Christmas is over, the New Year has begun, and us tabletop enthusiasts are finally getting a chance to play all the new board games we were lovingly gifted during the holidays.
What better way to get through the misery of January, as you tackle resolutions you will never complete, jobs and chores you put off until the new year, and all the rain and snow that turns your morning commute into an ice rink, than by opening up a fresh new board game to explore and lose yourself in.
For Christmas this year I received an incredible board game haul, from my most desired game of the last few months The Old King’s Crown, to the now classic El Grande. But Christmas 2025 for me will be remembered for one type of tabletop experience, the solo game, and the year I finally became a fully-fledged fan. I received A Gentle Rain, a beautiful little tile placement game which can be played in 10 minutes by yourself to bring a little peace into your life, but also a game which I have become utterly addicted to since Christmas, Legacy of Yu.
With seven plays since I found it in my sack, hours lost to it and a new found appreciation of what a solo board game can do, I will be waxing lyrical in this feature about my new board game addiction, and why Legacy of Yu, and perhaps more broadly solo games, should be your new obsession in 2026.
Who Needs Friends?
When I started getting properly into the board game hobby, I never really understood the appeal of solo board games. For me, the joy of tabletop was sharing that experience with your friends and family, creating memories and moments that you can all reminisce over in the years to come. Whether that was learning a big box game like Ark Nova and fully understanding what the medium can bring in terms of theme and points scoring, to more role playing adjacent games like Nemesis or Star Wars Rebellion, where you talk about what happened during your specific game of it weeks after you played it one glorious Saturday.
Solo games just felt like they would lose the very thing that makes board games so amazing by removing that element of shared experiences.
However, where it started peaking my interest that bit more was when I was finding it harder and harder to get games to the table as much as my interest would want it. It is hard to arrange a big board game session, people might not be as willing to give up an entire day or weekend to play, other hobbies might somehow take precedence, they might have children or pets to look after instead, and so you need something that you can essentially whip out as much as your interest in the thing allows you to. I play video games on my own, why not try it with board games? My first steps into solo board games was the fantastic Final Girl series, where you play as a titular final girl trying to survive a Horror film inspired scenario and baddie. And while I really enjoy it, it didn’t hook me enough that made me think that solo board games was a thing I would consistently take up precious space in my board game collection for. After that I managed to get my hands on the Kinfire Delve series, which again I had fun with solo, but actually plays better as a two player cooperative experience in my opinion.
What I needed to be fully converted into a solo board game hobbyist was something that could only be played solo, that demands to be played again and again, with a theme that truly spoke to me. And it was Christmas 2025 that brought me to Legacy of Yu.
When Solo Meets Legacy
Legacy of Yu is set in Ancient China where you play as the appropriately named Yu, as you try to build canals to stop deadly floods plaguing China along the Yellow River, while simultaneously fending off hoards of Barbarians intent on causing chaos and destruction throughout your peaceful settlements.
Carefully managing resources and workers, you are balancing key decisions turn after turn to best manage this complex task set in front of you by your Emperor, building the various farms and outposts you need to create more resources each turn, playing the right cards and making the right decisions to achieve a great and noble victory.
It is a lovely, almost peaceful game, despite its theme which sounds like it might be rather stressful. It is in essence a complex puzzle or conundrum your tasked with solving. Which cards you draw and what Barbarians you face, and the order they appear greatly affecting your strategy from game to game. But where Legacy of Yu has become a complete addiction for me since Christmas, (I have literally gone to bed thinking about where things went wrong), is in its very title. It’s a legacy game, and an incredible example of one.
Every game of it is part of an overall campaign, which will end when you have either achieved 7 victories, or faced 7 defeats. The story unfolds based on whether you win or lose, which cards you draw, when you interact with them, so that one persons campaign will be vastly different to someone else’s.
