A new gamer could you some insight

[captaincold]

Hello

I happened across this forum and after lurking a while I decided to join!

A little background about me. I'm a PC gamer, but not heavy into the WW2 genre, although it's a topic I enjoy very much. I recently played some ww2 games and I enjoyed them thoroughly.  One was a miniatures game, Chain of Command, and the other was a board game, Conflict of Heroes.

I'm moving away from PC games and I'd really like to jump into the table top gaming world, however, I'm not sure where to start....board games or miniatures.

I played CoC on a huge 8x4 table. It was pretty awesome, but I just do not have that kind of space OR time to make all those little trees, shrubs, roads. I do, however, have about a 2x2 or 3x3 space to work with and I thought 6mm would work for that area. I'm not really looking to spend much time or money on terrain, but have no idea where to start with this.

The Conflict of Heroes game was fun too. I found the combat mechanics to be more "meatier" than Chain of Command, but I also found myself enjoying pushing mini's around more than counters. I've seen on BBG some people use mini's with their board games, so that might be an idea, but it looked kinda of off to me.

So, here I am, asking the board game and mini's folks here what they think?

Is there a set of rules, board game or miniatures that maybe aren't overly complicated, easy to set up but have really nice detailed combat rules?

Being new to ww2 gaming I guess I don't really know where to start, so I thought I'd get some suggestions from folks here and maybe it will help me decide what it is I really want.

Thanks

[mirth]

Welcome, captaincold! There are a lot of options for getting your feet wet. You might want to look at something like Memoir 44, which is sort of a board/minis game hybrid - https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10630/memoir-44

For other WW2 boardgames, look at Lock N Load's Nation's at War series. It's a well regarded system that I would consider of moderate complexity

https://store.lnlpublishing.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=66_68

GMT also has some excellent games. Check out the No-Retreat Series. Those are probably a bit higher in complexity, but still fairly easy to get into. Also a well regarded series of games.

http://www.gmtgames.com/c-54-no-retreat-series.aspx

[bob48]

Welcome. I'm sure you'll get plenty of help here as we do cover a wide range of interests.

My own preference for a WW2 game system that is pretty simple, offers a fair amount of detail and variety, is 'Band of Brothers' from Worthington Games. You could also do worse than look at 'Conflict of Heroes' from Academy Games.

There are a few dedicated ASL players around, although that system may be slightly more complex than you are currently looking for.

[mirth]

There are a few dedicated ASL players around, although that system may be slightly more complex than you are currently looking for.

'slightly more complex'

Understatement of the Year, Bawb 

[bayonetbrant]

FWIW, a consideration on the minis vs boardgames discussion:
You don't need to paint a lot of boardgames, or build the terrain, to play them

[bob48]

 

_{tee hee}

[mirth]

FWIW, a consideration on the minis vs boardgames discussion:
You don't need to paint a lot of boardgames, or build the terrain, to play them

You do have to clip the counters though. Consider investing in one of these

https://www.amazon.com/Radius-Deluxe-Corner-Rounder-Cutter/dp/B00G08PEXO

Worth every penny.

And when some crazy dude named Barthheart shows up and starts ranting about the joys of untrimmed counters, pay him no mind.

[bob48]

Lol. Now you're for it, mirthie. Wait, here comes Bart now..........

[Barthheart]

First off, welcome captaincold! 

One for first things you'll probably realize is that there are a certain few... cretins... here that enjoy mangling their counters with all manner of torture devices... pay them no heed.

There are quite a few games that combine minis with boardgame play - Sergeant's Miniatures Game, Axis and Allies, Memoir 44. All are quite fun and different levels of difficulty.

For squad level play similar to Conflict of Heroes you'd might like to try Lock 'n Load Publishing's tactical line of games. They use the same rules for conflicts ranging from early WWII all the way to Somalia in 1992. Great components and game play and not too difficult once you get going. There's even free print and play demos available from their website:
http://forums.lnlpublishing.com/resources/lnlt-world-war-ii-demo-2nd-edition.113/
http://forums.lnlpublishing.com/resources/lnlt-modern-demo-2nd-edition.114/

A fun hybrid minis board game in Sergeants Miniatures Game from Lost Battalion Games. It's fairly expensive to get into but it's great fun to play and can hand large groups of people to play.
https://www.lostbattaliongames.com/c-376-Sergeants-Miniatures-Game.aspx
There's even a version of this that uses cardboard standees instead of metal minis and is somewhat cheaper to get into.
https://www.lostbattaliongames.com/c-377-sergeants-board-game.aspx

There are lots of games that use wooden blocks instead of cardboard piece or minis. These are quite popular because they introduce some Fog of War because you can't see exactly what the enemy has facing you.

To help yourself you need to think about what scale of game you want to play, individual soldiers or squads or platoon to company level or higher still to division or army level.
Do you like land combat, air combat or naval combat?
Next is what era, because there are lots more games out there than just fighting in WWII.

Lots of people on this site will give you lots of recommendations based on your answers to these questions.

So welcome to the hobby and don't worry if your wallet starts to complain about the abuse you are about to subject it to.... 

[bob48]

Good advice there from 'Free-Range' Bart...well, apart from the bit about counters, obviously.

[Jack Nastyface]

Hey Captaincold,
Another thing you may want to consider are the interests of your likely opponents in gaming.  Do you and they have a particular preference for game scale (operational, where each counter represents a Division, or tactical where a counter represents one tank or a few men)?  What about theater?  Just interested in WW2 Europe...or maybe east Front, North Africa, or Pacific?  Are you and your gaming friends only interested in land warfare, or perhaps do you want to do a bit of air or naval warfare gaming?

I wholly recommend some of the titles listed above, but you may also want to look at Combat Commander by GMT games, which has it's own appeal.

Also...if you haven't already done so, I would recommend checking out the following websites www.grognard.com, consimworld.com and of course boardgamegeek.com.  There are some great videos on youtube my stukajoe, marcowargamer and a few others.

Welcome, and happy gaming!

Jack Nastyface

[captaincold]

Solo play only

I think I'm going to go with Conflict of Heroes, especially the solo campaign. Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions.

I also tried my hand with the Battlefront Normany demo....eegads! Beautiful game but it hurt my head!

[Jack Nastyface]

If solo play is your thing, there are some excellent titles now available from companies like DVG, Legion, Consimworld press, etc.  Can't remember who publishes them, but D-day and D-day tarawa are excellent WW2 solo games.

[MikeGER]

Can't remember who publishes them, but D-day and D-day tarawa are excellent WW2 solo games.

Decision Games is the publisher    and there are PC versions available too
(and IIRC also free fan made modules for Tabletop Simulator too)

https://shop.decisiongames.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=70

Wellcome to Grogheads Captaincold

[Nefaro]

Can't remember who publishes them, but D-day and D-day tarawa are excellent WW2 solo games.

Decision Games is the publisher    and there are PC versions available too
(and IIRC also free fan made modules for Tabletop Simulator too)

https://shop.decisiongames.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=70

Wellcome to Grogheads Captaincold

Has Decision Games' counter sheet die-cuts improved in the last couple years?

Last game I got was the new version of RAF, another solitaire from them.  Good game but those damn counter sheets were so poorly cut, I had to use a hobby knife to get some of the counters out, after the paper tearing from some.  Terribly cut.