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Since we have been talking about favorite periods, favorite genres, and favorite OOP games, why not expand the discussion simply to your favorite games? What do you love about it?

Aeronautica Imperialis
- Easy to learn
- Hard to master
- Altitude rules!

Necromunda
- Campaigns!
- Scenarios
- Skirmish

Force-on-Force/Tomorrow's War
- Action/reaction System
- Troop Quality and Die shifting
- Starts in the action

Dragon/Lion Rampant
- Generic units
- Activation Checks
- Quick play

These are probably the games I play the most.

Kings of War
-Simple mechanics (easy to learn difficult to master)
-About out playing your opponent, rather than bringing something better
-Modelling freedom

Infinity
-Everything is viable
-Constant involvement and risk built into everything makes an intense game
-Very thematic
-Great tables (rules require them to work)

In order:

LOTR/Hobbit
Confrontation
Wrath of kings
Malifaux
Chrononpia
Warzone (original)
Celtos
Warmahordes
Warhammer 40k Shadow War
Warhammer Fantasy
Battletech/Alpha Strike

When I absolutely have to...AoS (gotta take one for the team from time to time)

I really like the basic rules of Warmachine - the Focus rules and the warjack damage grids in particular - and Malifaux's card-driven system. Then you layer on all the special rules and exceptions b y the slack handful and it ruins everything.

The Lord of the Rings / Hobbit / Legends of the Old West and High Seas rules work very well for character-driven, narrative scenario gaming in just about any setting.

Epic Armageddon is a fantastic regimental level combined arms sci fi wargame. As it is, it does a great job of making the various 40k factions fight like the setting describes - much better than any incarnation of 40k.

Full Thrust is a bit creaky now and overdue a revision, but I'd still rather play that than Armada, Dropfleet Commander, Star Trek Attack Wing, etc.

The basic rules behind Wings and Sails of Glory (and the amended version as used in X-Wing, Star Trek Attack Wing, D&D Attack Wing, Tanks and Tailfeathers) is beautifully simple to get the hang of and can be modified to cover all sorts of things. Aeronautica Imperialis has very similar movement rules, and Stormcloud Attack isn't a million miles away (although I think that game doesn't have the pre-planning element). X-Wing's basic implementation (IMO, it has the same problem Warmachine and Malifaux do) is probably tied with Full Thrust for me. I do have Full Thrust stats for the basic Imperial and Rebel fighters, but nowadays I'll just play X-Wing instead.

I've heard good things about Force on Force / Tomorrow's War but I couldn't get my head around the rules - the reaction system (and the ability to react to reactions, drawing other units in?) wasn't explained well enough, and didn't have enough examples of more unusual (but not uncommon) situations.

Battletech! Big stompy robots is still my preferred game.

Pathfinder! Because pen and paper RPGs are still amazing.

Crimson Skies! I never play anymore, but the game was fantastic and the setting was awesome.

Fistful of Lead: Reloaded Tons of fun, easy for new (and young) players

OGRE: I've loved this game since the 'pocket' version of it and GEV I had in high school in the 80s. The new edition is bigger, more colorful, and easy to set up and still a lot of fun.

Ambush Alley/Force on Force/Tomorrow's War: Helped playlets and some other stuff (wrote the tactic portion in Force on Force for example) so I'm admittedly biased.

Two Hour Wargames: Love the All Things Zombies and other modern rules they have. The reaction system is cool, and the ability to let 'the game' play the bad guys through the reaction tables is great. The fact you can get the basic rules free is a bonus.

Song Of Blade and Heroes sets: Many genres, all fun.

Osprey Rules: I'm most familiar with Fistful of Kung Fu and Black Ops but all the ones I have are pretty cool.

Devil's Run: Have not played yet, but the rules look fun and the minis are great. The continuous road is a neat mechanism for all your Mad Max/Road Warrior needs.

I suppose it's sad that some of my favourites are games I've created or sell...but...

-Elbowtech (my version of Battletech skirmish)
-Shoot N' Skedaddle (my Old West rules)
-Necromunda/Mordheim
-Lion/Dragon Rampant
-Any dungeon crawls I can find.

I've played sooooo many games over the last few decades.

Only a handful get a thumbs up from me, though.

Battletech.
Kryomek and by extension Void (same designers).
Ambush Alley/Tomorrow's war.
Infinity

Do you actually still play Kryomek? I played it once, and always fancied playing more. It was apparently based on GZG's Stargrunt rules, but if so, 1st edition Stargrunt was very different from the currently-available Stargrunt II . I quite liked it, but I found the army lists awfully confusing, even without the missing bits.

Necromunda:
- My fav GW game of all time.
- Campaigns
- Storytelling
- The setting
- The miniatures
- The terrain

BattleTech:
- The 'Mechs (duh!)
- The fiction
- The granularity/detail of the rules.
- The digital/binary nature of game play (all map/hex based, so very little ambiguity with movement or LOS or any'a that)
- 'Mech HTH combat is so much fun!

Warhammer Quest (original recipe!)
- It's D&D: Lite, but set in the Warhammer World which I find more compelling.
- The various character types.
- Card-based exploration and monster reveals.
- The endless variety.
- The endless campaigns.
- Just how fething unfair it is. Seriously, Quest is unfair, and it's meant to be unfair.

Dark Heresy (either version):
- Kind of the apex of 40K for me.
- Super-detailed rules that are all about cooperative storytelling.
- So much depth and potential for new and interesting things.
- I got to write a lot of the AdMech stuff!

