Top 10 Games To Take Along Traveling

10. A Gentle Rain (Solo)

This is a good game for a number of different locations for gaming. First off the packaging is quite small for the game that is going to make it easy to take with you. The game is also cardboard tiles and wooden pieces. The good thing about that is that it means it works well outside. So it’s very portable, it does take up a bit of space though, as you lay it out.

So let’s talk about how the game plays. A Gentle Rain is a matching game where you want to complete a square of four tiles. When you do you can place a flower matching the colors of the matched flowers that created the square. The goal is to get rid of all of the flowers to win the game. It’s very simple, flip and see where you can match flowers. But it is meant to be a calming and chill game and it is that.

9. Hanamikoji (2 Player)

Now we’re onto a two player game. Some of the other multiplayer games work well at two, but this one is specifically a two player game. And it is going to give you that ideal two player experience in a small package and some interesting game play.

In Hanamikoji you are playing down gifts to win the favor of Geisha. Your goal is to, after all the gifts have been played, have the favor of four Geisha or eleven points worth of Geisha. But how you play out cards is what really is interesting. Each player has four actions that they are going to do once. You decide which order to do them. You either save one gift hidden from your opponent to use in scoring. Save two gifts hidden from your opponent that are discard. Or you either give your opponent the choice of one of three cards or one of two sets of two cards.

I love how the game creates these mind games. You need to play what you have in your hand and try and understand what your opponent is trying to hide from you based off of what they are giving you as options.

8. Arboretum (Multiplayer)

Now we’re onto a multiplayer game that is a bit mean. Arboretum is a game of creating an Arboretum and connecting paths between types of trees going from low to high. But as you play out you are also adding more cards to your hand from the discard piles out there. And you can pull from your opponents piles and your opponents see what you are building out.

So how is it mean. There are two ways it can be mean. Players can block you from scoring a type of tree. If you don’t have the most points in your hand of a tree type, you don’t score that tree type. They can also hold back cards in their hand that you need to create your paths of trees. But the game is a lot of fun because it offers a lot of tough choices and for being on the list is one of the most interactive.

7. Schadenfreude (Multiplayer)

I can put a lot of trick taking games on the list. And I maybe should pick something else, so here are some bonus games. The Crew is a great cooperative trick taking game, same with The Fellowship of the Ring trick taking game. Fox in the Forest is a good two player trick taking game. But now let’s talk about Schadenfreude.

Schadenfreude is a different trick taking game where you want to score points, but not too many. The game ends in the hand where someone goes over 40 points. But 40 points isn’t the winning total. No, it is the total that guarantees you won’t win. So you want to get as close to 40 points as possible without hitting it or going over. Because whomever is the closest to 40 when someone goes over 40 is going to be the winner of the game. It’s a fun twist and not the only one in the game.

6. Ohanami (Multiplayer)

Now we go from two more interactive games to a more laidback game again. Ohanami is a drafting game where you want to create your best garden. And it is a game for travel that comes in a tiny box. So it is very easy to travel with because it is just cards. Now it does take up a bit of room as you play, but not too bad, you just create three columns of cards.

Like I said, Ohanami is a drafting game. You pick two cards from the hand each round. And each card you pick needs to be added to the three columns of cards you can create. You also need to play it above the highest value card or below the lowest value card in a column keeping it in numerical order. It’s not complex, but it works well.

And the scoring is fun as well. When you score, it changes each round. The first round you only score one type of card. They give you the fewest points but they score each of the three rounds. Whereas others score more but in fewer rounds. That little twist gives you direction when drafting as to what to take or not take.

5. Orchard/Grove (Solo)

Orchard or Grove are little card games that either of them work great for travel. Now they won’t work as well out in nature as some games, like A Gentle Rain, but they do work well overall. And they play very quickly without taking up much table space.

Both of these games are card layering games. As you play down cards you play matching symbols over each other. And the more you overlap the better you are producing fruit of various types. And your goal is to just see how high a score you can get with nine total cards played out. You can break the placement rules in both games, but it always costs you something.

Grove also adds in some scoring objectives that you can go for. I think that both of them are great games. Grove is probably a bit better because of the scoring objectives, in my opinion. But I think either will work for you if you sound interesting.

4. Point Salad (Multiplayer)

Now another multiplayer game and one where you can get the salad themed version of this game or an Eevee themed version if you’re fine ordering it from South Korea and paying some shipping costs. But this game is all about creating a salad that is going to give you points.

The game is pretty simple but it has a fun twist to it. On your turn you either take two vegetables or one scoring card. The twist is that when you take vegetables you are flipping down cards from a pile. And on the back of those cards is where the scoring is. So when you flip a card down that scoring is gone away forever. A simple twist but one that makes for some tough turns or gives you a way to block an opponent from getting their perfect scoring card.

