Games with a real-life strategy feeling

Are you impressed by Napoléon’s strategy at Austerlitz? Well, you should be! It is one of the most decisive victory on a battlefield against an overwhelmingly superior enemy. Fighting at 1 vs 2, with no major technological, the French “Grand Army” shattered its counterparts with very limited losses.

What are we looking at? A thin flank to bait the enemy followed by a strong push in the center to split the opponent forces and cut the retreat lines.

That’s it. We can go into the details, but basically there is not much more to it. Real life strategy, from Cannae to Desert Storm revolves around simple ideas. The issue is that there are really few games that can simulate this. No IA will likely be defeated by Napoleon’s plan. What you will often have to do too, is micro managing your units, performing series of mini encirclements, basically achieve victory through a series of tactical decisions where you exploit the flaws of the computer. There is no perfect answer, human or IA, but some games did cover some aspect of warfare pretty well.

Coordination and asymmetry of information: Artemis Space Ship Bridge Simulator

In this independent video game that I strongly recommend, each player assumes one position in a spaceship. The 6 roles are Captain, Navigation, Weapons, Engineer, Communication and Science. The players do not see the same thing on their screen. For example the engineer does not see what is happening outside the ship. He has to rely on information from his colleagues to know when to divert the energy to shields and weapons, when he has to focus on speed to escape and where he should send the damage control party in priority. The navigator and the weapon specialist do both see outside the ship, but the navigator does not see if torpedoes are ready, which enemy ship is currently targeted. He has to get the information from the weapon specialist who in turn must know which maneuver is planned to prepare his strike. Hit and run with a nuke or surprise attack for the back with shield disrupting torpedoes? All the while the captain try to coordinates the team, the science officer monitor the star system for new threats and give intelligence on enemy shields, and finally the communication officer try to coordinate ally ships and space stations. The game shines because communicate is not an option; it is plain and simple mandatory.

Artemis is chaotic with real tension. You see limitation in the ability of people to absorb information or to communicate efficiently. You also see the usefulness of a leader. If there is a game that can prove that bad leadership is better than no leadership, it is Artemis. It is also a good illustration of the chaos that will be provoked by the first blasts in an untrained unit.

For those that are interested, it is not a difficult game in term of mouse clicking and rules. Artemis can be taught in 15 minutes to complete beginners. You need to buy 1 copy of the game for the group, and then you are authorized to install it on your friends PC to play together. Note, it does not need to be as dramatic as on the video!

Fog of War and Uncertainty: Le Vol de l’Aigle

The Vol the l’Aigle is a traditional wargame with referees that plays very well by email. The campaigns have an historical setup (Napolenic Wars) and can be played by very large group of players with each one incarnating a general and its troops. The only thing that you know is where you are, and what your troops see and do. Each turn the referee gives you an update on what happened to your troops, which communications you did get from other generals etc…

So you are marching your troops across Belgium with only one day old updates on the position of your fellow allies when you encounter enemy troops. Are they a vanguard? The main force? Should you engage and send for help or can you deal with this yourself?

Because there is a referee to run the game, the player has a lot of liberty in his action. He can send patrol, divide his forces, give precise orders all out attack or just testing the enemy resolve? How to use his reserve forces? Resting, fortifying a village etc… What is great is that you do not have to know all the rules by heart. Most of the mechanics are handled by the referees so that you can focus on the strategy. The biggest uncertainty is the situation, not the roll of a dice (but there are many dice behind the scene).

Incomplete control: Heart of Iron III

Let’s start by saying that I am not a big fan of Heart of Iron III. But here is the interesting part; I did not like it precisely because HoI 3 features the best AI control of your troops that I have seen. You organize your army in theater-army-corps-divisions and from there can delegate actual movements of any part of it to the AI.

Let us say you are Germany in 1940. Here is an example of what you can do to invade France:

• Tell the HQ West to attack towards Paris and watch the show as on the History Channel.
• Tell one army group to Attack Amsterdam, another to push towards Brussels, another to defend along the Maginot line, and the rest to carry an all out attack in the Ardennes. After 2 week of attack, you update orders to complete a major encirclement of the Allied troops.
• Give real time orders to 100+ divisions and their support brigades and attached aircraft units

I could not resolve myself to delegate control to the IA and there were too many units to control myself, so I gave it up despite being a huge fan of HoI2 and its numerous mods. But if you can delegate, HoI3 is definitively a great experience, which gives you a feeling of real-life strategy, with broad troop movements emerging from the chaos. You are the general forging the tool and leading the way, but that’s it, you cannot micro manage your way to victory.

