Atom, _thank you_ so very much for leading to what seemed an impossible goal-single-player adventure! I live with debilitating psychological conditions, including moderate social anxiety. I have been drawn for over a decade to WH40K and even the most basic D&D, but have been thwarted by the social aspects. This offers the gateway to gaining founding skills and confidence that I may yet be able to begin gaming!! Beginning with myself, and a combination of interest in High Fantasy, and a deeper SF literature interest and inclination, you’ve given me my first hope. Gods bless you!
You speak the truth. I have had a long desire to play games such as D&D, Vampire the Masquerade, Mordheim and many others. But I have social anxiety and just the thought of meeting new people is terrifying to me. My husband and I are looking into Rangers though so we can do some co-op play without needing the grey pile of shame that is our warhammer stuff.
WOW. Did you even take five minutes doing any research, at all, into this niche of gaming? First off, NONE of those games are war games. Where's D-Day at Omaha Beach? Any of the Conflict of Heros or Lock n Load Tactics? Ranger, Fields of Fire? DVG's Leader, Commander and Warfighter series'? How about some old school... ASL? Ambush? Tokyo Express, Mosby's Rangers, Patton's Best, B-17: Queen of the Sky, RAF? I also love how non-solo gamers try to wrap their heads around the fact that some of us ACTUALLY LIKE/PREFER playing alone and the closest they can comprehend is "I want to learn the rules so I name ready to play when I DO play with somebody" or "I have no friends and therefore I have NO OTHER CHOICE". There is a whole world of solo/solo friendly games out there and people that love them. And never once do people like you or Tom Vasel ever consider that we do so because we choose to. Educate yourself.
This seems like a really intense response but I know how it can feel to see something you are well-versed in and care about being misrepresented. I get the impression that Uncle Atom was trying to help some of his audience consider solo play and was drawing on some of the options he was already familiar with. For me, it was helpful to know that a few options like this exist. I enjoy collecting and playing boardgames, and always appreciate solo games/modes or even digital adaptations that let me play myself vs. AI. I’d like to get into war gaming and have been looking for some good starting points and a game that can be played solo sounds like a great fit. The suggestions provided in the video are appealing, and I plan to Google some of the options you laid out to get a better sense of what’s available. If you have any other recommendations of sources for discovering solo war gaming options (a fave site or channel?) I’d happily check it out. If not, I wonder if that’s something you’d ever consider creating content about. You certainly seem passionate and knowledgeable. Perhaps you could help others discover some of the gems out there. Solo war gaming also sounds like a nicely defined niche... Anyways... thanks for your list of titles. I look forward to looking them up. :)
I think there are far more solo players out there than you think. Games companies are finally realizing the potential of this; no solo rules means you are missing out on a huge slice of the market. Two great solo games are the original Warhammer Quest (set in the fantasy setting no AoS) but which is now hard and or expensive to find, and Gloomhaven.
A single player game works for those of us who can't find the time to get out and game with others. Then again, for me, that is time best left for hobby, given the massive pile of plastic I have yet to paint!
That’s a good point: I generally default to hobby time, but I appreciate that some of these games have single player modes so I can learn them on my own terms. Thanks for watching!
Atom that is dead on for me as well. I normally default to hobby time if im alone but i find that if a game has a single player mode i love it to be able to learn it myself before bringing it to my group to play together. Amazing vid as always
Almost any wargame can be played solo, for many of them their various fans have knocked up some solo rules or you can literally just play the game being both sides... The solo wargaming guide by william silvester is also a very good book on how to run solo campaigns and such so don't be afraid to choose you favourite game whether that be 40k, bolt action chain of command or whatever and have a crack playing with yourself... It's always okay to play with yourself as long as it isn't in public ;)
Ben Woodcock I agree, when I was learning 40k I often played solo using two small armies of about 500 points, it took a while to get used to both armies and the different rules, but it definitely helped me out before I went to the local shop and played against people there
Rangers Of Shadow Deep is a great game. It Sits in the space between RPG and skirmish but doesn't feel like a compromise. It's perfect if you've got friends who are WarGamers and friends that are RPGers and you want to get them around the same table.
