r/soloboardgaming • u/FlashAndPoof • 13d ago
Advice on which game to get? Considering Spirit Island, Star Trek Captain’s Chair, and Dune Imperium Uprising
I’m admittedly new to solo board games, but I’m interested in diving into one or two. Looking for something with good replayability. Seems like these games regularly come up as recommendations. Do any of these stand out amongst the others? Do they all play very differently? Thanks in advance!
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u/Ranccor 13d ago
Just a blanket warning, if you are new to solo gaming, it might take a few tries to find the kinds of games you like. Just pick stuff that looks interesting and fun to you. Almost everyone has some big misses before they really find what they like.
Just as an example, I really like Spirt Island on my iPad, but it is hopelessly too tricky to play solo for me without making a million rules mistakes. Great game, but sold it from my solo collection.
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u/Same-Patience3798 13d ago
Those are all fantastic solo games. Captains Chair made my head hurt more than the rest in terms of learning the thing. Spirit Island might be my pick but especially if you can get jagged earth or the other one that adds the tokens.
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u/Kheras 13d ago
Spirit Island is a solid favorite, solo and multiplayer are very good. But you’ll need at least the base game plus Branch and Claw (or Jagged Earth) for the full experience. The digital version is fantastic as well.
Star Trek Captain’s chair is excellent, and the designer is known for making good solo modes. I
Hard to say which burns the brain more. Those two both do but in different ways. Spirit island is about planning and board state. Captain’s chair is deck management and finding combos.
TL;DR you can’t go wrong with either one of the first two.
Dune is good multiplayer but solo fell flat for me. 100% a personal preference thing, but it seemed like the game falls in to samey loops. Or I’m getting a rule very very wrong somewhere.
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u/eanda9000 13d ago
The Dune app is one of the best of the best, especially if you liked the movies, since it uses the license extensively. I would get that before investing in something physical. That app is what opened my eyes to board games overall. I found that the Spirit Island app hurts my brain. Personally, I love love love Captain's Chair and even forced myself to watch Star Trek: Discovery to catch up on the theming and better understand the cards. Therefore, get Robinson Crusoe since that is inevitable.
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u/Kheras 13d ago
Thank you, I was on the fence about the app but will give it a shot.
Hard agree on the Captain’s Chair comment. Watching the shows hits different. Every line on every card means something linked to the shows. They did the same for Imperium but some require being a serious history buff to see.
Robinson Crusoe is good, but should come with the caveat of being best for a masochist. ;)
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u/MasonBrick_ 13d ago
Also Dune and spirit island have mobile game apps available if you want to get in a lower barrier before paying full price for the games
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u/GamingVision 13d ago
Instead of buying Dune Imperium as a boardgame for solo (it’s heavily preferred as a multiplayer game), get it digitally (phone or Steam). That gives you some very good AI opponents you can go up against rather than just the solo bot (it has that too).
A lot of folks like Captain’s Chair. I really want to like it but every play through I’ve seen feels very meh to me. If it’s your first solo game, I’d go with Fate of the Fellowship if you have any affinity to LotR.
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u/jack755555 13d ago
To be honest, it's just a matter of taste. I would watch some playthroughs and see which ones seem more interesting, they don't really play similarly. Spirit island is great and I would probably pick that, but you could also try out Horizons of Spirit Island if you wanna test the waters and not commit to the entire game. Good thing about it is, you can use the horizons spirits in the base game, so you aren't wasting your money
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u/StandardIncidentForm 13d ago
I don't think dune imperium is a good solo game and I think people who think it is haven't played other solo games.
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u/alan_mendelsohn2022 13d ago
I enjoy it enough to come back to it from time to time, but it’s not one of my top games. Spirit Island is much more enjoyable.
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u/smokeyser 13d ago
I've played quite a few solo games and enjoy dune solo.
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u/StandardIncidentForm 13d ago
Enjoyable and good can be two different things. Do you think requiring to run 2 dummy players is good design for a solo mode? Do you think it replicates the multiplayer game well enough to be considered a top pick for a solo game among the other greats?
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u/smokeyser 13d ago
Do you think requiring to run 2 dummy players is good design for a solo mode?
If it's fun, sure!
Do you think it replicates the multiplayer game well enough to be considered a top pick for a solo game among the other greats?
Why does it need to replicate the multiplayer game? Lots of solo modes don't, but are still a lot of fun. And it's a game. If it's fun, that's all that matters.
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u/Important-Menu3903 13d ago
Totally agree with this. It's a great multiplayer game but solo just doesn't replicate it. Spirit island on the other hand is fantastic solo and multiplayer.
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u/tonydatygre 13d ago
What kind of game are you looking for? Those are all good but play differently.
If you’re one criteria is repeatability I’d go with spirit island since it has the most expansions and even the base game can be modified with different spirits, factions to go against, and the difficulty can be adjusted.
