What are the Top World War 2 Board Wargames? | Best World War 2 Wargames

0:00 Hi everybody, I'm Zil Blitz and welcome. In this video, I'm going to be ranking my top 10 World War II board war games. Now, as with my other top videos, these are my personal favorites, not bas based on an external database. Games that have brought me the most fun, the most excitement, or the most thought-provoking games that I've played about World War II. A second caveat with this list is that there are a lot of World War II board war games. And although I've been playing a lot of war games over the last four years, there are a lot of World War II board games that I have yet to play. So, as with my other projects and top videos, I hope to play more of these games going forward and update this list in a year with games that I've played since this time. As we start out on this journey, I do want to mention one of our sponsors, Noble Knight Games in Wisconsin, which is a board game retailer that specializes in new and used board war games like we'll be talking about in this video. So, if you're interested in picking up some of the games that are mentioned here, there are links down below in the video description. And if you use some of those links, it does help out the channel. In addition to shipping across the United States and across the planet, they also buy new and used board uh board war games. So, if you have a collection that's gathering dust, you can reach out, you fill out the form and the condition that your games are in, they will pay for the shipping to send them to them, and you can get some cash or store credit to use.

1:17 Fantastic resource. I've had marvel experience, marvelous experiences with their service. I can't recommend them more highly. Noble Knight Games in Wisconsin. Fine. I'm going to start this top 10 video with very quickly mentioning five honorable mentions. These are games that I think are candidates for this list, but for one reason or another, they haven't quite made it yet. Let's get started. Our first honorable mention is the elephant in the room. I want to put this up up front. Advanced squad leader. This is the Beyond Valor module from that system. Now, I've played some Advanced Squad Leader this year, and I'm getting into it, but I haven't played enough to evaluate it. I hope to be able to add this game to the list in next year's version. Our second honorable mention is another tactical system in a rather big box, Old School Tactical. Now, I've started playing this one a couple of months ago. I really like this tactical system. It's clean, it's fresh, and it's easy to play. A good balance between playability and action. But like Advanced Squad Leader, I haven't played it enough to feel comfortable putting it in my top 10 yet. We'll see if it makes it for next year. Our third honorable mention brings up a theme of this list, which is there are a lot of tactical war games on this list. Makes me think I need to play more operational and strategic World War II games. Something to do for next year's version here. But our third honorable mention is yet another tactical game up front. Now, this is a game from the 1980s. It's card-based, very unique system, but it holds up really well. I started playing this one in 2025. I really like it, but like the other two games, I need to play it more before I would feel comfortable giving it a slot on the list. Maybe next

2:49 year. Our fourth honorable mention, finally, something not tactical. Empire of the Sun by GMT Games and designed by Mark Herman. Now, this is Mark Herman's baby. I have started playing this one, but I haven't played it enough really to give it any sort of evaluation or put it a spot on the list. But I promise Mark Herman that this will be a candidate for next year's list. I'm going to play this in 2026. Last honorable mention, another tactical game, Combat Commander 20th Anniversary Edition, or just Combat Commander in general. Now, I've played Combat Commander four times now in the past few months. Really liking it, but I'm not yet there. I haven't played it quite enough to be able to give it a spot on my top 10 list, but it's very close. Another game that we'll look at for next year's version. And now to start, the real deal. Game number 10. Our first game on our top 10 World War II war games list is a tactical game, but it is a lot of fun.

3:40 Point blank V is from Victory from Lock and Load Publishing. Now, this game is the spiritual descendant, if you would, to the upfront game that I just showed a little while ago. It's a card-based game. So, your units are cards, the objectives are cards, a lot of the terrain is going to be cards, and you're shifting and moving these cards around on the table in rows and columns to try to advance your cause as you approach your enemy, and your enem is trying to do the same thing to you. It also has a full-blown solo system in the game as well for allowing for single person play. Every time I've played this game, I've had a a lot of fun playing it. Both from that decision space that the game gives you and also from generating narrative. Good tactical games generate great stories. And this game succeeds at that as well. It's also based complexity-wise. It is not a simple game. And I should mention too what it is. So this is uh west front combat.

4:36 You've got the Germans, the allies uh on the west front. So in France 1944, US forces and British forces, Canadian forces as well against the German forces in that back half of World War II. Lots of small scenarios with tons of different objectives and gameplay ways. It's also very easy to generate your own scenarios with this one. The rule system is not simple. This is a complex game and it does take time to learn. And if you have played Lock and Load Tacticals, Tactical Lock and Load Publishing's tactical combat system, you'll be well on your way to this because it borrows a lot of mechanics from that system. But just spectacular gameplay. Every time I've played it, I've really enjoyed this one. Spot number 10 goes to Point Blank Vas for Vas for Victory from Lock and Load Publishers.

