Pretty straightforward:
I only play solo on BGA when I’ve got nothing to do.
Have dabbled with…
Neom
It’s a Wonderful World
Terraforming Mars
A Feast for Odin
Although most played solo must be Doppelt So Clever on the app.
I’m very lucky that generally when I want to play a game I have someone to play it with.
A bit.
I think I’ve said before that a thing I really noticed during the pandemic was that what I like most about boardgames as opposed to computer games etc. is the socialising and the bits—solo loses the socialising, BGA loses the bits (and often the socialising too)
The only solos I play regularly and reliably at the moment are for the solo challenges I run: all three Rallyman games, plus Sentinels of the Multiverse. But the 1 Player Guild let me hang around with them, and they’re a very pleasant and helpful bunch of people.
I solo heavy these days. But I admit I was staunchly opposed for most of my life. Quinns’s early take really solidified my lack of interest: solo seemed to follow the solitaire / pandemic model whereby a deck is stacked against you and you play the odds, learning how to improve your chances while also waiting for cards/dice to land in the right order and you win, getting a cheap hit far inferior to all the time and effort you put into this meaningless endeavor.
To be fair, I played a lot of 52 card solitaire (Klondike, Canfield, Clock, Montana, etc.) as a kid and arrived at this distaste empirically when I learned to recognize the sour feeling inside, in search of the next win or the next card. Corrie Ten Boom of all people describes a similar emotional journey from playing solitaire on pieces of toilet paper in a German prison.
I was happy to two- or even five-hand games, to get a feel for the game and spend some time with it. Got reasonably good at effectively splitting my personality to play multiple sides honestly. Video games were the obvious answer before I had a family and there was no social ripples caused by sitting alone in front of a screen. And app boardgames with true AI were the only acceptable way to really play a boardgame by myself, despite the limited library.
I think Nations was the first to blast through this. I played a 2p game with my sister-in-law and we both hated it. So much that I was certain the fault was ours. It had a solo mode without too much upkeep so I gave it a try. I didn’t immediately fall in love with the game, it took 3 or 4 more rounds to get there, but for the first time I experienced a different sort of solitaire. Yes, the solo mode was still throwing obstacles in my way but the core of the pursuit was trying to wrestle my civilization’s engine into being, while a die merely snatched up opportunities in the same way a human would. I enjoyed it, and appreciated being able to rapidly iterate on a game I didn’t understand.
Architects of the West Kingdom came next. That’s not a great bot. But that second solo showed me that it’s a bit like handwriting vs. typing. Yes, I can play a game on a tablet. But there is no substitute to touching the components, watching the board transform over time, slowing your mind down to the speed of a token. It was therapeutic. A healthy way to step away from the mental and digital world I work and live in and be pulled back into the physical.
With those successes I found the fan-made bot for Great Western Trail, just because I wanted to play it and had no one to play with. This bot was v1, which later evolved to v3 and was ported into GWT 2e (which is to say, it was good). And I think that solidified it - after that I was a solo-er.
Of course I prefer people, but I continue to solo heavily because:
I solo quite a lot.
I think I got into it almost by mistake, probably simply not having anyone to play with and noticing a 1-player option. I can’t remember what the first game I played solo would have been.
I can’t think of a game I like that I don’t also like playing solo, so I seem to be quite indiscriminate when it comes to solo modes - I don’t mind if there is or isn’t an automa, fir example.
I seem to like playing games solo almost as much as with people, although in a different way.
I haven’t played any fan-made solo modes. I no longer buy games that don’t come with solo in the box, and I’m happy enough with that.
But yes, I reckon I play more solo than otherwise.
I play solo on the following apps on my phone:
Against AI opponents:
Solo Mode in App:
These are all “time wasters” for me. I have a few other board game apps which I have played against AI opponents (Through the Ages, Terraforming Mars, others), but they require dedicated time to play and I have other things to do.
I rarely play physical games solo. I don’t like the mental space I find myself in when I play them and I’m often left with a hollow, unfulfilled feeling at the end (win or lose).
