Sooo... does anyone remember the Avalon Hill days of play-by-mail? Were they way ahead of the times? The hardest part of playing with yourself... is the don't take sides part. Even though it's me vs me, I usually have a favorite me.
I've always tried to play both sides as to what their objective is in the Battle. Holland 44 get to the Paras in Arnhem to open the way into Germany. Germans stop them. Just be honest. A.H. TRC. Russians: Delay the Germans just don't get completely wiped out. Time n space. Germans: Move FASTER!!!! Moscow. Leningrad. Workers. Screen south. Tobruk A.H.. I've got German vehicles (GHQ) n Russians. Need Brits. Counters replaced! I'll make up little tables 1d4 or 1d6 to fill any holes in my Me against mE game play. A.H. Trireme. Replaced counters with mini's(need more).
A recommendation I have for solo gaming is Warhammer 40K Tactical objectives where a deck of cards influences your priorities or Bolt Action orders dice where you have to draw dice from a closed container. Also, to increase randomness, maybe use a D6 roll to influence decision making. Say, a squad has multiple opponents it could target. Assign each a value and roll for it. Treat the game as more of a battle report than a sporting event
Sid Meier's Civil War game series was always one of my favorites. It's actually one of the things responsible for getting me interested in history in the first place.
I use Vassal. I live in Kansas City, and my Wargaming friend lives near Huston, Texas. He has incorporated the Vassel engine to run our Napoleonic battles. It has worked out well for us. As we are fighting the battle, we use Skype to talk to each other. Also, thanks LWTV for covering this timely subject.
@@AP-514 Are you interested in the Napoleonic battles, I am talking about? If so , do you do Napoleonic wargaming, and if so, what rules do you currently use?
I’ve been away from my war gaming boards and miniatures for about 2 months now. I was going crazy, so I decided to take initiative and make my own war game. Now, I don’t have the money to get a whole new set of miniatures, but I did have enough money for a bunch of skittles and M&Ms, and it didn’t take long before I started making up a rule set in my head. I’ve recently started typing out the rule set, but I’ve already gotten in 4 games with myself. Proud to say I won all 4 times. I really recommend everyone try it if your in the same situation as me, as it’s very easy to make up a quick rule set, and it’s quite hard to want to favor a red piece of candy over a green one.
Just had to check if anyone mentioned COMBAT MISSION... COMBAT MISSION: Battle For Normandy, COMBAT MISSION: Fortress Italy, COMBAT MISSION: Red Thunder, COMBAT MISSION: Black Sea (Modern), COMBAT MISSION: Shock Force 2 or Shock Force. Your wargaming table brought to the computer screen (No homemade reverse periscopes needed for line of sight verification. ;P). Awesome community as well.
Flashpoing Campaigns: Red Storm is a fantastic Cold War Gone Hot game on steam. Traditional hex and counter style, but with simultaneous turns. Each player gives commands, and then it plays out in real time. Depending on battlefield conditions, the nations involved and what is happening, each player can have a different turn length. NATO generally gets two or more order phases in for every Warsaw Pact order phase. Makes for a really fun time.
The Hearts of Iron series is excellent. I just downloaded Panzer Corps 2 last week (it's the modern version of the old classic Panzer General series) and have been playing that constantly.
Whily IGOUGO is a solid system for solo-play, the king of soloing a game against yourself by playing both sides to their best is chit-pull activation. It randomizes the turn order and gives such a heavy fog of war that one simply cannot have a plan too big to follow but must go with the flow, to their best abilities.
Excellent video! For mass battles between 1700-1900, I have found "Field of Battle 2nd Edition" to give the best solo wargaming experience. Just a few days ago, I used them to re-fight the assault of Philip Sheridan's division on Missionary Ridge during the Chattanooga Campaign, and it gave an excellent, tense game. There are also adaptations for ancients and WWII titled "Pulse of Battle" and "Field of Battle WWII," respectively.
The first Blitzkrieg PC game is a true Platoon+ sized Tabletop Simulator. It's realtime but pauseable, the graphics are as tabletopish as it can gets and it has a still active mod community that is releasing new scenarios, campaigns, maps etc. to this day!
I use my miniatures on my Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising board and love it, and I'm new to your channel and I'm also in Pennsylvania, would love to join in sometime.
This video is concerned with Solo gaming, so when World of Tanks snuck in, it got me thinking about multiplayer videogames - and currently the one I’ve invested hours in is Tabletop Simulator (TTS) on Steam, where you can download practically any board or miniatures game you can think of and in the comfort of your self isolated home, you can game with others across the internet. I can’t stress enough how great Tabletop Simulator is for actually simulating the table top experience digitally, practically one for one. If you can find your favourite war games, It allows you to download user made mods and test out new units and army lists before committing to their physical purchase. I think TTS needs a video all by itself! Highly recommended - it was a revelation to me when table top gaming friends started recommending it during the lockdown.
For solo wargaming with only a handful of miniatures, working with WW2-modern models, I highly recommend Black Ops from Osprey. Games which you start in the stealth mode have the "defending" player basically AI guided until you are spotted. You can play it almost entirely in solitare, followed by I-go-U-go with randomized "types" of units going each turn to keep you from overplanning.
Great upload pertaining to the situation we all face. I've been playing Brigade Fire and Fury with reinforcing Brigades arriving on die rolls on the various roads I have leading into the table. It has worked really well. I would however point out a very good exception to the IGO-UGO recommendation. Chain of Command and Sharp Practice play brilliantly as a solo games, and I've done so many a time.....before the Coronavirus..... Just call me Billy-no-mates.....
Excellent video! Solo wargaming is one of the reasons I tend to prefer IGO-UGO systems. I also like to use boardgames for campaigns, and miniatures for fighting individual battles within a campaign.
Absolutely. The biggest campaign I've ever run was a Coral Sea battle that used the old game Flat Top for operation movement, but then we fought the battles using GQ3.
Sounds great, Steve. My current campaign for Caesar’s Gallic Wars uses the boardgame Falling Sky for strategic movement, and Age of Hannibal for the individual battles.
I can personally recommend Mage Knight, which while it really couldn’t be considered a war game, is still one of the best single player experiences. Also, diplomacy online with six friends if you have them.
