Yashima‘s 2024 Top 20 Solo Games

Created 2026-09-18 · 20 games ·

My favorite solo games… right now. I used pubmeeple to rank solo games I have played „recently“. I did a list like this in 2022 for the first time, I missed out doing a list in 2023 but recreated one to get some continuity. Right now I am in the mood for cozy games. I still like my complex ones (the number one spot hasn‘t changed), but there are quite a number of new games here that play a bit more relaxed, are pretty to look at and I can play them after a long workday. Some honorable mentions: * Oath: Over the summer, when I had a bit of extra free time, I‘ve played a 3-handed campaign and I got 5 games in and it is good fun. It didn‘t make the Top 20 because well, I am playing 3 handed and not the solo mode and so a lot of my pubmeeple considerations went „well I am not really playing this solo, am I?“ The clockwork prince is just too convoluted for me * The two dexterity games I can and have played solo didn‘t make the Top 20 but I feel both Menara and Tinderblox are great and unusual in that they allow for solo play. I can now add Nekojima to that as it also has a cooperative version * Only 2 Uwe Rosenberg games made the list but I still enjoy a lot of others as solo games. Honorable mentions to Nusfjord, Sagani, Cave vs Cave and A Feast for Odin for being great solo experiences. Sadly, I did not manage to snag a copy of Black Forest at SPIEL. * Railroad Ink has fallen off the list now. I still enjoy it on occasion but I think I am done solo-ing this. * Earthborne Rangers was knocked out of the list (I am on game 6 or 7 of a campaign that has been lagging) at the last minute by me realizing that at the moment I enjoy more relaxed games. The replacement is on #19 I have added the number of solo plays. These happened from January to Mid-October. (I should probably have done October to October). Some of my favorite solo games have not seen the table (yet) this year sadly. But I blame some of the exciting newcomers

BGG list: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/341012/yashima-s-2024-top-20-solo-games ↗

