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.

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.

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.

This week Julius introduces us to a trick taking game for one or more players. In Power Vacuum you take on the roll of an appliance trying to fill the roll of the now deceased Vacuum.  This is a game with a trick taking element in the game play but trick taking is not the only mechanic.

This week Julius and I look at family games that are also fun solo.  What's a family game?  Well, for us, it's a game that's light enough to play with a group of mixed skills and interest.... more or less.

This week, I tell Julius all about the one-shot RPG, Dawn of the Orcs.  In this game, you and up to seven friends will play as the council of a kingdom under attack for a more powerful enemy empire.  To fight back, the council approves the creation of an army of orc creatures.  You play through a number of chapters describing the ongoing war and the evolution of the orcs you have constructed.

I really enjoyed this game and found it easy to play.

* Dawn of the Orcs (itch.io)

This week Julius previews So You've Been Cursed.  It's a Scott Almes game that was on Kickstarter and has now been sent to backers so should be available soon.  This is based on So You've Been Eaten, which we covered way back in episode 275!  This is an asymentric game that can be played by 0, 1 or 2 players.  You play as a wizard that has been cursed to turn into a werewolf at night; or, you play as a werewolf that is trying to make that curse permanent so he can always be a werewolf.  When playing solo, you can choose whichever side you want to play an AI controls both.  The game can be played against itself by having it play both sides!

I tend not to like roll and writes.  I'm not sure what exactly it is but I don't seem to like the write aspect of the games, except for Yahtzee and maybe the Catan Dice Game.  Fortunately, Julius is here to tell us about other roll & writes like the very large and complex Tend.

This week we look at a big game.  S.E.T.I.: Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence is a game about trying to find alien life forms through science and exploration.  The science and exploration portion is based on pretty darned real science.  This is a really cool game by Tomáš Holek and published by Czech Games Edition.  With simple rules, this game has a complex set of mechanics that are simple to understand because of how well the integrate with the theme.