So I have managed to get some friends interested in war gaming, but most of my library is a bit too crunchy for someone who is coming from Axis and Allies. What are some of your favorite war games and how would you rate them in terms of complexity?


I'm looking for middle of the road complexity games that won't require too much of a learning curve, but since I'm looking to the future, anything from A&A to ASL is cool. I'm looking for historical, not fantasy or sci fi. Cold war what ifs are cool too.

From two plays over the course of six years I recall enjoying War of the Ring.

I think Diplomacy is probably my favorite wargame. I like that's it's intensely social. I also like that despite the rules being the same for everyone, the strategies in playing the various nations are so different that you really are playing a different game depending on your nation.

I don't have a whole lot of experience, but I seem to prefer the more "political" style of wargames, so I highly recommend Twilight Struggle. On the same style of game but a more modern twist, Labyrinth: The War on Terror is also fun, though I believe Twilight Struggle is more "fun" while Labyrinth is a bit more "realistic."

As for the rest, I play Two Hour Wargames' line. It's miniatures based, but I get free paper minis online. With a little bit of work, you get nice quick play wargames. A bit of a learning curve as it's very different from the rest, but worth the trip.

Twilight Struggle is fantastic and while the game itself is not completely random, and requires a great deal of measuring the benefit of using a certain card for its Operational value against playing the card as an event. Especially if you're playing a crd affiliated with the opposing player as the event will still trigger when you use it for the Operations value. I am by no means a fantastic player of Twilight struggle, but my brother refuses to play with me because I've managed some surprise victories after trailing. I usually only win because my brother usually disregards the military ops track, whereas I attempt to advance it at least a little bit so I don't lose as much VP when DefCon is around 5 -4.

Like Necronomitron, I also recommend War of The Ring. I've been playing since the 2nd Edition came out, and while I've only played around four full games, I've enjoyed every one of them, win or lose. Mostly I've lost so far.