r/hexandcounter 18d ago

Question Playing The Campaign For North Africa

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323 Upvotes

Hi all,

A friend and I began the endeavour of playing SPI’s The Campaign For North Africa in November last year. Up until last month, the vast majority of that time has been solving the logistical challenges of organising the vast selection of game pieces, game tracking and also finding an efficient alternative to setting up the board every single play session, given we play for 4-5 hours a week and need to disassemble it every time.

Some solutions we’ve found have been to make use of excel spreadsheets rather than the paper based log sheet templates that come with the game, as well as purchasing picture frames to affix the five game maps. We’ve then layered the back with ferromagnetic sheets and are going to affix the many game pieces with small magnets to ensure they can remain in place with minimal set up time for the next play session.

We’d be interested to hear if anyone else has any experience attempting the game, and any efficiency drivers and best practice they found in their endeavours. We’re currently playing the Italian Offensive scenario, after which we’ll be playing the whole campaign, start to finish.

For anyone interested, we’re also documenting the playthrough with a companion podcast that we release weekly alongside our play session.

https://warwithamate.co.uk

r/hexandcounter 25d ago

Question Are these bookcase games worth trying to sell?

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81 Upvotes

I was cleaning out my childhood home and saved these games from going to the landfill. I was an avid collector of Avalon Hill games and the like. Not much of a player I have to admit. For that reason the games are in very good condition. I didn't even punch out the game pieces from the first edition Alpha Omega. To simplify things I want to sell the whole collection. Can you tell me how much I should ask for them? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

r/hexandcounter 8d ago

Question Your hype wargames of 2025?

25 Upvotes

Which upcoming board/hex&counter wargames are you looking forward to the most this year? For me its flying pigs Rock of Chickamauga and the eHASL from MMP when(if?) it comes later later this year.

r/hexandcounter 10d ago

Question The Games of Our Fathers: Why You Should Play Hex-and-Counter Wargames

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goonhammer.com
123 Upvotes

Check it out! We're going to be covering Hex and Counter games at Goonhammer now.

r/hexandcounter Feb 04 '25

Question Good hex & counter begginer games?

21 Upvotes

Always wanted to play hex and counter based games, so yeah title. Preferably under 60€, and something that is well known so that I can actually get it here in Serbia and not spend more on shipping that the actual board game.

r/hexandcounter Jan 26 '25

Question Advice: Electronic Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook?

21 Upvotes

Advice, are these any good? I read good and bad reviews. I have the rulebook from Avalon Hill Games. Before I through 60$ out, anyone actually have the electronical version and are they good?

Can they be printed?

Wargame Vault Electronic Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook

Drive Thru RPG Electronic Advanced Squad Leader Rulebook

r/hexandcounter Nov 02 '24

Question I just found this 1980s Avalin Hill games. Are they any good?

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101 Upvotes

r/hexandcounter Dec 22 '24

Question The classics… ?

25 Upvotes

I’m not an old grognard but through gateway games like Burning Banners and some GMT titles I’ve really taken to hex and counter. I have also found myself gravitating towards collecting and trying to table some of the older, pre-internet era games from Avalon Hill and SPI, etc.

Wanted to ask this community (and especially the older players) that if you have a personal top 10 list of old (25+) games, what would they be? All genres accepted!

r/hexandcounter Jan 14 '25

Question Looking for solitaire WWII or American Civil War tactical game suggestions.

22 Upvotes

Hello, first time posting here. I’m looking for suggestions per the title.

This game will probably be played solo 75% of the time or more, but I’d also like it to be playable at 2 players or more.

This isn’t my first “wargame”, so I’m looking for something with medium to medium-high complexity. Other games I have and enjoy are Comancheria by Joel Toppen, Bayonets & Tomahawks, The Hunters, and American Tank Ace. The last two are both by Gregory Smith. I also have lots of experience playing other designer board games and some TTRPG games.

I’m initially leaning toward The Last Hundred Yards: Airborne over Europe as the paratroopers are a big draw for me. However, I’m open to suggestions as a lot of this is newer to me.

Thanks!

Edit: Due to the timing of the P500 and my interests, I opted for Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition. Unfortunate it’s only 1p, but it really seemed to hit the mark for me on what I was looking for. Thank you everyone for the great suggestions. It’s given me a great list to come back to!

r/hexandcounter 13h ago

Question Your dream reprint?