It is probably the most perfectly balanced board game I have ever played. The game warns you from the off in the rules, you will likely lose your first few games. Which I obligingly did. But it almost works within the story and context of the game you’re playing. Yu is learning, as you are too. The mistakes you made which lead to your defeat you won’t repeat. In a loss as well, you will usually get some kind of boon which you can use in the next game, to just give you a little extra nudge towards success next time.
But if you do win, then the game will throw out a little curve ball that you will need to manage the next time you set it up.
It’s this incredible balancing act that has just made me want to play it over and over again. I lost three times in a row, and I honestly didn’t care. And as someone who is competitive, easy to give up and prone to the odd video game controller getting broken in a bit of gamer rage, I was shocked by my acceptance at losing.
I actually felt like I could just use it as a learning experience. You read some text in the story book the game comes with to add a bit of flavour and context to your loss, and I felt that while defeat has knocked me, I haven’t given up hope, just like Yu himself describes.
My next three games, I won. I had learnt how to control the game, the importance of every action and decision, when to deploy my workers and where, how to hold back the Barbarians without over committing. The one tip I would give any new player is that EVERY mechanic and action you can take in the game is important, and not to be forgotten or ignored. But then with all these victories came new and harder challenges to solve, and my last game of it I found myself defeated once more. But like they would say in Clair Obscure, We Continue.
The merging of legacy and solo board games just seems a match made in heaven. It drives you to keep playing, and takes out the main drawback of any legacy campaign, the fact its almost impossible to organise a group of people to get together every other week or month to actually finish it. Since Christmas I have finished more of Legacy of Yu than I have of Pandemic Legacy, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion and Arkham Horror, all games which I have owed for two to three years longer than Legacy of Yu. It’s just like playing a video game, you can play Legacy of Yu as often as you like, when you like, and when the game and theme is this good, trust me you will be playing it a lot.
Peace Within the Puzzle
Legacy of Yu isn’t just an amazing game to play, but an experience I have genuinely found calming, helping to deal with the stresses of normal life, especially during dreary January and in such tumultuous times currently. Like what A Gentle Rain aims for as well, there is something peaceful in just sitting down to play Legacy of Yu on your own during a quiet evening. The setup isn’t overly long or complicated. The rules take a bit of getting used to but after a few turns you’ll find yourself seamlessly making decisions. And its theme while it might sound a bit stress inducing with incoming floods and pillaging Barbarians, actually lends itself well to a more serene experience as you carefully plot your every move.
It's aided in this by the totally gorgeous artwork and production of the game. Nothing flashy, just beautiful Chinese imagery on the board game box, with lovingly created art on the townsfolk and Barbarian cards, a lovely little story book you read as you play, and a simplistic board with greenery and a canal for you to place your workers, huts and cards.
Christmas is a busy time and the news at the moment is mostly depressing, and as a supporter of West Ham United football club, things are especially tough at the moment! I have needed something like Legacy of Yu to just unwind and distract myself from the world outside, a puzzle to solve each playthrough with a wonderful story emerging with every game.
Best of all, the campaign, unlike many other legacy games, is totally resettable. There’s no cards to rip, no stickers to remove, just a story told depending on what you did and where, which could be totally different the next time you play it, which I am sure to do again as soon as I have finished. Or if I can convince someone else in my board game group about the wonders of solo games, maybe I will lend it out and let someone else get to experience it for the first time.
A good addiction to have
So far 2026 for me has been all about Legacy of Yu, and of all the addictions I could have started the year with, I don’t think it’s a bad one.
The gameplay loop is one of the best I have experienced, the art is incredible, and the campaign nature of it means I always want one more game, without having to wait for someone else to be in the mood for a board game.
Most of all, it has made me a solo game convert. I will never not love a board game with other people, be it co-op or competitive, as there isn’t an experience like it when you finally manage to organise a big board game night with your friends and family and create amazing memories together. But if solo games can produce the kind of quality I have seen from Legacy of Yu, then 2026 might be the year I can call myself a true solo board gamer.
