Solo Gaming

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 Another one of my passions is board games, or rather getting together with friends to play board games. Unfortunately that is not always possible and so when I have a hankering to play a game and no friends are available I will turn to playing solo, and fortunately I have numerous options to choose from.

 In my experience there are two general types of solo game:

  • One type is where you play against a Bot, Automa, or other system that represents an opponent in a two player game, although there are examples of games that require you to control more than one opponent. Examples in my collection for this type of solo game are:
    • Cuba Libre: You control 3 additional factions as the game represents the 4 major players in that conflict.
    • Viticulture: The automa basically gets in the way and claims action spaces each season.
    • Wingspan: The automa accumulates points with bird cards collected, eggs collected, and end of round bonus points.
    • Lost Ruins of Arnak: Similar to Viticulture the solo opponent gets in the way and claims action spaces.
  • Another type is where you play through the game similar to how you'd play multi-player and try to score as many points, or complete as many goals as possible with either no opponent represented, or a superficial one at best. Games in my collection that represent this type of solo game are:
    • Cascadia: In this game you play the game as normal but get rid of tiles and animal counters after each of your turns to represent an opponent taking their turn.
    • Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition: Here you play the game normally and try to get as many points possible in a limited time frame with your "opponent" drawing a phase card each round.
    • Welcome to...: The solo of this flip and write game is picking two out of three cards, one for the house number and one for the effect, and trying to get the most points possible before 3 solo cards come up.
    •  That's Pretty Clever: The solo of this roll and write game is playing as normal and trying to score the most points as possible before the game ends.
Unless otherwise noted all the links take you to the Boardgamegeek website page for each game. 
 
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada

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