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A few of the discussions here on Dakka made me wonder what is the scope of different games played by the Dakkanauts Please feel free to add your own categories or tell us why you don't have favourites in some of them. For me the task proved to be easier than I expected it to be. Once I thought of a genre, my top choice usually sprang to mind pretty instantenously. Let's start with the most "dakka" choice

A miniatures wargame - Warmachine, hands down. Oh, the multitude of options and choices! Ah, the scope of creative, out-of-the-box problem solving! Hardly anything comes close in this category. I could write an essay about the things Warmachine could do better but at the same time I have never played another miniatures wargame that didn't feel like checkers (or actually, more often, Snakes&Ladders) compared to Warmachine's chess.

A non-miniatures wargame - this one was actually tough as it turned out that I'd rather put my similar favourites in either 4X or area control category and I don't play actual wargames that often. As a result I choose one, which I (sadly) do not have a lot experience with yet, but which impressed me a lot and I hope I will play it more and more - War of the Ring. (the lack of titles in this category may soon change, as I am looking forward to the SAS Rogue Squadron I've just backed on KS and certainly want to try out the game praised as the most ground-breaking wargame of the last few years - the Undaunted series)

A light Euro - I really, really wanted to choose the sleek Concordia, which for me epitomises elegance of design across the entire hobby of tabletop gaming (what other game requires heavy thinking but describes the player turn with one short sentence?) but I realised that I actually get that little bit more pleasure out of playing the evergreen classic - Agricola. It may be more bloated and clunkier, but watching this farm grow is just so satisfying!

A heavy Euro - Terra Mystica. Just enough interaction with other players to make this complex puzzle an extra challenge to play. I know many players prefer Project Gaia, but for my Terra feels tighter, denser and more intense. Maybe I haven't played Gaia enough...

4X - technically Forbidden Stars lacks the Explore aspect, but it just feels so 4X otherwise! Great mechanics, wonderful combat system (although the players not taking part may just go on a walk ) and so many interesting and important decisions where every move matters. Twilight Imperium is of course an extraordinary experience too, but, much as I like playing it, many outdated mechanisms (like dull combat) stop it from reaching the top. If Forbidden Stars can be qualified in this category, I choose Clash of Cultures: Monumental Edition - an awesome game, but it just isn't Forbidden Stars.

Area control - A Game of Thrones. 20 years old now and the combat system is still my firm favourite of all time! Fully deterministic, player-driven and so suspenseful and unpredictable at the same time - but these things originate from player decisions and bluffs, not blind luck. All the elements of the game work so well together and are so incredibly thematic in the setting! If only the map could be better balanced between different houses...I don't think I have ever seen the Lannisters win.

Dungeon Crawler - another hands down choice, Gloomhaven. Wonderful combat (best skirmish-style combat I have experienced in a tabletop game) incredibly satisfying progression and a stunning range of unique enemies to fight. A game we just couldn't stop thinking about for a year - it took a year to finish the campaign.

Card game - Aeon's End. Such an incredibly smart design, where you can see how the designers were bent on putting at least a tiny player decision in every nook and cranny of the system. Flipping the deck instead of shuffling it is pure genius! Yeah, it requires expansions at some point to add new Nemeses and tricks to the players' arsenal, but whenever a new expansion is to be released I'm not annoyed by having to buy it - I just can't wait to play it!

Co-op - if we don't want to repeat Gloomhaven and Aeon's End I'd have to say Pandemic Legacy Season 1. It was a breath of fresh air and kept us hooked for the entire campaign! Maybe it's simpler than GH and AE, but definitely something worth playing.

Solo - Aeon's End. I've played dozens of solo games with this system and I'm looking forward to playing more. I tried many other great titles during the pandemic - for example Mage Knight, Machina Arcana - but they never came close to AE.

Quick filler - Splendor. Surprisingly for a group of players mostly dealing with more complex titles, at some point we just wore down two sets of Splendor by playing it with competitiveness usually reserved for bigger games. Tiny package with a lot of hidden depth.

Skirmish combat - technically it should be my most played genre, as I love the concept. Sadly, most games were a disappointment for me, so my choice will be timless and ingenious design of Neuroshima Hex. I wish I could mention something more involved and colourful, but nothign really made as lasting an impression on me as NH.

RPG - I actually haven't played a lot of different systems, but there's one that stands head and shoulders above all these other attempts - Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which I've played the most of in my RPG days. The grim, depressing, realistic setting is absolutely first thing that comes to my mind when someone mentions RPG and for me and my friends is the epitome of what RPG is.

Cyel wrote:
A few of the discussions here on Dakka made me wonder what is the scope of different games played by the Dakkanauts Please feel free to add your own categories or tell us why you don't have favourites in some of them.

