Published on: Tue Nov 11
In my current job, I have the fortune of pure monotony at work. Which makes it very easy to focus on random interests :) With work being a constant stare at screen for 8 hours situation, I want to open myself up to more hobbies that don’t involve electronics that can be done by myself. The current selection of no screen hobbies is reading and working out, which while both great I need more! Hence the idea of getting into solo board games even though I have lovely friends who would play board games with me, the option of just opening up a game and playing for a few hours on my own is extremely appealing.
The criteria for a solo game for me is replayability, a sense of progression in the span of a single session, and having the chance to play with friends. Deck building games seem like the most fun within that frame. While I’ve heard complexity is usually correlated with replayability, I’ve learned that more complex games are a bit hard to get through, and the setup may be an issue there. A recent venture to a local board game cafe taught me that.
I convinced my two board game buddies to go with me recently. I really wanted to try a few of the board games on my list there, to get an idea of what they’re like before making any rash decisions. We ended up playing Munchkins which was a good time with the group, but not something that I would take for a solo game, and then we tried a game I’ve been eyeing, Nemesis. It was an awful awful idea to try without having an idea of how the game worked. The board game “master” at the venue had no idea how to play it, setting up took more than an hour and we couldn’t figure out how to play the game. Turns out learning complex games like that at a cafe is just not a fun time. My gorgeous beautiful thoughtful friends really tried pushing through for me but at a certain point we all just gave up. Major props to them for being willing to give it a shot with me. The game seemed interesting but that further deters me from buying some of the more complicated ones.
Mage Knight and Spirit Island tend to be peoples lists for solo board games as #1 interchangable. Both are even more complex then Nemesis was, which makes it a bit of a hard sell for me at my current level of board games. Probably the most complex I’ve done is Clank! on Table Top Simulator years ago with the help of some online buddies. I want to stick to more medium level games. What I’m currently eying is either a game called Astro Knight: Eternity, or Dune Imperium: Uprising. I’ve watched videos on gameplay of both and they look really fun! Astro Knight is my idea of a deck builder game, with between 1-4 players, a randomized selection of cards, and a major focus on boss fights to protect your planet. Set up is also pretty light. The one thing I dont like is the price. Dune Imperium: Uprising on the other hand has a much lower cost. The deck building isn’t as varied as Astro Knight’s is, and it is more focused on worker placement. It also has a simple solo game set up, even having an app that can play the bots for you! Two major negatives I have for it is that while looking up gameplay, I saw that Mr Beast played it, which immidately set off a red flag in my mind. Otherwise I just have 0 experience with the Dune universe. Currently getting through Malazan, which is a crazy long epic fantasy series doesn’t really leave much room for Dune. The movies are on a watch list for me and I hope that can give me enough of an emotional connection to the universe.
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