I'm assuming the board game, correct? As the miniatures game (1.0 and 2.0) arent really that far from 'real' wargames. Complete agree with your description though, I have 7 copies of the board game to make large table spanning maps.
Thanks for the heads up re. Ultimate General. It is a genuinely challenging game. There is a depth to the game which is not apparent at first glance - such as the reload time of various muskets, etc. I'm impressed! Thank you.
There is a series of counter-insurgency (COIN) board games in which as many as three players can be programmed. The last time I played "Liberty or Death" it was the native Americans rather than the rebel colonists who one the American Revolution. (I was playing British)
Absolutely! Andean Abyss -- the very first COIN series game -- was on the table behind me in the video. Still one of my favorite boardgames ever (though I find the bots a little tedious to work with, honestly.)
For Navy Fans there's _Rule the Waves_ which puts you in the boots of the Admiral for a nation's Navy from 1900 to 1925 (1955 in the 2nd game) You design your ship, deal with politics, and fight battles. It even gives British ship an increased chance of detonation to reflect Jutland.
A great game for those not wishing to spend money on video games, are Steel Panthers: WW2, and Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank. Both of these games are absolutely free and are regularly updated. It's great for a turn-based hex-tactical game. I had loads of fun setting up my own D-Day parachute and para-glider scenarios, as well as modern-day scenarios and fictional cold war ones.
Another good multi-player online game is Wargame Red Dragon. It's a cold war RTS where you don't know where the enemy units are until you find them but unlike most other RTS games you know what the map looks like. The devs have done their best to make the combat as realistic as possible.
I can definitely vouch for the THW system! It's built for SOLO, but can be played cooperatively and head-to-head just as well! All in all, a great system, especially NUTS (my personal favorite). Hope to see some videos of the club playing through it! Having said that, I enjoy the channel...great job all around and very entertaining. I like that you tie the games into the actual historical context of the scenario being played....my favorite being the Battle of Endor (it's historical....from a certain point of view). Additionally, I'd like to see a video play through of DH 2! Thanks guys, stay safe!
encounter wargames are great for solo wargaming where the arrival of the troops is randomised based on dice rolls regarding arrival times and place of arrival with each side having an objective to take or hold and i always stipulate who is defender and who is attacker the defender can be more AI ifluenced holding objectives while the attacker is limited to a set number of moves plus a random additional number of moves. reinforcements may or may not arrive and in a variant amount to those expected either less or more which keeps you guessing on both sides allowing for the crucial element of suprise. for each side i sometimes throw in limitations on ammunition and randomise the capabilities of units only when they engage in action in relation to thier status veterans, conscripts etc which allows for the fog of war as a commander never really knows how his troops will react or feel about being thrown into certain situations.
Good video, I did a similar one recently and covered some of the same points, but I like the board game section! Also, a few of my newer videos are demonstrations of playing solo.
I like to assign each unit an alignment, like in D&D, some can always use the same alignment for each unit or you can roll randomly each time. They will really start manifesting very distinct personalities, here are some general examples, you can even have two units of the same alignment fight, but you can alter them as you like...it's your game. *1D6 1-2 Good, 2-3 Neutral, 5-6 Evil Good: Never leaves a man behind and tries to recover bodies as soon as possible, makes a priority to aid non-combatants and allies, and takes prisoners alive if at all possible. Strong morale. Neutral: Doesn't take unnecessary chances, moves methodically and is best in defensive situations, most versatile unit but also likely to withdraw/fall back or retreat if the opportunity presents itself and they take heavy losses in a single confrontation (1/4 to 1/3 ?). If they are reduced to 1/4 or below maximum strength with no escape they will surrender. Low morale. Evil: Very aggressive, will not retreat, takes most direct course of action possible, will not take prisoners unless that is the direct objective...in all other cases they execute prisoners. Moderate morale. Tinker with it to suit you, it does make solo play better (my opinion) because it stops you from playing both sides the same way every time, like solo checkers or tick-tack-toe.
Bloody Mohawk and Savage Wilderness board games by Lock n Load can be converted to miniatures for each scenario. One counter is ten figures each hex is 12 inches. War game vault has the pdf version.
The COIN series of board games are excellent for solo play. I’ve played Fire in the Lake, their Vietnam war game, several times since the quarantine started and it still hasn’t gotten old
Wargame: European Escalation is a great tie for PC, especially if you're a Cold War era fan! The logistics system can be a bit frustrating, but it does force you to exercise economy of force. It also doesn't suffer from the "he who clicks most, wins" drawback of most RTS games.
We are currently playing a ‘play by e mail’ game using the strategic grid game of Rommel where one person sets up the table at home and takes photos of the table each turn. He asks for instructions from each player on their respective turn and then carries out the orders and resolves combat. It’s working well so far.
Outstanding video on a challenging topic.Having done gaming with H.G. Wells 'Little Wars' to trying to create a dice throw AI chart to resolve movement and combat, the author covers a wide range of ideas. Also, your southern accent on 'Little Wars T.V.' is quite good.
Good episode Steve. Very good approaches and most notably the section on crossplay of board with minis. On the "play with yourself" and if one takes a "split personality" thing the wargame actually becomes challenging - or a zero sum :D ... Regarding "wargames with miniatures" in the computer Field of Glory 2 also from Slitherine deserves a notable mention in my humble opinion :) Thanks LWTV team and godspeed.
Absolutely take sides! Why not? The idea is to have fun, but you’re still thinking in two person terms. Play as your favourite side, but give the other side many advantages, so you have to fight for the win. Or have lots of different winning conditions based on points, and keep them secret from yourself. Play the game, total up the conditions matched and points one to see which side wins.
