What games have solo/AI play - Part 2 -- which is the best?

[Schogun]

Thanks to all who contributed to the list of games that can be played solo against an AI opponent.

Which system have you played and found to be the most intelligent, least fiddly and most fun -- that can be used in or adapted to a Sci-Fi skirmish game?

Thanks

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Black Ops
02 Hundred Hours
The Men Who Would Be Kings
Sellswords & Spellslingers
5 Parsecs From Home
Enderain
Silver Bayonet
Pulp Alley
Rangers of Shadowdeep
Advanced Heroquest
Platoon Forward
Two Hour Wargames / Chain Reaction
Exploit Zero / Nightwatch
Insurgent Earth
Kontraband / Zona Alfa
Forbidden Psalm
Gloomhaven
The Walking Dead
Under the Martian Yoke
Zero Dark
Core Space
Lasting Tales
Planet 28
Men of Bronze / Ionian Revolt
Combat!
Fallout
The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

On other forums you would be opening a real can of worms with that question.

I find a lot of games that claim to be solo games are really a standard wargame with a few random events added (I really struggle to see how Rangers of Shadowdeep is much different from a standard wargame, other than the event cards).

Sellswords and Spellslingers is a very clever game.  The chaos and randomness suits a skirmish game, but trying to translate this to a big battle would, in my opinion, be difficult.
Lion/Dragon Rampant does a good job with bigger engagement and with some tweaks can do a reasonable job of a large battle.  The Men Who Would be Kings has additional solo rules, I believe, but Lion Rampant with it's activation process works pretty well as a solo game.

As far as Sci-Fi skirmish goes, I would think Sellswords could be easily adapted.

[ithoriel]

For an ongoing RPG Lite type game I'd go for 5 Parsecs, for a more combat oriented but less narrative campaign approach I'd use Enderain.

Personally I'd like 5 Parsecs' campaign system with Enderain's combat and NPC interaction system. But I'm too lazy to work out the crossover.

So, my plan is primarily 5 Parsecs with the occasional stand-alone Enderain game to ring the changes.

[Mark]

I have used SS&SS for Star Wars with great success.

[Harry Faversham]

Doom Watch, top trumps most solo rule sets.

 

[Dubbya]

Plenty of other games not mentioned here (space weirdos, multiple nordic weasel games, solo expansions like the one for Reign in Hell etc.) But as already mentioned, it's often just a few random tables at the back of the book.

[Easy E]

Honestly, there are too many to really know which is best.  To make things worse, we all have our own tastes on the subject!

Get one you like the theme of and have the miniatures to play it and go. 

[Grumpy Gnome]

I have no idea what is the best but from that list I enjoy Core Space the most.

[Elbows]

While I haven't played many of the games listed, I'd argue you could remove some of them such as Rangers of Shadow Deep.  There's no depth to the AI in that game, though it's perhaps not really the goal.  It's just a "Does it see you? It attacks" kind of thing.

While I've only done one co-operative game (which isn't out yet), it's easily the hardest thing to do in a game, to keep it interesting.  I think for an AI to be even remotely fun, it needs to impact the game in other ways beyond just "it rolls its attack dice".

The AI should be on patrol, or interact in other ways - sounding alarms, generating alternate threats, calling for reinforcements, actively hindering the party, etc.  In my dungeon crawl I use a large bank of actions which the opposing creatures perform in order, with more actions being performed as the threat level increases.  They can steal your money, call for help, curse you, attack you, freeze you, scare you, throw you around the room (or off a ledge if your'e too close to one...).  Heck they can hurl things at you, or hurl you...at others, .  They can poison you, turn you to stone, go into rampages, bellow to increase the danger level...etc.  Some run away when outnumbered, etc. etc. etc.

For an AI to be interesting, they simply must do more than "roll an attack dice".  That's dull as fook.

[Easy E]

Yes, there are two things an AI should do:

1. Force the player to make decisions
2. Create surprise

The, "It sees you and attacks" AI only covers option 1.  It forces the player to make a decision about how they are going to deal with it.  However, it fails at #2 as it is very predictable.

But, if you combine "It sees you and attacks" with other dangers like time pressure, unknown enemy deployment, and win conditions it can be adequate.  Space Hulk is a perfect example of this.  Genestealers are basically, "It sees you and attacks" but most people would not argue that Space Hulk is a bad game.  That is because the enemies are predictable, but it can steal lead to surprise thanks to other "gameplay" factors,   

[ced1106]

I have no idea what is the best but from that list I enjoy Core Space the most.

Same here! Favorite part of Battle System's Core Space are the NPC evens where the OP NPCs show up on the board and distract the enemy -- until a lucky shot you didn't count on wipes them out. You can also be a jerk in the competitive game by raising the hostility level by pew-pew-pew'ing when your opponent is further from safety than you are! BTW, Battle Systems will have their dungeon-themed Maladum KS next month or so, for those looking for a dungeon-themed solo/coop game (or at least dungeon terrain for miniature skirmishes).

>  To make things worse, we all have our own tastes on the subject!

If Gloomhaven ever has a sf-themed version, I'll get it. GH has the best *puzzle* mechanics and isn't yet another dice-throwing game. Not much depth from a RPG narrative standpoint, but I liked the Dragonholt CYOA books for that sort of thing.

[Malebolgia]

For me, Kingdom Death: Monster is the best solo game there is. It's a total beast of a game, but it offers so much in terms of story, adventure, choices, optimising, monster fights, crafting, etc. And it has some of the best monster fights I know. The game can be brutal and harsh, but once you embrace that philosophy it is glorious.

[Redmao]

Battlespace is a fantastic solo game. The core mechanics could be easily used for any genre.
Each character must roll to activate. Fail that roll, draw an event card. An event can be anything from enemy activation during the player phase to traps to weather change.
You never know exactly when the enemy will activate and throw off your plan. Combat is handled with a single roll vs the enemy's Threat level. During the player phase, you roll to hit and during the enemy phase, you roll to defend.

Modiphius is coming up with a new edition with character creation rules and more types of enemies.