Solo gaming

[dijit]

If I had any programming skill I'd give it a shot, but not knowing anything about it, anything I produced would be terrible. But it must be possible with a deck of card or something to create some sort of engine to control an opposing force.

[Hu Rhu]

There is a mechanism for controlling the other side in two sets of rules both of which are quite old.  They are:

Pony Wars (or B Troop ain't coming back) and Science versus Pluck (or Too much for the Mahdi). Each deal with hordes (indiand and Mahdists) but the mechanism should wotk for other periods.

There is also a lot refereneces to Soo Wargaming in Donald Fearherstone's and Terry Wis'e books about wargaming published in the 70s and 80s.

Hope that helps.

[thebinmann]

There are a lot of good card based solo board games out there, but not sure they could be used in mini games.

It depends if you want a tactical challenge with or without minis....

[weismonsters]

Gears of War uses a simple card based AI for the monsters. I have played it solo a few times. Normally I control two or three characters. It is quite fun. A bit similar to those zombie rules someone mentioned, but a bit more elaborate. It is set in a sort of dungeon environment that is semi randomly determined and explored as you go along.

No doubt many other games can be modified to work in similar fashion.

[dijit]

I've since found a couple of good blogs about solo gaming.
solo-battles.blogspot.com/
solonexus.blogspot.com/
Both are well worth reading for anyone interested and take quite different approaches.
Duncan