Best Solitaire Board War Game I've Ever Played

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

That's a shame...I just read Memoir 44 is a 2-8 player game...I thought I read somewhere it could be played solo?

Adam, I don't mean to hijack your thread...sorry

Don’t ! unless you intend to enlist a newbee and don’t wish to scare them off with Hex and Counter game play.

If your looking for a solo tactical WWII squad level board game go with Europe Combat Commander , the card mechanics work well for solo play , believe me you will get far more enjoyment out of ECC and expansions then M44.

[Joram]

Yes, C&C Ancients is anexcellent game.  Technically it's not a solitaire game but with the command deck and a little bit of self-honesty it is very easy to do solitaire.  The only difficulty of course is trying to put yourself in the right frame of mind when playing both sides.  My father made me play this one scenario over Christmas because he couldn't win as one side when he played it solitaire.  I showed him the light. 

[madorosh]

ORIGINAL: Jim_H

I also have Ambush, which is a solitaire only, squad level game. I haven't had time to play it yet, but many people reckon it's brilliant.

Technically, it is a man-to-man game. And yes, it is indeed brilliant, mostly because it bears no resemblance to reality - think Vic Morrow in "Combat" on TV. There are no "squads" and little in the way of real life tactics, but you'll have a blast.

[JudgeDredd]

ORIGINAL: Sarge

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

That's a shame...I just read Memoir 44 is a 2-8 player game...I thought I read somewhere it could be played solo?

Adam, I don't mean to hijack your thread...sorry

Don’t ! unless you intend to enlist a newbee and don’t wish to scare them off with Hex and Counter game play.

If your looking for a solo tactical WWII squad level board game go with Europe Combat Commander , the card mechanics work well for solo play , believe me you will get far more enjoyment out of ECC and expansions then M44.

lol...how about my 11 year old daughter. She's kind of a daddys girl and wants to do things "with dad"...so I could easily get her into gaming!!

Maybe I'll look at ECC as well...it's my birthday soon...I might treat myself.

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd
lol...how about my 11 year old daughter. She's kind of a daddys girl and wants to do things "with dad"...so I could easily get her into gaming!!

Maybe I'll look at ECC as well...it's my birthday soon...I might treat myself.

I see , yes my son also 11 and I have a blast with M44 [;)]

Another great game for the young ones is Wings Of War.

[Peter Fisla]

ORIGINAL: Sarge

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

That's a shame...I just read Memoir 44 is a 2-8 player game...I thought I read somewhere it could be played solo?

Adam, I don't mean to hijack your thread...sorry

Don’t ! unless you intend to enlist a newbee and don’t wish to scare them off with Hex and Counter game play.

If your looking for a solo tactical WWII squad level board game go with Europe Combat Commander , the card mechanics work well for solo play , believe me you will get far more enjoyment out of ECC and expansions then M44.

Combat Commander is really cool, there is room in my head for another tactical wargame besides ASL. I have the second CC module as well as Paratrooper Scenario Pack. I believe this year Stalingrad scenario pack should be out as well as dynamic campaign rules!!! It's all good

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Michael Dorosh

ORIGINAL: Jim_H

I also have Ambush, which is a solitaire only, squad level game. I haven't had time to play it yet, but many people reckon it's brilliant.

Technically, it is a man-to-man game. And yes, it is indeed brilliant, mostly because it bears no resemblance to reality - think Vic Morrow in "Combat" on TV. There are no "squads" and little in the way of real life tactics, but you'll have a blast.

Ambush has about 3-4 expansion modules as well. They also issued a tank game based on the same system called Open Fire, I think (I'll have to look on the shelf tonight).

I'm surprised no one has commented on Tokyo Express. It is a tactical naval game of the surface fights in Iron Bottom Sound. Absoutely the best solitaire board game I ever played, and I played a lot of them.

[JudgeDredd]

With regards to miniatures...I've seen on Boardgamegeek pictures showing different miniatures...some (plain grey/blue/green) and others looking camoflaged up and looking neat...almost model quality.

Where do they get them from?

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

With regards to miniatures...I've seen on Boardgamegeek pictures showing different miniatures...some (plain grey/blue/green) and others looking camoflaged up and looking neat...almost model quality.

Where do they get them from?

There are various sources. Some of the generic colored plastic ones come with the games like Axis & Allies.

There are some standardized scales for some miniatures rules such as the Micro-Armor I collected and painted 20 odd years ago which are 1/287 scale. They are lead castings that I detail painted and came in kits of platoons. Try a net search on "micro armor" and see what you come up with.

DML (a leading plastic model company) has a line they call the "Pocket Army" that are prepainted, finished products intended for use as miniatures.

btw: One of the coolest things about miniatures was the little plastic toy periscopes we used to get views of the battlefield from the tank commanders point of view.

ASL came out with a "Deluxe" version of the game boards with oversized hexes that would accommodate miniatures. The intent was to place the ASL unit conunter under the miniature to use for game mechanic purposes while enjoying the "panoramic splendor" (their exact marketing hype verbage) of the miniatures.

[Peter Fisla]

http://www.ghqmodels.com/

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Peter Fisla

http://www.ghqmodels.com/

Thanks Peter, those are the ones.

My ancient memory wasn't too bad as I misremembered the 1/285 as 1/287...probably easy to do as they also have a 1/87th line.

