While I might say this every year, 2024 was a cough banner cough year for wargaming. Not only did we get next volumes in standout series like COIN, we also saw classic wargaming spread into themes farther afield which, even if you’ve a penchant for historical accuracy, can help create new mechanics that will, in turn, revitalize the conflicts you know and love. The list below is a small sampling of 2024’s great war games that deserve a spot in your collection, whether you’re a seasoned vet or a green recruit venturing forth from the lands of euros and dice-chuckers.
As ever, leverage that Want List, not just so you’ll get notified, but so Noble Knight can gauge interest in a title. It’s the best way to ensure a game you’re interested in gets back to our shelves.
Burning Banners
Fantasy war games have been around for decades, but Burning Banners (Christopher Moeller) appeared over the summer to catch the board game world by surprise. Its stunning art, large player count (up to 6), varied factions, and relatively light (for a war game) rules helped Banners bridge the gap between wargaming and more standard hobby fare. This, though, is a mark in Banner’s eminent favor, as it serves as a great gateway for grognards hoping to convince friends, partners, or relatives that they can play, win, and enjoy war games.
All that said, Banners sings as a two-player clash. You’ll battle across four different maps, telling a long, war-torn story. There’s magic, monsters, and glorious heroes. Perfect for anyone wanting something a little different, or who’ve been waiting for a proper Divine Right sequel for far too long.
Vijayanagara: The Deccan Empires of Medieval India, 1290-1398
GMT’s recent creation, the Irregular Conflict Series, intended to model the thorny interactions in history beyond COIN’s scope, comes to life in Vijayanagara (Cory Graham, Mathieu Johnson, Aman Matthews, Saverio Spagnolie). This pits three players (like COIN, these games are best at the targeted count, though Bot rules allow playing with solitaire or two) against one another during India’s dynastic period, when Mongol hordes were an ever-present threat. Faction asymmetry and card-driven gameplay propel the action, as all three sides navigate taking control, scoring points, and keeping each other from running away with the lead.
Vijayanagara, like Burning Banners, is both a great game and an open door to wargaming. Its playtime rests around or under two hours, and the rules are far simpler than its chunkier brethren, yet its play remains flexible, brimming with choices and consequences. Every game will play differently, all the while building up ideas and strategies to deploy when you break out that copy of Gandhi.
A Gest of Robin Hood
I’m just getting the Irregular Conflict Series games outta the way, because A Gest of Robin Hood (Fred Serval) is also great, even if its setting and scope is wildly
different from Vijayanagara. In Robin Hood, one player adopts the Sheriff’s guise while the other (shocker) steps into the steal-from-the-rich, give-to-the-poor legend. The two sides are drastically different, with Robin having to recruit and scuttle his Merry Men into operations and away from danger, while the Sheriff tries to have them all arrested and hung.
Hidden movement and traps play a big part in Robin Hood, with both sides seeking to ambush the other. That juicy carriage might have enough gold to pay for Robin’s new shoes, or it might contain a crew of henchmen waiting to string up the thieves. Can you afford not to take the bait, or will Robin trick the Sherriff into wasting resources chasing ghosts? This is an hour-long duel, dripping with theme and a great GMT production, that serves both as a great ICS/COIN intro for new players and as a treasure that’ll grow sharp with more plays. The second printing is up for Pre-Order right now!
Purple Haze
Cooperative gaming is still something of a rarity with war games, which makes Purple Haze (Bernard Grzybowski), a co-op tactical campaign, a compelling title to get to your table. Published with the usual chrome by Phalanx, Purple Haze takes you and up to three pals (though it’s arguably best solo) on a wrenching journey through the dark and danger of Vietnam. You’ll build a team that, like any dungeon crawler, will gain experience and abilities. They’ll also take bullets or find themselves put into dire straits through choices both tactical and story-driven.
That last bit defines what makes Purple Haze a standout. This is a real narrative adventure, not just an emergent or player-told story. Those choices will bring your squad into battle amid a changing, yet tight board wherein small-scale combat takes place with nerve-rattling vigor. The key to the magic here is that it’s not a 2-2-2 counter rolling on the CRT, it’s Sergeant Plechonsky charging through enemy fire to take out a machine gun nest. Purple Haze is a special journey, and if you’ve an appetite for squad-level skirmishes and adventure, this belongs in your collection.
