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Hello everybody welcome to totally tabled my name is shaggy and today i’m running down my top 10 solo games of all time these are my favorite games to play solo right now in 2022 as always i just like to dive right in so let’s just get started
Number 10 is coffee roaster i think this might have been the first solo only game that i ever played i remember i was really attracted to the art and the unusual game play this is really that perfect coffee shop game or maybe late at night when you’re a little
Tired you’re drinking something a little heavier and you just want something relaxing easy going this is almost meditative and yeah even to this day the gameplay here is pretty unique it’s got a little bit of a deck building vibe you have a bag full of chips that represent sort of
The unroasted coffee beans and you’re pulling them randomly out of the bag there’s some special abilities and different things you can do and then you’re upgrading them and putting them back in the bag you just keep doing that over and over again slowly making the bag better and better and then at some
Point you’re going to stop and you’re going to say all right i want to actually brew the cup and then you just start pulling them out one at a time putting them on this cup and you’re trying to achieve a certain value or have you know certain tokens in there that represent
Flavor or different aspects of the coffee so there’s this push your luck or even sort of pure luck aspect but it’s all kind of based on what you’ve done before how you’ve how you’ve gotten your bag together what special abilities you’ve unlocked it’s just a ton of fun i mean just pulling
Tokens from a bag is really fun if you’ve put them in those coin holders there’s actually another game on this list that uses those coin holders but anytime you’re pulling cardboard chips out of a bag you want to put them in these coin holders then you just get the
Right tactile feel pulling them out of the bag it’s so much fun upgrading them throwing them back in and i’m just a sucker for this art style it’s i just think it looks so great and so if you’ve never heard of this one i i recommend you checking it out it’s a lot
Of fun coffee roaster that’s my number 10. number nine is both one of the oldest and one of the newest games on the list this is concordia with the solitary expansion i’ve done a full solo playthrough of this one so go check it out concordia was already one of my favorite
Multiplayer games it has just a bunch of systems that i love one of my favorite mechanisms i think on bgg they call it action retrieval you have these cards which are your actions and you play them out but then you have to play a special card in order
To get those cards back and you’re sort of incentivized to wait as long as possible to play them that’s really fun i love that mechanism in any game and it just works really well here because you’re also drafting cards from a line of cards and adding it to your deck
Building i guess essentially i never think of this as a deck building game but you’re building up your deck of actions if you get a bunch of one kind of action you can do that more often before you have to reset not only that but the cards you’re acquiring are also
Scoring multipliers at the end of the game the cards you’re acquiring are pushing you into certain directions to do certain things on the map there’s tons of maps it’s such a great elegant euro game the theme is maybe you know a little dry but other than that it’s just
Really fun and then this expansion comes in that adds a solo mode after all these years and it does what i love most in a solo mode and i think you’re gonna see this throughout the list is it gets out of the way it does not add a ton of
Rules overhead or like mental cognitive overhead i can basically just play a game of concordia and very simply run this ai that is getting in my way effectively that’s you know taking things off the board snatching things from me you know something that i need to think about and play against and win
Against but it’s not you know i’m not having to deal with flow charts and all the rest of it and the fact that i can play it with all the different maps and the expansion and all this stuff it’s just such a great little expansion uh
For me it’s adding that solo mode that can means i can bring concordia to the table when it’s just me that’s fantastic number eight is the loop i’m gonna keep this one really short because i’ve done a lot of coverage of this game go check out my full solo play through
I’ve also done sort of a quick review and i talked about this game in my best of 2021 video a fantastic cooperative game that adds a really neat twist in solo where you’re playing with multiple characters but you combine their decks together and it gives you this little bit of
Strategic planning as you hand out these cards deciding which character gets to go next that little twist to the gameplay adds a lot of fun for me which makes solo my favorite way of playing this game i’m also a big fan of the cube tower here which works really well
Love the art and the theme and the silliness of this one i i’ve said it once and i’m going to say it again i’m not sure why this one is falling through the cracks but don’t miss out this is a incredibly fun cooperative game it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite
There’s an expansion coming out soon that i’m very excited about but there’s also multiple modules in the box so this one has a ton of replayability seriously don’t sleep on this one my number eight the loop number seven is an another uh quite new uh solo experience and that is
Lost runes of our knack with the expedition leaders expansion without the expansion not on the list with the expansion this has really become a high level solo experience for me that i really really enjoy you can check out my full playthrough i’ve done a full solo playthrough of this both the base game
And with the expedition leaders expansion you should go check those out but i really enjoy again simple ai system doesn’t get in the way and just this acquiring cards a little light deck building worker placement it’s just fun and the combos and the little mini games with these different leaders it just really
Is a kind of interesting and surprisingly puzzly little experience i love the idea of exploring these locations and then there’s these guardians there where you need to take care of them as well so you explore this guardian comes up and now it’s like okay i need to get the stuff together to deal
With that guardian and the fact that you’re there means no one else can mess with it so you have that entire round to try to get the stuff together that you need to take care of that guardian that gives you a little benefit you’re working up these research tracks and i
