Most of us know that playing board games with friends and family is a great way to spend our free time. But what about turning to board games when you’re alone and looking to pass the time? Many modern board games are designed to be played solo, or at least feature a fun solitaire mode. , as strange as it may sound. There are many options for solo play, from strategy games to roll-and-write board games. Below, we’ll take a look at some of the best board games you can play alone.
TL;DR: Best Solo Board Game
Dunes: Imperium
One of the best strategy games in recent years, you might be surprised to see Dune: Imperium on this list. However, a two-player board game also needs to be accommodated, so the designers decided to include an automated opponent, House Hagal. Despite this being a fairly interactive game, House Hagal is easy to manage and yet, just like a real player, you can block his board space, steal resources, and set up armies to vie for territory. can be sent. In Solitaire you will face two of him of varying difficulty. This is much more satisfying than playing for a high score and lets you experience this great game without involving your friends. For more information, read our Dune: Imperium review.
Groom Haven
Perhaps the biggest and most complex game on this list, Gloomhaven is perfect for those who want an epic fantasy adventure on their tabletop. This legacy-style undertaking takes an adventurer through a vast fantasy world filled with dungeons and monsters. Card-driven tactical combat is central to his Gloomhaven, requiring careful consideration of what you play from your hand each turn. The fact that you can lose your cards forever puts a lot of weight on each decision, and the persistent world makes your experience vastly different from others. It’s a game and I hope to explore it in a few sessions. If the scale and price are too high for a single player, consider the cut-down but excellent prequel Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. For more on the standalone game, check out our review of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.
Mage Knight
Since its release in 2011, Mage Knight has become synonymous with solo games. A sprawling fantasy epic by acclaimed designer Vlaada Chvátil, Mage Knight was designed for one to her four players, but is particularly good as a solitary experience. Perfect if you’re in the mood to fight monsters, upgrade your character, and explore fantasy settings. However, the game can last him over three hours, and each turn presents a series of puzzle-like actions that require a ton of optimization, so be sure to set aside a good amount of time. .
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
Step into the shoes of literature’s greatest detectives in this board game equivalent of a mystery novel. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective includes many scenarios and fun props to really sell the experience. There are maps of London, address books, and newspapers, each providing clues to the chase and suspects to interview. However, be aware that this game does not hold your hand. Each adventure presents a bit of setup and explanation, then launches you into the city. This game gives us a chance to live up to Holmes’ reputation.
under the falling sky
The solo option is pretty standard in most games these days, but it’s nothing compared to the rare solo-only titles like Under Falling Skies. It’s a riff on Space Invaders as alien ships approach the base you’re trying to defend. You have to balance a limited pool of dice while exploring . The higher the dice you use, the higher the effect and the faster the aliens above you will descend. It’s a simple concept that will keep the game going for a very long time, as there are various scenarios that can be recombined into the campaign.
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island casts the player as a shipwreck survivor on an island that actively tries to kill the player. You can play as several different characters, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Scavenge for food, build and upgrade shelters, and explore the dangerous parts of the island. The game includes rules for his solo variant, but the general consensus is that it’s easier for one player to assume the roles of multiple characters. There’s a lot going on in Robinson Crusoe, and the rich iconography can be a little overwhelming, but those who stick through it will find it a rewarding adventure that begs for a return trip.
Dinosaur Island: Rawr N’ Write
Roll-and-write games like co-op games often make very good solo games. However, most are too fast and too simple for an engaging solitaire experience. Dinosaur Island: Rawr N’ Write is longer and more complex than other series, but it pays off with a deeper and more satisfying game. Rolling the dice to generate different resources and building and operating a Jurassic World-style theme park requires a careful balance. You can also run a tour by drawing a grid of buildings, but be careful. Without perfect security, you may end up with fewer tourists than you started with. For more information, read our review of Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write.
Arkham Horror: Card Game
Confronting Eldritch Horror on your own can be daunting, but Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a tense and brilliant solo experience. The base game includes a handful of scenarios that step directly into a world of space mystery. You can use the suggested starter decks or build a custom his deck around your chosen investigator’s special abilities. The gameplay involves moving from place to place looking for clues to advance the story while trying to sabotage his lethal Mythos deck. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is one of the most themed on this list, as your investigator will inevitably take damage and gain weaknesses over time, which can affect future games in the campaign. It will be one of those games.
Cascadia
Cascadia is one of the best family board games, but at first glance it doesn’t look like much for a single player. The wildlife theme is certainly appealing. And the simple, addictive gameplay of selecting random terrain tile and animal token pairs to add to your nature reserve and meeting different scoring patterns is fun enough. But what elevates it as a solitaire game is the list of achievements behind the rulebook. These tasks are to approach the game with different setups and rule tweaks in an attempt to reach a certain score threshold. There are a lot of different challenges that are very satisfying to do.
Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
Cartographers casts you as a royal surveyor trying to map unexplored lands in the name of the Queen, in Roll and Write where dice replace cards. Each turn, you flip over a card representing both a terrain type and a Tetris-esque shape. Its shape and its terrain must be drawn on the grid map in a way that satisfies the random scoring conditions. The 16 possible goals include building large adjacent villages, completely filling grid rows and columns, and drawing forest spaces on the edges of the map. Be careful, however, as you can be ambushed by monsters at any time, forcing you to draw inconvenient shapes on the map and possibly improvise in the future.
Terraforming Mars
In this heavy Euro-style game, make the surface of Mars suitable for human life by raising atmospheric oxygen levels, raising temperatures from below freezing, and building artificial oceans to sustain life. This is done through a combination of resource management and tableau construction. You take on the role of a megacorporation that seeks to profit from the expansion of mankind to Mars. In the add solo game, he races against Croc to maximize each of his three parameters in the endgame. Each turn you play a new card from your hand. In other words, the list of available actions grows until you assemble a chaotic tableau of action cards that can combo with each other. A very chewy gaming experience, perfect for those who like good optimization puzzles. There are also many expansion scenarios available, making Terraforming Mars one of the best solo experiences available.
spirit island
By their very nature, cooperative board game games offer a great solo experience. The player-versus-board structure makes him alone and he can easily control two or more players in co-op. One of his best co-op games in recent years is Spirit Island. This game is about defending your land from waves of vicious settlers. You control the island spirits, each with their own deck of power cards to help destroy settlements and restore land ravaged by agriculture. A strong theme and combo-focused card play combine to make this one of the most robust co-op games I’ve played. It also happens to be an ideal solo game.
For more, check out our picks for the best party board games and the best deckbuilding card games.
