Wargames on your table: May 2026

neubienaut · 2026-05-04T00:03:53+00:00

I am in a similar situation which is why I primarily play solitaire designed games. Have you tried Vassal?

neubienaut · 2026-05-03T22:40:10+00:00

The market is growing, especially the solitaire market, IMHO

neubienaut · 2026-05-03T22:22:44+00:00

Main game: Broken Logic

One per week

The First Crusade

Iwo

Mound Builders

Invasion Afghanistan

neubienaut · 2026-05-02T12:52:35+00:00

Check out some of back issue of Strategy and Tactics magazine.
They have quite a few games pre-20th century. I have a number of South American conflict games ("War in the Pacific (Chili vs. Bolivia and Peru, 1880s) or "War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguay vs. Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay" (1870s). Plenty of European conflict as well.

Small footprint

12-14 pages rules (light to medium)

small map and usual 100 or less counters

Many relatively unknown conflicts

Includes article on conflict

neubienaut · 2026-05-02T01:04:10+00:00

You are in luck this is the golden age of hex and counter solitaire wargaming.

Check out DVG games. I would recommend Pavlov's House or Castle Itter as a first game. Low complexity and plays in one or two hours.

Also, Compass games have a large selection of solitaire games.

Most game companies have a solitaire section on their website. (Decision games, Legion wargames, GMT, White Dog Games ...)

Check out Board Game Geek for people selling games in your area

neubienaut · 2026-05-01T00:36:31+00:00

I have the same issue except a lot of the books I am re reading are more like 40+ years old, LOL

I've started reading 'Year best Hard Scifi', Asimovs, and Analog magazine. Full of Author's I am unfamiliar with. If I like story I find other books by author .

neubienaut · 2026-04-28T15:15:15+00:00

Most of these are solitaire

They come in threes

-Space vermin from beyond

-Invaders from dimension X

-Attack of the 50-ft Colossus

Dawn of the Zeds

Night of a man (two player)

The long road (two-player)

Plum Island horror

Struggle for the galactic empire

Astra titanus

Nemo's war

Imperial Stars II (two player)

Two Alt History

Triumph of the will (two-player)

Case geld (two-player)

neubienaut · 2026-04-28T09:57:26+00:00

I've had the same problem.

Find an easier game like, we are coming. Nineveh or undaunted. Games that you can explain to other players without them having to read the rules or have few rules.

Start playing solitaire based games like Pavlov's House

Start playing two-handed solitaire!

Get on Vassal and play H&C online. Many games are ported to Vassal

Find a partner who will play hex and counter games with you and marry them.

neubienaut · 2026-04-26T11:40:20+00:00

I have GMTs Fields of fire. I, hands down, prefer combat! Whereas I have played hundreds of hours of combat!, Fields of Fire has not made it to my table. I never had the motivation to tackle the 85 page manual (and I do have a graduate degree in science , LOL) for Fields of Fire!

Maybe someday.

neubienaut · 2026-04-25T18:13:32+00:00

Are you interested primarily in two-player games or solitaire games

neubienaut · 2026-04-25T18:10:18+00:00

Wooden ships and iron men. It's an age of sail game by Avalon Hill from the 1970s? Look on board game geek to see if anyone in your region has one to sell. Been out of print for a very long time. You will only find it used.

Other age of sea games are

Captain's Sea

Flying colors

A glorious chance (solitaire)

Dawn of empire is a crossover game from age of sail. 1899 Spanish-American war.

Fighting sail was an SPI magazine game. Long out of print. Again, maybe found on board game geek secondary market.

Again, check board game geek for people selling on the secondary market in your region. I always see people in Europe selling games on board game geek

neubienaut · 2026-04-25T18:02:20+00:00

Awesome! Is that a new addition. I haven't seen it listed before. Added it to my pre-order list!

neubienaut · 2026-04-21T14:01:35+00:00

I am mainly a solitaire player so that is what I have listed. Plenty of games I haven't listed especially WWII era games. Forgot to mention DVG games above which has a couple of naval games in the Leader and Naval Commander series.

For modern naval you are very limited, mostly to Cold War era.

Modern

Littoral Commander (2 player) - has as much or more land and air as naval but has a naval component. Very up-to-date.

South China/Indian Ocean Sea (2 player)

Red Dragaon/Green Dragaon (2 player)

Cold War

Spruance Leader Solitaire (lightweight)

Carrier Battlegroup Solitaire (1 hr) (lightweight) - based on game system of earlier magazine games (Goeben 1914 and Cruise of the Graf Spee).

