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My wife and I are looking to start gaming so I am looking for some recommendations for games. I have been playing wargames for a long time but my wife is completely new and doesn't like complex rules. I have tried a couple of games in the past; Warhammer Invasion was the most successful while Incursion didn't go down well at all.

In essence I am looking for a game that is perfectly playable with 2 players, has enough complexity to keep me entertained but not so complex that my wife will be turned off by too many rules. I don't really mind what type of game that it is although some kind of skirmish game would be a bonus.

My GF and I play a streamlined version of necromunda...she likes kings of war (only started playing in the last few weeks). That's cool.
Off topic a tad we play loads and loads of talisman

Welcome to Dakka!

If you want a nice mix between complexity and simplicity, check out Mantic's Deadzone. You get everything you need (and more) in the core box, it uses a grid for movement and fairly simple mechanics. If you are a fan of the franchise, they also do a simpler version based on 'Mars Attacks!'

http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/deadzone/product/deadzone-the-sci-fi-skirmish-game.html
http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/mars-attacks/product/mars-attacks-the-miniatures-game.html

There is also the LotR game from GW that has a perfect balance between depth and simplicity. The prices will look bad, but ebay is full of good deals, and if you are just playing amongst yourselves, then the blue-covered hardback rulebook has plenty of profiles to be using with the minis.

Hope that helps.

 Paradigm wrote:
Welcome to Dakka!

o7

LotR is very far from my favourite ruleset, although the wild west adaption is supposed to be at least decent.

I was looking at Dreadball and Deadzone but my wife thought that X-Wing was too complex so....

My FLG stocks Mars Attacks so I think I will have a look at it tomorrow.

Dungeon Run and Pocket Battles are pretty easy to pick up and have plenty of options.

Shieldbreaker (fantasy skirmish game) looks simple (few stats, short rulebook) and you can use any miniatures you want.

Sounds like Zombiecide might be worth a crack.

It's a Very straight forward game, all the die rolls are on the cards infront of you.
It has plenty of female characters which might help.
It's cooperative rather than competitive which can be a boon if you are in a relationship with the other gamer.
There is a character development element to it so that migh appeal.
The minis in the box are splendid, worth painting - I did.
It is seriously good fun, so a serious gamer won't get bored either.
And most importantly has zombies, cos everyone loves zombies!

It also has quite a number of expansions now, so if the Mrs does pick up the bug there's more to do of she doesn't want to move on to other things.

Battlelore (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=247) isn't hard to learn or complicated to play, but has enough to it to be fun for an experienced war/boardgamer.

As notprop said, Zombicide is great fun and a good co-op game. The other one that springs to my mind is Puppet Wars Unstitched. It's sort of mid-way between a board game and a wargame, and the rules are pretty straightforward but have a lot of tactical depth once you experiment with the different puppets you can use. You also get to assemble and paint all the playing pieces for it, which is a plus if you enjoy that side of the hobby

-Ben

Space Hulk has pretty simplistic rules, a nice learning curve, a good atmosphere and the ability to switch sides and fight the mission again.

Mario wrote:
Shieldbreaker (fantasy skirmish game) looks simple (few stats, short rulebook) and you can use any miniatures you want.

Shieldbreaker looks rad. I need to get someone to give it a go with me.

Are you looking for two player games?

Is she interested in any historical period?

As well as Deadzone, I would recommend Mantic's Mars Attacks.

It has a well known and great theme, the ruleset is a slimmed down version Deadzone and relatively simple - my kids picked it upalmost straightaway and games are easy to set up and do not take all night. Everything you need is the box as well, figures , scenery etc - if you like it then you can add to your collection.

If you ever find it, "Tactics 2" is (if I'm remebering correctly) the grandfather of all wargames. I'm 95 percent sure it literally says so on the box. It's old, but epic. Simple, but far from simplistic.

Find it. Play it. Love it.

I second Space Hulk.

Lots of replayability and no need to "buy more! buy more!" for the game.

Another plug for both Deadzone and Kings of War.

Deadzone has much better campaign rules, while Kings of War is much more expandable.

Deadzone is also the more playable straight out of the box. It includes more than enough miniatures to make two complete forces.

The Auld Grump

If you're after something a bit different, saw this game today which looks tremendous fun and was described as very simple to play.

http://torgaming.co.uk/relics/

Dust Tactics is a very simple skirmish game

Song of Blades and Heroes is a fantasy skirmish game that works best with 6-12 minis per side, only uses d6, and only has 2 statistics, Quality and Combat. Quality representing a mini's training, morale, and magical ability, and combat representing, well combat abilities. You don't even need to use a measuring tape, there are 3 lengths of measuring stick used for every distance in the game. It's only $8 (USD) for the PDF version, easy to learn and teach, literally designed to be used with leftover minis that would've made your units in larger, more complex games too vast. Variants exist for almost everything under the sun; horror, mecha, kung-fu, post apoc, modern combat, Victorian teddy bears, etc

 notprop wrote:
Sounds like Zombiecide might be worth a crack.

