Single player miniatures games?

[Blackhawk]

I'm a long time veteran of miniatures games - Warhammer of late. Unfortunately, I live in a town of 2,000 where the typical pastimes are Bud Lite and inbreeding. As my luck would have it, my wargaming friend is about to move out of the area, and I'm stuck with an useless hobby. I absolutely love painting miniatures and building terrain, but not to just stick on a shelf.

Does anyone know of any good games out there for a single player?

[Chaz]

I hear the game "Paint up a Warhammer army and sell it for a mint on Ebay" is pretty good.

I don't know of any solo minis games. I mean, you could always just play Warhammer solo, since as far as I know there's no hidden info. But really, if you're mostly in it for the hobby aspects, you could probably more than cover your expenses by painting to order.

[Blackhawk]

I mean, you could always just play Warhammer solo, since as far as I know there's no hidden info.

My opponent's strategy.

[Chaz]

Well yeah. Playing solo becomes less a game of surprise and more of an intellectual puzzle. How can Force A best defeat Force B when Force B has certain advantages?

I'm not saying this is the best solution. There just ain't none of what it sounds like you want (unfortunately). There are definitely some good solo board/war games, but I can't think of any solo minis games.

[killbot737]

SPACE HULK

[Chaz]

As awesome as Space Hulk is, I don't think it'd be any good solo. It's heavily dependent on hidden info on the blips.

[silverjon]

Play by blog? You could post photos.

[baelthazar]

Space Hulk isn't all that fun with 2 players...

I'd have to agree that you could play both sides and just attempt to "out-do" yourself.

However, I seem to remember some talk about Mage Knight Dungeons being a pretty good solo-able, mini "dungeon crawl" game. I haven't played it myself, but there was some buzz about it on Boardgame Geek a while back. It might be hard to find the starters and boosters (it is a COLLECTABLE mini game... shudders) but Amazon has a few here and there.

Otherwise you could look into some boardgames that provide similar experiences. Duel of Ages solos pretty well (I'm told, haven't done it yet) but it is also hard to find and is a little expensive (and will have similar problems as soloing Warhammer). There is a new co-op game coming out called Defenders of the Realm that includes 100 minis, but the gameplay is a bit more like Pandemic-meets-Talisman-meets-Runebound. Still, there is rolling, fighting, special abilities, quests, and a map to control, so it is possible that it might scratch the same itch.

Perhaps the best choice would be a boardgame called Dungeon Twister 2: Prison. It has pretty pure, chess-like strategy and you try to get your adventurers through a crazy map that can be twisted to rotate the tiles. The game comes with extensive solo rules and operates through a unit "AI" that you implement according to the situation on the board and a little chart. It sounds complicated, but a lots of people enjoy the solo game as much as the 2-player. You might just look at the BGG entry -http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamee ... r-2-prison. There are similarities to mini gaming here, special abilities, stats, and combat modifiers - but you'll find that it is much more boardgame than something like Warhammer.

That's all I have at the moment. If you like to solo, the best games are co-op games - and these have very little in common with mini gaming.

[Chaz]

Actually, the original Dungeon Twister game had some pretty sweet minis that were ripe for paintin' up. I'll have to look into the second one.

[baelthazar]

Actually, the original Dungeon Twister game had some pretty sweet minis that were ripe for paintin' up. I'll have to look into the second one.

I believe the DT 2: Prison minis are considered to be even nicer!

[The Rocketman]

I just recently picked up a copy of 'Hybrid'. Check it out on http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8515/hybrid" target="_blank. I haven't tried it yet (still assembling and painting my guys), but there are solo-rules available for it. Except for some hidden action cards (but not that many), the game has no hidden information, so it's very tactical in nature.

But, it won't really cater all that much to your painting-needs, because the manufacturer (Rackham) has stopped making metal miniatures, and now only sells prepainted plastic ones. So any metal ones you can find will be quite expensive since they're not being made anymore.

[freelunch]

I've just bought All Things Zombie: The Boardgame and I've been considering picking up the minis rules to enhance the boardgame. based on what I've read I believe All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed! is solo-able.

[Blackhawk]

Thanks for all the inputtery (Look, Ma, I made a word!) I'll check out the options. I do love painting and making terrain. I just really hate living in a small town.

[baelthazar]

Thanks for all the inputtery (Look, Ma, I made a word!) I'll check out the options. I do love painting and making terrain. I just really hate living in a small town.

Well Blackhawk... I now see your location... You could come up to Bloomington, where they have Warhammer tournaments frequently. That's where I live, and the Game Preserve up here is always full of people wanting to play. I would join you, but I am not man enough nor have the disposable money enough to start collecting minis.

Bloomington is only about 2 hours from the Evansville area. If you go to Facebook, you can find the Bloomington Game Preserve, and they list their events (which includes many many Heroclix and Warhammer tournies). Just a thought...

Bael

[hepcat]

I've just bought All Things Zombie: The Boardgame and I've been considering picking up the minis rules to enhance the boardgame. based on what I've read I believe All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed! is solo-able.

i bought ATZ a few months ago (I had it on P500 pre-order, even) and I STILL have not played it. I need to break it out and run through a solo scenario. i mean, i read the rules, for cryin' out loud.

