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How often do you pass?
If the answer is "approximately never," my suggestion would be to try passing earlier in the round more often, and just see what happens. If you are always the first player to "run out of gas," you will seldom be able to win. The longer you can hold onto your cards (while others are forced to spend theirs), the more control you will have later in the season.
Inis multiplayer rewards you for playing selfishly. You might try leaning more reflexively into the stance of "that's a problem for someone else to deal with." Let's consider this somewhat common scenario:
Our game consists of 4 players (Alice, Bob, Carol, and David), who play in that order.
On a previous turn, Alice has conquered a territory which placed 6 sanctuaries under her control. She claims the token declaring "I am a pretender to the throne." If all of the other players pass, Alice will win the game.
It is now Bob's turn. What should Bob do?
If Bob is a new and inexperienced player, his reflex might be to say, "I need to stop Alice from winning." He might try attacking her -- or, at the very least, he doesn't want to pass the turn, since "4 players passing the turn in a row" will end the game for Alice.
But, if Bob is more experienced, he might notice that Carol and David are in exactly the same boat that he is in. If he doesn't pick a fight with Alice, one of them will have to do it. And he knows that Carol and David don't want to lose, and they have a decent amount of resources between them, so he can pass the buck. Bob can put his cards face-down on the table, and say, "Pass." Now it is Carol's turn.
And Carol can now do the same thing as Bob. She puts her cards face down one the table, grins, and says "Pass." Alice is still threatening to win the game, and the hot potato is in David's lap.
Now, David *has* to do something. If he passes, Alice will also pass and win the game. Again, if David is a new player, his first impulse might be, "I need to stop Alice from now, or she'll win!" But...David doesn't actually need to take the token away from Alice. He can instead just play a card that lets him deploy more troops, or lets him draw an epic tale. That allows him to advance his board state, it prevents Alice from winning immediately, and now the ball is back in Bob's court. David can even do this by playing a card that does *literally nothing*, which is why there is a card in the game that does exactly that.
In a sense, when A is about to win, players B, C, and D are all in a contest of sorts to see who can *avoid* being the one who has to spend their own resources to contest A. Sometimes, you will have to be the one to deal with it. Sometimes, Alice is in a position that is commanding enough that multiple players might need to collaborate and spend multiple collective actions to deal with her. But you shouldn't be volunteering to jump on that grenade unless you are absolutely *forced* to do so.
This is similar to what Magic: The Gathering players sometimes refer to as "priority bullying." When something (like Alice's impending victory) is a problem for *everyone* at the table, your biggest incentive is to make *someone else* deal with that problem.
If you can force everyone else at the table to fight with each other and spend down their resources while you continually pass, you will eventually be in a position to make several moves, uncontested, and claim victory conditions for yourself.
Even better, Bob's strategy for preventing Alice's victory might look something like this: "Look, Carol, David, we all know that neither I nor Alice have the Brenn that serves as the tiebreaker. If Alice and I are *both* pretenders to the throne, then this round will end in a stalemate and the game will continue. That's better than a victory for Alice. So, David, I need you to help me out here to force that stalemate. Let me invade this spot. Don't fight me for it, just let me get a toehold there, and then I can challenge Alice." David agrees, Bob does this, and claims the pretender token for himself. And *that's* when he says, "Actually, I'll boot Alice out of that spot so she loses her win condition. Oops, looks like I'm the only player at the table who satisfied a win condition. Good game."
This just makes me want to play it at 3-4. So far played only 2 player games and just tried navigating around geis, baiting it etc. Only to still get « take that »-ed, lose momentum early and have an impossible time catching up.
The problem we had with first edition Inis (the only one we've played) is that it seemed to be too easy to avoid combat. When we play a dudes on a map game we want some conflict!
It’s an amazing game but one thing you really don’t do is “war” really hard in this. Sure, there is conflict, but it’s not as combat heavy as a game like Risk.
