I’ve published my Recommendations For Solo Board Games in 2023 over a year ago and it has been surprisingly popular. So I guess it’s time to do an update and throw out some new recommendations based on games I reviewed, new additions to the collection, and classics I got back to the table in the last 12 months or so. I won’t repeat entries from my 2023 list unless I spent a significant amount of time with them in 2024. The old list still holds up very well though and I suggest anyone reading this to also check it out, especially since this year’s crop is more in the upper half of the complexity scale.
The Challengers – New-ish Releases That I Enjoyed
These are games that came out “recently” and where I really enjoyed their solo mode. I played them repeatedly and would always jump back into another play immediately if it weren’t for other games competing for table time.
I, Napoleon: This is one of my most recent additions and so far it is holding up really well. A play time of up to 3-4h makes this a nice, meaty experience and yet it has a strong “just one more turn” feeling. In I, Napoleon, the single human player (this is solo only!) plays through a changing deck that represents the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The game starts in a simplified “commander” phase where Napoleon doesn’t really have that much choice as he’s still trying to acquire fame and glory, but then switches to first council and later emperor. This adds a diplomacy and domestic politics phase, but overall each of the phases is rather heavily abstracted and simplified.
I, Napoleon almost feels like an app, each single decision is rather small and simple and the attraction is in a) seeing how things play out and b) tipping the needle in the right situations to have long term effects. The decision space isn’t super deep, but it is a really enjoying playing experience and feels like a fresh new approach to a solo-only game. Adding a Napoleon biography to your shopping card when getting this is strongly recommended.
Anno 1800 – Die Erweiterung: The recently released expansion for Anno 1800 has improved the already excellent base game in pretty much every way. Anno 1800 is a fascinating game with dozens and dozens of resources but none of them are actually ever turned into tokens. Instead, everything is produced or traded on demand which allows for a rather overwhelming at first amount of different goods to be actually quite manageable.
With the new expansion, individual turns are more meaningful, there is more to do, and finally even the purple technologies are actually worth it building them. The expansion also now comes with a 6 chapter solo campaign that ends in a sandbox mode to play the game over and over again, which is based on the mechanisms introduced by the separately available solo campaign for the base game. The only downside to this expansion is that it likely won’t get an English release, but most people seem to just resort to picking up a copy from amazon.de as it’s only around 20-25€ bucks plus shipping and mostly language independent. Always fun and the new solo campaign is really quite tough, even in normal mode!
Sky Team: I almost forgot about Sky Team because I was fortunate enough to get a copy at Essen SPIEL almost a year ago. But what a lovely game and there are multiple fan-made variants to play it solo that can be found on BGG.
Originally, Sky Team is a 2-player no communication co-op game. You and your co-pilot have to land a plan without dying one of many possible deaths: overshot runway, crashed into traffic, run out of fuel, etc. The large variety of airports and accompanying modules in this small 30€ box make this an immediate buying recommendation. One of the best “Spiel des Jahres” winners in a while!
Evacuation: I had a lot of fun with last year’s Vladimir Suchy release. The theme of having to evacuate people from the old world to a new world and thus forcing players to destroy their own economy is great, the economy as often with Vladimir’s games is super tight, there is tech tiles, and so on, and so on. The automa is again a rather basic “I get in your way and take away stuff” card-based automa as seems to be Vladimir’s preference, but it worked. Great puzzle, but in contrast to Woodcraft with more staying power.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal – Heavy Rain: Well, what can I say: it’s still Heat, it’s still great. Heat is pretty much the only racing game I considered worth keeping in my collection (besides Flamme Rouge, also by one of the designers of Heat). What makes it such fun is how much variety already comes in the base game box and how quick the individual turns are. It really feels like racing looks like in the movies, not the somewhat mundane reality of it. Customisable cars, multiple tracks, weather system, there is lots to love.