In general, I agree with your points involving playing most wargames solo. I have found the one exception to this being Command Post games' Pub Battles. Pub Battles is a 2 or more player, system that uses a chit pull mechanic. The chit pull tends to make a mess of carefully laid plans as the chaos of war tends to render those plans short lived, it's about simple plans that you can adapt on the fly. I find that the FoW issue is simply handled by the player not reacting to things the commanders wouldn't know about. If an issue comes up (would they have guessed correctly?) I find I can resolve it with a die roll. The system is a command focused army level game. This means the players represent the army commander, with Corps HQs, and divisional blocks. It is a black powder era, quick playing system that easily handles large battles like Waterloo, Borodino, and Gettysburg in an evening. If that level of simulation and era is enjoyable to you, this might be a great option. (disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Command Post Games, I just enjoy playing solo, and think this is one of the best solo options)
C.S. Grant did an outstanding book on solo miniature games: Programmed Wargame Scenarios. Sadly, out of print, but still available sometimes from collector book stores. ALSO: Some friends of mine and I have evolved a fun kind of "Virtual Kriegspiel." Two players set up tables with web cams, the moderator uses Zoom and officiates the "fog of war." You can do this with email too, it's just a LOT slower... with zoom you can real-time the game and it's fun to moderate too, since you get to see the opponents fumbling around in the unknown.
Just a heads up: the group that made Ultimate General: Gettysburg and Ultimate General: Civil War are making/have made a naval game called Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnaughts. Looks pretty awesome!
Great video. A lot of boardgames wargames are really moving into some fantastic areas - the COIN series from GMT are superb for solo gaming (& I say this as a long time & dedicated miniatures gamer).
Another thing I can recommend to anyone wanting an American Civil War experience is the ACW Hardcore mod for Napoleon Total War, it is only multiplayer and not campaign since Napoleon doesn't allow custom campaigns. Almost every major battle during the war has a map in the mod and the creators of the mod have created every regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
One game I've really been meaning to try is Piquet. The basic rules are generic, but with specific rulesets for ancients to WW2. It looks like it would be very good, at least through the ACW. It has a specific-to-each-army card driven turn sequence, so it ought to be great for solo games.
Ulitmate General: Civil War feels like a toy soldier set brought to life. I love it so much and wish the devs would implement some kind of multiplayer to it
@@ranxerox76D super late reply but yea you definitely could. It may require slowing the game down to be able to keep up with changes on the battlefield since trackpads is slower than mouse, but I dont see why not
Thanks for a really great video, i missed watching you guys play out historical battles :) Also, if you enjoy X-Com, you can give Jagged Alliance 2 a try, it's an older title but one of my favorites. Combines squad level, turn-based fights with a strategic layer of planing, equipping and training your troops
Recently ,I've been building up my Rev.War Britain's swoppets.. I'm using a Featherstone book that I've had for a few years. I soloed my own scenario Secure the Highway. I used dice rolls for base line position and then chance cards with rolls of basic tactical options. Anyway its fun. I'll have to pick up Black Powder but I like my Featherstone.
For solitaire wargaming i recommend Stages of Siege Games by VPG like Hapsburg Eclipse (Play Austria-Hungary in WW1) and Horse and Musket by Hollandspiele (replacing Counters with miniatures)
In regard to digital tabletop games, I think you missed Field of Glory 2, which covers now antiquity to early middle ages. Are some of you playing that one?
There were some games in your list I didn't know yet - thanks for sharing! @topic: DBA is also a great game to play solo due to the small amount of miniatures and terrain features needed.
Hey, you guys reeaaally need to check out John Tiller’s videogames (turn based) or the Scourge of War series (real time). These will give you a huge variety of settings, and I think you may find both of them much more satisfying than Total War or Ultimate General.
Conflict of Heroes. Happy to have invested in the single player expansion a few months ago. Also RAF Battle of Britain 1940 has a nice single player mode included.
Awesome video! I also have heard nice things about Rangers of Shadow Deep (which is a solo cross between a wargame, an RPG and a Dungeon Crawler) and I'm currently trying World at War 85: Storming the Gap (lock'n'load publishing) with a solo assistant they produced as well - this last one is a hex and counter wargame but highly suitable for miniatures - they even provide cards to use miniatures and a board.
Great video! Since this lock down I’ve gotten into solo gaming more and I’m glad to see it given some love. I would like to recommend the D-Day series by Decision Games, Omaha Beach and Peleliu specifically. John Butterfield has absolutely won me over with these games. It is a hex series but with the event deck mechanic it’s able make each play through different. Can not recommend enough. (DDay at Omaha is the harder to acquire of the two.)
I can't believe you guys left out Chain of Command - the command dice mechanic is amazing for solo play because you literally have no idea what the other side will have for activation resources to use in their next turn. Add in the unknown moment at which you'll accrue a complete "Chain of Command Die" and it makes for incredibly tense solo games. And it is top date the _only_ game I've ever played where I have been able to ambush _myself_ and have it actually be a total surprise! You lose a little bit in being unable to make surprise support unit selections, but I actually just described each particular scenario to a friend and asked, "what would you select under these conditions?" It worked great, and even the Patrol Phase can be surprising because as you walk around the table you'll see new opportunities. tl;dr - I _highly_ recommend Chain of Command!
If you've checked out the ratings we gave Chain of Command on the LWTV website you'll see why I left it unmentioned. While there are many, many people like yourself who love Chain of Command (and some in our club), I can't stand it. I've never had fun playing it. But that's just me. Thanks for leaving the comment as others will likely see it and should try it for themselves!
As I mentioned at the beginning, we've certainly been using that (as well as VASSAL). I find there comes a time, however, when I want to get away from the screen and actually pick up and move the stuff with my hands. And we've seen your Altar of Freedom scenarios on Tabletop Simulator!
Thanks, Steve. I have Napoleon: Total War and actually really enjoy the naval battle portion of that game. It's probably one of the better wooden-ships-and-sails-era simulators I've seen!
Thanks Steve, I own a bunch of the leader games as well. I've never seen Victoria Cross II. I will have to look that one up. We often will sub the counters for miniatures, most notably in the Richard Borg series of Command and Colors games. 6mm or 15's work well and I have even seen it in 28's. Stay Safe and healthy. Cheers
When I play C&C solo, after I play a command card I randomly discard another one before redrawing the hand. Adds a little fog of war aspect without getting a completely new hand of cards each turn. I’m a big fan of the DVG series, especially Fleet Commander Nimitz.
U-boat Leader and Gato Leader by DVG are also both solid single player games against "AI" as is the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster fan campaign for Fantasy Flight Games' X-Wing.
Sorry for the late comment. I have been away from gaming for awhile, but after watching this video downloaded the game and have played through two campaigns. It seems that artillery, which was from my understanding was a crucial factor in contemporary planning, is under powered in this game. Can you comment in the context of game mechanics and unit balancing in table top gaming? Love the channel and the content you all are producing! Perfect blend of history and table top nerdom!