It seems you're missing all the print'n'play options: Sellswords and Spellslingers (by Ganesha, same author of Song of... series of games), Arkeo Obskura, Blood on the Blade (highly recommended) and its sci-fi port, Blood in Space. Also THW (Two-Hours Wargame) is famous for publishing rule-sets playable solo and/or co-op. I'd suggest getting a look at Wargame Vault, these are just the first ones that come to mind.
If a game can be played single player it always gets a bonus tick for me. You’re 100% right about investing in a big box game and then it sits there not getting played nearly enough. It’s one of the reasons I love Silver Tower so much. The Walking Dead All Out War by Mantic is a great example as it can be played solo, co-op and 1v1 which gives it a lot of play options. You can play alone, learn the rules, play co-op and ease a new player into the game and then when up to speed go against each other. Great video Adam 👍🏼
Yup! Big plus for me as I mostly play solo. With Fallout wasteland warfare I could play co-op with the misses which was another plus. I bought silver tower because could play solo but not hammerhal because no solo. Subscriber to your channel Andy 😀
John Long - I looked at Blackstone Fortress but I’ll be honest the initial videos didn’t really grab me as something I’d really enjoy. I’m not big into the 40K lore so far didn’t attract me but I am hearing good things about it now.
John Long, Haven't tried Blackstone and like Andy said, after watching a play through it did hook me. From what you've said, I'll have to have a second look because I loved Silver Tower.
I was going to mention this as well, not only did X-Wing get me back into wargaming, HOTAC got me into solo wargaming and I've been experimenting with creating a similar system for more common tabletop wargames like 40k, warmachine and even kill team now.
What! You didn't mention GMT Games. They have tons of solo play games. Navajo Wars Commancheria The Hunters (be German U-Boat Commander) The Hunted The COIN series are highly playable for solo play. Nemo's War (not GMT) Fields of Fire (an excellent company level action game) Dan Verssen Games specializes in solo play games. Field Commander Napoleon is considered by some as the best solo experience out there. B-17 Queen of the Skies is arguably one of the most famous solo play games ever made. The Peloponnesian Wars by Mark Hermon is another amazing solo game where you play as both sides depending on who is winning (It's being re-released! Order it!). I do realized that some of these games are out of print and could be expensive. The games offered on this video are easily available. There is a massive library of solitaire games out there to be discovered. This is especially true if you like historical gaming. The AI in Commancheria is brutal. That "Plague" card always ruins my day. You don't need friends to play solo games. So turn on some Mayhem or Darkthrone and have some fun.
You seem like the kind of person someone could sit down with and talk to for hours while playing a good round of tabletop. It's a rare skill and requires a lot of charisma, but you give off a really cool vibe
@@aGentlemanScholar For tons of ideas for miniatures and terrain, I recommend going to the Rangers of Shadow Deep facebook page. You will find fans who will gladly help you.
The reason I play single-player games is very simple: Sometimes I can play 2-3 hours and sometimes only 10 minutes. I never know when my time will be up. There is absolutely no way to play any other way.
Nice video, as always! They brought me back in the hobby. Even the original Warhammer Quest (my go to love of all time) was(is playable single player since back in the day, by using random card decks and attack rules (AI) for the monsters!
Watching this video and seeing him say "Why would I want to play a game by myself" and I was thinking "Uhh...ever heard of a little thing called Covid?" but then I noticed the video's from 2018. Oops, my bad!
FFG's Star Wars: Imperial Assault recently had an app released which works as the AI for single player or co-op play. This means it can be played as a single player or co-op campaign game, as an adversarial campaign game (probably still the best way to play it), or as a 2 player skirmish game. It comes with a ton of miniatures (including an AT-ST), has a lot of expansions if it turns out that you enjoy it, and can be picked up for about the same price as Blackstone.
I challenge you to play a COIN game single player and call it a gateway game. Your idea of wargaming isn’t the same as mine. Most of the games you listed are euro style miniatures games. You ignored DVG, GMT, Decision games, hollandspiele, compass games to just name a few. They have solitaire games that will melt your brain. Dday at Peleliu will pwn you.