The first expansion doesn’t add so much new that it would make it an absolutely must buy, but if you got the base game, getting this adds variety, allows you to construct more custom championships and overall injects the game with a healthy portion of “new stuff”. Still enjoy Heat every time I get it to the table and the Legends solo-automa system is still brilliant.
Barcelona: This is also a 2023 release, but since it happened after I put out my last list, I want to mention it here. In Barcelona, players construct the famous l’examples district in Barcelona. This is a Euro point-salad action-combo game if I ever saw one, but I still loved it very much. The base action-selection mechanism is clever and the theme just wins hearts.
I had a great time figuring out this puzzle until I got there, and then unfortunately the automa proved to be too simple for me. A little bit of the pressure when playing multi-player is unfortunately lost. Still, always enjoy it, and I really look forward to the soon to be released expansion!
Hegemony: I’m still fascinated by Hegemony. In my book, it’s less an economy/political game but an RPG for euro gamers. As soon as you start playing, people start acting out their class. Its playtime has unfortunately kept me from getting this to the table much as a solo experience, but I’m always looking forward to diving into it again at some point. I also still haven’t had a chance to try the historical events.
Inventions: For me, this and Kanban EV are Vital Lacerda’s best games for playing solo. In Inventions: Evolution of Ideas, players are – in a rather abstract way – proposing ideas, inventing them, sometime improving them, and then spreading them through the world. The theme didn’t come through that well in my opinion, but the solo mode is really solid. Two different automat tag-team against the human player and get in the way or take things before the human player can score them.
What this solo mode is unfortunately missing is a reason for me to get it to the table repeatedly now that I played it that often for writing my first impressions. There is still potential to improve my scores, but that alone doesn’t really grab me. Still, really good solo mode.
Oldy but Goody – The New to Me Games
In the second half of 2023 and continuing in 2024, I started picking up more “older” games that aren’t the latest hotness. The great advantage of it is that you know what you’ll get because there are already lots of reviews out and there is a good chance you’ll find a used copy for a great price. Unfortunately, many of them (e.g. Indonesia, Antiquity) don’t really come with a solo mode. Here are a few exceptions:
Iwari Deluxe: I was pleasantly surprised this year when I finally picked up a used copy of Iwari Deluxe. This is based on the old Web of Power / Kardinal / China and if you got the all-in package comes with a whopping 8 maps (or was it even 10?). The solo automa is unfortunately rather basic and once you have cracked it it loses some of its appeal, but the easy rules, nice visuals, and variety through maps made this a cool little area control game you can play solo in 20-30min. Be careful what edition you get though, because there also seems to be an Iwari Deluxe retail edition that only comes with 2 (or 4?) maps and the maps are the only real variety when playing this solo.
In Iwari, your turn is simple: play up to 3 cards to place up to 2 pieces in 1 region. That’s pretty much it, but you need to balance going for tent majority in a region vs building up totems and scoring connections between neighbouring regions, where both aspects are cleverly linked: the maximum number of totems in a region is equal to the max number of tents by a single player in that region. Iwari produces a great push and pull, where simple decisions can lead to huge dilemmas. Old school, if you liked the Hansa Teutonica era of designs, this will be right up your alley.
Pandemic – Rising Tide: This is the Pandemic you know but taken up a notch. Better theme, more dynamic flooding mechanism, addition things to do like building pumps that remove water even while you are doing other things, variable end game goals, … I think it sums it up well when I say this made me sell base Pandemic plus two expansions.
There isn’t a dedicated solo mode but as all co-op games, this is easy to play 2-handed. If you got bored of Pandemic ages ago, give this one a try!
Staying Strong – The Classics
This section contains games I already previously mentioned but are still repeatedly finding their ways on my table.
Horseless Carriage: Splotter’s mind bending spatial puzzler is one of the most consistent games I pull out solo, and the fact that I designed the solo mode myself makes me quite proud of that fact. By now, there is a small group of fans on BGG that play it and one amazing BGGler even has coded an app version of it!
