Interested in wargames - Recommend me one

Hey guys, I’m looking to get into wargames and hope you can recommend me one.


About me:
- I know almost nothing about wargames;
- I’d like a game that I could solo if I didn’t find anyone to play with me;
- I’ve a fairly basic understanding of the history of wars and almost nothing about the realities of it, (I’ve read Caesar: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy). I don’t have preferences about time periods but keep in mind that I’m Brazilian and with my limited knowledge I think I would enjoy more ancient warfare than modern;
- I don’t mind the game being complex and hard to get into if the reward is there at the end;
- I’d prefer the game to not have cards with lots of text that the other player can’t see, I can read English just fine, my opponent I’m not so sure;
- I don’t know if I like operational or squad or whatever other levels wargames there are;

I hope that is enough that you can recommend me a wargame, if it is not, ask away!

This list is a pretty good place to start:

www.shutupandsitdown.com/blog/post/very-...troductory-wargames/

Edit:

There's also this groovy meta-list:

boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/22861/metalis...ntroductory-wargames

I generally like card driven or block games, but for what you are looking for, Fading Glory or Warriors of God would be good starts.

Focusing on "light" wargames with relatively low text demands:

[url=http://http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37836/julius-caesar]Julius Caesar from Columbia Games[/url]
Hammer of the Scots from Columbia Games
1775: Rebellion from Academy Games
A House Divided, most recently by Mayfair
Space Empires: 4x from GMT Games

Good call on A House Divided!

There's a few you can download and play for free (they're pretty easy to build, mostly just mounting/cutting counters)

Battle for Moscow: grognard.com/bfm/game.html

Napoleon at Waterloo: www.alanemrich.com/PGD/Week_03/PGD_NAW_rules.htm

Risk

yeah, Hammer of the Scots or Julius Caesar are the first games that came to mind.

Step back and make way. Grognard entering the room.

Firstly, avoid any kind of block game as they are impossible to play solo. Knock out Paths of Glory, Pursuit of Glory and all COIN because of the large amount of text on the cards.

The Gamers (now MMP) have some excellent wargames designed to be introductory called Standard Combat Series, they all have the same core rules which are very straight forward. I can personally recommend Stalingrad Pocket and Yom Kippur (also they are cheap). If you like these we can talk further.

The good thing about good wargames is that they build a memorable narrative and teach you about that particular conflict. The game then becomes more of a 'what if' exercise which is entertaining and educational. These games are at the operational level.

FWIW Operational is at the level of 1 counter being several thousand soldiers (brigades) or a group of tanks, strategic games are above this dealing with divisions (thousands of personnel) and corps (tens of thousands of personnel) while tactical games deal with counters representing maybe 12 guys and individual vehicles.

Operational is a good level to start with as you aren't dealing with the minutae of weapon performance but are starting to deal with the importance of supply lines. Longer term planning is starting to become important in the game but not whether Cpl Jones dropped his rifle.

Most wargamers are in it for the narrative.....

Thanks guys, I'll check out those links when I get home from work.

Bull, does Fading Glory plays solo? I'm very interested in Warriors of God, I saw one review here in the Fort and am excited with it, but I is it out of print? Do you know where I can get it?

jpat, I had already looked at Julius Caesar but I think it's 2-players only, the same with Hammer of the Scots, 1775: Rebellion and A House Divided, right? Space Empires 4x I'll look more into it.

ThirstyMan, thanks for the lesson!

Stalingrad Pocket, I did find some copies in ebay, does it matter if it's 1st or 2nd ed?

Yom Kippur is readily available, I think I'll go with this one although Warriors of God grabbed me more with the hundred years war and simpler map, but I guess this is just because I'm not familiar with these yet.

EDIT: From the SCS series, are Bastogne and Guadalajara any better/worse? I liked the conflict in Guadalajara better and in Bastogne case the fact that you are defending a town from an invansion.

Fading Glory plays solo in the way many hex and counter war games do, by simply playing both sides. The cards in it are event cards, not cards in hand.

I just looked and MMP lists Warriors of God as OOP, so maybe put that on the back burner and wait for word on Warriors of Japan once it's released.

Rafael Silva wrote: jpat, I had already looked at Julius Caesar but I think it's 2-players only, the same with Hammer of the Scots, 1775: Rebellion and A House Divided, right? Space Empires 4x I'll look more into it.

Sorry, missed the solo and multiplayer issues. Caesar, Hammer, and similar block games are generally two-player because of the hidden-information/fog-of-war aspect.

- I’d like a game that I could solo if I didn't find anyone to play with me;

probably best to avoid block games then. You could solo them, but most of the game tension is in the hidden information.


- I’d prefer the game to not have cards with lots of text that the other player can’t see, I can read English just fine, my opponent I’m not so sure;

This might be a red flag to the card driven games like Hannibal Rome vs Carthage.

Fading Glory has been suggested. I'd add +1 to that. It does have cards but one player can read all of them, they are turned over at the start of the turn and resolved so no hidden information. It would solo well and is a good vs game. It is not that complex but will show you most of what war games are about and is a good meter for if you are going to like the genre.

Warriors of God is hard to find.

Stalingrad pocket has large counter stacks (be a bit filley) and could run quite long. If you are not bothered about academic realism the first edition will do fine. The second edition is more historical, and will probably have a cleaner rule set.

In general the SCS titles are worth a look. Pick a topic that interests you. I've only played It Never Snows so i cannot comment in detail. I did own Stalingrad Pocket 2nd ed for a while, but never played it.

If you are considering SCS Mark Simonitch's designs are not that much more involved. Consider The Caucasus Campaign.

House Divided sounds like a good choice too. It is on my to get list. This is probably the simplest of those that have been suggested.

Rafael Silva wrote: ThirstyMan, thanks for the lesson!

Stalingrad Pocket, I did find some copies in ebay, does it matter if it's 1st or 2nd ed?

Yom Kippur is readily available, I think I'll go with this one although Warriors of God grabbed me more with the hundred years war and simpler map, but I guess this is just because I'm not familiar with these yet.

EDIT: From the SCS series, are Bastogne and Guadalajara any better/worse? I liked the conflict in Guadalajara better and in Bastogne case the fact that you are defending a town from an invansion.

MMP were knocking out 2nd edition Stalingrad Pocket for $10 not so long ago. Go for 2nd Edition, then you don't have to worry about errata. Not tried Bastogne (hate Ardennes conflict as a topic) might try to pick up Guadalajara as I enjoy gaming the SCW and am reading about it right now.

Warriors of God, I personally didn't enjoy as it's over too long a period of time and is highly abstracted. I really wouldn't call it a traditional wargame, it's also super reliant on luck in a big way because the action takes place over decades. It's also above even the strategic level of wargames due to be being that abstracted.

10) Caesar's Wars: The Conquest of Gaul, 58-52 BC
9) Corps Command: Totensonntag
8) Napoleon at Waterloo
7) Field Commander: Alexander
6) Zulus on the Ramparts!
5) Battle for Moscow (second edition)
4) Commands & Colors: Ancients and Commands & Colors: Napoleonics
3) Julius Caesar
2) A Victory Denied
1) Fading Glory.

(from the above video)