The Solo Rules Quest!

[modiphius]

I suspect we've all been there, for me it was grewing up in a small town with no wargamers nearby. My older brother who I taught wargames had moved away to college. So I learned how to play solo, and I mean really learned the craft of being able to play vs myself. I had perfect knowledge of the enemy - so get over it - surely you can beat him now right? So the best thing is I always won right?

Of course we always have a favourite. I still have the notes from my solo campaign from my early teens fighting a rag tag collection of citadel fantasy miniatures and those 'mould at home' fantasy orcs spray painted black and green to fill out the gaps. I always hoped the D&D heroes defending the village would survive long enough for the elven archers to support them but I'd be equally ruthless with my orc horde.

Over the years I've retained that ability to play games against myself without needing official 'solo rules' but thankfully with the rise of co-op boardgames we now have so much more choice. Thing is I've yet to find a solo wargame system that really does it. Sure we've all seen systems that drive the enemy to attack you but show me a system that actually makes the enemy forces pursue an objective, no matter what it is?

I'd love to hear of any systems that do - I've been checking out a lot of wargames with supposed AI systems recently only to find out that they either generate an enemy nearby that then rush to attack you (or from range if they're say an archer) or they simple drive an enemy line gradually towards you, perhaps reacting but never pursuing the actual objective.

I don't know about you but I gave up playing battles simply to destroy the other side a long time ago, sure it's fine for testing out a new set of rules but for the actual meat of enjoying a game system I want more depth - we must stop the priests summoning the creature, we have to hold this hill until reinforcements arrive, protect the village and let X escape across the river, protect the wagons as they cross the board, and so on and so on. Now it's one thing to have that objective for you, the human player, and the enemy is simply trying to kill you, it's another for it to have it's own objective and you're trying to stop it, or a mix of both - how on earth can it pursue it's own objective and try stop you?

So I'd love to hear of your experiences of solo rulesets that do something close to this?

[Elbows]

I'm sitting on dungeon stuff worth more than my car...and a 100+ painted fantasy miniatures.  I've played one or two hodge-podge self created games with buddies, but I simply can't find fantasy rules (namely dungeon delving stuff) that I like.

I'm very curious to see what people recommend.  I'd love some solo rules, or some rules for co-op play.

[psullie]

I find I get the best games from rulesets that don't have guaranteed activations or even turn orders.
Piquet for example uses card decks to resent the abilities and quality for each side - as each faction weakens cards are removed blind so you don't know what strength you have lost, also each turn length can vary dramatically. Piquet works well for larger battles played solo

A Song of Blades and Heroes has a nice mechanic for adding uncertainty to the turn order and as a fast play set works well for small fantasy skirmish - although personally I find the magic rules a bit weak

I've also used the Brother Against Brother ACW rules for fantasy Napoleonic and by adding event cards to the mix added an extra level of uncertainty

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

Sellswords and Spellslingers works well for me (after three games).  There are not too many tactical subtleties for the non-player side, but scenario-specific goals/rules can allow for this. 
If you are after a mass battle game, I don't know but like you would like to find something for this.

[wolfkarl]

Try Two Hour Wargames-

www.twohourwargames.com/

They make rules for many different periods and scales, from skirmish to army level. Their reaction system lets you play solo, co-op, or head to head.

[modiphius]

Try Two Hour Wargames-

www.twohourwargames.com/

They make rules for many different periods and scales, from skirmish to army level. Their reaction system lets you play solo, co-op, or head to head.

I love the battlereports of the zombie series but I've found it still only responds to you - Rally Round the King is great fun and has a bigger campaign level but at the battlefield level the enemy is responding to your actions or perhaps attacking, it won't break off to hold a key objective

[bazookajoe]

It is not that difficult to use D&D 5e rules and develop a procedure for using them for a solo miniatures dungeon game. I have been working on something like this and it produces a pretty good solo game experience that takes about 2-3 hours to play.  It basically revolves around creating sets of encounter tables that make sense and correspond with the figures/terrain you have.  Obviously the role playing aspect is fairly minimal but I am working on that. There are a couple of threads here that discuss solo dungeon adventures including mine which is called "dungeon crawl" and has some pics.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I love the battlereports of the zombie series but I've found it still only responds to you - Rally Round the King is great fun and has a bigger campaign level but at the battlefield level the enemy is responding to your actions or perhaps attacking, it won't break off to hold a key objective

For Rally Round the King could you not have scenario specific reactions to allow this sort of thing?

[modiphius]

For Rally Round the King could you not have scenario specific reactions to allow this sort of thing?

It would be great to hear from people who've used that - you'd need to homebrew it at the moment though. I'm still keen to find out if any games out there have achieved it already

[blacksmith]

From memory I think in THW enemies react to what you do as you said but also taking into account if their role is either defensive or aggressive. In RRTK the armies have a profile which dictates them up to some point how to act in a battlefield if I remember correctly.
I wrote Fighter Command and Carrier Command for THW (space fighter action) using its system and yes, the enemy reacts to what you do mainly, but honestly I think logically as well, but I think scenarios in any ruleset may drive enemies' behaviour and that happens in THW as well.
Like you and many many others, I've also been looking and trying for years own and others rulesets to play solo. Lately I'm looking at Nordic Weasel Games whose rulesets are highly inspired from THW as the author recognises. They have released a solo dungeon ruleset that I have read but not played yet but that I quite like it: Dungeon Scum. I'm also planning to play a sci-fi campaign with his rules Five Parsecs from Home.

If you're interested, in my blog you can see several solo play campaigns. Two examples:
Fighter Command: http://javieratwar.blogspot.com.es/search/label/5150%20Fighter%20Command

Warrior Heroes and Adventurers (pretty narrative): http://javieratwar.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Campaign.%20Warrior%20Heroes%20Armies%20and%20Adventurers

[modiphius]

I'll check out the blog thanks - I followed a zombie one for a long time way back. It was very compelling. I think THW is great for up close reaction - but I'm not sure it's really good at helping you dice whether the lancers are heading for you or the old fortresses to ensure you don't take it, or for distracting you whilst another unit flanks you and so on.