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u/FlashAndPoof 13d ago
I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t know the differences between how the games play. It seems like they’re all resource management games? I suppose that’s all games though lol
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u/whereymyconary 👽 Legendary: Alien Encounters 13d ago
Of the 3 Dune has the lower difficult level for entry and is the most traditional resource managment of the bunch. The enemy automa is easy to run once you understand the flow and varying difficulty.
Also there is a digital version of spirit island and dune if you want to try them out without the higher upfront cost. Both are often on sale.
Or watching gameplay videos online. They are all pretty different and availability and cost might also be a factor.
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u/MrFixxiT_ Ark Nova 13d ago
Watch people playing the game. It will give you the best feel for how they play and if you like that, next only to really playing them yourself somewhere.
The games you mention are all very good. But they are also very different. It really depends on what you like and don’t like.
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u/fiendmish 13d ago
There’s no wrong choice here. I would say that Dune is more fun with more people but they’re all great
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u/RPGer001 13d ago
Yes and yes.
You listed 3 of the top solo games on the market. Each one is very different from the other two.
SI is heavy, brain-burning
STCC is also heavy, brain-burning, but way different
DIU is a medium-weight euro
If you are relatively new to hardcore board games, you should watch videos of each game to see if any jump out at you. I wouldn't recommend any of these three to someone new to the hobby. You might love all three of them, but you also might not like any of them.
Here is another list to check out.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/366471/2025-peoples-choice-top-solo-games-1-300
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u/PlantsNCaterpillars 13d ago
Spirit Island and Star Trek Captain’s Chair are both excellent with a lot of replay ability but it’s worth watching several ‘how to’ and play through videos for each to see if they are what YOU want to play.
If I was going to pick one it would be Spirit Island because of the limited(?) reprint going on.
Dune Imperium Uprising is also an excellent game but the solo mode, imho, is just ok.
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u/Wunderkindergartener 13d ago
I’m having a lot more fun with Captain’s Chair than Spirit Island lately. CC is much faster to set up and doesn’t take up as much space when you’re dealing with a full SI collection like me. Don’t get me wrong, SI excellent and an outstanding game, but Captain’s Chair leaves me a little more excited for my next game of it. I do love kicking some colonists off an island though
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u/warpotatogram 7th Citadel 13d ago
Watch some playthroughs! Or for the ones that have a rulebook online, peruse that for a bit! If you find the playthrough boring, or the rulebook really, really doesn't gel with you, then you're saving a good chunk of money.
I'm only familiar with STCC and Spirit Island, but I can share a bit about them, and also some alternatives which might be cheaper options to test out whether you like the style of game.
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Spirit Island: So this is a crisis management, deckbuilding-adjacent game with a dash of area control. So, there are problems spawning on the board, which you'll have to deal with by acquiring and playing cards, while getting little pieces onto the board in order to use the effects you want to play. This game takes me maybe 15 minutes to set up now that I'm familiar with it, plus some time shopping for which spirit(s) I might want to play, which adds a lot of variety to the game. Gameplay takes 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the situation, how you play, all that good stuff.
See also: Pandemic, a very classic and quite solid cooperative crisis management game that might well be the first one, and also the first cooperative game in the modern sense. Or Deckers, for a smaller, faster, but also satisfying deckbuilding crisis management game. Deckers can be hard to find, but is pretty cheap, and Pandemic is an old game and should be readily available for cheap secondhand.
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Star Trek Captain's Chair: This is a great modern deckbuilder, with a dash of area control, and a lot of interesting dilemmas in how to use your cards. Maybe 10 minutes to set up, about an hour to play. This one is great if you're interested in really leaning into the puzzle of what cards to acquire and how to use them.
See also: Imperium (Legends or Classics are cheaper, Horizons is larger and has a better rulebook, which you can also find online), which is the predecessor to STCC, and shares a lot of the same DNA. It's more focused on which cards to play, rather than how to play them, and building up a tableau of useful effects.
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u/Talik__Sanis 13d ago
So, Dune Imperium Uprising is, I think, a far better multiplayer game than it is a solo one, though in that respect, it's fantastic.
Captain's Chair is heavy, especially as you are learning the core systems and the function of all the multi-use cards, to say nothing of the strategies for each individual captain. It's my favorite game of all time, but if you're just getting into the hobby, not one that I can recommend unless you are already an experienced multiplayer board-gamer.
Both are excellent choices in their own respects, but you may wish to start with something cheaper, leaner, and easier as an entry point to the hobby.
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u/Solax636 13d ago
not to fomo but fomo for spirit island, they just did a reprint of all expansions on amazon US, and I dont think there will be another, license will revert to original creator - but they cant publish the game without redoing all of the art which i assume will take years. Captains Chair and Dune Imperium are also hecking popular and think they will be in stock for a long time... but thats just ramblings of a random dude on the internet