Find Your Next Solo Board Game Obsession: Our Picks for the Best 20 in 2023

1. Spirit Island

2. Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition

3. Marvel Champions: The Card Game

4. Arkham Horror: The Card Game Revised Core Set

You take on a character investigating curious happenings and attempting to prevent the end of the world. With the revised set you get 5 investigators to choose from and one campaign of three scenarios. 

Each scenario has an Encounter Deck, Agenda Deck, and Act Deck. The Encounter deck is pretty obvious and contains the things you will come across as you play.

The Agenda deck is the thing that defines the enemies plans. As they gain ground the cards will be read and discarded. If all the cards in the Agenda deck are discarded then you have lost that scenario.

You can win the scenario by finding three clues that will allow you to turn over the Act deck. Each card will add to the story. If you discard the last Act card before the Agenda deck runs out then you have completed the scenario.

If all of the investigators die then you will also lose that scenario.

For solo gaming you can either play two investigators or one. The choice is yours but I recommend playing with two a couple of times to get the hang of the game. Then have a stab at playing with one investigator.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game will engulf you in the world of Lovecraft and you will be immersed into terrifying scenarios that are in the classic genre style and difficult to play. The great news is that even if you completely fail then this becomes part of the narrative. You can move on to further scenarios and deeper into the mysteries.

However, this might be it’s shortfall as this is probably the shortest game play available so far. With the revised core set you get the Night of the Zealot campaign which comes with 3 scenarios for you to play. There is plenty of replayability with the fact that you will have variable character decks and the Mythos deck has enough cards for you to not see the same ones. 

Saying all that your first play through a scenario is most likely going to be your best. Which means that you will want to get more scenario expansions. There are quite a few campaign expansions for you to choose from:

• The Dunwich Legacy cycle
• The Path to Carcosa cycle
• The Forgotten Age cycle
• The Circle Undone cycle
• The Dream-Eaters cycle
• The Innsmouth Conspiracy cycle
• Edge of the Earth cycle
• The Scarlet Keys cycle
• Standalone scenarios
• Upgrade Expansions
• Investigator Starter Decks

So you will not run out of new content for quite a while. 

If you enjoy the Night of the Zealot Campaign then you will probably be more than happy to get another expansion or even a new set of characters to play. If that is the case then I would recommend The Dunwich Legacy as your next step.

5. Too Many Bones

There are four distinctly unique characters known as Gearloc’s. Each Gearloc has multiple dice that record their stats and build their characters abilities. You can read more detail in my full Too Many Bones Board Game Review.

The characters come as neoprene mats with holes in places where the dice can fit. As an example there are four stats printed on the Gearloc mat for Health, Dexterity, Attack , and Defense. 

Next to these are holes where the stat dice can be placed to record increasing stats as the game progresses. So, Picket starts with 5 health and can then have additional 1-6 on the dice. This is then added to the 5 health. So if the dice shows 2 then 5 + 2 equals a total health of 7.

You have to be careful how you deploy your dice as there are a limited number. So you must think carefully about what ability you want to use.

At the beginning of the game you select a tyrant to try and defeat. These dictate the difficulty of the game and also the length of time it will take to complete. This is likely 2 to 4 hours so make sure you have enough time.

Once you have selected a tyrant you don’t dive in straight away and fight them. The game has layers of enemies for you to defeat first. This is dictated through an encounter deck that will build according to instructions specific to the tyrant. This will give you the right kind of enemies to face.

Not all the encounters will be enemies, there are also special encounters. Often you will flip over the encounter and there will be choices for you to make. You will choose which reward you gain from the encounter and this will affect the game going forward.

You cannot have a game like this without the bountiful loot. There are different kinds and very varied. Some you will even have to roll for so that you can pick the lock. You can see that there is a lot of variety in this game.

The various monsters, the tyrant and your character all have health points going into an encounter and these are symbolized by chips that sit under your character chip. As you, or the enemy, receive hit points you knock off a chip from under the character. Once they are all gone you or the enemy have died.

It is difficult to explain this game as it is so fantastically quirky and nicely made. However, the rules are expansive where every character, enemy and tyrant have their own rules attached to them. Every encounter may have specific rules too. There are dice rules and ability rules. It is vast and you will find yourself reading a lot.

My best advice is to read enough to get going and then start to play. You will always need to pick up the rulebook in this game so get used to it. The variety and uniqueness of every encounter makes this an awesome game so it is worth the reading.

