Top 10 Solo Games (Featuring Liz Davidson)

[Music] hey everybody I'm Tom Bassel I'm just Garcia what's happening and I am Liz Davidson today we're doing a top 10 solo games okay we are I hate to tell you this plus it's it's saying the thumbnail oh I don't know why you're here for this I feel like I've grown as a gamer you've grown softball soon as I said it okay I don't know if as a gamer but you're certainly not by your own you know admission you you're not really much of a solo gamer we're just trying to tell you there may be a more qualified candidate for this this really would have worked a lot better if the thumbnails in same icon get out all right fine let's get mr. mug delicio in here please oh hello everybody for a solo oh thanks for keeping my feet warm tom you have grown alright everybody so as tom said we're gonna be doing a solo list we have lids of course joining us for that this was your choice wasn't it you wanted to do a solo list yeah sort of the bank of ideas we gave you right I just felt like the natural thing to do given that I review solo games also I've stubbornly refused to make a top-ten solo list so this is probably the first one I've ever actually bothered to make yeah I've dabbled I've toyed with the idea but but I'm gonna I'm gonna say this is my definitive list and I'm feeling it alone because and I cheated all over this list there's yeah I just went full rogue on this one I'm interested so you've never done this I know it's your bread and butter basically it's okay but don't say that because we want it to sound we've seen its name like it matter writing yours is I've got the never going to change never denying ative this this will never ever change and mine is here too that's good alright guys well what do you say we kick it off let's make you have ready do it I guess I'm ready okay number ten so my number ten is a rolling right it's the lightest game on my list and it is welcome to so the reason the reason I want to welcome to is that it not only has a solo mode in the Alexis solo deck but that solo mode pushes you that extra step so in welcome to you you're building the best neighborhood you pick two out of three cards one for its number one for its power and then the third goes at a discard but the solo mode the Alexis solo mode makes you actually think about what goes that discard because the AI scores off of it so it actually takes a good game and makes it even trickier and think here than it was before so anybody I'll Alexa solo mode I thinks Alexis Alexis Amazon leave the Amazon thing I think it's not lights out but yeah the the mode is called Alexis yeah yeah okay I was like you said that Alexa mode and I'm like does it use the app that was real confused over with you man ok the Alexis a lot of times these solo variants will be kind of named they'll have little names that they that don't give them to give it a little flavor you know right right playing against an opponent you're not is Alexis an opponent in this one I haven't played the only way I've played welcome to solo is just the standard way it came out of the box so I actually think it's still good standard button the Alexis mode makes it special because every card that you discard you actually to keep your discard pile in order because you spread it out at the end and to score based on what you dumped so there are state sizes that you have to be watching out for you can't just not give Alexis any fences or else they're gonna end up with like a huge estate that just destroys you and depending on which of the architect opponents you play with because there's more than one maybe a pool is worth more maybe a park is worth more so you have to be really careful about what you toss as well which keep that's cool yeah clever yeah I never heard of that one mmm-hmm and I know the game but I haven't heard of that that was a mode that did that alrighty well my number 10 is the first will not be the last of the on averse games on my list and this one is called Ariane Arion is the newest as well this one is about building airships and it's a dice rolling game you're gonna be rolling dice into a pool you're trying to make you know payers and runs and things like that and there are five or six decks something like that five yeah like five decks I think and you're trying to just complete with your roll the top card on any one of them is the idea however if you don't like your role you can reroll but you need to discard one of those cards to re-roll so not only are you burning through the decks but you are also limiting your choices that you can possibly shoot for in this very round it's a really cool kind of push and pull mechanism I thought was really neat like the one re-roll token is the thing you're trying to finish right you know this design is really good at doing that kind of stuff yeah we're like a single pivot point is the boat what you're trying to get and when you're giving away and all that stuff so I like this one laws short simple it's got that weird artwork which is yeah you know kind of take it or leave it but I don't like you like I think it's alright the artwork I think is okay that game I like a lot have you played this one I have actually I think I'm here to review of it within the last week two weeks yeah I really liked it too it's a good choice yeah he's made it good I'm gonna make a bold statement about the Oni verse games e-class you ready for this yeah let's do it I prefer the two that have the dice I like this dice direction that the designer is going latest tools yeah what did I say last you don't say you say you prefer the two this one I like these even better ones that our card focus really quick if I might I'm gonna just talk a little bit about why I picked these because I've had people ask me oh you know so I thought about a couple of things number one nuts like no sure no no you know all right this is an unassailable list you can't you haven't been on the Internet it's as being a failed already all right we can't see him number one right now I tried not to pick ten coops right because that would be a top ten coops list in some ways you know though guess sir I wanted to not go too crazy there I kept the beat your high score to a minimum you know because I don't tend to like those as much I don't I either yeah okay I I personally put a lot of stock into setup and teardown time mm-hmm in a solo game right and I also want to have a nice mix of larger games and small games so that's why before you start pounding on me on this list alright my number ten is a game that will be familiar to people that have seen my top 40 list because this is my number one game of all time it's my number ten solo game and this is scythe side is a game that I absolutely adore in general obviously or it wouldn't be my number one game but the solo variant is brilliant in that it can make this game work as a solo game and it really does this was like to me when I really took notice of this out of how do you perhaps it I'm autumn autumn ah it's it's a fantastic solo system that's been kind of designed with Morton mana and Peterson is the main guy and there's a whole team that does these the fact that they can actually turn this game into a viable solo game is amazing to me because there's so many moving parts but that's really why it's not higher on my list is that there is a significant learning curve to picking this up figuring out how the neighborhood's work it's there's a lot of administration involved for you as the player now once that clicks I think it's worth it you know you get such a great experience but it takes a long time to set up a long time to tear down a long time to learn it can be very intimidating to new people especially new to solo gaming I wouldn't recommend this for people that is your first solo game know there are other options that are better but yeah man I do like it that's why side is my number ten all right I'm curious about what's further up the list now so I know that people really we're really caring about my list so gloom Haven were being up Fisher just listen I think some people want to know I think some people want to know what's on yeah nice well done yeah save that hmm you're welcome Internet so so now my far more important number 9 list it's a hostage negotiator so hostage negotiator is another small box solo game it's an older one but I actually tended to pick games that I've had a years-long relationship with I guess look you know I the games I make my top ten games I really played a lot I've met a lot of hostage negotiator I'm really excited for Cree to come out so hostage negotiator is basically a hand management game where you are trying to talk down an abductor who has captured a lot of people and you're trying to prevent people from dying and you're trying to capture the abductor before they can escape and what's really amazing about the game is that you have to be careful about which cards you're playing because card you play on a certain turn aren't available the next there's some dice rolling which bothers some people but I don't mind it does but what I love the most is how different every abductor is when you play them they have very different flavors you know the mechanisms of the game really change depending on which abductor you're confronting and to me that makes the game really exciting worth revisiting of everything for it and I'm glad I know worth all the money can we talk to cover here for a moment yes what are our thoughts on the cover it's gonna make people not want to play the game I'm afraid I think glasses are so cool half a pair of aviator glasses I guess you like this game I actually I like it but it didn't have staying power for me yeah I did not like it I played it a few times then reviewed it then was like Jonah's yeah I immediately get rid of it I mean no I did not display but it's just not it's a dice chucking total luck fest and that's because you're