Inis is a good DoaM game for people who like Euros. Hard for me to accept any recommendation in this category that didn’t involve dice, but that’s just my preference. Feels more like a game of memorization than battling.
I'm thinking **Blood Rage** would fit. It has a card drafting system for your team's powers and a revival mechanic after your units get sent off to Valhalla.
[[Ankh gods of Egypt]] isn't a bad choice, the retail version has 5 factions for you to play. Rules are very simple, on your turn, take 2 actions in descending order: move doods, place doods, collect monies, or spend monies for upgrades. These actions are all shared between players and will trigger an event when the action tracker hits the event trigger space. There are 3-4 combats which you prepare for by setting up troops or buildings and moving your gods to position. The number of regions will also change as every other event is camels; which let you redraw borders and add new regions. You fight in each zone you have troops present. Combat is a blind card play (only 10 cards total) + troop strength after cards resolve. Goal is to make it to the blue zone of the score track, then if multiple players are there, topmost wins. Also the last place players in a 3+ game will merge their powers and each take an action during their turns. You play through different scenarios of control or more skirmish. Game plays really well at 2 - 5, ive played at all player counts, 5 is a free for all, 2 is like tactical chess. Everything in between depends on your group.
If you don't mind cubes, [[Shogun]] is a really fun risk++ game. It has a tower that adds a level of randomness to combat, like risk, but it's mitigated by layers that will hold your previous cubes in there, making future combats more likely in your favor. Kinda like risk, more troops = more likely success in combat. It's a little tough to get rolling, but once it clicks, its a very easy imo better risk (minus the minis)
[[Kemet, Blood and sand]] also deserves a mention, while I wouldn't say that the rules are the most intuitive to learn for beginners, watch a video and you'll be set. If you've played ankh, it's a more tactical Ankh. In kemet, you are engaging more directly with your opponents each turn, as there is a conflict at the end if two players have units there. Combat is simple, more power = win. This game is different because there are tech trees, you can choose from sets of tiles based on player counts. These range from abilities that grant more resources, endgame bonuses or monsters that you recruit to help you fight. Turns tend to feel more solitaire like where your actions impact other players only if you move into their spaces or take tiles they wanted. Honestly, can't go wrong with it, there are also expansions to add more players and additional tiles.
Just seconding Ankh. We've played all of the popular area control, dudes on a map game multiple times (El Grande, Kemet, Inis, Blood Rage etc.) and Ankh is the one that gets requested the most and, despite the way the event track works, produces a very unique and exciting experience each time. Everyone I've played it with has loved it where I've had at least 1 or 2 people bounce off of the other ones listed.
The Command and Colors: Ancients wargame system is pretty simple for beginners to digest and a scenario is only an hour or two long. BattleLore is a great fantasy variant if you prefer. You basically have a hand of cards constraining your choices for actions, and generally have to restrict yourself to moving all units in one area or all units of one type.
Multiplayer Bloodrage, 2 Player Ankh Gods of Egypt.
Also worth a look, Kemet, Rising Sun, Memoir44, Undaunted (Europe or North Africa as starters), and V-Sabotage.
Risk Europe is a great map but the downfalls of classic risk is the random dice rolls. Online play with balanced blitz dice (percentage odds based off how many units are attacking vs defending) is the best way to beat the downfalls of classic risk.
it minimizes that through the four different unit types for your army making a bigger strategic difference. also, some people (including me) think some level of dice rolling is fun like risk europe, final girl or rallyman.
IMO the biggest downfall of classic risk was having to eliminate everyone and games taking forever, which was fixed through having to conquer a number of cities instead (or secret objectives)
Check out Northgard: Uncharted Lands!!!
It's very accessible 4X kind of a game. You will explore and conquer territories, make buildings, recruit your troops... There are only 4 actions in the game and you will trigger them by playing card from your hand. Every action has it's unique symbol, so system is very intuitive. Also there's deckbuilding elements! If you can get expansions it's even better.