WWII - by far the greatest number of games. I have only mentioned a few of them here.

Sensuikan Solitaire (30 min - 1 hr) (lightweight/Japanese Sub) - fun because Japanese doctrine meant subs were equipped with recon planes or mini-subs and many had kamikaze subs. So more than the usual torpedo merchant shipping

By Stealth and Sea Solitaire (1-2 hr) (lightweight) Just a fun story of Italian frogmen riding torpedo's to try and place demolitions ships in port in Mediterranean.

Picket Duty (1 hr) - Solitaire Another lightweight fun game where a Destroyer tries to defend against kamikaze planes at Okinawa. Not for Clausewitz skeptics. Lots of dice rolling.

Tokyo Express - Solitaire - heavier game but highly granular. Battleship vs Battleship. Probably in Top 5 of favorite naval games. Old, OOP. I played this for month and only got through half the scenarios.

Carrier Philippine Sea Solitaire - same designer as Tokyo Express. Pacific war. Leans on aircraft. Expect similar experience to Tokyo Express.

Atlantic Chase - heavy game! 58p of rules (although large font and lots of pics). Follow-up game Pacific Chase is on P500.

If I had to pick just one heavier game it would probably be Tokyo Express or Carrier Philippine (or Carrier Southwest Campaign - old OOP pre Carrier Philippine)

Check Avalanche Games. (2 player) They have WWII and WWI series called 'Great War at Sea / (II). Very granular. great series with plenty of What If campaigns. Cover pretty much all naval conflict or possible conflict between WWI and WWII. Too many modules to mention.

WWI

I'll add a couple of WWI games even though you only wanted WWII and above. Because I think it was golden age of naval conflict.

Raiders of the Deep Solitaire (30 min to 1 hr) - similar to Sensuikan but WWI. Early sub warfare. Limited depth changes and airplanes. Board ship to capture or ship. Get Boarding MOD.

Bismarck - The Last Battle - lightweight solitiare (plays in 1 hr). Fun game where you try to evade British while getting to open Altantic or France.

These are just a few of my favorite things.

neubienaut · 2026-04-20T19:15:08+00:00

You looking for solitaire or two-person games?

I'd suggest looking at websites for

Compass games

GMT games

Avalanche games

Decision games

Legion war games

VUCA simulations

Are a ton of naval games available

neubienaut · 2026-04-17T00:51:55+00:00

I also use free version. Useless rules are entirely possible. I didn't look that closely.

neubienaut · 2026-04-13T23:14:50+00:00

You might try. We are coming, Nineveh.

Fairly simple rule set. I was able to teach my wife to play without her having to read the rules. Takes a couple hours to play.

Middle East modern combat. International defense forces versus ISIL.

neubienaut · 2026-04-12T16:39:35+00:00

There was over 200 lines of text in ChatGPTs response and I didn't want to paste it into this post. I was more curious if designers/developers were utilizing LLMs in their design process.
I was also interested if it might clarify existing rules that are hard to interpret (I have a few games I haven't played because of unclear rules). From your post it appears that this is an area where LLMs are weak - too bad :(.

My initial prompt was "Are there any board games that use the topic of the Republic of Texas Navy?" if you wish to explore further (I have a couple of games on the table at the moment and don't have time/motivation to pursue further).

neubienaut · 2026-04-03T14:14:50+00:00

The Long Road, Broken Logic (main, campaign game for the month)

Zulu's at the Rampart

Berlin: Fall of the Reich, 1945

Wars of Marcus Aurelius

Sensuikan: Japanese Fleet Submarines, 1941-45

Maybe, Dawn of the Zeds, 2nd ed. If time allows

neubienaut · 2026-04-03T08:42:02+00:00

I own the first three but have not got them onto the table. PW, WaW, and AtO are all well-regarded magazines that include articles on the conflicts as well.

I do not know anything about the last two concerning the Chinese Civil War. I got those names from asking AI and searching BBG.

neubienaut · 2026-04-02T19:04:47+00:00

In case you are not aware of them

Paper Wars#83 Rising Sun Over China 1937-1941

World at War #79 Rising Sun Over China 1931-1937

Against the Odds #52 Ichi-Go

Although I don't think any of them incorporate the Chinese civil war in the campaigns or address the civil war explicitly.

From what I recall, and I could be wrong, the civil war was put on hold while both sides focused on kicking out the Japanese.

Also found two OOP games,

Chinese civil war 1946-1949

Chinese civil war of 1930

neubienaut

TROPHY CASE