Last year was one of meandering and trying new things to the detriment of repeat plays – my BGStats end of year report indicates that I played 48 different games, 42 for the first time. For all the new games that I played, I don’t feel like all that many really stuck with me a year later. I faced a few disappointments in terms of games I was initially excited about failing to deliver, and I played some old masterpieces which I enjoyed but maybe won’t make my favorite of all time lists. Trying so many new games also meant that I rarely spent as much time with each individual title as I would have liked. For 2025 I am hoping to spend more time with most of the games I play, digging a bit deeper into the designs rather than playing just enough for a review and then sticking it back on the shelf.
We Intend to Move on Your Works continued apace, with seven new episodes released in 2024. Releasing an episode approximately every two months is a pace I can be reasonably happy with. Unfortunately, things have slowed down recently thanks to my move (more on that below), but with the turning of the new year I’m hoping to get it back up and running. We’ve already started our next game before we stalled out over Christmas, and I’m keen to get back to it.
I also started a second, hopefully smaller, project where I’m playing operational games on the Korean War. I have no intention of playing every title on the subject – of which there are a surprising number – but I have a shortlist of 4 or 5 games that I’m hoping to play at a minimum. First I tackled Jim Dunnigan’s early design on the subject, which was interesting if not great. At the very end of the year I learned how to play Dean Essig’s Operational Combat Series and I’ve started a game of Korea: The Forgotten War which promises to be more engaging.
Relatedly, I moved to South Korea in September. My partner is on sabbatical at a university here and so for the next year or two this is where I live! The change in continents (and my tiny Korean apartment) limited the number of games I can have at any one time, which I’m hoping will encourage repeat plays of the few games I can fit. The change in time zone has also forced me to come up with new schedules for my online games. I have made some initial connections with local gamers here as well, so hopefully 2025 brings more in person games.
My Top 6 Games of 2024*
Per the rules established in previous years, this list is not my favorite games that were released in 2024 but rather my favorite games that I played for the first time in 2024. The number of games included is entirely arbitrary based on the number of games I felt stood out. The ranking of these is also very much a gut decision and were I to make the list again (possibly after playing these games more) it is very likely that the order would be different. With caveats and explanations done, let’s get to the games:
#7 Norman Conquests by ralph Shelton and richard berg
I’m always excited in a new entry in possibly my favorite hex and counter system and I enjoyed my time with Norman Conquests, but I found that the scenarios lacked some of that Bergian ambition that I love which ultimately relegated the game to the bottom of this list. Still, the simplicity makes Norman Conquests a great entry point into the series, I just hope that future volumes bring a bit more spice.
The two scenarios designed by Berg, originally published in Simon Says, do stand out as having more of that spice that I like.
#6 Kings and Castles by Gary Dicken, Steve Kendall, and Phil Kendall
I believe David Thompson is to blame for this one – he posted something about playing this game at a convention in 2023 I believe, and when I was in England for a We Intend to Move on Your Works team meet up (where we played no ACW games, but one ill-fated game of Tanto Monta), Fred brought along a copy of Kings and Castles. While inarguably a highly abstract game of dynastic conflict between France and England, I couldn’t help but be enamored with its unorthodox design choices. We only played one short game, but I would love to revisit it in the future – this has the potential to be an underappreciated gem.
The cloth map is also a really nice touch, there’s something nice about playing on cloth.
#5 Successors by Mark Simonitch and Richard Berg
Successors is a venerable classic of the card drive game (CDG) genre, one of if not the first big multiplayer games to use the system. As a devoted Bergian and general fan of multiplayer CDGs I couldn’t help but want to play it. I got a copy of the lavish fourth edition from Phalanx Games some time ago and courtesy of some members of the Homo Ludens Discord learned the game via TTS before teaching it at two conventions in Ireland. In the end I prefer Here I Stand in the big multiplayer CDG space, but I can’t help but admire Successors design – it’s a masterpiece of the form, but perhaps a little too vicious for me.
The Phalanx edition is very pretty, but I always played without the miniatures since they are very hard to parse at a glance.
#4 Banish All Their Fears by Ben Hull and David Fox
Banish All Their Fears had a bit of a troubled release – the rulebook has problems and there was a respectable pile of errata counters which should be shipping soon as part of the 2024 replacement sheet from GMT Games. That all having been said, when I was willing to vibe with it I had a lot of fun playing the Blenheim scenario and this is one of the games I have thought about the most this year. The side map governing the lines of your troops is really interesting and it strikes a great balance in terms of movement and combat complexity. I hope they manage to fix up the rulebook and I’m really looking forward to future entries in the series.
