The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat

Over the last couple of months I’ve been playing a lot of war games.  About 60% of my gaming time has dedicated to war games.   I’m looking back at the games I’ve played and games I’ve bought over the last 5 years and I’ve gone from Euro-Caylus nerd to Ameritrash FFG fan boy to Crusty Grognard.   But what has driven me away from Euros and towards war games? At one point I was satisfied being a fat beard scratching euro gamer.   There was a comfort level of playing a 90 minute game of cubes and victory points.  Then a couple of years ago I discovered Ti3 and Arkham Horror and found it was much more of a thrill to kill monsters and aliens than it was to buy and sell corn.

So how come I wasn’t just satisfied playing Ameritrash games like Last Night on Earth and Talisman?   Was I just searching for the “New” game?  Or did I just give up on Ameritrash after playing Age of Conan and Android?

Actually from anyone who read my review of Hold the Line will know I played some war games with my dad as kids and over the past few years I’ve played a few war games every once in while  so for me it’s not a “New” thing.   It’s not even about the depth of strategy or interaction because there is plenty of strategy and interaction in Ameritrash games.  And I’m definitely not switching to war games because of the high quality components or rule books.

The thing I most like about strategic war games is the degree of “Agony and Ecstasy” that goes on during a typical game.   While playing one of the great war games it’s amazing what an emotional roller coaster you’ll go through during a typical game.

I’m in the middle of two on line games of Hannibal now.   I’m playing Rome and Dr. Mabuse is playing Carthage now.  Early in the game, I was ecstatic when against all odds I defeated Hannibal.  My joy was short lived because after a series of bad luck in the cards and Roman Consuls and bad decisions on my part, Carthage was able to completely destroy my largest army on the board and march on to Rome.  At my darkest hour, Nero sailed into Rome and defeated the Carthaginian army to safe the game.   You just don’t see that kind of emotional swings Eurogames or even Ameritrash games.   I experienced the same type of emotional roller coaster when playing Hammer of Scots and Wellington face to face a few weeks ago.

Sometimes you’ll see wild swings in Ameritrash games but in most cases they seem very random or it is something based on leader bashing.  You don’t tend to see crazy swings in Euro games.  When you do the swings in Euro games they seem forced and gamey.  In Power Grid you see the leader being brought down by mechanism that rewards being in last place.   In war games the swings seem very natural and very thematic.     Perhaps this is why historians like to study and we like to play war games where there are large rises and falls.  Here are some of the most popular strategic war game periods:

Roman Empire
Napoleon   World War 2 – Eastern Front
World War 2 – Europe
World War 2 - Pacific
American Revolution
Civil War

In most cases you see one side be incredibly successful followed by a turning point where the other side turns the tide to win.    This repeating plot makes for great stories and great war games.   In fact this repeating plot could make for great Ameritrash games if somebody would design them:

War of Ring – A great Ameritrash games and it uses the great rise and fall story line
Star Wars Trilogy?
Starship Troopers?
Conan?
Others?

Unfortunately, most multiplayer conflict Ameritrash games have ended up going for some kind of starting balance.  It was inevitable that we would end up with Age of Conan.   Luckily, I was able to trade AoC for Hannibal.