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A quest for tabletop wargames


Pešadija

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Good day to all of you people.

I was wondering if there were any wargaming aficionados that could recommend some good tabletop wargames. The platoon/company size engagement of CM:SF would be a very good indicator of what I'm looking for; but I am open suggestions about operational-level games as well (excluding RISK, of course :D).

Any suggestions, from known classics to obscure gems, will be appreciated, and I thank people in advance.

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Yaquinto did CM level games called Armor and '88 so if you can get them second-hand ......

Armor is a tactical-level game of ground combat in Europe during World War II. The strengths and weaknesses of the German and Allied units involved are accurately and playably duplicated by forty-nine data cards that display all information needed to move and fight. The system easily incorporates myriad details such as armor thicknesses at various points, shots from various angles, heights, and altitudes, and the effects of terrain. The rules cover the important aspects of small unit tactics - armor piercing shots, small arms fire, artillery barrages, air support, communications, gun depression, mines, barbed wire, pillboxes, smoke, and much more. The game system is shared with our earlier popular Panzer and "88" games, and the rules and components in all three games are compatible. The types of units include counters for infantry, anti-tanks guns, Panthers, Tigers, Armored Cars, Half-Tracks, Churchills, Shermans, Tank Destroyers, and much, much more.

Armor is in the Yaquinto tactical trilogy along with 88 and Panzer. MBT uses the same system in the modern era. IDF uses the same system in Middle East wars.

courtesy of boardgamegeek.com

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Thanks, but I'm more interested in after WW2 things - mostly because of my ignorance, y'know? War got more complex, but specialization grew and roles got more streamlined. I'm not enough of a grog to know all tanks and tank variants of WW2, for example but I do fine with today's MBTs... :D

Hope this post didn't make me sound like an unread arse...!

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I was asking myself, has anyone tried GHQmodels' Modern Micro Armour?

I tried the beer and pretzels incomplete version for a few tank battles, and it was fun. Complex enough to make you think instead of blindly roll dice, but simple enough to have brigade-level battles and so forth.

Plus I'm head over heels in love with the miniatures!

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Flames of War is the most common WW2 game these days in amany parts of the world - 15mm scale figures & models - it can be played with anything of course but htey have gone down the "Games Workshop" marketing model of having "badged" toy soldiers, even tho they can't copyright WW2 - still seems to work very well for them!

It is more company-Battalion level, and seriously not a serious simulation (;)) - nothing like BF in terms of accuracy, but apaprently lots of fun.

WRG updated their moderns to 2000 I think, around about 1988, and there is a Yahoogroup that still discusses the rules but they are not poular anymore - very good simulation, but too complicated for most gamers :(

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No it isn't.

It was created by a mate of mine Phil Yates, who was a spotty little teen wargamer when I was gaming with him in the 80's using WRG's WW2 rules, and who thought he WH combat system would be ideal for WW2.

So he wrote "Warhammer panzer battles", which was an add on to Warhammer - you needed a copy of WH to play it, thus avoiding any copyright problems. You can still find it on the 'net

He then found (not founded!) or was found by Battlefront - a small company making TTG 15mm "lead" sodiers & some resin terrain, in auckland, New Zealand.

Somewhere along the way BF found itself in the ownership of a millionaire wargamer who liked the FoW concept and was prepared to put the capital in to develop it.

they may now have former WH staff working for them, and certainly they have adopted the marketing model with a great deal of success, and the rules themselves were certainly originaly, deliberately, based on WH.

I know several of BF's former staff personally, including a CEO, & while I do not know all the intimate details, that is roughly the outline.

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If modern warfare boardgames are included in your interests, I have a few to recommend.

The Arab-Israeli Wars from Avalon Hill was the ultimate evolution of the Panzerblitz system and is on the platoon/company level. It came out in 1978 and therefore is long out of print, but if you search around you could probably find one. Tolerably accurate and not too hard to play.

SPI did a tactical game about the '73 war called Suez to Golan. It's much more detailed than the above and more challenging to play. Came out around '80 I think.

