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Shorter Solitaire Games (approx. 30 min. or less)
lisa smith
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I tend to like solitaires that involve tile placement, connections, pattern recognition, or deduction so this list reflects that. Feel free to add the kinds you like.

If you add an item where the solitaire variant doesn't come with the game, please say where you obtained the rules.
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Posted Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:07 pm
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1. Board Game: Chaos Tiles [Average Rating:5.23 Overall Rank:4694]
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lisa smith
United States
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One of my favorites, requires an interesting kind of pattern recognition
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2. Board Game: Indochine 2000 [Average Rating:7.71 Unranked]
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lisa smith
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A good game with very nice components. Good for playing other card based solitaires with large layouts as well.
3. Board Game: Ta Yü [Average Rating:7.17 Overall Rank:321]
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lisa smith
United States
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Excellent connection game with a nice solitaire variant posted here on the geek.
4. Board Game: Feurio! [Average Rating:6.27 Overall Rank:1341]
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lisa smith
United States
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Nice tactical tile placement game. Captures the feel of a spreading fire well.
5. Board Game: Oceania [Average Rating:5.94 Overall Rank:2065]
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lisa smith
United States
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Light tile placement game. I enjoy it partially because the components are so attractive.
Mark Hudson
United States
Los Angeles
California
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patron05060708
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hrm, I found the components dull, and the solo gameplay pretty boring too.
6. Board Game: Sunda to Sahul [Average Rating:6.15 Overall Rank:2046]
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lisa smith
United States
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Very puzzle like. Beautiful components.
7. Board Game: Old Town [Average Rating:6.50 Overall Rank:1253]
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lisa smith
United States
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Deduction game. Haven't tried but looks interesting.
lisa smith
United States
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This does have limited replay value as a solitaire game as there is a fixed group of 8 solitaire puzzles.
8. Board Game: Eagle Eye Agency [Average Rating:5.94 Unranked]
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lisa smith
United States
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Detective type deduction game that comes with a number of cases. I have no idea if it's any good.
9. Board Game: Bali [Average Rating:6.52 Overall Rank:2315]
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lisa smith
United States
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A good solitaire word game, like a word version of klondike.
10. Board Game: Al Cabohne [Average Rating:6.09 Overall Rank:1669]
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lisa smith
United States
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A solitaire version of Bohnanza. Have not tried it but it's supposed to be good.
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フィル
Australia
Newtown
NSW
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Also works as a 2P game apparently.
11. Board Game: Ricochet Robots [Average Rating:7.00 Overall Rank:265]
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lisa smith
United States
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Puzzle like game. I don't really like this but alot of people do.
12. Board Game: Bongo! [Average Rating:6.08 Overall Rank:2033]
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lisa smith
United States
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Logic/pattern recognition puzzle solved for speed. Use a timer to play solitaire.
13. Board Game: Set [Average Rating:6.48 Overall Rank:711]
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lisa smith
United States
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Pattern recognition game. Doesn't really have solitaire rules but it can be fun to just find sets on your own.
Thom Denholm
United States
Seattle
Washington
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Along the same lines, you might want to try the Set Daily Puzzle --- it's 12 set cards and there are 6 "sets" on the page. Some days are pretty quick, some days you will scratch your head to find that sixth one... but it's always fun!

http://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle_frame.htm
14. Board Game: Aquarius [Average Rating:5.85 Overall Rank:2488]
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lisa smith
United States
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There are solitaire rules on the company's website. Very fluffy, but one of my favorite fluffy solitaires.
15. Board Game: Maze [Average Rating:6.25 Unranked]
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lisa smith
United States
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Puzzlelike game where the pieces move in chess like ways. The game is actually nothing like chess. Still SeI like this alot.
16. Board Game: Galaxy [Average Rating:5.20 Unranked]
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lisa smith
United States
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More fountations to keep track of than usual and a special deck. Haven't played this enough to decide if I like it or not.
17. Board Game: The Castle [Average Rating:5.92 Unranked]
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lisa smith
United States
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I've never finished this due to boredom, but people who like dungeon crawls might like this much better than me.
18. Board Game: Caves & Claws [Average Rating:5.64 Overall Rank:4223]
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lisa smith
United States
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There's some advanced rules for this game on the geek. Might work as a solitaire for adults, not sure.
19. Board Game: Wings of War - Burning Drachens [Average Rating:7.31 Overall Rank:260] [Average Rating:7.31 Overall Rank:260]
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pronoblem
United States
Holyoke
Massachusetts
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This states 45 minutes, but that all depends on the scenario that you pick. I've played the WoW - Famous Aces as 2 player with 4 planes and it was under 30 minutes to complete. While there is no duration listed for Burning Drachens solo play only I think it is a worthy addition.