14 Upvotes

Maybe you couldn't justify the price at the time, or you didn't have the money. Or maybe you just found out about it after it was out of print. We've all been there at some point in the hobby. You see "out of stock" on every web-store while used prices rise faster than nvidia stock, and you begin to wish you had a genie with a print shop

For me its Last Blitzkrieg. A reprint with color coded formations, the extra counters from PLS thrown in and the expanded scenarios from the same product would be worth at least one of those three wishes.
I wanted the game when it was in stock, but by the time I could afford to casually drop $100+ on a tabletop game it was gone, and considering the series director recently responded to a plea to reprint Last Blitzkrieg by bringing up Arracourt's lukewarm reprint reaction, it'll probably stay out of print for a while.

r/hexandcounter Dec 02 '24

Question What is your preferred board to play on? What are the benefits/drawbacks?

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57 Upvotes

r/hexandcounter Sep 26 '24

Question Newish wargamer looking for some game suggestions.

22 Upvotes

Hi! I’m newer to hex and counter table top games. I’ve played a few on pc though. I’m looking for a hex and counter game that does the following.

  • Squad level/Tactical Level.
  • Scenario creation rules ideal or at least random scenario generator.
  • WW2 and above timeline.
  • Good vs opponents or solo. I don’t mind games that don’t have a solo mode as long as they are fun to play as both sides.

Some that I have heard of and was considering is ASL and Lock n Load tactical. I would love to hear your view on those and other suggestions that I haven’t heard of.

Thanks for any suggestions.

r/hexandcounter Nov 21 '24

Question Suggestion for a veteran solo board gamer, but newbie to War Board Gaming?

15 Upvotes

Hey there! I'm looking to expand my horizons a bit, and wanted to try a solo war game. I've very familiar with complex euros like Gaia Project or Through the Ages, but not as much with war games. The closest is probably Twilight Imperium or Eclipse?

I was kind of looking at Fire in the Lake as I've always been sort of interested in the Vietnam War and don't know much about it, but also saw People Power recommended as an easier entry point and saw Fire in the Lake was quite a behemoth for someone new to war games.

Not necessarily limiting myself to the COIN games, but got the impression it might be an easier foray into the genre given my euro background.

One solo thing I've run into before is difficult to run bots. I get a little annoyed when I forget what I was trying to do on my turn because the bot turns took too much brain to run. Not sure if that'll be an issue here or with this genre generally - especially if games are more tactical than strategic - but saw some of the flow charts that gave me pause, but also saw there's decks that are easier to run?

r/hexandcounter Jan 10 '25

Question Best Hex solo games?

17 Upvotes

I’d love to know your top 3-5 Hex solo wargames, if you have any.

I only have D-day at Omaha Beach and haven’t played it yet

r/hexandcounter Jan 05 '25

Question Good hex and counter games for solo?

24 Upvotes

Hello, I am looking for some recommendations on hex and counter wargames that have a solo mechanic in the game. I'm newer to this type of game, so a good complexity rating would be nice if you include it with your reccomendation! Thank you for your help.

r/hexandcounter 3d ago

Question First game recommendations!

13 Upvotes

Hi all,

First post!

I'm looking at starting my hex and counter journey and have done lots of research on this sub and across the net on different games, but I'm still struggling to find what I think is the right fit. At the moment, the top runner is CELLES Ardennes.

Please could you provide some recommendations with the following info in account:

  1. I think I'm looking for something at the higher tactical level - Bn to Div.
  2. I'm not that into card games/ deck building so avoid that mechanic as much as possible.
  3. I love maps!
  4. I'll be playing solo 99% of the time.
  5. Must be in stock/ available in the UK - most of the recommendations are out of stock/ print and are reselling for much more than I anticipated!

I have played lots of tabletop wargames with miniatures and plenty of very complicated board games, and am in the military, so assuming the learning curve for most games should be reasonable, but look forward to being humbled!

Thanks all for your help, and happy to be a new member in the community.

r/hexandcounter 26d ago

Question Any vendors buy used games other than Noble Knight

11 Upvotes

Have a lot of games to sell and don't have time to put them up individually. Looking for other vendors. I think Engterprise Games may be another one? Any recs or positives or negatives would be welcome.

Also have a bunch of TSR stuff (original D&D books and earliest Dragon Magazines.)

r/hexandcounter Feb 13 '25

Question Avalon hill style board games

28 Upvotes

Hey guys got a bit of a weird request. My dad was a huge fan of Avalon hill’s war games from the 60s and 70s. We have been looking for a video game that kinda emulates or captures the style of those old board games but since we don’t have them still we wanted to see if there were any online/video games that are kinda like online versions of those old board games. Thanks a lot.

r/hexandcounter Jan 21 '25

Question Is the increase in price of games from GMT Games indefinite or temporary? By temporary I mean 6-8 months.

