Best Solitaire Games

[PanzersEast]

Funny thing happened on the way to our target........

So I decided to take on a Air Support mission and divided my flight up with 2 F-4s, 1 A-6 and one A-7.  So I draw the chits, so far so good and then the angle of attack.  Ah.. should not be an issue so I devise my plan for the flight path and load out of my planes.  There is an air presence in the area, however I feel pretty good about my chances so far so I load up the Aim-7 on the A-4s... JUST the Aim-7.







Alight, feeling good about this mission until I pull....



Visual Identification... WTF man... Over the target event I hope saves my butt.  Could you have not told us this before we armed the planes and took off.




So now I am looking at a Mig-21 in the North Approach and a Mig-19 moving in from the West Approach.  With 2 of my F-4s with the Sparrows, I will have to send in the A-6 and A-7 with the F-4s staying back in the Pre-Approach Area.  Sparrows cannot be fired in the same area as a bandit and the range limit is 1.



Over the Target is no help....






Turn 5
Nothing happens during the Fast Phase and the Slow Phase.  However, the Mig-21 fires on an F-4 (random Roll) and misses and I receive AA fire that hits the A-6 for 1 Stress.  The Mig-19 moves into Northern Approach Area (random roll). 

Turn 4
Since I have visual contact with both bandits my F-4s fire and one kills the Mig-21, however I manage to miss with 2 Aim-7s on the Mig-19.... I am out of luck.  The F-4s do not have a mounted Gun so..... that Mig-19 will harasses the entire mission.


I manage to score 8 hits on the target which gives me 2 VP, however my A-7 was shot down by the Mig-19 but he was recovered.  Over all it was a fairly successful mission, however it could have been much worse and shows of things change in an instant.



PE

[PanzersEast]

Your Order From Victory Point Games has shipped.

Squee!

They manufactured that stuff faster than I expected.   I put in the order around the 5th or 6th (last week) so it's not been very long.   :D

Ditto here... on its way!  Lets the real games begin.


PE

[Nefaro]

Oh man, PzE.   ???

When it comes to using limited weight points for AtA missiles (which is always), I always put Sidewinders on first.  I consider Sparrows to be a luxury that will regularly miss anyway, so I never relied on them heavily in the Leader series.

Historically, Sparrows were crap until the 'M' model anyway.  I'm surprised their ToHit rating is a 6 on those Phantom Leader counters.  Weren't they 7 or 8+ in Hornet Leader??!  And those were later more improved models!  :o

[PanzersEast]

Oh man, PzE.   ???

When it comes to using limited weight points for AtA missiles (which is always), I always put Sidewinders on first.  I consider Sparrows to be a luxury that will regularly miss anyway, so I never relied on them heavily in the Leader series.

Historically, Sparrows were crap until the 'M' model anyway.  I'm surprised their ToHit rating is a 6 on those Phantom Leader counters.  Weren't they 7 or 8+ in Hornet Leader??!  And those were later more improved models!  :o

Let's just say I had a good run with the Sparrows so I got a little over confident with them..... and this time it bite me.


PE

[Nefaro]

Your Order From Victory Point Games has shipped.

Squee!

They manufactured that stuff faster than I expected.   I put in the order around the 5th or 6th (last week) so it's not been very long.   :D

Ditto here... on its way!  Lets the real games begin.


PE

If all goes to plan I will have one or both VPG games on the table this weekend. 

Friday Friday Fridayyyy!   :D

I'm not terribly familiar with the finer details of the English Civil War.  Should be very interesting. 

Interesting tie-in: My first European ancestor to reach the New World was reportedly on the third fleet to travel to Virginia.  The one that wrecked in the Bermudas briefly before building new ships and pressing on.  During the Civil War, historians say Virginia was predominantly Royalist.  Hrmmm...  Makes me wonder how the war was perceived & handled in the small colonies at the time, a couple decades later.  ???  Not familiar with that much at all, being so early in colonial history.

[PanzersEast]

If all goes to plan I will have one or both VPG games on the table this weekend. 

