Gal Civ AP Anyone?

[Brackard]

I never really got into Axis & Allies that much, but Fortress America was one of those "never the same game twice" kind of games that I really enjoyed. There was a randomness enough in it that always made things interesting, although after a time, you knew certain powerful cards would be played and would rush to grab those cities before the event to prevent it.

Anybody heard of Conquest of the Empire? It was another MB conquest game set in the roman era to see who could conquer the world kind of thing. I believe it actually came out before the other two. We spent hours playing that one as well.

[LKendter]

Don't forget Shogun (now called Samuri Swords). This one may not last as long as it is advanced risks in some ways.


For balance in A&A RR (Russia Restricted) isn't enough - the allies still have a bit of an advtages. I bid of 6-9 ipcs for the Axis will balance that game.

The other options is pure bid with Russia attacking. The Axis typically get $20 to $23 ($24 creates a killer bid). The bid causes a lot more varierity with Europe heavy, Africa heavy, Asia heavy or a mix. If anyone wants to try this games by e-mail, I can point you at a couple of gaming clubs.

[Smegged]

When my friends and I got sick of Risk, we bought a game called Attack! and its expansion. Attack! is far more strategic and tactical than Risk. The fact that you can only bring certain amounts of units into each battle leaves you with some difficult tactical choices, something that does not exist in Risk. Combat, while being dice based, has very little to do with luck. Although, there is pretty much no point to using Artillery, pretty much everything else in the game is balanced. Even warfare gives you options. Instead of blindly rolling in with masses of units (like in Risk), you have the option to do that, or you have the option to attempt to diplomatically control the country. If you haven't tried it, you may want to give it a go.

-Smegged

[Justus_II]

Risk always has a fond spot in my heart, and I still play it from time to time, as one of the few games my Dad and I could get my sisters to play. We still have the occasional "all-nighter" when some of my siblings come into town to play it. There is still a bit of the "this time we'll beat Joe", my wife was ecstatic to win a game we played on New Years. Risk was also a good introduction to gaming for my son (he's now 10, and winning at Civ, but he's not Ready For Regent yet!. :D We used to also play AH Diplomacy when I was growing up, although the matches sometimes turned ugly. Once, my sister broke an agreement with my mom and supported an attack by my dad, which ended up knocking my mom out of the game. She then went in the kitchen and made dinner (cheeseburgers) for the rest of the family, but not for my sister... Diplomacy does have the advantage of NO DICE, but requires a good number of people to be really fun.

As for board games, my dad and I played through most of the Avalon Hill games as I was growing up, and have even attempted a couple by phone (my dad is retired, and has ZERO interest in getting e-mail), but with long-distance, that can be expensive. I was usually more into the strategy, "big-picture" games like Third Reich and War&Peace, but played some Squad Leader and Arab-Isreali Wars, which used the same rules. A good computer game at a similar scale is Steel Panthers, with several versions now out. It began as a WWII series, but also has one (SP III) where you can build forces/scenarios from most any nation from 1930-present, and a campaign feature. Matrix games recently took over the title, and has released a newer version, which I haven't tried yet. It is great for 1v1 PBEM, but the AI isn't great, it actually tends to replicate Soviet-style Echelon tactics pretty well, but that's the only one it knows! The Fog of War is good, though, so there is quite a bit of suspense as your troops get ambushed by units that your scouts didn't detect, etc.

[Smegged]

Does anybody know of any decent sci fi based strategy board games?

If not (and even if so), could I get people to simply respond with their top 5 board game list please.

Mine personally would be

1) Attack! Expansion
2) LotR Risk
3) Attack!
4) Risk
5) Citadels (ok, it's a card game, but it's a hoot!

-Smegged

[Smegged]

Previewing a post kills the title. I tend to like to title my posts for a couple of reasons. Grrrr....

[Justus_II]

What a coincidence, I just posted in a thread on CFC about board wargames, and found out one of the few Sci Fi strategy games I ever got into is still alive and well. Federation and Empire, which was the 'strategic campaign' game for Star Fleet Battles, by Amarillo Design Bureau (Basically Star-Trek based). It's actually a very solid game in it's own right, but quite a bit more complex than some of the ones you've listed, it's more of the hex-based, cardboard-counter style wargame. Another old one, which I may still have in the garage, was called Godsfire. It was neat in that each planet had up to 4 political factions, and you had to try and manage their various spending levels to keep everyone reasonably content. IIRC, there were counters for each planet to keep track of it all. One thing I remember is it had the strangest stacking limitation of any game, there was a chance if too many ships ended a turn in the same hex, it could cause a rip in the space-time continuim, and it was game over! (You were considered the loser, of course).

[Sirian]

You can retype the post title in the preview screen. Inconvenient? Yes. But doable. Not an ideal solution, but deemed worth the cost to have threaded discussions. I tend to agree with that viewpoint. It is certainly less bothersome to me than N54's shenanigans.

- Sirian