[ravinhood]

Adam did you ever play computer HOPLITES? It uses all cards and is an excellent game of ancient battles with a robust AI you can't exploit so easily like one can with most other computer wargames. I enjoy playing Spartacus just to see how far through the list of 40 other leaders I can get. Usually though when I come up against Hannibal or Alexander it's all she wrote I most always get slaughtered by those armies and commanders.

Here's the link

This is one fine FREE computer wargame in the ancients period. If only the ones that did animations had a combat AI like this game does.

[Adam Parker]

Thanks for the link Ravinhood. I wonder how Vista will like it? Had heard of it from years ago and it did grab my attention but had yet to look at it properly.
 
Goodness me doesn't it look awesome. A bit different from the norm and so much effort put into it. And it's free?!
 
Instead of re-releasing Windows 3.1 and 95 stuff from the heap, why doesn't Matrix get on board with a project like this and start developing a war game? Hoplites is begging for a commercial outlet. So much room for expansion modules that could be sold at a price.

[Rainbow7]

My favourite solitaire board wargame would have to be Luftschiff by Phil Eklund at Sierra Madre Games.  It's a unique simulation of a topic hardly touched on ... and it's great fun.  If you have any interest, check out my session report:  http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/128385 
 
and review: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/118558.

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Tokyo Express - Victory Games

This was the first one that came to mind when I saw the topic. While the rules were a bit longer than I care for, the "game" could actually put up a pretty good fight. Because the Japanese ships fought in line, "programming" their movement was really just a matter of geometry. Twenty years ago, I looked at TE, and thought to myself, "man, this could be swell on a computer network with a CO for each division, or maybe, for each ship." Hasn't happened yet. [:(]

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Prince of Eckmühl

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Tokyo Express - Victory Games

This was the first one that came to mind when I saw the topic. While the rules were a bit longer than I care for, the "game" could actually put up a pretty good fight. Because the Japanese ships fought in line, "programming" their movement was really just a matter of geometry. Twenty years ago, I looked at TE, and thought to myself, "man, this could be swell on a computer network with a CO for each division, or maybe, for each ship." Hasn't happened yet. [:(]

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

Did you ever play the Great Naval Battles series of computer games? I think they were either by SSI or SSG (I always mix the two up and will have to find the old box on the shelf now just to satisfy my curiosity). The first one was Great Naval Battles in the North Atlantic and was a pretty good game. The second game was Great Naval Battles 1942, Guadalcanal and was awesome.

It was both an operational game and a tactical simulator. As you increased the zoom of the operational map the level of detail increased until you were actually viewing the simulator in a 2D view (similar to the Silent Hunter series but with a greater zoom level that shows the planking of the ship decks) . The plane icons that represented a strike force on the operational map would suddenly break up into a swarm of individual planes when you reached a certain zoom level and you could watch as each plane made it's run on the ships.

You could also "jump" to the bridge of any ship and see the incoming planes out the bridge windows as it was a complete 3D simulation. You could take control of any weapon system on any ship or sit back and watch things play out from the larger operational perspective.

I loaded it up not long ago on Dfend (DOS Front End similar to DosBox) and it is still fun to play with the exception of the scrolling of the operational map which is decidely clunky, relying on scroll bars.

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter


Did you ever play the Great Naval Battles series of computer games? I think they were either by SSI or SSG (I always mix the two up and will have to find the old box on the shelf now just to satisfy my curiosity). The first one was Great Naval Battles in the North Atlantic and was a pretty good game. The second game was Great Naval Battles 1942, Guadalcanal and was awesome.

It was both an operational game and a tactical simulator. As you increased the zoom of the operational map the level of detail increased until you were actually viewing the simulator in a 2D view (similar to the Silent Hunter series but with a greater zoom level that shows the planking of the ship decks) . The plane icons that represented a strike force on the operational map would suddenly break up into a swarm of individual planes when you reached a certain zoom level and you could watch as each plane made it's run on the ships.

You could also "jump" to the bridge of any ship and see the incoming planes out the bridge windows as it was a complete 3D simulation. You could take control of any weapon system on any ship or sit back and watch things play out from the larger operational perspective.

I loaded it up not long ago on Dfend (DOS Front End similar to DosBox) and it is still fun to play with the exception of the scrolling of the operational map which is decidely clunky, relying on scroll bars.

Those were indeed great little games, although the interface was a little clunky (as you describe above). I also really enjoyed TF1942. It wasn't perfect, but it definitely passed the "immersion" test! It'd have been so great to play those games Multiplayer, sneaking up on your opponent with some destroyers and sending them to the depths of Iron Bottom Sound. That said, I don't seen anything on the horizon that can top them. The development costs would just be too high.

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Prince of Eckmühl
. That said, I don't seen anything on the horizon that can top them. The development costs would just be too high.

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

A prime example of the recent surge in board hex and counter revisit by war gamers [;)]

With all the advancements across the PC gamming industry , we are left with decade + old titles as the only possible avenue to games worth purchasing with just a few exceptions.

[Adraeth]

Peloponnesian War - Avalon Hill
 
Really challenging, a solo game that force you to do your best but flip you to the enemy side if you are really doing well... a real greek tragedy and a wonderful game
 
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1678

[Warfare1]

Well, Adam I think you have me convinced regarding the solo play aspect of this game system.

I found a store that carries these titles and the price is right.