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy series (Red Thunder, Fortress Italy and Final Blitzkrieg make up the others) Incredibly accurate physics modelling, pretty good AI and brilliant if played with a human opponent via the internet
I would recommend a number of digital games by byzantine games and the lordz games studio, published by Slitherine ltd. These include Pike and shot: Campaigns, Field of glory 2 and sengoku jidai: Shadow of the shogun. All great digital wargames you can play solo or in multiplayer.
If I can recommend the Men of War game series (especially the first game and Assault Squad 2) besides having a fun campaign that allows you to use historical equipment and troops on a small - large scale; it also has a very well made editor where player can create their own battle or mission and an amazing community with dozens of workshops mods + tutorials on how to create mission, mass waves of troops, convoys, patrols, or just fun things. Another recommendation for players looking for a more realism feel but also some FPS action. Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm 1 for those played looking for WW2 content and RS2 for those looking for a Vietnam experience. I’d also recommend ARMA 3/2 both are good games for players who want a very modern feel to their games - taking 2000+ era. Arma 3 also has an amazing list of mods from additional factions to add into your editor list (yes has a scenario/mission editor for creating solo mission for yourself), as well as entire era/universe changes - want to play Halo (got it), want to play 40k (got it), want to fight in WW2 (got it).
I actually have a method of still war gaming with my buddies despite the distance: FaceTime and Skype. I manipulate the miniatures and the board, but they make the choices.
For computer games I recommend Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Battle from Strategy First. Shrapnel Games did the sequel, Austerlitz. It’s hard to find an original copy of Austerlitz. You can get both titles for download on old-games.com.
My favorite computer is Combat Mission from battlefront.com. No, not battlefront from New Zealand. These guys have been around a lot longer and have excellent combat simulation games that are either real time or turn by turn that are solo or multi-player. I love the series!
Battle Masters uses a deck of cards which determine what units get to move, so a similar system could be used for this, albeit it wouldn't be what most are used to
Someone mentioned Jagged Alliance 2, definitely recommend that but use the 1.13 patch. It's a fan-made mod that vastly expands the game through things like a much better inventory system, suppression, higher resolutions, and a million other options.
Get yourself a copy of Charles Stewart Grants programmed wargames scenarios and William Silvester's the solo wargaming guide. Putting these together plus most rulesets without to much extra thought you are well set up to start solo wargaming.
For my personal war gaming of reminding of how my Flames of War games will likely go is me playing the FPS Post Scriptum... minus the ear bashing of the the Epic sounds
Highly, highly recommend the older PC game Combat Mission by Battlefront. Specifically the first series CM Barbarossa to Berlin (CMBB) and CM Africa Korps (CMAK). Basically it is Adv Squad Leader for computer, 3D map with no hexes and using 3D men and tanks. We-go system with 1 minute turns. Solo or PBEM.
Liked and subscribed. Currently working on ways to evaluate how well one played all sides when playing solitaire. I thought of a new form of play where one does this and a judge or judges evaluates how well a player played all sides. If play is accurately recorded, it would allow for asynchronous play.
I just found your sight.where have you been? I have been trying to find players for years. This is great that you are doing but I can't find places to play troops to paint! I've been a gamer 15 yes ago and my group dissolved .l hope this was helpful.
The video games Hearts of Iron, Victoria 2, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings (which is free) are all amazing. Also the world series greatest board game, Go. Chess is fun too.
It's a tad gamey but Blitzkrieg Commander and its derivatives are real fun for solo WW2 and modern play, works for games from battalion to division scale and the basing is 'so long as it matches the other guy'.
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Sooo... does anyone remember the Avalon Hill days of play-by-mail? Were they way ahead of the times? The hardest part of playing with yourself... is the don't take sides part. Even though it's me vs me, I usually have a favorite me.
I played many using the AHIKS system now we have on line die rolling aps and screen cameras so why not set up some face-to-face gaming that way?
I've always tried to play both sides as to what their objective is in the Battle. Holland 44 get to the Paras in Arnhem to open the way into Germany. Germans stop them. Just be honest.
A.H. TRC. Russians: Delay the Germans just don't get completely wiped out. Time n space. Germans: Move FASTER!!!! Moscow. Leningrad. Workers. Screen south.
Tobruk A.H.. I've got German vehicles (GHQ) n Russians. Need Brits. Counters replaced!
I'll make up little tables 1d4 or 1d6 to fill any holes in my Me against mE game play.
A.H. Trireme. Replaced counters with mini's(need more).
AH 3rdR Played it twice solo. The world was slower in those days!
Longest Day and Squad Leader and Midway rocked
Wouldn't that take a long time?
"Ok, you play Waffen SS for daddy this afternoon, and I'll play My Little Pony tomorrow morning."
Sounds legit!
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Hint: Rainbow Dash gets to reroll attacks.
... and mummy will be pony this evening.
I want to combine both! Waffen SS vs My Little Pony! Can the power of friendship defeat Nazi Germany? Now one can find out!
A recommendation I have for solo gaming is Warhammer 40K Tactical objectives where a deck of cards influences your priorities or Bolt Action orders dice where you have to draw dice from a closed container. Also, to increase randomness, maybe use a D6 roll to influence decision making. Say, a squad has multiple opponents it could target. Assign each a value and roll for it. Treat the game as more of a battle report than a sporting event
Field of Glory 2 on Steam is almost a direct port of the table top game and covers a lot of different time periods from ancient to high medieval.
Clicked as soon as I could. I need this!
Sid Meier's Civil War game series was always one of my favorites. It's actually one of the things responsible for getting me interested in history in the first place.
I've just started playing the new Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord. It's a really good game.
I use Vassal. I live in Kansas City, and my Wargaming friend lives near Huston, Texas. He has incorporated the Vassel engine to run our Napoleonic battles. It has worked out well for us. As we are fighting the battle, we use Skype to talk to each other. Also, thanks LWTV for covering this timely subject.
Oh I would be interested in these games....
@@AP-514 Are you interested in the Napoleonic battles, I am talking about? If so , do you do Napoleonic wargaming, and if so, what rules do you currently use?
