Wargaming Research: Solo War & Historical Gaming 2025 Deep Dive 1

Armchair Dragoons PAO, 8 October 2025

As already noted, we’ve partnered with Beyond Solitaire and My Own Worst Enemy to run our annual survey about your solo wargaming preferences. The master list of all games was published last week, along with the short explanation of how we ran the survey. This week we start digging into some additional data in the list.

We’re going to look at some decision-making by the respondents, as well as separating the top 15 games in categories such as newer vs veteran wargamers, and how much of their boardgaming is wargaming.

First, we have 2 other ‘demographic’ style questions from our end-of-the-survey optional items. Both of these were focused on decision-making around what to play and where to get your information.

We asked what information people seek out when making their purchasing/acquisition decisions, and asked them to list all of those that matter, and then identify the most important one.

Remember that respondents could pick multiple options here

For the most important, respondents were limited to a single choice

Comparing the veterancy of the players to their most important decision-support content gives us the following breakdown.

How long have you been wargaming? ➡️ ⬇️ Most important for you to seek out before making a purchase/acquisition	0-1 years	01-3 years	03-10 years	10-25 years	25-40 years	more than 40 years	Grand Total
Company marketing information		1			1	4	6
In-person demo (store, convention, etc)						1	1
Interview with the designer(s)			2		1	2	5
Online discussions of the game	1	5	2	4	3	8	23
Online support / files for the game			1	1	1	3	6
Recommended to me			3	3	1	4	11
Unboxing photos / videos			1	2	2	2	7
Video playthrough or after action report	3	8	10	7	11	15	54
Video review of the game		1	9	4	3	8	25
Written/text playthrough or after action report			3	1	2	4	10
Written/text review of the game	1	4	9	7	9	14	44
Grand Total	5	19	40	29	34	65	192

Video playthroughs / AARs are the most popular overall, and rather evenly spread across most bands of experience as pretty influential. Written reviews of the games are second overall, and in some veterancy groups are pretty even with the video playthroughs. The only other factor that was reported by at least one person in each group was online discussion.

We also compared how long respondents have been wargaming to the total percentage of wargaming in their overall boardgaming diet.

How much of your total boardgaming is war/historical gaming? ➡️ ⬇️ How long have you been wargaming?	0-25%	25-50%	50-75%	75-99%	All of it	Grand Total
0-1 years	2	2	1			5
01-3 years	8	6	3	1	1	19
03-10 years	13	8	7	10	1	40
10-25 years	6	6	9	7	1	29
25-40 years	2	6	13	11	2	34
more than 40 years	5	10	12	27	11	65
Grand Total	36	38	45	56	16	192

While our rookies were still working their way up in terms of total wargame saturation in their boardgaming, we had pretty even spreads across many of the percentages regardless of how long respondents have been playing wargames. Once you get over the 10 year mark, over half the respondents in each group are 50% or more of wargames in their overall boardgaming.

We’ve also got a comparison of that wargaming percentage in our respondents’ total wargaming diets compared with why they choose to play the games they did.

How much of your total boardgaming is war/historical gaming? ➡️ ⬇️ Why you choose the games that you play solo/solitaire.	0-25%	25-50%	50-75%	75-99%	All of it	Grand Total
Artwork / Graphics		1				1
Completeness (series, designer, publisher, etc)	1					1
Conflict / Theater / Battle	5	13	17	22	6	63
Designer	2	2	6	3	2	15
Educational Utility	2	1	1	1		5
Game System	6	8	7	9	4	34
Includes a new game mechanic	1	2	1	3		7
Publisher	2					2
Purpose-designed solitaire game	3	4	8	8		23
Scale (tactical, operational, strategic, etc)	4	1	1	3	2	11
The game’s narrative	10	7	5	9	2	33
Grand Total	36	39	46	59	16	196

Interestingly, a game’s narrative and educational utility trend more toward those who play a lower percentage of wargames. Otherwise, the game’s conflict, designer, and system are all pretty evenly spread across most ‘saturation’ percentages.

Similar to the chart above, we’ve got a comparison on why respondents chose the games they did compared against how long they’ve been wargaming.

How long have you been wargaming? ➡️ ⬇️ which reason why you choose the games that you play solo/solitaire.	0-1 years	01-3 years	03-10 years	10-25 years	25-40 years	more than 40 years	Grand Total
Artwork / Graphics						1	1
Completeness (series, designer, publisher, etc)				1			1
Conflict / Theater / Battle		1	11	11	8	30	61
Designer		2	3	3	6	1	15
Educational Utility		1	4				5
Game System	1	4	7	4	7	11	34
Includes a new game mechanic		2	1	1	2	1	7
Publisher			1			1	2
Purpose-designed solitaire game	1	2	1	3	7	8	22
Scale (tactical, operational, strategic, etc)		1	2	1	2	5	11
The game’s narrative	3	6	9	5	2	6	31
Grand Total	5	19	40	29	34	65	192

Narratives seem to cluster toward the less-experienced end of the spectrum, while the conflict or battle clusters toward the more experienced end, as does the purpose-designed solitaire reason. Both the game system and the designer as reasons to choose games are pretty evenly spread across the experience levels.

