Top 10 Wargames in 2024 | What's Better? Light or Heavy War Games? 

Shhhh... And we would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for you, kid...

Gooten morgan. As you can tell, our German accents are terrible. :) The Canadian accent is just too strong, eh?

@@LegendaryTacticshahahahaha, reminds me of the movie Fury, when the American soldier steals an egg from a German girl and says “donkey!”

​@@DonRoyalX😢y😅r😢😢dtcrttn 😢f😮vv by my❤

Thank you so much! And thanks for watching!

Thank you so much! And thanks for watching!!

Yes, we should clarify that they are board games, but didn't think of it as that is mostly what we cover. My colleague Flash had Jutland at one point, but it was lost somewhere along the way. I think we played it once or twice, but it has been years...

I have heard great things! We played a lot of the RTS video game back in the day...

Yes, I'd like to! Cross of Iron, in particular, seems interesting to me

I have yet to play it with someone who didn't like it. Even without ever having played it, it feels familiar for some reason.

@@LegendaryTactics Probably from the card game "war" that you played as a kid with simple deck of cards. At least this game reminded me of that.

Thank you for your kind words! And for watching!

I absolutely love Undaunted Normandy. Played two scenarios and immediately bought North Africa the next day & picked up Stalingrad 2nd hand shortly after. Deck building with clever mechanics. You'll often look at a scenario and think "this will be over in 10 minutes as I only need to move my Riflemen 2 places to win and then an hour later, you're suppressed by a machine gun nest, your deck is so thick the cards you need aren't coming up often enough and your opponent is adding useless fog of war cards to your already overladen deck and it's all gone horribly wrong. Give it a try, the whole series is amazing.

Good call! It makes a difference in who will want to pick it up for sure.

That is one that has absolutely been on my (Nato's) radar. I think I even downloaded the rules at one point and read them, but I don't remember ever playing a game of it. What do you like best about it?

I own Thunderbolt Apache Leader, which uses a similar system. You're right, it is a great system! I am hoping to feature it on the channel soon!

CL took the system to a new level.

Yes, I've been eyeing the Multi Man Games' ASL Starter kits. It is a smart way to access the game, especially if you have SL experience

The best way to learn ASL is to play someone willing to teach it. I can recommend the VASL community on Vassal for this. If you know SL you have a good starting point, that is actually better than SK experience IMO.

I bought the original (Purple Box) SL and all of its expansions new, as they were first released. In its continuing quest for "realism", the series descended into a quagmire of rules, to the extend that none of my war gaming friends would play it and I finally sold everything at a convention. These days it's solitaire only for me.

@@richardklug822 Hi Richard. I totally agree. My friend and I never bought the first edition of these game, we bought the second or third edition. Why? Because Avalon Hill would print errata in the back of the book, if they found a mistake in the rule. We wanted the corrected rules. But let us say a question arises about infantry attacking a tank. The rule we are looking for might be in the original Squad Leader. But where? Infantry and tanks are covered in several scenarios, so in might be in one part of the book or another. It might be in Cross of Iron (the tank expansion). If so where? There are 12 scenarios, so several rule sections where that rule might be. In might be in Yanks (the revised infantry rules). Again, 12 scenarios, so potentially the rules we are looking for might be in several different sections of the Yanks rules. OR it might be in the errata printed at the end of any of those three books! It became VERY, VERY difficult to find a rule. All that was fixed in Advanced Squad Leader. The rules have been made more logical. The rules have a huge table of contents. Each section has a small table of contents. There is an index which I believe is over 50 pages long. And the rules are wonderfully cross indexed. Each rules section comes with a divider / help card, which lays out how things are done (and often links to the rule section). Because the rules are more logical I have to look them up less often, and when I do, 95% of the time I can find the rule I want quickly. Once I tried ASL, I tossed all of my Squad Leader components (except the maps), and just played ASL. Warm regards, Rick.

Just started dipping my toes into Volume 1 of ASLSK. Didn't think I'd like this level of detail, but I am enjoying it and appreciate the logical learning path provided by the system.

Nice choice!!

True!

For the simple reason that while Nato and Cax have played Caesar, I have not yet.

That's the one COIN game I haven't gotten into that much. I like it, but don't love it. What do you like best about it?

​@@LegendaryTactics It's my favorite, super fun negotiation, alliances and betrayal especially if you play Aedui, a lot punchier with devastating moves and because the map is smaller, every location is fought for since everyone is fighting for Allies as everyones win conditions are tied to them, makes it a lot more interesting/exciting and interactive. It also doesn't have some of the rally loop that the other COINs get stuck in

Yes, me too. Fortunately Renegade has the combined experience of 45 years of playtesting to go off of. What elements are you looking to shine through the most?

SL scratched a tactical itch that abstract D&D combat didn't give me at the time. I'm more of an operational wargamer now, but it might be time to revisit this.@@LegendaryTactics

And so you should! Go forth, and wargame-ify!

* Disclaimer: This video made possible by the kindness of Gastel.

I thought I recognized a few of those games.

That's one that really intrigues me. Flash had it when he was a kid, but it disappeared. I would love to feature it on the channel.

Ah, the original SPI version? Nice! I imagine that one is pretty rare!

I'll have to look for that joke - I've been reading through a lot of those issues as I'm researching the next chapter of The History of Avalon Hill

Squad Leader Starter kits, would be the best way to go, lighter than ASL but just as fun and self contained

@@DaneWodenssen I agree. The core rules for ASL are straight forward. But ASL has rules for gliders, night fighting, star shells, fighting in sewers, motor bikes, ski troops, etc. etc. The starter kids ignore those edge cases and give you the infantry rules in 16 pages. (I do miss the sniper rules tho.) Warm regards, Rick.

Yeah, the theme js a bit flimsy that way, but rather than making it with boring human factions, it does have more table presence as it is

But it's so cute!

For me (Nato), definitely light!

It's sometimes a tough balance to get right, but the right theme can help!

Advanced Squad Leader is still in print with Multi Man Games, but I don't know of any publisher that is publishing Squad Leader

Great!

And its predecessor (which I prefer over Maria) - is Friedrich, from Histogame in 2004.

There are definitely more differences than similarities.

Definition: buying an overwhelming amount of items on craigslist in an unusually quick way.

Any top 10 list will generate plenty of debate - what would your list be for 5 lighter and 5 heavier wargames?

​​​​@@LegendaryTactics Games played in 2023 Heavy (Far better than light) 1. The Devils Cauldron 2. The Dark Valley 3. Valley of Tears 4. On to Richmond 5. DAK 2 Lighter 1. WAW 85 2. Sword of Israel 3. Napoleon 20

But the little animals are so...cute!

It's the friendliest and cutest wargame you'll find!

Perhaps we can blame the Germans for THEIR accent this time.

True. I'd like to blame our accent, but that mispronunciation is all on us... :)