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Chocolates? Check. Flowers? Check. Fizz and a fabulous tea? Check. Partner? None needed thank you! Whilst the season of lovey-dovey-ness fast approaches, there’s no need to limit the treats to two player only scenarios. Delectable dinners, resplendent roses, and brilliant games are available to all. So this Valentines Day, embrace some #greedygaming and indulge your every sense in some solo gaming with these suggestions!
Cascadia
For solo gamers this Valentines Day seeking something light and chilled, Cascadia by Flatout Games and AEG is a great choice. In the game you are laying tiles to build habitats that best suit the indigenous wildlife population of the Pacific Northwest. The spatial synapse sizzle is present but never overwhelming. And the artwork on the cards is gorgeous. With a solo specific campaign and an easy to operate conveyor style game play, this game is as cool as the Pinot Grigio in your glass.
Libertalia Winds Of Galecrest
Stonemaier’s touch upon the remake of Libertalia is like Midas; it made everything brighter and shinier! A very clever hand management game at its core, in Libertalia Winds of Galecrest you must send out crew members to collect loot. But with each one possessing special skills and bonus triggers, you must be sure to pick the right creature for the job! the Automa Factory solo is super easy to run using a prescribed AI deck. With chunky acrylic tokens and awesome sky pirate illustrations, you’ll be setting sail for an evening of excellent solo gaming fun!
The White Castle
Hot off the Essen 2023 hit list comes The White Castle by Devir. The next game from their small box big think range (not the official title!), this is an awesome fast playing euro style worker placement good’un with a tough as nails solo version. Just nine turns to combo yourself crazy against an extremely formidable opponent (fear not for there are some easier fan made variants on Board Game Geek too). The White Castle is a superb way to challenge yourself as you get transported to the exotic and beautiful Himeji’s Castle on Valentines Day!
Village Green
Village Green is everything I want in a fast playing solo-able card game. It’s lightning quick to the table, it’s beautiful to look at, and it’s learnt in under a minute. Pretty gardens and pretty passive aggressive competition à la The Archers is the sentiment in this puzzly beauty. Just 9 cards make up your Village Green tableau. But those prized cards are your ticket to scoring high in the awards surrounding them. Placement optimisation is the aim – selecting and siting what is going to gain you the most VPs. Location is key, however, and cards can only be placed adjacent to others sharing the same flower type or colour. It starts off quite free but quickly closes in as the tableau crowds with roses, trees, and the odd pond!
Sagrada
No list would be complete without a solo-able dice based game. If Valentines Day is unintentionally solitaire, then throwing some bones about might help make you feel better! And there are dice aplenty in Sagrada because they form the beautiful stained glass windows you are creating! With tools to help you on your way, you’re up against quite a challenge in solo mode because you must score higher than the total value of the dice which you discard each round! And whilst that sounds like it could be easily engineered, you’d be mistaken. Because your personal goals are based on having the greatest of specific colours and numbers in your window of choice, there’s a good chance that the picks which suit them sit in direct conflict with sending low numbers to the reject row!
Lux Aeterna
I don’t own many solo only games, but one I do have is Lux Aeterna. And woo, it’s an intense one! With a timer counting down, you have just 10 minutes to stop your rocket hurtling head first into a black hole. Allocating cards to specific actions (damage, movement, a helpful fix, and banking a card for the next round), the values/costs on them affect the dice on each of your 6 essential on-board ship systems. They also move your marker on the black hole tracker! If any system drops below 1, it collapses, and you will not get the benefit of the potential bonus power. You will also be one step closer to losing the game! If any system goes above 6, you get the ongoing ability for the remainder of the game. You can also seed the deck with “glitches” which are event cards that cause immediate chaos as soon as they are revealed! The artwork feels straight out of a retro sci fi comic and definitely suits the game.
So there we have it. Some dice, some tiles, some cards, and some time-critical real-time terror! A veritable selection box of gaming glory to enjoy as you tuck into your choccies without having to share a single one!