3. Super Mega Lucky Box (Solo and Multiplayer)

I only put one roll and write game on the list and that is Super Mega Lucky Box. There are a lot that could go on the list, much like trick taking games. And a lot of them play solo or multiplayer. But I like Super Mega Lucky Box a lot and it is one that is pretty easy to teach which makes it nice for travel. Especially if you are traveling with or to meet up with non-gamers or more casual gamers.

This game has a blackout bingo style to it. You flip cards and each player is filling in a spot on one of their three bingo cards. As you complete rows and columns you get bonuses. Those bonuses might give you more points. Or they might let you fill in other numbers. And the more you fill in, the more points you get too as you get cards filled. The concept is simple but it has some fun interactions.

2. Castle Combo (Multiplayer)

Castle Combo is a newer game on the list, though a number are pretty new. This one is about building out a grid that can score you the most points. All of this will balancing your access to the two resources.

On your turn you buy a card to fill into a three by three grid. Depending on where it is in the grid, or sometimes the color of shields it has or color of card it is, that is going to be scoring you points. You want to optimize how it scores you points at the end of the game. At the same time you need to consider the ability that happens either throughout the game, such as a discount on a type of card, or happens when you play the card. Because that is how you are going to get more money.

Now there is a bit more going on in the game. But I think that gives you the general idea. This one is that nice balance of pretty easy to learn and play but it has good decisions in it. For people who like to game, there is probably going to be enough going on that you won’t feel bad about missing your bigger games at home.

1. For Northwood! (Solo)

Finally we have For Northwood! and maybe I should have put this in with the trick taking games. But I think it deserves it’s own spot on the list. While it takes up some room on a table, it travels in a really small box. And for a trick taking fan, you will likely like this game even when you don’t have people around to play a trick taking game with.

In this game you want to win a specific number of tricks depending on your location. Each location is going to have a critter by it and a number of tricks to win. The critter is going to determine what trump is. So after you draw you hand you need to decide which spot you think you can win at. Then you play against the remainder of the deck by flipping a card and going up against that.

Now that doesn’t sound like it would work too well That is a lot of luck. But you always have access to three critters with abilities. These abilities help you get more cards into your hand or discard cards and more to get that right number of tricks. Can you pull off a perfect game and win the right number of tricks at each location?

Final Thoughts

There are a ton of board games that work great for traveling. And depending on how you are traveling you can take larger games at times. What I wanted to do was keep it down to a lot of little games. Those are consistently going to be able to go with you. And what I put on the list, these are just a few small box games. I could list off probably 100 honorable mentions between trick taking games or roll and write games and then so many other little ones.

What games do you find work well when you travel?

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Top 10 Solo Only Board Games

Almost all of these games are ones that I’ve featured on the Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. I will put out videos for all of them that I have one so you can find them all here.

10. Snowfall Over Mountains

This one is a nice and peaceful board game. Snowfall Over Mountains is a card laying game, and you will see a lot of these. You create a layout of cards that score for different types of terrain. You score rabbit tracks one way, ponds another, trees another, and so on, and this scoring can change. But you want to get as high as score as you can and that’s it for the game. It is fast, it is easy to shuffle up and play again.

9. Cursed

This one is all about trying to defeat a curse before time runs out. You need to defeat a certain number of monsters before the deck of cards runs out, or the witch gets your soul. The game play is all about pushing your luck and deciding how many cards to use to try and defeat the monsters. I like how all the cards have a few things on them. They might have special rules or treasure, but they can all be used for attacking and they are all monsters.

8. Numbsters

Why is six afraid of seven? Because seven eight nine. Yes, that is the basis for this game, and it it works. You want cards to eat each other and you want to end up with as few cards as possible. So you create a line of cards (or you can play it in your hand) and you need to use the rule at the front to eat cards, or just to eat cards that are one higher. It’s a little game, part of the Button Shy Line of games, and it works better than a lot of them for me.

7. Relics of Rajavihara

Maybe you remember the video game Chips Challenge. If you are like me, you loved that game growing up and trying to figure out every puzzle you could. Relics of Rajavihara gives you some of that same feel in a board game. You need to manipulate blocks in ways that let you get to the relic on each level. If you get stuck, you just reset the board and try again. It is one that I owned, played, sold, and now I got it back because I just want to go through them again.

6. Bargain Basement Bathysphere

This is a crazy game when it comes to board games names. But Bargain Basement Bathysphere is a fun campaign roll and write game. It is meant to be solo and it’s campaign only in the loosest terms, less of a campaign than Welcome to the Moon for example. But it’s fun to play and it’s fun to figure out how to manipulate the dice and get down to the bottom of the sea and get back out before your oxygen runs out. There is just a little bit of tension in the game, and that works well.

