War game recommendations?

[Lucid]

I'd like to get into the war gaming genre(Revolutionary War era and over) but I have no idea where to start or what games are newbie friendly or what.
I can deal with hexes and anything turn-based.

 

[Barnz]

Sudden Strike series, most Westwood C&C games are now freeware, Dune series.

 

[Viperidae]

Um. Do you have at least a game type preference?

 

[Lokain]

And do you want something classic or something more recent.

 

[Lucid]

Wow, I thought you guys knew what counted as a wargame and what didn't.
Didn't really mean your average run of the mill RTSes that just require spamming units of the same type and calling it a day.

I mean wargames in the same vein as say Combat Mission or Steel Panthers.

 

[Bob_Marley]

Panzer/Allied/Fantasy General series

Jagged Alliance series (though this is squad based, rather than grand scale)

Brigade Series (similar in style to JA, but in real time using Smart Pause)

 

[FrostedxB]

If your ever looking for an fps war game, Operation Flashpoint is amazing....(If that helps?)

 

[the cow says moo]

Risk. I know it's a board game, but goddamn is it good.

 

[15357]

Steel Panthers World At War
Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank

WAW seems to been made better, btw.


If you're into a more... grand strategy approach instead of dealing with battalions and going the full divisions/army groups approach, Hearts of Iron II is a good one.

 

[Lucid]

Are any of these particularly user friendly?

 

[Tagaziel]

No, they demand you to sacrifice a baby every time you start them up and sprinkle your CPU with blood.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Halo.

 

[Mr Stabby]

Hearts of Iron 2.

 

[Ennui]

I need you to define "war game" for me.

If you're talking about grand strategy, we can do that. X3, Sins of a Solar Empire, every Civilization game (if you haven't played the Civ 2 semi-expansion/sequel Alpha Centauri/Alien Crossfire DO IT) etc. Really depends on what you want - RTS, real time tactics (COH/DOW etc), turn based massive strategy, what?

Also what time period/era are you looking for (not talking about genre but rather year of release)?

Risk. I know it's a board game, but goddamn is it good.

Risk is excellent but it's extremely simple - when it comes down to it the dice are all that matters because in every turn there is a perfect move with regards to strategic decisions. Reinforcement possibilities + continent troop bonus/border country + # of countries in continent = the only ratio that matters.

 

[Gargantou]

Achtung Panzer!: Kharkov '43 just came out, it's arguably the best wargame in recent years, think Close Combat meets Theatre of War and shit.

There's a free demo out there for you to try.

But anyway, recent wargames I recommend:
Kharkov '43(I haven't bought it yet myself but the demo was fantastic)
Theatre of War series

Another one which I did not get into all too much but has gotten very good reviews is HistWar: Les Grognards

http://www.histwar.com/

Basically it simulates battles of Napoleon etc, but it does so very realistically, including an AI that properly simulates chain of command etc.

I.e. you hand down order to subordinates, first order has to reach the subordinate by horse, then the subordinate has to interpret the orders and carry them out, the messenger can also be captured by the enemy leading to a vital unit never getting their order!

Sadly none of these are turn-based or hex-based but you really should check them out regardless because they are arguably the best wargames in recent years.

And keep in mind, all the wargames I listed here are more focused on individual battles rather than operational-level strategy(Except Kharkov '43 which has both!)

Also, there are two great hex-based wargames to check out that are freeware, WinSPMBT and WinSPWW2, just google them! Sadly their AI is a bit lackluster but they're great fun if you can get a MP game going over PBEM for example.

By the way, http://grognard.com/ best site out there for wargamers, also good idea for you to look there Ennui to get an idea of what I think he means when he says wargames! By the way, in most gaming circles I haven't heard of the Civ games being called grand strategy, that title is often reserve for games larger in scope such as the historical strategy games from Paradox(I.e. Victoria for example.)

I'm quite the grognard myself, have a ton of Gary Grigsby games on my PC(He's a bit of a legend within PC wargaming, think sorta like a lesser-known Sid Meier only for wargames!)

If you absolutely want turn-based and hex-based I recommend you check out Grigsby's games or Norm Koger's.

This is a great game by Norm Koger for example, http://www.matrixgames.com/products/317/details/Norm.Koger's.The.Operational.Art.of.War.III

It is very versatile in it's operational-level, featuring scenarios from the 19th century up to fictional conflicts in the 21st!

Anyway, hope my post was of some help to you Lucid!

 

[Lucid]

I had my eye on that Kharkov demo but I wasn't sure if it wasn't just a shitty WW2 cash-in or not.
Definitely going to give it a try.

All of the others sound pretty interesting and I'll be sure to give them all a go.

Immensely helpful post, didn't think it'd be such a hard topic.

Also, far as the age of the games go... as long as I don't need to use DOSBOX I really don't care how old it is.

 

[Dinnesch]

Heroes and Might and Magic 3.

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

Medieval total war 2.