For the historical curious Osprey publishes a game called The Men Who Would be Kings. It's a slightly tongue in cheek set of colonial wargaming rules that have a solo set of rules called "playing against Mr. Babbage"
DVG (Dan Verssen Games) have a series of solo wargames/simulators. They've got Tiger leader. Sherman leader, Hornet leader and Apache leader. The concept is the same : you manage pilots/crew and execute missions against an AI opponent.
Blackstone Fortress seems like it can be played alone and I will be doing mock battles with my built KTs once I get them painted for practice. Not many people are into wargaming where I live so I have to rely on my friends and wife to play with, which is entirely okay of course, but it still leaves me wanting a community nearby. Edit: I posted this half way through the vid right before you held up Blackstone, go figure. I think I'm going to just build the miniatures for Blackstone just so I can play the game and paint them later. I rand into the issue with KT where I'd buy the kits and go right into painting. Needless to say since this is my first foray into wargaming I still have yet to play a game of KT. I have some beautifully painted models though, which I actually appreciate more because I'm in this to paint.
I actually started getting into single player wargaming soley because i had had enough of video games and the BS that goes on with modern companies these days. Micro-transactions, piss poor polish and overall terrible choices made by these companies actually pushed me out, and now instead of $60-120 a month on a video game, its on plastic crack instead. Ive been able to get my wife into zombicide, my friend into Star Wars Legion and X-wing, and I myself have been rolling solo with Sword and Sorcery, Fallout WW and now im looking into BlackStone Fortress. I can honestly say, Ive been happier for it.
Any wargame can be solo played, there have been books explaining how published the last 50 years. Donald Featherstone, Stuart Asquith and Charles Grant are the authors to look for if you want to investigate ;)
KDM is an incredible game! Its awesome solo or with friends. Also just wondering what would KDM be a gateway into though? It is incredibly in depth and involved.
@@tabletopminions The game is coop you end up playing all for survivors instead of other people controlling them and you make all the decisions for the settlement
As much as I love KDM, I would not recommend it as a starting point. It is quite involved, and rather expensive. Also it is extremely NSFW. Gore, body horror, sexual subtext (not even a subtext, really), nudity, the whole shebang. Not a light dessert, to be sure.
There are so many solitaire war games once you start looking beyond miniatures, especially with historical settings. And they can be really complex (e.g. Fields of Fire by GMT)
Thank you for covering this topic, I mainly play my board games/miniature games solo, and I keep hearing things like "you should just play video games instead" or "playing these games alone? How sad" I only have few friends I trust and none of them are interested in playing games. I know there are gaming groups where I live but I can't bring myself to sit down with others to play a game. Long story short I have been bullied for longer than half my life, even though I'm in my early 30s now and I managed to or still trying to move on, I can't bring myself to sit down with others I don't know or don't trust to play a game even though I know these people in these groups are just like me, they are there to play games and have fun but even then I still can't join them. Having solo options is a great way for someone like me to join the hobby, maybe it's nowhere near the fun of playing with others, but it's still fun. I know this is an old video, but just wanted to say thank you for it and I hope to see more videos from you covering more single player games :).
They are a bit more Beer and Pretzels style by I recommend checking out Two Hour Wargames, all of Eds stuff can be played solo, or coop, quite a bit of fun!
Another quick comment - check out Pulp Alley and Core Space for more great tabletop skirmish games designed with a solo system. And to see what I'm talking about with solo RPGs, check out Me, Myself, and Die. He's a professional voice actor who runs solo games and records them. It's quite an entertaining process, and is a purely personal creation for the player.
I'll have to check out Rangers of Shadow Deep. Thanks for the tip! On that note: Last Days is a Frostgrave-style wargame set in a zombie apocalypse world that can be played single player. Massive Darkness is a fun dungeon crawl board game that comes with dozens of minis that can be then used for Frostgrave or D&D (or whatever) that is also single player.
So Fallout is now a table top game inspired by a video game that was inspired by a table top game? I found a bunch of old gurps books recently, love that shit.
Rangers is very cool. I didn't have any houses terrain and ended up being introduced to the world of paper craft. Insane! I went hog wild and built 5 buildings and they worked great for Rangers. I highly recommend Rangers. The creator, Joseph McCullough, is awesome when it comes to supporting his gaming systems. He's already providing additional content on the Facebook group.
