Solitary Wargaming

[junshi]

Evening all, I was wondering if you guys could point me in the right direction for some solid solitary war board games. All genres and levels of complexity are ok with me and thanks for your help in advance!

[GJK]

There's 22 pages of solitaire goodies mentioned or chatted about here:  http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=9185.0

But my quick summary:

1. Carrier by Victory Games.  Very tense- my all time favorite solitaire action.  Tough to learn to play though and securing a copy will cost you some $$$.

2. Patton's Best by Avalon Hill. Great roleplaying aspect as you try and take your tank crew through the war in the West from just after D-Day to the end of the war in Europe.

Other quick mentions:

B-17 Queen of the Skies, Ambush, The Lost Cause (a recent addition in my collection), Solitiare ASL (on my "must play" list some day), several designs by Dan Verssen (DVG Games).

[junshi]

Thanks for the link and the personal recommendations GJK.  :)

[bayonetbrant]

I second GJK's recommendation of that thread.

Additionally, of currently available games, I would recommend looking into Victory Point Games' States of Siege games as fun solitaire games with a variety of topics available.

It might help us steer you in a better direction if you could give us a sense of the conflicts (WWII, Civil War, Medieval, etc) and scale (man-to-man, operational, etc) that you enjoy.

[TacticalWargames]

Fields of Fire.

[Nefaro]

Fields of Fire.

I P500'd the upcoming 2nd edition. 

It looks a bit nightmarish to learn, though, and that gave me pause.  I'm guessing the rules will seem a bit foreign at first?

[Double Deuce]

. . . I would recommend looking into Victory Point Games' States of Siege games as fun solitaire games with a variety of topics available.

I would definitely agree that you take a look at these as also.

[TacticalWargames]

2nd Edition I believe went a long way in improving ease of learning how to play.

I'm still debating if to go for Volume 1 or Volume 2 when they are released. I like the sound of city fighting in Volume 2 but prefer fighting as Inf against the Germans in Volume 1. I expect though you end up buying both eventually anyway because those who stuck with it and can play swear by the game. Some saying it's the ultimate solo wargame.

Would have liked to have seen a German module..maybe starting in WW1 then goes to an early WW2 campaign and then a later WW2 campaign. Or say three WW2 campaigns West front '40, Africa\Italy '41\42 and then East Front '43/44.  Though it appears the developer would never develop a game where you play as the Germans.

Fields of Fire.

I P500'd the upcoming 2nd edition. 

It looks a bit nightmarish to learn, though, and that gave me pause.  I'm guessing the rules will seem a bit foreign at first?

[GJK]

. . . I would recommend looking into Victory Point Games' States of Siege games as fun solitaire games with a variety of topics available.

I would definitely agree that you take a look at these as also.

I picked up "The Lost Cause" plus expansion and have been digesting the rules.  Certainly looks interesting but the turn off is the very high dependence on what I'll call the "if-then-else" clause rules.  I know that this is a solitaire game system and most all follow some of this paradigm but this one seems to rely very heavily on numerous conditional cases and that seems like it could get old fairly quickly - but, I've yet to play it so I'll withhold final judgment until I do.

[GJK]

Fields of Fire.

I P500'd the upcoming 2nd edition. 

It looks a bit nightmarish to learn, though, and that gave me pause.  I'm guessing the rules will seem a bit foreign at first?

Very anxiously awaiting this one too (plus the 1st MarDiv USMC expansion).  I've read over and over that if you get through the learning curve you will find this to be one very intense, realistic and exciting game.  GMT newsletter today is projecting 1st quarter next year which means next spring or summer if we're lucky.