By the Numbers: The War Room Ten Game Challenge

  

 

The War Room's 2024 Challenge wrap-up is on Saturday, January 18
(about 7:30am Sunday, Adelaide time) on Roughie's channel.

As I’ve stated here recently, I thought I was done with setting myself challenges or goals with A Fast Game or regarding gaming generally. Two years in a row I stated a couple of seemingly achievable tasks or milestones only to fall short of my own expectations. To hell with it, I said to myself, I’ll just play games, review the ones I like, and have some fun with it.

Then I watched the War Room on Sunday (for the uninitiated, you can find some details about the War Room in this post). Each January, idjester sets a challenge for the show’s regular viewers (roughly half of which seem to also be YouTube content creators). Jester’s been doing this for at least four or five years (I’m not sure if he did it in their first year, but the guys will be hitting the show’s sixth anniversary in a just couple of weeks). It was one of these 10 Game Challenges that inspired me to attempt my own 6x6 Challenge in my first year of writing A Fast Game.

As I said in a previous post, despite my misgivings about goal-setting, I decided to participate in the War Room’s 10 Game Challenge this year. I ran through the rules for the 10 Game Challenge in the aforementioned post, but essentially you have to pick ten games you intend to play in 2025 (plus two substitute games, in case you’re for some reason not able to fulfil one or two plays, or you’re just not feeling it for an early choice – it happens), and post the list on the Tac UP group on Facebook (or alternatively, you can email the list to Jester – I think his contact details are on his YouTube channel).

Having decided to take on the Challenge, I wanted to nail down my list before I slipped into an endless cycle of swap-outs. The two guidelines I set myself were that I should pick games that can be played in a couple of hours, and that at least half of them should be games I can play solo (two-handed) if necessary. I wanted to stick to a shorter length because most of my face-to-face gaming happens on weeknights these days. The solo-able games are for when the weeknight games don’t come off.

Five of the games I’ve played before, the other five in the main list are relatively new (to me, at least). The two reserve games are 2025 releases that I don’t have yet, but that are due to be released in the first half of the year.

So, without further ado, may I present my maiden (annotated) 10 Game Challenge selection for 2025:

 

1.  Men of Iron Tri-pack (GMT Games, 2020)

I’m embarrassed to say, I haven’t yet completely punched my copy of the Men of Iron Tri-Pack, which contains (as the name would suggest) the first three volumes in the Men of Iron series; Men of Iron (GMT Games, 2005), Infidel (GMT Games, 2011), and Blood and Roses (GMT Games, 2014). The set also includes Agincourt (RBM Studio, 2009), which first appeared in C3i magazine. This is probably what we’ll play first. It’s on a half-sized map, with slightly larger counters (9/16” I think, as opposed to the half-inch counters throughout the rest of the game), and it’s a good excuse to recite the St Crispin’s Day speech.

2. Napoléon 1807 (Shakos,2020) (Battle of Eylau AAR)

Napoleon 1807 is the follow-on game from Denis Sauvage’s Napoléon 1806 (Shakos, 2017 – link to review). It’s more of the same in a number of ways, with a bigger map and numerous scenarios. We’ve played this a couple of times, but only the battle scenarios, usually three or four turns. There are several campaign scenarios, including Eylau and Friedland, that run over ten or more turns, so I’m keen to try one of these.

3. Dawn's Early Light: The War of 1812 (Compass Games, 2020) (AAR)

I have a soft spot for the War of 1812, and own several games covering various situations in the conflict, but this is the only one covering the whole war. It’s a Card-Driven Game with some novel aspects, and an interesting area movement/control mechanic. I’ve only played this double handed (always difficult with a CDG), so I’m looking forward to trying it out against a human opponent.

4. Waterloo, 1815: Fallen Eagles II (Hexasim, 2022) (unboxing)

This is my first Eagles of France game. I’m a big fan of Hexasim, and I’ve heard a lot of good things about the series, so I’m looking forward to diving into this one. The Mont-Saint-Jean scenario is a two-map affair, so probably impractical for our purposes, but the Fallen Eagles II also includes three smaller scenarios that should fit the bill.

