Top 5 DoaM Games

Pete just listed a top 5 dudes on a map list in another thread, and I thought this would make a good topic.

Mine:

1. Blood Rage
2. Cthulhu Wars
3. StarCraft/Forbidden Stars
4. Cyclades with Titans
5. Inis

I'm assuming we're excluding 4x and two player games, otherwise my list changes slightly.

Good call. I was going to start a thread like this with all the recent discussion of nexus ops, etc.

1. Dune
2. TI4
3. Rising sun (new & shiny)
4. Kemet
5. Blood rage (not 3 players!)
6. Chaos in the old world

Cthulhu wars has slipped for me. Too predictable of opening turns 1-2 & too high of learning curve for new players. Still good though. Cyclades is good but I want more attacking and less auctioning. Inis didn't work, the constant tie braking led to some awful games. Cry havoc is too limited. Handful of stars is great but also a deckbuilder. Forbidden stars and clockwork wars both failed for me. Mare nostrum is good but the hero and pyramid wins make me sad. Never played Starcraft. Lord of Hellas I'm waiting on.

Dune
Nexus Ops
Kemet
Monsters menace america
Shogun/ikusa

Sadly, I rarely get to play any of them.

MMA is included despite it's dumb end game. This one is all about the journey and not the destination.

charlest wrote: I'm assuming we're excluding 4x and two player games, otherwise my list changes slightly.

Within those parameters:

1. Titan
2. Imperial
3. Risk: Legacy
4. Nexus Ops
5. Mare Nostrum

Personally, I don't see games like that and Blood Rage as DOAM games. They're more about area control/area majority. What defines DOAM for me isn't just the dudes and the map but a certain level of military and political chicanery which you don't get to anywhere near the same degree in area games.

I don't consider 4x games to be DOAM games. And I consider area control to be a key factor in a DOAM. My list:

1. Cthulhu Wars
2. Nexus Ops
3. Chaos in the Old World
4. Warrior Knights
5. Cry Havoc

I am hoping that Lords of Hellas finds its way onto my list when I get it.

I hadn't considered TITAN a DoaM, but if so it would be my number one as well.

After that, I would rate:

2) Warrior Knights (GW)
3) Condottiere
4) Risk 2210
5) Nexus Ops

That 4x proviso....damn.

Cyclades
Ascending Empires (DQ)
Twilight Imperium 2nd (DQ)
Eclipse (DQ)
War of the Ring 2nd Ed.

You just disqualified 3/5 of my list!

1. War of the Ring

2. Fortress America - it still holds up IMO

3. Chaos in the Old World.

4. Runewars

5. Nexus Ops

I guess we need to define DOAM strictly, since 4x’s have been removed, I’m thinking, Charlie, that you’re calling this “empire level warfare which requires conquest or domination as the goal, through combat, where at least 2 of the 4x’s are nor prevalant, and that supports more than 2 players?

That’s as close as I can guess based on your list; its hard to narrow it down so much because all games like this require resource mining in one form or another, mostly based on controlled area.

Based on that assumption, I have to dumb down the list a lot.

War of the Ring
Cthulhu Wars
Conquest of Nerath
Conquest of the Fallen Lands
?

SuperflyTNT wrote: That 4x proviso....damn.

Cyclades
Ascending Empires (DQ)
Twilight Imperium 2nd (DQ)
Eclipse (DQ)
War of the Ring 2nd Ed.

You just disqualified 3/5 of my list!

You can do what you want, I was more explaining my own criteria. Eclipse and Rebellion would make my list otherwise.

Without TI or Star Trek: Ascendancy (would be #2 and #5). I haven't played Nexus Ops which is a big hole in the resume.

1. Dune
2. Chaos in the Old World
3. Cthulhu Wars
4. Blood Rage
5. Runewars

Man, see, to me, anything with area control/area majority as a primary mechanism is NOT a DoaM game. DoaM has to reward throwing your guys into another guy's guys more than it does holding territory. Most 4x games are more DoaM in my book than most Area Control.

If it's more like Risk, it's DoaM, if it's more like El Grande, it's not. So CW and CitOW are not DoaM, even though Khorne and Yellow King play like DoaM factions.

So that said:

Nexus Ops
Kemet
Cyclades
TI3
Eclipse

1. Dune
2. Divine Right
3. Twilight Imperium 3 (haven't tried TI4 yet)
4. Game of Thrones
5. Cults Across America

I haven't played Risk: Legacy yet, but I suspect that would go on this list if I had.

Dune
Nexus Ops
Cyclades
Mare Nostrum
Risk: Legacy

I'll admit that Risk: Legacy isn't as good as these others, but I just had so much fun playing it that I had to list it.

I always wanted to play Conquest of Nerath. It looked really cool.

The one time I played Eclipse was one of the most boring tabletop experiences I have ever had.