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Paul Kellett (118 KP) created a post in Solo Gamers

May 9, 2019  
What solo games do I have in my collection? Have a look...

1066: Tears to Many Mothers
7th Continent
A4 Quest
Apex Theropod Deckbuilding Game
BIOS: Genesis
BIOS: Megafauna
Blackstone Fortress
The Cave
Cavern Tavern
The City of Kings
Clacks: A Discworld Game
The Colonists
D100 Dungeon
Dark Darker Darkest
Darkest Night Second Edition
Deep Space D6
Dice Brewing
Dice Settlers
Dungeon Crawler
Dungeon Roll
Emergence Event
Escape Tales: The Awakening
Fallen Land: A Post-apocalyptic Board Game
Far Space Foundry
Four Against Darkness
Ghostel
Gloom of Kilforth
Greenland
Guilds of London
Haze Islands
High Frontier 3rd Edition
Imperial Settlers
Legends Untold: The Weeping Caves
Legends Untold: The Great Sewers
Lagoon: City of Druids
La Granja
Leaving Earth
Le Havre
Martians: A Story of Civilization
Mythos Tales
Neanderthal
Oh My Goods
One Deck Dungeon
Page Quest
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game - Rise of the Runelords
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game - Skulls & Shackles
Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift
Race For The Galaxy
Rallyman
Ravage: Dungeons of Plunder
Rise to Nobility
Secrets of the Lost Tomb
Shadows of Malice
Side Quest
Small Star Empires
Snowdonia
Space Cadets Away Missions
Space Empires 4x
Star Wars Escape From the Death Star
Sub Terra
Terraforming Mars
This War of Mine
Tiny Epic Defenders
Tiny Epic Kingdoms
Tiny Epic Galaxies
Tiny Epic Quest
Tiny Epic Western
Tiny Epic Zombies
Witches: A Discworld Game
Xia: Legends of a Drift System
Zombie Dawn of the Dead


Games I'm waiting to arrive / games on my wishlist -
Shadows of Kilforth
Tainted Grail
Hero Realms Journeys
Rallyman GT
BIOS: Origins
Cthulhu : The Horror in Dunwich
The Artemis Project
Machina Arcana
Infinities: Defiance of Fate
Dawn of the Zeds 3rd Edition reprint
Snowdonia Deluxe Master Set
Trickerion Collectors Edition
Lifeform
Unbroken
Isle of Terror
Secrets of the Lost Station
The Gallerist
On Mars
Clinic
Vinhos




I also have a few games that don't have official solo rules but I enjoy playing "two-handed" or with fan-made solo rules (usually available on BGG) -

Alien Frontiers
Castles of Burgundy
Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition
Impulse
Last Night On Earth 10 Year Anniversary Edition
Mombasa
  
    Invasion: Modern Empire

    Invasion: Modern Empire

    Games and Entertainment

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    App

    Selected by Facebook as one of BEST MOBILE GAMES Invasion: Modern Empire is an online war-themed...

    War and Order

    War and Order

    Games

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    Orc Knights, Elf Sages, Dragon Riders, and other incredible warriors are waiting to fight for your...

    Marvel Pinball

    Marvel Pinball

    Games

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    Marvel Pinball combines the greatest Super Heroes of all time with the definitive videogame pinball...

The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games
Suzanne Collins | 2014 | Young Adult (YA)
8
8.5 (277 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Hunger Games is a trilogy of YA dystopian novels written by American author Suzanne Collins. The story is set in an unspecified future, in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem located in North America. The country consists of the Wealthy Capital surrounded by the twelve (Originally thirteen) poorer districts, each one in various states of poverty. The story follows Katniss Everdeen as she takes her sisters place in the annual Hunger Games. The games are a televised event created as punishment for a past rebellion. Over the course of the books Katniss and the rest of Panem are plunged into Civil War thanks to Katniss inadvertently fuelling a hidden rebel fraction led by President Alma Coin of (the previously thought to be destroyed) District 13. After going through hell, loosing friends and the sister she tried to protect Katniss is eventually tried for killing Coin at the execution of Ex-President Snow and sent back to District 12. Katniss eventually marries fellow tribute Peeta Mellark (whom she was tied to during the games as the pair of star-crossed lovers) and eventually have two children a boy and a girl. Author Suzanne Collins stated that the inspiration for the story came to her after channel surfing through TV channels, having seen a reality show on one channel then saw footage of the Iraq invasion. The two began to blur in an unsettling way and the idea started to form. The Greek myth of Theseus also served as a basis for the story, with Collins saying that Katniss could be called a future Theseus and The Hunger Games being an interpretation of the old gladiatorial games.

The Hunger Games the titular book was released on September 14th 2008 under the publishing house Scholastic Press. The book had an initial print run of 50,00 copies eventually being bumped up twice to 200,000 copies. By February 2010 the book had sold 800,000 copies and rights to the novel have been sold in 38 territories. In November 2008 The Hunger Games was placed on the New York Times best seller list where it would remain for 100 weeks (just over three months). By the time the books film adaption released in march 2012 the book had been on USA Today's best seller list for 135 weeks (Four months) and sold over 17.5 million copies. The book received several awards and honours such as Publishers Weekley's “Best book of the year 2008”, the New York Times “Notable children's book 2008” and was the 2009 young adult fiction category winner of the Golden Duck award. The book also received the California Young Reader medal in 2011.