There is also the cost to consider which as time of writing is more than Gloomhaven. However, Too Many Bones was my number 7 last year and is gaining popularity in the solo gaming arena. Hence my increasing it to position 5 this year.

This is an incredible game and is so much fun to play but if the cost is prohibitive then I would consider something like Arkham Horror: The Card Game instead. It is around a third of the price and will give you some great evenings of soloing.

Saying that, this is still an incredibly popular solo game that has so much character to it. It is still worth a consideration at number 7. If you like the sound of many varied encounters and choices galore then Too Many Bones would be an excellent choice.

6. Gloomhaven

There is a full review of Gloomhaven in the article Gloomhaven Board Game Review | Everything you need to know.

The game starts in the usual place for this genre, the Gloomhaven tavern. You are approached by someone and asked to retrieve some stolen documents. Your first scenario is set and you will explore the Black Barrow.

The game is rich with great writing and atmosphere and you will need all your wits to defeat the foes as you work your way through the campaign. Once Black Barrow is complete it will open up another location for you to explore. Once completed more locations are opened up as you slowly discover more of the Gloomhaven surroundings.

The great thing about the campaign is that you will have to make careful choices about your path. Each location can have prerequisites that must be fulfilled before you can play them. For example Inox Encampment has a global event that must be incomplete for you to play it. It is possible to go via a different route of scenarios that will lead to a decision that will prevent you from playing Inox Encampment.

This makes your game truly unique depending on your choices. In the game you get a map of Gloomhaven, 18 miniature characters, 240 monsters, map tiles to create the scenario from, and 155 overlay tiles to add to the scenario.

As you move through the campaign you will make changes to your character and to the game. For example, as you reveal locations there are stickers that you can place on your map showing their location. 

You can also enhance your character to make it more powerful. For more information you can read all about enhancing your character in A Guide To Gloomhaven Enhancements.

Each scenario lasts up to around an hour and if you fail you can play again. The campaign has hours and hours of scenarios for you to play through. It is designed to be played through once. 

However, if you plan to play the campaign again then I would recommend sleeving your cards and getting stickers that you can peel off again. There are several around sold as reset packs. The official sticker set Sinister Fish Gloomhaven Removable Sticker Set can be found at Amazon.

This is another game that is fantastic as a solo game and also great for playing with friends. There is also a casual mode that will allow you to play any scenario without gaining the end of scenario awards.

All in all this is a great game with hours and hours of playtime for you to battle monsters and seek fame and glory.

7. Terraforming Mars

8. Aeon’s End

Each Nemesis has an amount of life assigned to it on the card. You get a life dial that you can dial in the number on the card and track as the life is reduced. If the Nemesis’ life reaches zero then you have defeated it and saved Gravehold.

Each Nemesis also has its own effect that can be unleashed upon your breach mage along with any additional rules for that particular Nemesis. You can also modify the difficulty against the Nemesis by following the instructions on their card.

A Nemesis comes with its own deck of cards and flipping over the Nemesis character card will provide a back story and instructions on setting the Nemesis up. The Nemesis deck cards are how the Nemesis attacks, unleashes its minions, or uses its powers against you.

The Nemesis deck provides some variation as there are enough cards that you will have a different experience every time you play against that Nemesis.

As your Breach Mage name suggests you have breaches in which it can create and cast spells. Initially you will only have 1 breach available but as the game progresses you may unlock the breaches to a maximum of 4.

As you unlock your breaches they may have an effect such as +1 damage when a spell is cast.

This is a fairly normal deck builder where you take a hand of cards from your deck and then play them. Drawing more cards from the deck as necessary. The nice thing in Aeon’s End is that as you discard your cards you can put them in the discard pile in any order. 

Once the draw deck is depleted you just turn over the discard pile to become the new draw deck. Which means that to a degree you can decide how to build the discard pile so that useful cards will be on top of the next draw pile. This adds a nice touch and allows some strategy and decision making in how you discard and draw your cards.

We know that depleting the Nemesis Life to zero will be a win. You can also win if the Nemesis has no more cards in its deck and there are no minions or powers still active.

There are two conditions for losing. The first is that Gravehold simply gets overrun with the enemy. The second is that you become exhausted and can no longer fight which kinda means that Gravehold gets overrun with enemies.

The player will become exhausted if their life is reduced to zero and Gravehold will be overrun once its life also reaches zero. A player’s life is recorded using tokens on their player mat. With a token removed as life is depleted. Gravehold has its own life dial that records its life.

