This is somewhat of a random question, but I’ve got 2-3 boxes of very old wargames in our basement, almost all of them 2-player games. Is there any sort of collection of solitaire “mods” or rules for older 2-player games? Did the creation of solitaire mods like that ever become a sort of a movement in wargaming as the Interwebs arose?
Probably not, but hell, I always played my games solo. House rules you make up can be fun, too, and probably more suitable to the variety of games in a random assortment.
The best way of tracking any homebrew solo rules down is via Boardgamegeek I would think. Find the individual game and then search that forum for “Solo” and see what transpires.
I know there’s a guy called “Stuka Joe” (who does excellent learning playthroughs) who has built a generic solo module for “card playing” wargames but I haven’t looked into it at all.
If you want to hook up online and I can pass on what I’ve learnt about EA:A while your playing (or I can stream something on my table) I’m more than happy to…
Thanks @TheWombat and @sincilbanks! I’ll check out Boardgamegeek. I found Stuka Joe’s stuff and will give it a look.
And thanks for the kind offer to connect, @sincilbanks! After watching a bit of that Let’s Play on EA:A, I’ve realized whatever modest level of wargame understanding I had has faded a bit, so I’m going to pull a couple of simpler games out of the basement and give them a go first. Then I think I’ll dig into a 2-player game of EA:A, and hopefully working up to a solo game after that. At some point as I dig into EA:A I can imagine connecting would be incredibly helpful, so I’d love to keep that open as a possibility as I move forward, if that works for you. Thanks again!
Edit: Basement Raid #1:
@Zilla_Blitz If you have the time, you might consider looking at the YT channel, My Own Worst Enemy for ideas about solo play. There is a new-ish section called Solobabble which might be helpful.
Also, nice selection of games to help refresh your memory and understanding about wargaming. :-)
Scotten
7521
Ohhhh… I had/loved the concept of that Crete/Malta game but never played (and may never have punched the counters) back in the day.
^I have no recollection of playing it or buying it, so I’m not sure how it ended up in the basement. I’ll have to check to see if the counters are punched or not.
I’ve subscribed and will check that channel out, thanks. I decided to start with Saipan, seemed the simplest of the ones I pulled up. Going with the historical setup, still need to read the Standard Rules for the four-game set, but so far so good. Fun times.
And Boardgamegeek has already proven itself helpful. There was a US reinforcement rule for the scenario that made no sense, and sure enough I found an erratum on the site that fixed the error. There was also a clarification that I’m sure I would have missed too.
Ooh, was that the SSI one from the Pacific quad? I had that game I’m sure, from the pic.
Yes the Island War pack. Looks like 4 games in one pack, with 100 counters each.
I had pretty much all of the quads back in the day. My favorites were probably the two modern battles ones, which were pretty cool.
Oh, wow, I had no idea there were so many of them. I might have the Westwall one too, not remembering the others.
Yeah, purists sniffed at them because that was the era of the monster game, and if you could actually set it up and play it in one day, it was considered unfit for the grognascenti. But some of them were pretty solid games.
Scotten
7528
I don’t want to sound creepy, but if we were closer… I’d totally play that game. It would give me a chance to feel young again.
I feel like this is a good game to jump back in with. Only four pages of standard rules and a page of scenario rules, mostly generic stuff and only a few basic mechanics from what I can tell so far. I don’t even think there is unit stacking … perhaps. The 100 counters should keep things nice and simple.
Ha! No worries on the creepy part. I’m pretty excited to play this. It was oddly calming to be away from a screen, fumbling with the counters and manually setting things up.
I ordered tweezers today too, want to reduce the fumbling part a bit.
Kolbex
7531
east front monster game
Should I wait for Navaronegun to post an image of sleeping soldiers or just do it for him?
Scheldt ain’t the Bulge. The soldiers are awake.
JTS does get the Old Man Puter obsolescence award though
Kolbex
7534
This new gigantic game will be eastern front, though. I thought that was also cause for napping, but perhaps I haven’t fully digested your system.
I’m not gonna read through every gosh darn article heaping praise on panzer campaign clones/reboots/whats coming stuff for gods sake! I have other Navaronegun business to take care of.
That here’s what’s coming article could’ve been written at any point in the last 15 years. They all kind of run together and they all kind of look the same, literally, when it comes to the software offerings.