I’ve been away from my war gaming boards and miniatures for about 2 months now. I was going crazy, so I decided to take initiative and make my own war game. Now, I don’t have the money to get a whole new set of miniatures, but I did have enough money for a bunch of skittles and M&Ms, and it didn’t take long before I started making up a rule set in my head. I’ve recently started typing out the rule set, but I’ve already gotten in 4 games with myself. Proud to say I won all 4 times. I really recommend everyone try it if your in the same situation as me, as it’s very easy to make up a quick rule set, and it’s quite hard to want to favor a red piece of candy over a green one.
You have to try the Combat Mission series of video games by Battlefront.
I second this those games are the best
Agreed. Currently playing a mission from Red Thunder, the Russian Front version.
Just had to check if anyone mentioned COMBAT MISSION... COMBAT MISSION: Battle For Normandy, COMBAT MISSION: Fortress Italy, COMBAT MISSION: Red Thunder, COMBAT MISSION: Black Sea (Modern), COMBAT MISSION: Shock Force 2 or Shock Force. Your wargaming table brought to the computer screen (No homemade reverse periscopes needed for line of sight verification. ;P). Awesome community as well.
They are seriously expensive games. They appear great value- but that's irrelevant if you can afford them.
Can you guys check 4:22 and read the papaer.
Flashpoing Campaigns: Red Storm is a fantastic Cold War Gone Hot game on steam. Traditional hex and counter style, but with simultaneous turns. Each player gives commands, and then it plays out in real time. Depending on battlefield conditions, the nations involved and what is happening, each player can have a different turn length. NATO generally gets two or more order phases in for every Warsaw Pact order phase. Makes for a really fun time.
I've been enjoying Hearts of Iron 4, basically Axis and Allies on steroids.
The Hearts of Iron series is excellent. I just downloaded Panzer Corps 2 last week (it's the modern version of the old classic Panzer General series) and have been playing that constantly.
Another good series for more infantry tactics is the Close Combat series, super fun top down rts with rich strategy
brickzombie that’s a great game!
Combat Mission Series is great too if you like tactical realistic battlefields
My son loves HOI 4, but I'm way too analog for that
Whily IGOUGO is a solid system for solo-play, the king of soloing a game against yourself by playing both sides to their best is chit-pull activation. It randomizes the turn order and gives such a heavy fog of war that one simply cannot have a plan too big to follow but must go with the flow, to their best abilities.
"Man explains to bored Adults how to play with mini-figures"
We live in crazy times, no?
@@LittleWarsTV may I recommend you watch "on the Beach" (1959)
during these trying times?
th-cam.com/video/HusewgIe_1k/w-d-xo.html
Excellent video! For mass battles between 1700-1900, I have found "Field of Battle 2nd Edition" to give the best solo wargaming experience. Just a few days ago, I used them to re-fight the assault of Philip Sheridan's division on Missionary Ridge during the Chattanooga Campaign, and it gave an excellent, tense game. There are also adaptations for ancients and WWII titled "Pulse of Battle" and "Field of Battle WWII," respectively.
Good stuff, recommend Mount and Blade and Scourge of War as well. Cheers!
Bannerlord has basically been my saving grace since it game out.
The first Blitzkrieg PC game is a true Platoon+ sized Tabletop Simulator. It's realtime but pauseable, the graphics are as tabletopish as it can gets and it has a still active mod community that is releasing new scenarios, campaigns, maps etc. to this day!
I use my miniatures on my Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising board and love it, and I'm new to your channel and I'm also in Pennsylvania, would love to join in sometime.
This video is concerned with Solo gaming, so when World of Tanks snuck in, it got me thinking about multiplayer videogames - and currently the one I’ve invested hours in is Tabletop Simulator (TTS) on Steam, where you can download practically any board or miniatures game you can think of and in the comfort of your self isolated home, you can game with others across the internet. I can’t stress enough how great Tabletop Simulator is for actually simulating the table top experience digitally, practically one for one. If you can find your favourite war games, It allows you to download user made mods and test out new units and army lists before committing to their physical purchase. I think TTS needs a video all by itself! Highly recommended - it was a revelation to me when table top gaming friends started recommending it during the lockdown.
For solo wargaming with only a handful of miniatures, working with WW2-modern models, I highly recommend Black Ops from Osprey. Games which you start in the stealth mode have the "defending" player basically AI guided until you are spotted. You can play it almost entirely in solitare, followed by I-go-U-go with randomized "types" of units going each turn to keep you from overplanning.
Thanx for the Hank! Right off the bat you hooked me, lol.
Thanks for the guide! Social distancing is over but I have no one to play with so this is really helpful.
Great upload pertaining to the situation we all face. I've been playing Brigade Fire and Fury with reinforcing Brigades arriving on die rolls on the various roads I have leading into the table. It has worked really well.
I would however point out a very good exception to the IGO-UGO recommendation. Chain of Command and Sharp Practice play brilliantly as a solo games, and I've done so many a time.....before the Coronavirus..... Just call me Billy-no-mates.....
Excellent video! Solo wargaming is one of the reasons I tend to prefer IGO-UGO systems. I also like to use boardgames for campaigns, and miniatures for fighting individual battles within a campaign.
Absolutely. The biggest campaign I've ever run was a Coral Sea battle that used the old game Flat Top for operation movement, but then we fought the battles using GQ3.
Sounds great, Steve. My current campaign for Caesar’s Gallic Wars uses the boardgame Falling Sky for strategic movement, and Age of Hannibal for the individual battles.
I can personally recommend Mage Knight, which while it really couldn’t be considered a war game, is still one of the best single player experiences. Also, diplomacy online with six friends if you have them.
If you have six friends now, you may not have six friends after Diplomacy! Our club has used Vassal to run a number of board games remotely.
I'm assuming the board game, correct? As the miniatures game (1.0 and 2.0) arent really that far from 'real' wargames. Complete agree with your description though, I have 7 copies of the board game to make large table spanning maps.
Thanks for the heads up re. Ultimate General. It is a genuinely challenging game. There is a depth to the game which is not apparent at first glance - such as the reload time of various muskets, etc. I'm impressed! Thank you.
