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Are you the kind of person that has slowly convinced your partner and friends to play board games? But sometimes it gets to a point where the suggestion of getting out a game gets awkward shrugs and a quiet ‘maybe’ before everyone runs to the kitchen to get another drink or quickly moves the conversation on? Well, if that sounds familiar then it’s time to open up to the world of solo gaming!
So here are four of my go-to solo games for a quiet, relaxing evening on your own!
For Appetisers
My appetiser game of the evening is a quick roll-and-write to get my mind in the right place for more strategic games coming later. My first choice for the evening is Wolfgang Warsch’s Dopplet So Clever! (Double so clever). This is a follow-up game from Ganz Schon Clever - just double the difficulty!
The premise is simple, you roll dice to fill boxes on your multi-coloured sheet – the classic roll and write strategy! But of course, some boxes can only be filled if conditions are met, and choosing between those boxes is where the challenge comes in. The hook of this game is finding that perfect strategy of filling in the correct boxes in the correct order to give you those all-important bonus moves and create those high-scoring chains!
This game normally takes me around 10 minutes to play through but is highly addictive, so if you’re like me, remind yourself that other games are coming, and don’t fill up on appetisers!
Next Up
Next on the list, and therefore my starter for the evening, is a game from the tiny epic series: tiny epic dinosaurs. This is my first, and currently only, game I own in the series, but it has made me a decided fan of these games!
In Tiny Epic Dinosaurs you are trying to fill your park (player board) with dinosaurs and fulfil public and private contracts with those dinosaurs to gain points. However, it’s never as easy as it sounds - you must also collect gates and food in order to keep your dinosaurs both enclosed and fed. Missing a single gate or one portion too short on food then you’re likely to have a dinosaur rampage on your hands!
The solo mode of this game requires you to choose an opponent: poacher, breeder, scientist, or contractor. Each of these options are challenging in their own way and gives the AI a distinct advantage over you. One of the reasons I keep coming back to this game, other than for the incredibly cute, minuscule dinosaur meeples, is the challenge of beating the AI - it’s not as easy as it seems!
The Main Event
Now for the main dish that is the star of our evening and this can only be the solo mode of Everdell!
This game is beautifully illustrated, and all the cute, carefully crafted pieces are one of the reasons I keep coming back to this game. Everdell is a worker placement game played over the four seasons, with the start of a new season giving you more workers allowing you to gain more resources and possibly more points. The aim of the game is to gain the most points by building your city, filling it with critters, and completing events, all within the city limit of 15 cards.
The solo mode of this game sees you compete against the villain of Everdell: Rugwort the rat. There are three difficulty levels to choose from in the solo mode, but all variations only add a few additional moves on top of the normal gameplay. These rules mean Rugworth is able to block resources and cards from you, as well as complete those all-important point-winning events!
This game takes longer to finish than the previous two but with so many card combinations to choose from, and only a limited amount of moves each season, this is a game that will always make it to my table!
Finally, Relax!
Now for the final course – if you still have room! After a larger game, I enjoy finishing the evening by playing a more relaxing game and my go-to choice for this is Three Sisters. This is a roll-and-write game themed around cultivating your garden before winter arrives. The game is played over multiple rounds comprising of rolling to grow corn, beans, and pumpkins, then taking bonus actions such as populating your apiary, picking fruit, or collecting tools in your shed.
The difference in the solo game is the introduction of the AI called Farmer Edith, this mischievous character prevents you from planting your crops and finishing those essential bonuses! This is a game I come back to again and again as each play-through allows you to try different strategies, each time striving to beat your previous score and out-maneuver Farmer Edith!
There are many other games out there that can be enjoyed not only at a higher playing count but also as a solo experience. I hope this gives you some ideas for your own solo board game night!