5:23 Game number nine on the list is the game that I go to when I want to introduce someone to wargaming that hasn't played wargaming war games before. If you've seen my best beginner war games video, uh this game is in that as well. I'm talking about, yes, another tactical game, uh Undaunted. Now, this is the Undaunted Reinforcements. Uh this is from Osprey Publishing, but there is Undaunted Normandy, Undaunted Reinforcements, which adds the solo mode to Undaunted Normandy. There's also Undaunted North Africa, and then Undaunted uh Battle of Britain, and the big Undaunted [clears throat] Stalenrad. I've played mostly Undaunted Normandy, Undaunted North Africa and the solo system here in Undaunted Reinforcements. But again, to go back to it, this is a tactical combat for Normandy. Of course, the theme is Germans versus US forces and the Normandy beaches and in the bokeh and the terrain past that. A lot of different scenarios. The North Africa version of course takes you to North Afric North Africa for combat there. Why is this Why does this get spot number nine on my list? For many of the same reasons I think that uh point blank is number 10, a good tactical game gives you interesting decisions that feel grounded in tactical combat fundamentals or principles generates great story in the same way that it does that. Now this is at the simpler end, right? I use this for people who haven't played war games before. Thing I really like about it is you can teach it in a half an hour, play it in an hour. People have had a great experience and within, you know, 10 to 15 minutes once you get the game going, people know what they're doing. they can

6:54 make the decisions and it m it just spins great gameplay. So, I am happy to put this one here at number nine on my list of best World War II war games. It is a fantastic game, especially if you're looking to introduce people and have them at that lower end of complexity for an easy night of gaming. So, this wasn't intentional, but I'm starting to think maybe I should have called this best World War II tactical uh war games, but but I promise there are some that are not tactical. However, game number eight is we have the massive Assault Sicily 43, Gayla Beach Head from Sound of Drums Games. Now, this game takes you for a tactical combat to Sicily 1943. This has the US forces against the German forces and just released just recently is the uh Primisolia Bridge, which adds the British forces to the mix here, too. So, now we have British and US against Germans, battling it out in Sicily in 1943.

7:51 Why is this game number eight on the list? I have thoroughly enjoyed this game every time I've played it. Uh the it it's aiming for that sweet spot between complexity of like an ASL, advanced squad leader system, and what I just show looked at a minute ago here, which is Undaunted, which would be on the simpler end. This is trying to land in there, providing players with a a relatively light, smooth, playable tactical combat system, yet capturing most of the elements of the deeper and more intricate tactical combat systems. Now, this is not a simple game. This will take you time to learn. It'll take you time to get up to speed. There are some unique mechanics, line of sight. All of the elements with tactical combat systems do mean there is a learning load to be handled. But I do think it lands very nicely in that sweet spot between complexity and playability. Really hits that zone nicely. Every time I've played it, I've loved the decisions the games throw at you and I've really like the story that the game generates. As all good tactical combat systems should spin good narrative. The other thing to know about the assault games is unlike most tactical combat games, there are some massive campaigns in these boxes and they are dynamic campaigns. So, how you do in scenario one is going to depend on what scenario you can fight in the next scenario in the campaign and what units you'll have available and what condition they're in. This dynamic threaded campaign is really a spectacular highlight of these systems. So, if you like games that have legacy and you want to string together a number of scenarios into a longer gameplay experience, these

9:23 games are very unique and fantastic with that. And with that, this is game number eight on the list. Assault Sicily 43 from Sound of Drums. Finally shifting away from tactical combat to a degree. Game number seven is one I've talked about recently on a different video. We're going old school for game number seven. Midway from Avalon Hill, the classic carrier game of the Battle of Midway from back in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Now, why is this game number seven on my list? This is very much, I think, a nostalgia choice. And there will be one more of these uh in the video coming up. But this game for me has so many memories attached to it. And I talked at length about this one because this was my number one favorite Avalon Hill game of all time. But the memories and the just the tension that this game generates with the simple system, considering that it's an older game, it's really remarkable how well it captured that cat and mouse hidden aspect of World War II carrier combat.