1562: Beginning of a Tragedy
Part of wargaming pleasure is coming to know battles and conflicts outside the usual highlights. 1562: Beginning of a Tragedy (Philippe Hardy) sends us back nearly seven centuries for an operational war game set across three battles in the French Wars of Religion. The third volume in the By Shot, Shock, and Faith series, 1562 uses a classic I-go-you-go setup with interrupt possibilities like counter charges, retreats, and surprise attacks to keep the passive player engaged. You’ll be sweeping your cavalry, pikemen, and early gunpowder forces along beautiful maps—no hexes, here, but instead irregular zones showcasing terrain effects on the battlefields—to duel the enemy.
What makes 1562 stand out is its commitment to the period, thanks to historian input and special rules involving caracoles, lost children, giving orders back before texting was a thing, all let you customize 1562 to suit player experience and realism. That variety helps, as 1562’s core rules are relatively simple, letting you ease into the game before bringing in all the meaty bits to bear. All told, 1562 is a juicy entry to the slim field of warfare branching medieval and gunpowder ages, and one worth picking up for folks looking to add variety to their collection.
Caporetto 1917
Some war games cover wars. Others dive deep into a single battle, letting you experience the full conflict. Caporetto 1917 (Andrea Brusati) is in that latter group, with a full campaign (encompassing only 3 days of battle, but with a broad field) hitting over a thousand counters. All the features of WW1 combat, from gas to mines and more, are here, and the factions in play allow you to run Caporetto as a 2v2 team game. Unlike trench warfare, Caporetto is built around a rush attack, where both sides engage in desperate, driving conflict. No turtling or static lines here, just mountains, rivers, and lots of possibilities.
Caporetto 1917 is also the third game in the Italian Front series, after Strafexpedition, 1916 and Gorizia 1916, and includes 2nd edition system rules for the whole set, so if you’re looking to dive into a great WW1 rule set with compelling games to match, Caporetto is a good place to start. Just be aware that this (as if you couldn’t tell from the counter count above) is a dense war game, with a heaviness to match its scope. Caporetto 1917 will reward your efforts, but rookies might be better served elsewhere.
Arabian Struggle
First appearing in Judean Hammer, the Conflict of Wills system journeys to 20th Century Arabia in the aptly titled Arabian Struggle (Nick Porter, Tim Uren). Designed for three players, this card-driven area-control war game sees all three player factions butting up against two imperial forces as well as each other in a desperate fight. You’ll have a hand of cards that can be used for ops points or the printed event, with the important caveat that any event played will be removed from the game (ops points get discarded and reshuffled). So far, so standard, save the combat modifiers attached to every card. You’ll draw a card in every combat and apply those numbers to your (and the enemy’s) forces, and your best numbers tend to coincide with your strongest events.
Want to play a great event? Be ready to lose a strong combat card.
That tension, coupled with the dynamism with the imperial powers as they rampage across the map, provides an engaging, entertaining 90 minutes or so. Arabian Struggle delivers a tasty snack of a war game, able to be dished out, taught, and played on a week night with minimal fuss and maximum tactics. This is wargaming’s counter to the midweight euro, a game you can bring to the table at a moment’s notice and have a great time.
Thunder on the Mississippi
The venerable Great Campaigns of the Civil War series gained a stellar new entrant in 2024 with Thunder on the Mississippi (Joseph M. Balkoski, Chris Withers), which brings Grant’s Vicksburg campaign to your tabletop. Unlike the sprawling fields, hills, and forests of eastern battlefields, Vicksburg brings more thrilling terrain, with rivers, sieges, and amphibious landings to navigate. An accessible ruleset—with optional advanced rules for more terrain modifiers and the like—combines with eleven smaller, learning scenarios to build up your gameplay before engaging in the full 70 turn campaign.
Thunder on the Mississippi goes beyond the fundamentals too, with a gorgeous map, charts, and player aids keeping you engaged in the game and not flipping through the rulebook. This is also a game that works great at two, but runs well as a solo effort too, owing to dice-driven actions, random events, and an absence of cards. If you’re looking for a simulation-style war game, chock full of interesting situations (so many amphibious landings!), set in the Civil War, then Thunder on the MIssissippi (and really, the whole Great Campaigns of the Civil War series) deserves a look.