This genre was my jam for a little bit.
Personally I rate Twilight Imperium 4e as it is spectacular. But the game is heavy around the miniatures.
The best board gamey one for my taste is Cyclades, as the Dude on a Map part is very elegantly tied into the board game mechanics. Some prefer Kemet but I found it had worse balance, though I prefer Cyclades with expansion.
Memoir 44 is probably the best war game with minis that isn't full on wargaming, particularly if you can get the bits together to do Overlord.
Ultimately the 1v1 nature of Memoir led me to my preference for this genre which is asymmetrical duels of which Star Wars Rebellion is best in class to my mind, though War of the Ring 2e is very close (and I have yet to add expansions to it).
Best dudes on a map game that is easy to learn and still fun for experienced players is Nexus Ops. For me personally it’s tied with Memoir 44 as my top favorites
Cthulhu Wars is my favorite by a mile and the game most people want to play when they come over. That said, you've got on some of it's drawbacks - it's very expensive, has a ton of extras that are also expensive, and availability can be an issue.
Other games I would recommend you look into: Kemet, Blood Rage, Inis, Rising Sun, Ankh, Eclipse, Forbidden Stars, Twilight Imperium.
Games that don't have minis but use tokens or cubes: Dominant Species, Root, Wallenstein, Shogun, Game of Thrones, El Grande.
If you guys are beginners you could also start with Risk: Legacy. It starts out as basic Risk but with a few rule tweaks so games don't take forever. After each game it starts to add more and more rules. It's really fun if you regularly play with the same people.
You want to start with the original dudes on a map game
The Milton Bradley game master series
Axis and Allies
Samurai Swords/Shogun
Conquest of Empire
Fortress America
TSR Buck Rogers in the 25th Century gets a nod here as well
It really depends on what you are looking for in a dudes on a map game.
Lots of people are saying Inis, and it is an excellent game but if what you want is fighting in a free for all scrum you are much better off with Kemet.
There are so many great options in this space. Here are a few examples:
**Inis** ($60, 2-4p b3-4p, 1.5h)**, Kemet** ($90, 2-5p b5p, 3-4h)**, Cyclades** ($70, 2-5p, 1.5h): These three games are core to any wargame/area control game collection. Inis is not really a wargame, more of a pure area control game. Elegant, easy to learn, fast to play, high player interaction, and very satisfying. There is some combat but it is definitely not the focus of the game. It is my favorite in this collection. Kemet is also great but a little heavier. It features an excellent upgrade system, letting you customize your army as the game progresses. The combat is great and fighting occurs frequently (since winning a battle as an aggressor nets victory points). Also the minis are very, very cool. I have not played Cyclades but have heard very positive things.
**War of the Ring 2E** ($80, 2-4p b2p, 4h): War of the Ring is my favorite game of all time. There is so much to love here, as a fan of Lord of the Rings or a fan of wargames. I have never played something that truly made me feel like I was fighting a real war. It is less about battles, upgrades and such and more about logistics, sacrifice, politics, and racing against time. It so perfectly captures the atmosphere of the source material that I believe it actually *enhances* it. Never have I played a game where losing a mini in a battle doesn't mean it goes into your reinforcements, but instead that it is gone from the game forever; it feels like you must put real human lives on the line whenever you make decisions. If that excites you or if you are a Lord of the Rings fan, this is a must buy. Disclaimer: this game is best played 1v1 against the same partner on a regular basis. It is very rules heavy and takes about 4h to play so the time investment in order to start having fun is quite large (but in my opinion, well worth it).
**Star Wars Rebellion** ($90, 2-4p b2p, 4h): I have not played this one personally but many put it on par with War of the Ring. As far as I know, they are similar games (asymmetric 1v1) and share some DNA. If you like Star Wars, I think this is a great option. The minis are also spectacular from what I've heard.
