"Best genre and rules for solo gaming?" Topic

What time period and rules do you think lend themselves especially well to solo gaming?

TMP wouldn't let me cross post, so here is a second post.

Solo gamers typically find their way to playing most games that are not solitaire specific in design. Most simply play both sides in a fair manner.

The games that best help this are those that have impulses and inter-active play, so that the situation is constantly evolving – the least solitaire friendly games are those that have a fog of war type rule built into them as an essential ingredient of play, also most card driven games are problematic, not because of the mechanic itself, but as much to do with the work of one player having to manage two hands of cards, often making the games laborious and tedious.

So I don't think the issue of solitaire has anything to do with genre or period, but more with the actual game mechanics.

Any game or genre that is not too complex will work for solo gaming. As a soloist, you are doing all the heavy lifting. So the rules need to be smooth and breezy.

Easy rules for solo play: Two Hour Wargames. I don't play solo much anymore but we have played games with all players on one side vs. the game, using THW Muskets and Mohawks. We have beaten the "other" side easily and also been chased off the field thoroughly whipped. Great fun.

You will need a lot of figures for the "other" side, because sometimes they just come out of the woodwork.

This is offset by the times you brush smaller forces aside. You never know in advance.

While it is true that just about any game can be played solo by having the player play both sides, I prefer playing one side against the system.

As for genres, I think it is easier to write an AI for man to man level games than for larger battle games, and with that in mind, if looking at a commercial solo or coop game, then a skirmish game is more apt to be useful.

Larger scale games, where you move battalions, etc., around are more difficult. Its not that the overall enemy plan is hard to implement so much as it is hard to humbug the player at any point. Still it can be done and there are commercial titles out there if you don't fancy creating your own AI.

Bob

I think one of the true joys of playing solo is getting to play the exact rules you want, for the exact period/theatre you want, at the scale you want, all at your own pace.

Every genre is playable solo. Most rules work well too, although normsmith is correct in that fog of war is hard to pull off solo, unless you are forgetful like me!

normsmith +1

I've always thought that the Victorian Colonial era worked well solo. Squad level WWII as well, with the nationality of your choice as the good guys.

Best – Air warfare doing unescorted bomber intercepts and doing ground/naval attack (with no enemy combat air patrols), because the enemy responses are entirely predictable.

I would recommend Vietnam using FNG and zombies using All Things Zombie. Both sets of rules are from Two Hour Wargames.

I would think that ideally you want a period in which one side is relatively well trained, disciplined and efficiently commanded and controlled (the player), while the other has few tactical options due to poor discipline and training, but uncoordinated and unpredictable battlefield behaviour due to primitive command-control (the system). To me this screams colonials.

My periods and rules I play solo:
Vietnam- Flames of War
7 YW – Might and Reason
FPW – Bloody Big Battles
Old West – TSATF variant

I use the computer moderated rule set "Carnage & Glory II" for solo gaming. The computer handles the fire calculations and morale reactions.

I am hoping that To The Strongest! will work for me as a solo game (medeival period and possibly ECW):
link

I have created my own Star Trek solo rules using my Zocchi scale Federation and some (very basic scratch built wooden) Gorn vessels.
I have even created a movement chart that is die based to help 'remove me' as much as possible from 'favoring' either side.

Of course I do 'step in' and tweak the movement chart if a ship is near to moving off board.
Ex. 1-2 turn Lt, 3-4 Fwd, 5-6 turn Rt. So if moving left removes a ship from the board, I would add a +1 to the roll to increase the chance the model will be moved back to the center of the playing area. But it stil 'may' leave the battle.

All in all, Ive had some fun games. A bit of a mini Federation – Gorn war campaign. Have even been "filing' Reports (from Starfleet side) of the encounters.

Just a note here:
In the last battle the Federation lost a dreadnaught with all hands. Caught in a 'swarm' of Gorn plasma torpedos. But they won the battle in over all damage to the enemy fleet.
A very expensive victory.

To me, a "trained" force vs a naïve "rabble" would work best. The player commands the trained troops while the natives strategy involves attacking anything in a uniform and if that doesn't work, then attack anything wearing a uniform. British colonial wars (Zulus, Dervish, etc.) are always fun especially (for me) using The Sword and The Flame. Romans vs Britons?

Sword and Spear has a method of "activating" units that is ideal for a solo wargame.

Each side has 8 units with 8 dice/side. Each side has dice of a different color (e.g. red vs white).

Place all dice in a bag or a container that is not transparent.

At the start of each turn draw 7 dice from the bag.

The side pulling the most dice from the dice bag is the Active player and will place all of his dice by selected units before the Reactive player does.

To activate a unit it must roll its morale number (e.g. 5 or 6 for Levy). A roll of a 3 only would activate an Elite unit. (This is what I use, others may use a different set of numbers to activate.)

Each side receives only the same number of dice as it has units on the Board. Remove one side's dice as it loses a unit.

This is a sketchy outline at best, but it provides a lot of "fog of war" as one cannot really plan too much ahead of the next move. Lots of back-and-forth using this method.

Asterix, I like that method for activation. Thanks for sharing.