5. Grove/Orchard

Yes, this is two games at once on the list. But Grove and Orchard are very similar in what they do as board games. I could also add a game like Sprawlopolis to this, but I like what Grove and Orchard do better. In this game you are trying to grown the most fruit that you can. You gain fruit by overlapping cards so that matching fruit symbols cover each other. And that’s the majority of the game right there. Grove adds in some extra scoring challenges which are fun to play with as well.

4. Under Falling Skies

Have you ever wanted to play space invaders with Independence Day? For me, that is what the game Under Falling Skies feels like. At it’s core, it is a dice placement game where you want to get big numbers so you can fight the aliens, drive them back, and research how to stop them. But the higher number you use the faster the smaller alien ships descend. And if too many of them make it into the Earth’s atmosphere, well, that’s game over, man.

3. Final Girl

Final Girl is the one game on the list that I haven’t played yet on Malts and Meeples Youtube. I need to refresh myself on how to play it and then get it to the table. Though that might wait until the fall because Final Girl is all about horror. Every game you play takes you into the setting of your choice and you are the final girl. You need to survive and beat the killer or other things as you play.

And there are really a ton of different options as to what you can do. I love the mix and match nature of the horror setting your are in with the variety of final girls who you can play as. And it is all time management and resource management to try and win the game. Of course, the longer it goes, the scarier it gets. Can you find what you need, rescue others, and defeat the scenario?

2. Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom

This is the one with the most recent playthrough on Malts and Meeples. And I blame Meet Me At The Table for getting me into this game. This is a legacy game, which is a bit odd to put on the list. But it’s a game all about managing a deck of cards to build up your kingdom and get as many points as you can. I love how streamlined it is and how almost all cards throughout the game can be upgraded as well as be resources that you use to upgrade other cards. So the decision how to use a card is always a challenge.

1. For Northwood

Finally, we have For Northwood a solo only trick taking game. And you might think, like I did, I like trick taking but how is it going to work solo? Well, it is my number one, so I think that it works well solo. In the game you need to win at each grove. When you win at a grove you get access to a leader who can help you in future rounds and you get points. But it is hard because each grove needs an exact number of tricks one.

I love how the game gives you powers and abilities that you can use. Though, you are only allowed to use them once per hand of cards. So if you need to spend it early, well that might be rough if things start to go sideways. But it just works and the challenges work well as well for once you have conquered the base game.

Final Thoughts

Now I know I have a lot more solo only games that I’ve played. There are a ton of Button Shy Games like that and only one of them made the list. Why is that? I think it is because a lot of them feel similar and they are all very small games. That isn’t a bad thing because for the most part I enjoy them a lot. And I know that I have a lot more to play from littler games like Friday and Palm Island to bigger solo only games like Mr President, Hallas of Hegra, and Hoplomachus: Victorum.

Is there one of the solo only games that you want to see me highlight on the channel? Let me know that down in the comment section or over on the Nerdologists Facebook page or on the YouTube channel.

Five Solo Board Games to Play on Malts and Meeples

But what are my Top 5 solo only games that I want to get played? Well, let’s do one last final list really quickly and in no particular order.

1. 20 Strong – This looks like a fun game and it’s from Chip Theory Games, but it’s small. And you decide what setting you want to play, so it can be their new one for the game or it can be one of their existing ones.
2. Mr President – This one would be a huge undertaking and that is why I haven’t played it yet. Have you ever wanted to be the President of the United States? I honestly can say that I don’t think I have, but in this board game, you can play as them and make decisions but you need to balance everything.
3. Forage – This is going to be the easiest to get to the table. It’s in the same line as Grove and Orchard, so I should just stream this one.
4. The Ratcatcher – This is the Pied Pipers story, in some ways, in a board game. It is one where you want to catch all the rats before they get too much cheese. I’ve heard the rulebook is tough but I still want to give it a got because of the theme.
5. Hoplomachus: Victorum – The second Chip Theory Games game on the list. This one is not small and it’s a campaign. But it is a short campaign. Can I build up my troops and combat prowess to get through the whole thing?

Which one of these should I play?

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How To Play The Royal Limited

In The Royal Limited you play four turns and you need to get all of your cards, or all but one into your train either as passengers or as train cars to win at the highest level of the game. If you score four or more points, you lose the game. And two or three points, you’re just starting out as a conductor, so you’ll get better.

Trains and Passengers

How do you get cards out as train cars or passengers? Both are fairly simple to do, but you need train cars before you need passengers so we’ll talk about that one first. To play out a train you pick the card you want to play. The first one can be any card. Then you discard cards totally the number on the train car, so if it’s a three, three cards. Each additional card follows that same rule plus the additional one that it can’t match the color or number of the previous train car.