There is a series of counter-insurgency (COIN) board games in which as many as three players can be programmed. The last time I played "Liberty or Death" it was the native Americans rather than the rebel colonists who one the American Revolution. (I was playing British)
Absolutely! Andean Abyss -- the very first COIN series game -- was on the table behind me in the video. Still one of my favorite boardgames ever (though I find the bots a little tedious to work with, honestly.)
For Navy Fans there's _Rule the Waves_ which puts you in the boots of the Admiral for a nation's Navy from 1900 to 1925 (1955 in the 2nd game) You design your ship, deal with politics, and fight battles. It even gives British ship an increased chance of detonation to reflect Jutland.
A great game for those not wishing to spend money on video games, are Steel Panthers: WW2, and Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank. Both of these games are absolutely free and are regularly updated. It's great for a turn-based hex-tactical game. I had loads of fun setting up my own D-Day parachute and para-glider scenarios, as well as modern-day scenarios and fictional cold war ones.
Another good multi-player online game is Wargame Red Dragon. It's a cold war RTS where you don't know where the enemy units are until you find them but unlike most other RTS games you know what the map looks like. The devs have done their best to make the combat as realistic as possible.
I can definitely vouch for the THW system! It's built for SOLO, but can be played cooperatively and head-to-head just as well! All in all, a great system, especially NUTS (my personal favorite). Hope to see some videos of the club playing through it!
Having said that, I enjoy the channel...great job all around and very entertaining. I like that you tie the games into the actual historical context of the scenario being played....my favorite being the Battle of Endor (it's historical....from a certain point of view).
Additionally, I'd like to see a video play through of DH 2!
Thanks guys, stay safe!
I doubt I need a guide on how to “play with myself”...
LOL!
Oh!, you Sinful Bastard!
You never know. Maybe there are some tricks you weren't aware of... ;)
@@jamatheo Agreed! Experimentation is King!
Groin sore and bruised, instructions unclear
encounter wargames are great for solo wargaming where the arrival of the troops is randomised based on dice rolls regarding arrival times and place of arrival with each side having an objective to take or hold and i always stipulate who is defender and who is attacker the defender can be more AI ifluenced holding objectives while the attacker is limited to a set number of moves plus a random additional number of moves. reinforcements may or may not arrive and in a variant amount to those expected either less or more which keeps you guessing on both sides allowing for the crucial element of suprise. for each side i sometimes throw in limitations on ammunition and randomise the capabilities of units only when they engage in action in relation to thier status veterans, conscripts etc which allows for the fog of war as a commander never really knows how his troops will react or feel about being thrown into certain situations.
Good video, I did a similar one recently and covered some of the same points, but I like the board game section! Also, a few of my newer videos are demonstrations of playing solo.
I like to assign each unit an alignment, like in D&D, some can always use the same alignment for each unit or you can roll randomly each time. They will really start manifesting very distinct personalities, here are some general examples, you can even have two units of the same alignment fight, but you can alter them as you like...it's your game.
*1D6 1-2 Good, 2-3 Neutral, 5-6 Evil
Good: Never leaves a man behind and tries to recover bodies as soon as possible, makes a priority to aid non-combatants and allies, and takes prisoners alive if at all possible. Strong morale.
Neutral: Doesn't take unnecessary chances, moves methodically and is best in defensive situations, most versatile unit but also likely to withdraw/fall back or retreat if the opportunity presents itself and they take heavy losses in a single confrontation (1/4 to 1/3 ?). If they are reduced to 1/4 or below maximum strength with no escape they will surrender. Low morale.
Evil: Very aggressive, will not retreat, takes most direct course of action possible, will not take prisoners unless that is the direct objective...in all other cases they execute prisoners. Moderate morale.
Tinker with it to suit you, it does make solo play better (my opinion) because it stops you from playing both sides the same way every time, like solo checkers or tick-tack-toe.
Bloody Mohawk and Savage Wilderness board games by Lock n Load can be converted to miniatures for each scenario. One counter is ten figures each hex is 12 inches. War game vault has the pdf version.
I know it's probably classed as old but I love the Close Combat series of games. The AI is amazing and is historical
@@IronIvanKeith I'd love to get a copy of the new one but doing have a PC anymore ☹
3 was my favorite as well.
because who doesnt enjoy playing with themself..?
a b Gamers are well used to playing with themselves.
At 85 its not as much fun as it used to be
The COIN series of board games are excellent for solo play. I’ve played Fire in the Lake, their Vietnam war game, several times since the quarantine started and it still hasn’t gotten old
Wargame: European Escalation is a great tie for PC, especially if you're a Cold War era fan! The logistics system can be a bit frustrating, but it does force you to exercise economy of force. It also doesn't suffer from the "he who clicks most, wins" drawback of most RTS games.
Although I’m not much of a fan of historical war gaming, I did enjoy your thoughts in this video.
Tigers on the Hunt. It reminds me of ASL sadly, I miss the Saturday afternoon confrontations with my friend across the table, but this will do.
We are currently playing a ‘play by e mail’ game using the strategic grid game of Rommel where one person sets up the table at home and takes photos of the table each turn. He asks for instructions from each player on their respective turn and then carries out the orders and resolves combat. It’s working well so far.
Outstanding video on a challenging topic.Having done gaming with H.G. Wells 'Little Wars' to trying to create a dice throw AI chart to resolve movement and combat, the author covers a wide range of ideas. Also, your southern accent on 'Little Wars T.V.' is quite good.
Good episode Steve. Very good approaches and most notably the section on crossplay of board with minis. On the "play with yourself" and if one takes a "split personality" thing the wargame actually becomes challenging - or a zero sum :D ... Regarding "wargames with miniatures" in the computer Field of Glory 2 also from Slitherine deserves a notable mention in my humble opinion :) Thanks LWTV team and godspeed.
Absolutely take sides! Why not? The idea is to have fun, but you’re still thinking in two person terms. Play as your favourite side, but give the other side many advantages, so you have to fight for the win. Or have lots of different winning conditions based on points, and keep them secret from yourself. Play the game, total up the conditions matched and points one to see which side wins.
In general, I agree with your points involving playing most wargames solo. I have found the one exception to this being Command Post games' Pub Battles. Pub Battles is a 2 or more player, system that uses a chit pull mechanic. The chit pull tends to make a mess of carefully laid plans as the chaos of war tends to render those plans short lived, it's about simple plans that you can adapt on the fly.