just not good enough oh that's okay I just didn't I should enjoy games I'm not good at all yeah yeah you know what I mean right and I do yeah well most of the games I enjoy I'm not necessarily good at what was not gosh you just didn't feel engaging it was so and with a theme like this you should definitely feel again it was selling you on the story I think was part of the issue for me see I find it quite dramatic but I mean honestly my favorite want to sell from the first box because it's about the teacher but you know I actually think a lot of the mechanisms across abductors you know the one where you have two brothers and the like depending on what brother you're dealing with it because she's very different or there's one it's like speed for the guys on a bus and like baby for you I mean to me that gives a lot of periods however if you thought hostas you guys should need a little bit more I think I might be about to get some because I had sampled final girl which uses the hostage to go hit your engine but is about being the final girl in a horror movie and it was fun so the future may hold very exciting things for this I can't trust you cuz you play house and I don't just say just say not a great pic Liz my number 9 and much better not just in hostage negotiator but much better than whatever Tom said of which I forgot about his subterra as a solitaire game I think is actually very good I now my main complaint is still the same complaint I've always had I thought the production was a little sub par good par sub terrorist yeah I didn't even do that on pretty yeah I do wish there was a deluxe version of this yeah just kick-started it was not you know did its thing yeah I would love a really fancy schmancy edition they're not gonna do that probably they had a second like a sequel Oh outdoor is coming out but I love the system and make it does everything I like in coops like pandemic this idea of characters with powers short turns simple to understand mechanisms you know a few sort of options all of them very clearly laid out do something good to do something good do something bad sort of structure but it's got exploration on top of that mm-hmm it's kind of like playing you know pandemic in a way where you don't know what your world or that earth looks like that's cool yeah I I just find it very fascinating he's got a great build up he's got a lot of cooperation in it you know where you are like you might have somebody who is knocked unconscious by falling rocks or noxious gas or something and somebody else needs to them double back and go help them up so you need to be careful about you got to spread out to explore the cave but if you get too far away for someone they need help you might waste a lot of time getting back over then and then the endgame in it is always really tense I like that a lot too because this is sort of like run for the exit right as time is running out there's a deck of cards that goes and when it's completely gone you're in the dark you're it's a bad that deck represents your flashlight battery you got when it's fully gone you're now in the dark in there and at any at the end of any turn a monster could just well snatch you up from the darkness so it's really cool Subterra is where it's at I need to try this have you played it I haven't played it no that's fantastic all right my number nine is another game that was actually on and look I'm gonna have some crossovers with my favorite games list so it's nice it's gonna happen people this is definitive it's okay it's definitive though that's true my number nine is a worker placement game and actually I tend to think that worker placement games are fun to play solo because you've got you if it's done well you've got this tension of where you know my spots gonna be taken it's a pretty easy thing to replicate in a solo game spots being taken from ya and this is out live this is a game that I feel in general is way under the radar core I wish more people will play it because it's really good what's interesting about and what I said in the regular top 40 video is that it's a very interactive worker placement game and that's a little harder to pull off in a solo game but they do a really good job of it here you're playing against what's called the horde and they're gonna not only compete for spots with you but they're also going to be coming with their own you have strengths of workers and if you go to a spot and somebody with a higher strength comes they steal your stuff right and they are able to replicate that through this the AI opponent will compete with you for those events that come out every turn and it's pretty tense there's a clear win loss condition you basically are trying to have a better fallout shelter let's be real that's what this is right then the Horde is and and and it's a it's a really clever system its card based like a lot of these are it's kind of similar to the automa card flip see where they go see what they do type of a thing which again I like because I'm not having to spend a whole lot of time figuring out what they're doing you know sides I'm really having to figure out make sure that I'm doing everything correctly here I'm flipping over a card okay they're going here here and here this is how it's gonna affect me so I like it quite a bit that's out live check it out [Music] all right we're ready for number eight nice let's do it all right so my number eight is game and I love very much but it's kind of slipping on my list a little bit if I had one I guess it's sentinels of the multiverse when I adorn I know it's great choice Liz I commend you hmm I love sensors so I really be real with you it's a game where you are playing superheroes you're against an enemy deck and environment yeah but I like that each deck has a lot of variants however you do have to play multiple characters or you have a successful time as sent to us a multi-person there a lot of status effects that really irritate people when they play but I think that's fun I don't really mind the bookkeeping I love that every deck is very different I love the drama that playing the game creates and for me it's really exciting they're underneath how many characters do you run three you have to do three I think you do yeah I think some people do but three yeah that would be tough for me it's a lot of you oh so one thing that is in the future for me is I'm trying to decide if there are other games with this kind of bodge allure deck system that I'll end up liking better one possibility for down the line it would be straight masters which has that similar you have a deck you have a boss deck you have an environment deck but it's a little bit less bookkeeping with some tactical mounted stuff right and I also have been really lucky marble champion so I'm trying to decide like who is this like a superhero game killer for me but still sentinels I have the giant box playing all the time the living card game you have oh you run a single character right yeah exactly no this this one's brutal to me this is quadratic equations of the multiverse that's just nothing but math and counters and tokens and status effects and look at this car to trigger that card and oh now now it's plus five but then you got the square root of this character over here I just if two months you've had at it well I'm bad at math and therefore I am bad at this game because to me it's a huge spreadsheet I really enjoy it unlike seeing the card combos and looking characters can help each other out and like seeing and those things and I get that this might be on the edge I think this might be any problem cuz we might be I mean I just gonna put this out there hmm we might be dumber than Liz you and me you think I'm fairly certain yeah there's gonna be a few games that are gonna go up on this list and we'll be like oh I could tell you I don't have no an H or a D after my name so I'm gonna go with that yeah yeah I'm feeling after my name I have a G and then an AR and Anna CIA in that order yeah okay cuz that's my last name all right I'm sure it's a good game for some people just not for me well you're crazy alright or eight is a game that you do need the expansion to play solitaire but I don't care I love it so I think it's one of the best not just expansions but that's a fantastic solo mode to it this is paper tales my number eight and this is the code that covered the expansion by the way which I believe is called beyond the gates correct this one you are going to do a similar thing when you're playing sort of against a board right it's kind of like two virtual troops if you will and so you're gonna be doing largely the same things you do in the game drafting cards placing them facedown in front of you or it gets faced up here in this case paying for them going through all of the normal phases you would in a turn but then when you come when it comes to the fighting which you would do normally with your neighbors in the regular game I'll uh seven wonders in this one you are comparing with one horde or group of baddies and then another one one of them sort of progresses at a different rate than the other one one of them gets really out of hand quickly so you might be winning if you're doing all right and worrying about it you might be winning against one side fairly consistently if you want to really do well and score against both you have to go super heavy yeah but eristic right I liked it a lot I thought was such a smooth cool system question how different does the solar field from the multiplayer cuz I played the multiplayer it was fine hmm they're not that different honestly if you did not like the game you won't like the solo mode that much I think yeah it was um I thought it was a good approximation with the game felt it just replicates the person to your left and right me find a yeah it does a couple of other things you know yeah but yeah changes it a little bit but no if you don't