For playing passengers, most of them are very simple. You either need to match the color or the number to play a passenger onto that train car. There are two VIP passengers as well per game and they have additional special rules. So before they can be placed, you need to meet their conditions. They might have a specific color or be wild when it comes to placement. Each train car only can have a single passenger.

Activating Train Cars

When you play out a passenger you then activate the ability on the train that you play the passenger to. You must do the ability on the card if you are able. There are even some that are more specific than that. They give an ability and then a “next” ability. You must do that ability next and complete. If you are not able to complete that ability, then your turn ends and you draw back up to five cards in your hand.

When you turn does end, either because you can’t play more cards or because you don’t have any or don’t want to, you draw back up to five cards. When you tick down your timer. Then you end a turn and would begin your next turn and the “Train Departed” is at the top of the card, the position marking the turn, the game is over. You then count up the number of train cars/passengers that you didn’t use and the number of VIP passengers you didn’t get played and that determines your score.

What Doesn’t Work

Honestly, I don’t really have complaints about this one. The train maybe gets a little bit wide but with the cards overlapping I think I could fit it onto a TV tray. And that’s about it that I can find that might be an issue, and that’s only a very specific issue of it might not work on an airplane tray, but it also might as I haven’t tested it out.

What Works

Firstly the speed of this game is amazing. I talk while I play and I do intros, grab a drink, and then did some mini thoughts at the end of the video, and it’s a 38 minute video for five games. So the game just flies by, I know it says twenty minutes, I think it’s a ten minute max game.

I really like how the VIP passengers are double sided. I thought that maybe it would start to feel the same with the passengers, but with eight total passengers there are a ton of combinations that you can play. And the more challenging those VIP passengers are, I think it makes the game itself more interesting because I want to or need to to win the game, figure out how to get at least one VIP into play.

And I like the abilities on the cards. Sometimes they are good, and that’s great for you. But sometimes you look at it, especially final round, and it’s discard a card or put a card on top of the deck. Well, you do both of those, you are at a minimum of two cards that you won’t be able to play, and then you’ll just be a beginner conductor.

Final Thoughts on The Royal Limited

I’m skipping the who this is for. If you like solo games, you probably know from the description if you’ll like this game. If you know someone who likes solo games, it’s cheap, get them it and see if they like it.

But I did very much enjoy this game. I think one of the elements that I really liked is the simplicity of play. The powers are the main thing you need to remember, and that’s just part of playing a passenger is using the cars power. It’s not like some of the Button Shy solo games where it’s a bit challenging to keep it straight in the tiny rule books.

This game is fast and easy to learn. That is always going to work for a solo game for me. And I didn’t feel like the challenge was too light. I need to think about what I’m doing, you saw me rewind a move once or twice. But it is not a game where you need to think and agonize over everything. So I see it as that kind of palette cleanser solo game. When you want that brain reset or refresh to happen, I would grab The Royal Limited.

My Grade: B+
Strategy: B+
Luck: C-

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And for other ideas check out the previous lists.

Two Player Games
Campaign Games

Solo Games

Final Girl

Final Girl is not one of the solo games that has a great theme for the holidays, unless that holiday is Halloween. But for a person who loves board games and horror movies this is a great game. Because this game is all about being the final girl who survives or at least makes it to the end of the horror film. Can you survive to the end?

But there is more beyond that. This game has some really fun mechanisms to it. It’s all about spending energy to play out cards. Of course you spend too much you won’t be able to buy more cards and you’ll end up with a weak turn. It’s this really fun balancing act of actions you try and do, and then you hope that you roll successes.

The game also has so much variability in it. You don’t need to get it all, but you buy a base box, that is the core game for the whole thing. And you buy what they call feature film boxes. Basically boxes that have different final girls and horror bad guy tropes. So you can pick your favorite tropes or buy a bunch for a lot of fun variety.

Grove

Grove is a small game even when it comes for solo games. This one is about building up your best and most productive fruit grove. It does it by having you overlap cards. A lot of games do this and Grove, in my opinion does this best. Orchard is the simpler version, and Sprawlopolis does something similar, but it isn’t as small

Like I said, in this game you are trying to overlap cards so you get the right types of fruits covering the other up. In fact, you can’t mix fruits as you overlap. It’s a good and thinky puzzle that way as you play. And the game is done with only nine cards. So even for a solo game it goes fast. The game does come with 18 cards, though, so you can easily play twice quickly before you even need to shuffle up again.

For Northwood

From the same company as Grove and in the same size box we have For Northwood. As far as solo games go, this one is very unique. Mainly because it’s trick taking. How do you do trick taking as a solo game?

The trick taking is pretty simple. You play against a deck of cards, you know what cards aren’t in that deck because they are in your hand. And you need to win tricks like normal. You play the same suit, you win the trick if you have the higher number. A lot of the fun, though comes from the fact that you don’t want to win tricks sometimes. You activate a different location each time and that tells you how many tricks you need to win.