Catching Fire, the second book was published on September 1st 2009 under Scholastic. As the sequel to the Hunger Games book it continues the story of Katniss Everdeen and the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem as rebellion begins. The book received mixed reviews but was placed on Time Magazines Top 100 fiction list of 2009. Catching fire had an initial print of 350,00 copies but was (Like its predecessor) had grown to 750,00 by February 2010. The book has sold over 10 million copies.

Mocking-jay the third and final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy and was published August 24th 2010 by Scholastic. The book had a 1.2 million copy print that was bumped up from 750,000 copies and in its first week sold over 450,00 copies. Reviews were favourable with the book and notes that it thoroughly explores the themes of the other books.

I really love the books and regularly read them. Whenever I do read them I tend to read all three of them in the space of a week. To be fair whilst I had heard of them before the first movie release I didn't start reading them until I'd seen the first movie. I did read Catching Fire and Mockingjay before their movie equivalents hit the screens. Whilst The Hunger Games was a brilliant opener and Mockingjay was a brilliant ender, I agree with a few reviewers that Catching fire had a delayed start and it took a bit of time to get into the action of the story at large.

Suzanne Collins was born in Hartford Connecticut on the 10th of August 1962 as the youngest fourth child to Jane Bradley Collins and Lt. Col. Michael Jon Collins a decorated U. S. Air Force officer. As a daughter of a military man she was constantly moving with her family and spent her childhood in the eastern united states. Collins went to the Alabama school of fine arts in Birmingham 1980 as a theatre arts Major. Collins went on to complete a Bachelor of arts from Indiana University in 1985 and telecommunications and in 1989 Collins earned her M. F. A. in dramatic writing from NYU Tisch school of arts. Collins began her career in 1991 as a writer for children's television shows and won a nomination in animation for co-writing the critically acclaimed Christmas special Santa, Baby!. Collins after meeting James Proimos whilst working on a children's show felt the urge to write children's books and spent the early 2000's writing five books of the Underland Chronicles; Gregor the Overlander, Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, Gregor and the curse of the Warmbloods, Gregor and the Marks of Secret and Gregor and the Code of Claw. The influence for those books came from Alice in Wonderland. During the late 2000's she ends up writing the Hunger Games trilogy which went onto a famous movie trilogy. As the result of the hunger games trilogy popularity Collins was named one of Times Magazine's most Influential people of 2010. On June 17th 2019 Collins announced she was writing a prequel to the Hunger Games and is scheduled to be released on 19th May 2020, the book is to focus on the failed rebellion 64 years before the Hunger Games trilogy.

I highly respect the Author Suzanne Collins for both her work as a writer of Children's media and for her creativity in creating both the Hunger Games and the Underland Chronicles. Her creativity has been awarded with her books popularity and being announced amongst Time Magazine's 2010's most influential people and Amazons best selling Kindle author in 2012.

In March 2009 Lions Gate Entertainment entered into a co-production agreement with Nina Jacobson's Production company Color Force for the Hunger Games. Novel writer Suzanne Collins adapted the book in collaboration with screenwriter Billy Ray and Director Gary Ross. Actors Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutchinson and Liam Hemsworth were hired for the roles of Katniss, Peeta and Gale respectively. Lawrence was four years older than Katniss was in the books but Collins said she would rather the actress be older than the character since it demanded a certain maturity and power. Collins also liked Lawrence stating she was the “only one who truly captured the character I wrote in the book”. The Hunger Games Movie was released on march 23rd 2012. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was released on November 22nd 2013 with Francis Lawrence being hired as Director and actors Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone and Sam Claflin being hired as Plutarch Heavensbee, Johanna Mason and Finneck Odair respectively. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay was split into 2 and Part 1 was released on November 21st 2014 and part 2 on November 20th 2015 Francis Lawrence remained Director for the final movies with Actor Julianne Moore joining the cast as President Alma Coin.

I loved the movies point blank and whilst it has its flaws like most movies often do I think its redeeming quality has been it faithfulness in sticking to the books as closely as possible and the actors representation of Suzanne Collins characters such as Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Donald Sunderland and President Snow, Stanley Tucci as Ceaser Flickerman, Woody Harrelson as Haymich Abernathy and Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinkett. Whilst all the actors were very good and were chosen well for their characters. These actors in particular I feel did exceptionally well in bringing their characters to life especially Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci and Woody Harrelson but then I am a very big fan of theirs so I may be a little biased.
  
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization
2015 | Card Game, Civilization, Economic
The most Civilization board game (2 more)
There is a ton of complexity that will keep it interesting for a long time
Variation of gameplay style (war, culture, technology, wonders)
The mechanics will likely be too much for most people (1 more)
A handful of the cards are not balanced well
Civilization in Boardgame Form
Do you like the video game Civilization? Then you will absolutely love this board game. Do you not love intense Euro strategy games? Then you will probably hate this game.

This game is very intense. There are a lot of mechanics, and a lot to learn. It follows the basic mechanics of the Civilization video game fairly closely, but even veteran Civ players took a while to learn it.

You also have to be comfortable with the game taking all day. The time estimate on the box is very wrong. Our first game took us three hours, and we only made it through the first age (there are three).