like the game I don't think this will be like oh it's so different that I can not now it's palatable I don't think yeah yeah I mean the game was inoffensive yeah I think I find a lot of the time when folks learn this game the the first play is usually a little underwhelming because the game is deceptively short right that's part of the problem I think you might not have liked it oh that's okay but usually folks kind of you know they get what's going on but they sort of put a plan into place that is intended to be supported over eight rounds but the game only lasts for right and then when they get to that point they're like oh that's it I didn't do anything I felt like I literally did nothing that's true but you were in a different time table I think that's part of it that's what I found it yeah have you had that issue yeah teaching new people like whoa wait a min I didn't even get to do my thing yeah yeah I've had that happen it's a weird thing I don't know if maybe they should have added more rounds but I like it a lot I like it I like it short and snappy like that yeah I respect your opinion yeah just make me feel did you design hostage negotiator they calm down this is a I'm sure I could've been okay this is an interesting thing because my number eight is similar to yours in that it's not the same it's a small box card game that needs the expansion to be played as cool and he shouldn't have picked it I was all excited about this was gonna be the thing that was breaking one of the rules and Z stole it from me yeah maybe on the same number - man I'm not the same game - although I would say the paper tails is I'm in my upper echelon of solo games this is Port Royal with the I think it's called just another contract or something the one I had was actually Bernards yeah but the cars and they've got kind of like contracts that you're going through yeah and so I lost another day of port I think it's just another day important what it is yeah I love Port Royal I mean I tend to like the the small Alexander Pfister games the more unassuming ones I love push your luck and this is one of my favorite pure push your luck games and I like how in the solo game it still keeps that you still have to push your luck Ellen right but now you're trying to fulfill contracts and I also like how easy it is to variable the difficulty is because the different contracts have different de notions on them and if you want to play harder you put these kind of contracts in this these letter contracts whatever correct you still shuffle them so there's a randomness to it but I just I can't tell you how many times I've played this game solo I mean probably 3040 times because it's so quick pull out a deck of cards boom pop it down and you're playing within two minutes you know it's a really really good game I think if you like push your luck and whether you play it solo or not you should try portroyal it's a really really fun I know I'll agree with you there I haven't played the solo mode for this the game is a push it's a good pusher love game I eventually they still wanted I got rid of it I think just because there's a small game that then there were too many games of that type yeah push your luck sort of you know games of it like it but yeah I don't know I do wonder if solitaire would make maybe alleviate those kind of like this the experience can be replicated sort of you know issues I had with it that's cool yeah all right all right you haven't played it no but I like a good quick it's an offensive it is an offensive [Music] seven all right I think it's legitimate rolling right games you can play these by yourself no no look sometimes you gotta test the game out so you know what uno Wow alright so let's get to a legitimate game for solo for number seven legitimate game for solo great not be Nemo's war mm first or second edition second first edition came like in a ziplock bag yeah yeah second edition is for would be solo gamers if you're a real OG solo gamer you have the original record it had folders inside there it had actual shrimp was in the bag that's right no eggs you know what quit playing the game cuz you can never leave I'm not gonna give you garbage for this because it is on my short list this would have been my twelfth this is the way on my short list tip so Nemo's works fabulous you guys are free to chip it as well it's it's a game where you're going for victory points but your focus in the game can change so sometimes Nemo is traveling around in pursuit of science sometimes he's more war oriented but no matter what there is some dice mitigation so if you're not into that be warned but you are rolling dice the difference between those dice gives you a certain number of action points and you are using them to travel to you know draw venture cards to sink other ships you have to manage your reputation because if you sink too many ships it doesn't go so hot and what I really love I think the most about the game is it it's got a really nice emergent story that's a little bit different every time yeah you have to kind of dig for it but it's there you're like the flavors next for Nemo's words excellent yeah you like twenty thousand leaves into the sea and you're into that kind of world I think Nemo's war is really pleasant game to play yes because you can get so into it and it's it's different enough from the source material that it's still interesting to play mmm really has that five like being actually sailing around in the ship yeah I'll give you that I think it does a nice bit of world-building the game feels different than a lot of games yeah I think it is sort of quite unique it feels of its own world almost kind of yet it has a the ability to transport you to its own place and time and it's not even I think mechanically I don't think it's that amazing yeah it's interesting enough no but it's so absorbing it anyway it is it is I think I like how you to mitigate against those many dice rolls that you're gonna be making and basically everything's a check right everything on the I do like that you're kind of risking your own yeah resources to an extent right right to do that that's a clever idea that's like that'll date your bidding basically yeah your bidding and yeah so I do like that it's a clever game and you don't have to love literature I hate literature with a passion that's not true I love literature I try here I'm trying to be contrary no English teacher is alright my number seven is one that you were talking about with Roy just a little bit ago a couple days ago this is Everett del oh yeah I think every doll is a pretty sweet solo mode right in the box I think all the boxes I don't know cuz they've got like fancy box normal box yeah I can't keep this stuff straight it's in my box so I don't know alright there's a solo mode where you're gonna be playing against the the rat rug wart rug work okay and that character with their pawns is gonna be sort of occupying a few worker placement spots not allowing you to go there blocking a few cards and that's largely it it gets out of the way and then you just play the game as you normally would the only difference being every time you claim a card they randomly with a die roll claim a card from the sort of a card pool in the center then you replace that card and you just keep going when you change from one round or season to another one you do a little upkeep you they steal some more and sort of move to new locations block new things but that's it's very hands-off mm-hmm I like that because the game is not a solitaire game like it's not it's not a solitaire game primarily you're right right just a multi play a card game sort of tableau building a little bit that has a solo mode but that's it's rare at least for me it is to see a game that does that and gets out of its own way yeah a lot of the time usually it's like here's the list of things to do not just to play solo but to set it up and then in between every one of your rounds you need to follow these six steps right check if one is true if not skip to whatever yeah no you know and this one just lets me play yeah you know whenever I feel like playing that game I don't have an opponent or opponents oh absolutely settle for that solo mode man I really find it fun so yeah I'm encouraged to hear this because I finally went all in on the last Kickstarter embackment so it'll show up oh yeah I think they'll like yeah yeah it's a nice choice yeah nice choice my number seven is where I went against the high score variant this is a high score variant but I just for some reason I love this little game it's another little card game and and in a solo game I kind of I do like being able to get it play a quick weird theme game you like quite a bit I wonder if you play it solo and this is the bloody in I do play it yeah I really really like this game man but I think it's really divisive some people I think find it confusing like the way the cards work the multi-user cards can be a little confusing so a little unintuitive the way the economy works where you have to cash in basically four checks every so often but I love that management I think that's a neat little mechanic and that's all kept in the solo variant in fact I think the solo variant the only thing that changes that you've got I think two of those peasants that you start with maybe which is the maybe a little different than in the base game there's very few changes to the gameplay now you have no I think you start with the same amount which is to it right but then you have extras you have experts in there in the little place there yeah so there's one difference that I don't like in the solo mode which is the only reason it works and it's if you ever are caught with a body left on buried you immediately lose yeah so there is like I don't like that it's possible to just lose right there like halfway through what would qualify as a game right but I do like it you know it didn't