I have only solo’d the mystery-solving type games like Unlock and Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective
I tried some easy to operate solos - like Buttonshy ones. I still do multi-handed solos to get a better hang on a game before teaching it. Other than that, I tend not to play solo.
Not sure if this is considered as solo, but board game apps are the other alternatives for me. THat and the multi-hand solo on BGA - again, to get a better grip of the rules.
I am keen on soloing Oath for the story telling.
As far as I’m concerned, if you’re making the same decisions about the same elements as you’d make in the solo game with components, that counts as a play of the game.
I got into playing solo when my partner stopped playing Terra Mystica with me. He had a bad experience in a 5 player game and me asking for a game every other day wasn’t helping either. So I 2-handed the game to feed my addiction 
My first ever real solo-mode I tried was the original Agricola one. I think you needed 40 or 50 points and I tried 3 or 4 times and never made it. It was our friends’ copy and edit: because I don’t own a copy, I haven’t touched the game since then–I did play the 2 player game on the app for a while. edit: I am reasonably sure these days I could win the solo mode, since I have so much more practice with this style of game
edited: The next thing that came along was Fields of Arle which sold itself as a two player game but must have been my first game that started the player range at 1. And I recently got it out again and I still like it a lot. When I got Sprawlopolis a few more years later that was when I truly turned into a solo player. The series is my favorite among games I solo and I rarely travel anywhere without at least one of those games. Sprawlopolis and Naturopolis mostly, but in a pinch Agropolis is still great, just not quite as good as its siblings.
These days I play a lot of solo games. Definitely more than multiplayer games because during the pandemic my partner got sick of playing most boardgames. I blame the whole situation. He still plays with me and it might seem like he’s playing less but that is maybe also because I play so much more since discovering SUSD sometime in 2018/9?
I tend to enjoy
Automas on the other hand while often brilliant can be just as stressful as multi-handing. They add to my mental load while playing and take away from the solo experience that I am really looking for: concentrating ony “my” thing. Automas tend to simulate other players and sometimes that is best done with splitting my brain and multi-handing rather than grokking additional rules and then being unable to even discern the bot’s strategy.
But Automas are getting better all the time no thanks to Mr Clockwork Prince (he may be brilliant in many aspects of game design but Cole Wehrle’s solo modes are not my thing). I recently learned the new Terraforming Mars Automa and while that still takes my brain over to managing the bot, at least it feels like I can anticipate its strategy.
I also prefer solo modes on multiplayer games as opposed to games designed as solo games. Because I do cherish the occasions I get to play with others. And I want to play those games solo more than I want a game designed around the solo experience.
I have heard of a few fan made solo modes that I am keen to try (Race for El Dorado is one I just found out about) but I have yet to actually do it.
of solos I have decided I have played enough to leave a comment on
This does not include games I multi-handed for learning purposes because that is almost every game in my collection.
Some of these I really also enjoy with others exceptions noted. Many of these are “best at 2” in my opinion btw.
I enjoy all these games solo, I just enjoy them more with more players.
I haven’t played this all that much but still, I don’t really know in what category this belongs. I think it plays better with 2.And these are just the ones I have played enough solo that they are “fresh” in my mind. I have a lot more games in my collection that have solos I haven’t yet explored or aren’t worth mentioning
I play solo enough that I made Top 20 Solo Games lists for the past few years
I do!
At first it was just to learn new games before getting them on the table in front of my friends.
But for the last few years, it’s been a way to experience this boardgaming hobby I love in this season of life in which I find myself. I haven’t had time or energy to spare over the last few years to regularly- scratch that: I’ve been prioritizing my family over my friends for the last few years, something I have mixed emotions about, but I wouldn’t change anything if I did it all over again.
Solo gaming has, oddly I guess, become a separate and distinct hobby for me from regular multiplayer board gaming. I think about it differently than I do multiplayer gaming because it is a drastically different experience on the table.
I’ve written in other places that the tactility of board games are an under-discussed and perhaps under-appreciated aspect of the experience. It’s simply astounding the difference it makes to “make a move” vs “move a piece”; or “know how many victory points you have” versus “count your VP tokens”. There’s magic in the physical manifestation of play.