I anticipate this release.
Andrea Angiolino
Italy
Rome
European Union
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Thanks a lot for listing it! You are correct, there are several solo scenarios - basically trench strafing and balloon busting played against AA uns and ground fire. And there are more complicated, multi-player ones (apart for a two-planes dogfight) that are basically the same kind of missions but the defences are also other planes. Or you have two pilots/players on the same side against ground defences. Or you have even richer missions with bombing + balloon busting + trench strafing all atthe same time that you can play if you have another WoW set (FA or WyB!)... But anyway I'd say that all the solo stuff is 30 minutes or quite less.
20. Board Game: micropul [Average Rating:6.89 Overall Rank:815]
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pronoblem
United States
Holyoke
Massachusetts
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I have yet to play this. I downloaded the PDF and plan on getting some ceramic tiles to silkscreen making a nice set.
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Máté Cziner
Hungary
Budapest
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It's great. Never tought solitaire gameplay could match multiplayer in any way, but actually, I prefer to play this alone! When I'm playing against somebody, I'm having a hard time NOT to comment on his/her moves constantly.
M C
United States
Orem
Utah
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patron05
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Silkscreening ceramic tiles is an awesome idea!
Ryan McSwain
United States
Amarillo
Texas
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I made two sets--one with wooden Scrabble-style tiles and one with silver ink on black Foamie. It is very fun and easy to teach!
21. Board Game: San Juan [Average Rating:7.44 Overall Rank:73]
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The root of all evil... but you can call me cookie.
United States
Gainesville
Florida
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I quite enjoy the solo variant of this game that you can find in the files section. Very fun to try and beat your best score kind of thing.
22. Board Game: Chrononauts [Average Rating:6.24 Overall Rank:1106]
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Gary Pressler
United States
West Lafayette
Indiana
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This might be pushing the 30-minute mark just a bit, depending on how analytical you get with your planning, but Chrononauts includes rules for a rather challenging solitaire version, "Solonaut". The trick is that you can change each event only once to an alternate history and one time back again, so any cards that require the alternate event must be played before you revert to the original.
Albert Hernandez
United States
Greenville
South Carolina
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This is a fun option.
23. Board Game: Piecepack [Average Rating:7.39 Overall Rank:1234]
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Clark D. Rodeffer
United States
Ann Arbor
Michigan
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There are several good solitaire games for the piecepack. You can read about and download them at these two links:

http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/SolitaireThemedGamesCategory
http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/SolitairePuzzlesCategory
24. Board Game: Ingenious [Average Rating:7.44 Overall Rank:76]
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Chad Raeside
United States
Bettendorf
Iowa
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It sounds like Ingenious would be right up your alley if you like tile placement games.
Chester Ogborn
United States
Albuquerque
New Mexico
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This was going to be my suggestion, too.
25. Board Game: Tantrix [Average Rating:6.51 Overall Rank:883]
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lisa smith
United States
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Connection type game.
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4 comments [Hide]
Bill Eldard
United States
Unspecified
Virginia
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You can play Ingenious (Einfach Genial) solitaire in less than 30 minutes.
Bob O'Halloran
United States
Appleton
Wisconsin
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If you're into war games, definitely try Battle Grid. It's designed for...and includes...54mm soldiers. Not specifically designed for solitaire, but really plays well that way.
Sonja Elen Kisa
Canada
Toronto
Ontario
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patron05
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Probably doesn't meet your criteria of tile placement, etc. but I posted the rules to Sid Sackson's Bowling Solitaire online:
http://www.kisa.ca/bowling.html
Roland Lee
United States
Houston
Texas
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I love Sid Jackon's bowling solitaire.

It kept me sane on a business trip to Florida when there was nothing good on TV in my hotel room and I had nothing else to do.
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