In Horseless Carriage, the player competes against 2-4 automa in building the best factory to serve the ever changing market demands. Should you add breaks or rather add a colour besides black? It’s difficult to say in the early years of automobiles. The fascinating aspect besides the market manipulation is that the only real resource in the game is factory space. All the production lines, assembly stations, etc cost no money at all, but still you will curse yourself after the first round already for what you have build. Great game!
John Company 2nd Edition: Still one of my favourite “I have 4 hours and I want an experience” type of games. The solo mode by Ricky Royal is brilliant and does the impossible of managing to capture the magic of a negotiation game in a solo mode.
In John Company 2nd Edition, the human player acts as a family that tries to bring their members into power within the East India Company. The ruthless goal is to find ways to enrich oneself by syphoning money out of the company and buy a nice house for the retiring family members. What’s brilliant about JC2e is how it treats a horrible time in history with respect and involuntarily makes you think about the what you are doing, while still staying on an abstract enough level to not alienate players. If the 48 pages of rules and playtime aren’t a problem for you, this is an excellent game and a definite solo recommendation.
Concordia Solitaria: This solo-mode-expansion still stays strong and I have a good time whenever I get it to the table. This doesn’t happen too much during releases but then in an increased amount whenever a new map or expansion is released. I particular recommend the Sicilia, Italy, and Ballearica maps for playing solo, but the solo-expansion works equally well with all Concordia maps. I still hope Mac Gerdts will add either a legacy campaign to Concordia or some “attributes” that change how the automa feels from time to time to give me a reason to get this out even more.
Games I Wished I Had Played
For some reason, there is a number of great solo-able games in my collection that didn’t make it to the table. For someone that regularly writes reviews, I believe I still manage to play an above average amount of “older games”. Still, time is limited and while I never would sell these games, they didn’t make it to the table in the last 12 months. Really hope to find time to play them soon again:
- Dune Imperium
- Grand Austria Hotel
- Kanban EV
- The Colonists
- Sleeping Gods
This Year’s Not-For-Me
And same as last time, here is a list of solo modes that I tried but weren’t for me:
- Base game wasn’t for me, so solo wasn’t either: Pampero, Weather Machine, Maps of Misterra, High Season, Voidfall
- Looks aren’t everything: Tidal Blades, Twilight Inscriptions, ICE, Redwood, Senjutsu, Votes for Women, Shores of Tripoli, Castles by the Sea, Tapestry
- Missing a challenge: World Wonders, Harmonies (despite a BGG user having created a really nice solo campaign)
- Always the same: Salton Sea
- Enjoyed the multiplayer way more: La Granja Deluxe, Castles of Burgundy Special Edition
- Too random: Halls of Hegra, Witchcraft
- Too complicated: Mr. President
- Too dissimilar to the multiplayer experience: Roads & Boats
And that’s it for the last 12 months or so. As you can see, I managed to play a surprisingly large number of new-to-me games that had a solo mode – and I even left out a number where I used a fan-made solo mode to learn the game. My main issue still seems to be that either a solo mode doesn’t manage to really capture the essence of the multiplayer experience or it’s great at first and then lacks the elements that keeps a game fresh over repeated plays. I really wished more games would add a simple solo campaign or interchangeable attributes to the automa that affect its behaviour from play to play. Maracaibo for example did this exceptionally well. But for some reason, that still rather seems the exception than the norm. My guess is few designers / publishers really want to invest the money and time to develop such more advanced solo modes when the multiplayer experience is what will determine sales. Luckily, there is also an ever growing community of fan-designers for solo modes.
Got a number of exciting games with solo modes coming up soon such as Rise & Fall, Trailblazers, and Escape Plan, but those will have to wait for next year’s list. I hope you got some good inspiration out of this which games to try. As always, looking forward to reading in the comments what your solo recommendations for this year are!