I find that the FoW issue is simply handled by the player not reacting to things the commanders wouldn't know about. If an issue comes up (would they have guessed correctly?) I find I can resolve it with a die roll.
The system is a command focused army level game. This means the players represent the army commander, with Corps HQs, and divisional blocks. It is a black powder era, quick playing system that easily handles large battles like Waterloo, Borodino, and Gettysburg in an evening. If that level of simulation and era is enjoyable to you, this might be a great option.
(disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Command Post Games, I just enjoy playing solo, and think this is one of the best solo options)
Yay!!! I was so excited for a new and unexpected episode!!
C.S. Grant did an outstanding book on solo miniature games: Programmed Wargame Scenarios. Sadly, out of print, but still available sometimes from collector book stores.
ALSO: Some friends of mine and I have evolved a fun kind of "Virtual Kriegspiel." Two players set up tables with web cams, the moderator uses Zoom and officiates the "fog of war."
You can do this with email too, it's just a LOT slower... with zoom you can real-time the game and it's fun to moderate too, since you get to see the opponents fumbling around in the unknown.
Just a heads up: the group that made Ultimate General: Gettysburg and Ultimate General: Civil War are making/have made a naval game called Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnaughts. Looks pretty awesome!
They're also making a game called Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail
I've been watching both developments with interest!
Great video, Little Wars TV is terrific! 👍👍
Great video. A lot of boardgames wargames are really moving into some fantastic areas - the COIN series from GMT are superb for solo gaming (& I say this as a long time & dedicated miniatures gamer).
Kinda wanna get that Nuts! Rule set but use all the custom lego minifigs and vehicles I have sitting on a shelf
Another thing I can recommend to anyone wanting an American Civil War experience is the ACW Hardcore mod for Napoleon Total War, it is only multiplayer and not campaign since Napoleon doesn't allow custom campaigns. Almost every major battle during the war has a map in the mod and the creators of the mod have created every regiment at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
Excellent recommendation, thank you! I've played a lot of Napoleon Total War.
One game I've really been meaning to try is Piquet. The basic rules are generic, but with specific rulesets for ancients to WW2. It looks like it would be very good, at least through the ACW.
It has a specific-to-each-army card driven turn sequence, so it ought to be great for solo games.
Ulitmate General: Civil War feels like a toy soldier set brought to life. I love it so much and wish the devs would implement some kind of multiplayer to it
i was looking into it... do u think it's playable with a trackpad or do u need a mouse?
@@ranxerox76D super late reply but yea you definitely could. It may require slowing the game down to be able to keep up with changes on the battlefield since trackpads is slower than mouse, but I dont see why not
Thanks for a really great video, i missed watching you guys play out historical battles :)
Also, if you enjoy X-Com, you can give Jagged Alliance 2 a try, it's an older title but one of my favorites. Combines squad level, turn-based fights with a strategic layer of planing, equipping and training your troops
Recently ,I've been building up my Rev.War Britain's swoppets.. I'm using a Featherstone book that I've had for a few years. I soloed my own scenario Secure the Highway. I used dice rolls for base line position and then chance cards with rolls of basic tactical options. Anyway its fun. I'll have to pick up Black Powder but I like my Featherstone.
Another awesome video...
For solitaire wargaming i recommend Stages of Siege Games by VPG like Hapsburg Eclipse (Play Austria-Hungary in WW1) and Horse and Musket by Hollandspiele (replacing Counters with miniatures)
In regard to digital tabletop games, I think you missed Field of Glory 2, which covers now antiquity to early middle ages. Are some of you playing that one?
There were some games in your list I didn't know yet - thanks for sharing!
@topic: DBA is also a great game to play solo due to the small amount of miniatures and terrain features needed.
It's also an incredible opportunity to get painting projects done !
Love hex and counters by the way. It's nice you mention them. 😊👍
Hey, you guys reeaaally need to check out John Tiller’s videogames (turn based) or the Scourge of War series (real time). These will give you a huge variety of settings, and I think you may find both of them much more satisfying than Total War or Ultimate General.
I warmly recommend the videogame Gary Garbys War in the East. Very realistic yet require alot of time to grasp.
Conflict of Heroes. Happy to have invested in the single player expansion a few months ago. Also RAF Battle of Britain 1940 has a nice single player mode included.
Awesome video! I also have heard nice things about Rangers of Shadow Deep (which is a solo cross between a wargame, an RPG and a Dungeon Crawler) and I'm currently trying World at War 85: Storming the Gap (lock'n'load publishing) with a solo assistant they produced as well - this last one is a hex and counter wargame but highly suitable for miniatures - they even provide cards to use miniatures and a board.
thanks for the tips and lifting up our morale on this side of the planet :)
X-COM rocks I have loved that game series for many years!.
Great video! Since this lock down I’ve gotten into solo gaming more and I’m glad to see it given some love. I would like to recommend the D-Day series by Decision Games, Omaha Beach and Peleliu specifically. John Butterfield has absolutely won me over with these games. It is a hex series but with the event deck mechanic it’s able make each play through different. Can not recommend enough. (DDay at Omaha is the harder to acquire of the two.)
I can't believe you guys left out Chain of Command - the command dice mechanic is amazing for solo play because you literally have no idea what the other side will have for activation resources to use in their next turn. Add in the unknown moment at which you'll accrue a complete "Chain of Command Die" and it makes for incredibly tense solo games. And it is top date the _only_ game I've ever played where I have been able to ambush _myself_ and have it actually be a total surprise! You lose a little bit in being unable to make surprise support unit selections, but I actually just described each particular scenario to a friend and asked, "what would you select under these conditions?" It worked great, and even the Patrol Phase can be surprising because as you walk around the table you'll see new opportunities. tl;dr - I _highly_ recommend Chain of Command!
If you've checked out the ratings we gave Chain of Command on the LWTV website you'll see why I left it unmentioned. While there are many, many people like yourself who love Chain of Command (and some in our club), I can't stand it. I've never had fun playing it. But that's just me. Thanks for leaving the comment as others will likely see it and should try it for themselves!
