It's an old video, but seeing Mage Knight win was much more exciting to me than it should have been. My favorite games never "win" anything, but Mage Knight is my all time favorite game.

Finally, the DEFINITIVE video we've been all looking for! No nonsense about different strokes for different folks. Now I can safely burn the other board games with a peace of mind :)

It turns out that burning mounds of plastic on your porch is frowned upon in some jurisdictions, even if you tell them that it is out of your control and that the committee approved it.

This is a fun little idea turned into a top-notch, really invaluable video comparison of games. Wow, Chris, you raised the bar pretty high on this series.

IMO, your best video yet dude! I really hope more of these are coming

Really enjoyed this video!! Thank you for the great entertainment!! 🙌

Not surprised Mage Knight won. In most solo focused communities I've seen the debate is Mage Knight vs. Spirit Island and the rest lag behind. Top snub I would mention is the Imperium: Classics and Legends deckbuilders

For this Bracket I vote for Too Many Bone. (Runner up Spirit Island)

The Game of Board Games! Fantastic video. Definitely the type of competition I enjoy and look forward to seeing more! Please keep it up. Thank you.

I own Mage Knight, Arkham Horror and Gloomhaven. I am very happy they have all done well as they are all amazing games! But Mage Knight reigns supreme as a solo game

Shocked at some of these upsets but happy to see AH get as far as it did!

Oooh now this has given me something to think about. I love Tainted Grail, it's not a perfect game by any means but I really enjoy it. So to see Mage Knight beat it and then go on to win top spot... well maybe I have to check this game out! I've also never played a Lovecraft theme game so perhaps I should check out the number 2 spot Arkham Horror as well... Anyway! Great video, lot of fun to watch. Thanks for sharing!

I did not realize wingspan can be played as a solo game. Thanks for the information. Looking at all the solo board game choices is mind boggling.

Considering the final 2 are 2 of my favorite games… I was happy with either outcome

Mage Knight, Arkham Horror, Spirit Island and Lord of the Rings LCG. Those are my final 4. I have AH LCG and the complete 2nd edition. Love that it drips of theme!

I've played quite a few solo games. And they usually fell into a few categories: Uwe Rosenberg-type sandboxy games where you try to beat your own score (e.g. Caverna, Feast for Odin, Praga Caput Regni, Hadrian's wall etc.), automa-like games where you essentially try to mimic the presence of a second player (Stegmeier games, Vital Lacerda games etc.), and solo-multiplayer games lke Aeon's end, Arkham Horror TCG, Gloomhaven, Nemesis, Mage Knight etc. The sandboxy games felt like trying to solve a puzzle, but also like building a sand castle in a huge desert. Relaxing but also lukewarm and too spaceous. The Automa games felt like personally staging a play to entertain yourself, at times fun, but in the end you sometimes feel like playing with dolls. The solo-multiplayer games felt like amputated versions of the original games with the designer saying "well, you see, it CAN work solo as well! Ha!". The exception to this being Mage Knight. PC games are subjectively better at delivering solo experiences than board games, not relying on victory points and really caring about empowering the player and giving him unique experiences and goals. Mage Knight is the closest I've seen a board game come to a PC game experience. Not only that, but it's also more carefuly and tightly designed than most of those PC games. Out of the 20+ plays of the very same scenario (out of a dozen) I've never felt safe, never found myself in a familiar environment, and I've always felt like a genius after fulfiling the win condition of conquring the two cities. The only downside is the huge amount of rules and setup time. It's an incredible game.

It can be funny but the match sometimes happens between games that can’t be compared… mage knight vs tainted grail? Aeons end va marvel? this war of mine va wing spawn? Please…

Mage Knight is the best solo game ever. It also has the highest barrier of entry ever.

This series is really great. Can’t wait to see the future tournaments as well!

Awesome list! I have had Star Trek Frontiers for years and love it. As a sci fi reskin of mage Knight I am happy to see others agree with it’s awesomeness. My top solo games are actually: 1. Lord of the Rings LCG 2. Star Trek Frontiers 3. Dune Imperium 4. X-Men United/Marvel United 5. Marvel Legendary 6. Marvel Champions 7. Imperial Assault 8. Outer Rim 9. Deliverance 10. Gloomhaven/JOTL

Let’s go Final Girl!

I literally yelled “WOOOOO” when Hadrian’s Wall came into the battle. 🤣👏🏻 Such a good game!

Your way to review boardgames by making them fight each others is just ... EPIC !

