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Post 03 Apr 2017, 5:53 am

I'm assuming we all love Diplomacy. What are everyone's other favourites?
Mine (alphabetically):

- Axis & Allies
A classic light war game with "chess like" strategic depth.
http://www.axisandallies.org/

- A Game Of Thrones
An elegant game with simultaneous orders. Very different from Diplomacy, but should have a great appeal to Dippers.
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/p ... d-edition/

- Britannia
Another deep and intense strategy game - History Of The World meets Axis & Allies
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/240/britannia/

- Titan
An Avalon Hill classic fantasy war game with a steep learning curve and big rewards for skilled play. It has a tactical and strategic level, and plays well 1-on-1 or with a group.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/103/titan

- Star Trek Ascendancy
New kid on the block, this is plays very well with a lot of great mechanics. It's an instant classic
http://startrek.gf9games.com/Home/tabid ... -2016.aspx

- Supremacy 2020
A revamp of the classic 1980s cold war game, this version has been fully debugged and updated for the 21st century. A modern light war game with plastic mushroom clouds for nuked out areas.
http://www.commandpostgames.com/supremacy-2020/
https://fieldmarshalshandbook.wordpress.com/


What are all your favourites?
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Post 04 Apr 2017, 5:49 pm

Yeah! A fun topic, for once.

In no particular order, my current favorite board games (I'll take this phrase literally, and omit the mostly card-based games, such as Glory to Rome, Bang!, Fantasy Business, and Waterworks):

Merchants & Marauders.
- pretty good pirate game with a nicely imaged mapboard. I even painted the plastic ships!

History of the World
- still a fun game that doesn't require stopping to read rules or engaging in deep thought.

Command and Colors Ancients
- I'm a sucker for ancient games!

Conquest of Paradise
A GMT game of early Polynesian discovery and conflict. An "empire building" concept that uses an "exploration" mechanic to build the map as you sail out into the ocean. Colonize islands, defend them, and attack others. Become the Big Kahuna!

Junta!
Who doesn't like another game of back-stabbing, lying, deception, and hanging out at your mistress's house? It can go relatively fast, but you need 5 or 6 to play.

OLDER FAVES

Napoleon in Europe
A Wizards of the Coast game that uses plastic miniatures instead of cardboard. Lovely map, too. It has 3 levels of "realism", depending upon how much time you want to put in. The trouble is getting one or more people together to put in the hours of play. So I don't get too it very often.

Caesar: Alesia
A great old Avalon-Hill game of strategy. Marvelously developed, with less than 10 pages of rules, but hard to beat. Only thing: The actual battle took 2 days. It may take you that long, as well. So, maybe one of the earliest real-time simulations?


Storm Over Arnhem
Another Avalon Hill game. A nice area-movement game of Operation Market Garden. Could play with 3.

Tigris & Euphrates
by Reiner Knizier. Not a high action game, but interesting strategies. It's all about placement.

Republic of Rome
Yet another Avalon Hill classic. It's kind of love-hate. I love the concept, the period, and much fo the game. The rules are dense and sometimes conflicting. Victory Games came out with their version of it, but then let it drift into oblivion with a rulebook that did not resolve all of the issues in the original game. Some company should run with the general idea and develop something a bit easier to understand and play.

Edited 4/6/17: I should have written "Valley Games", not "Victory Games", as the republisher/reviser of Republic of Rome. I reckon I was flashing back to AH too much.

Shogi
The Japanese take on chess. Its hook is that captured pieces come over to your side and can later be placed on the board as part of your own contingent. I'm a really bad player.

FUTURE FAVORITE (I hope):

Pericles: the Peloponnesian Wars

A GMT game by Mark Herman. Just released; I should get it by mid-April. A game that emphasizes the local and "international" politics of the time as much as the military. And you don't have to deal with wobbly stacks of cardboard hoplites!
Last edited by georgeatkins on 06 Apr 2017, 3:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post 04 Apr 2017, 6:31 pm

Avalon Hill Games.

Squad Leader
Victory Games - The Civil War (Hey Archduke, we should get another one going!)
Junta (was a big hit at last game night
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Post 05 Apr 2017, 7:05 am

These are my personal favorites. I'm dating myself with all the old AH titles in the list.

Championship Formula Racing (nee Speed Circuit)
Obviously - it's what we play a lot of here at Redscape. An old Avalon Hill F1 racing game that has been improved and re-published under the CFR badge.

Command & Colors: Napoleonics
I first played this one last year and really enjoyed it. I haven't played all of Richard Borg's games but this one is better than Battle Cry and Memoir '44.

Wooden Ships & Iron Men
Old AH title that still plays well. Age of sail. You can play online at youplay.it

Storm over Arnhem
AH title before its time - area movement with bigger pieces then the small, fiddly ones that were the standard.