View the equivalent list on BGG

#	Title	Comment
1	Everdell Farshore ↗ (2023) 2 plays · last played 10/13/24	Inching in on last place, as I have only just acquired this iteration. I sold my Big Box of Everything Everdell and acquired this much smaller less overwhelming box. I have found the changes to my liking and have a feeling this will see more solo play now. Solo Plays 2024: 2 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
2	Dorfromantik: Sakura ↗ (2024) 41 plays · last played 7/20/26	This is the type of campaign game I can get behind. The game evolves a little but plays feel similar enough that I don‘t feel the need to be playing continuously. Paradoxically this then makes it more likely for the game to be on the table. I was initially put off by the whole game being just placing one tile after another cooperatively. How is that going to work? But we played a campaign on the OG copy of our friends and I decided I had to have the „pink“ version. I am enjoying this one even more. 2nd iterations are good. I think this one raises the complexity just a little bit. I like how the game manages to be relaxed and puzzly at the same time. It‘s just cozy to play. And this is the mood I am in these days. I like cozy games right now. Solo Plays 2024: 7 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
3	Dune: Imperium ↗ (2021) 10 plays · last played 3/20/24	I am surprised this came in so low. But that may be a function of how few plays I had with this compared to other games on this list. Still I really like the way this meshes worker placement with deck-building and the skirmishing. It‘s quite unique. Possibly, my still-on-going wait for Uprising might also have cost this one a few spots. I expected to have Uprising in my hands months ago but the translation took longer to arrive and then I had other acquisitions and Kickstarter Arrivals. Solo Plays 2024: 3 Ranking last year: 8 (🔻10)
4	Tetrarchia ↗ (2020) 10 plays · last played 9/29/24	A somewhat recent acquisition. This was recommended to me as something of a „pocket pandemic“ and it is that in a lot of ways. It took me a couple of games to grok how to keep the barbarians from invading… my die seems prejudiced for invasions from the North though. I don‘t plan on ever playing this other than solo. I am still impressed how small one can get the formula. Solo Plays 2024: 10 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
5	Imperium: Horizons ↗ (2024) 3 plays · last played 5/29/24	Horizons with the new consolidated rulebook and tons of new factions revived my interest in this game and also the new playmat I have. I must say I have rarely played on game specific playmats up to now but this one is really helpful even if the game takes up even more space that way. I am still very bad at this game but it is such a good take on Civilization games. I do not really want to play this against another player. And if I would never play against more than one. The bots do just fine beating me. Solo Plays 2024: 6 Ranking last year: - (re-entry, highest previous rank 19)
6	Lost Ruins of Arnak ↗ (2020) 14 plays · last played 7/26/24	I know the reason this came in so high because I recently played all 6 scenarios in the campaign mode and so the immediate familiarity ranked this higher than a lot of other games. Also the scenarios are all excellent and one could easily play each single one outside of the campaign. As a bonus they kind of train you to become better at the gameplay in a way that is sure to spill over into multiplayer as well. And they force you to familiarize yourself with the different temples and maps. Really a great addition to an already great game. In theory I want to like Dune Imperium more but it seems the ranking engine threw out that theory… Solo Plays 2024: 6 Ranking last year: 16 (🔺1)
7	Fields of Arle ↗ (2014) 9 plays · last played 1/25/25	I had not played this game in ages… probably since the year it was published. I mostly remembered it being big and daunting. And then came the expansion which I ignored at first. But then it went out of print for the first time and FOMO hit me so I ordered it on the next printing and when it arrived I packed the components in the—now completely overflowing—base game box and the game seemed even more daunting. I preferred Nusfjord at the time because it seemed more compact and easier to grasp. But this year somewhere in my gaming circles people played this and it motivated me to relearn the rules and integrate the expansion. And then I played a whole bunch of games and here it is in the Top 10. It‘s just so much fun to try the various strategies the game offers. And I left it on the game table for a few days… if you can just skip setup and teardown it is a really fast game. Solo Plays 2024: 4 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
8	Evergreen ↗ (2022) 9 plays · last played 5/16/26	While this was not new to me this year, I got in a few plays and it is so quick and so satisfying to grow your forest. I am a little surprised how high this came in on the list still. Maybe I just like trees. I also have the expansion and it makes a for a bit of variety but is not necessary to enjoy the game. Solo Plays 2024: 2 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
9	Oranienburger Kanal ↗ (2023) 5 plays · last played 10/31/24	If not for my recent dance with a much older Uwe Rosenberg game, this would be my new favorite. In theory it would play 2 people. But why would I. This has all the good stuff: different decks/expansions with various buildings that give you points or powers just like Nusfjord. A resource wheel like Glassroad and a beautiful spatial component like all the best Rosenberg games have but this one has route building (kind of) and that makes it unusual. The only thing missing is having to feed your routes and there is also no magical multiplication of anything… highly recommend. Solo Plays 2024: 0 Ranking last year: 10 (🔻2)
10	Revive ↗ (2022) 17 plays · last played 3/5/26	I enjoy this quite a lot. You play the same game as multiplayer. You just run up a timer through your actions. I also like how everything comes in threes in this game: 3 colors of cards, 3 main resources, 3 tech trees, 3 main actions. It‘s easy to remember this and 3 is a good number. I recently saw this repeated somehwat in SETI. Solo Plays 2024: 0 Ranking last year: 6 ( 🔻5)
11	Beacon Patrol ↗ (2023) 31 plays · last played 3/8/26	A recent recommendation I ordered as an afterthought and here it almost made the Top 10. Incredible little tile placement game with a very elegant mechanism. The day I got it I played it 4 times in a row and I couldn‘t quite believe it. This is really a whole lot of fun in very few components and a very compact box. Can‘t wait for the expansion. Solo Plays 2024: 13 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
12	Planet Unknown ↗ (2022) 36 plays · last played 2/23/26	My favorite polyominoes game. It is just so good. The combination with tracks as the second mechanism works so well. I lose the solo a lot. But that doesn‘t matter because even losing it is fun to try my best and cover the planet with tetris. And the variability of planets and corporations means there is always something new to try. It‘s also been a hit with multiplayer especially because it plays up to 6 in a decent amount of time. Solo Plays 2024: 14 Ranking last year: 9