Now its time to do Mage Knight vrs Magic Realm

Okay, I will accept your findings and it is obvious your Discord is full of knowledgeable gamers and people with tremendous taste in games.

Mage knight is too much work for what is worth. And if you don't play it on a regular basis... Well good luck remembering all the rules again

cheers super efforts there

Bro 4:40 I laughed so freakin hard XD

Grinning like a Cheshire Cat during the Bounce Off section; love your dry sense of humour mate! Also, the best game clearly won 🥳

fun, my meme made it into the video!

Gotta feel bad for those people who burned their copy of Bounce Off after January, bought a new copy, then had to burn it again this month.

After doing a bit of research (before I saw this video), I purchased Under Falling Skies, Hadrian’s Wall, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, and Robinson Crusoe for solo play. I like them all for different reasons, think Hadrian’s Wall stacks up well against the other three. Only downside is that it doesn’t come with a campaign but there is one online (I believe it’s a community-driven one?).

Before i even watch this: if you say its not Arkham Horror LCG, i dont know what a good game is! Afterwards: well, i can respect that :)

Sleeping Gods should've definetly been on the list

This war of mine is probably my favorite board game. Don’t have the expansions yet.

After setting up Caverna in 2017 and making two moves of a solo game, I tore it back down and decided solo gaming was not for me (and I love Caverna). In 2019 I tried Agricola a couple times solo, but it still did not really bring me in or scratch my itch. Fast forward to March 2020, and after suddenly having way more time to myself and only myself, I did some research on the best solo games out there. Mage Knight looked most promising, so I picked up a base copy. That game truly blew my mind as a solo puzzle. I was crunching numbers, taking risks, and either narrowly achieving goals or just missing them in a painfully satisfying way. I could not believe that the maker of the simple but deep Codenames (Vlaada Chvátil) created the beast of Mage Knight. I avoided This War of Mine because I did not feel comfortable playing a game that covers the topic of war in such a way. However, I would like to design a survivor game, and it seems like one of the best in the category. I am waiting for my partner to get back from a trip to try it together, as there are so many things to discover in it. I believe that co-op would be a better experience for us. That said, Mage Knight is a game that just does not seem worth trying with anyone else. I am sure it would be a decent experience, but I feel that it is perfect for solo. It is the only solo game I have truly invested in as a solo game, and I am excited to see it come out on top. Thanks for making these. They are enjoyable (although I feel there may have been some bias towards Nemesis😉for the pricey big box competition).

Correctly predicated the winner without even looking at the games listed in the bracket! :D

Gave you the 1000th like!

Pre-watch Final Four -- Under Falling Skies vs. Final Girl and Mage Knight vs. 7th Continent. FG vs. MK for the championship, with MK taking the crown. Update #1 -- Perfect first round on the left bracket, but FG barely squeaking past Warp's Edge has me worried about it's ability to survive to the final round. Update #2 -- Missed Robinson Crusoe on the right bracket. MicroMacro was a gamble but I thought the complexity of tabling the former would benefit the latter. I'm not counting 7th Continent's loss against me since Bounce Off cheated and called in a ringer ;) Update #3 -- Ouch Final Girl. OUCH! Glad to see This War of Mine still chugging along though, but I don't see it beating Hadrian's Wall. Update #4 -- My Final Girl replacement Arkham Horror summoned eldritch powers to crush IP Cash Grab, I mean Marvel Champions. Can Mage Knight defeat Hadrian's Wall to keep my one remaining horse in the race? Update #5 -- Tense finale! Arkham Horror -- the first board game I ever purchased -- going head-to-head against the second board game I ever purchased, Mage Knight! Who will win!? Update #6 -- 🎉🪅🥳🎊🥂

I pretty much only back games with a solo mode to them. Sadly I don't have gamer friends right now and my family isn't interested. We might break out clue or Qwixx or even rare but possibly Ticket to Ride once a year. So I am all solo on Mage Knight, Everdell the Complete Collection, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Dice Theme Park, Arkham Horror LCG and soon enough Oros. And next year will be Heroes 3, Castles of Burgundy and Nightmare Cathedral for solo.

You could make a Deathmatch video on alternative games to Mage Knight, bit of a holy grail game that would be interesting to finally have a "DEFINITIVE" answer to lol.

Surprised that Arkham Horror 2nd Edition wasn’t on the list. It’s my favorite horror themed game. Mage Knight is without a doubt the best sprawling epic fantasy experience. I cherish both of these games. I have not played Gloomhaven because many gamers I respect say Mage Knight is still the most epic for 1 to 2 players which is the only way I ever play. I’ve never played Robinson Caruso but I Kickstarted it! Can’t wait!!

