What to start with in Wargames?

Several years ago those cute guys from HAMTAG did a video on their top 5 best Introductory wargames to lure the unsuspecting ‘nonwargamer’ into our little club.

#5 was  :

Operation BattleAxe from the Storm over Series area move games.

Image: 7isprime

Any of the Borg- systems based upon the era of interest, Ancients, Napoleonic, WWII etc.

A&A Pacific

Image: Tokhuah

Yeah Axis and Allies. I imagine this system has changed tremendously since I played the old originals.

1775

Image: Chris Norwood

Combat Commander

Image Nick Avtges

A House Divided

Image: Laszlo K.

The number ones chosen by the team:

 

Two folks chose Memoir ’44 primarily because of the minis. One person chose Twilight Struggle because it was the number game on boardgamegeek. Which seemed odd.

My thought was; what has changed since 2014 for new wargamers as we look for introductory systems or games they could play?

 

Image :L’état, c’est moi.

What would be your Top 5 Wargames for new wargamers based on titles made in the past 6 or 7 years.

  • What is important to you as a new gamer?
  • Ease of play? Immersion?
  • Fun?
  • Easy of use/interaction with the components?
  • Rules consumption?

Here are some of my favorite introductory wargames that I’ve seen over the last 5 or 6 years that have strong curb side appeal in no particular order:

 

Waterloo 1815. Clean rules, tense game play, thematic, low counter density, good art and surprisingly historical.

Horse and Musket. If you can play C&C Ancients, then you will probably love this game. It has a richer set of choices, does not rely on hand building and is thematically excellent.

Moscow ’41 In the block game genre it does not get much simpler than this, with a clever system that ties action and push your luck mentality very well. Stunning art and components. Easy to digest rules.

Tank on Tank a simple elegant wargame that has a layered approach adding complexity in a very simple package with great maps. A refereshed reprint/2nd Edition has this game right up there [originally published in 2010]

Hannibal Rome vs Carthage – the new edition from Phalanx. Stunning reboot and excellent play.

These are all games I have played. There are of course many others that deserve a mention. Sound off in the comments and lets here what you use to draw players into our hobby!

12 thoughts on “What to start with in Wargames?”

  1. Hello Kev, I would add to the list the resurrected Cry Havoc séries (cryhavocfan.org), which brought me to wargames when I was 9. LnL:T and WaW:85 are not bad either, and not more complex than Combat Commander. Hannibal I completely agree with: great design, nice reboot.

  2. Another very recent game that is perfect for an introduction is Verdun: Steel Inferno, by Walter Vejdo’s Fellowship of Simulations. It is a card driven take on the iconic battle that has simple but smart rules, and is very, very tense.

  3. When I started in the 70s, everybody’s first game was Tactics II. Nowadays, I would probably recommend Hollandspiel’s Table Battles.

  4. here is my rag tag bunch of games for beginners: Defiant Russia by Avalanche Press (the newer version with the improved map, Bloody Monday by Vento, Gettysburg 150 by Worthington, and Napoleon at Eylau from S&T 138…throw in Platoon from AH, because how bat-sh$# crazy to make a board game out of one of the more harrowing Vietnam films.

  5. Then you are missing out! It’s a very good medieval skirmish game, that was sold quite widely both in Europe and in the US (Keith Tracton knows it). The initial version was great from a visual perspective, but had a major flaw, in that missile weapons (bows, crossbows ….) were so powerful that it was good training for …. WWII and Modern tactical gaming (LOS, using cover to approach). This bug was fixed gradually, and the current version, with games on the Norman invasions of Sicily and England, the Anarchy period in medieval England or the Crusades are very good (I tried a scenario from the Anarchy recently).

  6. The game was created by Walter V. and …. the teenage son of my wargame club’s president. Let’s see what I can do.

    1. There were also a siege warfare expansion and a Japanese combat expansion with samurai, etc.

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