Storm of Steel
Solitaire games putting you in the cockpit of a combat plane are a niche that, if you’re a solo war gamer, you owe it to yourself to try. Storm of Steel (Joe Fernandez), dropping you into a Stuka in WW2’s eastern front, is a superb place to start. Compass Games’ title has you flying through key battles, with your pilots earning experience, struggling to survive endless flak, and downing enemy forces with one dive bomb run after another. The rules load is light, the decisions heavy, as you’ll deal with malfunctions, enemy fire, and varied objectives.
As with any good campaign game, there’s more to handle than just the moment-to-moment gunfire, and Storm of Steel gives you control of your squad. Picking the right loadouts, managing pilot and gunner fatigue against the need to succeed, and driving the story’s direction all round out Storm of Steel’s engrossing solitaire experience. With a per-session playtime of around an hour—or less, if you get shot down!—Storm of Steel fits a lunch break length, or serves as a nightcap for a little bit of pre-bedtime bombing.
Red Dust Rebellion
Another year, another COIN title.
We wrote a little about Red Dust Rebellion (Jarrod Carmichael) earlier this year, but I’m bringing it back because I’m a fan of wild thrusts into the unknown. Taking a system like COIN and mixing it with hard sci-fi is the kind of experiment wargaming offers. All your COIN staples are here, from government factions to rebels and the people stuck in between. Cards drive every turn, controlling who gets to act and when, and what you’ll do with the turns you have remains as delectable as ever.
Red Dust Rebellion sits firmly in COIN’s heavier echelon, along the likes of Fire in the Lake or Pendragon. It’s a game best consumed with similar groups, ready to engage over multiple plays to plumb the depths of its many intertwined systems. You likely already know if this applies to you, and if it does, don’t let the sci-fi nature throw you off. Red Dust Rebellion remains a true COIN, using gripping gameplay to confront players with difficult questions facing humanity both today and, likely, tomorrow.
Panzer North Africa
Like Storm of Steel, Panzer North Africa asks us to zoom in on a small unit, one engaged in WW2’s desert combat. James Day returns to his Panzer system to
bring 32 scenarios (and a 4 scenario campaign) and the tools to create plenty more of your own design. British, German, and Italian units get the chance to clash here, with damage modeled against hit locations (it’s not just ‘the tank’ that gets hit, but where) to keep clashes focused on the details. Can your wounded Sherman get that revenge shot off even with a damaged tread? Will the bazooka hit that soft rear armor or glance off the reinforced Panzer front?
Panzer North Africa is the meshing of miniatures-style tactical combat with wargaming’s emphasis on realism. The ruleset here is in-depth, but flows once you’ve played a round or two, instead opening possibilities for emergent narratives and heroic situations. Panzer North Africa and its earlier sister titles are what you’re looking for if operational-level wargaming feels a little cold. Here, you’ll feel the tank fire, feel the desert heat, and cheer a victory as the result of your own tactical play, not random luck. Oh, and its chit-pull activation system means it’s solitaire friendly too.
Wolfpack
Another co-op game, though this time every player gets their own submarine as you work together to try and bring down Atlantic shipping in WW2. Wolfpack (Mike Bertucelli), perhaps obviously, sees you and up to three friends attempting to sink as much of a cargo convoy as possible without getting annihilated by escorting destroyers. Wolfpack straddles the line between an in-depth simulation and smooth experience, putting the choices in your hands and asking a dice roll or three to help drive the narrative. Risk is everywhere, but so is reward.
Just, you know, tell yourself that freighter was worth the torpedo as the depth charges rain down around you.
If you’re a fan of submarine warfare, enjoyed The Hunters, and want to bring your friends into the action, Wolfpack gives you the white-knuckle ride you’ve been waiting for, though keep a few hours reserved for sessions. You just might need a minute after all those narrow escapes.
And that does it for this year’s list of great 2024 war games! Thanks for reading along, and, as ever, keep that Want List handy so you can snag these titles when they drop back in stock. Have a wonderful holiday season, and happy wargaming!
Read our previous article here!