make my list not even on my short list here which went up to 15 okay but you know I played it I liked it yeah so that's where this one a lot I like it a lot and you're right and it does kind of force you you don't have that option to live just let your bodies get you know you've got yeah right right yeah that's kind of more restrictive in that way but I still dig number seven the bloody rune [Music] all right so now for my number six this is the close air support game I never thought I needed it is Thunderbolt Apache we're from games so I don't know anything about close air support I'm pretty sure I did a video of this game where I refer to everything as a helicopter or like everything is an airplane but the game is still so good it's so much fun so if you like to plan before you go into battle and you like to kind of level up characters and stay with them for a long period of time Thunderbolt Apache leader is awesome because you choose a campaign basically and you run missions against multiple battalions enemy battalions over multiple days so you're choosing what planes you want what pilots are sending out and those planes take damage and your pilots get stressed so between actual sort of tactical combat rounds you are managing your team and making decisions about how to spend your resources and it has this really great feel where the the fighting part is fast and it's snappy and it involves die rolls but your pilots get better as you go so the modifiers get better over time but then in the in-between fighting is where the real meat of the game is happening because you're thinking like okay well can I send this plane out with bullet holes even though it's gonna stress my pilot out do I need a swamp are you the pilot then yes you can clear the warding good look there's some chewing gum so I really love this game for its campaign feel combined with the snappy gameplay when you can actually fly a mission so if you hate writing anything down in between rounds in the game you might want to think twice but I absolutely on a door Thunderbolt Apache leader I loved it so much I did not think I'd like a game about warplanes but I totally did this is an outside choice I didn't see it coming this might be a war game Liz oh yeah yeah I have to tell you it's a war game yeah they happen sometimes lots of things I'm intimidated by war games just looking at that picture of the components kind of gave me the hives a little bit and I found it aggressively ugly it's getting gross out here I should to unattractive thing that's true oh you are an attractive man let's just humble down on this getting awkward I'm gonna put this out there like delicio you're a handsome looking cat well thank you [Laughter] they're just games yeah board games already it's just another game relax your fantasy flank game probably also came with three rule books chill out it'll be okay alright what am I doing here my number six is about a battle to brew the perfect cup of coffee coffee roaster is my number six this is a solitaire only game I believe the only one on my list technically speaking which Edition is your preference that's mine that is well that's the one it's not actually I pictured my game but yeah the first ones I want to have I haven't played the new one though to be honest I might like it but the first one was great it was nothing wrong with it you know I didn't need I don't need to look into changing it I like the first one quite a bit I think it's got a good look I enjoy the game it's sort of you know people talk a lot about what's your favorite bag building game is it old lean or early on or is it I don't know long or whatever it's always in the back of my head I'm always like a coffee roaster you know it's bag building game you are modifying the contents of this bag chips you put in during setup new ones you toss in stuff you take out try to you know min/max that too eventually once you wrap up the play brew a cup of coffee and pull tokens place them in different locations and you are by doing that brewing a cup of coffee um it's ingenious in such a bizarre game mm-hmm it's way outside the the box you know the usual kind of thing you're gonna discover and it works man and I'm just like I reviewed a Sachi game the other day and I set it on there I'll say it about this one too they have a bizarre way over there of making sort of you know games that have a theme that's really off the beaten path for you right this game doesn't you know you're not brewing a cup of coffee but right it works and it kind of puts you there yeah you know that's a skill man I don't know a lot of a lot of game designers or publishers that can do that nail a quirky theme that while you're not doing those things physically feel right you you you know and I think Sasha and Sasha is a company they do that pretty consistently do I've got a word that I'm gonna throw out there for Sasha and Sashi - it charming mmm their game takes charge they're charming my biggest issues I can never remember who Sashi and who Sashi I know I got this news though the time it's so embarrassing every time it happens to add so when it's my number-6 coffee roaster have you played this I have yeah yeah I take it you've never watched my reviews my heart is broken you review on dice timer sometimes I got for my number six a game that I believe myself the publisher and the designers are the only people on the planet who like it and that is mass Mura dungeons of Arcadia assuming a lot there I know I'm just looking now that the publisher like my number six is a game that I'm the only person on the planet who lives you can guarantee like saying I do like this yes all right because I prefer to play this even if I'm playing with other people cooperatively and the solo mode is cooperative the lamest thing he was rather what does a rather not found people to play this with me so what you're saying is if you've got other people sitting at the table yes you'd still rather just let them sit there while you're playing solitaire well they can no actually play that's what I thought you said they're participating they're watching you just said I'm handsome what more do they need right next time you want to play much more a solitaire let me know you're circling around my atmosphere what more do you want from me watch me play this game it's getting super weird you can play with one character and I love that you don't mean of these characters around ink time and that's might you know people sell it's similar to homicide you're chucking dice yeah but you're controlling one character you're not controlling six characters and it's quick the biggest downside are is that everyone hates it and that it has a really relatively involved setup so there is that but I just like this game I like the little monster dice Tom I like them I have no problem with the monster dice they don't have to be monsters make them dice I'm really gonna push for this game play this game it's not good I'm [ __ ] up ladies over it it's good that's my number six match Maura I haven't played all right so now it's time for number five my number five pick is spirits island so spirit island is a cooperative game in which you are spirits who are defending an island and the people who live there from invading colonial powers some of which in some periods the game are actual identified European colonial powers but what I really love about the game is it especially not with expansions coming out there's so many different spirits each of which has its own kind of way of gaining power and moving across the board you know there's a lot of just like a what-do-you-call-it deck building I mean the decks are small yeah you know you're getting more cards in your arsenal that do interesting things as the game goes by and so you start out really weak and it's sort of terrifying trying to deal with invaders and then as the game goes on you gain power and you make more interesting plays and can make your spirits cooperate and more interesting ways and it's just a really satisfying but very puzzly yeah yeah yeah nice choice there must be a lot going on in this solitaire yeah yeah I you can play it with just one spirit so you want to just play one thing I actually recommend that for your starting games good only have to control one spirit and worry about one piece of land oh good I now prefer to play with - so you just the game changes depending on how many spirits are so there's just like two little pieces of island one spear so it starts out of one once for you starts out in another and you kind of spread out doors each other and help each other be written up s-- you feel comfortable with the mechanisms of the game and once you don't once you have that internalized then you can go to the two spirits so that they kind of play out those powers play off each other so mmm yeah I'd recommend one to begin with - yeah and I had a hard time wrapping my head around this when I was just one out of four people yeah I don't I'm too dumb for this really yeah what's your handsome though you're really handsome I'm just putting this out there for Zhi Garcia you are a handsome man I appreciate that though you did just call me stupid [Laughter] all right what am I got here five for me is the newest mute I believe so game on the list it is a pair of Settlers empires of the north yeah has a pretty good solo mode in there and it is I would say the best in the series I'm talking about various idlers 51st state and now this one being the latest one because it feels like they just put clearly more time into a solo mode it's a much more dedicated effort to say fine there's a solo mode in here both the other games had solo modes in them they did but they were sort of attached at the end there well here's how you can adjust the regular game to play they're not bad I did like the Imperial settlers campaign that was released as like a PDF oh they're not really connected yeah sure