Wargames for casual newcomers?

[FriarRosing]

My friends and I have recently gotten pretty into board games. So far we've got Starcraft the Board Game, Fire & Axe and Risk: Godstorm. And pretty soon we should also have Carcassonne, Arkham Horror, and Last Night on Earth.

In addition to these, I'd kind of like to try a wargame of some sort. The thing is, we're not the kind of hardcore dudes who would get really into something, so I think a simpler game would be better. I'd say that I'd be more interested in the game than the war. I've been looking at Memoir '44 as a place to start, since it seems to be simple and accessible enough for us, but can anyone recommend a better game?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One of the great simple wargames of all time is Ogre/G.E.V. Its been around forever, the rules are simple and straightforward.

There is also a miniatures game version of it.

 

[Arkhandus]

Mage Knight?

*dodges rotten fruits*

AFAIK it's defunct, but it should be fairly cheap to buy MK units or starter/booster boxes at game stores, Amazon.com, E-Bay, or something. They're just cheap pre-painted plastic miniatures, with a few stats on their bases. The base can be turned as the unit gets damaged or healed, to change its stats until it reaches the point where its stats are all skulls (dead).

I've got a ton of 'em, but I'm still hoping to find the chance to play the game again. Don't have any gamer buddies in the area, though (since moving several years ago). When you buy a starter box of Mage Knight (or any of the preconstructed army boxes), it comes with a small rulebook and an ability card. The ability card describes the handful of abilities that units in MK have, based on the color of the figure's stat box.

The game uses one or two six-sided dice and a small measuring tape or similar to measure distances. It's pretty simple to learn the game.

 

[jdrakeh]

You may want to look at AT-43 (mecha in an alternate future) — it's a are pre-painted minis games, still in production, has 'ready to play' starter sets available, and doesn't have a buy-in cost of several hundred dollars (unlike, say WH40k, as I'm learning).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have some of the AT-43 minis- they're nice, and suitable for most sci-fi/supers games, but I haven't played the actual game. I've heard that its quite good, though.

 

[Victim]

Are you looking for a board game sort of wargame, or a tabletop miniatures wargame?

I've heard that Memoir is one of the more simplistic versions of that game system; Battlelore or Command and Colors Ancients sound like they'd have more depth while still being accessible. But I haven't played any of those games. And CC:A uses blocks with stickers instead of miniature units, which might be a visual turnoff.

Board Game Geek might be a good place to look for ideas - just in case you're not looking there already.

I was thinking about getting a wargame recently (I've pretty much settled on Tigris and Euphrates instead) and CC:A (mentioned above), Combat Commander, and Conflict of Heroes. They're all highly rated games and seemed to gain lots of praise for being accessible. I haven't played any of them, though.

 

[Thanee]

You may want to look at AT-43 (mecha in an alternate future) — it's a are pre-painted minis games, still in production, has 'ready to play' starter sets available, and doesn't have a buy-in cost of several hundred dollars (unlike, say WH40k, as I'm learning).

http://www.at-43.com/

Yep, it's definitely a nice game. Quick to learn, quick to play, with a nice amount of variety and tactics involved (not just dice rolling and luck, though that also plays a role, of course).

I'm not sure what you are looking at, when you say "wargame". AT-43 is a full-fledged tabletop game, minus the assembly/painting-part (unless you want to) that typically comes with those, of similar complexity as Warhammer 40,000.

Download the game rules for free from the official site to get an idea!

The starter box (Operation Damocles) is good value and good to get an idea about the game, but definitely not enough to play, you need a lot more for that (I would guess about $200 per player plus another $100 total for some additional terrain).

So while it might not be as expensive as WH40K, it certainly isn't a cheap game.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Korgoth]

I think Memoir '44 is a good choice from the standpoint that it is light, fun and fast-paced. It's fairly abstract, though, so you may not be able to visualize what's happening. You're moving around whole battalions at a time.

If you want to zoom in and get your Band of Brothers on, I highly recommend Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear. It's the first of a new series of stand alone squad-level games. The action is quite fast and the rules are very elegant. It is not too much harder than Memoir '44 (though it is a little harder) and it plays about as fast. I've played it with a friend who is a veteran ASL player and he says it feels like "Squad Leader Lite".

Check it out here:
Conflict of Heroes - CoH Home Page

Be sure to look navigate to the components and examples of play to get a feel for it. The components are quite lavish for a war game.

 

[FriarRosing]

Thanks everyone for the responses.

We're more interested in a board game kind of deal, I think. I mainly don't want us to have to buy a lot of crap, I'd rather just buy a box and maybe some expansions and then be able to roll with it. I think my hierarchy of needs in wargames would probably be simple fun first, followed by simulationism.

I'm thinking about Combat Commander Pacific, because it looks pretty cool. And, if not that maybe Commands and Colors: Ancients. Both of those sound better than my original idea of memoir '44. Really, I'm not interested that much with miniature armymen, tanks an so forth; I don't want to feel like I'm playing with toys.

I'm also kind of looking at the Federation Commander games because... well, because I'm a huge nerd. Does anyone know if they're that great? I'm more interested in having an excellent and fun game than in setting and theme.

 

[MerricB]

Memoir '44 is exceptional; don't let the minis fool you. The game gets deeper the more you play it (especially with an expansion like the Eastern Front).

C&C:A is also a great game, though I don't like it as much as M44; it's also not quite so "casual".

Combat Commander: Europe and Conflict of Heroes are the next step up after that. Both are really fun games. (I haven't played CC yet; you might want to start with CC:E first).

Cheers!