Beside WGF, WGS and SGN, what are your favorite Land, Sea and Air historical military games?
FAVORITE HISTORICAL MILITARY GAME
Beside WGF, WGS and SGN, what are your favorite Land, Sea and Air historical military games?
I find it very difficult to retain focus and so my interests and favourites wander like a leaf on the breeze. Current favourites include:
Naval:
Napoleonic naval using Form Line of Battle
ACW using Iron and Fire
Medieval using a home-produced set
Air
WW2 using Air War 1940 (the not-yet-released version of C21)
Land
Colonial using Battle for Empire
WW2 Burma skirmish using a home grown set
Ancients using DBA
SF
Babylon 5 using the Earth Force Source Book variant of Full Thrust
Almost forgot to list mine, (Currently)
Air: Canvas Eagles.
Land: Flames of War.
Sea: WS&IM using inches, not hexes.
Flying Colors.
SF: None. (not enough imagination I guess)
Land - A Fistful of TOWs
Sea - Fighting Sail
Air - Check Your Six
Land: Advanced Squad Leader
Sea: Sails of Glory
Air: Canvas Eagles
First I've heard of this one....Originally Posted by Coog
Land: _Twilight:2000 Last Battle_
Sea: _Battlewagon_
Air: _Mustangs_ (WW2); _Richthofen's War_ (WW1)
Space: _Battlestar Galactica_ (FASA 1980s edition).
Sea: Wooden Ships & Iron Men, then Fighting Sail
Air: Not an aviation collector but apart from WOG,but probably RAF (solo battle of Britain) but it's more strategic than tactical
Land: Too many to list...I have way too many on the shelves and you cant have a favourite child!
I haven't gamed regularly face to face in a long time so my list is going to be ancient compared to the rest of you. And the primary reason for these being favorites is they were the only games I could coerce friends and family into actually playing.
Sea: Midway / http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2250/midway
Air: Luftwaffe / http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3646/luftwaffe
Land: Borodino / http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/252/borodino
I've played/owned Midway and Borodino at one time. Unfortunately I was in the USAF and single which meant shipping to isolated tours meant low weight and selling stuff.
By today's standards these aren't very impressive I suppose, but they were fun and challenging back then. I'm fortunate enough to have been able to store them at my childhood home and get them all back when I moved permanently to Madison. Still in boxes in the basement storage area.
Not sure if it counts as a "military game," but Empires In Arms is far and away my favorite historical wargame.
Ace of Aces is my favorite "Air" game.
Haven't played many sea military games (unless you count Empires in Arms or perhaps Axis & Allies), so Sails of Glory is the default favorite.
If Empires In Arms isn't a military game, nothing is.
The only reason I didn't list it as my favorite is because it's hard to get enough people to put in all the hours it takes to play the game.
Land: in the past I really liked Squad Leader (pre-"Advanced") and the GBACW series, especially the Antietam one. Third Reich was of course a classic. Back in the day we also had a lot of fun with VG Ambush, playing it as a "cooperative" where we each ran a couple of soldiers against the solitaire engine.
Sea: - in recent years a lot of A&A War at Sea with the kids. Simplistic, but fun and fast, and for me it's actually a great system to resolve individual battles within a campaign framework (we've run Solomons-ish, Malta/Med, and entire war using A&A maps and pieces multiple times each)
- in my wargaming past the VG "Fleet" games were really fun. Midway was actually my first wargame, so also a lot of great memories there
Air: nothing has ever really captured me I'm afraid. Occasionally I boot up War Thunder to fly an incompetent wingman to my 11 year old
The only reason I qualified my selection is because I've only played the Grand Campaign, and the economic and political elements of the game are so perfectly woven into the game that it's not strictly a "military" game. But it's the best Napoleonic era game I've ever played (and pretty close to the best game I've ever played, period.)
Having said that, I agree completely that it's very difficult to find 7 people and the necessary space to play the game for the hundreds of hours it can take to play the Grand Campaign. But oh so worth it!
SPI mainly, War in Europe (monster game, set up on two 4x8 boards and couple card tables for productions)
Prestag series, modern war 1 & 2. Most of the early S&T and Ares games. That ancient enuff for you all? Then Twilight 2000.
