Introduction
When I’m putting these lists together, they often are a mix between my personal opinion and the overall strategy gaming zeitgeist at the time of publishing. I think it’s important that you, my dearest of readers, know me a little better if you’re going to take my word and advice on which games to buy, as I know a lot of you do via email and comments. To do that, I have written about my all-time favorite games, my favorite strategy games, and now it’s time for me to let you know about the second part of the website’s name: my top 10 favorite wargames of all time.
Remember that this is a list, quite literally, about my personal opinion on these games, and it’s expected that you and I will have different favorites. If that’s the case, do let me know what your 10 favorite wargames are in the comments, because I would love to know!
10 – Battle Academy
Of all the games in this list, this one is possibly the one that will feature in every other available list about wargames, as Battle Academy cemented itself as the go-to starting location for anyone wishing to become involved with the wargaming genre. Set in World War 2, the most prolific time period for wargames, and with a simple, but deep turn-based battle system, Battle Academy became one of my all-time favorites for those exact reasons, and because it was the wargame that finally broke down that entry barrier for me. Add to that some amazing campaigns and missions, a substantial amount of DLC that adds new missions, units, and factions, some historical, and some alt-history, for just a couple of dollars on sale, and Battle Academy should be in everybody’s library. Battle Academy 2 is equally amazing, but it focuses on the Eastern Front.
9 – winSPMBT
One of my favorite things about this genre is the sheer ability some games offer me to set my creativity free and put together whatever kind of scenario I can think of, be it historically accurate or completely made up. Some games do allow me to do that, like Arma 3 and Field of Glory 2, but there’s one wargame that I feel like doesn’t get enough love and recognition for the sheer amount of content it has and the endless amount of possibilities it provides. And the best part is still to come. That game is called winSPMBT, and it’s completely free! Even if you don’t want to build your own scenario, the game comes with over 500 premade ones covering all conflicts from the Cold War until today, and there are nearly 40,000 units available.
The amount of content the game has for the total price of zero dollars is absolutely insane. While nearly 3 decades old, if you get the paid version, which adds higher resolutions, the game is quite charming with its highly detailed pixel graphics. In my opinion, the best part of the game is the battle generator, which allows you to create some crazy what-if combat situations.
8 – Scourge of War: Waterloo
Scoure of War: Waterloo is something special indeed. How many games do you know about that do a zoom-in so hardcore into a topic that they’ll go to the absolute extreme to try and make sure that everything is presented as historically accurate as possible, even down to the kind of individual uniform and uniform accessories a specific regiment was using, on that given day? Not that many, I’m sure. Such is the case with Scourge of War: Waterloo, a game that regales us with the best, most complete, and historically accurate rendition of one of the most important battles in Human history. While it doesn’t make the list because it’s the easiest game to play (it isn’t), or the prettiest (it isn’t), it makes the list of my favorite wargames because of its unabated love for history and how fun it is to experiment with all the scenarios and try out different tactics to see how things pan out.
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