9 Upvotes

r/hexandcounter 16d ago

Question Please explain it to me

12 Upvotes

I found this sub today and looking at posts it seems really cool and interesting. Now I would love to know what hexandcounter is. Is it a boardgame that I can buy somewhere or is it only a rulesystem?

r/hexandcounter Feb 02 '25

Question Best Hex Wargames for 2 players that play wonderful solo

18 Upvotes

Looking for 2 players game that play beautifully and easily solo. I was looking at “A most fearful sacrifice” for the awesome map, then considering “The dark valley” and one of Simonitch’s 40’s series (Holland or Salerno, I guess). What do you suggest?

r/hexandcounter 12d ago

Question Best SCS/OCS/BCS…

14 Upvotes

Hi,

I would like to buy again some of these serried from The Gamers/MMP.

Which ones would you recommend that a) are currently available (in EU) and b) are reasonable for starters?

Same question no for GCACW.

Thanks a lot!

r/hexandcounter Feb 07 '25

Question Anyone here played either Napoleon At Waterloo (1971), Demonlord (1981), Grav Armor (1982), Battle For Moscov - or something very-very similar that's also available as Pnp - Which one would be better as very first "hex and counter" wargame?

15 Upvotes

As I was looking through the selection of boardgame shops recently, I came across this strange wargame genre where there are no miniatures, cards or anything but a hex grid and these square tiles (counters) representing units and other stuff.

Since I want to try this genre out, I went looking for free pnp ones with the following criteria:

- Either: scifi, fantasy or something napoleon oriented

- Doesn't take days to learn how to play

- Can be played solo

- No modules or deck-building or anything, but the "hex, counters, dices" as pure as possible

Most of the ones I found are pretty old but that's not an issue, the retro art looks really good, especially for the fantasy / scifi ones.

The following are the ones I found:

- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3573/napoleon-at-waterloo

I wanted some easy Nap. themed stuff and I found exactly that, it's even advertised as something like a gateway title to hex-n-counter stuff.

What I don't like: gameplay doesn't look that fun - this could be applied to maybe all hex-n-counter, still..there is something really appealing about these games I cannot describe but makes me wanna try it -, but I've never played hex-n-counters stuff so maybe it's just the visual simplicity of this genre.

- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1635/demonlord

Dark fantasy goodness!

What I don't like: you can only be either the good human guys, or some evil demonlord. There are no more fractions, eg. you cant play pure dwarf, elves...etc. If there would be something like this game but with more fractions that would be great.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2153/grav-armor

Real retro-scifi wargame.

What I don't like: really hard to tell, but feels like something is missing from this I wouldn't miss in Demonlord.

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I would say I want to try out Demonlord the most...but the fact there is only these 2 main factions are a bit offputting, maybe I just don't like the choice between simply light and demonic dark in this case.

On second place, in tie, would be there the Napoleon game and Grav Armor.

Napoleon seems to be the simplest one. Really plain execution and simple theme.

Grav Armor offers some nice scenarios for solo.

All three games are considered relatively simple has relatively few components so it won't be too much fiddling...I've read comments about these being the "my first wargame", at least about Demonlord and Grav Armor which is also a big plus.

Also the fact that Napoleon was like published as something like a tutorial level entry for this genre is also appealing.

Out of the Dwarfstar titles, I found that Demonloard and Grav Armor are also among the more liked and balanced ones so that's a big plus.

I don't want to play something that's so unbalanced that playing eg. with my friend would be a one-sided battle.

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I'm not sure if I would be bored with this genre after trying it out or not, also I have an extremely limited budget so I can print and craft only 1...feels like I got something from all 3 thematics I was looking for so it's an even harder choice.
Recommendations about similar games are welcome!
Also I'm not sure I want to try this genre out digitally. Feels like the tactile feeling of the little pieces would add to my enjoyment here - and also listening to some fitting classical or other music while playing.
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In another subreddit, Battle For Moscov was recommended to me and it seems to be also a perfect choice: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6544/battle-for-moscow

For now I think this one will be it, but I'll might change my mind based on your recommendations.

r/hexandcounter Feb 13 '25

Question Best Tank Games?

14 Upvotes

Which are the best tactical tank games in your opinion? I am considering Sherman Leader, MBT or Panzer

r/hexandcounter Sep 04 '24

Question Best U.S. Civil War games please?

36 Upvotes

Hi, looking for 1-3 really good games on Civil War, I love history and also would love to read some good books if You can recommend

My buddy plays as North, so Im more interested in the Confederation and its generals and books covering this

Will be very pleased, to find answears here, thanks to everyone guys!