A miniatures wargame Kings of War. I started wargaming with 25mm Napoleonics, and I prefer the "big battalions". So KoW is a better choice for me than AoS, which is just a glorified and expensive skirmish game.

A non-miniatures wargame Have not played a true wargame in many years, so I'll ignore this category.

A light Euro Play lots of Euros, but what counts as a "light" one? I do like Concordia though.

A heavy Euro Terra Mystica.

4X Clash of Cultures the original. Have not played the new monumental edition yet. Perhaps I'll like the changes

Card game Dominion. I like engine builders, and this one has a lot of variety going for it. Too much perhaps, but so far I've been playing with other peoples' collections, so all the pleasure and none of the financial pain.

Co-op Spirit Island. Originally I wrote this off as an easy co-op, but as we used more of the optional rules, both the challenge and the depth have increased greatly. With the addition of the expansion Spirit Island: Jagged Earth I think it has become the ultimate co-op sandbox game. So many ways to mix it up, and so many ways to make it more challenging once you've mastered the basics.

Solo Pandemic: Fall of Rome (2018). Unlike the other Pandemics, this has a true solo mode. Also, as you dice for combat it feels more like a wargame, which is more appropriate for the theme.

RPG Legend of the Five Rings. 1st ed. I realize that there are now five "editions" with #5 coming from FFG., but I have not played them. The system seems clean to me, and the mechanics do not get in the way of the role-playing, unlike Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which I started with like others of my generation. That whole late 70 to late 80s hyper-crunchy game design, with values and modifiers for everything. That's fine for a simulation of WWII armored combat, but not a RPG.

Can't think of stuff in the other categories, so I'll leave them blank for now.

Is that all, everyone? Please don't tell me it's just GW games + D&D + MtG everywhere.

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:


A light Euro Play lots of Euros, but what counts as a "light" one? I do like Concordia though.

I think it may be just up to individual posters, what they consider "light" or "heavy". Nice list! I've played some of them and found them not to my liking (Dominion, Spirit Island) but I know they have lots of fans, so by all means great games

I think part of the problem is the forum. It is primarily a GW forum, followed by general minis gaming. So there are few qualified candidates. And with all forums, some of those people prefer to lurk. However, like you I'd hoped that there would be more responses by now.

If you don't already know about it, https://boardgamegeek.com/ would be a better place to post this topic. I'm there under the same user name, and you can look up my game collection if you like.

As for light Euros, Dragon Castle, Azul, Splendour. Dragon Castle is the one I'm currently enjoying. I like Azul enough to consider buying it. I'll play Splendour, but I don't like it enough to buy it. Five Tribes is a good one with its mancala mechanic. It's OoP, and I was lucky to get a secondhand copy.

I know of BGG but my interest was more in the scope of games that wargamers play, other than their lifestyle game of choice. A few conversations about game design on this forum got me curious what the breadth of reference material for an average Dakka user is.

A miniatures wargame - King of the Battlefield. Excellent and very quick to understand 7 years war era combat. https://groups.io/g/King-of-the-Battlefield. Honourable mention for AK47 Republic, but people can't decide on 1st or second edition in terms of which to play. https://www.peterpig.co.uk/rules.html

A non-miniatures wargame - Aftershocks. Wargame in terms of training serial aid. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/aftershock

A light Euro - I guess 7 wonders as its fast to play and doesn't have player elimination, though in terms of what gets played the most at the club and at home it would be ticket to ride.

A heavy Euro - I would probably need to be told some examples to know what was included int he category!

4X - I suppose Forbidden Stars as well Or I would cheat and say race for the galaxy 4x games like I have enjoyed on the computer rarely seem to work well on the table. Certainly Twilight Imperium isn't my idea of fun.

Area control - Would the FFG Chaos in the Old World game count? A masterpiece in thematic and dissimilar victory objectives.

Dungeon Crawler - Dungeon saga. Nice short fast missions, more a tactical experience than the collect stuff and do the math experience of a game like Descent.

Card game - Star Realms - but it suffers from something nearly all card builder games do - they are far better online.

Co-op - Warhammer Quest! Silly fun.

Solo - Thats what computers are for

Quick filler - Skull. We play it wjhilst drunk or knackered at end of the evening and it is silly and challenging enough to cap things off. Plus you can make it with bear mats.

Skirmish combat - Impossible to choose a favourite, have too many and all get played for different reasons.

RPG - OK, so I haven't played one. But I have played Advanced Heroquest. Whilst a board game it does answer the question of who would do this job and why wouldn't everyone go for the money. Turns out its deadly, dull and expensive/poorly paid work (what other game has the wizard complaining he can't cast that spell, the components are too expensive) and you end up if you survive in poverty on the streets of Altdorf (ok I made the last bit up, but it would surprise no one that played the game).

