From: Pietro Cremona Subject: WARGAMING IN A DESERT ISLAND FINAL REPORT Sorry for beeing so late, but I had some family problems and I was obliged to postpone all my hobby activities. Hopefully I have now the result of my mini-survey : as you remember your airplane was forced to make an emergency sea-landing and you arrived in a desert island with few survivors (ONE of them a wargamer, the other ... common people). It was possible to save 10 GAMES to use during A YEAR or so of forced exile in the island. I asked to list those games and the why ! Given this formula I expected that the answers would concentrate on few easy to teach games and some good simulations (to play with the other grognard) : well the world is beautiful because it is so various.... Some of you (sadic people) listed games that probably they could only play ... solitaire (or with the other wargamer if it was another sadic), while most of you selected (correctly, in my opinion) games that could be teached also to the other survivors, making life in the island a little better. Before going on let me list first MY FAVORITE GAMES >>------------------------------------------------------- >> >>Nr. 1 - 50 points - Up-Front (AH) >>Nr. 2 - 35 points - Russian Campaign (AH) >>Nr. 3 - 25 points - Napoleon's Last Battles (SPI) >>Nr. 4 - 15 points - Anzio (AH) >>Nr. 5 - 10 points - Third Reich+Advanced (AH) >>Nr. 6 - 5 points - Hystory of the World (AH) >>Nr. 7 - 4 points - Storm Over Arnhem (AH) >>Nr. 8 - 3 points - Britannia (AH) >>Nr. 9 - 2 points - Napoleon (AH/COL) >>Nr. 10 - 1 point - Ancients (WWW) >> >>-------------------------------------------------------- COMMENTS (1) - The best simulation for WW2 tactical operations : fog of war, some chance, gradual teaching, lots of scenarios, possibility of R.P. (2) - Not the best simulation of the East Front war, but the must funny and played : not difficult to learn (3) - A good game to introduce new players to the Operational Battles : a gampaign game with 4-5 players is also possible (4) - Well, for an Italian ... it is compulsory (5) - Still my best choice for the Grand Strategic war in Europe : and if the others survivors wish to join ... (after some training) (6) - Well, probably this is the best "training" for 6 players (7) - Interactive and funny tactical game on city fights : a lot of action in a small package (8) - Again, lets hope that this game is not intimidating for the other survivors : if so we will have ALL a good time (9) - OK : we only succeed in recruting only ONE extra : so we will play this fast strategic/tactic game. It has been in the years one of my best recruiting tools : at least a dozen new wargamers exist thanks to this classic. (10) - Well ... and if the above games resulted too complicated, this should be really the last hope. -------------------------------------------------------- I received 62 answers, most of them listing 10 games, some less than 10 and ONE with only one vote (Imperium Romanum II) : really an "aficionado" player. 237 different games have been voted, quite a lot if compared to the number of entries : this demonstrate how dispersive become this hobby and how difficult is organizing tournaments or matches if you do not spend a lot of time BEFORE. 22 companies have been listed (this means that AT LEAST one of their games has been voted) THE TOP TEN GAMES Pos. - Points nr. 1 - 303 - UP-FRONT (AH) nr. 2 - 270 - SPQR (GMT) nr. 3 - 246 - WORLD IN FLAMES (ADG) nr. 4 - 242 - We the People (AH) nr. 5 - 236 - Great War in Europe (XTR) nr. 6 - 211 - Third Reich (AH) nr. 7 - 208 - Civil War (VG) nr. 8 - 193 - Thunder at the Crossroads (GAMERS) nr. 9 - 168 - Pacific War (VG) nr.10 - 167 - ASL (AH) nr.11 - 164 - Europa Universalis (AWE) nr.12 - 140 - Enemy at the Gates (GAMERS) nr.13 - 136 - 3 Days of Gettysburg (GMT) nr.14 - 134 - Wooden Ships Iron Men (AH) nr.15 - 133 - Terrible Swift Sword (SPI) nr.16 - 132 - Russian Campaign (AH) nr.17 - 125 - Civilisation (AH) nr.18 - 124 - Proud Monster (XTR) nr.19 - 121 - Empires in Arms (AH) nr.20 - 113 - Deluxe Alexander (GMT) I was surprised to see