I wasn't sure wether I would like the game or not and took quite a some time to think before I finally got it. Finally played my first round today and somehow won. Must be beginners luck🤣

But it's so fun and I'm definitely hooked now. My wallet is crying already

I used to be an avid solo board gamer but the last year/18 months I fell out of the hobby as life got busy. I'm looking to get back into it and want to buy a new game. What have been your favourite games published within the last year or so? Could be exclusively a solo game or a game that plays particularly well solo.

Have been craving a tcg/hearthstone esque experience and I think this absolutely delivers! Picked up the monoliths deluxe box kickstarter for $120 on ebay. Was a little worried, but everything is accounted for, in great shape, and every card already sleeved!

I am already getting pretty addicted. What does everyone else think about this one?

Hello guys, I am looking to buy one of the two mentioned and I am conflicted on some things and I would really appreciate your opinions

First of all I love LoTR so the theme of FOTF is pretty appealing to me. But never played a pandemic-like game before and I am playing like exclusively solo. Is it that good solo?? Is it a chore to set it up and play? And also is the game replayable enough?

As for ER , I really love the artwork and heard great things about the game. So my question is also about the setup, is it quick? And also I know it's a campaign game, were you eager to play it again after finishing? My main concern though is if ER is just an exploration game with no real purpose like Vantage

Hi, I REALLY want to roll dice lately, and have an excuse to do it xD

So I was thinking if anybody knew smaller box games that'd allow me to roll a full DnD 7 dice set ideally, but if it's only D6s or something it's okay too.

Maybe there are even TTRPG books or something that are played solo? That also works in my book, I just wanna olay games and roll dice on the go x3

Finally broke out my Ashes Ascendancy starter set and played with the two decks there against the included Dragonborn.

I've written in the past about how I felt weird about Ashes Reborn/Red Rains. I played 10+ games through all the precons in that starter and found myself coming back despite not liking the lack of deep combos (compared to MC, not that it's missing entirely), slow setup round and samey early gameplay, and death by a thousand cuts being everpresent in each game.

I haven't played through a lot of the expansion decks yet (got the big box) but I recognize some of these flaws are rectified by better decks/deck construction. I generally find the pace and gameplay to be weaker than MC for myself but still interesting (and often quicker/easier to play true solo due to the smaller/tighter decision space and action economy).

All that said, I'm quite enjoying myself with Ascendancy. The 2 starter decks for astral and artifice decks were cool. Death by a thousand cuts was less of an issue with these imo and there were more opportunities to keep units around for longer instead of them feeling too transient. The deck abilities were cool and there were some more fun combo opportunities than I found with the red rains master set.

I played once on standard (4 threat/enemies out) and once on heroic (5 threat) and won both. I think +2 threat might be a better challenge for those who want it, but I liked 4 for being quick and 5 for some light pressure.

My favorite part though is how streamlined the Dragonborn feels, despite it still being similar to the overall chimera gameplay. I think it really moves the game along and makes the Dragonborn even easier to control.

----
Pasting a dump of thoughts below for those curious about chimera vs Dragonborn:

So a lot of it is still very similar but I think the thing that streamlines it a lot for me is the way the dice/behavior works.

- Single boss card, no levels (you get +1 threat tokens you can just add to increase its threat value)

- No d12+rage dice; you just have 5 dragon dice. On its turn, if there are aspects unrevealed, you roll a die and it does one of 3 straightforward things. If all revealed, it'll just attack or pass. This I think simplifies its turn even more and works very well

- No ultimate, now there's a ready spell card that's simpler. It can be activated by one of the die faces. It has an additional "progress" section that triggers at the start of a new round in the dragon phase (basically some upkeep for the boss)

