Solo board games that involve strategizing and adventuring are an excellent way to kill boredom and entertain oneself.
However, finding the right match for your interests can prove challenging.
This article will walk you through 20 of the best solo board games from various genres.
Whether you like fantasy, conquering new territories, raiding with Viking tribes, or casting powerful spells, you’re bound to find the perfect pick.
Our list will certainly leave you spoilt for options.
Top 20 Best Solo Board Games
Here’s our list of the top 20 best solo board games out there:
1. Spirit Island
A complex game laden with mysteries, Spirit Island is one of the best solo board games to exercise your brain. The gameplay revolves around defending your island from barbaric colonizers. Players can choose between various spirits on the island, who have their own elemental powers.
The game is played with a combination of power cards that costs energy. Players can enjoy free bonus effects when their power cards complement the elemental abilities of their chosen spirits.
2. The Mage Knight
An action-packed board game, there’s never a dull moment playing the Mage Knights. Players play as one of the four mighty Mage Knights on the mission to control the Atlantean Empire.
If you like strong gameplay and fascinating storylines, you will love this solo board game. It comes with heaps of exciting spells and actions, and adventurous explorations in caves and dungeons.
3. Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars will transport you to the 2400s – the age of transforming the planet Mars and making it habitable.
You can play one of the Earth-based corporations working on making the planet habitable and terraforming.
Players can win victory points by advancing infrastructure and making ground-breaking innovations.
4. Marvel Champions: The Card Game
Marvel Champions: The Card Game offers an opportunity to jump into the Marvel Universe and fight alongside the legendary heroes.
Do you have what it takes to become a Marvel champion?
This card game is brimming with devious schemes, heroic acts of valor, and regularly updated scenarios with new product releases.
5. Aeon’s End
One of the best solo board games of all time, Aeon’s End offers exciting cooperative gameplay. This deckbuilding game revolves around defending Gravehold from the violent forces of The Nameless.
Players have to plan meticulously and use their carves to channel powerful spells and dynamic abilities.
6. Arkham Horror: The Card Game
If horror games appeal to you, you are going to fall in love with Arkham Horror. The sinister gameplay is loaded with mystery, monsters, and otherworldly evils.
You will find yourself pitted against monsters and evil demons in the quaint little town of Arkham. Players have to investigate signs of evil to protect the town and its population.
7. Gloomhaven
A Euro-inspired wonder that brings combat into the board game format with an exciting series of twists. Gloomhaven is one of the best solo board games is you enjoy tactical combat and action-packed adventurers.
Players find themselves wandering through far-off and dark corners of the world, collecting special skills and abilities.
8. Scythe
Set in an alternate history during the 1920s, Scythe will take you to a war-torn world that demands bravery and valor. Each player must choose a character who represents the five factions of Eastern Europe.
Each faction is focused on reclaiming its fortune and land. Players must strategize to win new villages to conquer lands and add new recruits to their forces.
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
If you’re a huge Tolkein fan, this card game allows you to carve out your very own adventure in Middle Earth. This cooperative adventure game is highly recommended for its fascinating scenarios and exciting quests.
The gameplay is all about bravery and valor and defeating evil who threatens to bring chaos upon the world.
10. Too Many Bones
This action-packed dice-builder RPG is a striking innovation and one of the best solo board games to play. If you enjoy dice-rolling games, you’re bound to love this one.
It combines dice-builder gameplay with strategy and a fantasy-based storyline that beguiles the players. Too Many Bones will take you on a dark adventure to the northern lands to eradicate the deadly forces of Baddie.
11. Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Inspired by the iconic tale of Robinson Crusoe, this challenging strategy game is created by Ignacy Trzewiczek.
Trzewiczek’s masterful creation will take you to a deserted island and toss you into a magnificent adventure.
You have will play a shipwreck survivor challenged with the ordeal of finding food, shelter, and protecting yourself from wild beasts. Players can construct houses and weapons, and even keep animals, alongside fighting off wild beasts and other exciting escapades.