they're not connected so no I haven't played that but that you could play just basically a bunch of sessions in a row right yeah so you basically you know gain perks and kind of grow in power as your faction as games go by the just stick with your faction when you yeah I'm going to campaign as the Romans and then you would play a whole bunch of games is the Rome isn't right okay now I haven't messed with it but I liked it yeah I liked the regular game in 51st state I definitely liked also but this one man you just get to open up a little booklet dedicated to solo mode he tells you how to set up changes for that your victory point goal yeah and then the rest of the game plays largely the same way you're still trying to hit a threshold so but there is a target number and so it's not like you were saying I'm not a big fan either of this hole I got 37 points write that down next time you play that you get more than 37 hooray for you it's like well it's not very satisfying I like the winning and losing right and in this one you do have a score so you could technically you know keep track of that but you do need to hit a threshold to wait you like it I think you like it a lot yeah yeah I think you will too so that is empires of the north my number five my number five is going to sound familiar and that's because it's our first cross over and at the cross over of the same number and it's not Imperial settlers empires of the north because I haven't played that one enough yet although I really like it it's spirit Island yeah yeah so for all the reasons you mentioned and for all the reasons that Z doesn't like it namely his lack of intelligence I really like this game it's I like the other thing the couple of things that I really like that that you didn't talk about was the fast and slow powers I love that oh that's not unique to the solo game that's just yeah one of the reasons why I like the game I like that quite a bit and I had another point that I forgot I can't remember but Oh who's dum dum dum now I like it it good game I liked it also kind of change it I also like it it kind of you you were toying with the idea of it throws those kind of standard tropes on their head the civilization tropes on their head where you are these mystical spirits trying to push out the the colonial bad guys Imazon yeah yeah but the reason why it's not higher is all joking aside because it is a beast it is wrong to learn it's hard to teach there is a big learning curve there I do feel like if you put in the time that you're gonna get that back but not everyone really wants to spend you know two to three hours figuring out how to play a game and the first few times you're in that rule book a lot but I love the way it looks I like the mechanisms I like how differently the spirits play and if it makes you feel better there are some spirits I just play because I think they're too hard they're just too complicated I know yeah there's a few spirits I feel comfortable with and I don't go towards the other ones yeah yeah they are rated for your convenience so if you want to have a better easier playing session yeah and you can you can choose a spirit pretty yeah hard now you know them easy and Dilisio I stick with the beliefs of those spirits yeah yeah [Music] while we are on number four this is going by so minute all right that way hands so my number four is my favorite deck builder which is Anne's end which I absolutely love so Anne's end is a cooperative deck builder or solo if you're me where I do believe a with one mage but I prefer to and it's really interesting as a deck builder because you don't shuffle your discard pile so you're choosing the order that you put things in to increase your chances of drawing combos later so it's a lot of planning and deciding who's gonna buy what's and what order one discard my cards in and you know you also are fighting these amazingly intricate after a while bad guys so you know the first one rage born is like your basic one but then there are so many interesting mechanisms that emerge as just by different enemies and you try out different mages that have different special powers near the game and now has so many releases that there's just a ton of stuff to try so if you've never played it before you might try and in legacy because it starts off really simple and wash you right in you know I started with just the base game and I loved that and I really liked war eternal so the first like big box expansion for that and you know there's just it's one of those games that has had so many releases over so long that have all been enjoyable for me that I just really can't imagine my game collection without it at this point I love deck builders and I love this one in particular I I may be completely off the off the mark here but it seems like this has only been out like what maybe two years max no no because I got my copy of it when I still lived in North Carolina which was over three years ago okay maybe it's just I didn't pay a lot because it seems like there have been like 15 versions of this all these yeah never actually played it I don't know why something about it just does not think it took a yield to me I don't know it took a little bit of time to get some traction though right maybe that's why it has a huge following in the solo community I mean people love this game I just I'll get over myself at some point I'll try it I just I haven't been interested I have been interested honestly see the legacy Edition kinda sounds good I would like that I think I might be nice to sort of get walked through it your lack of a better term right have you actually played the legacy mode I actually have so the legacy one is fun because use make your own mages and grow them over time okay that's cool and then components from that game are mixable with other releases after you've done so the campaign doesn't completely waste all the components of that game it can still fold in to other stuff but actually the good thing about it is so I think it's true for all of them there's actually like a set up for your first game right when you open the box so there's a my first game rules and they're decks that say this is already set up for you don't go to it'll actually tell you what to set up the first time so when you first open the box you're gonna have a nice experience that's a little bit more tutorial esque that hold your hand little bit so you don't have to just freak out look at all the cards okay alright so really quickly does the game have cards oh I'm out no it has dice it's monster day ok monster dice I'm back in I'm back in baby alright my number four is one of those games you've heard about one of those evil games that has a persisted it's not a game I want to be used to call it a game for this list an app assisted activity but I understand your hesitancy hesitancy hesitation as I come out and lose myself the eloquent rising 5 the runes of you can play this in 15 years obsolescence technically speaking yes this needs an app to play but you can play with how it in action yeah you can you can put someone over Lord yeah you can have somebody sit there run the game for you they can really play that person is just sitting there then when you ask them a question about a puzzle they say here's the solution to that yeah that's it so definitely play with a nap if it's all the same but you know your your shirt then you can still play this when we all lose power and the zombies spread you can get your rising 5 on I'm just kidding this is a good one it's kind of mastermind yeah you're solving a puzzle you know with the four colors kind of and the arrangements of those things and while you're doing that there is this whole other game going on around it a very light game okay you are spending cars to move one of the characters from one location to another to take an action to fight which is a die roll to trigger a card stuff like that very simple one of the neat things about it is that there is a cast of characters always available in the game and none of them belong to anyone on the table so on my turn I might control the same character you just stopped controlling from your turn I like that a lot I like the puzzle it's simple but it's cute it's attractive well done and I like the games are short this is actually a good really short filler because um takes about 30 minutes to play this setup obviously being a little bit more extra time on top of that but this is a good one a quick one it's bright it's attractive yeah this is the kind of thing I like in solo games I want them to be a time filler you know I don't like solo games that are going to take me three hours if I really have that much time I'm gonna go play a video game or read something or do something else you know what I mean that's a little long for me no I know you buuuut like that experience but usually for me a solo game steps in when I have not enough time for another activity I feel play gaming but I want it to be something that's gonna sort of satisfy a craving and then I'm like ready to move on to something else this one does that it does it very well so rising 5 runes of astros is my number 4 lovely choice that would be on my short list I like I've been played I'm not I've had people message me and say I should play it yeah I'll get there it's really might be too light Liz I think you might not like because it's really really based I don't know I like like games show me two on this list after she likes that Thunderbolt Apache leader that that game is like barely there right I heard is a very approachable light game correct like a single sheet of rules do you hear these people it's president and all right well my number four is a game that I honestly think may continue to go up i man I love this game this is make sure other than scythe probably probably my biggest most epic solo gaming experience if I want to sit down at the table for a while I'm gonna