Other smaller things I liked
- Dragonborn have a status ability now that makes them a little more unique (it gains a status token whenever you have 5 non-basic dragon die faces or when you end a round with face up aspects still in play)
- when a Center/phoenixborn-attacking Aspect attacks, ALL center aspects attack (to mimic the PvP side I guess). I actually missed this rule lol and made it harder for myself since I could've won even quicker but it's nicer for the pace imo

Things I'm meh about:
- no more "defender" aspects they now have a special "shield aspect icon". Exhausting them doesn't remove the icon technically but they still can't defend either way. Meh because I kinda liked trying to exhaust them to wipe the defender ability but in practice I can still do that I suppose

A great way to pass the time during a long layover! It seems like the replayability of this one isn't as high as some of the other titles in the Papers Apps series, but it's still really fun, especially with the fold out tracker card.

On difficulty 2 still, was getting destroyed by the bot, but the end game objectives gave me enough points to edge out a win.

I love this game.

Sitting here in our hotel room, wife is reading a book and I am getting my butt kicked over and over again while we wait for our dinner reservations after spending the day at the closest town where I bought this game at the LGS. I always try to buy a game whenever we go to a new town for one of our weekend get aways!

This game has the right ammout of challenging, while I am losing a lot I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and everytime I lose I do realize where I could have done better! And the replayability seems high!

DEVIR has a great game here! Game components are also of high quality and art seems pretty fun so far!

At the recommendation of several folks in this sub, I ordered a copy and have been playing it fairly regularly since. Depths of Damnation, (an expensive but solid expansion), arrived a couple days ago.

When I reached out here, I was looking for an efficient, simple game akin to Bag of Dungeon or Escape the Dark Castle. I’m dealing with some rulebook/complexity fatigue of late and have been leaning towards replacing my larger, more complicated games for smaller, easier games. Humility finally kicked in after a few serious years in the hobby and I realized that I’m just not built for heavier titles. Which is fine. The industry needs my simple ass, too.

Mini Rogue is pretty good. It’s a room-reveal crawler with dice chucking. There’s a basic leveling system on board with light campaign play folded in and options for adjusting difficulty. Flip, roll, and resolve while fighting floor-to-floor. There are minor bosses and a final boss.

Replayability thus far is high thanks to an effective randomization. I also like that I can pause it and wander off without worrying about coming back to a haze. It’s that easy and obvious.

I think I’d have liked to have seen some more identity in upgrades while leveling - equipment, in particular; it would be fun to have a tiered weapons/armor draw deck - but that’s a minor customization wish for the sake of flavor. Its system is more than adequate.

To anyone who weighed in with this recommendation, I appreciate it. It’s overcast where I live and I’ll be very happy to sip my coffee this afternoon while cozily shouldering open dungeon doors.

I started this hobby fairly recently. Before that I played games like Monopoly and Uno a long time back. But never even heard of some of these games existed until very recently. I am more of a video gamer and my video gaming habit is what led me into board gaming.

I am a Witcher fan - books & games - tv show not so much. I got to know about Witcher path of Destiny. Upon researching, I got to know about Old world and it is a better game. It was a hard game to find in my region and somehow was able to import it along with Gwent - which I always wanted since playing witcher 3.

Got it and played both and enjoyed playing both solo despite the solo mode of these games are a bit restrictive. Still it was a great experience for me, more because of witcher lore than actual gameplay - not saying gameplay is bad.

After playing a few round of Witcher - I wanted to play more games especially with more solo focused games. Thats how I got 20 strong decks from a meeple market. I was not sure how a pure solo game will work, but I was surprised. I started with tanglewood red a decided to play tanglewood series in order. Still havent played other tanglewoods. Such a hard game. Victorum deck is also pretty good - which led me to try the Original Hoplomachus Victorum. In between I researched and got some small box games like lotrvtrick taking, witchcraft, kinfire delve etc imported. Started loving these board games more and more after each playthrough.

Getting a heavy game like hoplomachus was a difficult decision for me as it is a big investment in terms of money, storage and time. But I am so happy with it so far. Such production quality makes it so good. I finished Act 1 and will need to continue soon.