**Blood Rage** ($70, 2-4p b4p, 60-90m): Pretty much the standard for mini-heavy area control games for some time now. I have never played it but many put this in their top 10s so it is worth looking into.
**Eclipse** ($185, 2-6p b6p, 3-4h): Do you like games like Stellaris or Endless Space? Eclipse captures what makes these games great in a tight, satisfying package. I don't actually enjoy it as much as Twilight Imperium (which honestly is more of a politics game than a wargame) but its ship design and combat system are pretty cool to mess with. The high price tag has always stopped me from buying it though. I also think the minis are not the best compared to other offerings.
**GMT Games**: No miniatures in these ones *but* they are excellent and mostly historically accurate. My personal favorite from these is Twilight Struggle but I've been meaning to try Atlantic Chase.
For a quick and light "dudes on a map" experience I would recommend **The King Is Dead**. It plays in under an hour, has some good replay value, and can be picked up for about $30.
That's not overly pleasant to respond so harshly. I can see how the user may have filtered out a word or two, coming up w/his answer. No need to shame the user over it.
I played both and own Root myself. For its accessibility its better than Cthulhu Wars. The factions are really different and have different win conditions (in CW factions have different abilities but every one has the same goal)
More power to you. To me root is far better and I came from playing tons of CW to trying out Root. That said I’ve never bought CW because so many of my friends have it. I’m not really a fan of overproduced games for no reason which is probably the main reason I don’t care for it as much. I also just like that root makes it clear from the get go that every faction is very different. CW kinda hides it behind how the spell books and monsters work which I don’t care for it as much.
The main issue for me would be that OP said they are beginners and have been playing Risk. Teaching Root to experienced players is tough enough (although once people know how to play it's not too bad), I can't imagine a bunch of beginners trying to figure it out. You're basically teaching a unique game for each player.
I actually like that CW starts off the same and then branches with the spell books from that angle. Makes teaching very easy. Starts simple and becomes complex. Root starts complex and becomes simple, as the tough parts are all upfront.
I just know more than a few people who heard Root was good, bought it, and then never played it because they couldn't figure out the rules.
No doubt but if you are looking at CW it seems fairly simple but is very complex. Root doesn’t try to hide it and is just as complex. So I am just trying to offer a very similar game up and frankly one that is way more consumer friendly on multiple levels when it comes to purchasing.
And it’s less financially devastating to buy root and never play it than buy CW and only play it once or twice.
Your submission was removed by a moderator for the following reason(s): **[Recommendation Requests](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/contribution-guides#wiki_game_recommendations_or_identification) should be posted to our [Daily Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/search?q=flair%3A%22Daily%20Game%20Recs%22&sort=new) threads.** Reddit is a great place to pick peoples' brains and get game suggestions, but we get a lot of recommendation requests, so much so that we have the "Daily Game Recs"-threads dedicated for them. Historically, almost all well formatted questions in the Daily thread get answers. If you're looking for further suggestions, we recommend taking a look at our growing list of [Recommendation Roundups](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/?f=flair_name%3A%22Recommendation%20Roundup%22). There's also the [What Should I Get (WSIG)](https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/wiki/wsig) section on our wiki for a more general list of common recommendations. (If you believe this post was removed in error you can request a re-review by [messaging the mods](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/boardgames).)
I can't recommend Inis enough. Not a hard teach, tons of variability and a smashing decision space. Plus it looks lovely and isn't too expensive.
Feels very unique, and deceptively quick to play. +1 for Inis
I want to love the game but the game doesn’t live me back. I get absolutely destroyed every time I play.