break out the city of Kings man I love this game and mango I think it's misunderstood it's way misunderstood but not just by Tom I think because people and I've met this before so I won't belabor it but I think people are looking for a different experience than the game is trying to provide it's a it's an I just as a matter of fact had the designer on a podcast that I do and he described it as an open-world adventure puzzle game and that's a perfect way to put it because that's what it's a puzzle game it's an adventure puzzle game with some senses of exploration now if you only play one scenario that has you focusing on resource management you're gonna be well this is a scoop a little pick up and deliver game well I don't think it's stupid first of all but there's a lot of different puzzles that he's got in the box if you want to play something that is about combat you can play something that's about combat if you want to play a pick up and deliver experience you can do that if you want to play a resource management a resource conversion you can do that and he labels them as such you know he'll tell you all this is a resource type of a game this is and and its really tile based but a lot of times people are saying okay you feel like you're you doesn't feel like you're going through a dungeon well because that's not what you're trying to do that's not what the game is about it's about here's this finite puzzle that I need to solve and how am I going to do it with this very very incessant timer that's working against me that you can see every round it's going not only is it going but it's triggering potential negative effects that you might have you know triggered throughout the game I just think it's great I mean I I I love the vision it's got a similar thing to gloom Haven where you could tell this is one person's vision this is bright the world that they've created I love the aesthetic of it I don't care that the monsters are somewhat generic it doesn't bother me at all I can I can use my own imagination no I'm happy I'm happy to do it I love wanna be of kings so I buy games to use other people's otherwise I'll save my money mmm so I think that's a good choice I actually also really enjoyed see you Kings I like leveling up my character is trying to figure out combat because the way that movement works is so interesting it's it's a puzzle II game and I actually I also really appreciate that that's nice try smelling it awesome awesome I'm proud of you guys it's worse than getting along only for the camera you know I think Zee brought up a good point video games it's really kind of a form of a solo game so pretty much we're all solo gamers if you think about it that better be the goose game title untitled tom video is what that is if I see that man pop up in here one more time then what I'm kind of curious now come on follow up your threat now I'm looking at you Kenny he's a mess so number three my number three solo game is the one that actually made me a solo gamer so hmm I played some board games in high school I've played some in college and in grad school and in grad school I met some friends who liked to play Magic the Gathering and I liked deck construction but I did not like the money I was spending I'm losing packs so I took an expensive game and then bought an equally expensive game which is the Lord of the Rings living card game yeah there are other living card games out there I am even I think willing to acknowledge I think Arkham LCG might be the better game but I'm so emotionally attached to this one I love the theme I love making decks to overcome interesting and difficult challenges I like all the little Lord of the Rings set storylines you can play through when you get all the different little small psycho packs I really love Lord of the Rings LCG it has provided me endless entertainment for years and I'm still not done do you think that you have to be a fan of Lord of the Rings to really get into it or how much does that play I've only played this once and I do like Lord of the Rings I'm not I'm not a you know fanatic about it or anything but you need to have at least an appreciation yeah I think it helps but honestly a lot of characters in it are you know more obscure and then you know you don't have to know everything ever about Lord of the Rings to enjoy it for me it's more oh how do these skills work together like let me try these different color mixes and my decks you know let me look at this puzzle challenge that kicked my butt last time and try figure out like what can I put together to take it out this time you know for me it really satisfies that feeling that you know you get it Magic the Gathering where you're building a deck you're trying to figure out how many copies of card you want and how tight is the deck gonna be what mechanics don't want to focus on and I can get that feeling from this game without having to crack pack and hope for the best okay as long as it plays Voldemort I'm good yeah you know I think if I agree with you I think you're right it is unfortunately for me that my issue is I'm terrible out of here but I think it's largely because I don't see it and play it the way you do which is right it's like the here's a puzzle much like that city of Kings game let me now that I've lost to it horrendously and I know what's coming I'm just gonna go away make a deck that totally is designed only to beat that and then come back and try to beat it oh I beat it okay next scenario oh I just got trounced cuz this deck I built doesn't have any solid combat and this is a combat scenario I'm gonna go away build a deck that's up all about combat that wouldn't work in anything else you know what I mean right that's I guess what bothers me about it at the end of the day a little bit is to own this game a long time ago played it three times twice three times got rid of it I was like this is insane this game is tremendously hard and I read it later years later so I still have it I have it now okay and I enjoy it a little more now that I've kind of come back to it having no just more experience of general solo games yeah but it's still stinking hard it is a hard game I think that I think that fantasy fights gotten better about this but the core box is really hard like hardest challenge I really think you can put like hogs in the base box and they usually tell you to start with one that most people agree after the fact yeah who's written start with right that seems weird to me don't they play test these things to figure out this is harder than I do that one I think the hardest thing about this one is that you do have to have one tell you what to start with to have the best time and if you just go by the box and you try to play that hardest scenario in there you're gonna be like well I'm gonna call you up over you want then decide I need some guidance this game is super hard mm-hmm but uh maybe I will do that instead and just try to ignore the core box stuff and play some of the some of the scenarios see maybe they're a little bit easier yeah that hunt for Gollum scenario is fine you'll be fine you can't find that anymore that's super out of print I'll lend it to you we have mail the hunt for Gollum so easy even Z can win you can print that alright remember my number three is my second pick from the honover series of games and this is the other one that you said you'll like that's newer not telling yeah I think you're right man these dice ones are on fire hmm technically this one's under the water so you can't be that's not true mmm all science-minded today now deadliness about a submarine you're travelling to us I don't know someplace who cares and then there's some baddies traveling back from there to where you're from and a wreck yo house um and you need to make sure you get over there before they arrive to the place from whence you came along the way you are gathering crew you are sort of picking up these little towels and putting them on your board and but the way you do all of this jazz is the most dreaded rolling a mechanism yeah you roll three dice you pick one for your movement you pick one for the baddies movement and the other one just you set aside but it has to be a specific number or it's like a little pinprick it starts to to pick up you you you don't put the right die there too long it's gonna hurt you gonna get rekt like it yeah it's just sort of like a little 15 minutes one of the shortest yeah optimization puzzle kind of collecting bits and putting them in your sub and I like that they even though it is one of the shortest ones and mechanically speaking one of the easiest ones it's also one of the ones that has the most variety in the box yeah there's a bunch of boards that represent different configurations of subs and where things can go matters because the adjacency of things and they give you a few variants in there that you can add to the track hmm and you know you discover new things along the way they've got all sorts of little fun little trinkets yeah to kind of throw in and spice up the experience I like this one a lot um so yeah now Tilian is awesome yeah the multiverse games especially the the second editions and the newer ones where they basically you know you've got that base game there in the box which is pretty simple to understand and then all of these variations some of them like seven or eight you know and they and they actually add something they're not just there for show I mean I've experienced so I like not telling quite a bit yeah actually it's probably the most vanilla as a maze game yeah it has very strong expansions yeah a little bit better because I like some of the Ariane expansions a little bit better solid white nice game I like that one I like that it's I think the part of it honestly it's just that this guy linen took a roll yeah mechanism and made it work yeah they did a fun game it's almost like you know I like it sort of just