Friday Friday Fridayyyy!   :D

I'm not terribly familiar with the finer details of the English Civil War.  Should be very interesting. 

Interesting tie-in: My first European ancestor to reach the New World was reportedly on the third fleet to travel to Virginia.  The one that wrecked in the Bermudas briefly before building new ships and pressing on.  During the Civil War, historians say Virginia was predominantly Royalist.  Hrmmm...  Makes me wonder how the war was perceived & handled in the small colonies at the time, a couple decades later.  ???  Not familiar with that much at all, being so early in colonial history.

Looks like Monday for me on CN.  :o  but this weekend will be breaking into Ottoman Sunset and Forlorn Hope.

I finally sat down with Nemo's War last night and I really enjoyed it.  I ended up with a score of 100 = Failure.  So Nemo ended up like this: Captain Nemo discovers nothing of importance, and his letters are rejected by scientific journals. He responds by disappearing with the Nautilus into the icy depths and is never seen again.

Nefaro how much have you played of Sentinels of the Multiverse?  I have not had a chance to play but I am really interested if the expansions are worth the price and what your experience with them are.



PE

[Nefaro]

Looks like Monday for me on CN.  :o  but this weekend will be breaking into Ottoman Sunset and Forlorn Hope.

I finally sat down with Nemo's War last night and I really enjoyed it.  I ended up with a score of 100 = Failure.  So Nemo ended up like this: Captain Nemo discovers nothing of importance, and his letters are rejected by scientific journals. He responds by disappearing with the Nautilus into the icy depths and is never seen again.

I'm also interesting in Ottoman Sunset and Nemo's War but those will have to wait.  I'm getting backed up with stuff.  A good problem to have, I suppose.

Nefaro how much have you played of Sentinels of the Multiverse?  I have not had a chance to play but I am really interested if the expansions are worth the price and what your experience with them are.

PE

I've played three games of Sentinels of the Multiverse thus far.  I think it's quite wonderful.  Having only had the thing in my possession for three days, that's saying quite a lot.  Most of my new games get played once and cycled back into my 'To Play List' with others.  With this one it didn't leave the table even after these three plays.

It has all the constantly shifting game mechanics of CCG/LCG card games without the need for deck building.  You also don't need to be constantly checking your hand to play instant "gotcha" cards because the only cards that affect gameplay are those that are in play and on the table.  Since each hero/villain normally only gets to play one new card to the table every turn you have to prioritize which ones you need, in what order.  Certain cards can modify such mechanics, of course, being this type of card game. 

Each hero & villain has his or her own deck of cards, with their own unique cards and strategies.  When you pull out three or four hero decks, you know each one has it's own style and strengths.  That makes playing each hero's hand a bit different and gives a lot of variety, especially regarding the team-environment-villain makeup of each game.   While some game combinations make for more difficult or easier games, I've lost two out of my first three (using three heroes) so there is plenty of challenge to be had.  The villain decks are often challenging and keep throwing difficulties at you.  They're probably the real core of the game since those are the "AI" you're playing against.  Since the Rook City and Infernal Relics expansion comes with four more Villain decks (IIRC), I'm very happy I picked it up along with the base set.  It also has more Heroes and Environments, all of which are interesting and fit nicely into the system.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a lot of fun solo and I imagine it can be quite fun for Co-Op too.  It also sets up very quickly, which is something I don't see often these days.  This is the card game to have for those who enjoy the regularly changing CCG-style card strategy environments but don't want to spend the time deck building (or even finding an opponent, as it turns out).   I'll surely get some Co-Op in at some point in the near future, but from what I've gathered it's just as popular to play Co-Op as solo, if not more.  I imagine that since each hero has it's own style, a group game with each person playing a single one would be more thematically enjoyable.

