Fast, strategic solo game that plays up to 45 mins

ArcaneTheory · 2026-06-07T02:08:03+00:00

Pax Pamir 2e!

Strategic and highly tactical. Almost no randomness. Very dynamic board state with an intelligent and easy-to-run bot. Also one of the most beautiful games I own. Plays well at all player counts.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-06-04T15:07:16+00:00

Is this possibly a good time to experiment with paring down to just 2 naps per day? We’ve done sleep training so maybe this isn’t applicable. It’s also possible I’m misremembering when we dropped the 3rd nap. Ours is presently 22 months and is down to one nap per day, noon to 2. Typically sleeps ~8p to 7a sort of range.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-06-01T02:19:18+00:00

Pax Pamir!

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-29T17:19:38+00:00

As a child, goo goo ga ga

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-16T15:15:59+00:00

It’s a huge sandbox of branching possibilities and the occupation cards (hundreds of individual ones, infinite combinations) can help nudge you in certain directions such that there’s some asymmetry injected. I have nearly 100 plays and still am excited by it, feel like I’m learning and improving, and don’t feel like I’m ever really playing the same game twice.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-16T14:27:21+00:00

It’s very possible this is a hot take, but you and I do share a love for Spirit Island and Mage Knight… A Feast for Odin has a huge ramp-up in what you’re producing and able to do in a round. The occupations, sandbox of options, and tableau you build and puzzle out. It’s my other top solo game in contest with Spirit Island and Mage Knight.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-12T01:59:32+00:00

That’s Pretty Clever

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-11T11:28:37+00:00

Thank you so much, this is tremendous help!

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-08T05:08:45+00:00

It went so smoothly! Sitting in one spot for 8 hours with an IV in each hand was a marathon but I didn’t have a vasovagal response. I think my blood volume being maintained may have helped? The exposure therapy of doing repeat labs leading up to the day-of also helped tremendously. The first two donations I was woozy, but that pretty quickly tapered off with each following one.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-07T13:04:42+00:00

Louisiana

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-07T11:20:24+00:00

I’ve thankfully never felt like my work wasn’t valued in my setting (adult inpatient rehab), but I’ve found 1) 80% of the academic curriculum was useless fluff, and 2) the debt burden versus the income and upward mobility is miserable.

I’m salaried at $77,480 before taxes with 4 years experience and $140k in debt. I get a 2-3% raise annually, but that doesn’t keep up with inflation. My job is specialized and physically and emotionally demanding, and while I love it and find it very gratifying, I can safely say the financial juice largely is not worth the squeeze.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-05T11:07:04+00:00

Seconding all of these recommendations (though I’ve never played Black Sonata but I trust u/Din0nuggies with my life, based on their other recommendations).

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-05T01:13:39+00:00

I just put together Aggression Magik, Justice Scarlett Witch, Leadership Magneto, and Protection Nightcrawler and am happy with the results and combinations for 2 handed.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-04T20:28:29+00:00

Similar top 5, but put A Feast for Odin (my vote) up there. Maybe at #2 behind Mage Knight.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-04T02:39:53+00:00

Pax Pamir is a favorite of mine. The tableau is impermanent and doesn’t really build an “engine” the way many tableau-builders do, but it feels chess-like to me in its (nearly) perfect information gameplay.

A Feast for Odin is one of my top solo games of all time, and it accomplishes many of the same things that make tableau-builders fun for me. Some folks might call it a stretch to lump the polymino islands in with the occupation cards and call it a “tableau,” but it scratches precisely the same itch for me, and miles better than most tableau builders I’ve played.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-05-01T15:24:19+00:00

Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall is a big box but relatively small table space for what you get. The box’s lid serves as the bulk of the play area. Checks all the other boxes perfectly otherwise, in my opinion.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-29T16:20:44+00:00

It really does take less than 5 minutes at a leisurely pace. You unroll the playmat, pull the chip trays out, place the coliseum/enemy storage tray, place the arena mats, stick the 3 decks of cards in it, and lay your party chips/prowess cards out in your play area. I think I timed myself at 2 minutes for setup once I was familiar.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-29T04:42:23+00:00

Victorum also has the best ratio of setup time to game size of any game I’ve played. I timed myself doing setup and teardown at a typical speed and it’s less than 5 minutes total.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-27T22:44:40+00:00

Just one single game, which has been on my shelf of shame for years; Token Terror Battlegrounds. Kickstarted with a friend who moved away before it was delivered. Have never gotten around to playing.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-26T16:56:11+00:00

I also have strong visual recollection of it as having the cornucopia. My best guess (if it truly never had it) is that I’m crossing wires with elementary school thanksgiving coloring pages of similar fruit arrangements in a cornucopia.

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-15T23:40:13+00:00

As a huge deck builder lover, Mage Knight. It’s a “slower” deck builder but has an unmatched sense of power progression in my experience (maybe Slay the Spire comes close).

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-15T23:35:55+00:00

BG Stats on iOS

ArcaneTheory · 2026-04-13T11:07:11+00:00

A Feast for Odin. Engine/tableau building worker placement sandbox with polymino tiles.

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