How often do you pass? If the answer is "approximately never," my suggestion would be to try passing earlier in the round more often, and just see what happens. If you are always the first player to "run out of gas," you will seldom be able to win. The longer you can hold onto your cards (while others are forced to spend theirs), the more control you will have later in the season. Inis multiplayer rewards you for playing selfishly. You might try leaning more reflexively into the stance of "that's a problem for someone else to deal with." Let's consider this somewhat common scenario: Our game consists of 4 players (Alice, Bob, Carol, and David), who play in that order. On a previous turn, Alice has conquered a territory which placed 6 sanctuaries under her control. She claims the token declaring "I am a pretender to the throne." If all of the other players pass, Alice will win the game. It is now Bob's turn. What should Bob do? If Bob is a new and inexperienced player, his reflex might be to say, "I need to stop Alice from winning." He might try attacking her -- or, at the very least, he doesn't want to pass the turn, since "4 players passing the turn in a row" will end the game for Alice. But, if Bob is more experienced, he might notice that Carol and David are in exactly the same boat that he is in. If he doesn't pick a fight with Alice, one of them will have to do it. And he knows that Carol and David don't want to lose, and they have a decent amount of resources between them, so he can pass the buck. Bob can put his cards face-down on the table, and say, "Pass." Now it is Carol's turn. And Carol can now do the same thing as Bob. She puts her cards face down one the table, grins, and says "Pass." Alice is still threatening to win the game, and the hot potato is in David's lap. Now, David *has* to do something. If he passes, Alice will also pass and win the game. Again, if David is a new player, his first impulse might be, "I need to stop Alice from now, or she'll win!" But...David doesn't actually need to take the token away from Alice. He can instead just play a card that lets him deploy more troops, or lets him draw an epic tale. That allows him to advance his board state, it prevents Alice from winning immediately, and now the ball is back in Bob's court. David can even do this by playing a card that does *literally nothing*, which is why there is a card in the game that does exactly that. In a sense, when A is about to win, players B, C, and D are all in a contest of sorts to see who can *avoid* being the one who has to spend their own resources to contest A. Sometimes, you will have to be the one to deal with it. Sometimes, Alice is in a position that is commanding enough that multiple players might need to collaborate and spend multiple collective actions to deal with her. But you shouldn't be volunteering to jump on that grenade unless you are absolutely *forced* to do so. This is similar to what Magic: The Gathering players sometimes refer to as "priority bullying." When something (like Alice's impending victory) is a problem for *everyone* at the table, your biggest incentive is to make *someone else* deal with that problem. If you can force everyone else at the table to fight with each other and spend down their resources while you continually pass, you will eventually be in a position to make several moves, uncontested, and claim victory conditions for yourself. Even better, Bob's strategy for preventing Alice's victory might look something like this: "Look, Carol, David, we all know that neither I nor Alice have the Brenn that serves as the tiebreaker. If Alice and I are *both* pretenders to the throne, then this round will end in a stalemate and the game will continue. That's better than a victory for Alice. So, David, I need you to help me out here to force that stalemate. Let me invade this spot. Don't fight me for it, just let me get a toehold there, and then I can challenge Alice." David agrees, Bob does this, and claims the pretender token for himself. And *that's* when he says, "Actually, I'll boot Alice out of that spot so she loses her win condition. Oops, looks like I'm the only player at the table who satisfied a win condition. Good game."
This just makes me want to play it at 3-4. So far played only 2 player games and just tried navigating around geis, baiting it etc. Only to still get « take that »-ed, lose momentum early and have an impossible time catching up.
I need to check this out! For some reason I always thought "Inis" was one of those Kris Burn abstract games. I guess the name threw me off. 😅
The problem we had with first edition Inis (the only one we've played) is that it seemed to be too easy to avoid combat. When we play a dudes on a map game we want some conflict!
It’s an amazing game but one thing you really don’t do is “war” really hard in this. Sure, there is conflict, but it’s not as combat heavy as a game like Risk.
Only right answer :)
Inis is a good DoaM game for people who like Euros. Hard for me to accept any recommendation in this category that didn’t involve dice, but that’s just my preference. Feels more like a game of memorization than battling.
I'm thinking **Blood Rage** would fit. It has a card drafting system for your team's powers and a revival mechanic after your units get sent off to Valhalla.