My most solo’d game is gloom/shadows of kilforth, and then probably nemos war

Hmm, I do not get the love of mage knight. For those that love it....happy your game won for you. But honestly I find it a mess of a game and okay at best. I would have preferred Hadrian's Wall of those that competed. I admit I am just getting into solo gaming, so I have not played many of these solo, most of them I have played with groups.

Mage Knight doesn't even have a storyline to it. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is much deeper of a story than any of these if that's what you're looking for.

I just recently got mage knight. Can’t wait to get it to the table.

Thanks

Send all your copies of non-winning games to Chris for disposal

Imagine winning the solitaire world tournament though.

Marvel Champions and Aeons End in the first round. Ouch! Love both these games but right now I have to give the edge to Aeons End. It's hard to beat the emotional tension and excitement this game creates for me. I do play Champions one handed and Aeons End two handed though which does present a different experience

They did Nemo's War dirty. One of the best solo games of all time. Under Falling Skies is fun but Nemo's War is something you'll play for a lifetime.

I don't think I've won a single game of Mage Knight. I love the game, but it's hard as hell.

29:36 Except that I maintain that Gloomhaven is a TERRIBLE solo game - because the whole fun of the game is NOT knowing the speed that the other players will be going at - which is obviously something which you cannot emulate while playing solo.

I wonder where is Sleeping Gods ?🤔 I had hope that This War of Mine or Spirit Island will make it to the final. For me they are two best solo boardgames. Third is Under Falling Skies 😁. I am still very shocked that Hadrian's Wall won over This War of Mine, is this even possible? :O Can't find an explaination what happened here 😀. But okay, I respect that :) . Anyway for me This War of Mine is much better solo experience in every aspect than Hadrian's Wall ;). Cheers 👍

Hey Chris, This is very interesting! Could you please tell me more about the voting process? Who voted - and how? Thanks.

For me it’s between Mage knight, spirit island or hadrians wall for the best solo game.

Fun tournament. Crusoe is 2 syllables, though. Crew-so.

I'm happy that Marvel didn't win.

Hmmm I'm playing Navajo Wars ... It's an actual solo game. It's easily better solo than at least half of these game you mention. Surprised it didn't make the list.

I am just now selling Mage Knight Ultimate edition, to afford Aeon Trespass XD

I own both Marvel Champions and Aeons End. I'd give the edge to AE. But both are great.

Just before I watched the video I decided I would give solo board gaming a try and bought a couple of games off the Internet. Very happy that the winner and runner up were the 2 games I ordered already!

This was a good format and purchasing spirit island instead of mage knight was my mistake

I need the descriptions I’m new and come for recs. I just play you at 1.25 😊😂

I had no idea this death match was going on, but I guess it explains why my Marvel Champions suddenly burst into flames. So, do I send you a bill or how does that work?

Well, I do love Mage Knight

I don't normally play board games solo because I don't like all the setup and hassle unless I'm playing with other humans, (I'll just play a video game instead) but I've been loving Marvel United X-Men solo. Super quick setup and playtime, very modular and replayable.

Marvel Champions loss renders the whole thing null and void.

So I played Star Trek Mage Knight and sold it after two plays. Given that, I've stayed away from trying Mage Knight but I keep feeling like I need to give this one more shot.

I might be in the minority, but I dont like Arkham Horror. It seems that almost everything is decided by a very very very random draw of a token from a bag. It might be because I only have the base game, and the conclusion scenario included is impossible to win (except by cheesing it). So it didnt make me want to buy anything else for the game, and probably is the game I like the less in my collection of 100 games.

Great list...but where is Sleeping gods?

In reality most of AH is played with one play controlling 2 investigators. I think this is where the 2 player idea comes from.

Whew Aeon's End Legacy 2 just arrived, HOLY is that box huge! Also picked up legacy 1 and all the mini expansions I was missing. I love Aeon's end.

I really don’t like Marvel at all, I think it’s annoying and juvenile, so it really gets under my skin seeing Marvel games beat out more interestingly themed games. I have a hard time believing Marvel Champions is good at all. Yes, I’m that ***hole.

to be fair, I stopped watching when several of the best solo games weren't even on the list and a few other top contenders were eliminated early on.

You don’t need to speed up. I just play the video at 1.5X speed. 😉

25:32 Arkham Horror revised is 4-player

"Bounce off might be the best game of all time" said no one ever (unless it's Chris). If you're new around here, Chris is a little...different...and Bounce Off is a shining example of that level of crazy :).