That sounds very lucky. But it’s less lucky because as you play you start with powers that you can use, and as you win at locations you activate and get the opportunity to bring in new powers to use. Some help you get that target of winning seven tricks I believe it is. Other powers let you dump cards and lose tricks when you can’t win any.

The Isofarian Guard

Now we’re into the big solo games. Though just for this one game. This also could cross over onto the campaign games list. But The Isofarian Guard is a big campaign game with a big footprint, voice acted (or might be just narrated) story, and it’s a fun time.

I have a play of the game, at least the start of it, you can checkout on Malts and Meeples. But the main mechanisms are around you exploring the map, going to locations and sometimes you get story, other times you fight monsters, and then you build up your home base as well. The combat can become a bit repetitive with you stumble across it too often. They might have changed that up in the 2nd edition or 1.5 edition they crowdfunded.

The story is the element that really drives the game. This is not going be one of the easier solo games to find. I suspect they might have a few around as they are fulfilling their latest crowdfunding campaign, but this is a good big solo campaign game that you can play. It also does work two players as well, but was built for solo because you can’t explore separately.

Snowfall Over Mountains

Snowfall Over Mountains is probably the best thematically for the holidays. This is about building out the landscape of the surrounding areas to a little log cabin. And that’s really how it works, you take a card and figure out where you want to place it around the cabin or with what you’ve already built out.

But I like how relaxing this game is as a solo game. It’s one where you don’t feel the pressure to do well because you are just seeing how many points you get. And you get points by completing objectives to the best of your ability. Each objective scores for a different thing, and there are multiple of each scoring so you can vary up how the game plays every time.

This one is really for that nice peaceful, maybe not your family or friends sending you away, but when you want to get away and do something that still stimulates your brain sort of games. And I enjoy that for a solo game because it gives a nice relaxing experience. And it’s another one that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoy solo games. Though, I find that I like them best when I’m streaming them. Mainly because I like to have someone to talk to, so a camera does the trick for that. Let me know what some of your favorite solo games are.

And which of these solo games would you want to get or give?

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Top 5 Roll and Write Games to Play Solo

5. Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is one that works well solo and multiplayer. So in terms of a lot of a few of the roll and write games on the list, I think it is balanced out a bit more. But this one really does work nicely solo because it makes the game faster. You roll the dice and take your dice actions and are done. The limiting factor on how quickly it goes is you. This is a common thing for a lot of these games solo.

There is a downside to it, which is why it is lower on the list. In Paper Dungeons you lose out on the bonus when fighting the different boss monsters along the way. No one can get the bonus for dealing the most damage because you aren’t playing against an opponent.

4. Cartographers

Cartographers is going to be one where I say that it’s also one of the role and write games where it works well with many as well solo. And Cartographers might be one of the most challenging solo games out there. The scoring objectives you have all have numbers on them. And that combined total is what you’re trying to defeat. Plus they give you negative points, so you need to overcome all of that to just get a positive score. And how you place the monsters on the board changes, but it’s a ton of fun either way.

3. Railroad Ink Challenge

This is the first where I think I really do prefer it just solo. Mainly because I’ve taught Railroad Ink a few times and it’s gone well, but people feel like there is a bit much to keep track of. I like it with everything in there, at least for the base game and the challenges because I think it adds purpose and direction to the game. But for some people, it feels like too much. So since I know the game well, I prefer it as a solo game that I can knock out quickly.

But the route connecting and everything moves along quickly. Even the challenges don’t change from multiplayer to solo. Either way you have a specific round to hit for getting the challenges. So if you get it on that round or sooner you score the max points. If you get it prior to the end of the game you end up with fewer points.

2. Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade

Another one that is better solo, I think. And Super-Skill Pinball 4-Cade is one of the roll and writes that I’ve mainly just played solo. The reason I like it better solo is that players can get out of sync. So I might lose my ball sooner than you lose your ball. That is the way that pinball tables go. So I play my second ball and it’s unlikely I lose it super quickly, but if i do you may continue playing for a period of time longer.

It’s really that the game can let one person go a lot longer that I think creates a bigger challenge to the game. Especially on some of the boards where a player might end up in a special area of the board. If they do, then it’s possible that they can prolong their game notably. At that point one person might need an extra 10 minutes to wrap up the game. The pinball tables are a ton of fun, but there is a good reason to play it solo.

1. The “Clever” Games

Finally it’s all of the Clever games from Wolfgang Warsch. I really enjoy all of these games. And I think that they are best at two or solo player counts. Why, because at more you lose a little agency in the game. You always get something on an opponents turn, but when your opponents have more turns, you play fewer turns as the active player. So that loss of agency, I think, makes it better as a solo or two player game.

