Unreliable Wizard and What Makes a Good Solo Game

Solo only games is perhaps the freshest design space in board games. Unlike the solo modes you find in your new favourite euro games, solo only games are board games designed to be exclusively played by one. They range from small boxes, like today’s subject - Unreliable Wizard, to big extravaganzas like Hoplomachus: Victorum (which we have also covered in the past).

By not having to accomodate rules for multiple players, they can really zero in on to what makes a solo game fun! But, what is that? What do we want solo games to do? What’s the thing that translates them from ticking mechanisms to delights on a table?

Today we answer that question by taking a peek at a game that doesn’t really succeed at being a fun time. And through that angle we can then cotrast it with ones that do, like Maquis and Witchcraft! and within the difference, there’s more than one answer.

Hoplomachus: Victorum Made Me Very Tired

Board games can be a lot to handle. Sometimes that doesn’t stop us. The mythical experience, the promise of something great at the other end of the rules is enough to keep us persevering, learning, untangling. But sometimes you pick apart a rubber band ball to find that all you have left is a bunch of rubber bands. Hoplomachus: Victorum is perhaps the best example of this phenomenon, a rich, indulgent, complex game that hides very little behind it’s bombastic veneer.

I’ve spent many hours engaging in false starts, gripping rulebooks, FAQs, youtube tutorials and playthroughs to understand this system at a level where I felt tactically capable of navigating it only to find that once I got there, there wasn’t much left.

Which is a darn shame. Hoplomachus: Victorum is a one player only game, and I was quite excited to explore a system with so much space exclusively designed as a solo experience. I wanted richness and depth, yet sometimes richness and depth isn’t enough. You also need pacing, structure, a rewarding experience, all things plenty present in other designs.

For more on Hoplomachus: Victorum, watch our video review.