Love the additional research tracks that the expansion brings to the table some cool little tweaks there that are really fun there’s just always a lot you can do in our knack there’s a surprising amount of ways you can get the thing that you need to do the thing you want to do and
I’m just a sucker for that kind of puzzliness that’s this the kind of stuff that i really enjoy in these games and and arnak definitely has it especially with this expansion which also shoots the replayability way up i’m also a big fan of the little mini
Solo expansions that you can play on the on the web-based app again check out the play through you’ll see all that in action but i think that adds a little bit to spice it up and you have those extra difficulty levels there’s even a full solo campaign that i haven’t even
Tried yet believe me that’s super high on my list but that’s even more replayability just fantastic game lost runes of our knack with the expedition leaders expansion number six is a little bit unexpected it’s at the gates of loyang now one of the many great things about rosenberg
Games is that they have well-designed well-thought-out solo modes i mean he was way ahead of the curve on this he’s been doing it almost all of his big box hero games so you have a ton to pick from and i think a lot of people would be choosing you know maybe
Newsfjord here if that’s how you pronounce that um or maybe glass road or um a feast for odin something like that here i’m choosing at the gates of loyang which i think is maybe for a lot of people maybe their least favorite it’s certainly one of his most unusual designs
It’s not just a another worker placement farming euro it does something very different has a very has a very unique feel that i think throws a lot of people off but it’s what i really love about the game and the amazing thing is is this is a card drafting game
For the solo mode you basically throw all that away and you have a completely different way of drafting cards using this sort of really ingenious grid system where the cards sort of fall away and get replaced it’s it’s very cool it’s a very fun system and then after that you’re just playing
A game of liang sort of in this in a similar vein to concordia you just get to play the game and for me loyang is such a satisfying puzzle i love the idea of i’m getting these contracts and i’ve got these little farms going you know i’ve produced a bunch of stuff
On them but that’s sort of slowly going away right every round i can pick one thing off of all my farms but then that farm is going to go away you have these long-term contracts where you have to fulfill that contract four times and so you know those first two times you might
Be fine but then that field has gone away and now it’s like i can’t get pumpkins anymore and i have to fulfill this contract two more times how am i gonna get more pumpkins and so you you sort of get into this really cool puzzle and the way the
Scoring works is kind of ingenious where you’re having to sort of buy points each round the first point of the round only costs one coin and then each additional point after that costs whatever the points would be so maybe i have you know nine points
At the beginning of a round at the end i’m going to be buying points so that first point to get to 10 that’s only one coin but the next point would cost 11. yeah so you’re trying to you’re trying to race up that track as fast as
Possible at the beginning of the game and then towards the end just try to have enough money to try to get two or maybe if you’re lucky three bumps up the track and i find it very difficult very difficult to do well it also has this
Really odd flow where on your turn you have this list of actions that you can do and you can do any of them as many times as you want in any order except for one what you can only do one time you have this really weird i mean most
Games don’t do that most games are very highly structured here it’s just like yeah you can do these actions do them as much as you want as many times in any order however you want to do it and then just stop when you are done taking actions
And so i think that openness can maybe be overwhelming for some people because it does matter the order that you do things in and and how you go about what you’re doing but for me i just i love that feeling it’s very interesting and there’s not a lot of games like that so
I think at the gates of loyang is a pretty special game love playing it solo number six another game that i’ve done a full solo playthrough of and that is obsession man this game has grown on me again i’m sounding like a broken record here but we’ve got the puzzly decision
Making and we have a very simple ai that gets out of the way these are clearly the things that that i’m into obsession has it along with a really neat unique theme really great choices here as you’re trying to manage your workforce in trying to sort of combo
Your workforce with the cards in your hand these guests that are going to attend attend these um these activities trying to get all that to line up just right it’s another one of those that is surprisingly challenging you know sometimes you can just sort of nail it
You know you’re just right in rhythm and then i’ve also had games where i just for some reason i’m just out of sync like it’s just not coming together right and it’s more of a struggle it’s just a very interesting game like that a lot of replayability and i love some of the
Variants that are in the back of the book that kind of spice things up a little bit especially how those court cards come out or whatever they’re called yeah just a really great very tight economy you’re drafting these tiles uh it’s just really fun love this game obsession
Number four i’m riding the hype train everyone it’s sleeping gods probably shouldn’t have put it on here but i just can’t help myself i’m just smitten this is so new i’m i’m currently as i’m recording this i’m putting playthroughs together for this game but i just love it and again this is
Just one that that just hits me in the right spot i love when a solo game has a story you’re gonna see that here as we get higher up on the list i’m a big fan of that and of exploration in games i love the idea of going somewhere new and
Finding out what’s there making decisions about what to do and it’s just so much fun the open world the quests the exploration and the combat system i am really really enjoying this combat system watch the play through you know to find out more but put your enemy together you put them
In a line and there’s a grid and you’re sort of attacking this grid and trying to decide oh if i take out their hand then they’ll do less damage but if i hit them in the leg that will take their health down i keep saying the same thing over and over again but
