OO Solo Board Gamers Guild

[Smoove_B]

Yup. Not sure if you have to play more than one character though, i.e. might not support "true" solo play.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Favourite deck-builders:

1. Dominion - clearly the obvious choice for #1.
2. Star Realms - definitely one the best digital app conversions, and distills deck-building down to an immensely enjoyable two-player battle.
3. Clank / Clank in Space - purely subjective, but I find the sci-fi theme more amusing in the latter.
4. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
5. Paperback

[Isgrimnur]

Dominion - clearly the obvious choice for #1.

Competitive solitaire without the right cards in the mix.

[hepcat]

Dominion was innovative at the time as it was the first real deck builder, as far as I know. It started the genre, I believe. But its core mechanic has been refined over a decade or so by other designers to the point where I doubt I could ever play Dominion again without being bored stiff.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Dominion was innovative at the time as it was the first real deck builder, as far as I know. It started the genre, I believe. But its core mechanic has been refined over a decade or so by other designers to the point where I doubt I could ever play Dominion again without being bored stiff.

Indeed, that was what I was getting at with the #1 ranking.

You raise a valid point though, as I haven't played Dominion myself for many years, but did enjoy it back in the day.

[Skinypupy]

Just finished Chapter 5 tonight, and Aeon's End Legacy has been absolutely brilliant. Some of the unique mechanics these bosses use are incredibly well done, and every fight feels completely different.

My only gripe is that it feels a little bit unbalanced for solo play. There's a number of things that make perfect sense with multiple players, but feel overly punitive when playing by yourself. For example, the last boss had an ability that created an detrimental effect on one of my resources (keeping it vague for spoilers). That effect is permanent throughout the rest of the game, as a sticker gets added to the card. With multiple players, those effects would be spread around to different people. Playing solo, however, I get hit with it every single nemesis turn. After I finished the chapter, nearly every one of my base resources now suffers that particular effect. I can't help but think that's going to be a major problem in the last two battles.

Still, the gameplay is truly fantastic. While it's been fun to build a character as I go, I'm actually looking forward to wrapping up the campaign and being able to jump into some battles with my full arsenal of abilities at the ready.

[Skinypupy]

Oh, and Gloomhaven is on the way...will get here just in time for the long weekend.

[Smoove_B]

You're going to need the 3 day weekend to sort all the parts.

[MonkeyFinger]

I'm going back to the stuff I know I can play in one sitting. Case point - Rifles in the Ardennes by Gottardo Zancani, via Tiny Battle Publishing.

And now Rifles in the Pacific is available for pre-order... "will ship in April".

Arrived this week. Hope to get it on the table over the long weekend.

[YellowKing]

You're going to need the 3 day weekend to sort all the parts.

When our group got our copy in, it literally took 7 HOURS to punch and sort everything and assemble the Broken Token organizer.

But congrats Skiny, you'll have a blast with it. Our group is currently around 8-9 scenarios in, and there's not even a hint of burnout. It's a fantastic game.

[hepcat]

Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong, but I don't recall my copy of Gloomhaven being that much of a chore to break down after getting it.

[Skinypupy]

Given how many absolutely glowing reviews are out there, I just couldn't pass it up. I've watched a few "how to play" videos and think I generally understand how most of the systems work at this point, which will be helpful as I get started.

My only slight reservation is that I'll be playing it solo, and I'm not sure if that'll be quite the same experience. I assume when you play solo, you just do one character, correct? Or is it like Imperial Assault where you manage multiple characters by yourself?

I didn't pick up an organizer (couldn't justify yet another $100 investment), but I did get Mrs. Skinypupy to let me use some dedicated space in the empty spare room, so I can leave it set up. That should make things a bit easier...assuming the kids or cats don't trash it, of course.

[coopasonic]

Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong, but I don't recall my copy of Gloomhaven being that much of a chore to break down after getting it.

It did take a LONG time to punch all the components and sort them into the organizer, but nothing close to 7 hours... and I was doing it alone. Of course Yk and his crew are in NC so...

[hepcat]

My love of dungeon crawlers and adventure games has probably dulled my sense of time when it comes to breaking down a new game.

[YellowKing]

It did take a LONG time to punch all the components and sort them into the organizer, but nothing close to 7 hours... and I was doing it alone. Of course Yk and his crew are in NC so...

To be fair, that included stops to ooh and ahh over components. We also did a full inventory check (including counting cards). The guy that was helping me has been unluckily burned twice by missing components so he's paranoid now.