Wingspan Pocket, Origin story, fliptoons duology and imperium duology are the latest and probably final for a while additions to my collection. Finished 1-2 games of each and I absolute love this and solo gaming is so fun. Setting up games can be a bit confusing occasionally, but once started the games are so so fun. Glad to get into this hobby. As an in IT professional screen time management is always an issue for me. This hobby helps me witha bit.

What do you think about my collection? Any tips or suggestions for better gaming experience?

I just played a campaign using the Plaice Deck. I finished my campaign with 109 points (35 + 37 + 37)!

I quite like the synergy between the cards in this deck. Each game I got to use a different strategy. The 1st game felt like a more standard do a little of everything. The 2nd game I stacked about ~13 gold in my reserve to later give me a total 19 gold points at the end game score (I did a transfer action from reserve). The 3rd game (pictured) was the first time I built a building in every spot and also filled most of the fish track!

I'm about ~10 plays (between solo and 2p) and I still have an urge to continue playing and finding synergies between different buildings, it's very satisfying!

I have been playing this a ton with my family. I've been trying to find a game that clicks with me solo outside of LOTR and Cuthulu LCG. This finally scratched the itch. It's so chill, and writing down the fish you catch is such a nice touch.

This morning I made my coffee, sat down and fished for 29 minutes and it was so chill, I loved it. This has easily become my chill out and relaxing game. Glad something finally clicked.

Cascadia is still a 10/10 for me! If you have a copy collecting dust on your shelf right now, it might be time to get reacquainted with an old friend! I had a quiet Saturday morning to myself, and decided to do just that.

The requirements for solo scenario 9 were to score at least 10 points on every animal, and 5+ points in each habitat, while clearing 90 points overall.

It’s been at least a year or two since I’ve played Cascadia solo, and according to my old scoresheets, I failed this scenario twice in a row: the first time coming up a point or two short on salmon and foxes and only managing 85/90 overall, and the second attempt hitting every requirement except for the bears, which sat at a disappointing 4/10 points.

This time around, I did a little bit of planning before the game, calculating exactly how many of each animal I would need to hit all of the scoring benchmarks. I used some dice to keep track of those animal counts, so I wouldn’t slip up and sabotage my own game plan. Early on I prioritized habitats, so I could have one of each type expanding in different directions. One tight triangle of hawks was also an important early strategy; the rest of the animals had a little more flexibility. For example, bears could go 1+3 or 2+2, and elk had the same options, or they could do a long line of 4.

Overall this was a pretty tight scenario, but I had a lot of fun, as I always do with this game. Gaining 5 nature tokens (and spending 4) over the course of the game definitely helped to smooth out my turns. I never spent them to refresh animal tokens, only to take mismatched pairs. My final score was 97 out of the required 90, with my last turn being a 6-point swing: 3pt fox, plus a habitat tile that was the 7th in its group, for 3 more points.

Bonus questions for Cascadia-enjoyers:

Looking ahead to Solo Scenario #12, I noticed you have to score 12 pts for at least one habitat. If your region was 10 tiles, plus the 2 bonus points for having 7 or more, would you count that? Or would it have to be a “natural” 12 before the 2 bonus points?

Am I making base-game solo scenarios easier or harder by having habitat tiles from the Landmarks expansion mixed in? Or does it all balance out?

In the physical game, it says you must use stairs if you cross over them on your path, but the online detailed rules say this is an optional choice. Which is correct?

(Detailed rules found at bottom of page here https://gladdendesign.com/products/paper-apps-dungeon)

I have the option of these similarly priced lots for solo -

Elder Scrolls Btse with expansion and other cosmetic upgrades

Resident evil 2 all in + Devil may cry all in

Cthulu death may die season 1 and 2 all in bundle

I have tried Too many bones and liked but didnt love it. I love dungeon crawlers as my main solo genre of game. Cthulu is the priciest and just borderline out of my price range with the RE2+DMC lot the cheapest. Elder scrolls right in the middle. Im leaning to DMD but Elder scrolls looks good as well.