This game is very simple to learn and in fact the publishers have done an amazing job with the instructions. They have examples for each of the rules and turns which really makes things clear. They have also pre-built the decks for you, so you can literally open the decks and start playing.

If you think that the more complicated games like Gloomhaven, Too Many Bones are too much to get your head around then Aeon’s End would be a great option. It has great replayability and variability and is much easier to learn. 

The solo play is very simple. You can either play multiple mages as per a multiplayer game. Alternatively you can modify the game slightly and play one mage. You build the Nemesis deck according to the table on page 9 of the rules.

The game uses a turn deck to decide the order of turns for players and Nemesis. As solo you shuffle three player cards and two Nemesis. Whenever a player card comes up it is your turn.

The one final thing for solo play is that you are your own Ally. So any effect given to an ally from your deck instead is given back to you.

That’s it, this is a typical deck builder that shines in its simplicity. However, whilst you build your deck and become more powerful. The Nemesis also increases in power. So this is no walk over. It is a great challenge.

This is a solid deck building game that is really easy to pick up and play. Beating it is a different matter. But that is part of the fun right.

9. Ark Nova

The game is quite complex and is for up to 4 players. It also has a solo mode for you to enjoy. It involves you creating environments and buildings for your animals, getting animals, making money from visitors and furthering conservation.

Each player will have a board for their zoo which will have bonus spaces that are released once covered. There is a large central board that has the tracks around the outside. In the center are spaces for the animal deck and 6 face up cards.

There are three tracks on the board. The first blue track runs up the middle of the board and tracks your reputation. The other two tracks run in opposite directions around the outside of the board.

The second is the conservation track and the third tracks how appealing your zoo is. Each player has two tokens. One that travels along the conservation and one along the appeal track. Once a player’s tokens pass each other (they are traveling in opposite directions) the end game is triggered.

There are two main decks. The first is a huge deck of animals and the second is a deck of supporting cards. 

The animals speak for themselves and in order to play the animal you must have an enclosure of the right size and suitability. Suitability would be like having water for swans for example. 

The supporting cards are various and contain cards that will help you with your zoo. Cards such as an ornithologist or even a side entrance. These cards give you buffs and bonuses as you play.

There is a lot to this game including currency, engine building and quite a bit of decision making. The game’s weakness is probably in the competitiveness and that sometimes this can be down to the luck of the draw of a single card.

Don’t let that put you off though. If competition isn’t your priority then this game is fun. You’ll build your own award-winning zoo with big game, cute bunnies and everything in between.

This is a fun game that will keep you enthralled for hours building the Zoo you will be proud of.

10. Gaia Project

As you play the game you will gain resources enabling you to build infrastructure. When you start you can build Mines and these will free up more resources. 

As you progress you can then upgrade Mines into Trading Stations. At which point those trading stations can either build Research Labs or the single Planetary Institute. 

Finally the Research Academies may be upgraded into Academies. Each building you construct will provide additional resources and enable you to do more.

All working towards turning planets into Gaia planets. Depending on the planet you are trying to terraform this may be easier or harder. A barren planet will be the hardest to convert into Gaia.

At the start you choose a race that you want to be and each race has different abilities. This is a resource management game and so you will have credits along with managing and building up your power.

You also have various Tech Trees that you can develop providing more resources and abilities.

This is a long game that can last between 60-150 minutes and you only have 6 rounds in which to complete the game. Within the 6 rounds there are 4 phases:

1. Income Phase
2. Gaia Phase
3. Actions Phase
4. Clean-Up Phase

The solo game has an Automa which acts as an AI opponent. The Automa does not have credits, ore, knowledge, power, federation tokens, tech tiles, or Quantum Intelligence Cubes (QIC’s). Which results in it never gaining components where your player will. 

However, it will gain Victory Points. The Automa has its own deck of decision cards. It also comes with 7 faction cards and a double sided terraforming reference card.

There is also a neutral player that sits on the Affect Final Scoring track of the scoring board.

At the end of the 6 rounds you will calculate your victory points and if you have beaten the Automa then you are a winner.

I know that the detail in this explanation is a little light and that is because this game is so complex. There is just so much to think about but that is part of the magic of this game. 

The rules are well written and they go through a simplified setup which will help you play through your first couple of games. Which really helps.

This is a very highly rated game for playing solitaire and I would highly recommend you get a copy.

11. Dune Imperium

Your objective is to reach 10 victory points or when the end game conditions happen to have the most victory points. In a tie the player with the most spice wins.

If you are familiar with the Dune universe then you will be glad to hear that there is spice to be gained and battles for resources to be won. How you place your workers and manage your cards will be key to becoming the overall winner.

