In junior high & high school (1977-1982), I played a lot of wargames. At different points, I had a subscription to both The General (Avalon Hill’s magazine) and Strategy & Tactics (SPI’s magazine that included a wargame in each issue)…. and, for a short while, Ares (SPI’s magazine that included a sci-fi or fantasy game in each issue). While one of my good friends was happy to play Squad Leader and Panzerblitz and Wooden Ships & Iron Men, most of my wargaming time was spent playing against myself – choosing actions and rolling dice for both sides of the conflict.

There were actual solo games that saw a lot of play during that time as well: Chainsaw Warrior (Games Workshop), Ambush! & Mosby’s Raiders (Victory Games), RAF (West End Games), Voyage of the BSM Pandora (SPI), and B-17 (Avalon Hill). I still own Chainsaw Warrior.

This new era of well-designed automata and solo modes for multiplayer games, coupled with excellent new solo game designs, is actually quite heartening to someone (me!) who finds something really satisfying about physically playing a game: shuffling cards, moving pieces, seeing it all spread out in front of you.

I’ve tracked my game playing via spreadsheet long before BoardGameGeek allowed you to do it with your game database. In 2018, I started using the excellent BGStats app to track plays… and that has made it much easier to crunch the data to get a better look at my hobby/obsession.

Join me as I peek behind the digital curtain and see what solo games have been landing on my table over the last six years.

Top Eleven Most Played (over six years):

• Terraforming Mars (38 plays)
• Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread (37 plays)
• Minigolf Designer (34 plays)
• NEOM (32 plays)
• Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale (31 plays)
• Dune: Imperium (25 plays)
• Imperium: Classics/Legends/Horizons (24 plays)
• Jump Drive (24 plays)
• Lost Ruins of Arnak (23 plays)
• Oh My Goods (23 plays)
• Trails of Tucana (22 plays)

These are the eleven games I played 20+ times… and none of them are a particular surprise to me. They are my go-to solo games.

Top Eleven By Time Expended:

• Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread (60 hours)
• Terraforming Mars (48 hours)
• Imperium: Classics/Legends/Horizons (31 hours)
• Dune: Imperium (26 hours)
• Xia: Legends of a Drift System (25 hours)
• Dead Reckoning (24 hours)
• Lost Ruins of Arnak (23 hours)
• Dungeon Alliance (22 hours)
• Ark Nova (18 hours)
• Mosaic: A Story of Civilization (16 hours)
• Minigolf Designer (16 hours)

Close behind those games is Nemo’s War at roughly 15 hours of playing time.

Played Every Year 2020-2025

• Terraforming Mars
• Lost Ruins of Arnak

Played Five of the Six Years 2020-2025

• Minigolf Designer
• Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale
• NEOM
• Dune: Imperium
• Imperium: Classics/Legends/Horizons
• Undaunted: Normandy/Reinforcements
• Roll Player

Played Four of the Six Years 2020-2025

• It’s A Wonderful World
• Xia: Legend of a Drift System
• Ark Nova
• Dead Reckoning
• The Guild of Merchant Explorers
• Everdell
• Nemo’s War
• Mosaic: A Story of Civilization
• Bad Company

The common thread for all of the games you see on these lists is pretty straightforward – they are good to excellent game designs that pull you into a story. Even something as abstract at Oh My Goods has a story going on – well, when you add in the expansions.

I don’t enjoy solo gaming for the abstract appreciation of clever game design or perfectly balanced mechanisms. I enjoy it for being immersed in a story or being able to “write” my own. I can highly recommend all of these listed games as worthy of exploration for you. (Yes, even Bad Company.)

Eleven Other Games That Didn’t Appear on Any of the Lists That You Might Want to Check Out For Solo Play

• CloudAge
• Path of Civilization
• Pirates of Maracaibo
• Era: Medieval Age
• A Gentle Rain
• Let’s Go To Japan
• Legacy of Yu
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• Voidfall
• Mr. President: The American Presidency
• Endeavor: Deep Sea