to be like kudos man you know it's almost part of it you Bluff yeah it's fun it's a fun game I like both a lot but as you can tell from all three of us both of these new ones the the dice rolling ones are fun they are good yeah don't be scared off by the dice my number three is a crossover this time it's a crossover with mr. Garcia Tom I get some love and this is a another worker placement eat but there's more to it what do you think it is no sir ever don't ever doubt yeah like me some ever dough man let me tell ya it's hard about a rug work rug wart the the rat and like I mean you've already described it it's it's basically you know he's gonna block spots from you he's gonna jerk block cards from you it's just so simple to administer I mean it really is it's like okay you know he's gonna start here he these cards aren't gonna be unavailable to you the only other thing that really happens is that if the cards that go to his little area count towards those events and so if you see he's going he's got three of those green cards you may start trying to grab up green card so you can grab that event before eat right right sure and so you I like that you still have to account for that stuff you know that still plays it and that gives him a ton of most of his endgame scoring is gonna come from the things you didn't achieve well most of them yeah that's the thing at the end of the game he gets everything you did you didn't do yeah yeah like those goals the special cards right they say like you gotta have you know the rock tower and the the crazy bird right whatever like if you don't do it he just gets it yeah three it's like he's a rat he steals it from what a ride you dirty rat dirty rat you walk yeah it's a good one it's good it's gorgeous it's the accents yeah it's simple to play but there's plenty of fun decisions I still like being able to have this experience if there's no one else around to play psyched yet yeah yeah yeah it's really good my number three ever do all right number two alright number two so my number two game is a game that I bought years ago still play all the time it's worth every dime I spent on it and it was a considerable amount of money because it's hop LaMarcus from chip dear King origins however I actually recommend that you start with the lost cities and they get rise of Rome which are the large box ones because those are the ones that are the most kind of free range so how the mines of origins has so low trials that are like little puzzles to solve but lost cities allows you to just pick affection and go up against a boss and it's really dramatic and it's fun and it's just different every time you roll dice but the dice that you roll are based on the power of your units there's a lot of tactical choices to make and then when you add rise roam you to new cities rome and pompeii but the most important thing is you get some of the best AI opponents that i've ever gotten to play in a any sort of skirmish game so there are all these really interesting Titans to fight they give you different challenges some are really hard and it's just so exciting I actually lent this game to one of my game night friends and he threatened not to give it back Wow I don't know I did I love this game I just love it I always will play it all the different cities are fun they all play a little bit different you know you get different configurations of enemies each time and it's just it's just good how hard is it to manage the I've never played this how hard is it to manage the AI because it's a skirmish game yeah yeah and I would think that a lot of times there would have to be a lot of conditions well if this is happening then they do this if you're here I mean how so thank goodness is easy so especially if you start with lost cities the different kinds of enemies have specific ways of moving and you just roll a die see what's gonna do it does that thing okay and it will be sufficiently difficult that your worried about whatever you're gonna roll and then there are actually little cards that give you instructions for the Titans in the next entry in the series it's I've found it to be very manageable well no it's not like you know flowchart fun if-then yeah okay there's a basic yeah it's 20 good way it's so fun having a top 10 with you guys cuz we can make intellectual comment and everybody at the table gets it I've made a basic joke he picked up right on it that's great yeah I'm so glad you guys are here Thank You hopeless now that bird you are changes oh let's just let's just soak this up alright are you good number two is on a rim or on my room or however you want to say it mmm this is my favorite from the series it's the og I had the original packaging actually for this and then got the second edition and I've just always liked it I thought it was such a brilliant way to take typical sort of solitaire writing like you know with a deck of cards at 52 deck of cards and I had some bizarro theme but add mechanisms in there that allowed this to work and work really well and be balanced and be expandable and give you highs and lows and moments of tension and moments of suspense and with a deck of cards solo but playing cards in a line you know what I mean it was sort of a little revelatory to me I think when I first played this and I thought okay that seems cute I'll give it a shot you know I'm gonna play a little solitaire card game but the fact that it had somehow it gave you turn angst and tension at the end of the game where you were like oh I have to refill my hand okay I'm good and the games were nail-biters it was just kind of a crazy game that all this stuff should work it's again it's a card game where you put little symbols in a line for one play but it does then the expansions that they gave you both in the original edition of this which is now hard to get don't even worry about it and the new one all those expansions are pretty good at least yeah some are great some I love and you can mix and match to write so there's a lot of discovery there but man there's a lot of content for someone who one's a fairly casual card game for single-player and you want some replayability you're you're good for a while with this yeah there is an app of the game they only have a couple of the expansions in the app unfortunately but if you want to dip your toe in the water and try this out you can get the app sometimes it's free or maybe it maybe there's brie now yeah I don't know but it's anyway it's easy to find and a lot of folks I know discovered the game from the app until it finally was an app and it seems to be a liked app you know it's I certainly enjoy I play it pretty frequently on there so check this one out you both played at IO yeah for sure on the plane I think it's a classic solo game now I mean it really has has kind of got yeah that's kind of a subset of a subset you know but but I would agree honestly and I think that they've done such a good job with these second edition Oni verse games I mean they're beautiful little packages you may not like the art and that's fine to each his or her own but let me tell you that the production quality is gorgeous it really is I mean they've done a good job with them and I'm glad because it's a niche it's a very nice set again it is yeah all right speaking of niche my number two is a crossover again so we've got some great minds think alike up in here this is that beautiful little builder coffee roaster man this game is so good I love this game so much this is another game that I that there's almost never a time I wouldn't be up for playing it because it's so quick it's I mean you could theoretically just play one beam and you're done in ten minutes normally what you're supposed to do is play three beans in a row and how you do score on the first bean will tell you the difficulty of the second beam that you're trying to roast and then how you do on that one is the third bean and you take all of your scores and that and again it's a it's a high score type variant and I don't care cuz I just love this game yeah it is just soaked again charming I'm not even a huge bag builder guy normally I mean or Leon I think is okay but this games just so good I mean really that because it also has a little bit of that pusher luck thing at the end when you're pulling when you're pulling out I just love that that tension of I'm pulling it and pulling out here to fill up my coffee cup when should I get what am I gonna stop yes it's just so good in there is an app for this too it's not the last I checked it was not really great as far as functionality and the UI and and so if your only impression of it is based off that app and you get a chance to play the game play the physical game because unless they've improved the app it was a little bit rough and buggy so this game deserves to be played by more people I am glad even though I don't prefer the new art I prefer the original sachi art I am really glad that it's available to more people in the Americas and so you you should hop on it if you haven't yet yeah actually if you're curious about the differences between the boxes on my channel beyond solitaire actually did a comparison I just like put the boxes side by side and went through so here almost everyone through everything in it so if you're concerned it's out there check it out cool and finally number one [Music] despite hurtful comments made by Z I think at the end of the day when we look inside we're all solitaire gamers and and well done a business shall we number one no this is the best solo game ever according to people is the best solo game ever it is and it's mage night and it will always be the best solo game ever for the foreseeable future I love that game if I can play one game for the rest of my life it would be major night I absolutely love it if you play the very last game that you played 17 hours long yeah you could play this one how many more times in your