1 Player Podcast

This week Julius tells us about The Peak Team Rangers, a fully cooperative game from Scott Almes and Matagot where players are park rangers completing missions across a wildlife reserve before the park closes for the weekend. It has a limited communication/drafting mechanic: rather than keeping your supply cards, you assign them to other players, so everyone has to figure out what everyone else needs. Solo requires difficulty level four, which means working through all four preceding levels first. Julius loved it. I thought the mechanics sounded great but had no interest in that rulebook.  It's a big pass for me.

The Peak Team (BGG, Matagot)

This week Julius and I celebrate episode 400 and 15 years of the 1 Player Podcast with a Popular Mechanics episode on food-themed games. Finding solo-friendly food games turned out to be harder than expected, but we managed to cook up a few good ones, especially master chef Julius.

05:25 Food Chain Island (BGG, Button Shy)

08:25 Wild Gardens (BGG, Rose Gauntlet)

11:15 Elevenses for One (BGG)

14:50 Kitchen Rush (BGG)

17:53 Conservas (BGG)

21:45 Maki Master (BGG)

27:50 Crumbs (BGG)

30:10 A Nice Cuppa' (BGG)

31:10 Waffles for Esther (RPGGeek)

31:35 My Mother's Kitchen (itch.io)

32:25: Recipe on Kmidysh Paper (itch.io)

This week Julius introduces us to Cozy Stickerville, a cooperative sticker legacy game about building out a village over a 10-year campaign. You draw cards, make decisions, and place stickers on a mounted board, with the whole experience being mostly about narrative and atmosphere over challenge or strategy. Julius loved it (as a family experience), comparing it to a physical version of Stardew Valley. I played the demo with my son, and we were bored by the end of it.

Cozy Stickerville (BGG), Unexpected Games)

This week I take a trip into the hedgerows of Normandy with Fields of Fire, the solitaire tactical wargame by Ben Hull, published by GMT Games. This is a strictly solo experience where you command a US Army company across campaigns set in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.  Instead of a traditional map, it uses a grid of terrain cards.  Command and control mechanics do a great job of simulating fog of war.

Fields of Fire (BGG, GMT Games Series)

This week we talk about Nations, the board game.  Really though, this is a tale of two nations.  We are focusing on the board game but use that to discuss and compare Nations the board game with nations the dice game.

Nations (BGG)

Nations: the Dice Game (BGG)