I think solo gaming became a primary consideration for me at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic when isolation became the norm. I had no lack of invitations and opportunities to play games on the Internet with friends and strangers and everywhere between, but I quickly learned that I just didn’t care for computerized board gaming.
One of the first solo experiences I played during this solo discovery was when I got Dice City back on my table after it flopped when playing it with my friend. Playing it 2-player, it was very dry and didn’t do anything to promote conversation or, really, anything that would be considered “social”. Additionally, I felt pressured when playing it because its decision space was such that I felt I was spending too long on my turns and slowing the game down.
When I got it on my table solo, I realized I could take as long as I wanted on my turn; nobody was waiting for me and the only person I could possibly annoy was myself (and I’m used to that by now). Suddenly the complex games I love but usually avoid due to “analysis paralysis” are open to me again, and in a way that I can embrace them at my own pace and indulge in the contemplativeness of these decision spaces.
Not all of my “favorite” solo games are like this; some games just shine in their design and if they are playable solo, then all the better! But some of my absolute favorite solo experiences are heavy, complex games with lots of moving parts and plenty of decisions to make where the repercussions of those choices cascade throughout the game. My favorite solo experience, the 18xx game 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties is a wonderful exploration of this kind of design. The score at the end of the game will be directly influenced by the choices made in the first round, but you’ll only see how that unfolds if you stick with it through the 4+ hours it takes to run its route (ha!).
Other complex games I enjoy in the same vein are Clinic, Spirit Island, and Kanban EV.
But, I will tell you, there’s another layer to solo gaming entirely! Spirit Island is somewhat included in this as well; but I think the best exemplar I can show you is The Hunters series of games about World War II submarines. These are effectively solo RPGs but with many of the trappings of board games. Spirit Island tells a story about an island, its inhabitants and the primal spirits that also happen to live there- not quite a “solo RPG” in the same way, but perhaps you can see the connectedness on the spectrum between a true solo RPG (which I own a few of but actually haven’t tried yet), The Hunters, and Spirit Island.
And, of course, there is also a category for “Games I love but don’t get to play with my friends, so at least I can enjoy them in the mean time as a solo experience”, such as Concordia’s solo mode.
I rank them every year as part of the 1PG (BoardgameGeek’s 1-Player Guild) Peoples’ Choice voting.
Last year it was:
#1: 1862: Railway Mania in the Eastern Counties
#2: Concordia
#3: Spirit Island
#4: Kanban EV
#5: Cthulhu: Death May Die
#6: AuZtralia
#7: Clinic: Deluxe Edition
#8: Empyreal: Spells & Steam
#9: The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43
#10: Merchants Cove
#11: Star Wars: Outer Rim
#12: Grand Austria Hotel
#13: Bullet♥
#14: Fields of Arle
#15: Coffee Roaster
#16: Aeon’s End
#17: Petrichor
#18: Carnegie
#19: Underwater Cities
#20: Glen More II: Chronicles
The worst ones… hmm, I typically don’t track things like that because sometimes solo is just not the best experience for some games.
I remember disliking Firefly: Shiny Dice because I’m pretty sure it’s not a great game. I also didn’t enjoy Too Many Bones because I think the game is wildly unbalanced and way too luck dependent. Pocket Landship had clunky cards made from a strange cardstock that was just not pleasant; and the gameplay was so-so.
Obsession is a game that I rather enjoyed, but disliked the solo experience because it felt isolating in a game that should have been, thematically, about being one catty English family amongst other catty English families.
Wingspan is similarly underwhelming as a solo experience. Wingspan is a great game because it’s approachable by gamers and non-gamers and everyone in between. Back when I played it with other people, I suggested that it should, ideally, be called, “Your bird can do WHAT?” because half of the fun of playing was seeing the ridiculous combinations that your friends put together that you never even thought about. This is all lost against the soul-less automa that just gets points. Or whatever; I actually don’t remember how the solo game plays because it didn’t interest me in the least.