Don’t forget tabletop simulator! I have a ton of altar of freedom scenarios made
As I mentioned at the beginning, we've certainly been using that (as well as VASSAL). I find there comes a time, however, when I want to get away from the screen and actually pick up and move the stuff with my hands.
And we've seen your Altar of Freedom scenarios on Tabletop Simulator!
Thanks, Steve. I have Napoleon: Total War and actually really enjoy the naval battle portion of that game. It's probably one of the better wooden-ships-and-sails-era simulators I've seen!
I agree!
Thanks Steve, I own a bunch of the leader games as well. I've never seen Victoria Cross II. I will have to look that one up. We often will sub the counters for miniatures, most notably in the Richard Borg series of Command and Colors games. 6mm or 15's work well and I have even seen it in 28's. Stay Safe and healthy. Cheers
When I play C&C solo, after I play a command card I randomly discard another one before redrawing the hand. Adds a little fog of war aspect without getting a completely new hand of cards each turn.
I’m a big fan of the DVG series, especially Fleet Commander Nimitz.
U-boat Leader and Gato Leader by DVG are also both solid single player games against "AI" as is the Heroes of the Aturi Cluster fan campaign for Fantasy Flight Games' X-Wing.
Sorry for the late comment. I have been away from gaming for awhile, but after watching this video downloaded the game and have played through two campaigns. It seems that artillery, which was from my understanding was a crucial factor in contemporary planning, is under powered in this game. Can you comment in the context of game mechanics and unit balancing in table top gaming?
Love the channel and the content you all are producing! Perfect blend of history and table top nerdom!
Don't you guys spend most of your time painting & preparing your glorious battlefields anyway?
Plenty of painting and crafting is taking place, no doubt. But it's nice to break up the work with some play!
I have been doing a TON of painting and battlefield design......have to fill the time!
Thank you for the suggestions and information. I’m trying to do something along these lines with miniatures as well.
I'm 68 and we played Avalon Hs at friends houses and the dorm. I've played several
European wars 4 is a good game where you control the army from various nations during the Napoleonic wars with other scenarios in the America’s
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy series (Red Thunder, Fortress Italy and Final Blitzkrieg make up the others) Incredibly accurate physics modelling, pretty good AI and brilliant if played with a human opponent via the internet
I would recommend a number of digital games by byzantine games and the lordz games studio, published by Slitherine ltd. These include Pike and shot: Campaigns, Field of glory 2 and sengoku jidai: Shadow of the shogun. All great digital wargames you can play solo or in multiplayer.
Excellent suggestions--Field of Glory definitely plays like a miniature tabletop wargame.
@@LittleWarsTV Indeed it does. It is a fantastic substitute for a tabletop wargame.
If I can recommend the Men of War game series (especially the first game and Assault Squad 2) besides having a fun campaign that allows you to use historical equipment and troops on a small - large scale; it also has a very well made editor where player can create their own battle or mission and an amazing community with dozens of workshops mods + tutorials on how to create mission, mass waves of troops, convoys, patrols, or just fun things.
Another recommendation for players looking for a more realism feel but also some FPS action.
Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm 1 for those played looking for WW2 content and RS2 for those looking for a Vietnam experience.
I’d also recommend ARMA 3/2 both are good games for players who want a very modern feel to their games - taking 2000+ era. Arma 3 also has an amazing list of mods from additional factions to add into your editor list (yes has a scenario/mission editor for creating solo mission for yourself), as well as entire era/universe changes - want to play Halo (got it), want to play 40k (got it), want to fight in WW2 (got it).
I actually have a method of still war gaming with my buddies despite the distance: FaceTime and Skype. I manipulate the miniatures and the board, but they make the choices.
For computer games I recommend Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Battle from Strategy First. Shrapnel Games did the sequel, Austerlitz. It’s hard to find an original copy of Austerlitz. You can get both titles for download on old-games.com.
My favorite computer is Combat Mission from battlefront.com. No, not battlefront from New Zealand. These guys have been around a lot longer and have excellent combat simulation games that are either real time or turn by turn that are solo or multi-player. I love the series!
Loving it already
Great video! I would recom the latest Battletech videogame. Great tabletop feel.
Oh yeah, I've put plenty of hours into that one. I've been playing tabletop Battletech off and on since it came out back in the 80s.
Battle Masters uses a deck of cards which determine what units get to move, so a similar system could be used for this, albeit it wouldn't be what most are used to
Someone mentioned Jagged Alliance 2, definitely recommend that but use the 1.13 patch. It's a fan-made mod that vastly expands the game through things like a much better inventory system, suppression, higher resolutions, and a million other options.
Get yourself a copy of Charles Stewart Grants programmed wargames scenarios and William Silvester's the solo wargaming guide. Putting these together plus most rulesets without to much extra thought you are well set up to start solo wargaming.
For my personal war gaming of reminding of how my Flames of War games will likely go is me playing the FPS Post Scriptum... minus the ear bashing of the the Epic sounds
Also, I forgot Tin Soldier: Alexander. It’s even made to look like a table top wargame.
Is it on steam?
@@MC-pt8kv Matrix Games sell it.
Great video as always!
Highly, highly recommend the older PC game Combat Mission by Battlefront. Specifically the first series CM Barbarossa to Berlin (CMBB) and CM Africa Korps (CMAK). Basically it is Adv Squad Leader for computer, 3D map with no hexes and using 3D men and tanks. We-go system with 1 minute turns. Solo or PBEM.
Liked and subscribed. Currently working on ways to evaluate how well one played all sides when playing solitaire. I thought of a new form of play where one does this and a judge or judges evaluates how well a player played all sides. If play is accurately recorded, it would allow for asynchronous play.
I just found your sight.where have you been? I have been trying to find players for years. This is great that you are doing but I can't find places to play troops to paint! I've been a gamer 15 yes ago and my group dissolved .l hope this was helpful.
The video games Hearts of Iron, Victoria 2, Europa Universalis, and Crusader Kings (which is free) are all amazing. Also the world series greatest board game, Go. Chess is fun too.
It's a tad gamey but Blitzkrieg Commander and its derivatives are real fun for solo WW2 and modern play, works for games from battalion to division scale and the basing is 'so long as it matches the other guy'.
Oh forgot, liked n subscribed.👍
Thanks for the sub!