Links to awesome strategy games:

Artmemis

Vol de l'Aigle

Heart of Iron

 

Update: Other recommendations from BoardGameGeek: 

Kriegspiel One of the first wargame ever. Developed for the Prussian army. Need a Referee.
Scourge of War  PC game, apparently fun: Quote from BGG poster Eker "Ride up to the higher ground and use your binoculars. Send a courier with your orders (He can be shot). If you are lucky a courier may show up with reports that are many hours old."
Solomon Sea A lot of modern naval games have been mentioned. It seems that a good naval simulation has to include fog of war mechanisms. For exemple on Solomon Sea, quote fron BGG poster Lancer4321 "Based on my experience as an officer on group and fleet level staffs, I've found that Solomon Sea provides a very realistic feel for how naval operations are conducted at that level. You don't deal with minutae, instead you focus on the key decisions that an actual staff would be concerned with, and all the details are handled abstractly by the system."

I have never been in a combat zone, nor intend to, so if you think I missed a major aspect of what warfare really, let me know. And more importantly, let me know which game covers it. 

EuroExark

My 3 favorite Board Games - Strategy and Diplomacy

Streamlined with difficult choices, this how I would describe my favorite games. Here is why:

Twilight Struggle, Board Game Geek #1 game, 2 players’ game

The game simulates the entire cold war on a world map. The 2 players take control of the US and the USSR in what is a beautifully balanced asymmetrical game. The tempo of the game is determined by cards which always give you a choice between action points and an event. The cards are unique, for example the NATO card does not have similar effect to the Warsaw Pact card. The early war is to the advantage of the Russian who will try to invade Korea, put pressure on Berlin and Europe. The Americans will wait for a better late game while trying to use their initial positioning to contain the communist out of America and South East Asia. One key element is that when you have one of your opponent cards in hand, you will be forced to activate his event in order to get the action points for yourself. Some beginners will hate this, but really you want to have your opponent’s event to choose the timing of the crisis. For example, the US will be happy to prepare strong bases in Mexico and Panama before playing the Fidel Castro card that establishes a threat in their backyard.

Games can be very tight until the end, but it is also a game that you can lose badly, being completely crushed before mid game. This comes from a very high level balance. Russian will win 50% of the time (okay, I admit, 51% in competitive games), but it is not an Eurogame where you wait for the final scoring to lose by 1 point. The game can be harsh, so I would not recommend it for players who like to build their little farm on their own with no interaction. No points for second place in the cold war!

Pro

• Steep learning curve
• Replayability
• Balance
• Theme is really present
•  Long term strategy is necessary

Con

•  Large gap between a beginner and an experienced player. (Need to give an extra advantage)

Chaos in the Old World, subtleness in Warhammer, 4-5 players’ game

With powerful magic and hordes of demons, the 4 Gods of Chaos want to ravage the world. However, the real contest is to be the best at it. The game has a lot of character from artwork to design. Clearly, you do not play the same game with Khorne, the God of war and blood, as with Tzeench, god of change and deceit. You progress on 2 tracks, victory point, plain and simple but only usefull if the game reaches the last turn and a wheel. The progression on the wheel depends on who you are. Slanesh progresses by corrupting Nobles, while Khorn only needs to kill. By progressing you unlock new abilities, gather more power and ultimately win the game. Some gods are better at scoring points, while other have an easier time advancing on the wheel. So the tricky part is that you need the full attention of all players to control the progression of the game. Give Khorn free kills in the early turns, and it will not be possible anymore to avoid his victory. You need to bargain with the others to keep everybody under control, ally sometimes to ravage a region and split the rewards, but most of all you need to be selfish.  

