2023 Best Solo Board games Review (BGG's People's choice 2023)

[@meepleshelter]

Many of these games are discounted on Amazon at the time of publishing this video: amzn.to/47EIXud (affiliate link). Thanks for Watching!

[@_asyncawait_]

This is one of the best Top N lists I’ve watched. The overviews of each game were concise and to the point and I love the 3 alternatives for each game. Nice work! 🙂

[@kevinerskine3299]

Thanks for covering our list! :) Great job on this. Some excellent commentary and I love the disclaimer at the top. We do the list for the fun of it and as a way for people to discover great solo games. Also, amazing production in this video.

[@meepleshelter]

Wow, thanks for commenting Kevin, this means the world to me! I've enjoyed following the list over the years, and it's been such a curse on my wallet ;) I hope someone will keep the event going now that you're taking a well deserved break from it :)

[@kevinerskine3299]

@@meepleshelter You're very welcome. I added a link to this video on the list, so hopefully you pick up even more views and subscribers.

[@CallOfJourneys]

@@kevinerskine3299I’m here because of the BGG link :)

[@spencerpalmer2918]

Thanks for going over this list and thanks for the work of the additional suggestions!

[@meepleshelter]

Thanks!

[@juanpablozabala4975]

Thank you! Your job on researching and editing gives us everything in just 42 minutes. I specially appreciate the alternates you suggest before passing onto the next game on the ranking. Awesome! Thanks again and greetings from Argentina!

[@parallaxe1]

Fantastic condensed and 'no fluff' summary. I especially like and appreciate the 'you might also like' comments. Well done, good sir. 👍

[@TheRASDEL83]

I just watch the first 2 games and I have already subscribe and liked. I love... LOVE when people give other options for each entry.

[@billymartin2426]

Really like the "you may also like" bar on the side. Well done graphics and commentary. Sub'd

[@kamokamocsai]

Nice list. Thanks for the other suggestions too. My list is something like this : Dune imperium, Mage Knight UE, Unsettled, ISS VAnguard, Imperium Classics & Legends, Eleven the board game, 51st state Ultimate Edition, Marvel Champions, Shadowrun: Crossfire, Scythe, Euthia.

[@derlukas5711]

Thanks for the Top 100 ... I play a lot of solo games and probably there will be a few on your list which I still don`t know. I only made it to Number 60 so far. "Death Angel" is really a great game. One or two years ago here in Germany you could find it quite cheap. I bought it about 5 years ago and needed some time to find the Expansions. These are quite expensive - if you find them at all. Thanks a again and take care!

[@stormcrow4423]

great recommendations

[@lithracSolo]

I appreciate the time and effort put in the video, as well as the short introductory presentations for each game. The photography, music, and pace of your video are great. Your using of the passive voice is appropriate when you can't provide information yourself but base your statement on other player's viewpoint. Yet I can't help but wonder about your criteria for choosing your suggestions. I can see that theme is a thing, but most of the time (at least for the games I know very well in the list) the mechanics between the suggestions and the original game have little, if any at all, in common. I'm not sure they are a great indicator of similarity.

[@meepleshelter]

You're making a good point and I didn't explain that clearly in the video or in the description: the recommendations are based on bgg recommendations for each game, while at the same time attempting to *never name a single game more than once*. This usually works pretty well, but in this case this means a lot of great solo games (for example) are excluded from the recommendation because they're either already in the list itself, or in the recommendations for another game. For example, Sprawlopolis is probably a great recommendation if you like Rove, but it won't be in there because it's already somewhere else in the list (either in the top 100 itself, or recommended somewhere else in the "you might like" section)

[@meepleshelter]

Or, in other words, the goal here was to have 300~400 different games showcased in a list of 100. This tends to work better when I make lists of 15 games (which are really closer to 50~60). For more details (and see how weird it can get sometimes), you can click on the "fans also like" links on each game on bgg.

