If (when) I get this I'll probably take it to the club but I do enjoy a good solitaire when the women in the house hyjack the TV. So has anyone played this solo and is it fun or too much going on for one?

Cheers.

From what I've read elsewhere, if you're gonna solo this, make sure you can easily reach all the stations. You might find it easier to play on a small table that you can move around (and just stay on your feet in the timed phase).

I've played mostly solo, and here's what I suggest. Station yourself near the lower right corner of the board; I spend most of my time at the commander position but move over to the squad leader position to take a closer look at missions when deploying to the mission or drawing mission cards. Put the scientist cards with commander and the central officer cards with squad leader; shade their techs to the side closest to you so you can easily see the current tech situation. Standing up definitely helps as well. I initially thought I'd have liked to have a tablet for the app, but my phone is actually perfect; the smaller footprint is an advantage.

I've enjoyed it greatly playing by myself. It's probably more stressful, but you don't have comm issues with your teammates unless you interrupt yourself when talking to yourself.

Yeah, I play mostly solo by now, and have some suggestions myself.

You have to customize everything to your position - nevermind the standard setup in the rulebook - it won't work well enough for a solo player IMHO. Set the cards faced to your position, so you can reach and flip/choose between them, whenever you like.

Since my table is too small, I play on the floor - so I assume I'm in a "standing-like" position.

I played sitting where Commander sits, all cards set in a fan-like shape.

Science Chief Officer above Central Officer, to the left side of the board.

Squad Leader, with everything (Mission Cards too) faced front to me.

Few technical tips I learned after few such plays:

1. Get ready the hand of Science cards ready before your turn (faced down until app calls for it).

2. Keep the hand of Science cards nearby (or in hand literally) - in a spare time between tasks it's the main thing to plan your turn.

3. Make piles of 5xtoken of money, single tokens put separated (to avoid reaching for 4xtoken instead of 5xtoken mistake) - generally, it's really little time to get funds in that game - and in one player mode the time is a killer.

4. Put your scientists and satellites in 2xpiles for easier management of those resources.

I enjoying solo play very much - hope You'll like it too!

Yeah, I play mostly solo by now, and have some suggestions myself.

You have to customize everything to your position - nevermind the standard setup in the rulebook - it won't work well enough for a solo player IMHO. Set the cards faced to your position, so you can reach and flip/choose between them, whenever you like.

Since my table is too small, I play on the floor - so I assume I'm in a "standing-like" position.

I played sitting where Commander sits, all cards set in a fan-like shape.

Science Chief Officer above Central Officer, to the left side of the board.

Squad Leader, with everything (Mission Cards too) faced front to me.

Few technical tips I learned after few such plays:

1. Get ready the hand of Science cards ready before your turn (faced down until app calls for it).

2. Keep the hand of Science cards nearby (or in hand literally) - in a spare time between tasks it's the main thing to plan your turn.

3. Make piles of 5xtoken of money, single tokens put separated (to avoid reaching for 4xtoken instead of 5xtoken mistake) - generally, it's really little time to get funds in that game - and in one player mode the time is a killer.

4. Put your scientists and satellites in 2xpiles for easier management of those resources.

I enjoying solo play very much - hope You'll like it too!

@OP

I also play solo a bit, I pretty much agree with everything thing the above poster said, with a couple of caveats.

Firstly 100% on the setup side. DO NOT setup like the game instructs, as this is for 4 people not 1. I would partition your cards into TIMED phase cards and RESOLUTION phase cards, make sure all the TIMED PHASE one are close together and far enough away from the RESOLUTION phase cards to be partitioned from them.

I also tend to group my money into groups and cards in sets (particularly crisis cards as they are sleeved and my sleeves seemed to be made of teflon, one miscalculation and its chase the crisis cards for the enxt 10 seconds : ) ). That said it always sat a little uneasily with me, as the time you get to take those cards is supposedly meant to account for the collection phase, and I wonder if I am cheating a little bit here IDK.

I would use a phone or small tablet, not a pc or laptop for the app as it is much quicker to tap something directly in front of you then try and use a mouse. As the above poser says time is critical in single player, especially for having enough to make strategic decisions about tech, or ensuring you only spend what money you actually need.

Standing during the timed phase works well for smaller areas, but sitting is feasible if you have your area setup right and can reach everything easily.

Planning your next timed phase, during your resolution phase helps to. For example knowing you are going to use "all in", then "weapon fragments" early on to get some money, then "officer training", etc. I tend to partition my actions into ones I take at the end of the round in PAUSE time (skyranger for example, so I can choose from all the crisis cards available) and those I try to get done before hand (ie the money ones, as if you wait till PAUSE time, their funds cannot be used that round as EMERGENCY FUNDING has already been allocated). I keep two number in my head before I start, the number of timed phase cards I am definitely using before PAUSE TIME (which I decrement every time I use one), and the number at PAUSE TIME. This way I never end up in a situation where I forget to use a given card. I also try to use them in the same order as that helps jog the memory for future rounds/games.

Finally remember PAUSE time accrues at 2 seconds per XCOM phase, unless the timer has run below 4 seconds then it is half the time remaining. So use every second you can and only move on to the next phase when the timer runs to 5 seconds (think it changes colour and may ding at this point IIRC). NOTE : Non-xcom phase ie crisis card selection, place ufo's, enemy at the base etc should be run down till almost the last second as no pause time can be accrued from these actions. DO NOT LET THEM RUN OVER. You lose half the time from your next xcom action, and pause time drains until you move on.

Anyway solo is fun. Perhaps a little overwhelming the first few times you play, but fun none-the-less. I think it also helps you formulate strategies you may not otherwise think of, as you can more easily see how the various roles interact with one another.

Hope this helps.

BTW : This was meant as a reply to the OP, I quoted KRISHAKH as I seconded what they were saying.

I have found the solitaire to be overwhelming due to the asymmetrical nature of the game, and the timed aspect. Which makes it a fantastic co-op, but too complicated for solo. At least for a big dummy like me.

That being said, i only tried it once, and it was my 2nd game. However, some of the advice given by some of the other people posting here seem like they would help a lot.

My solo setup, after many solo games, is as follows:

I sit in the commander's spot, so the base is on my right, research is across the table.

I keep the board just far enough away from the bottom edge of the table, so I have enough just enough room to put cards down on the table in front of me.

Starting with the bottom left side of the board, I have my satellite reserve card. Above that is scientists, and above that are interceptors. To the left of the all that is a column of my soldier reserve cards. The top of the upper-most soldier card is flush with the interceptor reserve card, and the bottom of bottom-most soldier card is flush with the satellite reserve card., to satisfy my OCD. Below the satellite reserve card, I have Mission Control and Satellite Nexus.

Above the interceptor card are the emergency funding, officer training, and the tech deck.

On the bottom right side of the board is the enemy deck. Above that is a pile of UFOs, and to the right of that is the mission deck. Above all that is a pile of success tokens. I use a dice tower to save space, as I always end up knocking board pieces around with dice, and sometimes I can't remember where they were before.

The crisis deck is directly below the crisis pool.

Lastly, this method really only works if playing on a long table, I think.