Are your solo games missing something?
Russell Parkin identifies three keys for enjoyable solo gaming in “The Three Holy Grails of Solo Wargaming.”. In addition to explaining the approaches he takes for each, the article includes an example demonstrating the methods in practice.
It’s this month’s sample article from previous issues of Lone Warrior and it’s on the Sample Articles page.
Would love to see Russell’s THW homebrew rules!
Having been down most of the paths Russel identified and found them useful for awhile, let me suggest another approach: replay historical battles. The battle plans are known so you don’t have to worry about what the opponent does. A big part of the challenge is modeling the forces and the battlefield. You have to simplify while still keep the balance of forces accurate. Then you can play it out a few times to see if you usually get the same result as happened in history. Or you can change a battle plan to see if the outcome changes.
I have been working on Lutzen (1632) for a few weeks and it is an engrossing challenge.