It's a Very straight forward game, all the die rolls are on the cards infront of you.
It has plenty of female characters which might help.
It's cooperative rather than competitive which can be a boon if you are in a relationship with the other gamer.
There is a character development element to it so that migh appeal.
The minis in the box are splendid, worth painting - I did.
It is seriously good fun, so a serious gamer won't get bored either.
And most importantly has zombies, cos everyone loves zombies!

It also has quite a number of expansions now, so if the Mrs does pick up the bug there's more to do of she doesn't want to move on to other things.

I was about to recommend Zombicide for the same reasons. I'm trying to get my fiancee to give it a go for these reasons too.

Just to address Kings of War. It's a great game and extremely easy to learn. However, it's not a skirmish game and really only get's humming at above 1000 points, so it's definitely alot of figs to paint for a game you don't know if you're wife will like. If you've already got a couple of WHFB armies however, there are KoW army lists for them and it's certainly worth a try.

Otherwise, it might be better to set KoW aside until you've taken a look at….

 3AcresAndATau wrote:
Song of Blades and Heroes is a fantasy skirmish game that works best with 6-12 minis per side, only uses d6, and only has 2 statistics, Quality and Combat. Quality representing a mini's training, morale, and magical ability, and combat representing, well combat abilities. You don't even need to use a measuring tape, there are 3 lengths of measuring stick used for every distance in the game. It's only $8 (USD) for the PDF version, easy to learn and teach, literally designed to be used with leftover minis that would've made your units in larger, more complex games too vast. Variants exist for almost everything under the sun; horror, mecha, kung-fu, post apoc, modern combat, Victorian teddy bears, etc

This would be my suggestion as well. The Song of Blades and Heroes is an extremely easy to learn (the easiest game on this thread) warband skrirmish game (6-12 minis per plaeyr) that still has enough tactics that it can be played for years. My club formed around this game 4 years ago and we still play a 6 week campaign every summer. We love the flexibility of unit creation which allows us to use whatever minis we already have. Of course we've gone well beyond that and have created such diverse warbands as Sentient animals, elves, Chaos, Barbarian cavalry, Tharks, Dwarves, Atlantean Orcs, Were-people, faries and others. Alternatively you can mix it up for a classic D&D styled mixed warband. Basically whatever kind of warband you think your wife would like best can be created easily.

You can find the game here:
http://www.ganeshagames.net/index.php?cPath=1_6&osCsid=s9muu8frt54pndafp1d3vi2n65
Every few years a new edition is released (mostly minor tweaks) and if you've bought the PDF you get the new edition for free.

The free online warband creator here:
http://www.ganeshagames.net/extra_info_pages.php?pages_id=17
By far the easiest way to stat and point out a warband.

And you can see my club's most recent campaign here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/p/quake-and-mourn-song-of-blades-heroes.html

One of the other nice things about SBH is that it has a fair number of expansions, all of which also are just $8 PDFs. Some expand the game into areas like dungeoncrawls and extended campaigns. Others take it into new areas as listed above. SBH rules engine is so well done that it's even been the basis of two games from Osprey. Of Gods and Mortals (Mythic combat) and Fistfull of Kung Fu (Hong Kong Action movies).

Lastly, one of the great things about SBH is that it can be a gateway to other games. If she enjoys SBH, it can be a stepping stone to more complicated games. If she doesn't, then you're only out 8 bucks. I'm kind of a fanboy for the game, so let me know if you have any questions about it.

Check out Fairy Meat. Players field bands of cannabalistic fey and get bonuses for eating enemies. It's pretty straight-forward rules wise, andis at 1/1 scale, so it plays on top of whatever you have around (messy tables, etc).

I'm currently enjoying Super Dungeon Explore and Relic Knights.

SDE is a dungeon crawler game with a board of heroes vs monsters (you can do a sort of vs mode for it). The new edition is coming out soon, so you might want to wait for that.

Relic Knights plays pretty easily, and the biggest problems it has is people expecting it to play more like a normal miniatures game. They're really gone out on a limb and made something totally different with that one. Due to that, it can feel a little more complex than it actually is.

 3AcresAndATau wrote:
Song of Blades and Heroes is a fantasy skirmish game that works best with 6-12 minis per side, only uses d6, and only has 2 statistics, Quality and Combat. Quality representing a mini's training, morale, and magical ability, and combat representing, well combat abilities. You don't even need to use a measuring tape, there are 3 lengths of measuring stick used for every distance in the game. It's only $8 (USD) for the PDF version, easy to learn and teach, literally designed to be used with leftover minis that would've made your units in larger, more complex games too vast. Variants exist for almost everything under the sun; horror, mecha, kung-fu, post apoc, modern combat, Victorian teddy bears, etc

I too was going to suggest looking at Ganesha games. The similar mechanics for Pirates, fantasy, sci-fi, modern zombie hunting/horror and so on make it easy to go from genre to genre or to pick your favorite. Since you initially only need to invest in the rules, even if you decide they are not for you, not much is lost. You also then have the option to pick from multiple scales and figure/terrain manufacturers.