My only slight reservation is that I'll be playing it solo, and I'm not sure if that'll be quite the same experience. I assume when you play solo, you just do one character, correct? Or is it like Imperial Assault where you manage multiple characters by yourself?

I think the minimum is two characters. The biggest change solo is that you know what each character is doing, which allows you to plan a bit better than a group would (in group play, you don't reveal what you're doing until after you've commited). Because of this advantage, Isaac recommends bumping the difficulty level up 1 when playing solo.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I didn't pick up an organizer (couldn't justify yet another $100 investment), but I did get Mrs. Skinypupy to let me use some dedicated space in the empty spare room, so I can leave it set up. That should make things a bit easier...assuming the kids or cats don't trash it, of course.

While Gloomhaven is unarguably a components heavyweight, YK is seemingly a wee bit of a pantywaist as it really shouldn't take you that long to sort the bits out.

You don't have to spend an arm and leg for a bespoke Gloomhaven organiser, either (though you'll definitely want to use an organisation method of some sort). I started out by following this guide and only later upgraded to a wooden TowerRex insert available from Etsy for $27.51. Don't let the price fool you, though -- TowerRex organisers ship from the Ukraine. So the shipping cost for me in CA was around $28, meaning shipping was slightly more expensive than the item itself. But it was still more reasonably-priced than most other wooden organisers (e.g. Broken Token, Daedalus, MeepleRealty etc) and I was pleased with the quality of the product. It assembled quickly and easily, without having to mess around with any glue and such at all.

BTW, even if you do go with a custom insert, I recommend sticking with the suggested accordion-style file folder from the linked guide above for storing map tile pieces. That way you don’t have to worry about fitting them Tetris-style back into the box. Even the fanciest custom inserts tend not to offer much or any map tile organisational improvements over a good old fashioned accordian-style file folder. Just make sure to get one that’s wide enough that your pieces don’t bend at the bottom (2 - 3" wide bottom).

[Fishbelly]

My only slight reservation is that I'll be playing it solo, and I'm not sure if that'll be quite the same experience. I assume when you play solo, you just do one character, correct? Or is it like Imperial Assault where you manage multiple characters by yourself?

You can play a single character, but I found it more enjoyable to play Gloomhaven with 2 or 3 characters. Nothing in the game prevents you from playing multiple characters by yourself.

The synergies between characters are quite a bit of fun to play around with. I must admit, sometimes playing 3 characters by myself is too much for me (both table space and brain burn). When that's the case, I pick 2 characters and give myself a break. The game makes it easy to swap characters in and out.

[hepcat]

There are a group of solo scenarios you can officially play with one character at a time, but they suggest you level up that character a bit first.

[Skinypupy]

OK, now that was awesome.

MAJOR AEON'S END LEGACY SPOILERS

Spoiler:

I just barely squeaked by the Maelstrom Risen in Chapter 7.

Big Bad was down to 3 HP and I had two spells prepped that would wipe him out, but he had 9 of his 10 beacons out and would Unleash to bring out the final one on his next turn (if he gets all 10 out, I lose).

There were two Turn Order cards left in the draw pile...one for me and one for him. So there was a 50/50 shot of pulling my turn and beating him, or pulling his card and losing. I honestly felt my pulse start racing as I veeeeery cautiously pulled the top Turn Order card...and it was mine. I win.

Big sigh of relief thinking that I had beaten the game, since that was the last chapter envelope in the box. Start reading the chapter conclusion instructions from the Legacy deck and...wait, what? Remove the entire insert from the box? Why?

Seeing the additional chapter and decks underneath the insert that I had no idea were there was fucking awesome.

Bravo to the designers for that little twist.

[Skinypupy]

Gloomhaven has arrived.



Diving in with my plastic baggies at the ready. Wish me luck.

[Skinypupy]

Quick Gloomhaven rules clarification please.

If a enemy action card says “Move 0”, does that mean:

A: they don’t move at all
B: they only move their base movement speed, without any modifiers

I assumed it was B, but watched two YouTube playthroughs yesterday who did A

[Smoove_B]

I thought the first part ("Move") indicated what the create was doing and the second part ("+0") was the modifier to the creature's base score - so (B)? I've learned to be really, really careful with Youtube instruction and play through videos. Some are great. Some should be labeled "video inspired by..."

[Skinypupy]

I thought the first part ("Move") indicated what the create was doing and the second part ("+0") was the modifier to the creature's base score - so (B)?

That was my understanding as well, so I’m going with that.