The Other 40K RPGs:
- Same as the above really, but I love the Inquisition more than the others so they come second.
- All the stuff I got to write for Only War and Black Crusade.
- The fun we had shaping, in our own way, the way Deathwatch turned out (seriously, we play tested almost every book in that line).

I have quite a few favorites, but rather than name any that y'all have already mentioned, I'll name some that will be new to thread.

World in Flames, old school cardboard chit based game covering WWII. Playing the full game can take over 40 hours.

Magic Realm, another old cardboard chit game, a great self running RPG.

And Battlefleet Gothic.

Man 'O War
- Never have played a game that used so few miniatures, where the possibilities of using them and what could happen to them were endless. A lot of humor in the game too which is always nice. Great, great game.

Warhammer Quest (the original)
- Just gives me goose bumps thinking about it. More amazing was all the additional literature released in the Deathblow mags that expanded time in settlements or in other setting beyond the boardgame.

Adeptus Titanicus/Space Marine v1
- Love the fluff (the original Horus Heresy), and love the detail. Its amazing all the things a squad of 6mm guys can do. Slow game mechanics tho, I will admit that, but its really a great game.

Space Marine v2/Titan Legions
- THIS IS the game for mass battles. Yes, its a mess to get into today, but I have had everything for it for ages and still love it. Its more like a cartoon than a wargame, but its very easy for new players to learn and play.

Warhammer 40k 2nd - I still have this box set, near mint condition! This is the version I grew up playing. Lots of color, over the top heros, and comedy. I do miss that from GW; when things were fun. Everything today is dark and serious.

In order

-Warhammer 40k/Horus Heresy
Cause Warhammer 40k. What else is to be said?

-Warmachine/Hordes
Cause I like the gameplay. Tight, and straightforward. Models range from awful to awesome.

-Age of Sigmar
Quick and easy. Many great lines of models (new and old alike)

-Malifaux
Fantastic and fiddly models (the new plastic ones, that is), good fluff, very "atmospheric", uses cards instead of dice, steampunk/western style is appealing

I also like some alternate rule sets, like HoR Killteam, 9th Age, One-Page 40k, and Hinterlands Skirmish, but I didn't include them in the ranking, since they're derivative works.

If I had to pick a favorite, I'd probably go with X-Wing. I got into it early and then got serious about it around Wave IV (summer of 2014) until the end of last year. I don't go to tournaments any more and I haven't bought anything for the game since Wave IX, but I still love the core concept of the game. I've been considering selling my collection but I can't bring myself to do it because I know my friends and I will be hanging out one night and someone someone will want to play it.

I also really enjoy Song of Blades and Heroes and my buddy has built and painted the handful of us in the core gaming group nice little forces to play with when we come over to his house. We also recently got into the Tanks skirmish game by GF9; it's a lot like X-Wing but even simpler and cheaper.

X-Wing
- Plays fast, no time wasted in assembly and painting; pop the package and go

Wings of Glory/War
- The WW1/WW2 model game that inspired X-Wing, though a little more complex. Includes rules for altitude!

Star Wars Armada
- Similar to X-Wing, but with capital ships. It has a different feel; where X-Wing is snap-decision dogfighting, Armada is a plotting naval exercise.

Advanced Heroquest/Warhammer Quest (the 90's version)
- Of all the various dungeon crawlers I've played, this one feels the best. Though I like Descent, WQ edges it out with the contents of its boxed set and the integrated campaign mode that came late to Descent.

Bolt Action
- Quick 28mm movie-style WW2, with a familiar rules system that strikes me as a function 40K game. One of its best features is the random order draw for who activates next - I love it over the alpha-strike mentality of IGOUGO.

Flames of War
- Bolt action, but at a smaller model scale, allowing for bigger battles.

Savage Worlds
- Favorite role-playing game (when I'm not in the mood for D&D). It's quick, simple and to the point and I feel like can model any genre thrown at me with even just the base rules. Super-easy to model just about any opponent in seconds.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Do you actually still play Kryomek? I played it once, and always fancied playing more. It was apparently based on GZG's Stargrunt rules, but if so, 1st edition Stargrunt was very different from the currently-available Stargrunt II . I quite liked it, but I found the army lists awfully confusing, even without the missing bits.

Maybe once or twice a year. About the same as TW.

I never played SG1 (got into it during SGII). That game made the TW leap easy, as it's a very similar mechanic (die shift and die types).
I've got my nexus troops, and a mate just uses his Tyranids as the kryomek (although he DOES have some kryomeks as tyranid beasties in there as well).

Mainly got into Kryomek because of the models. The nexus storm striders were awesome.

S.L.A Industries: Cannibal sector 1

Blood bowl

Anything wild west related

Going to vote for Net Epic Gold myself.
Frostgrave is also becoming a firm favourite as well.

I'm going to say Armada first and foremost.
Then X-Wing
Malifaux if I had to picka third.
I want to love Infinity, but it's too crunchy for me. I can't commit enough time to it.

I have a feeling I would love SITS, if I could find a copy and enough ships' stats. But then again, I feel I'd be sucked into a deep and dark hole if I ever did that.

 chromedog wrote:
Mainly got into Kryomek because of the models. The nexus storm striders were awesome.

Me too, although for me it was the Talos CBUs and Interdict Marines with shoulder-mounted LMGs.