13	Trailblazers ↗ (2023) 69 plays · last played 5/7/26	Have I mentioned I like route building? Maybe this game is the reason Railroad Ink is not my favorite route building game anymore. Trailblazers is just so good and compact and I‘ve been trying to get all the different goal cards and then the other achievements. The more I play the more this game is so stuck in my head that I find myself sitting there trying to read and in my head I am turning cards this way and that still trying to build a route… there are also all the additional modules with animals and hikers and such … it never gets boring. Just like another favorite tile layer that is yet to come…. Pushed down a little because I got a few really awesome new solo-games. Solo Plays 2024: 43 Ranking last year: 6 (🔻1)
14	Ark Nova ↗ (2022) 37 plays · last played 8/22/25	I like games with big stacks of cards that I can combo into something beautiful. In this case a Zoo. This is only my second favorite game of this type (or third depending on what counts as a „big stack of cards“ game). And the solo is quick and elegantly managed. Due to the great variety of possible strategies this never gets boring. Solo Plays 2024: 2 Ranking last year: 5 (🔻2)
15	Harmonies ↗ (2024) 116 plays · last played 10/4/26	For the most part I have given up on discovering games through the Hotness… and then came along Harmonies. I saw it on the Hotness first and that cover made me look up the game. And then I saw the pictures of those neat little landscapes made of chunky wooden pieces and the beautiful animal cards and I had to order the game. I fell in love with it during my first game. I am sure it will stick around for quite some time. It reminds me of Azul and Cascadia in only the best ways. Lovely and oh so quick solo experience that is also pretty decent as a multiplayer filler game. And the chunky wooden pieces are so nice to touch. Solo Plays 2024: 28 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
16	Terraforming Mars ↗ (2017) 138 plays · last played 9/24/26	I love SciFi as a genre and it saddens me a little that this list reflects that so little. But this is definitely one of my very favorite solo games of all times and if it had come in anywhere below the Top5 I would be disappointed in myself for ranking badly. It‘s obviously the big stack of cards that fascinates me but also the great variety of strategies you can go for. I mostly play on the app because I am lazy. I always include Prelude and often Venus and I always play the solo mode. I win as much as I lose. When I play a few games in a row my winning quota improves quickly. But even losing this game is fun until the last minute. You never know when a late game Lake Marineris will save your game… playing against TR63 seems harder than fully terraforming except on those occasions I reach the TR and miss terraforming while playing for the latter. Also really enjoyable multiplayer. It may have gone down a little due to playing less because of some new entries to the list that have taken up a lot of plays. Solo Plays 2024: 38 Ranking last year: 2 (🔻3)
17	Sprawlopolis ↗ (2018) 127 plays · last played 10/1/26	Apparently--at the moment--not even my favorite tile laying game. But my favorite travel game. This entry also includes Naturopolis which I like almost as much as Sprawlopolis. Agropolis never really worked out for me for some reason (of course I have that one, too). I rarely play with expansions though this year I finally got the Beaches and enjoyed a few games with that one. I have quite a few plays of this and it is still never boring. This was one of those „let‘s just back this kickstarter, it is not expensive“ things that really worked out well. It is probably to blame for me backing a whole bunch of small city building games none of which I really enjoyed because none of them could live up to the brilliance of this one. This just switched places with Cascadia. And I admit I have a hard time deciding which one I like better at any given moment. Solo Plays 2024: 26 Ranking last year: 3 (🔻1)
18	Cascadia ↗ (2021) 92 plays · last played 6/14/26	The first time I tried Cascadia on the „demo“ app they had put on github I decided it was too simple compared to Calico. And it would get boring so fast. So I didn‘t back the KS. But then friends got it and told me it was good. So I got myself a copy and haven‘t stopped playing since. I am currently trying to play through all the Landmarks Solo Scenarios, I think I won about two thirds so far. Lovely puzzle, beautiful results on the table and quick to play. Which is one important aspect of many of my solo plays because I often play them in those small slivers of time before work or dinner that might otherwise be occupied by a good book. This moved up a little with the Landmarks expansion and its challenges Solo Plays 2024: 25 Ranking last year: 4 (🔺1)
19	Daybreak ↗ (2023) 241 plays · last played 5/30/26	My GOTY 2024. I got this in January and have since made it to almost 90 games. About 60 solos I think. A lot of those were on BGA but the game is almost as fast to play on the table which is quite the achievement considering that there is quite a bit of upkeep. But those phases are designed to be easy to handle and that makes the game such a joy. Because the upkeep just flies by and then I get another hand of cards to combo with until I break the game … uh achieve drawdown to save the world from climate change. Besides thinking that it is good to have games with this theme and have a hopeful tone, it is just such a good game. It would be number one if my number one wasn‘t … the greatest game of all time (in my opinion which I have previously changed). Solo Plays 2024: 53 Ranking last year: - (new entry)
20	Spirit Island ↗ (2020) 82 plays · last played 3/15/26	My favorite game both multiplayer and solo. I got sick of it a little bit while being annoyed at having to wait extra months for the latest expansion to arrive in Europe and I really hope Greater Than Games have learned something about importing games themselves… but now that Nature Incarnate is here, my annoyance is all but gone and of course small things like not having even more spirits and cards to play with, cannot truly impinge on how much I love the game. Have loved it since first being taught. (In my experience people who are taught the game enjoy it more than people who have to learn it themselves) Why I love it? * Big stacks of cards * Combos * Each spirit has such thematic abilities and is so different from the others (well mostly, there are some similarities to be found of course) * Growing your board and abilities * Slowly growing your deck * Kicking invader butts. There is endless variety and scaling difficulty levels. I usually play 1 or 2 spirits against a Level 1 or Level 2 opponent, despite having played this a lot, I don‘t feel the need to challenge myself more than that. Solo Plays 2024: 12 Ranking last year: 1