I've learned to be really, really careful with Youtube instruction and play through videos. Some are great. Some should be labeled "video inspired by..."

Usually when things are blatantly wrong, there are corrections in the comments. Didn’t see any corrections on these, so I figured I better ask.

Anyone have any “house rules” they use for GH?

[Moat_Man]

Quick Gloomhaven rules clarification please.

If a enemy action card says “Move 0”, does that mean:

A: they don’t move at all
B: they only move their base movement speed, without any modifiers

I assumed it was B, but watched two YouTube playthroughs yesterday who did A

B

[baelthazar]

OK, now that was awesome.

MAJOR AEON'S END LEGACY SPOILERS

Spoiler:

I just barely squeaked by the Maelstrom Risen in Chapter 7.

Big Bad was down to 3 HP and I had two spells prepped that would wipe him out, but he had 9 of his 10 beacons out and would Unleash to bring out the final one on his next turn (if he gets all 10 out, I lose).

There were two Turn Order cards left in the draw pile...one for me and one for him. So there was a 50/50 shot of pulling my turn and beating him, or pulling his card and losing. I honestly felt my pulse start racing as I veeeeery cautiously pulled the top Turn Order card...and it was mine. I win.

Big sigh of relief thinking that I had beaten the game, since that was the last chapter envelope in the box. Start reading the chapter conclusion instructions from the Legacy deck and...wait, what? Remove the entire insert from the box? Why?

Seeing the additional chapter and decks underneath the insert that I had no idea were there was fucking awesome.

Bravo to the designers for that little twist.

Ever since Risk Legacy, I...

Spoiler:

Check under the insert as soon as I open a legacy game.

[Smoove_B]

Spent some time with Pulp Detective this week. I've had it for a while, but after it was released, I saw quite a few negative reviews so I was a bit hesitant to get it to the table. However, I think the negative reviews were based on confusion over what type of game this is. If you think it's just a "dice chucker" you'd probably be disappointed. Instead, it's closer to something like Hostage Negotiator where you need to be very strategic in not only which die you're going to roll but also in how you lay out the cards. The dice are all the same in that they contain the same icons, however, they differ slightly in frequency. So you don't want to just pick them all up and roll at once. Instead, you want to pick the ones that are going to (hopefully) give you the greatest chance at whatever icons you need to succeed. Add to that the ability to re-roll based on a character skill, item or card orientation, and you need to make smart choices each turn.

I liked it, but it's quite difficult. I'd recommend using the case they suggest starting with but I think the female investigator is a bit easier to learn with than the male one because of her special ability to re-roll on specific card types. Anything that gives you that free re-roll ability can be the difference between success and failure, without question.

Here's what the endgame looks like, and I think it shows a bit of how important it is to place the cards - you can get an idea of the matching triangles on the card sides, which allow you to re-roll dice:



You build a "narrative" at each level, trying to match up cards with those colored triangles to give you re-rolls. You can't place cards further out than the row above, so there's pressure to be smart in design.

Regardless, it's a thinking roller but it plays pretty quick - definitely something you can do in 20 minutes. Box is small and it would travel well. There are rules for coop and adversarial play, but it's fundamentally a solo dice rolling game. Would recommend.

[Smoove_B]

Played a few solo hands of Mephisto yesterday while waiting for laundry to dry. It's a pretty lite game - I was drawn to the art/style on the cards. Slightly cartoonish with a touch of sugar skull art (I think) in some of the features. As a solo game, it's strictly a beat-your-score point game. Fundamentally, it's trying to optimize turns by figuring out which card(s) you should play each round to try and gain the most victory points. The solo AI is straight-forward and it basically just simulates what having an opponent would ultimately result in (loss of cards from the dungeon). There's really no deeper AI or strategy you're playing against; all the cards you'd normally play against another player instead just end up helping you. It's lite and it's cheap. I think it would be good filler game or something to travel with, but I don't know that it's deep enough for me to keep coming back to for solo play.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Smoove: I was just wondering, since you seem focused on enjoyable solo tabletop games, have you ever tried playing Race for the Galaxy with The Gathering Storm expansion?

The reason I ask, is that it's one of the few games that impressed me with the quality of the solitaire 'robot' opponent The Gathering Storm expansion provides. Having said that, I haven't used it myself for many years, as the AI included with Keldon's free Race for the Galaxy AI is even better still (and being able to play it on a PC just makes it so much more convenient, which is why I haven't used the 'robot' opponent included with TGS in so long). It may be far from the new hotness, but I still think it holds up as one of the most clever and enjoyable solitaire opponents I've come across.