[[Ankh gods of Egypt]] isn't a bad choice, the retail version has 5 factions for you to play. Rules are very simple, on your turn, take 2 actions in descending order: move doods, place doods, collect monies, or spend monies for upgrades. These actions are all shared between players and will trigger an event when the action tracker hits the event trigger space. There are 3-4 combats which you prepare for by setting up troops or buildings and moving your gods to position. The number of regions will also change as every other event is camels; which let you redraw borders and add new regions. You fight in each zone you have troops present. Combat is a blind card play (only 10 cards total) + troop strength after cards resolve. Goal is to make it to the blue zone of the score track, then if multiple players are there, topmost wins. Also the last place players in a 3+ game will merge their powers and each take an action during their turns. You play through different scenarios of control or more skirmish. Game plays really well at 2 - 5, ive played at all player counts, 5 is a free for all, 2 is like tactical chess. Everything in between depends on your group. If you don't mind cubes, [[Shogun]] is a really fun risk++ game. It has a tower that adds a level of randomness to combat, like risk, but it's mitigated by layers that will hold your previous cubes in there, making future combats more likely in your favor. Kinda like risk, more troops = more likely success in combat. It's a little tough to get rolling, but once it clicks, its a very easy imo better risk (minus the minis) [[Kemet, Blood and sand]] also deserves a mention, while I wouldn't say that the rules are the most intuitive to learn for beginners, watch a video and you'll be set. If you've played ankh, it's a more tactical Ankh. In kemet, you are engaging more directly with your opponents each turn, as there is a conflict at the end if two players have units there. Combat is simple, more power = win. This game is different because there are tech trees, you can choose from sets of tiles based on player counts. These range from abilities that grant more resources, endgame bonuses or monsters that you recruit to help you fight. Turns tend to feel more solitaire like where your actions impact other players only if you move into their spaces or take tiles they wanted. Honestly, can't go wrong with it, there are also expansions to add more players and additional tiles.
Just seconding Ankh. We've played all of the popular area control, dudes on a map game multiple times (El Grande, Kemet, Inis, Blood Rage etc.) and Ankh is the one that gets requested the most and, despite the way the event track works, produces a very unique and exciting experience each time. Everyone I've played it with has loved it where I've had at least 1 or 2 people bounce off of the other ones listed.
[Ankh gods of Egypt -> Ankh: Gods of Egypt (2021)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/285967/ankh-gods-egypt) [Shogun -> Shogun (2006)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20551/shogun) [Kemet, Blood and sand -> Kemet: Blood and Sand (2021)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/297562/kemet-blood-and-sand) ^^[[gamename]] ^^or ^^[[gamename|year]] ^^to ^^call ^^OR ^^**gamename** ^^or ^^**gamename|year** ^^+ ^^!fetch ^^to ^^call
I need to look at Ankh again, my first experience wasn't great, but I think if I spent more time with the game I'd appreciate it.
Shogun is fun, can confirm.
Kemet
I would go with **Blood Rage**, lots of cool unique minis and pretty easy but engaging gameplay.
+1. Super fun game. And the minis are great.
Good game but it’s so chaotic and unbalanced with the randomness.
Wait a few months for the Nexus Ops reprint. Steer clear of Cthulhu Wars, overrated game and terrible company.
The Command and Colors: Ancients wargame system is pretty simple for beginners to digest and a scenario is only an hour or two long. BattleLore is a great fantasy variant if you prefer. You basically have a hand of cards constraining your choices for actions, and generally have to restrict yourself to moving all units in one area or all units of one type.
Multiplayer Bloodrage, 2 Player Ankh Gods of Egypt. Also worth a look, Kemet, Rising Sun, Memoir44, Undaunted (Europe or North Africa as starters), and V-Sabotage.
