The Best War Game of 2008 is?

Actually, I need a lot of help here.

When I was kid owned and played 3rd Reich, Civil War Battles and Midway. But I haven't played war games in 30 years, however, little by little I'm getting back it into war games.

Step #1. I played and loved War of the Ring for the first time this year (ok War of the Ring is more Ameritrash than a war game) but that was my first baby step down the slippery slope to being a 50 year old fat cranky Grognard.

Step #2. I played Manoeuvre and Napoleon's Triumph this year

Step #3. I bought or traded for War of the Ring, Twilight Struggle, Manoeuvre and Warriors of God.

One Step backwards. I traded Manoeuvre to Jack Hoolgan for his Fury of Dracula with painted minis.

Best Two Player Hard Core War Game of 2008? __________

Best Card Driven War Game of 2008? ___________

Best Multi-player War Game of 2008? ___________

Best Beer and Pretzel War Game of 2008? Manoeuvre

This is actually tough category...my picks are all very, very close. CONFLICT OF HEROES, WARRIORS OF GOD, NAPOLEON'S TRIUMPH, MANOEUVRE, HOLD THE LINE, and ESPANA 1936 are all very, very close. Very, very close. It's hard not to just hand it to NT, but everything else in this category was so good.

I didn't do nearly as much wargaming this year as I thought I was going to get to...I guess that's probably what everybody would say though.

Believe it or not, I may wind up handing it off to MANOEUVRE...the game is just great, it came out of nowhere and it's one of the most playable and fun wargames in a long time. It's total B&P, but it actually has some pretty reasonable wargames flavor.

CONFLICT OF HEROES is so damn good...the only thing is that it doesn't feel like it has enough of a distinguishing feature to set it apart from ASLSK, ToI, or COMBAT COMMANDER.

WARRIORS OF GOD is pretty awesome too...but I do think it's a little long for what the level of depth.

I dunno man, this one's hard. A couple of great games but nothing that just says "yes, I am the best game of 2008"..

I didn't play much this year. I also didn't buy many games at all this year. I don't really have any game groups these days. I'm getting BSG for the holidays so maybe that will be it.

For wargames, I'd say FAB:Bulge outdueled Clash of Monarchs for game fo the year for me. So best wargame is FAB:Bulge. Overall game may be that too, until I play BSG, then we'll see.

KingPut wrote:

Best Two Player Hard Core War Game of 2008? __________

Best Card Driven War Game of 2008? ___________

Best Multi-player War Game of 2008? ___________

Best Beer and Pretzel War Game of 2008? Manoeuvre

2p "hard core": The Devil's Cauldron. One half of Market Garden, small scenarios, medium scenarios, large scenarios, and big-ass campaigns. Great unit activation system, overall very user friendly rules for a monstergame, high quality components. Also currently OOP and expensive.

Card Driven: I don't play CDGs. Closest game in that category that I like would be Manoeuvre though that's more of a strategy boardgame.

Multi-player: Conflict of Heroes is better 2p but still fun with 4 (I wouldn't recommend it with 3).

Beer & Pretzels? Corps Command: Totensonntag

For some reason I feel drawn towards The Devil's Cauldron.

It just looks like a helluva lot of fun.

I may eventually have to get a title in the new Grand Tactical Series.

Lagduf wrote:

For some reason I feel drawn towards The Devil's Cauldron.

It just looks like a helluva lot of fun.

I may eventually have to get a title in the new Grand Tactical Series.

No Question of Surrender will be a lower cost entry point. I think MMP might reprint TDC eventually, might be worth waiting for if you're thinking about buying it.

Beer & Pretzels wargame sounds a bit of an oxymoron

Shit, that's one I left out- WORLD AT WAR: EISENBACH GAP...that was a damn good one too. Still don't have the expansion, but I'd like to get it. Hell, I'd like to play WAW more out of the box.

KingPut wrote:

Best Two Player Hard Core War Game of 2008? __________

For me that has to be World at War: Eisenbach Gap. As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a time where we still thought the Commies were out to get us. (Red Dawn: The Musical is one of my favorites!) This game is a ton of fun and uses clever mechanics to differentiate the units rather than a thick chrome laden rulebook.

Seriously the first time I played this I had flashbacks to the joy I experienced as a kid playing Ogre. Afterwards I ordered the expansion featuring the West German Budeswher and pre-ordered the second game in the series that will add the BAOR (British Army of the Rhine)

Best Card Driven War Game of 2008? ___________

Succesors 3rd ed. Yeah its a reprint and update of an older AH title but it's still kickass. I need to get some pbem games going once they get a CyberBoard module up for it.

Best Multi-player War Game of 2008? ___________

Successors 3rd ed

Best Beer and Pretzel War Game of 2008? Manoeuvre

Can't really argue with that one. It's also my sleeper hit for 2008


There's a lot more good stuff out there that I would have loved to try (Case Blue, Devil's Cauldron, Clash of Monarchs, etc). This is just the stuff that I actually got to play.

-Will

I'm really surprised MANOEUVRE is tracking so high with so many people...it was the one game this year that I think really came out of nowhere. Last week Billy Motion and I played a game of TITAN (his first) and he said "I kind of would rather have played MANOEUVRE again". Crazy.

Horger's next game could be the one that really "breaks" him as a designer to watch...

Right, but what will it be? His other P500 got axed. OTOH I'm not sure a hardcore wargame company like GMT is really the best place for him.

WaW:E: I didn't post it because "2p hard core war game" doesn't describe it. I'm not really sure what that meant but I assumed that translated to a big conflict simulation and nothing near a light wargame, which is what WaW is. There wasn't any room for WaW:E going by the OPs criteria as far as I could tell. It's the best wargame I've played in a long time and my current favorite, I've completed 28 games. Conflict of Heroes is flipping my switch in a big way too and might topple Lock n Load as my WWII squad-level game of choice.

metalface is right, beer and pretzels wargame is an oxymoron.

Manoeuvre is a strange kind of phenomenon I guess, I hate games like that. It ended up being a super fun boardgame though. The shiny has worn off on me a little but it's still good.

KingPut: If you want better recommendations list what wars/fronts/battles you like, what scale you like (squads, platoons, battalions, corps, whatever), and approx. how much complexity you think you can handle. Why limit yourself to 2008 games?

Harkonnen13 wrote:

Lagduf wrote:

For some reason I feel drawn towards The Devil's Cauldron.

It just looks like a helluva lot of fun.

I may eventually have to get a title in the new Grand Tactical Series.

No Question of Surrender will be a lower cost entry point. I think MMP might reprint TDC eventually, might be worth waiting for if you're thinking about buying it.

I'm definitely going to start with one of the cheaper games in the series once it comes out.

Beer and Pretzels War Game is an oxymoron??

You've got to be kidding me.

What do you think the Milton Bradley Gamemaster Series is?

Axis and Allies
Fortress America
Shogun/Samurai Swords
Conquest of the Empire

Or just about anything from Eagle games and lots of stuff from Fantasy Flight. Basically, most of the wargames think of when they think of Ameritrash, I'd put down as beer and pretzels wargames, at least how I've always understood the term.

My picks are Conflict of Heroes and Storm over Stalingrad. Mr. Barnes earlier comment about Warriors of God is spot on, it's an hour too long, but a very good game for the first 75% of the time you spend on it.