lifetime four times maybe Wow Wow she's gonna die to say let me get a little more I prefer hyperbolic here so it takes 23 years to play this game nanite has everything it has exploration it has conquest it has magic it has trying to play your cards intelligently even when you have bad hand you get to make so many decisions you get to level of this character there's so many different scenarios to play The Lost Legion expansion is amazing this was dethroned this year on the People's Choice top 200 list disapprove community but I this is a lot of solo gamers love this game but it's reason it's because it is so a lot of times [Music] I absolutely during this game I was actually joking earlier that I should just like stop doing everything else for a month and just like play mage knight and ignore my can i other games to play can I can I ask you a question in all seriousness do you not think this game is aged a little bit do you not think that there are games out there that give you a similar experience in one one thousandth of the time no there's no similar experience to this ok it's so sprawling and just so it's brawling big and like there's it's so good it's such a good game that's a feature for you there's a lot to do like I like having a lot of different choices a lot of different directions to go I like having choices about what card do I want how bad do I want to upgrade what do I want to upgrade about myself like I really enjoy that feeling of growth throughout a game yeah and so for me major I still does it best oh and I'm gonna get blasted make no mistake because mage night is like massively popular so and not just a solo gaming community I'm having some fun with it I understand and appreciate why this game is so popular it just doesn't suit my gameplay style they're not for me yeah but it's a good choice right people that love it which is most people that play it well one thing I like about our list G though is that there are a lot of different kinds of solo gamers out there I would say that my list skews more like traditional if you're looking at the BoardGameGeek build and what most people who are actually in forms talking about solo games like to play and even then there's so much variation yeah but anybody can game solo there's a whole range of games to play there's so much good stuff out there yeah give it I can do it even Z not Tom no no he's not a solo gamer no still yeah well let me someone and eldritch beast is lame then in my number one I come are the cod game [Music] of pigs except formation is clearly the number one this is my number one point one then hmm just to allow for night sure possibilities in the future I shot to play them no I like this a lot I think it's you're talking earlier like a while ago we talked about story in games like that you felt that he just wasn't kind of like really the main medium for delivering a story per se the puzzle part the mechanisms that's a bigger part of it yeah I think in this game story is a big part of it for me I think it delivers a solid story I think it does manage to while within the limitations of a random deck of cards you know what I mean you have to account for that you have to give a little leeway to the game if you allow it to work on you you allowed that so you allow the story to come forth you you know sort of like trim the the movie a little bit and bring some little parts together you got a good story out of this game mechanically it's robust it's interesting it's got some of that deck creation it's got an avatar that you can really start sort of getting into you know it's got good world building just from sort of reading the the you know the preamble to his story and then the wrap up to it but even during those sessions they're enigmatic and they are captivating and I find that really interesting so yeah this is my favorite I don't play it here's the thing at the end of the day I've played on Iram way more than I've played this yeah yeah sure but it's also you know 15 minutes 20 minutes this is a very different experience it is a very different experience I have to be in the mood to play this whereas when I read more not Tilian or something I don't particularly to be like in the movie like I have a few minutes yeah BAM rolling dice this you've got a want to have this kind of experience at that given moment when I do this is very fulfilling so that's why it's my number one and it's also of course they're expanding it so there's more content there I'm liking where they're going with that content this is fun it's just good so my number one Arkham Horror living car game nice yeah I only recently played it so I'm glad I did and you were really pushing for me to try it yeah I figured he was like you know I did like it it was it was quite good so yeah good yes if if I continue to play it it may move up my list eventually yeah all right my number one is a big old fat cheap mmm Oh what happened okay so what had here's a game that when it was released did not have a solo variant so far so good okay this was a game that I don't believe was ever intended to have a solo variance I'm still with list name however comma the designer was working on a next game in a related series that had a solo variant and the making of that solo variant allowed him to say hey I can make this work for Raiders of the North Sea and so this is my number one solo game especially when you incorporate the expansions into it way to follow a rules mike so the way this works and I want to be very upfront there because if you go out and buy this game it will not have the solo very okay you you can't say it's not a solo no you have to you have to purchase a solo deck so there is a project there is a solo just it's simply a small deck of cards and I would love not just a new document online no no no no it's from its from the designer oh okay so you're back in but yeah I would love future printings of this game to come with the solo deck inner and the Bark's but but as of now they have not I really wish they would because this game as a solo experience deserves that but really what happened is that the was working on architects of the West Kingdom while developing the solo mode for that which is really kind of a similar what he calls a scheme deck it's like an auto mode ACK of cards that was something that he kind of retrofitted in to Raiders and at that point he had already designed both expansions and so he made one single simple deck of cards that works either for the base game for one or other or both of the expansions it is so simple you slip over the top card you do a couple of little things in order and boom you're playing the game and it's really good it's I mean first of all I love this game and I love being able to play it solo and you've got you know you've got a virtual you know opponent that you're playing against so there's a win-loss conditions it's just so good it's just so good and whoever can do it if you're making an ex printing of it and I hope it's popular enough to continue to get printings I think it is put the solo deck in there come on now put the solo deck in there let us have it now be a pal be a pal to the little person got some solo friendly people in here do you think that consumers and maybe even people off-camera would weigh in on this do you think that consumers would put up with $5 higher retail price to have that put in there I think that's why it's not gonna happen quite honestly I this may be the best solution is wanted as a solo gamer you pay the extra whatever it was it's not a lot it's not a huge amount of money for the solo deck but yeah I don't know no no five bucks for you to have fun I want my five dollars back in fact [Laughter] that's for the end of the day they can hide that cost among other things that's true that's you know it like if this is you know the coins are better or something that's true cards in it and it's ten more dollars you don't really know where that comes from you know actually just don't don't even put the rulebook in there don't put the coins and the money from the rulebook and put the solo deck in there you can figure out right know you can just go online and download the rule figure it out deliver the game in a large ziplock baggie with shrimps alright guys well that's gonna be it for us on this top ten we want to thank you Lisbon coming and joining us that was very fun yes right you brought some some actual knowledge and I'm thinking and well research it's study right of solo gaming certainly to to my half of what I would have done here you know my kind of knows the stuff but not really math so make sure you come back tomorrow folks we are going to be doing a live play I remind what it is Lander Lander that's right of Lander so make sure you come on back tomorrow for that tomorrow morning for that and other than that we're gonna get out of here we hope you enjoyed the discussion thanks for joining us leave some comments below about stuff you like to play solitaire yeah maybe you know some sometimes these things go unnoticed so what are some soul emotes out there that maybe aren't as popular because people maybe haven't heard about yeah they got published after the fact official ones you know so let us know in the comments about those alright that's gonna be it for us my name is Z Garcia I'm Liz Davidson I am Mike Dilisio you've been watching the dice tower have fun gaming bye I've been putting some thought into gloom Haven no one's intimate come on now [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Dice Tower

Views: 167,821

Keywords: board game, board, game, dice, card game, cards, catan, monopoly, tower, dice tower, vasel, review, tom vasel, vassel, settlers, gaming, GeekUsername: TomVasel, board game review, boardgame, uno, ticket to ride, apples to apples, educational games, educational, top 10

Id: P0AWZPQQU1U

Length: 89min 30sec (5370 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020