Finally, we divided the respondent population into a few blocks and compared the top 15 for each.

The first comparison is between the ‘rookies’ – those who reported having played wargames between 0-3 years¹ – and the ‘veterans’ who have been wargaming for 40 or more years.

Veterans

Rank	Game	sum	count	Average
1	D-Day at Omaha Beach	46	14	3.29
2	Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition	43	9	4.78
3	RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940	32	7	4.57
4	Enemy Action: Ardennes	19	5	3.80
5	Raid on St. Nazaire	17	7	2.43
6	Advanced Squad Leader	14	3	4.67
7	Ambush!	13	3	4.33
7	RAF	13	3	4.33
9	Comanchería: The Rise and Fall of the Comanche Empire	13	4	3.25
10	Combat! Volume 1	12	4	3.00
11	B-17: Queen of the Skies	11	3	3.67
11	Mrs Thatcher’s War: The Falklands, 1982	11	3	3.67
11	Target for Today	11	3	3.67
14	Navajo Wars	11	4	2.75
14	The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43	11	4	2.75

Rookies (note that this list ran to 17 b/c of 3 of them being tied)

Rank	Game	sum	count	Average
1	Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition	31	7	4.43
2	Halls of Hegra	21	6	3.50
3	Comanchería: The Rise and Fall of the Comanche Empire	17	4	4.25
4	Pax Pamir: Second Edition	15	5	3.00
5	Skies Above Britain	14	5	2.80
6	D-Day at Omaha Beach	11	3	3.67
7	Thunderbolt Apache Leader	10	3	3.33
8	Maquis	9	3	3.00
8	Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398	9	3	3.00
10	Freedom: The Underground Railroad	8	2	4.00
10	Fire in the Lake	8	2	4.00
10	John Company: Second Edition	8	2	4.00
13	Votes for Women	8	3	2.67
14	The Mission: Early Christianity from the Crucifixion to the Crusades	7	3	2.33
15	Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! – Operation Barbarossa 1941 (Second Edition)	6	2	3.00
15	Pavlov’s House	6	2	3.00
15	Atlantic Chase: The Kriegsmarine Against the Home Fleet 1939-1942	6	2	3.00

What we see among the rookies are definitely fewer hex-&-counter games, and a higher number of games with Euro-game aesthetics, if not mechanics. The veterans, meanwhile, show a definite trend toward older games – perhaps they are long-time tried-&-true favorites – that include many out of print titles that the rookies just might not yet have had a chance to play.

The second comparison was to split the respondents based on what percentage of wargaming they had in their overall boardgaming. This is splitting the wargame-curious from the hardcore grogs.

High Percentage

Rank	Game	sum	count	Average
1	Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition	57	13	4.38
2	D-Day at Omaha Beach	48	14	3.43
3	RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940	33	8	4.13
4	Combat! Volume 1	17	5	3.40
5	Skies Above Britain	17	6	2.83
6	Enemy Action: Ardennes	16	6	2.67
7	Empire of the Sun: The Pacific War 1941-1945	15	3	5.00
8	Pavlov’s House	15	6	2.50
9	Stalingrad: Advance to the Volga, 1942	15	5	3.00
10	Mrs Thatcher’s War: The Falklands, 1982	13	4	3.25
11	World At War 85: Blood and Fury	13	3	4.33
12	Fire in the Lake	11	3	3.67
13	Dien Bien Phu: The Final Gamble	11	4	2.75
14	The Last Hundred Yards	10	3	3.33
15	Peloponnesian War	10	3	3.33

Low Percentage

Rank	Game	sum	count	Average
1	Navajo Wars	24	6	4.00
2	Pax Pamir: Second Edition	21	5	4.20
3	Pavlov’s House	17	5	3.40
4	Halls of Hegra	16	5	3.20
5	Fields of Fire: Deluxe Edition	14	3	4.67
5	RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940	14	3	4.67
7	Comanchería: The Rise and Fall of the Comanche Empire	13	4	3.25
7	D-Day at Omaha Beach	13	4	3.25
7	Skies Above Britain	13	4	3.25
10	Cuba Libre	11	3	3.67
10	Colonial Twilight: The French-Algerian War, 1954-62	11	3	3.67
12	Atlantic Chase: The Kriegsmarine Against the Home Fleet 1939-1942	10	3	3.33
13	Hadrian’s Wall	10	2	5.00
14	Hero of Weehawken: The Aaron Burr Conspiracy 1805-1807	9	2	4.50
15	Freedom: The Underground Railroad	9	3	3.00

Here again, we see more Euro-inspired mechanics and components in the list from those who play wargames less frequently. But we still see Fields of Fire and D-Day at Omaha Beach and RAF: Battle of Britain 1940 and Skies Above Britain on both lists, so there are clearly some games that are well-regarded across the board

Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons.
Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web.
You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.