@@BlueDemon77 Pretty much. You can get these PDF files for free or cheap and print them on cardstock. Cut them up and fold to make buildings, miniatures, and pretty much anything imaginable. You make them stronger by mounting on foam core or something thicker than cardstock.
What Ilike about this idea is me and my friend live a couple hours away from each othe you friend to buy this same game, play solo then when you do have time to get together you both have practice playing the game.
Where did you get a fancy print version of Rangers of Shadow Deep? I thought it was only a PDF download! Great video as always. And your kind of ‘creepy’ is my favorite kind of creepy haha!
Tabletop Minions thanks bunches! I didn’t realize that site did print on demand, I’m going to check it out. The role-playing aspect has me thinking maybe I can get the hubs to play a minis game beyond gateways:)
@@emilymegan40, so many ppl ordered the pdf he decided to make it a print by demand. I got the pdf... went on staples website and made my own book for like $36... very next day I got an email saying they were doing it as print on demand lol.
Also I saw a lust if best solo games and Mantics DEADZONE came in at no1 with a lot of comments agreeing with this choice! It surprised me as I never knew it had single plr options !
This was the first game that came to my mind. Great game and works as a great gateway game for my board gaming friends. Nexus psi is the book you need Adam btw thanks for the great content.
Fallout wasteland warfare box was just delivered to my wife this morning! It's waiting for me at home so I didn't want to spend another minute at work! Running back home to inbox it!
I love it! Takes a bit to get the rules, loads of little things but the designer has been great at answers on BGG and Facebook. The A.I. is great and is challenging.
J Mac I'm really looking forward to playing this one. The fact that it also has a solo mode is also a plus for me right now. Will get the rules and bring it to my games day when I'm ready! Like Adam said.
voingiappone, also check the Modiphius Fallout Download page, they have additional scenarios and info about solo and co-op. Also make sure to double check your Blue dice, it seems a lot of people got ones with the incorrect symbols.
As a guy who plays a lot of Dungeon Saga / Mantic games there are a couple caveats before recommending Dungeon Saga as a single player game. The "AI" is the Invisible overload deck and not sold in the base game. You will need to purchase the Adventures Companion as well. According to their youtube channel the game is scheduled to be re-released (version 2.0) in May 2019 so it may be worth waiting till then or jumping now while they are selling the expansions for 20 USD/15£.
If you can get past the lack of mini's, there are gobs of single player wargames from companies like GMT, DVG, etc. The Warfighter(Tactical or WWII) series from DVG is excellent, as are all of there Leader series games.
Im very intrested about the game Ranges of shadow deep , as a solitair player , I always try to find games , that I can use my warhammer fantasy miniatures .
I like the idea of games that can be played in single player as sometimes I have a gap for times at the club and need to keep myself entertained till my next game and these come in very handy, sometimes the single player sprawls out into a multiplayer which is just an added bonus I think :)
As always a good video. I love that there are solo version of games as I'm just not up to driving a few hours to play with others on a regular bases. I'm getting into Imperial Assault, Zombiecide and Walking Dead All Out War ( I've a special kinship with zombies lol). But those 3 games are what got me to return to miniature painting after many years of absence. My only problem is taking some of my painting and modeling time for playing.
I just unwrapped my Walking dead KS from 2016 ( bloody life!!) And I was going to pimp out Black jack Legacy as some great videos on that game I copied his tutorial for improving the paper matts and now I see he's the comment below me! 🤣🤣 Also recommand Guerrilla Miniture games channel Ash is cool and he does great 'lets plays' I watch him to get a rough handle on a games mechanics and rules before getting stuck in myself Ive watched the walking dead games and the Ranger ones. While I have acess to a large gaming club with great people ( LONDON WARGAMING GUILD ) my life is Never simple and getting down to them can be an issue. I do enjoy playing solo and with my 10 year old son ...(its best to know the rules first. Or you loose him to boredom) it also gives me motivation to hobby. Sometimes at the club the pace of gaming is so breakneck its hard to keep up in campains and I loose motivation.