12. Gaia Project
A fabulous new addition to the line of Terra Mystica, it follows the original gameplay, making it more exciting.
The gameplay revolves around fourteen different races living on seven different planets. Each faction must terraform neighboring planets to grow and develop their home planets.
If you enjoy Sci-fi games and storylines, this is one of the best solo board games for you. It revolves around navigation, research, Gaiaforming, terraforming, and artificial intelligence.
13. Wingspan
If you’re an avid birdwatcher or researcher, you will love Wingspan. This engine-building card-based board game is highly competitive and comes with a library of over 170 birds. The illustrations, created by Natalia Rojas and Anna Maria Martinez, are breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring.
Each player is a bird enthusiast, watcher, or collector.
The game revolves around adding exquisite bird species to your habitats. There are hundreds of unique bird cards to play with, and you can give out food tokens to entice your chosen birds.
14. A Feast for Odin
An enticing saga, A Feast for Odin is hands-down the best solo board game for history buffs and explorers. It will take you back in time to the age of Viking expeditions, explorations, and discoveries in European territories.
The game comes with a strong storyline revolving around Scandinavian ancestors who were explorers and innovators rather than mere pirates or pillagers. In this game, the Vikings have termed Normans and players get to embark on adventurous quests.
15. Nemo’s War
Inspired by the classic story of Captain Nemo and his brilliant ship, the Nautilus, this game is a much-improved version. The second edition of Nemo’s War offers engrossing solitaire gameplay that is amazingly enhanced with graphics and artwork.
Players take up Captain Nemo’s role as they sail on an innovative submarine, traveling across the world. Each new mission comes with exciting escapades, such as fighting colonizers, making scientific discoveries, and much more.
16. The 7th Continent
The 7th Continent is an exploration board game that allows players to choose their own adventure. It is a solo or cooperative game, which allows you to choose a character, your team, and your own adventure.
This game revolves around strategy and a gripping fantasy storyline about exploring new lands gripped with evils and dangers.
Inspired by the widely-celebrated Fighting Fantasy series, this wild game is all about survival and craftiness. It takes hours of playing and exploring and will keep you hooked well into the night.
17. Viticulture
Viticulture will transport you to pre-modern Tuscany and its rustic countryside with sparse vineyards. Each player is allocated some land, a small cellar, and three workers. The goal of the game is to actualize the dream of growing a flourishing, rich, and successful vineyard.
Players must make their moves carefully and delegate effectively, so their workers are busy throughout the year. If you’ve always dreamt of owning your own vineyard, here’s your chance to finally live the dream!
18. Sprawlopolis
Sprawlopolis involves 1-4 players who work together to construct a new city from scratch. The game revolves around a variable scoring system and 18 cards. This is one of the best solo board games because every time, it offers a new and distinctive experience.
The cards allow players to make contributions to the growth and development of the city and win points. Players can play alone, or with their friends, because this game encourages communication with discretion.
19. Roll Player
Roll Player revolves around the elements that define a perfect hero who is ready to combat the forces of evil. It revolves around the accumulation of skills, traits, and equipment to fight the enemy and win glory and treasures.
Roll Player is one epic fantasy adventure that will take you on a magnificent journey of heroism and valor. It is brimming with quests for bravery, glory, and riches, and earning reputation stars is the trick to win.
20. Nusfjord
This board game will transport you to a quaint fishing village tucked away in Norway’s Lofoten archipelago.
After fifty years, the village has lost its glory and has turned into a museum with very few inhabitants. Players are tasked with the responsibility of developing the harbor and restoring the town to its original glory.
Players must make careful moves to enlarge their fleet, construct new buildings, and win respect from the village elders.
Conclusion
So, this is our ultimate top 20 solo board games list for you to enjoy.
All of them offer fascinating gameplay and enticing game mechanics that you can enjoy by yourself.
They’re a great option if you can’t find enough people to play multiplayer board games.
Now, what’s your personal favorite solo board game?
Let us know by leaving a comment below and don’t forget to check our other unique articles!