Yes that's nice, but where are my 5 reasons not to buy it?!?!?!

Wait! Spirit Island is on the roster? Now I'm torn between it and Crusoe.

Yup.

I'll tell you what had me on the edge of my seat... what happens if Mage Knight is knocked off? What would that mean for my copy of Star Trek Frontiers? Fortunately, it didn't come to that, though many a board game died to bring us this video...

Bounce Off had to bounce...off because it was completely unfair to everyone else

I liked AH LCG But quickly got out of it when I realized how much money I would have to spend to stay interested. The developing story and uncovering of mystery within each mission is what I love and once that is revealed there's very low replayability. Going to the same story with a different investigator just wasn't that interesting. My vote goes to Final Girl.

I love Viticulture, but I have yet to try the automa variant.

I used to enjoy your content but since you facilitated the spontaneous combustion of my entire collection I’m a bit salty

Next year: Sleeping Gods/Euthia/GH JotL/Descent LOTD/Imperium Classic/ Chronicles of Drunagor/ and may be 7th Citadelle 🤞 to replace first bracket loser list of this year. But all those are great solo games!

Under falling skies and Nemo's war against each other on first round? Have you no heart? these two should both be at the final 8. I lost all faith, going to need another round of MageKnight to drown my sorrow! I really wanted to see how Sleeping gods does as solo. maybe next time.

I always wonder how far theme carries a game. I played core Arkham Horror and just got tired of "not winning"; probably doesn't help that that was my intro to the Cthulhu mythos and finding out you don't outright win is on point for the theme. In the same line of thought, I don't really consider myself a Marvel fan, so I'm curious if there is a good game there or if theme glosses over some of the flaws.

Was Terraforming Mars not even on the original list? That's so strange. The solo mode is exceptional and the best part of it is that it just plays naturally using the same rules as multiplayer. There is no automa or any additional rules system to simulate real opponents, like most other euro games handle solo modes. You just do what you normally would do in a multiplayer game anyway... try to terraform Mars in the most efficient way, just with an added turn limit.

I really wish reviewers would actually show what the game looks like and not just the box art. Im not gonna take the time to google every one of these games to learn more. Im here for the games, not for the humans

You’re telling me that under falling skies was determined to a better solo game than Nemo’s war by a 4 to 1 ratio… even more proof that democracy simply doesn’t work!

Well, this sure gives me a lot of games to look into! Anyone care to comment about which of these feels the most atmospheric?

Dawn of the Zeds vs Anachrony. DOTZ wins Robinson Crusoe vs TMB:TMB wins Marvel Champions vs Aeons End: MC wins Under Falling Skies vs Nemo: UFS wins Marvel Champions vs Under Falling Skies: MC wins Tainted Grail Vs Mage Knight MK Wins Sprawlopolis vs Coffee Roaster: Sprawl Wins Mage Knight vs Sprawlopolis: MK Wins Hoplomachus vs Arkham Horror: AH Wins Warps Edge vs Spirit Island: SI Wins Gloomhaven vs This War of Mine: GH Wins Friday vs Onirim: Friday Wins 7th Continent Vs Bounce Off: 7th C Wins - HEY NO FAIR... Hadrian's Wall Wins Friday vs 7th Continent: HW Wins 2nd Tier (Needed to stop the vid here every time because it wasn't clear who was going to face off whom) VC Vs MC = MC Wins AH vs SI = AH Wins TMB vs MK = TMB Wins HW vs TWOM = TWOM Wins 3rd Tier AH vs MC = MC Wins MK vs HW = MK Wins Final MC vs MK = MC Wins I had 4 wrong in what I could see without stopping 2nd tier - 1 wrong 3rd & 4th = 2 wrong But I should have known.... MK and SI are always decking it out as best solo of all time in the Solo top 200 of BGG....

Agree with the winner, but how can terraforming mars not be in this bracket?

Ummmmm..... You actually do make the rules, don't you?

boooo no Xia :p.

My vote goes to Robinson Crusoe.

Nah. In my opinion(!) MK is pure nostalgia and elitism. By today's standards it's way too slow and boring. Good concept, poor execution. It's unnecessarily complicated for what it is. The rulebook is a nightmare. I wanted to love this game but couldn't.

Given that you said you weren't much of a solo gamer, I guess you can be forgiven for being surprised Mageknight won. I would've been surprised if it didn't based on how the solo communities speak of it. I enjoy but think it's a bit overhyped. I constantly see it recommended to people regardless of their criteria (like short or accessible). On the other hand, Spirit Island is the business! And Anachrony was straight robbed.