Sword of Rome: Still has that brand-new fresh feeling - contrasting styles of play across the different seats is a plus; there appears to be a variety of strategies for all parties; nice non-player-power mechanic.
Up Front: Terrific bang-bang game, very clever, not my number one only because the very format makes it a bit 'light'.
Wilderness War: Compact game with a scenario that has the sweep of a campaign, allowing you to get a good sense of the full game and still finish in an evening.
Successors: Prior to Sword of Rome, my favorite multiplayer wargame; lots of period flavor; rewards skillful realpolitik; suffers somewhat from card theft issues but otherwise smooth, especially with 2nd edition rules.
Blue vs Gray: Believable treatment of the entire ACW, and playable in a reasonable amount of time; nice command-driven portrayal of the war.
For the People: I like the big picture elements captured here - strategic will, the naval/river mechanics, blockade and replacement system, political dimension of leadership; not so happy about some gamey aspects of tactical play.
Paths of Glory: The combination of the Loss Factor mechanic and the carefully considered CRTs stands out as an all-time great element of game design; I love the epic scope and the zany range of possible outcomes, but this comes at a price in historicity (duh) - in particular I have a love/hate relationship with the Near East theater, which is a blast but assumes an importance out of proportion to its historical role.
Age of Napoleon: I like how the gradual attrition of the force pools mirrors the gradual exhaustion of Europe; on the down side, I find some diplomatic actions too devastating and immune to response.
The Napoleonic Wars: Good wacky fun - is it really The Napoleonic Wars, though? Plus, Prussia kinda sucks as a seat and it on occasion falls between two stools (is it two-player or multiplayer?).
Hannibal: I really like the treatment of the period but don't care for the devastating impact of cards that allow one to steal a card from the opponent's hand - resulting two-action swing is just a crusher. We the People: Though this is at the bottom of my list, I still very much enjoy it. It also suffers from the card-theft problem, though.
Barbarossa to Berlin: A bit broken first time out but I hope to re-try with the tweaks that have been developed since I last played.
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© Copyright 2005 by George Phillies.
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