Most of my gaming happens after the house goes quiet, one player against a well-built system, so I am always updating my list of the best solo board games. A lot of arena and skirmish titles never make that list, because they live or die on a live opponent. Trials of MAYA caught my eye precisely because it does not stop at competitive play. It brings a solo mode too, framed as a scenario-based struggle against Maya itself. Standard disclaimer: I have not played the finished game, since these are previews of a prototype. But the solo offering is real, and it is worth a solo gamer’s attention.
A solo mode among competitive board games
Trials of MAYA is a MOBA on the table first and foremost, yet it was clearly designed to work for one. In Joe’s feature rundown, the captions list a game “featuring free-for-all, co-op and solo modes,” alongside the pitch that it is “a card based arena combat game with unique characters, customisable decks and multiple game modes.” For those of us who shortlist solo strategy board games, that last line is the hook: the same deck construction and champion play, pointed at a scenario rather than a rival. Learn to Play Games confirms the scope. Their overview notes it “is a one to four player game that takes roughly one to three hours to play per session, and it can be played in a number of different ways, including cooperative, solo and even competitive.” That one-to-four range, with a dedicated solo route, is exactly what I want from solo tactical board games.
What is Trials of MAYA?
Trials of MAYA is an expandable card-driven arena combat game. It combines three genres: MOBAs, classic 90s tactics games, and TCGs without booster packs. It plays 1 to 4 players in 60 to 180 minutes for ages 14 and up. Siege runs as 2v2, The Battle for Dhaara, and 1v1, Skirmish for Vyati. It launches on Gamefound September 8, 2026.
Why it should make your best solo board games shortlist
What convinces me a game will hold up solo is a system that runs cleanly without a human across the table, and this one leans that way. As Learn to Play Games explains, “you get to play as one of these champions, where you’re going to tailor your champion to your play style, building your champion up and unlocking all kinds of cool abilities along the way.” A fresh set of objective cards keeps each session moving: “players will always have a fresh complement of objective cards to gain experience points if they can meet the different objectives on those cards.” The terrain gives you a puzzle to chew on too, from high-ground bonuses to void zones that block movement and line of sight. That is the spatial, tactics-game side of things, and it is the part that makes a good solo session sing. Crucially, The Dice Tower points out the combat is dice-free, blending “the crunchy strategic depth of modern MOBAs with the spatial puzzling of 90s tactics games.” No randomizer to fake an opponent means your solo outcome rests on your planning, which is precisely how I like my board games for one player. If a scenario-driven solo mode inside a deep MOBA sounds like your kind of evening, the Trials of MAYA campaign is live on Gamefound now, and you can try it on Tabletop Simulator before backing.
Rulebooks and public metadata are on BoardGameGeek, the full breakdown is on the official page, and the campaign is live on Gamefound now.