There are a lot of counters and set up takes quite a while, but the stacking is manageable and I didn’t find it particularly overwhelming.
#3 Washington’s War by Mark Herman
My first historical wargame was We the People, which was also the first card driven wargame, but despite that it took until this year for me to try the revised version, Washington’s War. In some ways the game feels old, you can tell it was the originator of the genre, but at the same time it manages to feel fresh and engaging – you can enjoy this without nostalgia glasses. This, along with Successors, has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for card driven games and I’m hoping to play more of them in 2025. It’s also on Rally the Troops now, so if you’ve never played it you should give it a try!
One of the ways you can tell this is the original is that events and ops were on separate cards - later games would combine the two and that is generally considered the standard form for CDGs.
#2 Plantagenet: Cousins' War for England, 1459 - 1485 by Francisco Gradaille
I love me some Levy and Campaign but when a game I love (Nevsky in this case) becomes a big multi-game series there is always the worry that newer games will conform too closely to the original template to the detriment of the new game(s). Plantagenet makes the strongest case yet for how the core of Levy and Campaign can be adapted to a new conflict. In the process it throws out several core systems and adds a whole new system that completely transforms the play experience. While probably not my favorite in the system, there’s no denying that it is a brilliant design and powerful argument for the strength of Levy and Campaign as a base for future designs.
There are a lot of counters to place on the map now, which makes things a little tight in the middle, but if you play on Rally the Troops it handles all that for you! While I like in person L&C there’s no denying the convenience of RtT.
Honorable Mentions:
Stonewall Jackson’s Way II by Joseph M. Balkoski, Ed Beach, Mike Belles, and Chris Withers – I’m still deciding how I feel about Great Campaigns of the American Civil War, there’s a lot to like about the system but I have some reservations as well. SJWII was a great way to learn the system, but it’s not a campaign that particularly excites me so I’m hoping a future entry will be the one to finally win me over.
Lanzerath Ridge by David Thompson and Nils Johansson – I remain somewhat on the fence with regard to dedicated solitaire games, for some reason they have not fully clicked for me. That said, I enjoyed Lanzerath Ridge and exploring it alongside Halls of Hegra has helped me to better understand myself and my own taste in games. I’m looking forward to pulling it off the shelf again this year and seeing how I feel about it upon repeat plays.
Shiloh: April Glory by Tom Dalgliesh and Grant Dalgliesh – While I think I prefer Shenandoah when it comes to ACW Columbia block games, I am pretty confident that after playing three games on the topic this is my favorite Shiloh game. It does a lot with a little in terms of rules complexity and really captures that grinding attrition, even if it’s maybe a little too long.
Rafter Five by Mashiu and Jun Sasaki – Another game I played at the We Intend to Move on Your Works meet up. I love dexterity games, and this is an adorable and engaging little dexterity game from Oink Games. Sometimes my favorite games aren’t wargames.
Tikal by Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer – I’ve joined a local board game group that plays standard hobby board games and there I had the opportunity to finally play Tikal, a classic German style board game. While not perfect, it reminded me of how much I enjoy games from this era, there’s just something wonderfully simple and board game-y about them.
Labyrinth: The War on Terror by Volko Ruhnke – This is down here because technically I played a learning game of Labyrinth years ago so this wasn’t my first time playing it but I never played a full game. This year I finally started addressing that error. I’ve only completed one full game so opinions are still in the early stages, but so far I think it’s a really interesting design and I’m keen to explore it some more.
#1 Operational Combat Series – Luzon: Race for Bataan by Matsuura Yutaka / Korea: The Forgotten War by Dean Essig and Rod Miller
Nobody is more surprised about this turn of events than I am. I had long placed Dean Essig’s Operational Combat Series (OCS) in the category of overly complex wargames I was never going to learn how to play. However, for my planned dive into Korean War games I wanted to focus on logistics and OCS is the series that does logistics in modern warfare. I had planned to start learning OCS with Korea: The Forgotten War but pivoted at the last minute to Luzon. I really enjoyed Luzon but now that I’m starting my first big scenario of Korea, I am having even more fun with all the system’s elements in play. I still don’t intend to play any of the huge 4+ map East Front titles, but I may be developing a bit of an OCS addiction…
In addition to my ongoing game on Vassal where we’re playing the first half of the 1950, up to the Chinese intervention, I also set up this little scenario on the breakout at Chosin on my side table to brush up on some of the rules in Korea that weren’t included in Luzon.
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