1 Player Podcast

This week's game is a solo/competitive game in which you are trying to be the scientist to first discover planet X.  Scientist have theorized that there must be a yet to be found planet out in space.  The math adds up right to prove it.  Nobody's found it yet.  In this deduction game, you get to try and find the lost planet by playing against an app driven AI.

This week Julius talks about the game Knight Fall.  This is a skirmish game in which players control either the knights or demons that are trying to attack and destroy the knights in an attempt to unseal the gates to the underworld.  This is an asymmetrical game that can be soloed by playing a campaign game as the knights.

This week Julius and I revisit the tiny little 13 card micro-game Elevenses for One. In this solitaire game you play as an English maid tasked with getting tea for two ready in 15 minutes.  It's a daunting task considering that the tea pantry is in complete disarray.  This is a rather simple game of lining up 10 cards in the correct order but as you play each card, it may impact the subsequent car...

We are an episode off.  We normally do a Popular Mechanics show every 5 episodes.  The next one will be on schedule at 280 or at least it should be.  Anyway!  This week Julius and I talk about skirmish games.  It's not exactly a mechanic but that's okay.  It was still interesting to think up skirmish solo games that I have enjoyed.  Here's the list from our discussion.... 04:26 The South Shall Ris...

This week Julius and I talk about a game we've both been playing, So, You've Been Eaten.  This is an asymetric game about mining gems from space-worm intestines.  You are a miner who jumps into Space Worms and mines gems as you travel through the digestive track.  You can play as either the miner or the space-worm, in either case, you are trying to survive the entire ordeal. The game is designed b...

Julius and I are back with a look at Uwe Rosenberg's Field's of Arle.  It's a lovely game in which you get to relive the lives of Mr. Rosenberg's ancestors, well, more or less. It's at least a look at what life might have been like in the province of Arle, in Germany in the 18th century (as a worker placement game).

This week I go it alone in my little lighthouse.  I look at a small journaling RPG about keeping a lighthouse with, um, something supernatural underneath.  In this real-time game, each day you roll a few dice and record an entry in your logbook... # of ships, weather and any brief notes.  Then, you can also write in more detail about the day in a journal.  There, you will keep track of your coming...

It's that time of year again!  It's time to make your Top 20 solo games list for the annual Top 100 (Top 200) list managed by Kevin Erskine!  Listen along with Julius as I prepare my list for Kevin   2022 Top 20 announcement & discussion thread (BGG) My Top 20 (29) Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Onirim Nusfjord Ragemore Sentinels of the Multiverse Castellion At the Gates of Loyang Nations: The D...

This week Julius teaches me about the game Project L. L stands for that shape of piece in games like Tetris (or Project L), for example.  This is a polyomino game in which you are collecting and upgrading pieces to fit onto boards in order to complete the boards and get points.  It's a rather interesting sounding game and, by the way, the components look really good.

This week we have one of our Popular Mechancis episodes; but, this week we cheat!  We don't talk about a game mechanic per se.  Instead, we talk about big games.  What the heck does that mean though?  Julius and I talk about good games we each think are big.  What are your favorite big games?   06:00 Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 ( BGG ) 09:15 Arkham Horro (2nd Edition) ( BGG ) 10:40 Anachrony ( BGG )...

We brought in our in-house real-time game expert, Julius to discuss Paramedics: Clear. As hinted above, it is a real-time game in which you play a paramedic rushing to save lives at time runs out.

This week Julius and I finally get around to talking about the 3rd Fantasy Flight co-operative LCG, Marvel Champions.  In this game you play as a super-hero trying to stop a villain from their evil scheme.  The game can be played with the pre-built hero-decks or you can do some pre-game deck construction to build some really powerful heroes.   Marvel Champions ( BGG , FFG )

We took another 1 week break but we come back with a two game discussion!  Okay, they are both small games and this episode ended up being a bit shorter than most but that's okay.  This week's games are similar in that in both you are lining up cards in numerical order.  Each supports 1 to 5 players and each seems fun.  Mind you, Julius and I each have only played one of the two games so we can't...

