Tag Archives: Quick wargames

Judd: Given Up for Dead. It’s a beer-and-pretzels/dice chucker solitaire game in Against the Odds issue #43. You play the part of the U.S. Marines defending Wake Island in 1941 against the Japanese invasion. It captures the battle in broad strokes, but you will destroy a lot more invaders (before you lose) than historically occurred, but it’s quick and it’s fun and as an added bonus, the solitaire Peleliu game that also comes in the magazine is even better, but falls outside of range of “filler.”

Matt: Attack Sub. Quintessential filler wargame historical filler.  It’s usually found cheap, you can adjust the number of subs and ships to play super short scenarios or you can scale things up for a big ol’ Cold War show down. I also think you can come up with some house rules to make this play multiple players with partially shared hands but we won’t get lost in those weeds.  Judd and others describe this as Up Front but for submarines, so lots of randomness. However, it’s fast enough to not be bothered by the outcomes, long enough to practice your best Captain Ramius impersonation, and fun enough to tuck a copy in your bag when you need a quick filler between games.

Judd: Jena 20. I played all 3 editions (two by Victory Point Games and one by C3i) and all were good. This is part of the Napoleonic 20 series: 20 counters, short rules, and a clever system where you spend morale for combat and movement bonuses and lose morale for routing. If your morale goes to zero, you lose. Event cards provide variability. It is a great gateway into the Napoleonic Wars.

Matt: 300: Earth & Water. I’ll copy Judd’s number 5 here and also go with a beer-and-pretzels game that came recommended to me by Frédéric Serval. Combat is Risk-like in nature and mechanically simple but manages to do a nice job of capturing a numerically superior Persian force and the tactically superior Greeks. Where I find the game excels is through the management of resources each turn as players are weighing building up their forces, land or sea, against cards that drive their strategy. Tiny footprint, very light, lots of fun.

Judd: We Must Tell the Emperor. One of my three favorite State of Siege games. Unfortunately, it will cost you at least one appendage to acquire (and another appendage to acquire the expansion), but maybe it will get reprinted. This solitaire game has you playing the role of Japan in WWII. You have great success in the first third and then it all comes crumbling down after that and you try to get through the event deck before the allies force surrender. You have to push the multiple forces back while keeping a sufficient supply of morale and oil while the army and navy bicker with each other.

Matt: Watergate. Not many battles being fought here but remember this is Top 5 historical games. We do have the Washington Post duking it out against Tricky Dicky though! Looking around the list, I guess I have a thing for quick playing CDGs? In Watergate game you play cards to influence different tracks or, you guessed it, to activate events. The game has great back and forth tension with the Washington Post drawing evidence connections to Nixon, and Nixon trying to place pieces to block those links as he attempts to gain momentum. Straight forward, quick to play and one that’s easy to go “Another round?”.

Judd: A Few Acres of Snow. I know, I know… “Halifax Hammer.” I still enjoy the game a lot. It was refreshing when it came out and it still feels good to pull it out and play it. This game on the French & Indian War still does the best job I have seen on this topic at modeling the long supply line to home and the uncertain arrival of supplies and reinforcements and it does it all in a very simple mechanic (deck building). That is the mark of a smart design.

Matt: Julius Caesar: Caesar, Pompey, and the Roman Civil War. Can this game be played in an hour? I think so! Am I already cheating? Maybe, but the excellent Rally the Troop implementations of the Columbia block wargames might be skewing my opinion on how long these games take in person. I think with enough practice you could certainly knock out any of the shorter scenarios found in the Columbia games in an hour so, deal with it! Julius Caesar is my chosen representative for any of these games with it being my favorite (so far). They all basically play the same with each having their own rules with varying levels of chrome. Play cards, move a group of blocks, and chuck dice until you roll equal or below a certain number as indicated on the blocks. Great fun.

Judd: Hold the Line: Frederick’s War. This entry also captures Hold the Line (American Revolution), but I prefer this one, because it offered some improvements, such as devastating heavy cavalry charges, counter-charges, force marches, banking action points, and gaining a bonus action point if the army commander did not act the previous turn. The scenarios are tightly balanced and fan-created scenarios open up the entire Seven Years War. It is out of print, but the designer took the premise to Hollandspiele and re-worked it in the Horse & Musket series.

Matt: Red Flag Over Paris. Part of GMT Games’ Lunchtime Games family and is a direct follow up to Fort Sumter. For me, it’s the perfect fit of fast playing and crunchy and, more importantly, interesting decisions. You will vie for control of over Paris both in the military and political spheres while managing limited resources. A basic card driven game with flavorful events and a small menu of basic actions you can carry out instead. Great art and presentation, tough decisions, and a perfect filler game for historical gamers. In my opinion, far superior to Fort Sumter.