Why do you keep playing with yourself?

Now and then people admit they play boardgames solitaire somewhat frequently. I've never understood this as to me boardgaming is a social thing. If I only had myself as an opponent I'd probably find a different hobby. There are countless awesome video games out there designed for a single-player, for example. Even some board games for the PC, which I have played before because there are AI opponents.
Anyways, I've never played a multi-player board game solitaire except Ingenious a couple times and it wasn't that good. Although I've played a bunch of multi-player games that felt like solitaire *ZING!*. I can understand learning the game before teaching others, but even then I personally prefer to learn together with people as part of the experience.
So how often do you play with yourself? Do you do it just to practice or learn? Or do you really enjoy it? I'm particularly curious if anyone plays with themselves more than with others. Are there any non-solitaire games you prefer to play solitaire or think are just as good as they are multi-player?

Please name a video game more awesome than arkham horror solo.

PUNCH OUT

Mr Skeletor wrote:

Please name a video game more awesome than arkham horror solo.

AH is designed for solo play as it says 1-8 on the box. I should have been more clear that I meant non-solitaire board games. My bad!

I only solo non-solitaire games to learn the rules or mess around with strategy.

I like to set up scenario based wargames and occasionally look at different setups, and i've been known to write different setups down.

There are non-solitaire games that I play by myself, for various reasons.

1. To teach myself how to play a new game. Even if a game doesn't work at all as solitaire, due to hidden information, I will at least play out a few rounds solo to get a feel for setup, rules, and potential problems. I did that with Battlestar Galactica, and it helped us get the first game going quickly.

2. Lack of opponents. I agree that playing boardgames should be a social experience, but sometimes I just don't have the right players available to play a given game, or I want to try out how well a game plays with the maximum number of players. Or maybe my people just don't like a game that I want to play. Zombies!!! is an excellent example. A couple of years ago, I had a week of vacation time that I couldn't carry over into the new year, so I took the week between Christmas and New Years off, but didn't go anywhere. One day, I got out all my Zombies!!! expansions and stuff and played a 12-player game by myself. It took most of the day, but was reasonably amusing. Someday I might do it again, mixing in 6 more players from the compatible Humans!!! game.

3. Practice. Some of my friends still play Vampire: the Eternal Struggle on a weekly basis, but I can't always make it that night due to other commitments. Since I will never be a great deck designer, I compensate by being the best tactical player around, playing really well with whatever is in my hand. That takes practice, so I periodically grab some random starters or maybe my own decks and play a couple of "solitaire" 5-player games by myself, just to keep my edge.

In general, the games that work okay as solitaire multi-player are games with mostly or completely open information, where there are usually only one or two really good options at any given time. Sometimes I will roll dice to pick an option in a situation that should be a tough judgment call, if I didn't already know too much about the hidden info.

I hear Chapel loves to pour himself a fine glass of wine and play GNIP GNOP solo every Thursday night!

the*mad*gamer wrote:

I hear Chapel loves to pour himself a fine glass of wine and play GNIP GNOP solo every Thursday night!

View from Chapel's basement



I play solo to learn rules mostly, or to try out an odd strategy in a game I can't get a game of locally or online. Thats rare. BSW is great but the selection of games and the gamers there both mostly suck. Imperial and powergrid are a lot of fun and there are several other games on there good for an occasional play if you haven't touched them for a while.

I've done this a couple of times, but only with a certain type of old fashioned wargame - usually hex and counter, always I-go-you-go and always perfect information. I find it can be an interesting way to explore the simulation/historical side of these wargames but it gets old quickly. I've never bothered to do it more than once or twice with any multi-player wargame.

Over recent months I must confess I've started to play "officially" solo games quite a lot. Arkham Horror is the absolute king of this experience but I've had a lot of fun with some others as well, particularly Dungeonquest. Space Hulk and Return of the Heroes also have some entertainment value played solo as well. And I was surprised how much I enjoyed solo games of Agricola: Eurogames are effectively dressed up puzzles and doing a puzzle is an excellent solo activity. Agricola has a bit of a theme and a solo "campaign mode" for some added interest. I may well not ever play my set against another human being, but it's still been worth owning.

Frank, how many adventurers do you control when you play Arkham alone?

hancock.tom wrote:

Frank, how many adventurers do you control when you play Arkham alone?

I recommend three adventurers. Four gets to be a bit much to keep track of, once they start picking up more equipment.

Arkham and Agricola were designed with solo in mind. Just like AHs classic Peloponesian War (which you could turn to your favour by playing suboptimal moves).

I did test out some strategies for War of the Ring.

But it is difficult to play highly interactive games on your own. It works best with multiplayer solitaire.

I use 4 heroes.
It can get confusing but after a game or two you get into little habbits to make things easier, for example anything that has to be delt with in phase 1 (like retainer and blessing rolls) I put at the top of a heroe's sheet.
Normally I leave it set out and play a bit at a time, another advantage of playing solo.

I use to play with only 1 investigator and only had 1 mythos phase every 4 turns. That worked ok too.

Reading what Mr. Skeletor has said about playing AH and Runebound solo made me take the plunge into board games solo. And I agree I now enjoy it as much as playing a video game. For AH I use 3 investigators like Shellhead. 4 would start getting me confused. With a solo game I can keep it out over a week and play 30 - 60 minutes after my daughters have gone to sleep while my wife is watching some stupid reality TV show.

That's one thing that I miss about the solo games... when I lived alone, I could leave a game set up on my table for a week or two without it being disturbed. Now I live with my girlfriend and her cat. I love them both, but the cat enjoys jumping up on the table and scattering the game pieces so he can lie down on the table. With other players to guard the table, it's fine. But if I'm playing solo, the game can get messed up if I'm away from the table for even a little while.