Flashpoint: Fire Rescue is my favorite Co-op. It's like Pandemic with objectives that players seem to grab a bit more immediately and leads to fewer instances of it turning into solo play.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
A heavy Euro - I would probably need to be told some examples to know what was included in the category

Dominant Species. A steep learning curve, and definitely not a game for quitters. A rewarding game once you understand the implications of the actions. The individual rules are not that complex, but the strategic implications are subtle. Terra Mystica as mentioned before. Some people consider Concordia, Tigris and Euphrates, and Clash of Cultures (either edition) heavy euros, but I do not. I've never played them, but any of the 18XX series railroad games (supposedly). If using Boardgame Geek as a guide any euro game with Weight 5. That last is internet opinion and not my own. I pay no attention to the BGG weight rating.

Having played Dominant Species I would actually put it firmly in Area Control category than Euro, but really I didn't want to be too limiting for this thread with these distinctions. Especially as there are so many games now that mix and match elements, for example one of my groups evergreen favourite is Age of Empires3: Age of Discovery which is equal parts worker placement Euro and Area Control. I personally would list games like Brass, Food Chain Magnate or Lacerda games as heavy euros, but I leave assigning games to categories here to every poster's choice.

Btw, thanks for reminding me of Chaos in the Old World I haven't played it for a decade, but still remember it to be Eric Lang's masterpiece of assymetry, interaction and theme. Blood Rage and Rising Sun didn't come even close to that, even though all in allthey are nice games.

Btw, thanks

Nice idea for a thread. Haven't been keeping up with new games, but from our rather large game wall, there's a pretty strong chunk of games that always seem to deliver and are relatively often on the table. The following list tilts pretty heavily into games good for family and mixed parties.

Miniature Wargames: There are several that I like quite a bit, but KoW, Song of Blades and Heroes and Grimdark future are among my favorites and most frequently played.

Board Wargame: Battlelore 2nd edition. Really alot of fun and folds the wargame experience well onto a board. It's like Battlemasters for grown ups and that's a good thing. Really the beneficiary of 20 years of C&C games.

Deckbuilders. Ascension and Star Realms

2 player game: 7 Wonders Duel. Consistently impressed at how it melts the best of 7 wonders (great game that doesn't work well for 2 players) down to a 2 player card game.

Stragegy: Hyperborea. Surprisingly fun and engaging "Bag Building" game. Nice mix of exploration, civ building and just enough conflict to be interesting.

Family semi-competitive: Oceanos.

Family Dungeon Crawl: Heroquest. The whole family likes this and we're 10 missions in.

Family Co-op. Forbidden Desert or Forbidden Island.

Family Deckbuilders: LoTR or DC Heroes. Basically the same easy to learn game with different skins but enough character to keep things interesting.

Euros especially good for beginners of all ages; Ticket to Ride and Carcassone. Frequently the games I get out for someone who's main game experiences are Monopoly, Risk, Scrabble, etc...


Light, Charming Party: Sushi Go

Party team game: Code Words

Party Co-Op: Star Trek 5 Year Mission. Really, give it a shot. None of us are Trekkers and our friends love it. A game that ramps up tension really well.

As for "family" type games, I was surprised how much fun was to play Survive!: Escape from Atlantis. But only if your family is ok with absolutely brutal (to the point of being hilarious when mistakes or bad luck invariably happen ) negative interaction - so no kids who easily get grumpy when they lose, unfortunately.

I'm a relative latecomer to miniatures. I started out as a hardcore wargamer and at one point had around 100 games. I subsequently sold about 80 of them when I experienced a prolonged period of unemployment (and the realization that as a parent I wasn't going to have the free time I did as a teenager or in college).

Favorite titles are West End's Imperium Romanum II, The Brigade Series, some of the classic Avalon Hill games like Afrika Korps and the Milton Bradley Gamemaster series, particularly Shogun. Saturday Night Shogun was the bomb my senior year in high school.

Now that my kids are (mostly) grown up, I've been rounding off my collection with a few old titles, like Modern Naval Combat (a cardgame) and I finally bought GDW's Persian Gulf.

For miniatures, it's 40k 2nd ed and Conqueror: Fields of Victory for fantasy/historical.

RPGs are all over the place: D&D, Star Wars, Vampire/Werewolf, GURPS, whatever folks are into, I'll generally go along.

Commissar von Toussaint wrote:


particularly Shogun.

Oh, I remember playing Shogun a few times and always wishing I could play more! It definitely falls into the category I like a lot - area control with well represented theme (not a fan of very abstracted area control games like Inis or Smallworld).

In this category I strongly recommend Imperial 2030, one of my top games of all time (don't know why I didn't mention it before). A world war3 themed area control with an amazing twist-players are not countries but investors in countries and they only care about troops and territories if it brings a return on their investments amazing gem with incredible depth under very simple rules.