[Smoove_B]

Haven't played that, no but I'm not opposed to trying it. I have learned (in the year+ solo journey I've made) that I tend to enjoy games that are either solo by design ("Hostage Negotiator) or play identically in true solo (mechanics) as multiplayer ("Street Masters"). After that, I might be able tolerate playing a fully coop game solo ("Maximum Apocalypse"), but so much of that depends on bookkeeping. After that, playing against some type of AI can work ("Xia: Legends of a Drift System"), but it really does need to be more than just a way to progress the game and me playing against points. It's definitely been an interesting (and expensive) year, but I enjoy the process. I'll definitely add it to my list of things to check out.

[YellowKing]

Thanks for the Pulp Detective review Smoove. That's one I've had my eye on for quite some time, despite the occasional middling reviews. I watched play-throughs and thought it looked fun despite the criticisms. Maybe because the theme appeals to me so strongly.

[Zarathud]

Race for the Galaxy is a great game. The AI does affect what you do in turn selection. Keldon's AI puts up a challenge as does the IOS app. Highly recommend both.

And not just because I played the equivalent of an Alien Planet Royal Flush against the designer Tom at Origins one year.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Haven't played that, no but I'm not opposed to trying it. I have learned (in the year+ solo journey I've made) that I tend to enjoy games that are either solo by design ("Hostage Negotiator) or play identically in true solo (mechanics) as multiplayer ("Street Masters"). After that, I might be able tolerate playing a fully coop game solo ("Maximum Apocalypse"), but so much of that depends on bookkeeping. After that, playing against some type of AI can work ("Xia: Legends of a Drift System"), but it really does need to be more than just a way to progress the game and me playing against points. It's definitely been an interesting (and expensive) year, but I enjoy the process. I'll definitely add it to my list of things to check out.

If you're not averse to playing a digital version of a tabletop game, I would instead encourage you to try playing Keldon's Race for the Galaxy AI, as it's essentially a completely free PC version of Race for the Galaxy. It's totally legitimate, and allows you to play the complete game against formidable AI opponents without needing to own any physical version of the game at all. It even includes most of the expansions.

However, Keldon's AI does not include a tutorial or instructions. So if you've never played Race for the Galaxy before, I recommend first watching Wei-Hwa Huang's RftG tutorial videos and/or this rules and gameplay video, which should help you learn enough of the fundamentals to easily get started. Some people find the game's iconography can seem overwhelming to learn at first (though the aforementioned videos both do an excellent job of clearly explaining and illustrating that aspect of the game). If you remain in any doubt and need to easily decipher a card, I strongly recommend downloading this handy PDF player aid, which clearly explains every icon combination used in the game. You can also download the PDF manual for the physical game here.

Rest assured, you'll almost certainly get your arse handed to you on a fairly regular basis by Keldon's AI during most of your initial games. However, those losses can provide tremendously useful insight into skillful strategic play if you observe how the AI plays.

[Smoove_B]

I definitely get more out of physically playing the game, but it's good to know there are digital options. I'll definitely watch those tutorial videos regardless - they're critical for me to help understand how to play. Thanks.

Thanks for the Pulp Detective review Smoove. That's one I've had my eye on for quite some time, despite the occasional middling reviews. I watched play-throughs and thought it looked fun despite the criticisms. Maybe because the theme appeals to me so strongly.

I wanted to call it "Dice Thucker" (a thinking dice chucker) but I didn't think I'd get away with that name. I haven't gone back to read through all the old comments and reviews I'd remembered to see if people's opinion's changed, but there was another KS (due to deliver in the Fall) and I'm pretty sure you can still get in as a late backer now (that's how I did the first game). The artwork is killer and I was happy to see they were going to license even more for this latest expansion. I don't own/use it, but apparently you can play the game for free on Tabletopia.

[Smoove_B]

I think I've done more solo gaming in the last week than I have in two months. I'm either procrastinating my move or we're getting so close now that there isn't much left to do and packing boxes is rather tedious. I wasn't a KS backer (didn't trust Mantic after Dungeon Saga), but I did pick up a cheap retail copy of the latest Hellboy KS that was just delivered a few months ago. Of course the trade off there is that my retail copy has significantly fewer components than what KS backers received, but there was just no way I was going to trust them again and the retail set seemed like a lower risk way to figure out if it was worth it.

