Tabletop strategy games

[Rantz]

Do you have any experience with them? Risk would be the obvious example, but that's probably at the lower end of the complexity scale as far as tabletop strategies go.

I hadn't tried anything more complex than Risk until a few weeks ago when some of my new coworkers lured me over to the dark side and we played Dominion and Elder Sign. Which were both fun (Dominion more so) but complicated (Elder Sign more so). Tonight we joined up with a few new recruits and played the Game of Thrones board game. It seemed incredibly complicated at first, but it wasn't too bad after you got into it. Sadly, by that time, half the game had already passed, and a few misguided attacks left me stranded at Pyke with my Greyjoys. Accurate storywise, but not so great strategically. Next time, though! It was a really good time.

[Iceglow]

When people mention Tabletop Strategy games my mind generally goes towards Warhammer and other games involving minatures such as Battletech.

I used to play Warhammer pretty avidly. I played Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer 40,000 Battlefleet Gothic (space battles involving the fleets of various factions from the 40k universe, was pretty cool because you had to think of drift/yaw and torpedo angles), Warhammer - Mordenheim, Warhammer 40,000 Epic extra infothe minatures for this truly were minature. we're talking individual infantry moon models were about 4mm tall. Each army arrayed it's infantry in fire teams of 5 essentially it allowed for bigger scale battles to be fought in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, with 100ft Titans stomping around the battlefield at about 10 inches tall, Warhammer Fantasy (a little of this, mostly I painted armies for people) and Warhammer 40,000 Necromunda (got in to this because of Mordenheim, it essentially played almost the same) I also did the odd game of Warhammer 40,000 based on Space Hulk rules but I never actually took a turn with true Space Hulk.

Warhammer is pretty good fun, I enjoyed it especially the 40k variant and the Mordenheim variants (mostly because the rules stated that for a character/trooper to have wargear assigned that item had to be depicted on the model so I'd have lots of work customizing my models and also still leaving space for extra bits here and there)

For some people, painting the models is the loneliest of chores and they can't wait to be done with it. With others like myself I could spend weeks painting a single squad of soldiers to a perfect level.

I still get the temptation to pick up some models and paints and get myself painting them again at the very least however they cost a fortune and I'm not sure I'm geek enough these days to get away with having such an expensive and childish hobby. Who knows I may one day get sucked back in, I'm just sad that Mordenheim, Epic 40k (was dropped when 40k Apocalypse was released, a set of rules enabling much larger scale battles in full scale models. However Epic's hundreds of infantry, bomber fleets of flyers and hulking titans will still hold a place in my heart), Battlefleet Gothic and Necromunda were all discontinued especially since they were done so for the rather foolish LOTR table top game Citadel made.

I play Risk on the rare time my friends happen to be like "oooh Risk!" however I don't find it anywhere near as tactical as true table top strategies like warhammer and so get bored quickly.

[Levian]

I used to play Axis and Allies when I was a kid. and when I say play, I mean play around with the tank and plane figurines by myself because I didn't have anyone else to play the actual game with.

I also had Warhammer and even knew all the rules, but again, no one to play with. The figurines were neat, though.

My childhood sounds kinda sad now.

[Alpha2099]

For a time, I played HeroClix, which I don't know if anyone has heard of. If you've heard of Mage Knight, it was an offshoot of that, just with comic book characters. I gave up on it after only a few years because 1) it was expensive to keep up with, and 2) the game got much too confusing with new sets and rule changes.

[Pike]

Stratego is amazing. It's always been my favorite board game.

[Slothy]

For a time, I played HeroClix, which I don't know if anyone has heard of.

Played Heroclix quite avidly for years. Haven't really played it in the last year or so, and actually sold a lot of my figures to help fund my electronic drum kit a couple of months ago. I loved the game, but grew tired of buying so many figures and keeping up with the changes in every set. My friends who played regularly also seemed to let it fall by the way side at the same time.

I took up Warhammer 40k with some of them a few months later, so I've been playing that for the last year or so. Equally as annoying with buying figures at times, and the initial investment in getting an army together is far higher than Heroclix was, but I enjoy it, and I enjoy the more hobby oriented aspects of painting, and modding as well so it tickles the creative side as well as fulfilling an innate desire to kill space marines.

[Bolivar]

Stratego is amazing. It's always been my favorite board game.

Liked stratego a lot back in the day, I suppose we might as well throw around battleship for that matter haha...

Risk i liked as well, but my family plays scrabble and its hard to convince them to set aside potentially 6 hours for a strategy game I'll probably beat them at. and I don't know if it counts because there's no combat but settlers of catan is something i recently got into that was a lot of fun and took a decent amount of hard thinking.

I find the idea of Warhammer immensely appealing, but I don't play it for the same reason I don't play Magic, even though I have thousands of cards, or Dungeons & Dragons, even though I have an assortment of books

I have no one to play it with

[Jinx]

RISK MAN RISK

I'm really good at Risk, and I love it.

[escobert]

I dunno if it counts but, Stratego is my all time favorite board game.

[chionos]

Hardcore table-topper here. Play Axis&Allies on a weekly basis, which is to Risk what Maserati is to Playskool. Been playing Twilight Imperium the last few weeks, which is to A&A what Firefly was to Stagecoach.
We've also been completely obsessed with this game called King of Tokyo, which is freakin' addictive, almost dangerously so. It was made by a guy who made some other game that's moderately popular, something called Magic: the Obsession, or something like that. Richard Garfield knows how to make simple, fun, accessible games. Stratego's pretty classic. I need a new set though, I'm missing two red bombs, a blue spy, and a blue 9. So I haven't played it in several years, which is sad really.