I downloaded some user-created hit point trackers from BGG and played my last game with a universal one and some colored wooden tokens.  I still used the hit point counters that come with the game for the smaller villain henchmen and environment stuff.   It sped up the game a bit.  I will probably just use a notepad and pencil for the same biggies in a Co-Op game to save space.  Tracking HP with the given game counters didn't bother me all that much in the first place, as long as I had the smaller denominations separated into their own little bowls.  You will have to keep track of various card effects once the game gets going and there are numerous cards on the table, but the big modifier counters can help draw your attention to the more popular situations.

Nef says, "Get it!!"

[ArizonaTank]

I've played three games of Sentinels of the Multiverse thus far.  I think it's quite wonderful.  Having only had the thing in my possession for three days, that's saying quite a lot.  Most of my new games get played once and cycled back into my 'To Play List' with others.  With this one it didn't leave the table even after these three plays.

It has all the constantly shifting game mechanics of CCG/LCG card games without the need for deck building.  You also don't need to be constantly checking your hand to play instant "gotcha" cards because the only cards that affect gameplay are those that are in play and on the table.  Since each hero/villain normally only gets to play one new card to the table every turn you have to prioritize which ones you need, in what order.  Certain cards can modify such mechanics, of course, being this type of card game. 

Each hero & villain has his or her own deck of cards, with their own unique cards and strategies.  When you pull out three or four hero decks, you know each one has it's own style and strengths.  That makes playing each hero's hand a bit different and gives a lot of variety, especially regarding the team-environment-villain makeup of each game.   While some game combinations make for more difficult or easier games, I've lost two out of my first three (using three heroes) so there is plenty of challenge to be had.  The villain decks are often challenging and keep throwing difficulties at you.  They're probably the real core of the game since those are the "AI" you're playing against.  Since the Rook City and Infernal Relics expansion comes with four more Villain decks (IIRC), I'm very happy I picked it up along with the base set.  It also has more Heroes and Environments, all of which are interesting and fit nicely into the system.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is a lot of fun solo and I imagine it can be quite fun for Co-Op too.  It also sets up very quickly, which is something I don't see often these days.  This is the card game to have for those who enjoy the regularly changing CCG-style card strategy environments but don't want to spend the time deck building (or even finding an opponent, as it turns out).   I'll surely get some Co-Op in at some point in the near future, but from what I've gathered it's just as popular to play Co-Op as solo, if not more.  I imagine that since each hero has it's own style, a group game with each person playing a single one would be more thematically enjoyable.

I downloaded some user-created hit point trackers from BGG and played my last game with a universal one and some colored wooden tokens.  I still used the hit point counters that come with the game for the smaller villain henchmen and environment stuff.   It sped up the game a bit.  I will probably just use a notepad and pencil for the same biggies in a Co-Op game to save space.  Tracking HP with the given game counters didn't bother me all that much in the first place, as long as I had the smaller denominations separated into their own little bowls.  You will have to keep track of various card effects once the game gets going and there are numerous cards on the table, but the big modifier counters can help draw your attention to the more popular situations.

Nef says, "Get it!!"

I agree, great game.  Reasonably priced.  You can get the enhanced "base" game from Amazon with $27 prime (no shipping) in the US.  Really can't beat that price for a great game.  I have been playing only co-op and it is a big hit.

[PanzersEast]

I'll be playing the base game this weekend, and possibly following up with another purchase of the expansions...... like I need to spend more money!!!! my gift card has run out.


PE

[Nefaro]

I'll be playing the base game this weekend, and possibly following up with another purchase of the expansions...... like I need to spend more money!!!! my gift card has run out.


PE

I know.  I just keep finding games I want to get but am too afraid to put it off for long else they suddenly go out of stock/print and the prices start rising on them. 

Despite my latest splurge on these three games, I just broke down and ordered some more co-op fare because Noble Knight had used near-mint copies of Ghost Stories and Bios: Megafauna in stock at good prices.  Like $32 - $35 apiece!  My past experiences with buying used games from them has been exceptional and they ship stuff super fast.  My only complaint has been finding some things on their site, as the search function there still takes a lot of digging at times.   I keep seeing some raving reviews about how fun, difficult, but relatively easy-to-learn Ghost Stories is so I figured "what the hell" after seeing a good used copy on the cheap.  If nothing else, it may get some family game time.   And Bios - Megafauna just looked so unusual but interesting for it's "building" your dinosaur species mechanics via randomized environments, mutations, etc. 

