Your Favorite DoaM

For you F:AT newbs, DoaM stands for Dudes on a Map. Risk is the archetypal DoaM game, with plastic or wooden tokens representing armies that are battling to control nations, regions and continents.

So what is your favorite DoaM? And more importantly, why is it your favorite? And how often have you played DoaM games in recent times?

Where I grew up, Risk was a popular enough game, but most of my friends and acquaintances lacked the patience for a full game. Risk can be awfully tedious in the final hour, with everybody eliminated except for one guy who rules most of the world and one guy who is holed up in Australia or South America and fighting to the bitter end. So we often ended games a bit early, with the losing player flipping the board and sending pieces hurtling about the room. Thanks to Risk, I am not a huge fan of DoaM games anymore, and rarely play them.

However, there are certain DoaM games that still interest me. Though Dune seems like so much more than a DoaM game, it does have the essential elements of DoaM game, and I would certainly like to play more Dune. It's a very dynamic setup, with people scuttling out of the way of the coming storm token, and fighting brief, vicious battles over spice and key locations.

I have never played Risk: Legacy, but it sounds so much more fun than vanilla Risk. It would probably be a perfect game for guys in a college dorm or frat house, where they could play a weekly game except during mid-terms and finals and get a whole campaign done in a semester. Risk: Legacy is on my bucket list, but at this time I have no idea how I'm every going to pull together a dedicated group to play it.

My actual current favorite DoaM game is possibly just a favorite due to nostalgia, as I haven't played in nearly a decade. The game in question is Cults Across America, an odd DoaM featuring humor and the Cthulhu Mythos. Each player controls a faction of evil cultists that is trying to kill all the other cults, or else take over a chain of adjacent cities connecting the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast. Or a player can win by racking up 10 VP from various cards. There is a small sideboard to fight over that depicts the Dreamlands, and your cultists normally can only get there with successful Dreaming rolls. You can also summon monsters to fight for your cult. Or build a nuclear power plant and hook it up to a big death ray. Or recruit important allies like the Pope or the vicious Ambassador from Uruguay. It's fun, but tends to overstay it's welcome by an hour, like many other DoaM games. But I would love to play it again soon.

Chaos in the Old World followed closely by Cyclades with the Titans expansion.

I'm a Nexus Ops fan but it's not as interesting as these two in my opinion.

Does History of the World count? I like it, along with Chaos in the Old World and Nexus Ops.


Also Small World, fight me.

Nexus Ops, bar none. Chaos in the Old World. Cyclades. Blah blah blah, everyone is going to say those. War on Terror (even though it's kind of dated...strangely). OT Star Wars Risk.

I'll vouch for Small World too.
Imperial (let's REALLY fight now...)

Worst DoaMs ever- Blood Feud in New York, World War III...

Blood Feud in New York is a large shelf toad that I can't bear to let go. We only played once, and quit the game after an hour because the oddly specific pricing of the various types of units made the math a hassle. I can't let go of it because I really like the map and keep thinking that I can somehow use the parts for a better game. Like maybe a game about zombie apocalypse in NYC. Or a Warriors (come out and play) boardgame, where one player's gang gang tries to run a gauntlet across NYC while the other players try to stop them. Or maybe get some Marvel HeroClix figures and try to make a more entertaining game about than that overly complex FFG one from a decade ago.

Michael Barnes wrote: Blah blah blah, everyone is going to say those.

Sometimes it takes more courage to state the obvious, non-underdog choice.

I'd rather be defecating all over the old world than diddling glow in the dark minis.

For me the number one is Axis and Allies. Partly out of nostalgia and partly because I can get it to the table most often.

Nexus Ops and Kemet are my seconds with Cyclades, Shogun (aka Ikusa), and Risk 2210 rounding out the third tier.

For me the number one is Axis and Allies. Partly out of nostalgia and partly because I can get it to the table most often.

Do you game at the old folks' home or something?

Two player games don't fit the doam criteria do they? War of the Ring for example. Yeah, you can play up to four but it's a two-sided conflict. I suppose I've always assumed doams were multiplayer conflicts.

Runewars and Nexus Ops.. I say both because they do such different things... One for the quick game and one for the long game. I never would have thought of CitOW because it doesn't feel purely DoaM enough for me but I guess it kind of does fit in that category. Imperial too, I don't see either game as a DoaM so much as a spin off.

Still, as much as I love it I still don't think of it that way.

The only other one that I recall really being fascinated with (well, besides TI:3 obviously) is Here I Stand which I only played once but found fascinating.

I'll still play TI:3 if we have too many players for Runewars but my group usually wants Eclipse instead now which is a fine game, but not best in class at pretty much anything. Although upgrading ships specific traits is awesome.

Ikusa would be the "correct" answer, for the game that I think I love the most in the DoaM category. But, deep in my heart, no, Conquest of the Empire is my greatest love in the genre. No, not the "fixed" Eagle games version, the "broken" super-catapulty goodness that is the original. Love.That.Fucking.Game.

It is the one game that I will always want to play, and one that I always ask to play with my DOAM friends who turn me down and would rather play "elegant" DoaMs. Killjoy bastards.

Michael Barnes wrote: Do you game at the old folks' home or something?

Clearly, he's at the old folks home I should be at.

Michael Barnes wrote: For me the number one is Axis and Allies. Partly out of nostalgia and partly because I can get it to the table most often.

Do you game at the old folks' home or something?

No I stopped playing there when I got tired of getting my hands slapped at the Rummy table for taking to long to lay my cards down.

I can get the teenagers on Family game days to play. They usually email me to make sure I remember to bring it. The kids usually play their turns quickly and are prepared to play when they are up. Our games rarely take longer than 3 hours. I did used to play it in the VFW post I would play at; those were 6 hour games.

I love DoaM games.
I love Risk.

I have sung the praises of Risk: Legacy on many F:AT threads. One of the greatest gaming experiences I've experienced. All fifteen games with the same group of five total players over ten months.

I should clarify Barnes recommendation with Star Wars. He's probably referring to Star Wars Risk: The Original Trilogy. It's the best three player variant of Risk. Period. Star Wars Risk: The Clone Wars is merely okay.

Risk 2210 is also a strong option. A better game with four or five players.

Chaos in the Old World deserves the accolades it receives on this site.

Nexus Ops is streamlined brilliance. Especially if you can get a first edition with the translucent minis.

My fondness of CitOW and the Cthulhu Mythos makes me want to take a crack at Cthulhu Wars. I'm held up on price, size, gaming group interest, and my nagging opinion that the premise is just.... stupid. I'm worried I'd only spend time with the game by painting the miniatures (which arguably, look fab).

Mentioning the Cthulhu Mythos, I own and have played Cults Across America. It's a bit dated for my tastes, though I appreciate the humor.

Mentioning humor, I appreciate the first 3/4 of any Monster Menace America session.

I doubled down on the Age of Conan with it's recent Kickstarter. I have high hopes.

I would like to play War of the Rings. Risk: LotR Trilogy Edition is okay, but I think I should probably try the "big one."

NOTE: there's nothing particularly brilliant about translucent minis in a Nexus Ops game. I just think their aesthetic fits the theme better than the FFG edition.

Light - Nexus Ops
Medium - Cthulhu Wars
Heavy - Chaos in the Old World