[Blackhawk]

SPACE HULK

I'd love to give Space Hulk a whirl, but good god - those prices are nuts. $150 for a board game?

[Chaz]

They're back to selling for $150? The MSRP was only $100.

Still, you get a whole mess of incredible minis and the nicest cardboard bits I've seen in a long time. Stuff's about 1/8" thick. The minis have a huge amount of detail, and each marine has a unique sculpt. The stealers have 2 or 3 of some models, but there's 20 of them, so there's still a lot of variety. It's expensive, but the quality matches the cost.

[killbot737]

SPACE HULK

I'd love to give Space Hulk a whirl, but good god - those prices are nuts. $150 for a board game?

Great googly-moogly! I thought it was $80. I bought the previous version and all the expansions.

ed -- Shit I'd better get to my local gaming store before they mark it up!

[hepcat]

They're back to selling for $150? The MSRP was only $100.

Still, you get a whole mess of incredible minis and the nicest cardboard bits I've seen in a long time. Stuff's about 1/8" thick.

Unfortunately, unless you live somewhere without any shred of humidity, or you pack the box with those silicon packets that absorb moisture, every single one of those beautiful floor tiles WILL warp.

[Zarathud]

Have to fix that by going into the 3rd dimension. I thought Warhammer (40K) was pretty much a single player miniature game -- you spent more time with the paints and minis than actually playing.

[freelunch]

I've just bought All Things Zombie: The Boardgame and I've been considering picking up the minis rules to enhance the boardgame. based on what I've read I believe All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed! is solo-able.

i bought ATZ a few months ago (I had it on P500 pre-order, even) and I STILL have not played it. I need to break it out and run through a solo scenario. i mean, i read the rules, for cryin' out loud.

I've now played ATZ: The Boardgame twice, once alone and once with my two sons - it is a little fiddly but I think that'll reduce as we get used to it. I found it very difficult the first time I played (hordes of zombies swarming toward my shotgun blasts), less so the second time (when I equipped crossbows instead)

[em2nought]

Ogre would lend itself well I'd think http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/637873/ogre" target="_blank and you could do the minis with lego as in this image

[baelthazar]

I may have found the answer - the new AD&D Castle Ravenloft Boardgame! The gameplay is similar to Descent, it is a co-op dungeon crawl with a streamlined (very apparently) D&D ruleset. However, the game is fully able to be soloed. Theew is no need for a DM as the players take turns being the DM (so already better than Descent in that regard). The monsters have "tactics" that govern how they move. Also, it comes with a good amount (40) of plastic minis (they look all very high end quality, like FFG).

Here is a picture of the Wraith card:


I'm in, and I am pretty excited. I was thinking about DungeonQuest as a solo RPG, dungeon crawl, but Castle Ravenloft looks exactly like what I wanted - minis, characters with different skills and power, items, an actual goal and story.

It all looks very awesome!

[Blackhawk]

Thanks, I will check into that. I'm still looking for something good to play as a quick boardgame or with the kids. As luck would have it though, the premise of this thread has become irrelevant. My moving friend ended up not moving, and instead of no players, I've ended up with extra.

I've actually found myself starting up a game of D&D (well, Pathfinder) for the first time in about fifteen years, and my wargaming buddy and I are going to be checking out the Warlord rules from Reaper. It is well past time to tell Games Workshop where to stick their +60% prices and community stomping.

[baelthazar]

I've heard Pathfinder is quite good. I just don't have the time to devote or enough players to make any roleplaying viable.

I might see if some friends would like to do a session of Call of Cthulhu RPG, just for old time's sake!

[donnaj8887]

Space Hulk isn't all that fun with 2 players...

I'd have to agree that you could play both sides and just attempt to "out-do" yourself.

However, I seem to remember some talk about Mage Knight Dungeons being a pretty good solo-able, mini "dungeon crawl" game. I haven't played it myself, but there was some buzz about it on Boardgame Geek a while back. It might be hard to find the starters and boosters (it is a COLLECTABLE mini game... shudders) but Amazon has a few here and there.

Otherwise you could look into some boardgames that provide similar experiences. Duel of Ages solos pretty well (I'm told, haven't done it yet) but it is also hard to find and is a little expensive (and will have similar problems as soloing Warhammer). There is a new co-op game coming out called Defenders of the Realm that includes 100 minis, but the gameplay is a bit more like Pandemic-meets-Talisman-meets-Runebound. Still, there is rolling, fighting, special abilities, quests, and a map to control, so it is possible that it might scratch the same itch.

Perhaps the best choice would be a boardgame called Dungeon Twister 2: Prison. It has pretty pure, chess-like strategy and you try to get your adventurers through a crazy map that can be twisted to rotate the tiles. The game comes with extensive solo rules and operates through a unit "AI" that you implement according to the situation on the board and a little chart. It sounds complicated, but a lots of people enjoy the solo game as much as the 2-player. You might just look at the BGG entry -http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamee ... r-2-prison. There are similarities to mini gaming here, special abilities, stats, and combat modifiers - but you'll find that it is much more boardgame than something like Warhammer.

That's all I have at the moment. If you like to solo, the best games are co-op games - and these have very little in common with mini gaming.

Such a very amazing link!
Thanks you for the post.


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