Both of these are something rather out of the ordinary for me.  Perhaps this varied plethora of new stuff will satiate my tabletop purchasing for a bit.  :P  In the meantime, it's off to play another game of Sentinels before my weekend arrivals.  :)

[PanzersEast]

I'll be playing the base game this weekend, and possibly following up with another purchase of the expansions...... like I need to spend more money!!!! my gift card has run out.


PE

I know.  I just keep finding games I want to get but am too afraid to put it off for long else they suddenly go out of stock/print and the prices start rising on them. 

Despite my latest splurge on these three games, I just broke down and ordered some more co-op fare because Noble Knight had used near-mint copies of Ghost Stories and Bios: Megafauna in stock at good prices.  Like $32 - $35 apiece!  My past experiences with buying used games from them has been exceptional and they ship stuff super fast.  My only complaint has been finding some things on their site, as the search function there still takes a lot of digging at times.   I keep seeing some raving reviews about how fun, difficult, but relatively easy-to-learn Ghost Stories is so I figured "what the hell" after seeing a good used copy on the cheap.  If nothing else, it may get some family game time.   And Bios - Megafauna just looked so unusual but interesting for it's "building" your dinosaur species mechanics via randomized environments, mutations, etc. 

Both of these are something rather out of the ordinary for me.  Perhaps this varied plethora of new stuff will satiate my tabletop purchasing for a bit.  :P  In the meantime, it's off to play another game of Sentinels before my weekend arrivals.  :)

I'll let you know how Ottoman Sunset is...... Nemo's War is a very fun game, I like it and got it for around 20 usd. 

I really, really, really want The Barbarossa Campaign by Victory Point..... I know they are working on a second edition and if it was a little cheaper I would purchase the current one now!  But, with that money I could buy both expansions to Sentinels.  I splurged a while back and purchased Forlorn Hope, which I heard was very good.... Space Hulk like.  Other Victory Point games I am interested in are Darkest Night, Hero of Weehawken, Empires in America (found it for cheap), and Circus Train.

DVG has several games I am interested in, however there have not been enough purchases to send it to the printers. $$$$$$


PE

[bayonetbrant]

Empires in America

http://grogheads.com/?p=1455

[Nefaro]

Empires in America

http://grogheads.com/?p=1455

Nice.

That whole game series looks deceptively small but it sounds like the gameplay is larger than it would seem on such a first glance.

[Nefaro]

Sweet Jesus on a stick!  What the hell is going on with all my shipping lately?

'Tomb' was supposed to be here today, as the store that shipped sent it via 2-day priority mail from South Carolina.  For some dumb reason the USPS sent it to Atlanta, GA on that 2-day delivery deadline.  I live in Kansas City, MO.  Dubya Tee Eff?  Okay.. it's the postal service, so those guys screwing up isn't a rarity.  *shrug*

However, I just looked at my VPG shipment coming from CA.  Fedex has been shipping it through three cities in California for the last two days.  Like California pinball.  Double Dubya Tee Eff?!   They just changed my arrival date to Monday.  No new weekend gaming, alas!  Blast!  I was looking forward to having a good chunk of the weekend on these. >:(

Maybe this will finally convince me to stop depending on these parcel carriers so much.  They've been the Three Stooges lately.

[Nefaro]

Which company makes the game where you try to keep the Apache tribe alive & well through the ages?  That one seemed to garner some attention recently, but I can't remember the name.  I'm  pretty sure it had solitaire play available but I don't think it was VPG who publishes it.  Was tempted to pick it up when I saw it at the local game store earlier this month, but it looked rather unusual.


Sorry for the shipping rant.  I've never had so many delays all at once.  Cuuuurrrse.  They must have reverted to the 'B-Team' after the holidays.