Best Value Wargames | Monthly Debrief - S4E6 | June 2024 | The Players' Aid

A chaptering would have been welcome.

You made an hour & 30 min fly by! Thanks!

And also as another point for the Bang-for-Buck value from Combat Commander: The infinite replayability from the use of the Random Scenario Generator- which is a fine meta-game in and of itself!

Have a great trip to WBC, Grant.

Time-to-money ratio is one of the main things I look for in a game. Hands down the best value I’ve gotten was from Axis Empires: Totaler Krieg! (2011), and I only got it about three months ago! I’ll be picking up the Ultimate Edition at some point once I feel like I’ve run out of strategies and experiments within the parameters of the base game, but that’ll still be a while from now!

Nice - SAS Rogue. Waiting for that on my doorstep too!!

Normandy '44 is a bit of a grind, if only they had increased the resolution of the game by a factor of 2. Much prefer Holland '44 and Ardennes '44. I hear Salerno '44 is a good one for beginners to get into the system. Love high bang-for-buck games like Men of Iron Tri-Pack. While some of the recent GCACW offerings have been expensive (e.g. Roads to Gettysburg II, On to Richmond II), the hours of enjoyment per dollar ratio is still very high. And thumbs up for mentioning the Great Battles of History series, endless fun with those recent releases (Hoplite is coming soonish).

Thanks for featuring my book games guys - really appreciate it 👍🏻

Anthony & Cleopatra was not good either- pretty but lacking.

Cannot recommend attendance at WBC any longer. It’s in the middle of nowhere and the guy who runs it, Ken, can be tyrannical with no Board oversight of his decisions. They don’t tolerate criticism, you’ll be kicked from their Facebook the minute you say anything negative.

Hey guys!! Thanks for the mention of Guadalcanal - The Battle for Henderson Field!! Much appreciated :) :) And on the topic of value for money, the game has 4 Difficulty Levels and 10 different Variant options, providing a great deal of 'bang for your buck' :)

I absolutely love Rebel Fury. Nice, not complex and fun hex & counter game. Plays very good solo as well. Sometimes you get really fun and unexpected results. In the Fredericksburg scenario I charged the Confederates on the hill, in a defensible position, with the Union. The odds were stacked very much against the Union, but the dice rolls came out very much in favor of the Union and the Confederates had to retreat. So good. In another part of that same battle the Union and Confederates ended up in a situation where the Confederates counter attacked only for that dice roll to end up with the Confederates again retreating. It really is bang for your buck. I paid 65 Euros for 6 battles and hours of replayability as the battles can be played in one sitting.

Great episode, guys!
Wild blue yonder and a couple of phones with FaceTime style video gave my gaming buddy and I a huge amount of distanced play time during the Covid lockdown.

thank you for another informative show

awesome vid <3

My shelf of shame: Normandy ‘44, Atlantic chase, us civil war, unconditional surrender, Russian campaign. Congrats on addressing yours.

I bought Pyrates earlier this year, it does not work for me as a solo game, it really needs to be described and sold as a multi-player game.

Grant, have you been workng out? You look great. Regarding your split box Fire in the Lake -- book-binding glue will fix that right up.

I used to play Machiavelli a lot 10 to 15 years ago, but we could never get the sweet spot of 8 players. Not right now, as my life is not great, but if you are ever short of a player, I would be interested. I can contact you on BGG if you are interested.

So funny. I was just debating if I should buy a copy of Samurai battles someone is selling for $40

Really enjoying Rebel Fury, and very much looking forward to Volume2.

How come you guys have never looked at the Band of Brothers series on the channel. Considering you have played pretty much all of the other comparable tactical systems it would be interesting to get your view on Band of Brothers.

Always enjoy the Debriefs, full of insight and information. Never been into working out hours per £, if the game gets played and you enjoy it, the investment has been worth it. Many thanks Gentlemen.

Really enjoying these debrief videos as I’m just getting into the hobby. Lots of great recommendations and insights. Thanks for doing ‘em!

Interesting the comment on Wild Blue Yonder being fairly luck dependent and the game sitting next to it, Fighters of the Pacific, has a zero luck factor. No dice, no cards. So there's that. I know my son can get very frustrated with a bigger game when he's planned his strategy out and then it all goes down the drain due to the dice or cards. So he likes a game where it's all on him. Of course, I usually tell him there are plenty of historical military leaders that have had the same experience in real battles. Wild Blue Yonder isn't like that for him since it is so light and quick.

Gest is one of those words I know the meaning of, can read and spell but pronounce wrong.

Divide price by hours spent being entertained is a good way to think about the value of entertainment dollars spent. I remember my Dad questioning the expense of the hobby as a kid. And I remember my mother saying, "They read all the time, and it keeps them out of trouble for hours on end."

Mike Lambo games are great! Fields of Normandy XL 👍👍👍

Love your chats on Conventions, in Australia we have nothing at all, i'm a solo only player , so 4-6 players games are not for me , i want to come to the states , tossing up Buckeye fest or WBC ? , keep up the good work.

With Combat Commander you also get the random scenario generator which is the chef’s kiss of the system. Infinitely replayable.

In the tactical series category I really like the Last Hundred Yards games.

I agree with your opinion of Ides of March. Had almost exactly the same thoughts when I played it.

I have a copy of Unconditional Surrender with the mounted maps. You can have it for free, if you want it. Also Ancients runs to expansion 6.

Where did you buy the dice?

"Save South Vietnam" for me is hands down the most played game I've had in ages. Money well spent and waiting for the add ons to come in!

You forgot to mention your five-way game of Crisis 1914 that we played in the month of June. Great multi-player and played in great company.

Would be great if the Pericles game makes it onto YT… No pressure… ;-)

I'm down for JoCo at WBC - Grant!

A game is only of value if it's played, yes games can be sold on the second hand market, but why have it if it's not getting played

Atlantic Sentinels. I ran into so many wolf packs on my first convoy. I'm surprised any ships made it to Britain. But boy lots of fun.

Any game that you can get to the table more often is a great value. I agree Grant, 13 Days and Fort Sumter are ones that I can play with my wife too.

Re: INVASION: MALTA game… The Malta assault scenario is hypothetical; the Leros battle scenario is historical — it really happened. (Last German victory in the Med.)

Great video, I looked for the review of Gest of Robinhood, but could not find it on your channel. Hope to see you at the WBC Grant.

Sal Vista has been working on a Pacific version of U.S. for sometime now. I don't know what the status is though.

I think Arcs is about to replace Pax Pamir as our 4p game group's 'go-to game'. So easy to play, so hard to win.

Nice update. Just so happens I was clipping/organizing my copy of Day of Days while watching.

🌊. Post card games ,,,, !!! Up Front , is excellent value still , doesn't hog the table , points based, with some imagination goes all the way to the Korean war , russian Vs American/ British/ Australian, Campaign , I will never get rid of my copy son 🐬

Alexander is such a value that I am selling off Caesar because I am never going to get to it. Same would have been true if I had been more of a Caesar guy, but Alexander is more my theme of choice.

If I find a game replayable, it is a good value. That can be because it's a multiple game pack, has many scenarios, supports different strategies, or is just so fun and/or interesting to play that I want to go back to it. I measure value in terms of time as well as money. The more I get BACK from a game, regardless of how much I put INTO it, is what makes it valuable to me.

For SD Hist Con, let me know what you want to play and I'll have Harold bring his copy.