And when you play at solo or two players the rules don’t change. Since in solo you get the rolls of an “opponent” to go against. And that’s really just getting that selection on an opponents turn like you would on a two player game. The dice might be limited in different ways than normal, but the outcome is similar.

Also, yes I did cheat and put four games on the list there.

Final Thoughts

A lot of roll and write games work well solo. Though, so many now hare being made to keep that feeling similar no matter what. By that I mean that most of these games now rely upon everyone going at once. So when you take an action or roll the dice, all of us get to go on that roll of the dice or the flip of the cards. I love that about the games because it lets you really play pretty quickly without losing an interesting game and interesting choices.

What are your favorite roll and write games to play solo? I know that I need to learn and play Hadrian’s Wall solo as well as there are others like Metro X, Fleet the Dice Game, that I like solo or still others like Three Sisters, Motor City, and more that I know people like solo. So I want to get even more to the table.

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The Crux of the Problem

So, I say problem, we can determine if it’s actually a problem or not. But let’s talk about the big reason why I’m talking about this in the first place. For a lot of people, myself included, board games are a social activity. When you add in a solo mode it takes a game that is that social activity and makes into an activity of solitude.

Some board games, as I hinted at in the introduction, rely on that interaction and shared nature of board games. When I attack another army, it isn’t the games army, it is your army. We make alliances and then break them depending on the state of the game. Yes, all of these examples are from Risk, but it’s true for a number of games.

Yet, even games where there can be large amounts of interaction are getting solo additions to them. Sometimes it comes later, but sometimes it’s out of the box when you buy it. Let’s look at Root for example, that game is a war game. Yet there is a way to play it solo. Is that a good thing to have in the box?

Board Games Doing Solo Well

On the flip side of the problem I laid out is that a lot of board games do allow for playing solo well. When I sit down and play a game like The 7th Citadel or Stonespine Architects, they make solo game play simple. I intentionally did pick one that is a cooperative game but also one that’s competitive. They make solo work smoothly and easily.

Some board games, though, do end up with clunky systems or systems that don’t make that much sense. I think of Roll to the Top which isn’t that complex a system but is basically playing the game a second time to get it to work. That isn’t that fun, the gratification of playing the game is reduced because the solo mode doesn’t work well. The same can be said for Trek 12. And now Trek 12 is a game that I like a lot, but the solo mode out of the box with an opponent to beat is clunky and slows down the fun.

So Why Offer Solo Modes?

The first reason is that for some people board games are more of a solo activity. It is hard for them to get out and play with other people. And while it’s fun to have a big campaign game, or a small solo game to fit in your pocket, sometimes they want to experience other styles of games. So offering a solo mode opens up games to a lot more people.

It also offers gamers a chance to game more. For me this is a big one. I try and sit down at least once a week on Wednesday and stream a solo game. I will get back to doing Mondays more often once school has started for my kid as well. But I get to experience games, a lot of the time campaign games, and decide if they are for me. Though, I’ll caveat this for myself, I stream games because it gives me some of that social aspect of gaming to share the game with others.

Another, possibly overlooked, reason is that it allows for a gamer to learn and play a game prior to needing to teach it. I think this one is very important, though does have a caveat as well. If I sit down and learn the game it is way easier to teach. I deal with questions prior to ever teaching someone. I learn some of the pitfalls of the game. The caveat is that the solo mode needs to be similar enough to the actual game play.

So Keep Solo Modes for Board Games

I think, and I think you all knew, that board games should keep solo modes. I also think that more board games should have solo modes. But as always, the caveat, they need to be done well. And from what I see, not all designers know how to create a good solo mode. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s more a statement around game design how designing for solo is different than for multiplayer.

That said, that’s not an excuse. This reminds me of film when a writer comes in and does that final polish on a film. They aren’t rewriting the whole thing, instead they have a particular skill where they can polish up a script to make it work the best it can for film or television. It’s something that the original creator might not have or might have a hard time doing. A solo mode creator is very similar to that. The great ones channel an ability to create that, not to rework the whole game, but to take what is there and make the best possible solo mode.

So enjoy solo modes. If you don’t want to play solo, don’t play solo. But there is a great reason for them to be in the box if you don’t love solo modes. And for board game companies, keep on putting them there. Even if they rarely get played, but make them good. Don’t add them just to sell to a few more people, add them because they make it easier to learn and teach the game later. And because they stay true to your game.

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River Valley Glassworks Solo Game Play

Let’s talk a bit about how it works solo. I’ve already reviewed it overall, so let’s pay attention about what changes. Mainly each player board has a flip side that is a solo board of varying challenge levels. My play was against the easiest challenge board. And I think it is quite easy on that level. But each other opponent is a harder ranked board.