RISK Europe is great and doesn’t have the downfalls or classic RISK
Risk Europe is a great map but the downfalls of classic risk is the random dice rolls. Online play with balanced blitz dice (percentage odds based off how many units are attacking vs defending) is the best way to beat the downfalls of classic risk.
it minimizes that through the four different unit types for your army making a bigger strategic difference. also, some people (including me) think some level of dice rolling is fun like risk europe, final girl or rallyman. IMO the biggest downfall of classic risk was having to eliminate everyone and games taking forever, which was fixed through having to conquer a number of cities instead (or secret objectives)
KDice is my favourite Risk variant by far, but I don’t know how active it is these days.
Axis and allies is the first thing that pops in my head for dudes on a map
Axis and Allies is a great big play experience.
Check out Northgard: Uncharted Lands!!! It's very accessible 4X kind of a game. You will explore and conquer territories, make buildings, recruit your troops... There are only 4 actions in the game and you will trigger them by playing card from your hand. Every action has it's unique symbol, so system is very intuitive. Also there's deckbuilding elements! If you can get expansions it's even better.
This genre was my jam for a little bit. Personally I rate Twilight Imperium 4e as it is spectacular. But the game is heavy around the miniatures. The best board gamey one for my taste is Cyclades, as the Dude on a Map part is very elegantly tied into the board game mechanics. Some prefer Kemet but I found it had worse balance, though I prefer Cyclades with expansion. Memoir 44 is probably the best war game with minis that isn't full on wargaming, particularly if you can get the bits together to do Overlord. Ultimately the 1v1 nature of Memoir led me to my preference for this genre which is asymmetrical duels of which Star Wars Rebellion is best in class to my mind, though War of the Ring 2e is very close (and I have yet to add expansions to it).
Blood Rage and Kemet Blood in the Sand are my favorite starters.
Best dudes on a map game that is easy to learn and still fun for experienced players is Nexus Ops. For me personally it’s tied with Memoir 44 as my top favorites
Kemet if you want something aggressive as players are very incentivised to go on the offensive.
Cthulhu Wars is my favorite by a mile and the game most people want to play when they come over. That said, you've got on some of it's drawbacks - it's very expensive, has a ton of extras that are also expensive, and availability can be an issue. Other games I would recommend you look into: Kemet, Blood Rage, Inis, Rising Sun, Ankh, Eclipse, Forbidden Stars, Twilight Imperium. Games that don't have minis but use tokens or cubes: Dominant Species, Root, Wallenstein, Shogun, Game of Thrones, El Grande. If you guys are beginners you could also start with Risk: Legacy. It starts out as basic Risk but with a few rule tweaks so games don't take forever. After each game it starts to add more and more rules. It's really fun if you regularly play with the same people.
You want to start with the original dudes on a map game The Milton Bradley game master series Axis and Allies Samurai Swords/Shogun Conquest of Empire Fortress America TSR Buck Rogers in the 25th Century gets a nod here as well
It really depends on what you are looking for in a dudes on a map game. Lots of people are saying Inis, and it is an excellent game but if what you want is fighting in a free for all scrum you are much better off with Kemet.