Oh yes, sea types, Midway, Jutland, both by AH.
Air types, mainly whatever was put out in AH or S&T.
Land: Panzer series (GMT) for tactical; Third Reich for strategic; also starting to collect the Conflict of Heroes series (Academy Games)
Air: Richthofen's War
Sea: Flying Colors
Just acquired: The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43
Curious about: RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940; Der Weltkrieg (WWI series)
Reality: I have enjoyed most of the wargames I have played, but am now in the process of thinning the herd; it is hard determining which games I will let go, but time does not allow all of them to get to the table - this is one of my biggest regrets in taking a 25-30 year hiatus from playing wargames
I just recalled a massive board game that was played every year at GenCon when they were still in Milwaukee. Fire in the East by Europa Games: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardga...re-in-the-east
You'd come on Thursday and they'd 'enlist' anyone who wanted to sit in and play a few turns. Usually the game went on for four full days with the front line barely moving. Most often they did 1942 when things were a bit more balanced for the Russian player. It was an annual favorite to see the huge map, awesome number of counters and the scores of enthusiastic gamers.
Last edited by Nightmoss; 01-01-2014 at 23:27.
The Fire in the East replacement game called Total War has been coming any day now for about six years I think (though the initial announcement goes back maybe ten). For an entertaining read on the inventive excuses about why it hasn't been released (including paper porosity problems, death of someone at the printing company, fire in the building where the company resides (this did actually happen though), etc etc go to
http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX/.1dd48b3b/7470
There are 7500 messages in the forum but just scan around at random over the last few thousand if you need a good laugh.
Axis & Allies
Fortress America
Air: Duel in the Dark
Space: Battlestar Galactica, Twilight Imperium
conflict of heroes series
Axis & Allies dif. versions
Das Boot (engl. Steelwolves)
Wings of War
Eclipse
Twilight Imperium
Battlestar Galactica
and maybe, if the game ever comes to me..............Sails of Glory!
I can say that because I haved played with my "Pirates of..." ships in a nearly same way.
Yes, reading those messages was good for a lot of laughing. In fact the first one I saw was great! lol.
The NYC Metro area is going to be hit with a Blizzard tomorrow night.
I hope it doen't delay the delivery of our copy of TW by an additional 6 months!
Andrzej has spoken of this game rather highly, as well. I need to get a copy. Do you play with any of the mini-expansions?
As I scanned the above posts it seems that most responses have been board games. I mostly play miniatures, but have had a renewed interest in board games. Lately I have played some of the block games. "Crusader Rex" and "Julius Caesar". I also bought the 4th Ed of "Napoleon" from Columbia's KS. I just bought my son a cool football (soccer) game called "Soccero" (ok off topic!).
My favorite miniatures games right now:
Land: SAGA, Bolt Action, Black Powder, Regimental Fire N Fury, Fields of Glory: Napoleonics, Carnage & Glory, and WAB2. Also some games by The Perfect Captain.
Air: WGF
Sea: SOG (soon hopefully!), Clear for Action (old DOS based computer aided rules), and I am hoping to try David Manley's variants for Trafalgar soon.
Sci-Fi - X-Wing. (I'll admit to an occasional friendly beer and pretzels style 40k game as well)
There are just too many interesting games and periods to game out there!
Now that you've mentioned PC games I'd like to include 3 for that category too? The main reason I rely on console or computer games relates to what I said above; finding face to face opponents can be nigh impossible at times. Computer games are always there, and now with platforms like Steam you can find opponents online if need be. AI has also improved significantly so it's not always an easy win over the computer
Land: Unity of Command by Matrix/Slitherine http://matrixgames.com/store/417/Unity.of.Command
Sea: Carriers at War by SSG http://matrixgames.com/store/337/Carriers.at.War
Air: Wings of Prey by Gaijin (same guys doing War Thunder) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bHkDdTJvK8
I remember being outside playing with my buddies when one of the guy's parents called us in to show us a new game - Pong. We played for a few minutes, and then went back outside. We didn't think anyone would ever want to play a "video" game. I think we were wrong.
Andy check out MATRIX games for ASL. There is a game in production that looks great.
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