I would also look at games like Blackwater Gulch or Dead Man's Hand if you are interested in Wild West (a great period for skirmish games!).

http://www.blackwatergulch.com/ (currently running a KS for a new Weird West game, and the downloads section of their webpage has Blackwater Gulch for you)

http://www.greatescapegames.co.uk/dead-mans-hand




Two Hour Wargames has several rule sets for various periods which are great too, and FREE basic rules you can download to try out the mechanisms:

http://twohourwargames.com/

Dadi & Piombo have some nice historical skirmish rules from medieval to Colonial: http://smooth-and-rifled.blogspot.com/

And I also like Triumph and Tragedy: http://www.triumph-tragedy.de/

If you can get your hands on some space marines and orks, why not try the Dust version of 40K? Just google "Cosmic Dust rules" for the download off boardgame geek.

3AcresAndATau wrote:Song of Blades and Heroes is a fantasy skirmish game that works best with 6-12 minis per side, only uses d6, and only has 2 statistics, Quality and Combat. Quality representing a mini's training, morale, and magical ability, and combat representing, well combat abilities. You don't even need to use a measuring tape, there are 3 lengths of measuring stick used for every distance in the game. It's only $8 (USD) for the PDF version, easy to learn and teach, literally designed to be used with leftover minis that would've made your units in larger, more complex games too vast. Variants exist for almost everything under the sun; horror, mecha, kung-fu, post apoc, modern combat, Victorian teddy bears, etc

Great recommendation! Combine that with Reaper Bones (or the many independent miniature manufacturers that are based in the UK if the OP doesn't want to deal with importing US products) and you have a game where you can get complete forces for less than a couple miniatures in other games.

Eilif wrote:Just to address Kings of War. It's a great game and extremely easy to learn. However, it's not a skirmish game and really only get's humming at above 1000 points, so it's definitely alot of figs to paint for a game you don't know if you're wife will like. If you've already got a couple of WHFB armies however, there are KoW army lists for them and it's certainly worth a try.

There are also other games like Hordes of the Things, Basic Impetus, DBA (using the unofficial guides), and others There's a fantasy version of Basic Impetus here:
http://impetus.forumsland.com/impetus-forum-17.html

Just use 40mm or 60mm frontage for the units and you can have an army game with a very low figure count and simple straightforward rules. Heck, you could shrink down Kings of War to 40mmx20mm bases and use 1 base for a 10 miniature unit, 2 for a regiment and 4 for a horde and change the measurements to centimeteres and the model count would drop like 75% and the play area would become small enough for everyone's kitchen table.

This would be my suggestion as well. The Song of Blades and Heroes is an extremely easy to learn (the easiest game on this thread) warband skrirmish game (6-12 minis per plaeyr) that still has enough tactics that it can be played for years.
...
You can find the game here:
http://www.ganeshagames.net/index.php?cPath=1_6&osCsid=s9muu8frt54pndafp1d3vi2n65
Every few years a new edition is released (mostly minor tweaks) and if you've bought the PDF you get the new edition for free.

My partner is so not a gamer, but Star Wars: X-Wing went down a treat.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
...but my wife thought that X-Wing was too complex so...

That's gonna be pretty tough to get her into any wargame, since X-Wing is about as simple as they come? Have you considered boardgames instead of wargames? Something like Hive is a great 2-play game.

Otherwise the previously mentioned Song of Blades and Heroes is your best bet, especially if you build the armies and set everything up in advance, so then it's just a matter of "here is your list with a few numbers, here are the actions you can do, now go!"

Perhaps the Axis & Allies Miniatures game? Pre-painted miniatures and paper maps, simple combat, recognizable theme.

What about Battletech? At it's core the rules are pretty easy, especially if you help with figuring out what number is needed to hit and stuff. In the same genre, and arguably even easier and more streamlined is Mech Attack.

I'll plug my own game as well Dinosaur Cowboys. 9-page quick start rules (5 pages of which are posse rosters). In the same vein as Song of Blades and Heroes if you pre-build the posses and just let your wife sit down and play that'd be easiest. Anyway single roll combat resolution while providing the satisfaction of moving figures around a table.

 bosky wrote:


What about Battletech? At it's core the rules are pretty easy, especially if you help with figuring out what number is needed to hit and stuff. In the same genre, and arguably even easier and more streamlined is Mech Attack.

Mech Attack is a great option if she wants mech combat. It's probably as simple as Song of Blades, includes printable 2.5d 15mm mech models and easily works in other scales. We play it in 10mm with rebased Mechwarrior clix and in 28mm with various mecha model kits.