Rob, the list is fantastic. AH is only remembered for ASL, a great game, when it should be remembered for so many others. I have some of these on the shelf that I will go home a take a fresh look at after work today. That being said, Firepower should be on the list too.
Titan is absolutely classic. Played it with some of the original play testers at UVA. Needless to say they were probably among the best Titan players in the nation. There is also an iOS app which is decent for five or six bucks.
Great list Rob! I think I'd add in B-17: Queen of the Skies if for the many hours I've spent playing it and Naval War due to the fact that you can teach anyone to play in five minutes and most players I've known became hooked for life.
Excellent video! AH has so many gems from their back catalog. Air Assault on Crete is one of my All Time Favorites. I love it so much I got the pimped out components from Camelot Games, larger plastic counters and a larger laminated map. Well worth the $ for such a classic game.
Avalon Hill used to basically be the boutique/hobby game company back in the day... loved them for wargames and even other types of games: Dune, Diplomacy, Kremlin, 1830, B-17: Queen of the Skies, Up Front! (with Banzai and Desert War), Britannia, Titan (love that Tramp art!), Origins of World War II (underrated game... I feel like this is sort of Twilight Struggle's grandpa), Victory in the Pacific, Merchant of Venus, and Flat Top. 🙂 Ambush! too, if you count Victory Games as being part of AH. ;-) If you include the "new" AH, Nexus Ops is a hoot, along with Axis & Allies Anniversary Edition, and the Acquire version they did in 1999.
Great video rob, I used to love playing & losing tactics 2 against my brother here in old Blighty & still regularly play wizards quest with my mates & is still bloody fantastic 👍
Great list of AH classics that I played single handed or PBM. My list: #10. AK. #9 March Madness. #8 Enemy in Sight #7 Naval War #6 Panzer Leader. #5: AAOC(Malta scenario) #4 Gettysburg 77 #3 speed Circuit #2: WSIM #1 3r
I know this is a war gaming topic, but I am old enough to remember going to the game store and just hunting for the next great game. I LOVED Avalon Hill's sports games. They were all so good, Speed Circuit, Status Pro line (baseball, football, etc..), Bowl Bound, Paydirt, ungh!!! Thanks Rob for.a nice trip down memory lane. You are the best, take care
Great list! I wore out the cards in Statis Pro Baseball for one that didn't make your list. Totally agree with your #1. Titan is an underrated classic.
My 1st AH game was Jutland. I am not sure if it was loved or not but It was Navel Miniatures in a box and depicted WW1 and the largest Dreadnught combat in history and no Aircraft Carriers all navel. I love the game. 6 to 3 are the only ones I own an playedd. 1914 came with a great manual. I think 1914'sproblem with popularity was 1) I don't at the time people into WWW1, 2) It was a very static game not a lot of movement. I remenber trying to take Verdun and it was a slug fest and no movment. I liked the game bit Paths of Glory replaced it. Iiked Crete. I think you are right about Anzio. I played this a lot. The original game came with a booklet with a couple of scenairos. like you I found the Italian theater interesting. There rules are up to the 6th revision. (BGG). No Retreat: Italian front replaced it for me. Beautiful boards & counters, Small counter count, Cards to enhance the game and I love the rules for forcing your oponent counter attack. Kriegspiel. Ilked that it was small quick and easy to learn. The big plus was I enjoyed out quessing what the option the enemy player was going to take. I think a lot of people didn't not like the no dice. Submarine. I think it was around 1978. I went to Avilon Hill in Baltimore. I bought Russian Campaign there and in the front room a goup of guys were plaing Submarine but it was Battleline Submarine AH had not made their version yet. Latter I realized. They bought it and were play testing to vevise and come out with their new version. Battle line has a larger play area, map sheets an nicer thick counters. Ah's version a board (smaller) with thiner counters. i own both versions. Another thing I realized was ththe guys playing were AH's play testers and I think one was Don Greenwood. I could be wrong about that.
Great list Rob. Mystic Woods is very steeped in Authurian lore which makes it feel like you're playing a story. Amoeba Wars and Wizards Quest use a lot of the same mechanics and are both such fun games. Another sadly overlooked RPG was their Lords of Creation game. It plays so well and encompasses every genre. The reason it's so good was the creator was none other than Tom Moldvay. Really good list of games there. Compass Games is my new Avalon Hill, and I'm just waiting for my copy of American Tank Ace to arrive any day now. 👍
My favorite part of Amoeba Wars was the cards that gave special powers, and the mechanism where the player who played the lowest number card got to use his card and all higher numbers, then the same with the second player, etc. I loved the game, but the ending was a bit anticlimactic.
Great list! A few of those, like Kriegspiel, were new to me. That games diceless nature makes me wonder if the rules were based on some actual military simulations? My own list of under-rated AH games would include: - Source of the Nile - 19th century exploration of Africa hexcrawl - Air Assault on Crete - totally agree with you on this one. The solid bonus game "Invasion of Malta" only adds to the replay value. - Powers & Perils (RPG) - a solid FRPG mainly killed by poor marketing. To be fair, it is very math-heavy (ah, the '80s). Fun fact: the author of P&P (Gerry Klug) also wrote the fabulous "James Bond 007" RPG, which was almost the polar opposite of P&P from a system design perspective. It's probably telling that I still have all of my JB007 stuff but none of my P&P stuff. :) - Lords of Creation (RPG) - A wacky multiversal RPG by the legendary D&D Blue Book writer Tom Moldvay. It's sort of a weird American take on Dr. Who-ish style adventures across time & space. I still love this crazy game.
Good job "threading the needle" as far as underrated/overrated AH goes. Knights Of The Air (1987) would make my top 10 underrated AH, and maybe Bull Run - another notorious bargain bin glory that's really pretty good. I have a soft spot for Dispatcher and C&O/B&O too. No one ever talks about them...
Titan is a fantastic pick for number 1. I never was able to get a copy of it as it was way out of print when I finally heard about it. However I have the iOS app and love playing it on my tablet. Luckily I do have a friend that does have a copy of this came so that we can put the actual game to the table.
also my very favorite game! I had an original copy that I lost to a basement flood, but managed to grab an unpunched unplayed copy of the reprint from Valley Games for a whole 20$ Its one of my grail games and am so glad I found it.
The IOS version is good to refresh but the AI for the Computer player's Titan stacks is way too aggressive. The Titan stack will attack any equal size legion and even move right up in the battle to engage first. The Java version, Colossus.forge, is very good with many options but I am not too computer literate and can't seem to get it to run any more.
recently picked up a AH game called Moonstar, a very weird and simple trick taking game. Have you ever heard of it and if so what are your thoughts on it?