After a few hours with it today, I'm kinda regretting not being part of the KS. Might just be all the insane KS freebies I missed out on, but it seems like backers really made out.

Anyway, I played through the tutorial and I have to say I was quite thankful they had a line-by-line walkthrough of how to play. Didn't need to read the rules, I just setup the game as instructed in the 8 page booklet and I was following along with the basics. Very intuitive and game play reminds me of Descent. I tried getting a close "action shot" to show off the minis, but I guess lighting was weird.



If it's not obvious, the style is straight from the comics - a huge plus in my opinion. I'm not a hardcore fan of Hellboy, but I've read a few of the graphic novels and I'm familiar with the first two movies. Haven't seen the most current attempt. Anyway, I like the characters and the theme so seeing the comic represented this way was pretty cool.

As a solo player, you have to run two investigators and the tutorial/walkthrough has you playing Hellboy and Abe. All characters have basic common actions and then a set of special skills and gear that can be used to fight or overcome challenges. There's a story deck and progress markers that you need to keep track of and environmental conditions can change based on what you're doing (or not doing). So there's a timer (of sorts, which I normally hate), but it's not just a round counter. For example, in the intro adventure the environment advances when you rest (to heal), advancing the plot card (and bad things happen).

Gameplay comes down to die rolling and I had an epiphany of sorts while playing this today. First and foremost, I love rolling dice. These dice are color-coded based on skill level and the better you are at a skill, the greater the chance of success (and the higher the number of pips and total you can roll). There's also a "wild" die that rolls every time and it can act as a good or bad thing - an extra layer of randomness. All that being said, even the best die rolling can still have you getting a blank die face (a "zero") and so there's a potential for binary checks (pass/fail) and to some degree an order of magnitude (like when attacking and determining damage).

What I've come to learn in the last few months is how much I don't like this - and I didn't realize how much I didn't like it until I played Street Masters and Brook City. At the risk of being labeled a Sadler Fanboy, their die rolling mechanisms for their last two games always results in something - even if you fail. Namely, you gain tokens that help you immediately (like boosting defense) or that you can bank to help you on future die rolls. I didn't realize how much this changes the flow or feel of a game until playing Hellboy and I'm rolling blanks and completely "wasting" an action. It seems like it's a subtle thing, but it really does change the entire feel of game play.

Regardless, I still liked Hellboy and I'll continue on with it, but having the dice-related breakthrough was rather interesting. There are ways to "boost" or upgrade your dice to increase the chances of a success, but there's always still a chance that you're going to roll a bunch of blanks and feel like a loser. I don't know how limited I'll be with this retail set, but I'm definitely going to keep moving through it. The component quality is excellent and the miniatures are of much higher quality than the Dungeon Saga KS I backed years ago. They have definitely improved (at least, as far as I can tell so far), so if you wrote them off in the past (like I did) definitely give Hellboy a look if you're into the character. Even though I missed the KS set, I can at least find solace in knowing this set is more manageable. I already have too many unpainted minis, and the retail version of this game only added ~40 to the pile. The KS version was 100+, so that's something.

[Anonymous Bosch]

I definitely get more out of physically playing the game, but it's good to know there are digital options. I'll definitely watch those tutorial videos regardless - they're critical for me to help understand how to play. Thanks.

In that case, I would suggest also watching Ricky Royal's Box of Delights tutorials on playing RftG with The Gathering Storm expansion, as it specifically demonstrates how the tabletop solitaire 'robot' AI plays. However, the videos I linked to above make for a superior introduction to the fundamentals of Race for the Galaxy IMO. So I wouldn't recommend immediately diving into the Box Delights videos, as setting up the 'robot' AI player involves even more iconography (which will seem intimidating to anyone completely unfamiliar with how the base game plays):

[Smoove_B]

In full disclosure, I had to get rid of Roll for the Galaxy because of the insane iconography. I'd expect a card game to be a bit better, but I guess we'll see.

[Zarathud]

The iconography is like sign language for the rules. Roll for the Galaxy uses similar icons but adds more stuff due to the dice.

[hepcat]

Race for the Galaxy was a bad choice to reintroduce me to board gaming in my early days of getting back into it*. I did eventually grow to love it, but it's definitely not something I'd call a gateway game.

*the hypocrisy of this is that I was forcing folks to play Twilight Imperium at the same time.

[Zarathud]

Some of us love the complexity. Even if we can barely stay awake a whole day off.

[hentzau]

Yeah, RftG left me cold the first couple of times that I played it. I never understood what was going on.