UP-FRONT on top of the list and one of the most voted. I like it very much, but this game is rarely covered in the hobby magazines with variants or scenarios. Even more surprised to see WOODEN SHIPS rated 14th : I have to sort it again and start to play it with my kids. Good performances of XTR games : beeing magazine games they rarely reach the top of any classification : compliments to the company THE MOST VOTED Here I list the games that received many votes : this classification tell us how frequently a game is played, I think. Some games did not receive high points, thus not performing as well as others, but they were listed by many players. nr.1 - 13 - CIVIL WAR (VG) nr.2 - 12 - Proud Monster (XTR) 12 - SPQR (GMT) 12 - Third Reich (AH) 12 - Up-Front nr.6 - 11 - Great war in Europe (XTR) nr.7 - 10 - 3 Days of Gettysburg (GMT) 10 - We the People (AH) nr.9 - 9 - Russian Campaign (AH) 9 - Thunder at the Crossroads (GAMERS) 9 - World in Flames (ADG) THE "BIG" VOTES For those of you curious here you will find the games that received AT LEAST two "50 points" votes nr.1 - 4 - Up-Front (AH) nr.2 - 3 - World in Flames (ADG) nr.3 - 2 - ASL (AH) 2 - Enemy at the Gates (GAMERS) 2 - Europa Universalis (AWE) 2 - SPQR (GMT) 2 - Watch am Rehin (SPI) COMPANY VOTES Here you will find how many different GAMES have been named for each company : please remember that here are listed also games which receive a single "1 point" vote, so it is a classification that says ... nothing really important, expecially if we consider that some companies do not have a big catalogue yet. It is a sort of curiousity... nr. 1 - 62 - Avalon Hill nr. 2 - 47 - SPI nr. 3 - 17 - THE GAMERS nr. 4 - 15 - GDW nr. 5 - 12 - VICTORY GAMES 12 - XTR nr. 7 - 11 - GMT nr. 8 - 9 - Clash of Arms nr. 9 - 6 - Columbia 6 - World Wide Wargmers nr.11 - 5 - Decision Games nr.12 - 4 - Moments in History nr.13 - 3 - Azur Wish Editions 3 - Yaquinto 25 - Different companies with 1 or 2 games FINAL COMMENT It was interesting to do this survey and a lot of comments were very interesting to read : it is impossible to report them on this message, but I was amazed by some of your sidebars.. The only thing I really regret is the low number of Europeans votes : I think that if we do not partecipate at those kinds of forums we will always have to FOLLOWS what the US players like most. I do not wish to rewamp an old debate, but as you see not all the players like ONLY CIVIL WAR GAMES. >>>I WISH TO THANK THOSE WHO ANSWERED : >>> >>>- Adams Doug >>>- Ahlenbaeck Yngve >>>- Anderson Kerry >>>- Andrus Perry >>>- Arnold Jonathan >>>- Arsaeus Fredrik >>>- Auzumendi José >>>- Bace Matt >>>- Balog Mike >>>- Bekar Cliff >>>- Benedetti Dario >>>- Boone Mark >>>- Bouis Arnaud >>>- Byrne James >>>- Card Peter >>>- Cerdan Pere >>>- Chatto Carl >>>- Cicero Dan >>>- Coley John >>>- Collins Patrick >>>- Costopulos Andre >>>- Craig Perry >>>- Cremona Pietro >>>- Davis Charles >>>- Divinis Howard >>>- Droste Ryan >>>- Franklin Skip >>>- Garret John >>>- Goldsmith Scott >>>- Greenfield Chris >>>- Gruber Carl >>>- Hendrix Chester >>>- Holte Danny >>>- Hoppe Jens >>>- Kim Ted >>>- Kranz John >>>- Long John >>>- March Robert >>>- Matt Jim >>>- Meyer Hank >>>- Mills Martin >>>- Murphy Doug >>>- Nagel Mike >>>- Nichols Greg >>>- Orosz Joe >>>- Owen Steve >>>- Pass Eric >>>- Pawelek Peter >>>- Penny Mike >>>- Poulter Alan >>>- Pullen Sam >>>- Raicer Ted >>>- Ramsay Bill >>>- Salvatore William >>>- Saunders Alan >>>- Sobczak Thomas >>>- Springelkamp Erik >>>- Sutherland Charles >>>- The Phil >>>- Trant Tim >>>- Young George >>>- White Mike For those of you that wish the complete list of voted games I have it on WORD 6 for WINDOWS 3.1 format. Contact me directly and I will send to you a copy Ciao Pietro //// / ^ \ ( o o ) -----oOOO----(..)---OOOo--------------------------------------------------- Pietro Cremona - Old Hand Wargamer Address : CP 136 - 47023 Cesena Centro FORLI' - Italy .oooO E-Mail - asterix@linknet.it (..) Oooo. Phone - ++ 39.547.335121 -------------------------(..)----------------------------------------------