This week Julius tells me all about the game Kingdom Rush: Monsters, based on the tower defense for mobile devices.  The game's art and theme comes straight out of the video game and does a good job of copying the setting, but is it a tower defense game?  Julius doesn't think so.  Listen and get the scoop!

This week is one of our "long running" Popular Mechanics episodes.  This time around we look at deck building in solo games and talk a bit about some we like.   04:11 Friday ( BGG ) 07:08 Maiden's Quest ( BGG ) 11:27 Star Realms ( BGG ) 12:15 Star Realms: Frontiers ( BGG ) 14:13 Big Book of Madness ( BGG ) 15:00 Lewis and Clark ( BGG ) 20:20 Newton ( BGG ) 20:57 Rune Age ( BGG ) 24:18 Edge of Dark...

This week, we look at a board game based on the classic Choose Your Own Adventure series originally published by Bantam.  In these classic game books, you are the hero of the story and as you read through, you get to make choices that very much affect how the story continues.  This was managed with a branching story in which you would read the book out of order. This game tries to recreate that ex...

This week Julius and I, after taking a 1 week break from the podcast, take a 1 week break from talking about games. That's because this week we talk about puzzles in their various forms.  This is just a friendly chat about the types of puzzles we enjoy.  There are sooooo many types of puzzles it's not hard to find one that will suit you. Here are some things we mentioned Math logic puzzles Sudoku...

This week I tell Julius about the rather large Kanban EV.  This game is a re-implementation of the original Kanban and designed by Vital Lacerda.  This quite complex and challenging game was rather fancily produced by Eagle-Gryphon Games.  We talk about the game play and mechanics of the game without getting too deep into the details of how to play.   Kanban EV ( BGG , Eagle-Gryphon )

This episode is a bit different from the typical episode and that it doesn't really talk bout a game.  This week I have the pleasure of talking to Al Leduc, the designer of Yukon Airways.  Julius and I discussed this game two weeks ago.  I found the designer notes in the beginning of the rulebook really interested so I invited the designer to come talk about the back story of the game.  I found th...

This week Julius and I look at solo drafting games along with the helping, I'm sorry to say, of some barking dogs.  We talk a bit about what is or isn't a drafting game and briefly go over a half dozen or so games worth looking into.  While editing, I realized we completely overlooked a very obvious choice... Gates of Loyang . Darned, darned, darned.  It's an excellent example because the drafting...

This week Julius introduces us to a game called Yukon Airways by Al Leduc.  In this game, you play a pilot flying around the Yukon Territories and carrying passengers to various locations in a large and sparse region of Canada.  I believe the game is set in the mid-1900s but I'm not entirely sure about that.  Spin it!

This week we talk about a game I've had for years but only finally gotten around to playing it.  It's a game of gladiatorial arena combat for one or two players.  You compete in various arenas around the world in famous sites like El Dorado, Xanadu and Atlantis!  The game brings a large mix of gladiators to play with and is highly tactical.  It's a lot of fun but it's not a perfect game.  Check ou...

This week Julius and I popped out an old favorite of ours.  It's Sentinels of the Multiverse, the original edition.  We talk about this unwieldy super-hero game and what we think of it.  How's it aged, considering there is now a second edition out that "fixes many of the problems" with the original. Neither of us have played the new one so we don't have that to taint our opinions! Sentinels of the...

This week Julius brings us another episode with his son.  The talk about the escape room style game Echoes: The Microchip.  This game is part of the Echoes series which includes audio interactions in the game.   Echoes: The Microchip ( BGG )

This week Julius and I discuss worker placement games.  Drat, I forgot to write down the games we talked about in order.  I'll have to do that later on when I listen to the episode once it comes out.  If you want an exact, clickable list and you don't see it in the notes in your podcast player, visit 1PlayerPodcast.com and view the episode notes there.   Drat.   04:20 Agricola ( BGG ) 05:15 Feast...