"Which games are you still playing after all these years?" Topic

Straightening up my rule book shelf I couldn't help but notice I own rules to games I either:

1. Played for a season then stopped.
2. Tried several times but it never took.
3. Purchased based on hype and was disappointed.
4. Are well-worn from their secure spot in the rotation.

The reasons will vary, but I was curious as to which games are you folks still play/keep going back to and why?

And which games fell off the radar after one, two or a dozen games, and why?

For me, simple is better. Not simplistic, mind you, but uncluttered. Those games seem to stay in circulation.

I still play the first miniatures game I was introduced to back in 1970: CLS. There is a group of us of about 16 that play semi-regularly. We also play "Yanks up the Yangtze" for about 10+/- years now. Also playing "Blenheim 2004" for about years now. Other newer rules come up put none of them seem to last too long.

I'm still playing Volley and Bayonet and Command Decision, I stopped playing WRG 7th, Tactica, Armati, and DBA. See a trend? Now considering starting up with the new DBA. We'll see if that lasts.

Volley Fire still gets my attention though I haven't gamed with it in many years but I'd love to come back to it – and find more copies, too! Big problem? I'd have to add in a new period (or old,really). Can't justify that – but I can dragoon figures from my FIW and AWI collections(part of why I have so much AWI cavalry!). Purists are for pureeing.

DBA. Started with 1.0, now enjoying 3.0.

Warmaster.

SImple is good.

Longest shelf-life still in active play:
Ogre (1977; now up to 6th Ed.).
Battledroids (1984; now playing BattleTech Alpha Strike with the plastic droids!).
DBA (1990; now 2.2+).

Longest shelf-life sporadic play:
Awful Green Things From Outer Space (1979; now up to 8th edition).
Rivets (1979).
BloodBowl (started with 2nd Ed. 1988).

Liked but later Fell Off:
Command Decision got replaced by simpler Blitzkrieg Commander which still gets sporadicly played.

Still playing The Sword and the Flame, which I started using when I was a wee lad.

Longest Shelf-Life in Active Play
Cavaliers and Roundheads
Died for Glory
Fire and Fury

Longest Shelf Life with Sporadic Play
Ogre and GEV
The Fantasy Trip – Melee and Wizard
Talisman
The Sword and The Flame

On To Richmond for almost 40 years. DBA since it came out. My other miniature rules have been replaced by One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas. Traveller sci-fi rpg for about 40 years as well, now getting played weekly again.

The Sword and The Flame

DBA and HoTT

Both offer the tactical problems of larger games but just telescope them in time and space.

And I can remember the rules even If I haven't played in a long while.

David F Brown

Naval War (Avalon Hill)
Talisman
Space Hulk
On to Richmond
Crossfire
Might of Arms
Fistful of Tows

DBA, HOTTS, TSATF are the three that come to mind.

King of the Battlefield
HotT

The Sword and The Flame

TSATF
Little Wars
Martian Empires
Piquet
HOTT
DBA

Mike

Spearhead
Fire and Fury
Volley and Bayonet
WarHammer Ancients

Seems like I might want to get a copy of HotT.

Someone in the US sell the latest version?

DBA and DBMM
Lasalle – still the best work Sam ever did

Hi Dentatus,

Looks like On Military Matters stocks it:

link

Have fun!

Sword and the Flame
Spearhead (although it's GWSH2 now)
Might and Reason
Fire and Fury
Wooden ship and iron men

On to Richmond
followed by Johnny Reb II
TSATF

still looking for a "Fun", playable set for AWI.

Played 'Charge' at the weekend, still play DBA, Volley and Bayonet and Rapid Fire…

Still play Battletech, got into it back in 1985 when I was 10yo. Technically 40K too as I started playing around 2000 (collecting earlier than that & sporadic play with 2e), or whenever 3e launched. That was around/over 17yrs ago so that counts. Wharhammer fantasy even longer, since 4e in the early/mid '90s but don't play very often anymore & its a dead game anyway…

Damon.

Rolemaster… and after about 20 years, we still don't know all the rules !

The original Medieval Total War. My students love it!

A modified, ‘ The Sword and the Flame.'
Bill Banks' board game, ‘Ancients.'
Decision Games, ‘Ancient Battles,' board game series.
I suspect that Dan Mersey's, ‘The Men Who Would Be King,' will be a game I continue to play 20 years from now, if I live that long.
SPI's Panzergruppe Guderian and its progeny.

DBA since 1991
CLS since 1968
TSATF since 1978
HOTT since 1991

Napoleon's Battles and Koenig's Krieg, played sporadically over the past 25 years. Still haven't found anything better for these two periods where you can play out an actual historical battle.

Might of Arms for ancients for the last 15 years.

Sword and the Flame
Age of Reason

Both give satisfying games, and we don't have to worry about "getting it wrong" until we manage to play it right.
Life is too short to keep looking up the rule that you know is there but cannot now find.

"Life is too short to keep looking up the rule that you know is there but cannot now find."

Amen.

I'm a relatively recent miniatures gamer compared to most of TMP, but I still regularly play my old Avalon Hill board games. I have my Midway game bought in 1972 or thereabouts.

AD&D RPG: 1980-present (Started with Basic, then 1e after a month, then 2e in 1989-present). Has everything I need, never gotten tired of it, never will.

2e BattleSystem (2e AD&D mass battles mini's game): started around 1995, still playing. Based on AD&D rules, close to the RPG, so it translates from that well. Can use any figures, create any unit I can imagine; covers every aspect of medieval combat, with magic. Great rule set, IMO; works for medium, to large games, always been a real blast to play.

Plastic Wars plastic Army Men game: wrote this game for my three sons, when they were young, back in 1998. Introduced my adult nephew to it, recently, and he is hooked! Playing some of the largest games ever played (200+ 54mm figures, total, and we are having a blast with it; planning a game in January, with around 500 figures, maybe more. Rules are relatively simple, the game plays and moves fast, and costs little for figures. Sharing it with others again, and that is so much fun to see them enjoying it, and wanting to introduce others to the fun of wargaming… Serves well as a gateway drug into the suite of wargaming hobbies. Low cost, fast paced, packed with action; never really a slow time in the game, as things are always moving.

So what about the rules appeal to you?

Are they simply the first ones you sunk you teeth into back in the day, sort of brand association/brand loyalty?

Or is it ease of play and simple, uncluttered mechanics?

Now I'm not all that familiar with the rules mentioned but for those of you that are, what – if anything – do they have in common?

Dentatus, for me it's probably a combination of ease of play with relatively uncluttered mechanics and nostalgia.