Deep and intrigueing puzzles is what grabs me the most, a little randomness thrown in for spice, but please not a total luck fest. Allthough some of those can be fun from time to time, too, if you just see them as “watching a train wreck happening”. I love it when games give me a way to build something up with my knowledge and test it against some mechanisms that provide a good story and a good puzzle. It’s why LOTR: LCG is my absolute favorite game of all time (well, ok, the favorite that I actually get to play – if I take MTG into account, which I love more but play less, LOTR: LCG is only second-most favorite 😉 ) and especially my top favorite solo game of all time (no really deep solo variants for MTG, sadly). Deck building is something where I can bring in my knowledge and experience without too many artificial limits, and then I go and try this against an encounter to see how it fares. It’s the closest any solo game has ever come to the MTG experience for me. It is carried by many of the same decision processes like in MTG, especially correct sequencing of answers and threats, the correct management of ressources, the management of active and reactive cards in your hand and the correct time to play them – all that is just plain great.

Another game I love to play solo is Hoplomachus: Origins, because the solo scenarios are cute little “break this game” puzzles. You essentially go in and try to set up your team of gladiators and sequence their actions in a way that reliably breaks the scenario in halves. Due to the randomness of the dice rolls, you can’t be totally sure, even if your strategy is sound, so you have to tactically react and replan during the execution and the whole scenario often is done in 15-20 minutes, which allows to play a bunch of rounds in a go. Again, it’s the solve-the-puzzle aspect that grabs me the most, but again, the game really provides little fun stories of carnage in the arena.

If I go big and sprawly, I tend to go for conflict simulation games or heavily thematic games, like Dawn of the Zeds for example, or the COIN series. In those cases it is less about some puzzles to solve but more about having a great story unfold and experience. But it’s rare for me to play those, due to the time investment.

Deep and intrigueing puzzles is what grabs me the most, a little randomness thrown in for spice, but please not a total luck fest. Allthough some of those can be fun from time to time, too, if you just see them as “watching a train wreck happening”. I love it when games give me a way to build something up with my knowledge and test it against some mechanisms that provide a good story and a good puzzle. It’s why LOTR: LCG is my absolute favorite game of all time (well, ok, the favorite that I actually get to play – if I take MTG into account, which I love more but play less, LOTR: LCG is only second-most favorite 😉 ) and especially my top favorite solo game of all time (no really deep solo variants for MTG, sadly). Deck building is something where I can bring in my knowledge and experience without too many artificial limits, and then I go and try this against an encounter to see how it fares. It’s the closest any solo game has ever come to the MTG experience for me. It is carried by many of the same decision processes like in MTG, especially correct sequencing of answers and threats, the correct management of ressources, the management of active and reactive cards in your hand and the correct time to play them – all that is just plain great.

Another game I love to play solo is Hoplomachus: Origins, because the solo scenarios are cute little “break this game” puzzles. You essentially go in and try to set up your team of gladiators and sequence their actions in a way that reliably breaks the scenario in halves. Due to the randomness of the dice rolls, you can’t be totally sure, even if your strategy is sound, so you have to tactically react and replan during the execution and the whole scenario often is done in 15-20 minutes, which allows to play a bunch of rounds in a go. Again, it’s the solve-the-puzzle aspect that grabs me the most, but again, the game really provides little fun stories of carnage in the arena.

If I go big and sprawly, I tend to go for conflict simulation games or heavily thematic games, like Dawn of the Zeds for example, or the COIN series. In those cases it is less about some puzzles to solve but more about having a great story unfold and experience. But it’s rare for me to play those, due to the time investment.