Dune imperium is a deck building worker placement board game published by Dire Wolf games. It was released in 2020 and is increasing in popularity for solo players. Hence making it onto my 20 best solo board games 2023 here.

For solo players you basically set up the game as you would for three players. However, the other two player actions are determined by an additional House Hagal. Who have their own deck to simulate the other player’s turn. 

As your automated opponents get to their maximum level of resources these are converted into points. There is a table in the rules that defines how much resource the players need before they convert to VP’s.

On the whole Dune Imperium is a great solo game. The automaton players do everything that you do and truly compete. They will also gain Victory Points at an alarming rate so you will have to think hard to gain the upper hand.

If you like deck building and are into the Dune universe then this is definitely a game you should try.

12. Under Falling Skies

The campaign is packed into the box in order and designed to reveal the next chapter once you have finished the previous one. This will allow you to discover the story as you play through. Once completed the campaign can be played through again with some differences to keep the interest.

In the standard game you only use the contents that are above the campaign notebook. These are:

• Research marker
• Energy marker
• Damage marker
• Excavator
• 2 White and 3 Gray dice
• 2 Blue dice
• Mothership tile
• 5 Purple ships
• 4 White ships
• 1 Orange ship
• 4 Sky tiles
• 3 City tiles
• 3 Base tiles

There are quite a few options when setting up the game which allow you to vary the game’s difficulty. Each of the sky tiles can be turned over to make it a little more difficult. You can turn one or all of the tiles over.

There are three different cities you can defend. Roswell is the base and has no additional powers. However, Washington and New York also have additional powers that can help or at least change the game play a little bit.

If you lose a game then there is a nice little mechanism for replaying that game. If you lose you can flip over the city and start again. Typically the other side of the city has a bit of a boost to give you a chance to win this time.

The mothership starts at the top of the board and launches its fighters down at the city. From your tunnels beneath you will defend the city. As you play the game you will start with a few rooms in which you can play your dice. 

You do this by rolling the dice and then using each one to activate an action by placing it in a room. Some rooms are large and require 2 dice to activate them. 

The board is divided into 5 columns down which the Alien ships descend. Once you activate a room the number rolled on the dice will be the number of spaces any alien ships that are in that column move down.

As the ships dive down they will encounter spaces that will either move them left or right to an adjacent column or have an explosion on them. If they are on an explosion and you activate a room with your fighter jets in them you will destroy all those aliens. They are then returned to the mothership to be respawned.

Each alien fighter that makes it to the city level causes damage. This increases the damage by 1 until it reaches a red skull. The alien fighter is then returned back to the mother ship to be respawned.

As you play you can extend your tunnels to give you more rooms and actions to take. You do this using a little excavator and one of your dice.

This will only happen if the number on the dice is less than or equal to the number on the aliens’ space.

After each turn the mothership moves down the board and activates something bad. This may be the excavator moving back some spaces, closing off some rooms or it may be launching the white ships.  Either way it’s bad.

There are three phases to a turn:

1. Dice phase – Place the dice and move any alien ships.
2. Rooms phase – Resolve the effects from the rooms.
3. Mothership moves down one and the action is resolved.

There is one way to win and that is to raise your research to a level that will find a way to defeat the aliens. Your research is increased by activating rooms that will increase it.

There are two ways in which you can lose. If the mothership reaches the skull marker then you have been invaded and you lose. The second way you can lose is if your defense marker reaches the red skull.

This is a really fun game and requires some thought about how to deploy your dice. You will have the reward of something being activated that will help with your defense. However, make sure it is the right thing as the flip side is those pesky fighters will always be moving closer.

The game is pretty easy to learn and has good replayability.

13. Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island

It is recommended that you choose the carpenter, cook, or explorer as these work best in solo mode. Shuffle these three together and draw your character.

Luckily, and to make the game work better, you also have a dog and Friday to keep you company whilst you battle the elements and struggle to survive. Friday and the dog do not count towards building costs amongst other things mentioned specifically about them in the rules.

Once you have chosen your character you now choose the scenario you want to play. An example scenario is where you are castaway and trying to signal passing ships to be rescued.

Each scenario will have a story and a number of rounds in which you have to complete the objectives in the scenario. If you don’t then you fail and the game ends with your death. In castaways you have failed to build enough wood to make a fire big enough to signal the passing ship.

There is an awful lot to this game where you must gather your resources, explore the island by placing new hex tiles, and building shelter. This all revolves around your health and morale which can go up or down. 