Kingmaker
I wish I could play this one more often. We played PBEM here many moons ago. Heavy lifting for the GM, though.

I play some of the Euros with my daughters, which are fine, but I've found I still enjoy wargames a bit more.
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Post 05 Apr 2017, 8:13 pm

bbauska wrote:Avalon Hill Games.

Squad Leader
Victory Games - The Civil War (Hey Archduke, we should get another one going!)
Junta (was a big hit at last game night


I used to play Squad Leader a lot, at least with the first 3 expansions. A gaming friend of mine likes to make fun of the original tank rules before Cross of Iron came out. But as expansions kept coming, the rules got more complex and time-consuming for me. I also lost patience with the page-after-page tactical analysis articles that never seemed to stop. But the final straw was when ASL came out. Very pretty, fancy 3-ring binder, nicer maps. But I threw up my hands and surrendered! :)

Have you ever played Up Front? I did a few time, but never owned it. Thought it was a fun alternative to SL.
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Post 05 Apr 2017, 8:44 pm

I played a couple times. It was ok, I guess.
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Post 06 Apr 2017, 5:48 am

I never played Up Front. I used to play SL but, like you George, just couldn't keep up. I didn't even make it to GI, much less Advanced.

I'm thinking of giving C&C: Ancients a try at the WBC's this summer. It made the cut, along with Napoleonics and Battle Cry, which I'll definitely play.

I actually own Ceasar at Alesia. It's still unpunched! Picked it up in the 80's and kept it with me the whole time, along with most of my AH collection. Those games are like my security blanket.
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Post 06 Apr 2017, 3:47 pm

SLOTerp wrote:I never played Up Front. I used to play SL but, like you George, just couldn't keep up. I didn't even make it to GI, much less Advanced.

I'm thinking of giving C&C: Ancients a try at the WBC's this summer. It made the cut, along with Napoleonics and Battle Cry, which I'll definitely play.

I actually own Ceasar at Alesia. It's still unpunched! Picked it up in the 80's and kept it with me the whole time, along with most of my AH collection. Those games are like my security blanket.


Wow, an un-punched box? Cool. If you ever think about playing it, be sure you take the role of Caesar, so you can spend the time setting up your forts and ramparts before your gaming buddy arrives. It will take some time to so. You could find one of the old Generals that suggest various setup options to save you time.
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Post 07 Apr 2017, 7:25 am

georgeatkins wrote:
Have you ever played Up Front? I did a few time, but never owned it. Thought it was a fun alternative to SL.


Up Front is a wonderful game. It has been "reprinted" so you can get a copy if you don't own one already:

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/148406/Up-Front-Complete-Game-BUNDLE
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Post 17 Apr 2017, 7:03 am

Thanks for the replies - this is really interesting. I read an article once (can't seem to find it) about the history of Diplomacy.

Apparently Diplomacy was originally played by historic war gamers, but in the 1970s Bridge players and D&D players also took an interest. Bridge players brought tactical and strategic analysis to new levels, while D&Ders brought a flare for theatrics.

Apparently this was instrumental in Diplomacy's rise to legendary game status.

I like Bridge, but I don't play very much at all anymore (it's been years and years). I used to like role-playing when I was a young man and still had an imagination. Maybe be I should play again - just to boost my public speaking skills!
(@ Georgeatkins - yes, I was looking for specifically favourite board games).

Regarding some of the favourites mentioned:

georgeatkins wrote:Junta!
Who doesn't like another game of back-stabbing, lying, deception, and hanging out at your mistress's house? It can go relatively fast, but you need 5 or 6 to play.


I played Junta once - silly but tons of fun (and a number of friends are big fans). I thought I'd scored a copy once, but I accidentally bought this:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/84159/junta-viva-el-presidente

I'll have to check it out sometime...

SLOTerp wrote:Kingmaker
I wish I could play this one more often. We played PBEM here many moons ago. Heavy lifting for the GM, though.


This is a game I've long wanted to try but never have. From what I hear it has similarities to Britannia and History of the World? How does it compare?
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Post 17 Apr 2017, 8:35 am

Krimhead wrote regarding Kingmaker:

This is a game I've long wanted to try but never have. From what I hear it has similarities to Britannia and History of the World? How does it compare?


Not really comparable to HOTW, which is a giant chronological "progression" of different civilizations across world. Kingmaker deals specifically with the War of the Roses and is very much card-driven. It can be played with up to 6 players, where each player develops a faction of nobles, offices, and ships. Cards are used to establish events, move nobles and ships, etc; though players can voluntarily move their own forces, of course. Sieges and battles are common. It is not a simple game, as it is important to not only learn where the hell the locations are on a somewhat hard-to-read map, but you have to develop a good understanding of the cards to know which offices work best with specific nobles. People who are color-blind may have trouble with the map, which likes to interpose red routes on a green England.