Just recently found this channel. My kids wanted to get into the horus heresy age of darkness and kill team they are both have never played anything like this. So guess who had to set up both games by himself and learn how to play so I could teach them. Actually had much more fun then I thought possibly doing a one player battle. Bottom line it's you cah it's your time being spent you do you and be happy in your enjoyment. Thanks for all the awsome painting and gaming advice it's been a huge help for our new gaming journey.
Single Player Wargames are a bit like going to the movies (or concerts) alone, it might take a few tries to get it "in your system". But you will come to a point where it's either you see this superhero movie alone, or wait for it to come on rental/Blu-Ray(concerts are more a "it's either now or never" type of activity, but it is similar). I mean, people play PCRPG's alone, so why not board games? The 'Choose Your own Adventure' books have sold over 275Million copies. There's a market for solo play, and I have noticed that it's more common now than before that it says "1-4 players" on the box; where the "1" is the new part. But then, it's also new with the "3-6 players", making that board game something that might not get played as often. While watching this, I checked out some board games and if they can be played single player, 'Gloomhaven' is "1-4 players". Hm!
My friends and I have spliced pieces of Shadow Deep into our Frostgrave campaign so we can have advancing troops with more variety. It does make losing someone more painful though.
3:35 I usually call it "the Modus Operantis", latim for "operational pattern" - like how cops identify if crimes were comitted by the same person by how they were executed, they follow the same pattern, doctrine, methodology, manual, step by step etc
Rangers of Shadow Deep fills a really important gap for me. I always wanted a Single Player / cooperative Tabletop Game in the style of Descent 2nd Edition. That board game almost covers everything you‘ll ever wanted from fantasy. But it is sadly bound to a gaming board and doesn’t forgive any failure against the overlord. RoSD does its job right in being the first step in the right direction.
you just earned a sub. i have to ask. and you can send me a private message as a response. you were in madison, are you from the local area or do you live elsewhere. i live in the Lacrosse area in WI. im trying to find more players to learn and experience more games from. for example i picked up the fallout game myself, and ive skimmed thru most of the rules. im still trying to find time to learn it. i would like to get some people involved in it.
I live in the middle of Wisconsin. If you live in Lacrosse, you should check out River City Hobbies, nice people there. Also, the GameFor app (which I helped design - find it on iOS and Android) can help you find players and events in your area. Thanks for watching!
@@tabletopminions o shop at RCH quite offten. unfortunately most of the players there dont play the games i do. we used to also have apex games but since that closed the groups i do hang with go to pop con. also alot of the table top players like the warhammer player outgrew the local store and there just wasnt room for them. they play at moxies on tuesdays i think. very entertaining. the problem we have in our area is everyone has their niche and dont want to leave their bubble and try new things. i like Necromunda, im collecting the Fallout game, i have various unpopular card deckbuilding games. and getting people interested in trying them out is ... difficult. ill definitely be paying attention to your content.
Blackstone Fortress can be played single player.. and as someone from Chicago that can’t play with others(distance and lack of 40k interest in my area) this speaks volumes to me. Very good video that sheds light.
I enjoy singleplayer game rpg’s on pc, so why not something a bit more real also! The Saga games and Ranger game look really interesting, I will treat myself at christmas to one of them. :D
Even though I like the idea of playing a wargame alone, I can't help but be put off by them more often than not. It's a lot more work than say a video game that gives me the same feeling (Total War: Warhammer is like crack), and generally pretty expensive. Most importantly I find myself missing that social aspect of it, and the unpredictability of playing against another person instead of a preprogrammed "AI" enemy that I have to control anyways. and like a few others have already said, I almost always feel like I could get some painting done instead of gaming by myself. My Tyranids feel lonely and rejected, all 150 plus of them. Poor little guys. Er, things. I don't think Tyranids have genders.
That being said I agree that solo wargames shouldn't be looked down on. They have their place for sure, though at the moment I want something less mechanical and predictable. Plus shit talking yourself is a bit weird.
"If only he knew, 2 years after this video, there'd be an event that would catapult Solo Skirmish, Wargame & RPG's _way_ up there..." In all honesty, I would love to see a followup video on this topic in 2024. With the likes of 5Parsecs/Leagues, Psalms, Stargrave/Frostgrave variants, Kuro, Warlord Ascendant, there's far more room for solo gaming, and seeing your takes on the stuff you find would be pretty cool.