But let’s talk about how the boards themselves play. I want a solo game to be easy for me to sit down and play my opponent. And I, generally, want my opponent to be less than random. Especially if I fight over resources or anything. If my opponent is doing something that I can’t predict, then it’s hard to play against it or strategize. In River Valley Glassworks, all the opponents take glass in predictable ways. And they always take it in consistent ways, so I’m not needing to relearn or go through a list of actions or triggers.

Then, each AI opponent is going to score differently. And I think that is a fun challenge. They all take negative points in different ways. They all get positive points in different ways. The simple character, Otto, gains points from rows and extra pieces, as long as it’s not an 8th color. But each subsequent one is going to make you think more about where you are letting your opponent gain pieces.

I like the simplicity of it. I, as I’ve said, played the simplest one. But at the end of the video I wanted to look at the rest. And the rest still seem simple, just more aggressive in scoring. So even though they offer a great challenge, it is not a ton greater complexity.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I play small solo game plays. The schedule is, right now, going to look like gaming every other Monday. A chance to see people in person came up for Monday and as much as I like streaming, it’s good to socialize as well. And I might do more deck construction with Star Wars Unlimited on Mondays as well or pack openings.

On Wednesdays, I, generally, play solo campaign games. What my next campaign game is going to be is yet to be determined. My hope is to get one started soon. But more on that coming up as I have other solo games I might tackle as well prior to a campaign game.

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Clever 4Ever

Let’s talk about where Clever 4Ever is taking this series of games. Because I think that the system has had it’s ups and downs along the way with what it does. The first one is very nice and straight forward, that’s why Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever) is my favorite. But then you have Doppelt so Clever (Twice as Clever) and the game is a bit more complex. And it requires the player to do a bit more to get the points. Clever Hoch Drei (Clever Cubed) keeps some of the complexity, but makes a number of the areas more straight forward.

Complexity

Clever 4Ever is a bit more complex again. So it feels like the even number ones are ramping up the challenge a little bit with the scoring. Mainly here there are so many little things to keep track of. If you use a 2 through 6 on the pick section, what is the bonus, and how do those work. It’s not that complex, but there is a level of complexity to it. The yellow section with the subtraction versus addition versus points in columns. Green needing two numbers, or grey filling in shapes.

But, with that said, I think it feels a bit better than Doppelt so Clever. Mainly, as I play, I feel like there’s a bit more chance to explore. It might come down to the fact that unlike in Doppelt so Clever, nothing uses other dice with it. The grey or silver section in Doppelt so Clever wants you to discard dice. So you need to push at the right time for that. In Clever 4Ever, it’s all single uses of dice, just how efficiently can you use them and get the bonuses and scoring.

Luck

On the downside, it does seem a bit more luck centric. Mainly in the pink section, you get bonuses to points or get to use the bonus symbol based on what you roll. That means most of the time I really want to have a 5 or a 6 that I play. Yes other bonuses can push you higher, like the 3 filling in two spots. Technically that can push you to the end fast, but that’s not what people will want.

And the yellow section. Only roll high yellows, it’s going to be hard to complete that top row, or even work on it. Because you need to always increase numbers and it doesn’t reset on a six. So now that’s a challenge of just rolling the right things. Now you can use other bonuses to fill in that section, and that’s probably the smart way. But it’s also true for the middle row, you want low numbers. So the luck factor, to me, feels a little bit higher.

Upcoming Streams

On every other Monday I stream at 9 PM Central. And I do small solo game plays. Expect to see a lot more small solo games as I work on my goal of getting to 100 new to me games this year. I’ve started off strong, but there are a number of solo games that I can play to work towards that number. I had hopes of painting but with the new schedule, it’s harder to do now. So when I do a painting stream, it’ll be more random.

On Wednesdays, well, I said that I plan to play at least 10 games of Rogue Angels. This is going to continue how I play my solo campaign games on the channel. My goal, play four different campaigns 10 times each. It’s tricky, but I think that I can do it. That is at 8 PM Central time for the campaign games. The next part of Rogue Angels can be found coming up here.

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Campaign Games

Honestly, a lot of what you see is going to stay the same. I want to do better with more campaign games. I think that I can get 4 campaigns played at 10 games per campaign in this year. Last year I think I got three in, so this year the goal is four. Theoretically I might get in five, but because of Holidays, Top 100 Games of all time, Gen Con and other things, four seems more reasonable and that is going to be tricky.

But let’s talk about the games that I want to play. Starting off with Rogue Angels. I plan on playing through as much of this as I can. It’s still available for late pledge. But then I want to revisit one that I already did a play of.

I want to play more Chronicles of Drunagor. I didn’t like how it was playing with opening doors and everything being a bit of a mess that way for setting up mid stream. But I think I know how I want to fix it. And the other two, well, we’ll have to see. I have Sleeping Gods – Distant Skies, there is Assassins Creed, and I recently got Kingdom: Death Monster. And more should be showing up as well.

