19 September 2025 ~
Annnnnnnnnnd, we’re back! Brant is joined by fellow Dragoon Jim/Cyrano, and regular guests Gary/Ardwulf & Liz from Beyond Solitaire, for a discussion inspired by Liz’s comments last year about “what’s in the Wargaming Canon of those games that you expect people to have played if they’re claiming to be a wargamer”
So we brought some smart people together, and let Brant crash the party since he runs the console, and tried to figure out what games we would’ve expected wargamers to have played at some point — not their favorites, or the most influential, or the most popular — if you’re trying to earn that Grognard Merit Badge.
Give the show a listen for the rationale behind the choices, especially since some of them were merely exemplars of wider series/families of games; there’s four different Commands & Colors series games in the table below, but as explained it’s really about picking out the era of interest to you and then giving it a whirl.
We even explain why we left some particular choices off the list, so don’t go ballistic until you hear it all!
| Title | Publisher(s) | Original Date |
|---|---|---|
| Kriegsspiel (1824) | Original Prussian Kriegsspiel | 1824 |
| D‑Day (exemplar of old AH flat-box designs) | Avalon Hill (original) | 1961 |
| PanzerBlitz (or swap in Panzer Leader / AIW) | Avalon Hill | 1970 |
| Napoleon (4th edition) | Columbia Games | 1974 |
| The Russian Campaign | Avalon Hill / Jedko | 1974 |
| Third Reich | Avalon Hill | 1974 |
| Wooden Ships & Iron Men | Avalon Hill | 1974 |
| Blue & Gray Quadrigame (exemplar of SPI quads) | SPI (original) | 1975 |
| Frederick the Great | SPI / Avalon Hill | 1975 |
| Napoleon’s Last Battles | SPI / Decision Games reprints | 1976 |
| War in Europe | SPI / Decision Games reprints | 1976 |
| OGRE | Steve Jackson Games | 1977 |
| Squad Leader | Avalon Hill | 1977 |
| Republic of Rome | Avalon Hill / Valley Games remasters | 1978 |
| Ambush! | Victory Games | 1983 |
| Empires in Arms | Australian Design Group / Avalon Hill | 1983 |
| RAF (exemplar of Butterfield designs) | West End Games1 | 1986 |
| Battle Cry (part of C&C series) | Avalon Hill | 1999 |
| Hammer of the Scots (exemplar of block games) | Columbia Games | 2002 |
| Memoir ’44 (part of C&C series) | Days of Wonder | 2004 |
| Empire of the Sun | GMT Games | 2005 |
| Commands & Colors: Ancients (part of C&C series) | GMT | 2006 |
| Here I Stand | GMT Games | 2006 |
| Maria | Histogame | 2009 |
| Pax Pamir (exemplar of Pax series) | Sierra Madre / Wehrlegig | 2009 |
| Commands & Colors: Napoleonics (part of C&C series) | GMT Games | 2010 |
| Dawn of the Zeds (exemplar of States of Siege series) | Victory Point Games | 2010 |
| Cuba Libre (exemplar of COIN series) | GMT | 2013 |
| Enemy Action: Ardennes (exemplar of Butterfield designs) | Compass Games | 2015 |
| Napoléon 1815 | Shakos | 2022 |
There were some other things mentioned during the show, so here’s some / most / almost all of them
- The Virgin Queen Unboxing
- Luftwaffe
- Starship Troopers the AH wargame, and Starship Troopers the ‘satirical’ movie
And yes, Ardwulf was constructing and testing a plastic speedcoaster for his marble collection in the background.
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