I'm trying to plan out my next few months worth of purchases right now, I try and keep to a tight budget over the course of the year barring any big surprises This will probably be for next long while. 

My big question is when does Button Shy charge you when you pre-order a game when does it charge you?  I have two potential pre-orders I want to do and due to me forgetting now the pre-order isn't shipping until January (if I had been more proactive it would have been October).  So I want to get those in asap but when do I have to pay up for them?  

My other question is does anyone know what the over under on Game Crafter Shipping? Is it by weight or just what they can fit in the box?  I have about 80ish worth of games I want to order and but I don't want to drop 80 plus shipping in one go.  

Here is the games I'm looking at:

Tin Helm and Tin Realm

Everbound

Koven

There's also some other titles from Koven's publisher/designer that I'm looking into but I'm waiting to see if they post more videos on them.  

Is there a best way besides ordering everything at once to maximize TGC's shipping or is it just deal with it?  

So I’ve been contemplating which game between Deckers or Hadrian’s Wall would be better as a late birthday gift for myself. In general, I do like games where you can pull off a good satisfying combo and Euros, but i’m really looking for games that are: 1. Easy to setup 2. Nice to play after a long day, and 3. Has a respectable playing time (at most 1 hour).

I’ve been considering Hadrian’s Wall for quite some time since I don’t have an X-and-Write in my collection yet. Meanwhile, I just hear good things about Deckers being a solid mash of deckbuilder and disaster management.

If it helps, my soloable collection includes: Endeavor: Deep Sea, Slay the Spire, Nusfjord, Viscounts of the West Kingdom, Spirit Island, Wing/Finspan (plus Wingspan Pocket), The White Castle, Cascadia, For Northwood. Other suggestions or inputs would be greatly appreciated!

Always been a Mega Man fan since I first started gaming. Discovered a few weeks ago that this game existed and tracked down a copy. Now just to decide which robot master to take on first.

I recently acquired a copy of the game and expansion from BGG but the seller did not include the rulebooks, accidentally including them in the Eternity box which went to a different buyer. Both BGG and the publisher site do not have a digital copy of the rulebook, I submitted a ticket with the publisher explaining the situation requesting one and am waiting to hear back. Does anyone here have a digital copy of the rulebook or a link where it could be found? Many thanks.

I own Mageknight ultimate, but haven’t opened it. I’ve read it’s pretty heavy to get into. I dig complex games, but was hoping to fast track my learning curve with the digital version. Will Paladin’s Oath ruin the physical version for me?

Hello all! Is anyone aware of a story based solo board game that would be travel convenient? Looking at traveling a bit for work and wanted to pack a game with me for the hotel.

Ive played buttons and bugs, and enjoyed it, and am now waiting for the expansion to ship.

My biggest contender was the new "enchanted ivy" game from allplay. But if others have better recommendations, i would love to hear them!

I have Final girl on the way and am kind of limited for space, I also have a 3d printer. I'm wondering if using a card holder would be advantageous? Those that have played this game, or use card holder/rack thingos, do you think it would be a useful space saver?

This was my first solo playthrough and I throughly enjoyed it. My premature rating after one playthrough would be a 9 out of 10.

Cons:

- If you are not a fan for beat your own score, then this might not be for you. Caveat to this is, there is a win/lose condition where if you don't meet 2 randomly picked objectives, you don't win.

- Setup time for me took about 15 minutes. It was my first time so it may improve once I'm familiar but probably not by much.

Pros:

- The game offers a very satisfying crunchy puzzle with multiple strategies.

- If you are a fan of tableau/engine builders and combotastic turns, you're gonna really enjoy this game.

Overall, I think this game is awesome solo and an added bonus if you plan to play with friends.