App-Assisted Solo Play

Hi y’all! Hope you’re doing well. So I like to play games solo, usually to learn a game before I bring it to the table with my friends or deep dive it in rapid succession while writing a review. There are some games that have amazing solo modes that actually manage to add to the multiplayer experience while others just do the bare minimum to be able to print that “1-…” label on the box. There is also an active community of gamers that develop fan-made solo modes which I always appreciate. However, there are some games where creating any card-based bot or flow chart would be just too complex. E.g. I tried to create a solo mode for Indonesia and while it technically is playable, the evaluation of what a certain company or gaining turn order advance is worth is just too complex to be fun. For conflict games (e.g. from GMT), I find there often isn’t even an attempt at a dedicated solo mode and the standard seems to be “just multi-hand it”. However, I think that’s a cheat. A good solo mode…