Solo Games & Painting

Obviously all of them are solo, but the plan for Monday is to continue with the solo games, but I want to add in a twist or change to it. Solo games, one offs, will be every other week. And then I want to mix in something else other times. One of the things might be doing Mythwind the game from Open Owl Games (used to be OOMM) as it’s a solo/multiplayer game with no real win condition. So that is going to get mixed in as well as Slay the Spire once in a while.

But I also mentioned that I have a game like Kingdom Death Monster and other games with a lot of grey plastic. Well, I have paints and brushes and a goal this year to paint more. So I might start streaming some of that every other Monday as well. I think that is going to be part of the every other Monday routine or maybe once a month. I want to paint more than that, you need to practice to get good, but maybe once a month streaming would be fun. Basically I want to give myself a bit more of a schedule for Mondays.

Malts and Meeples Goal

My goal is to continue to grow the channel. And I want to thank the people who have joined in 2023 and who keep on watching it over all the years. I really appreciate everyone and I hope if you enjoy the content that you’ll continue to watch and join live as you can.

And let me know what you think about the content and changes. Are there videos that you’d like to see me do more of? Other things that you hope from the channel, let me know. I want to keep my focus on solo gaming, but how does that work the best for you? Do you like the campaign plays or do you like more one off plays? Do you like it when I do Top 10’s or not?

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Board Game Plays

119 Different Games

You will look at that number and see that it is about 10 plays of each game, on average. Of course that is only an average. So some games are going to get played a whole lot more. Those are the games that I sit down and I play between meetings at work, or sometimes, if I just need to observe, during a meeting at work to help keep me focused. So we’ll see a very high number for one of those coming up.

But I really like the combination of games that I’ve played. It’s some small games, but I also have a number of campaign style games that make the list. Obviously those are going to take longer to play. Which means that I’ve put a lot of time into playing board games this year. We’ll get to that number later.

385 Plays of Grove

So obviously a lot of plays came from Grove, but Grove is one four games that I’ve played over 50 times this year. Grove, Orchard, Relics of Rajavihara, and Criss Cross are all over 50 plays. They count for more than half of my total game plays for the year. And how fast they play, with the exception of Relics of Rajavihara which can take a bit of time to puzzle out a play, is quite fast.

87 New Games

This is a number I am quite happy with. It means, while I buy games faster than I play, still, I have gotten through a lot of games that I haven’t played before. I will say, I think if I dug into the whole list, there would be two or three that might be ones I’ve already played.

Looking at that number, I might try and get it to 100 new to me games, but I’m running out of time. I do have a friend who I teach a lot of new games to. And some of the games, probably enough, I could play solo if I learn them to get to 100. That is now an unofficial goal for the year.

Approximately 348 Hours

That is what the app, Board Game Stats estimates anyways. I’ll tell you, it says 11 hours for My City Roll and Build, that is probably 4 hours total maybe 5. It estimates what it says on the box. Sometimes, as I’ve written about, that is low. Other times, especially if I play it solo, that is very high.

Recently Trailblazers is another example of that. I did play it two player now, and half an hour is right. But solo, I got 3 games done in about 35 minutes. So take that number with a grain of salt, it’s probably under 300 hours with how fast I play some games, especially solo.

Gap

Gap was game number 1000. And turns out how I was taught at Gen Con was actually a bit off. That might have been my comprehending it, versus the teach, but an abstract game is sometimes hard to teach. Still really like the game and I think it’s better with much better strategy now that I’m playing it the right way. But Gap from Arcane Wonders was game play #998 through #1000 for me last n ight.

Final Thoughts

It’s really been an effort or focus to play more games this year. I get in campaign games, like Tainted Grail, every other week with one group. I play another campaign, it was Roll Player Adventures, now it’s Vampire The Masquerade: Chapters with another group. And I’ve played at least three campaign games over the course of the year, at least 7 games of them on Malts and Meeples.

Next year will I push for more? I might. Though, I think that 1100, which I’ll be close to this year, is an amazing number. Let me say this, though, if you play fewer games, it isn’t a big deal. I actually think that I’ll play fewer games next year. At the start of this year I was in a new job in a new role learning a lot in meetings. So I would play Grove between meetings or during meetings to help me focus and maintain focus. So don’t assume that you are slacking behind, that is not the case.

When I put out these goals, I never try and push them out too far. That is why I didn’t make it a goal from day one. I want a bit of a stretch, but I also don’t want to make board games into something that is work. Now it is “work” in that I make a little money from this website. But it isn’t because I’m not beholden to any company, I do it because I like to do it. So if you see this goal and feel like you’re slacking, you aren’t if you are having fun playing board games.

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