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I've recently played some hex and counter wargames, albeit computer ones. Unity of Command 2, to be specific. But I am looking for something a little less like an elaborate chess puzzle, and not weirdly AAA-game expensive. Do you have anything you'd recommend?
Huge range. What kind of games do you like? Quick 1-2 hour games, or monster campaigns? Napoleonic, World War II, space?
The Command and Colors system is a pretty good entry level system.
My personal preference is World War II, though I also like ancients and sci-fi; not so much Napoleonic or Civil War (which are also hugely popular genres). Some old favorites are the Avalon Hill classics like PanzerBlitz and Starship Troopers. For the truly dedicated there is Starfleet Battles and Advanced Squad Leader, but those are basically lifestyle games.
Axis & Allies has many, many versions from mini-games to long campaigns with online versions.
GMT has a very wide range, and Space Empires 4x is a very approachable alternative to SFB (and you can play it on BoardGameArena).
One of my favorites is Empire of the Sun. The full campaign game is a long slog (12+ hours if you are playing face to face), but there are several minigames that are much easier to play.
Most heavy wargames have Vassal modules so they're easy to play online and/or asynchronously.
I think I was a bit unclear. In this case I was asking about computer games, not board games. Though I'll definitely look at some of these anyway.
Ah, sorry, I mostly play cardboard. But boardgamearena and Vassal do give you computer options if you want human opponents.
I've been told World of Warships is very good, though I haven't tried it.
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Space Empires 4x is legit great. It's been years since I last played it, but the last time I did I played a fairly small scenario with a buddy of mine. I had horrible luck exploring my system, and he was raking in extra production points of colonies well before I found a single one. So I invested heavily in speed and initiative tech, and harassed the fuck out of him. Constantly parked my weakest units over his planets to block their production, and then ran them away when he was forced to respond. I made up for my terrible luck by stealing the initiative, and I took it pretty far.
Unfortunately my friend has really bad analysis paralysis, and around 2 AM I just couldn't possibly play any longer. My first serious competitive fleet rolled off the assembly line, and we staged one last battle where all the dice split in his favor and I was left with nothing but smoking wreckage. We called the game for him then. But man, that first part of the game I really fucking enjoyed. If we had kept going, I may have pulled it off since at that point I had been fucking with economy so long, I had actually leapfrogged him despite starting in such an inferior position.
Talon is also pretty good - it's basically the tactical-level expansion for SE4x (and, honestly, a better version of SFB).
The same developer who put SE4X on boardgamearena also had a prototype for Talon, but unfortunately, there wasn't enough interest and he gave up.
Yeah, I own a first edition copy of Talon I've yet to crack open. It's on my pile of shame.
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I have a few favorites that may or may not have digital implementations.
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