[@terry3733H]

Thanks for similar game recommendations! Just subscribed 😊. Grove, Black Sonata, Maquis, Nusfjord, Food Chain Island, Wingspan, Meadow, Anno 1800, Final Girl, Earth, Floriferous, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective 😊 Resist is out of stock 😢 Pandemic started the hobby

[@davidpepin3017]

Here's my top 10 list of game that I own and love solo but did not make the list (in no particular order): - Shadows of Brimstone - Yggdrasil Chronicles - Helionox - Goblivion - Ils of Cats - Raiders of scythia - Atlantis Rising - Last Bastion - Dwellings of Eldervale (but with some tweaking of the solo rules to make it harder) - Sub Terra

[@meepleshelter]

Awesome list! I've been willing to try subterra, atlantis rising, and shadows of brimstone for a while

[@kevinerskine3299]

And you definitely need to give Mage Knight a try. So good!

[@mbk4395]

Spirit Island and Arkham Horror LCG are also some of my favorites. I missed Kingdom Death Monster, On Mars and Unsettled

[@johngquinn77]

Can Star Wars Rebellion be played solo?

[@hzab-33]

Wanna buy Terraforming Mars base game.Worth it or not?Boring or not?Advices please.Thanks... P.S:Cascadia,Ticket to Ride,Lost Ruins of Arnak or Tm?

[@guillermoyaroslavlverduzco1551]

I just didn't like you recommend way many not soloable games. Besides that, great vid. Subscribed.

[@ChrisLowResDream]

thank you so much 😊

[@raysandrarexxia941]

If you want something big and historical: "Europa Universalis: The Price of Power" is my pick!

[@joostborst]

No time stamps...

[@awaitingbacklash5043]

You’re correct, no timestamps. What’s your point?

[@williammissant1642]

​@awaitingbacklash5043 it's lazy and ruins the vid? Obviously the point.

[@joostborst]

@@awaitingbacklash5043 It makes viewing 40 minute vids a lot easier. I think I've watched a 100 best off/ top 10 videos lately and since I'm looking for new games to add to my list I want to able to skip through some of the ones I already know. Most, if not all of these vids had timestamps btw. And for some weird reason I also like the go backwards on these type of video's. Skip to nr1 and then work my way down the list.

[@SMG2fanatic]

I don’t really think that’s a problem with this video. Name of the game is front and center for the whole entry. Easy enough to skip manually, especially on mobile.

[@arronthrossell3434]

Surprised burncycle not on the list.

[@meepleshelter]

Burncycle looks excellent. It was #106 in the vote this year, very close to the top 100. I think the price of Chip Theory games is what prevents them from being higher in the votes. Few people can afford these big box games.

[@arronthrossell3434]

@meepleshelter Yeah, that's a very good point.

[@reapingjoker4198]

Honestly thought zombicide would be on the list.

[@meepleshelter]

Zombicide was #109 this year. Very close to the top 100.

[@kosterix123]

Red cathedral

[@Tomenkes6]

“You may also like these games” recommendations are simply ridiculous…

[@meepleshelter]

They are based on BGG's "fans also like" list for each game, so technically, they are reasonably accurate. However, because of my personal rule to not reuse the same game twice in the entire list, it leads to questionable results for large lists like this one (keeping in mind that this means almost 400 games are mentioned in the video). In my other videos, which typically showcase 15 games (for a total of about 45 including recommendations), it tends to work better. If I skip the idea of not mentioning the same game twice, it's mostly games from the top 100 itself that will keep showing up. Not great either IMO :) Honestly it's a tough call. Repetitive recommendations, or a list with variety but questionable results in some cases...

[@Tomenkes6]

But it’s a video for solo gamers and then Nidavellir and others are recommended (not to mention that mechanics, theme and everything is just way different) :)

[@meepleshelter]

This doesn't address your concern regarding mechanics but fyi Nidavellir has a solo variant from the publisher. Available on their website for free. Look up "Nidavellir solo challenge".

[@misterblister1200]

“Ridiculous” is a stretch.