Solo games?

[Knockagh]

Fantasy Flight are beginning to play test solo games For X Wing. Could you ever imagine playing 40k yourself? Would you like to try?

 

https://www.jedinews.com/gaming/articles/fantasy-flight-games-announce-an-open-alpha-for-star-wars-x-wing-solo-rules-2/

[Captain Idaho]

=][= I'm moving this to Amicus since it is not news for a game within the B&C mission statement, but there may be merit to discussing solo games. =][=

[Shovellovin]

A while back there was a SadHammer (the name cracks me up) post on Reddit. I never tried that way of playing but perhaps it'll help you scratch the 40K itch until all of us are able to visit game shops, tournaments or friend's homes to play games?

[Marshal Valkenhayn]

I've played a ton of Rangers Of Shadowdeep, which is a solo skirmish sized RPG. If something like that were to get published for 40K, maybe as a way to play solo infiltration missions, I'd get into it.

[tangoalphatwo]

Oh man. Big sad over here. Yes. I have played a lot of 40K by myself. In fact way more than I ever have with other people.

 

I have always been caught in this weird in-between world. In high school I was friends with the “cool” kids, but was always a big nerd at heart. So anything Warhammer, and I was on my own. As I got older, the same thing continued, I hung out at clubs with gogo dancers, partied with DJs, raced motorcycles, and all sorts of crazy things like that. Non of my friends would every even think about getting into 40K with me. In fact the few friends that knew I was into 40K would tease me a little.

 

It wasn’t until I settled down, had kids, and my oldest son finally got old enough to play with me that I finally had someone to game with. My wife still makes fun of me a little for it.

 

Sorry, hope that wasn’t too much about me... anyway, yes, I have played pretty much every 40K game by myself at some point.

 

P.S. I think Blackstone Fortress has a solo play style if I’m not mistaken.

[Knockagh]

This is certainly something tabletop gaming companies are going to have to look closely at with the ongoing Covid restrictions and general reluctance of people to congregate. I would think the game mechanics would be difficult without some kind of computer input from your opponent.

[Black Knight]

Without any kind of charts/App to force the other team to decided its actions, you need to be truthful with yourself and not allow yourself to show favouritism to any of the armies you are playing.

 

You can play both sides, make the rules yourself but it takes a lot of discipline to not subconsciously effect the battle because you slightly like one side more than the other. It can be done though, just takes some practice.

[omo667]

Oh man. Big sad over here. Yes. I have played a lot of 40K by myself. In fact way more than I ever have with other people.

 

I have always been caught in this weird in-between world. In high school I was friends with the “cool” kids, but was always a big nerd at heart. So anything Warhammer, and I was on my own. As I got older, the same thing continued, I hung out at clubs with gogo dancers, partied with DJs, raced motorcycles, and all sorts of crazy things like that. Non of my friends would every even think about getting into 40K with me. In fact the few friends that knew I was into 40K would tease me a little.

 

It wasn’t until I settled down, had kids, and my oldest son finally got old enough to play with me that I finally had someone to game with. My wife still makes fun of me a little for it.

 

Sorry, hope that wasn’t too much about me... anyway, yes, I have played pretty much every 40K game by myself at some point.

 

P.S. I think Blackstone Fortress has a solo play style if I’m not mistaken.

I love this brother.

I have the same story, I was so ashamed of the fact that I enjoy Warhammer that I would hide it from my family and girlfriend for many years.

[Doghouse]

While you have Blackstone, I think the assassins game can also play solo. I do remember playing the original Space Hulk solo as a kid as well.

[El_Dicko]

Warcom put out a couple of solo AoS missions a few months ago. I didn’t try them, but it seems interesting. I’m a bit surprised they never did anything for 40k.

[snakebyte]

In 2nd Edition, the Death Company had rules that took control away from the player if there was no chaplain to lead them - they would each become a unit of one, charge the nearest model within range or otherwise move its max distance in a random direction.

 

Just take the rule one step further by including ranged weapons - e.g 'if such a model is within charge distance it must charge. If not it must fire one weapon at the closest enemy model within range. If no models are in range move a random direction as indicated on the scatter dice' or similar.

