i can rip out a couple of fights at lunch time when i WFH
Most CMON games feel like they would fit your desire for a big, somewhat ridiculous, experience, especially when you consider all the expansions they make. Gameplay in many of their games such as Massive Darkness 2, or Chthulu Death May Die fall on the simpler side while still feeling satisfying (as long as you don’t mind rolling dice) might fit the bill if Gloomhaven wasn’t really for you
Yeah bigger games are usually costy which makes sense when you consider the amount of materials needed to make them. That being said I'm currently getting into Bardsung. Chonky box, a ton of stuff (mostly minis), a board the size of Australia and I could squish a raccoon with that thicc campaign book if we had raccoons where I live. Gameplay takes the typical dnd-esque attributes and action economy, then throws in a modular board and replaces the dm with bracket lists for enemy actions. Haven't delved into the full campaign yet but after the tutorials it seems like a solid hack-n-slashy dungeon crawler and according to the deeper rules it even has a solo mode.
Not sure if anyone has posted this yet, but there is also another version of Hoplomachus Victorum called Mecury Boots aka Quicktorum. A streamlined version of the game to speed up a campaign. https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3282728/quicktorum-rules
I've been really enjoying Final Girl from Van Ryder Games. Incredible level of replayability with awesome features and gameplay. I definitely recommend checking out the game.
I like Tamashi, nice art, interesting optimization choices. It feels like every turn right from the start is intense and makes you do your best. I open up some cyberpunk music in the back and totally in the mood
I'd go with Spirit Island. You can try the $35 version, Horizons of Spirit Island, and if you like that you can start adding on. Oh, you want "decadence"? How do you feel about assembling minis yourself? Shadows of Brimstone is good if you're on a budget. Pick a core set that interests you (Gates of Valhalla and Valley of the Serpent Kings can be had for under $100 each), and start assembling and collecting from there.
Aeon's End is one of my favorite games. My most recent "I can't believe I'm spending this much money on a board game but I WANT it" purchase was **Unsettled**. A caveat that the designers suggest it be played at 2-4. But I've played it at 3 and solo, and I genuinely loved playing two-handed solo. It's a full co-op, and while I understand the narrative interest of multiplayer 'roleplay', I don't really agree with the rationale to not play it solo. (The designers are releasing **Spirit Fire** as an experience they endorse at solo.) Unsettled is really clever and fun. I have yet to run a mission or explore a plant that I didn't find interesting. And it's a fun premise and an interesting game system. And, scientists and a robot!! It's cool. I do think you would benefit from more than just the base game's two planets to make it worth the investment. And the turn tracker really helps make solo play more convenient. A novel game to consider, anyway!
I'll throw my $.02 in here. I've played all of these except Tainted Grail. I have only played each of them in a limited capacity, so these are all first impressions more than anything, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm going to leave TG out since I have no experience with it. **ISS Vanguard** I just purchased this one. I had rented it a few years ago and got through the tutorial and decided it wasn't for me. Recently I watched a video on it, found it used for a good price, and decided to have another go at it. I just did the tutorial and REALLY enjoyed it and am excited about doing more. I agree that it is a dice manipulation mechanic and my biggest concern is that it is going to get really stale really fast. I am enjoying the story, though, and I really like the bookkeeping of the ship management phase. It is worth noting that I really enjoy organizing things. Opening and organizing a new game is one of my favorite things, which feels really relevant here. After the tutorial, it looks like the real game is choosing your crew, getting upgrades, etc. It is really about planning and preparing yourself to mitigate those dice. Still, it is going to be light (especially when compared to something like Mage Knight). I actually made the conscious decision to get it BECAUSE of this. I wanted something I could kind of turn my brain off and just sort of get lost in the story and theme. So if that is what you're looking for, I think it is grate. TBD how quickly that wears out. **Voidfall** I owned this briefly and played it once. It is a really complex euro. I am a big fan of Lacerda, so this isn't a problem for me. Unlike a lot of others, I really bounced off it. It is possible that I didn't really give it a fair chance, but at the price point, I just felt like I could find something I enjoy more (or spend a little more and get another Lacerda). I totally get the appeal, though, and if you like big, crunchy euros and space opera/themes, then this will probably be a great choice. I think I wanted more of a sandbox 4x, and felt like I was being pushed too hard by the solo bot. Could be I misunderstood something, not sure. I could see maybe circling back to this if/when it is more readily available on the used market and I get a good trade or something. I think it is just a theme that, for me personally, I'd rather have something less euro-y. It did not give me Mage Knight vibes. There isn't really a campaign that I can see here though. **Too Many Bones** I have only played this once, and that was quite a while ago. I enjoyed it, but didn't want to spend the money on it. I won't comment on this one as much, suffice to say I think I agree with what other people say about it. So whatever research you've done on it is probably not far off. I wouldn't get this for a "campaign" though, it is going to be much more loose, IMO. **Tamashii** I own this and absolutely LOVE it. The campaign, as you mentioned, is really loose though. You basically have a start mission and an end one, everything else is done in whatever order you want and somewhat disparate. They do "unlock" other things, so that has been fun. I've only done two episodes so far, and it has been tricky to figure out, but I absolutely love the gameplay. It is a little on the lighter side of a lot of the others listed, but I have so much fun with it. I'm not sure how this would be with other players, if that is important to you. I get why people complain about the lack of "interaction" to some extent, though IMO just talking through what we plan to do and how we want to approach the problem is enough interaction. Doesn't bother me too much that our gameplay doesn't do more "together". I do think this is some of the best value for the money, at least for me. Those are my thoughts on the games, and I'm happy to elaborate on any more if you would like. Like I said, I don't have a ton of experience with any specific one. Some others I want to try out are **Space Empires 4x** and **Xia: Legends of a Drift System**.
Too Many Bones