"Still a need for board games" Topic

I play minis but I also like board games, the 1980's Avalon hill, spi, and others. I don't see or hear much talk about them anymore. I am glad that miniatures are still doing well but I wanted to ask. Do any of you have/enjoy playing the civil war board games? Do you guys think there is still a market for some new ones?

Computer games really cut into the board game market. Though, I have to admit to enjoying pulling out my old games from time to time.

To answer your question, I am sure there is a market for new ACW board games, but don't expect developing them to a path to fortune.

There are still good games being produced, and there is room for more. My brother and I play boardgames more than anything else. I heard John Hill is working on an ACW board game now. In short, yes, I believe there is still a market for board games (and, I imagine, the monster game fad is over).

What beats them for a campaign?

How else can you figure out the mess at St Vith in the Bulge? Maps in books are "usually" useless. A boardgame map is designed to show this.

Check out Boardgamegeek.

Eurogames tend to run BGG; not the best place to gauge.

Still, while I do not often see a lot of hex-based wargame play, I do see area-based quite a bit. And, I think doc mcb has it nailed as well.

I was going to bring up Battle Cry and Memoir '44, but I suspect you don't think those count.

Doug

In addition to boardgamegeek there is consimworld, gamesquad (forums section, boardgames, ASL is very active – others not so much), and web grognards (for news).

Due to programs like vassal (www.vassalengine.org) it is possible to play most boardgames online (not a computer version of the game, the game itself using the computer as board and counters). The forums section there is another good spot to talk about boardgames from the past and present.

I've bought a number of boardgames in the past couple years and have 7 on pre-order now, so they are still going – if not like they used to in the glory days.

Forgot to mention Facebook. There are groups for SPI, Avalon Hill, Wargames in general, vassal gamers, ASL players, and other groups. Most of them are very active.

Thanks for all the imput

There is still a huge following for historical wargames. There are many niche publishers making all manner or wargames, including companies like GMT, Clash of Arms, Against the Odds, Multi-Man Publishing, High Flying Dice, Grognard Enterprises, Fifth Column Games, Micro Game Design Group, Decision Games, Lock N Load, and many others. There are at least 100-200 new wargames published each year. Some are small and easily learned and played, others are monsters consisting of thousands of counters and many feet of map. The production quality of wargames published now pretty much blows most games made in the early days out of the water. Though we don't see 250,000 copies of a game being published anymore, there are games that are wildly popular and a thriving after market exists for out of print wargames. There are many who say we are currently in the middle of the true golden era of wargaming. I would tend to agree. I have about 1000-1200 wargames in my collection in addition to my 15,000+ miniatures. I love and enjoy them both.

I think there is a small comeback for boardgames. I still have a good collection of SPI, AH and other ACW games. Now I have GMT etc. Still love to play them but hard to find opponents.

The advantages are you don't have to buy, paint and base minis. You have everything you need in a box. Most do not require a lot of space, except for something like TSS. Storage less of issue, at least for me.

Minis are more flexible in that you can play an infinite number of battles etc. That is assuming you have enough figures. But with the SPI quad games and the GMT brigade games you can play several battles with one set of rules.

Yes, lots of ACW boardgames around.

Try here: link

The Civil War regimental series, Civil War brigade series, Line of battle series and Great Campaigns of the Civil War series might be of interest.

And here:
link

Not all are in print of course, but it will give you an idea of what's around.

There are also strategic-level games such as these ones here: link

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Aaron

MMP/The Gamers just published what is the absolute best and most comprehensive and well done board wargame ever made on Gettysburg at the regimental level. Last Chance for Victory. Highly recommended.

link

link

Again thanks for the info, It wont surprise many of you what my next comment is. I have made my own ACW game that covers the whole war on the strategic level. You move by corps & div. I have played it a few times at some small conventions and have had several say if it was in a PDF or something they would like a copy. Just got me thinking that's all. I imagine if I managed to get that done I could find some qualified folks on here that would take a look and give me feed back.

Some of us can no longer see to paint, or find it tedious. Board games are alive and well at our local shops.

A new strategic level ACW game will be released by GMT in the next year or two. Two absolutely stunning maps, fantastic terrain analysis and correct geography, command limitations, named commanders, excellent supply and forage rules, streamlined combat system, all based on the tried and tested and much loved game The Civil War by Victory Games from back in the 80s. I play tested it pretty extensively a few weeks ago with some folks at Consimworld Expo in AZ and it is a fantastically good game.

I have a handful of board games for sale and a few more to list.

link

Willing to consider offers.

Duane

Agree with JPipes. I have plenty of board games and they are much better than the old variety of SPI and AH games both in graphics and rules development.

I forgot to mention Victory Games "The Civil War, 1861-1865" a strategic scale game. It is one of my favorite board games. IMHO it is the best game at that level.

I don't see how you can improve upon it. I cherish the copy I have and play whenever I can find an opponent. The only thing missing from it is a way to play solo. As much as I like GMT games, I doubt I will be buying their new game.

That's good to know, I do have the Victory game and it is very complete. I used if for a lot of the information I used in my home made one. The only problem I have with it is all the production is predetermined so you don't get to experiment with some variation, even a little. It also always concerned me that if it was based strictly on historical numbers than from mid 1862 on the Confederates numbers are based on them losing territory even if in the game they are winning. I understand the man power shortage issue but still, no doubt if in 63 the feds still held Nashville, new Orleans, Vicksburg, Norfolk etc certainly there production would have been better than with out it, that's the part that I always wondered about.
Just a personal taste thing, hey that's why you make your own game and take what you like from others:)

The map in the new edition will be dramatically better than the original. The map on the original was very bad in some places. The new map will be fantastic. Reason alone to be interested.

That does look better, looks like the hex are bigger and cleaner to see. I went with "areas with forage values" like in Empire and Arms and used most of its combat system. I set it up so you could choose what types of units you build, used a variable 3 month turn system and variable initiative. The folks that have tested it like it but at this stage it is still a "home made" project.

Have to disagree with the "rules development" part. SPI had quite a few stinkers and AH had a few but no company is better then AH was in this regard. For the most part GMT is just as good as AH while MMP is a step behind, the Gamers series is usually quite good but they have used the same handful of core game sysems for decades now.

Graphical quality wise – no question things are better now.

Eurogames tend to run BGG; not the best place to gauge.

Hmmm…
I find that wargames and wargamers are well represented on BGG.

BBG is most certainly a eurogame crowd but there are a lot of wargamers and wargames on it. If you want the best single source for wargamer discussion though I highly recommend Consimworld. There is an excellent news site with industry and historical updates many times a week and a very active and extremely deep discussion forum. Some people need to get used to the format the discussion area uses but once you catch on it couldn't be easier and is a great deal of fun.

consimworld.com

talk.consimworld.com/#_=_

The map is great. How long do you estimate it takes to play a full game?

It depends what scenario you play and your game group or partner of course. We played the full 1862 scenario twice which as I recall is 6-8 larger turns each with 4 complete move/fight/campaign cycles so something like 24-32 interactions in about 6 hours if you take away the rules discussion and breaks, etc.