 

You could easily change death company into a tyranid swarm that has no leader beasts, or smacked off their face on combat drugs noise marines, or khorne berzerkers having a blood party, or just orks in general. They are chaotic enough to not need rules anyway. 

 

You don't necessarily need to play the current edition - in fact I'd probably recommend against it as the model count is so high compared to 2nd, but 2nd Ed or the first Necromunda has a good ruleset for smaller, weirder games.

 

An alternative to that would also be using Warhammer Quest as a basis. That game was entirely soloable as it was practically randomly generated. The enemies would either shoot or not. If not they moved to attack you, if they had a bow they stood still and shot you. 

Downside to it is that you'd basically have to create new stats from scratch for whatever races you wanted to use and try and balance it against 4 'hero' characters, and 40k is far more shooty than WFB was.

Would be a lot of time, but it would be a lot of fun. Like a Deathwatch RPG using Zone Mortalis or Space Hulk tiles or something. Pretty cool.

[Vermintide]

Honestly I think it's fine for practice, making sure you keep yourself brushed up on rules and everything. Nowhere near as fun as playing a good player, but over the last six months I think a lot of people have had to make do with what we got. I sometimes play against my girlfriend, and honestly I may as well be playing myself with all the help I have to give her :D

 

Me and my buddy back in school used to play "co-op" vs a horde of Tyranids and let them respawn to make it feel like a huge epic battle when we didn't actually have very many models. They're a hivemind, so you can just shuffle their models forward each turn according to what makes the most logical sense, and it makes perfect sense fluff-wise. Same goes for Necrons. That was a lot of fun actually.

[Chaplain Mollusc]

@Vermintide There was a mission type for that back in the day, I think it was called Meat Grinder in 2nd edition. Might be a starting point for those of us who need more of the crunch spelled out for us.

[LameBeard]

I can see this might be fun if asymmetric - eg give the opposing army simple AI but additional points. Maybe the starting point would be 4th edition Kill Team where you fought against an army of grunts.

 

Or if you wanted to fight an army of Madboyz in Rogue Trader edition, there were pages of tables to generate their behaviour - that would at least be unpredictable!

[juliusb]

Ever since I had kids I've only been able to play solo and I think it's actually fun. Dice rolling is the base mechanic of 40k so even if you're playing solo you don't know what's going to happen, it's like watching a movie that you control to a great extent.

 

Don't get me wrong, I look forward to getting out and playing again once COVID is over and now that my kids are older but solo is a good way to stay connected to the gaming side of the hobby.

[Bat33.1]

Solo gaming has always existed across many game systems and people with no other options will adapt games for themselves. Many computer strategy games offer the solo player a way to get some gaming in and with covid restrictions I've been playing Mechanicus as a way of getting a 40k fix.

 

It's not a perfect substitute for facing off with a live opponent but I would never rule it out as an option

Edited October 8, 2020 by PJ1933

[Volt]

I remember the old rules for unaligned models in the Star Wars Miniatures Game by Wizards of the Coast, the one you got as booster pack models with the sloppiest paintjobs you could imagine but still have a fair bit of models. Units like Rancors or other monsters had a special rule where they would immediately and ruthlessly attack the nearest enemy model to them, which is probably the best way to run solo games.

[Lukoi]

Fantasy Flight are beginning to play test solo games For X Wing. Could you ever imagine playing 40k yourself? Would you like to try?

 

https://www.jedinews.com/gaming/articles/fantasy-flight-games-announce-an-open-alpha-for-star-wars-x-wing-solo-rules-2/

 

I run solo maps against myself, using opponent lists for upcoming tournies etc and try my best to "beat" my own gameplan, and hopefully learn something about what my opponent might try in actual matches.  Also helps me to learn more generalities about the factions I don't play, as I'm relatively new to the game and only have one Army.

[N1SB]

Boys. BOYS. Have I got a story for you.

Around the time of Warhammer 40,000 1st ed., and this was back when it took the form of a series of articles in White Dwarf and people would unironically just call it "Rogue Trader", Games Workshop also published a game called Chainsaw Warrior. Chainsaw Warrior was a single-player boardgame, you played against a random deck of cards.