Pro

•  Replayability
• Mechanics are simple
• A healthy lot of difficult choices

Con

• Need careful play (and some experience) from the players to maintain balance
• Artwork and theme do not fare well with everybody. A pity, because the game itself is not morbid / dark at all.
•  3 players’ game is very weak in term of balance

Game of Thrones, Diplomacy with hype, 4-6 players’ game

Let’s start by saying, that no, you do not need to know the books to enjoy the game. It clearly stands out on his own. Basically it is Diplomacy: There is no winner in a 1vs1 fight. You will never have enough troops to defend your borders and attack on one front. So to push the odds in your favor you need allies until the very end, when you backstab to grab the last remaining victory location. The beauty of the game is that orders are given with face down tokens, so that until the last second you can never be sure if your plan for the turn will unfold as planned. How many times you see a defense token instead of the support token on top of your ally army. He was not in a position to betray you, but he was clearly not sure that you could be trusted. You then lose the battle where he should have supported you, and a new round of diplomacy opens, with your allies now having the upper hand. On top of this diplomacy/hidden order aspect, Game of Throne has many interesting addition: Event cards that set the pace of wildling invasion and political events, recruitment center and supply, battle cards to add a tactical layer to the game. In my view, it is a really nice game. One of the few 6 players’ game that have depth and reasonable gaming time due to the simultaneous order phase.

Pro

•  Reasonable gaming time for 6 players
• Simplicity of the mechanics. Diplomacy prevails over tactics.
• Open race till the end, not really a king making game.

Con

• Victory can come quickly if some players are not careful.

Link

BGG Twilight Struggle

Twilight Strategy: Take your games to the next level

BGG Chaos in the Old World

BGG Game of Throne

If you were looking for easier games:My article about "Gateway" games

And you, what are you favorite strategy games?

EuroExark

Warhammer, I tried it again!

A game for kids and you are not a kid anymore? 

I stopped Warhammer in the late 90’ having played countless battles with my dwarfs and elves. It was a time of superheroes and I still remember some epic battles. “Ok your frenetical Bloodthrister killed 3 ranks of my elite troops, but my Dwarven King is still alive. He kills on a single wound and has 4 attack dices with a few other magical bonuses… so….”

Basically, between invisible mages and unkillable heroes capable of killing literally hundreds of the “basic” guys, most battle where decided before they begun. Tactics was rarely to be found on the battlefield. May the best optimizer win… or the worst spirited player!

How does it look now?

Focus is back on troops: Basic troops are relatively much more powerful, so that maneuvering and placement will play a huge role.

Still very fun: Even basic troops have been customized for each race, with special rules to make them interesting and unique. You don’t have to rely solely on heroes for the fun factor.

More realistic: Numbers matter in war. Now big units provide larger bonus in a fight. Soldiers in the second and third rows will not sit idily when they camarades are fighting for their lives. Also large units do not flee so easily.

All in all, I find the game more interesting, with more choices to be made on the battlefield. You feel more like a general managing his troops and reserves. 

 

5th Ed. vs 8th Ed. – 5 Chaos Knights vs 40 Imperial Halbardiers

As we said, its more realistic, but I feel like making the point. Let us do some maths using edition 5 and edition 8 of Warhammer.

On one side, 5 Chaos Knights charging with lance and heavy armor. On the other side a horde of 40 Halbardiers with light armors. In Warhammer 5th Ed. it represents 330 army points of Chaos vs 360 of Imperials. But as you may remember, it is not an even fight… 

In 5th Ed.: Knights and horses will inflict 6.9 wounds in the first round. The lone halberdier still in contact will inflict 0.1 casualty in return. Chances to flee 89%. Chances to get caught and destroyed : 68%. 

If you stay for a second round of fight the odds will be exactly the same. Cumulatively you have 1% chance to see a 3rd round of fight.  

Result 5th: Imperials are doomed. 

In 8th Ed.:  Knights and horses will still inflict 6.9 wounds in the first round. The 17 surviving halbardiers in range will kill 1.4 knights in return. It is still a defeat, but they have only 50% chances to flee because they are more numerous. 

In the 2nd round, 4.6 halbardiers will perish while killing 1.6 chaotic knights. Comparing casulties and the +3 rank bonus, the 2nd round is a draw. Guess what? The 3rd round will be a crushing victory for the Imperials!

 

Result 8th: Imperials may not withstand the charge, but if they do, they will overrun those few knights with ease.

My recommendation:

If you enjoyed it back then, please come back. It is not the game for kids you imagine. Tactics, figures, emotions, It still has plenty of surprises for you. Also note, it’s a good option to lure your kid into gaming !

Let's go check it out Warhammer Official Website

Have you tried looking into the new Warhammer stuff ? What did you think about it ?

EuroExark