by Brant Guillory, 9 October 2024
Over the past 2 weeks, we’ve dug into the final results of our 2024 solo/solitaire wargame survey. In this last dive into the data analysis, we’re looking at how the games were ranked based on how long respondents reported they’d been playing, as well as how much of their overall gaming diet is wargaming
How Long Have You Been Wargaming?
As a reminder, here’s the breakdown of survey respondents based on how long they reported that they’d been playing wargames.
Here are the top 10 games from each of the following “bands” of players based on how long they’ve been playing.
10 Years and Below (n=77)
| Title | Count | Sum | Avg | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pax Pamir: Second Edition | 13 | 52 | 4.00 | 1 |
| Skies Above Britain | 9 | 36 | 4.00 | 2 |
| D-Day at Omaha Beach | 9 | 34 | 3.78 | 3 |
| Atlantic Chase: The Kriegsmarine Against the Home Fleet 1939-1942 | 10 | 29 | 2.90 | 4 |
| Halls of Hegra | 11 | 29 | 2.64 | 5 |
| Pavlov’s House | 7 | 25 | 3.57 | 6 |
| Fire in the Lake | 8 | 25 | 3.13 | 7 |
| Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 | 7 | 24 | 3.43 | 8 |
| Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020 | 8 | 23 | 2.88 | 9 |
| John Company: Second Edition | 6 | 21 | 3.50 | 10 |
10-40 years (n=67)
| Title | Count | Sum | Avg | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 | 12 | 43 | 3.58 | 1 |
| D-Day at Omaha Beach | 11 | 32 | 2.91 | 2 |
| Fields of Fire | 8 | 30 | 3.75 | 3 |
| John Company: Second Edition | 4 | 20 | 5.00 | 4 |
| Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020 | 4 | 18 | 4.50 | 5 |
| I, Napoleon | 5 | 18 | 3.60 | 6 |
| Skies Above Britain | 7 | 18 | 2.57 | 7 |
| Navajo Wars | 6 | 17 | 2.83 | 8 |
| Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001 – ? | 6 | 15 | 2.50 | 9 |
| The Hunters: German U-Boats at War, 1939-43 | 6 | 15 | 2.50 | 9 |
40 or More Years (n=76)
| Title | Count | Sum | Avg | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B-17: Queen of the Skies | 8 | 32 | 4.00 | 1 |
| Skies Above Britain | 9 | 32 | 3.56 | 2 |
| D-Day at Omaha Beach | 10 | 31 | 3.10 | 3 |
| Solitaire ASL | 11 | 30 | 2.73 | 4 |
| RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 | 6 | 22 | 3.67 | 5 |
| D-Day at Tarawa | 6 | 19 | 3.17 | 6 |
| Stalingrad: Advance to the Volga, 1942 | 5 | 18 | 3.60 | 7 |
| RAF | 4 | 17 | 4.25 | 8 |
| Patton’s Best | 5 | 16 | 3.20 | 9 |
| Bismarck Solitaire: Deluxe Edition | 5 | 15 | 3.00 | 10 |
Games on all 3 lists
Regardless of whether they appeared in the top 10 or not, these are the games that appeared at least 3 times on each list for all 3 groupings within the “how long have you been playing?” question
- Ambush!
- D-Day at Omaha Beach
- Fields of Fire
- Halls of Hegra
- Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020
- Navajo Wars
- Skies Above Britain
Note these are in alphabetical order, and not any ranking order
How Much Wargaming?
As a reminder, here’s the breakdown of survey respondents based on the percentage of wargaming in their overall gaming they reported.
50% and Below (n=84)
| Title | Count | Sum | Avg | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pax Pamir: Second Edition | 13 | 49 | 3.77 | 1 |
| D-Day at Omaha Beach | 12 | 39 | 3.25 | 2 |
| John Company: Second Edition | 8 | 31 | 3.88 | 3 |
| Fire in the Lake | 9 | 31 | 3.44 | 4 |
| Pavlov’s House | 9 | 31 | 3.44 | 4 |
| RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 | 8 | 29 | 3.63 | 6 |
| Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398 | 8 | 28 | 3.50 | 7 |
| Halls of Hegra | 11 | 27 | 2.45 | 8 |
| Navajo Wars | 9 | 24 | 2.67 | 9 |
| Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain | 6 | 21 | 3.50 | 10 |
50-75% (n=46)
note that you can see we had a few ties in this list
| Title | Count | Sum | Avg | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D-Day at Omaha Beach | 9 | 27 | 3.00 | 1 |
| Skies Above Britain | 9 | 27 | 3.00 | 1 |
| Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020 | 8 | 24 | 3.00 | 3 |
| RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 | 5 | 18 | 3.60 | 4 |
| Navajo Wars | 6 | 15 | 2.50 | 5 |
| Enemy Action: Ardennes | 4 | 14 | 3.50 | 6 |
| Fire in the Lake | 4 | 14 | 3.50 | 6 |
| N: The Napoleonic Wars | 3 | 13 | 4.33 | 8 |
| Fields of Fire | 4 | 13 | 3.25 | 9 |
| Enemy Action: Kharkov | 4 | 12 | 3.00 | 10 |
| Halls of Hegra | 4 | 12 | 3.00 | 10 |
75% or more (n=79)
| Title | Count | Sum | Avg | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fields of Fire | 9 | 34 | 3.78 | 1 |
| Skies Above Britain | 9 | 33 | 3.67 | 2 |
| D-Day at Omaha Beach | 11 | 32 | 2.91 | 3 |
| Solitaire ASL | 12 | 31 | 2.58 | 4 |
| B-17: Queen of the Skies | 8 | 30 | 3.75 | 5 |
| Patton’s Best | 8 | 24 | 3.00 | 6 |
| Mrs Thatcher’s War: The Falklands, 1982 | 6 | 23 | 3.83 | 7 |
| D-Day at Tarawa | 7 | 22 | 3.14 | 8 |
| Ambush! | 6 | 21 | 3.50 | 9 |
| RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940 | 5 | 19 | 3.80 | 10 |
Games on all 3 lists
Regardless of whether they appeared in the top 10 or not, these are the games that appeared at least 3 times on each list for all 3 groupings within the “what percent of your total boardgaming is war/historical gaming?” question
- D-Day at Omaha Beach
- Enemy Action: Ardennes
- Fields of Fire
- Halls of Hegra
- Mr. President: The American Presidency, 2001-2020
- RAF: The Battle of Britain 1940
- Skies Above Britain
The results of our 2024 survey can be found here:
2024 Solo & Solitaire Wargaming & Historical Gaming Survey Results
ANNOUNCEMENT | RESULTS | DATA DIVING | BEYOND SOLITAIRE YOUTUBE DISCUSSION | BGG Geeklist | Historical Rankings
MORE DATA DIVING | MENTIONED IN DISPATCHES EPISODE
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Tell you what I think?
Well, I’ve been holding my tongue (mouse?) in regard to these articles dealing with this survey because, frankly, I don’t find any of it the least bit interesting.
Hey, we get it! Not everything’s going to appeal to every reader, so we understand that some of the things we cover aren’t going to scratch that itch for you.
Some folks don’t play digital games at all, so our coverage of those games does nothing for them. Other folks wish we had more digital game coverage.
We’ve got folks that think our coverage of the professional side of things is unseemly and warmongerish, and others that wish we did more of it.
We’re trying to cover a lot of ground 😀 and it’s OK if this one (or the series, it sounds like) didn’t appeal to you. We’ll try to grab your interest on a different topic and hope we have better results!