Your character always goes first and you will be constantly making choices on where you should focus on. Should you build your shelter up or go explore. Perhaps you will need to hunt for food and may fight off infection. All these things need to be balanced in order to maintain your health and not die.

Each round is broken up in 6 phases that need to be resolved in order. 

1. Event Phase
2. Morale Phase
3. Production Phase
4. Actions Phase
5. Weather Phase
6. Night Phase

So those are the phases per round. As all good survival games should be there is one way to win and three to lose.

Winning

• As soon as you fulfill the scenario goal you have won the game. Congratulations. Of course that is unless the scenario dictates something different.

Losing

• If your character dies then you obviously lose.
• If the last round ends and you haven’t fulfilled the scenario goal then you lose.
• If your camp/shelter is located on a tile you cannot get to anymore then you lose.

This game is quite complex and there are a lot of rules that I have glanced over here.

Conclusion

Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a massive game and is going to take anything from 60-120 per scenario. Along with all the previous things discussed you also need to build tools and items to help you survive.

This game is really fun and also hard. You are truly trying to survive and especially solo. If you like a challenge then this is a good choice for you.

Each of the scenarios are different and fun to play. Each one will require different focus and present different challenges. 

You will have a myriad of choices to make but front and foremost you will need to decide which ones will give you the best opportunity to survive.

If you like survival games and a challenge then this is a must for your collection.

14. A Feast for Odin

15. Scythe

The game was crowd funded through a kickstarter campaign that managed to raise $1.8 million. When it was released it proved very popular and was listed by many as one of the best games of 2016.

In the solo game you play against an Automa. You can pick any faction for you to play as and any faction for the Automa. First games should definitely keep the Automa as far away from yours as possible.

The Automa comes in the form of its own simplified rules and an Automa deck that is turned over to dictate the actions that the Automa will take. The Automa does not need a player mat but does use the faction mat.

It also has a Triumph track card with a token to keep track of progress. You select which difficulty you want the Automa to be by choosing different levels of Triumph track. The track will progress each turn and slowly build the Automas abilities like being able to cross rivers and lakes.

Each card in the Automa deck has two halves I and II. When starting to play you use the I half of the card. The deck is set in a draw pile and you turn over the cards and take actions when it is the Automa’s turn.

You will eventually arrive at a II on the Automa Triumph track and at this point gather up the Automa deck, reshuffle, rotate the deck 180 degrees then set down as the new draw pile. From now on you will draw and play the II half of the deck.

There is also a set of help cards. As you work through the Automa cards you will need to take several move actions like Non-Attacking Move Mech. You can find the help card relating to this and it will lead you through the steps to complete that move. 

These are really useful and you should consider sleeving them as they are going to get used…a lot. You can read up on sleeving in my article Do you Sleeve your Board Games? It explains the pros and cons of sleeving and also gives you a great tip on shuffling cards that are sleeved.

Scythe is different from many of the other games in that it has no rounds or phases to turns. You simply play through taking your turn then the Automa then back to you. This continues until the 6th start is placed on the board at which point the game immediately ends. There is a final accumulation of the end of game coin. Then the player with the most wins.

Each player gets 6 stars that are placed on their player mat. For the Automa place them on the faction mat. In Scythe there is a Triumph Track which basically indicates goals for you to achieve. These goals are:

• Complete all 6 upgrades
• Deploy all 4 Mechs
• Build all 4 structures
• Enlist all 4 recruits
• Have all 8 workers on the board
• Reveal 1 completed objective card
• Win Combat (up to 2 times)
• Have 18 popularity
• Have 16 Power

As you play, if you achieve any of these then you place a star on that Triumph. The Automa will place a star if it reaches the 16 Power level and also if it defeats you in combat up to 2 times. 

The other 4 stars will be awarded as indicated on the Triumph track. Once the Automa has completed all the stars then game over.

There is a lot more to this game than the overview above. You will build buildings, gather resources and occupy territories as you seek to gain wealth.

Finally, the quality of this game is fantastic. Each faction has a beautifully crafted character and 4 mechs along with the worker meeples. The artwork is superb and created by Polish visual artist Jakub Rozalski. 

Rozalski was already creating a world through his art and was asked to help create the artwork along these lines. This has resulted in some amazing artwork that draws you into the theme.

This is a great game for solitaire and has a worthy place at number 15 for you to add to your collection.

16. Wingspan

17. Nusfjord

18. Dinosaur Island: Rawr and Write

19. Cascadia

20. Calico