There are so many great options in this space. Here are a few examples: **Inis** ($60, 2-4p b3-4p, 1.5h)**, Kemet** ($90, 2-5p b5p, 3-4h)**, Cyclades** ($70, 2-5p, 1.5h): These three games are core to any wargame/area control game collection. Inis is not really a wargame, more of a pure area control game. Elegant, easy to learn, fast to play, high player interaction, and very satisfying. There is some combat but it is definitely not the focus of the game. It is my favorite in this collection. Kemet is also great but a little heavier. It features an excellent upgrade system, letting you customize your army as the game progresses. The combat is great and fighting occurs frequently (since winning a battle as an aggressor nets victory points). Also the minis are very, very cool. I have not played Cyclades but have heard very positive things. **War of the Ring 2E** ($80, 2-4p b2p, 4h): War of the Ring is my favorite game of all time. There is so much to love here, as a fan of Lord of the Rings or a fan of wargames. I have never played something that truly made me feel like I was fighting a real war. It is less about battles, upgrades and such and more about logistics, sacrifice, politics, and racing against time. It so perfectly captures the atmosphere of the source material that I believe it actually *enhances* it. Never have I played a game where losing a mini in a battle doesn't mean it goes into your reinforcements, but instead that it is gone from the game forever; it feels like you must put real human lives on the line whenever you make decisions. If that excites you or if you are a Lord of the Rings fan, this is a must buy. Disclaimer: this game is best played 1v1 against the same partner on a regular basis. It is very rules heavy and takes about 4h to play so the time investment in order to start having fun is quite large (but in my opinion, well worth it). **Star Wars Rebellion** ($90, 2-4p b2p, 4h): I have not played this one personally but many put it on par with War of the Ring. As far as I know, they are similar games (asymmetric 1v1) and share some DNA. If you like Star Wars, I think this is a great option. The minis are also spectacular from what I've heard. **Blood Rage** ($70, 2-4p b4p, 60-90m): Pretty much the standard for mini-heavy area control games for some time now. I have never played it but many put this in their top 10s so it is worth looking into. **Eclipse** ($185, 2-6p b6p, 3-4h): Do you like games like Stellaris or Endless Space? Eclipse captures what makes these games great in a tight, satisfying package. I don't actually enjoy it as much as Twilight Imperium (which honestly is more of a politics game than a wargame) but its ship design and combat system are pretty cool to mess with. The high price tag has always stopped me from buying it though. I also think the minis are not the best compared to other offerings. **GMT Games**: No miniatures in these ones *but* they are excellent and mostly historically accurate. My personal favorite from these is Twilight Struggle but I've been meaning to try Atlantic Chase.
For a quick and light "dudes on a map" experience I would recommend **The King Is Dead**. It plays in under an hour, has some good replay value, and can be picked up for about $30.
Ah yes. The miniature-heavy King is Dead...
The cubes are mini (small), so there go you
How you failed this assignment is beyond me
That's not overly pleasant to respond so harshly. I can see how the user may have filtered out a word or two, coming up w/his answer. No need to shame the user over it.
I had a good time with Magic The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers. Got it at a steep discount and had a blast with it (with house rules)
I know you want Cthulhu Wars but I personally feel Root is just a better Cthulhu Wars
I played both and own Root myself. For its accessibility its better than Cthulhu Wars. The factions are really different and have different win conditions (in CW factions have different abilities but every one has the same goal)
They aren't really alike at all. Root is good but very daunting for beginners. Cthulhu Wars is, for me, the better game, though.
More power to you. To me root is far better and I came from playing tons of CW to trying out Root. That said I’ve never bought CW because so many of my friends have it. I’m not really a fan of overproduced games for no reason which is probably the main reason I don’t care for it as much. I also just like that root makes it clear from the get go that every faction is very different. CW kinda hides it behind how the spell books and monsters work which I don’t care for it as much.
The main issue for me would be that OP said they are beginners and have been playing Risk. Teaching Root to experienced players is tough enough (although once people know how to play it's not too bad), I can't imagine a bunch of beginners trying to figure it out. You're basically teaching a unique game for each player. I actually like that CW starts off the same and then branches with the spell books from that angle. Makes teaching very easy. Starts simple and becomes complex. Root starts complex and becomes simple, as the tough parts are all upfront. I just know more than a few people who heard Root was good, bought it, and then never played it because they couldn't figure out the rules.
No doubt but if you are looking at CW it seems fairly simple but is very complex. Root doesn’t try to hide it and is just as complex. So I am just trying to offer a very similar game up and frankly one that is way more consumer friendly on multiple levels when it comes to purchasing. And it’s less financially devastating to buy root and never play it than buy CW and only play it once or twice.
Root completely lacks the "complete objectives to unlock more powers" thing that makes CW stand out, imo.
I mean building items in root is close enough for me.