I used to look for unofficial solo modes and, somewhat, I still do. But I have a lot of games that I haven’t played yet that come with solo modes in the box that I haven’t put a lot of time into it over the last couple of years.
I did create a solo mode for 18CZ though, so there’s that. It’s… okay.
Oh, yes - Concordia!
Solitaria is fantastic.
This is horrifying. You need to play real, 3-4 player Agricola stat.
And real, 3-5 player Isle of Skye
It’s a shame when a good game hobbles itself by allowing people to play it in what, really, are not supported modes.
I have played both in the modes you suggest and I like Agricola just fine. I don’t dislike it at all. But I don’t own it. The sentence wasn’t meant to convey dislike for the game. I just gave up on the solo-mode. I might try it again. These days I can probably win it. But then I have so many nice Uwe games that I want to play…
And I really don’t like the type of bidding that is required in Isle of Skye and I am offended that it allows streets to just end at the tile border.
As a longtime denizen of suburban/rural midwest America, this seems normal.
Sometimes streets just stop abruptly.
I totally forgot Concordia Solitaire. It would probably go in the category of “I’d rather play this with others” but the solo mode is really good.
Star Wars: Outer Rim is one I could probably get my partner to play anytime. So despite knowing that it’s doing a pretty good solo, I haven’t tried that.
Petrichor: it’s been a while. Such a unique game. I really should get back to it. I think this one I’d rather play solo than convince someone to play with me and then teach it. Sometimes solo is just a way to get out of teaching
I really really should try Underwater Cities one of these days. I have had so many recommendations for it. Even friends who otherwise play very few boardgames have it.
We really have very little overlap outside of Spirit Island and Fields of Arle. That’s so fascinating and shows how many great solo options there are these days.
This year’s preliminary list is (with help of the ranking engine of course)
#20 Railroad Ink
#19 Earthborne Rangers (which I didn’t even list above because it is very difficult to categorize)
#18 Dune Imperium
#17 Tetrarchia (oops my BGG searches missed that one and I just played 2 games last night)
#16 Imperium: Horizons
#15 Lost Ruins of Arnak
#14 Fields of Arle
#13 Evergreen (also one I missed above)
#12 Oranienburger Kanal
#11 Revive
#10 Beacon Patrol
#09 Planet Unknown
#08 Trailblazers (part of the tile laying crew)
#07 Ark Nova
#06 Harmonies
#05 Terraforming Mars
#04 Sprawlopolis
#03 Cascadia
#02 Daybreak
#01 Spirit Island
Basically no. I think I need the time between turns to have nothing in them rather than concentrating on dealing with some admin. The solo games that have become a relative success for me are all app versions of games (Ganz shon clever, Noch Mal)
That’s why I enjoy the tile laying games so much. A lot of these have little or no admin at all. But I already loved tile laying before soloing sooo that one was bound to happen
Admin is also a huge part why I dislike most automas because the admin takes me out of my own space…
I recommend against the GMT COIN series, then. I played a solo game of Falling Sky and by the time I finished running the 3 bots and got back around to my turn, I would sit back and think, “wow, this is a tough spot for Caesar. I wonder what he’s going to do.” And then I would realize that it was actually my turn to take a turn, rather than just running the bots.
It felt like going back and forth between two different games that just happened to use the same components.
Running three bots sounds way too much!
I tried Architects of the West Kingdom against both versions of the bot at the same time; while I kind of enjoyed it I don’t think it’s something I’ll be doing very often.
Garphill’s bots are usually at about the level of upkeep I’m happy with - turn over a card and do one of a couple of actions, depending on circumstances. Takes seconds once you’re familiar with the various bot action possibilites.
Concordia Solitaria’s bot is genius. It just pretty much does a fixed thing in response to each card you play, and yet somehow feels like playing against a (really annoying) real opponent!
Agreed 100%. It’s kind of a marvel of solo opponent design. You know exactly what you risk the AI doing whenever you play a card and somehow it’s a) still surprising and b) incredibly entertaining