5. Brothers at War, 1862 (Compass Games, 2022) (unboxing; AAR)

This is such a great game; really four games in one. Each covers as small engagement (like Valverde), or a portion of a larger action (Miller’s cornfield at Antietam), and features card-assisted play and a novel chit-draw system. The action is swift and tense. Brothers at War was the first game I picked for this list.

6. A Most Fearful Sacrifice: The Three Days of Gettysburg (Flying Pig Games, 2022)

This game and I have a history. I was going to back the original Kickstarter (I’ had form with Flying Pig Games by then) but backed off a couple of days before the campaign closed. When the Second Edition went to crowdfunding, Flying Pig was no longer supporting overseas pledges, and copies sold out pretty quickly from the usual purveyors of fine gaming merchandise. When the Second Edition went to Kickstarter, with access for overseas supporters, I practically put myself in hoc to secure a copy.

I’ve been circling around this game for months now. I’ve been meaning to write an unboxing article – I’ve got most of the photos, but a couple need re-taking – and start pushing some counters around to get a feel for it, but there’s always been something more pressing. Putting it on the list should give me the impetus to unbox and play it before Rock of Chickamauga (Flying Pig Games, 2025) arrives.

7. Rebel Fury: Battles of the American Civil War (GMT Games. 2024) (unboxing)

This was hands-down my favourite game for 2024. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to pull it out again and write something about it.

8. Imperial Bayonets: We Were Not Cowards – Sedan 1870 (Conflict Simulations Ltd, 2020)

Imperial Bayonets is a reimplementation of the Library of Napoleonic Battles system applied to the conflicts of the mid-nineteenth century, in the case of We Were Not Cowards, the Franco-Prussian War. I bought this along with some other CSL games before they stopped doing overseas shipping. This war represents a turning point in the way European countries would engage in battle. This might just get nudged closer to the front of the list.

9. Panzer Battles, 11^th Panzer on the Chir River (MMP/The Gamers, 2016) (unboxing)

The only WWII entry in the mix. I wanted to have one at least. Also, this will be my introduction to the Standard Combat Series (SCS). I’ve lived a sheltered life.

10. We Are Coming, Nineveh (Nuts! Publishing, 2023)

Another game I bought last year and had grand ambitions of getting it to the table, only to see it shunted to the back of the queue. Modern conflicts can be a tough sell to the folks I tend to game with. We Are Coming, Nineveh does have a solo option, but I’m going to try to hold out for a face-to-face game.

Substitute games

11. By Swords and Bayonets (GMT Games, 2025)

The latest instalment of the Great Battles of the American Civil War (GBACW) series, I understand By Swords and Bayonets is now at the printer, so it will probably ship in the first half of this year. The game has respectable numbers, too, hitting just over 1,500 preorders on GMT’s P500 list.

12. Drop Zone: Southern France (Worthington Publishing, 2025)

The story of this game feels like one of those stories about a dog that’s separated from his its family while visiting the Grand Canyon, but manages to finally find its way home years later, Drop Zone: Southern France began its existence on GMT’s P500 list in June 2020, but it languished in the low 300s from memory before it was pulled in December of that year. In 2021, Worthington Publishing listed Drop Zone in their intended print list for the year (on the back of designer Dan Fournie’s 1944: Battle of the Bulge (Worthington Publishing 2020), but the game didn’t make the queue until its successful Kickstarter campaign last year. The most recent news is that the printed games are crossing the Pacific Ocean as I write, and fulfillment should begin in the next month or two.

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When I set out to do this list, I thought it would be easy. I’ve been working on reviews for a couple of the final picks and wanted to get an extra play or two in before finishing them. A couple of others I’ve played but didn’t feel like I’d spent enough time with them to write anything worthwhile about them. The rest are fairly new, but I’ve been keen to get them to the table. In short, I’m looking forward to all of them.

The other half of the tale is all the games that didn’t make the cut. But that will be a story for another post.