A lot a lot of these games share similar attributes and they’re things that i really enjoy and and that combat system is surprisingly strategic and puzzly as you’re working out exactly where to to go after who to go after what parts of the of the grid to to attack
Ah it’s just so much fun i mean there’s so much here i can’t wait to dive into it more it’s sort of it’s a game that has taken over all of my play for a little while here which is is problematic i need to do other things
But i just want to keep playing it it’s just a really smart interesting design that’s sleeping gods number three i sort of mentioned in passing and it’s a feast for odin this is my favorite solo rosenberg game i love the other ones here’s a little here’s a little sneaky option for you i
Think haller tau is actually excellent as a solo game that’s one to check out if you haven’t but yeah this is my favorite a feast for odin i mean i’m not even that big into these polyamino style games but here it’s just joyous putting these things together covering up all
Those negative spots surrounding the goods to get that income oh man it’s just so much fun and the solo system here is ingenious absolutely ingenious hey just take two groups of player pieces in one round you’re going to use one type and you’re going to leave those on the work
Replacement spots and then the next round they’re blocking you from use another type and just keep doing that you’re constantly just blocking yourself you’re getting in your own way it’s forcing you to not just do the same action over and over and over again and
It just works it just works great i love it the norwegians expansion is also fantastic but you know you don’t even need that the base game is good enough there’s always something new you can try there’s a huge deck of cards you know the cards aren’t really that
Important in this game i don’t think maybe i’m playing it wrong but you know they give you a little something each game a little something different maybe you can do it maybe you don’t i think the uh the the hunting and the fishing kind of mechanisms are
Really well done i really enjoy that a little bit of pusher luck i don’t know it just works so well solo i don’t think a lot of people are gonna disagree with that choice a feast for rhoden number three well and speaking of safe picks my number two is gloomhaven
And you just put the whole series of games in here just lump them together the gloomhaven system huge fan of these the card combat system is just to die for i mean i just i absolutely love it i mean such a simple idea just
You have a top and a bottom part of a card you pick two cards you’re gonna play the top on one the bottom on the other right some of the really awesome effects cause you to lose the card and the cards are both your sort of stamina and health so you got to
Really be smart about your timing when you use certain things how you’re managing your cards it’s so thinky and that seems like such a clash with this sort of dungeon crawl you know kind of theme but it just works so well you know in going through this campaign
You know many times i would lose the first time and then win it the second time you know having learned from my mistakes that first round i was able to get over the hump the second time it happened so many times and that’s the sign of a really great system where you
Know clearly it’s it’s my own mistakes right it’s it’s the things that i’m doing and you know the story is fine i kind of enjoy the world uh and and the characters but that’s not really what i’m here for right i’m i’m here for that card play upgrading those cards
Going into a dungeon trying to puzzle out how best to use the cards yeah just tremendous fun i agree with everyone else who loves this game gloomhaven my number one solo game has been my favorite solo game for a really long time it’s also my favorite cooperative
Game and just one of my favorite games in general this is robertson caruso adventures on the cursed island my favorite way to play this is three-handed so playing with three characters which is not something i normally like to do but here it works out really well because first of all the
Characters have four special abilities which really don’t change so it’s really easy to internalize their special abilities and also each character only gets to take one or two actions per round and so at most you have six different actions going on and it’s very easy to keep track of i just personally
Like to not have to play with the with the friday card and the dog card which you have to use if you’re playing with one or two players but i mean gosh what can you say about this game that hasn’t been said already i mean first of all
The theme here is so fantastic love exploration love survival and this really captures that the highlight here is a very simple system where you’re either going to have a character do one action really well essentially using the whole day to do that one action in which case they won’t have to roll for
It they’ll just be able to accomplish the action straight away or you split up their actions and they do two actions but they’re doing them with more risk involved and so you have to roll dice they might get injured they might actually fail to do the the thing that
They were trying to do and you might have these events come up which have an immediate effect and then oftentimes you put that card back into the event deck shuffle it up and it’s gonna come back again and you’re gonna experience usually bad consequences in the future which creates
This ongoing story this game tells a story better than almost any game does so many games their their approach to storytelling is to have a storytelling book or to have some sort of linear campaign where you’re reading these passages at various points maybe making decisions here there’s very
Little text involved the story emerges out of the gameplay as you’re doing these things it creates very compelling and memorable moments and it’s all based on the strategic decisions that you’re making trying to survive trying to accomplish whatever goal that you you need to accomplish
Also this isn’t just one game this is a gaming system with all of these modules many of which play dramatically different from one another which creates infinite replayability each of these modules each of these different stories you’re mostly playing the same game but there’s a bunch of new rules and it
Really creates a different experience and you can replay those modules over and over and over again it really does feel like having in the base game six different games and then there’s all of these expansions and and extra promo modules and stuff this is a huge game
Probably a game i’ve played more than almost any other game and there you go that’s my number one solo game robinson caruso that’s it everyone 10 great solo games thank you so much for watching and goodbye
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