Old School War Games

When I was about 10 years old somebody gave me Third Reich for my birthday. A few years later I gave Squad Leader a try. So my perception of old AH games were that they were incredibly complicated and took for ever to play. When I got back into board gaming about 12 years ago, I was turn onto the simpler faster paced card driven war games but more recently I discovered that many of the older AH games were fairly simple and could be played in about 2 hours.

Last week I played War at Sea or what we like to call Dice at Sea. War at Sea was design by our own Sagrilarus when he was 10 years old:) The game simple, fun and only took about 90 minutes to play.

I've also played Victory in the Pacific which is simple but a much longer time to play than War at Sea.

Gettysburg 1977 was fairly simple and can played in 2 hours.

There is 2 turn offs for these older games. 1st is the condition of the games. The components were usually pretty crappy to begin with and don't hold up well. However, my biggest turn off is figuring out which rule set to play with. The rules for most of these games have been re-written 20 times and everyone has their favorite version of the rules.

With WBC coming up next month, I should be able to buy an older war game pretty cheaply. Any recommendations?

Storm over Arnhem is still pretty great, and fairly modern-feeling.

Sag designed War at Sea? Well I did not know that. I've played that game a bunch of times.

I designed The African Campaign when I was 10. I was 12 for War at Sea, and I think it shows the added maturity.

S.

Sag also collaborated with me on the design of Flat Top. I was only two and wanted the game to be about Big Bird but I deferred to "Uncle Sag's" wisdom. I believe he was 81 at the time.

Michael Barnes wrote: Storm over Arnhem is still pretty great, and fairly modern-feeling.

Of the area impulse games, Breakout Normandy seems to have held up the best.

Msample wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Storm over Arnhem is still pretty great, and fairly modern-feeling.

Of the area impulse games, Breakout Normandy seems to have held up the best.

What's the average playing time for Storm over Arnhem and Breakout Normandy?

Decision Games had a series that fits what you're looking for I think: Leningrad, Across Suez, Battle for Germany, The Alamo. Just a few pages of rules for all of them. They're sitting in my basement so I can likely get you hooked up before WBC if you're interested. I bought them all new and lightly played so they're all in good shape.

Dean Essig's Stalingrad Pocket uses standard SCS rules (very basic) with an additional specific ruleset/scenario setup. They are very good. Yom Kippur is also part of this series. Components are excellent in both cases.

KingPut wrote:

What's the average playing time for Storm over Arnhem and Breakout Normandy?

Storm Over Arnhem takes a couple of hours IIRC.

I've always been a fan of Luftwaffe, Submarine, and Tactics II.

here is 2 turn offs for these older games. 1st is the condition of the games. The components were usually pretty crappy to begin with and don't hold up well. However, my biggest turn off is figuring out which rule set to play with. The rules for most of these games have been re-written 20 times and everyone has their favorite version of the rules.

With WBC coming up next month, I should be able to buy an older war game pretty cheaply. Any recommendations?

You can get the 3rd edition with all the new rules and whatnot: www.l2designgroup.com/War%20at%20Sea.html

It's a reprint.

Put - I've owned Storm over Arnhem for 25+ years, but have never played it. We can give it a shot sometime.

Put - The great ones (or really insanely epic ones) aren't that cheap but I've got a copy of Caesar at Alesia burning a hole on my shelf to get played.

However, if you liked War at Sea, then I'd strongly suggest Victory in the Pacific.

But the gem of old-school AH games that you can get cheap has got to be The Russian Campaign. I have the 2nd Edition if you want to give it a try.