I played Chainsaw Warrior in its original form in that, everyone cheated in this solo game. You were supposed to draw your starting wargear, but everyone always chose the Chainsaw (because the game was called frigging Chainsaw Warrior) and the Rocket Launcher (can't remember what it was called). I still couldn't actually beat it...until recently, when I found it on sale as a PC game on Steam. Because it was a computer game instead of everyone just fudging the rules, the hardest difficulty was actually Classic Mode, and it was hard because it enforced the rule that you got random starting equipment instead of everyone taking the Chainsaw and Rocket Launcher. Ironically, it was only in this version that I finally beat the game after almost 30 years.

Why did I tell you this long tale about Chainsaw Warrior? Because it's actually Warhammer 2.1k. It happens in a futuristic New York City, but it has this dimensional anomaly they're calling "The Spatial Warp". There is a group of Cultists that seem to worship this Warp and may have caused it, they are called "Chaos Agents". Their symbol is a ring of 8 arrows pointing outwards. Before GW brought more attention to the Horus Heresy, we all assumed that THIS was the prequel to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. There were even optional miniatures for it advertised next to 1st ed Beakie Space Marines.

TL;DR - plot-twist, believe it or not, there was always a solo version of Warhammer 40,000. It was called Chainsaw Warrior and you could find it for like 50 cents on a Steam sale.

I have the same story, I was so ashamed of the fact that I enjoy Warhammer that I would hide it from my family and girlfriend for many years.

Brother, I'm sorry to hear that, but rejoice for those days are over now. We're getting streaming TV shows and McFarlane action figures, which means Warhammer's cool now. You are not hanging out with the cool kids, you ARE the cool kids, for as it was written, the geek shall inherit the earth.

All that said, you basically described the premise for a hilarious sitcom:

[GreenScorpion]

I played my fair share or board games and similar stuff by myself growing up, my brother was older and didn't quite share my interests and I could only spend a given time acting as the assistant of the electronics version of Dr. Frankenstein (my brother had an interest in making improvements to many of his electronic toys, but most are just half done somewhat undead stuff by now).
I was never with the cool kids though, I was more along the king of geeks, as I was big enough for people not to mess with me (except behind my back). I had to pull a guy out of a trash can more often than I would like to recognize, but at least the geeks were safe with me.
My family just had enough to get by, so warhammer 40k wasn't a thing for me until I became an engineer with a decent wage (which only happened in the last few years).

When I played some of the board games solo I actually lost (in the sense that my preferred pawn/figure/whatever didn't win), but obviously that wasn't always the case.
I have acquired Blackstone Fortress with the intention of playing solo, but so far I hadn't had the chance to actual play it, with my assignment to Ireland, hopefully when I return home.

@N1SB: Do you want a script writer for that sitcom? I am not sure if I would nail some of the more country specific humorous expressions, but it could work :)

[Brother Tyler]

Playing tabletop miniature wargames solo is a long established practice within the hobby, whether a game is designed for that purpose, a grognard is testing out rules before unleashing them on the world, or someone is unable to game with others for some reason. Just about any game can be played in this manner, the primary exceptions being those games that involve bluffing or simultaneous/real time action. Any turn-based game such as WH40K is easily played solo. As others have noted, something solo players have to be careful about is playing each side as if that side wants to win. If you can overcome that, solo gaming offers a lot of opportunities for learning about armies, factions, rules, etc. I will often play small solo games to work through rules for new games (such as Shadow War: Armageddon and Kill Team), codices, and editions.

 

There are some tabletop miniature wargames that are designed for true solo play, and these generally involve some sort of AI mechanism for the adversary so that the aforementioned bias becomes a non-issue. An excellent example of this type of game is Rangers of Shadow Deep. Interestingly, GW has a number of games, both current and in the past, that can be played solo relatively easy. The Space Marine Adventures (Labyrinth of the Necrons and Rise of the Orks) games, for example, are both designed for 1 or more players. Both are boardgames, but they use 28mm miniatures (and many players buy them just so that they can add those miniatures to their WH40K armies). Both of these games use a simple AI system to control the xenos in that game.