GDW did a couple of games on the '73 war set at a higher level. Suez '73 an operational level game and is mostly battalions with a few companies IIRC. It has kind of a quirky movement system that may require a little tinkering with to get right, but appears to be very accurate and not terribly hard to play.

GDW's other game is Bar Lev and I rate as flat out excellent. It is operational/strategic level with battalions and a few companies and encompasses the entire '73 war on both fronts. My personal favorite as it combines reasonable accuracy, ease of play, and a challenging situation for both players with enough options to make this more than a one-shot play.

Moving into Europe, SPI did Firefight and a little later City Fight, individual vehicles with infantry squads IIRC (it's been decades since I looked at these and I only played the first a little and the second not at all.

SPI also did Red Star/White Stat (or was it the other way around?). I never played this and so have no recommendation to offer, but it was quite popular.

That's a few suggestions that might get you started on your quest. There are a lot of games that have been produced, but probably most of them are out of print and may be hard to find. Good luck.

Michael

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Having gotten back into board wargaming a couple of years ago I feel I can help.

For modern (late cold war) platoon level combat in a fairly easy to learn format (especially if you have played this type of game before) is the Lock ‘n Load “World at War” series of games. Most of these are hypothetical conflicts between NATO and the Soviet block set around 1985. They play fairly fast and are fun (I have a couple of them). They also look really nice. Since we aren’t supposed to post commercial links here just google lock n load and the company’s page comes right up. Choose the “World at War Series” from the menu on the left side of the page.

Several other game companies are working on modern games: GMT Games has on their P500 (a system where they take pre-orders to ensure that they can sell enough games) a game about a hypothetical future conflict in Korea called “Next War Korea” that looks interesting. This would be an operational level game (divisions/brigades). Just look at their vast number of games to see what interests you.

A new game dealing with air combat that is really fun is DVG’s (Dan Verssen Games) “Hornet Leader: Carrier Air Operations”. It is really quite fun!

I could go on and on but as Pak 43 said, boardgamegeek.com has a great wargame section and you can get reviews and personal comments about just about a million games (slight exaggeration) – I go there on a regular basis.

Hope this helps.

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Not exactly sure what you mean but WaW has a lot of expansions that cover a bunch of different things -- some are soviet US, others are other NATO members. I just noticed that LnL has come out with a "mordern" version of their "Lock 'n Load" squad based game system: "Heros of the Gap". Check out their website to see if this is what you are interested in. I have their "Lock 'n Load: Forgotten Heros" Vietnam game on pre-order and am eagerly awaiting its reprint!

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Yes, I checked. Seems varied enough! My fear was that maybe it was overspecialized (the games proposed by Michael Emrys, however cool, seem to fall in that cathegory).

I guess it's a choice between variety and accuracy, most of the times. :)

Like the late nineties flight simulators that dealt only with a plane, but realistically, and acradey things like HAWX, full of choice but totally unrealistic. Eh eh.

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No it isn't.

It was created by a mate of mine Phil Yates, who was a spotty little teen wargamer when I was gaming with him in the 80's using WRG's WW2 rules, and who thought he WH combat system would be ideal for WW2.

My apologies, I'll stop perpetuating what appears to be an urban myth in my gaming community...

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The Hornet Leader game I mentioned in my first reply is somewhat abstracted compared to a computer flight sim, but makes up for it with decisions like which type of plane to choose (you have the choice between F-14, F-18, A-6, A-7, Prowlers, E-2C's to name a few) then which pilot to choose to fly it. Add to that which ordinance to pick to complete the mission and it gets fun (in my opinion).

Any board game will have to sacrifice some aspect of accuracy for gameplay. Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) probably tries to make things the closest, but then you end up with a rulebook that comes in a rather large binder! And anyway, you end up with a modified I go - You go sequence of play no matter what they come up with. That was why Combat Mission was SO great -- you had the time to plan moves, but then once the "go" button was pressed, had to sit back and see if you did it right! That is something you can't get with a board game. Still, I find myself "pushing the cardboard" more these days than playing on the computer...

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