"Fast, simple strategy board games." Topic

Hi all

I was wondering what would you recommend as simple to learn and teach, relatively fast(1hr to 2hrs)strategy board games in the vein of Condotierre?

With Respect
Konstantinos Travlos

Most of the games from Columbia Games fit that mold, covering a variety of military campaigns from ancient times up to today. But they are not "political" so may not really be what you want.

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
Owner, Scale Creep Miniatures
ScaleCreep.com
DeepFriedHappyMice.com

Italia and Britannia aren't the quickest games out there(4-5 hours), but are simple, can be played by 2-5 players, and are a lot of fun. Each player will get several chances to run wild and they need to make the most of it because in the other turns you're taking it on the chin!

Also, Twilight Struggle from GMT is a card driven, political/grand strategy game that plays in 2-3 hours and 1960-The Making of a President is a game where each player represents Kennedy or Nixon in the 1960 campaign. I didn't think I would be too interested in this, but it turned out to be a great game!

I'm not familiar with Condotierre. Are you looking for games that include randomized combat elements (dice combat like Risk, Memoir '44, BattleLore, Kings & Things, etc.) or abstract diceless combat, like Feudal, Stratego or chess?

And by "strategic" do you mean operational (Risk, Axis & Allies, Samurai Swords) or simply in terms of game play/thinking (Memoir '44, chess, Go, etc.)?

Finally, do you have any theme preferences?

Having asked all this, my favorite "strategic" board games currently are:

Memoir '44/Battle Cry/Battle Lore

Wings of War

Risk: LotR, Star Wars, 2210 and Godstorm variants. Much more than just "roll to win" gaming.

Conquest of the Empire by Eagle Games (so-called "Classic" version). The CotE:II game is completely different; don't know how it plays (yet).

Pirateer: Simple abstract strategy game with randomized movement, "land on to capture."

Planet Busters by Tom Wham (currently published by Troll Lord Games… look for the later editions, as the first edition is missing essential rules!): Card based game of space conquest. Neat little game.

Kings & Things might also fall into this category. Supposedly it's going to be rereleased this fall by Z-man Games.

Battlecry. The best Richard Borg game still.

Some of the games by Phalanx Games might fit the bill. A House Divided is about the ACW, there is Napoleon of course about Napoleon, and they have other games that cover WWI to old Rome.
Some of the GMT games are fun and challenging. A little time must be invested in the rules but the games can play fast usually finishing in an evening. A friend and I often play Paths of Glory (WW1) or Twilights Struggle in a evening (2-3 hours). We also will play the card game Battleline often. It is themed around Alexander and Darius.

Manoeuvre by GMT is a nice light play.

Parzival both on both. Although the people who will play with me would prefer a more holistic experience then just battles. The politics element is a must.

My favorite themes tend to be ancient-medieval-ren. But I also like any games that permit a general free for all.

Try this---
link

rddfxx how fast does it palce

I'm just getting into it myself, and I don't have any insight into the speed of a 3-4 player game. It looks like a relatively fast play, 2-3 hours. I'll know better after a couple of play throughs

Here is a video review by "Scott"
YouTube link

Another good game for a group was the old AH game "Civilization". Any fighting that occured was really over land space that you needed for population expansion/food/ or a city site. No player ever has enough people to conquer the world, but, thats not the games focus. The key is who can get their culture first to becoming a "civilized society". Players are able to purchase advancements thru trading commodities with other players.

Another good game for a group was the old AH game "Civilization".

The question was for games that lasted 1 or 2 hours, not 1 or 2 days ;-) Although I also like Civ, I haven't played it in the past 10 years or so due to the time needed.

I second the recommendations for either Battlecry, Memoir44, or Battlelore.
Memoir 44 is probably the best choice.

A lot of the games mentioned here are good games but I would rate them as tactical or operational games rather than the Strategy games that you mention.

One factor is the amount you are willing to spend. Several Strategy games from SPI and other popular companies of the 1970s-1980s are available in a new re-print format from Decison games and Excaliber.

I have a number of games from these two lessor known companies in my store. Current popular companies like GMT, CoA and AvP have strategy games in their inventory.

Like Mark Severin stated in his first post Columbia Strategy games wood block system for Quebec (F&I war) napoleon and War of 1812 all are fun and fast.