Tabletop Wargames

[KateMicucci]

Please recommend me a tabletop wargame.

I will be playing with guys from church and I'd prefer a game that can be taught and doesn't require people to read the manual first. It also needs to be easily transportable, so no hauling boxes of figurines around. If games can be finished in 2 hours or less that would be great too. I don't know much about wargames so I don't know if such a game even exists.

Any era is fine but I prefer ancients, medieval or pike and shot.

I would like a war game, something that simulates real historical battles, not a war-themed board game like Stratego or Axis and Allies.

 

[Sranchammer]

Commands and Colors: Ancients - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14105/commands-colors-ancients

Hannibal & Hamilcar is another but it's strategic with card-based battles

Most of the good stuff is longer than 2 hrs though, especially with multiple players.

 

[KateMicucci]

What is the good stuff?

 

[Humbaba]

It also needs to be easily transportable, so no hauling boxes of figurines around.

I would like a war game, something that simulates real historical battles, not a war-themed board game like Stratego or Axis and Allies.

But all proper wargames use minis.

 

[KateMicucci]

I got a board game called Colonial and a 30YW strategic-level game called Won by the Sword because they were on sale. I hesitated on buying any battle-level wargames because I'm afraid that it will be like the Pike and Shot game.

I saw a game that looked really cool called Forest of the Impaled, about Vlad, but it was retarded expensive for just some wood blocks and a map.

 

[SimTrY]

if

Please recommend me a tabletop wargame.

I will be playing with guys from church and I'd prefer a game that can be taught and doesn't require people to read the manual first. It also needs to be easily transportable, so no hauling boxes of figurines around. If games can be finished in 2 hours or less that would be great too. I don't know much about wargames so I don't know if such a game even exists.

Any era is fine but I prefer ancients, medieval or pike and shot.

I would like a war game, something that simulates real historical battles, not a war-themed board game like Stratego or Axis and Allies.

you want a bit of rpg mixed in with your wargamming, check out 5 parsecs from home, its a sci-fi setting., if you want theres also a fantasy varriant called 5 leagues from the borderlands. its a solo game though, iddk if thats you're thing.

 

[ind33d]

gettysburg?

 

[deuxhero]

For non-historic:
This is not a Test is a small skirmish game that's Fallout with the serial numbers filed off. Non-hoard lists are going to be less than 10 models each, and can be as low as one. Easy enough to build a list for each faction and relatively quick to learn while having depth.
Stargrave is a generic sci-fi wargame where each list is hard capped at 10 (including a leader and Lt.) each, and there's options for free units so you don't really want to have less than full strength. Picking a list is easy enough, while making the two leaders is a bit more involved but doable.
Frostgrave is Stargrave's fantasy predecessor with same size. The need to pick all your spells makes it less accessible for a quick game though IMO.

TNT and Stargrave can have enough models made for two warbands with single box of either Stargrave's official minis, or any of Wargames Atlantic's Death Fields miniatures (their WW2 partisans could also work for TNT). Frostgrave can be done with a single box of any of the official minis, most WGA's pre-modern sets, Perry's "Mercenaries" box or the handful of other fantasy/generic historic 28mm mini makers, though you'd likely want four fancier minis for wizards and their apprentices. All three want random junk for terrain (all three are ruins themed, so it doesn't have to look nice).

Gaslands is nice game of crazy post-apoc car combat, uses stupidly cheap "minis" (toy cars of a common scale), has fewer models per side, and very easy list building (pick type of car, pick weapons, repeat till you run out of credits), but has more complex rules for actual play. Also suffers from a lack of What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get if people don't do their own minis.

 

[udm]

Gaslands is great except for the nonsensical collision rules which really piss me off, so we just use our house rules for that.

A little-known game that I've tried and really enjoyed is Brutality Skirmish Wargame. You can use any models and it's very easy to play while still having a good number of character building options. Plus there's campaign support so that's pretty cool.

 

[Ali Assa Seen]

Please recommend me a tabletop wargame.

I will be playing with guys from church and I'd prefer a game that can be taught and doesn't require people to read the manual first. It also needs to be easily transportable, so no hauling boxes of figurines around. If games can be finished in 2 hours or less that would be great too. I don't know much about wargames so I don't know if such a game even exists.

Any era is fine but I prefer ancients, medieval or pike and shot.

I would like a war game, something that simulates real historical battles, not a war-themed board game like Stratego or Axis and Allies.

I can't speak to how often one must consult the manual during play but Strength & Honour is getting quite popular. It's an ancient miniatures game written with 2mm miniatures in mind (although any scale works), which can be had incredibly cheaply or made for next to no cost by cutting up cardboard or balsa wood*. The game uses a gridded system, so you'd have to find or make a gridded mat. They are easy enough to make but you could get a little resourceful and use real maps of rural areas at a very low scale and utilise the grids on them.

*I have half a mind to try it using larger carved figures/cruder sculpts representing the unit type. Think the quick travel marker on Kingdom Come: Deliverance or the markers they use in movies.

you want a bit of rpg mixed in with your wargamming, check out 5 parsecs from home, its a sci-fi setting., if you want theres also a fantasy varriant called 5 leagues from the borderlands. its a solo game though, iddk if thats you're thing.

To piggyback onto this Ivan (Nordic Weasel) also released a medieval/early pike and shot skirmish system called Knyghte, Pyke & Sworde which lacks the RPG elements but remains a fast play skirmish ruleset. Play in 15mm and you can fit your warbands into quite small boxes, I use magnet sheeting inside old tobacco tins for most chaps with some slightly taller tupperware containers for the miniatures with additional height from mounts or spears. I actually provided the cover photo to the rules but I would recommend Ivan's games regardless.