10:26 You know, if you're playing the US or the Japanese, you have no idea where your opponent's forces are. You're trying to hunt them down. And again, you want to hit before you get hit. So, the game play here just really I I think back on all the games that I've played with this one, and every single one of them was were nailbiters in terms of who was going to strike. They could be a decisive victory one way or another, but until those planes landed and until you hit those carriers, it was anybody's game. It was really easy to teach people the double blind system. So you had the you couldn't see your opponent's board and you had the blind in between. Just made it interesting every time. Fantastic memories here. I could not leave this one off the list. Game number seven on my list of best World War II war games, Midway from Avalon Hill. Game number six on our list is the first true solo World War II board game on the list that we've come to so far. This was a game I started playing about four years ago when I got back into tabletop wargaming. such a spectacular, thrilling time playing this game and playing the campaigns in this game. It is the Hunters from GMT Games. Now, this game spans from 1939 to 1943. You take charge of a singular yubot, and you go off on these very short missions. There could be 10 minutes, sometimes 20 minutes for a longer one, and then you string them together into the campaign of your commander and most likely one Ubot, although sometimes there can be cases where you're going to be shifting to a a newer or a more upgraded Ubot.

11:52 This is a a to a degree I I wouldn't say it's a beer and pretzels game. There is some complexity to the rules and some things to sort out, but the thing that I like about this is its bite-siz nature. You can play a mission in 10 minutes. You can play the entire campaign in an evening if you're incredibly dedicated. or if you have bad luck, you can play an entire campaign in 10 minutes cuz you could die in the first mission. I love the narratives and the stories and the memories that this game generates. It's just such a fresh experience uh in such a unique system. And this, of course, is the foundational game to many spin-offs covering other theaters like Silent Victory and World War II. So, if you like this type of game, there is an entire family of games that can follow the Hunters. But to me, this is the defining game in the series that I've experienced so far. It it's something too I think about that that World War II Yubot experience that and they've captured that so well in this game. So, the Hunters game number six, Solitaer uh Yubot captaining, Yubot leadership in World War II. Marvelous game, well deserving of its spot number six on my list. Game number five is a game that surprised me. I as I was ranking these games, I'm pitting this game against that game and saying this one or this one and putting them higher or lower and doing all these little mental gymnastics to figure out what my top 10 are. And every time I did it, this game just kept coming out higher and higher. And I'm like, well, okay, I obviously really like this game. Game number five is Task Force from Vuka Sims. Now, the same theme as Midway, right? This is carrier

13:23 battles in the Pacific, but this game is much more expansive. It has Pearl Harbor, some solitire scenarios you can play. It has some hypothetical carrier engagements, but at its heart really, it's simulating all of the major carrier battles between the United States and Japan in World War II. So, the theme and the scope and the number of scenarios here is truly remarkable, especially when you consider they do have some really interesting hypothetical scenarios where both sides are evenly matched. Why is this game here? Well, uh this is again a two-player [clears throat] game. I I the solo experiences are more to learn the game. The two-player game, I think, is really where the heart of the game is because you get into all that hidden aspect of not knowing where your enemy is, trying to be the first one to find and launch a carrier strike to disable and your opponent.

14:09 One of my best experiences over the past two years was playing this game with Grant from Pushing Cardboard at SD Histcom, the SD His a couple years ago. We had just a marvelous time playing the midway scenario in this. And what I realized as I was playing this and the experiences I've had since it is that yes, there are some simplifications for carrier combat, but it captures that essence and tension and drama and again narrative. I'm a big believer in narrative in games. It just captures all of that in this box. And there's so many scenarios inside. Great value for what it provides. I've just had marvelous experiences with this game. Task Force Carrier Battles in the Pacific from Vuka Sims game number five on my top World War II war games list.

14:57 Game number four on my top World War II war games list is an operational level game, not tactical, that I have really fallen in love with over the past couple of months. First time to play this was at SD Hiscon. Some of you may know where I'm going with this, but it is Hex Encounters combat done magnificently well. Traces of Victory from Vuka Sims. In this game, you take charge of the either the US forces or the German forces. It's November 1944, and the US forces are driving towards the German border. So, as the German forces, you're going to be playing kind of a tactical withdrawal, a fighting withdrawal. As the US forces, you got to keep the the pedal on the gas and keep pushing your forces forward and take ground in order to win the battle. The there is I think everything about this game is evolutionary. Hex encounters combat done well and it doesn't hurt that you have this marvelous design wrapper that Vuka Sims puts on their games. I mean this is a welldesigned beautiful game that throws good decisions at you and for a game that has you know not doesn't have a big footprint although it is a long game.

15:59 It's about a five or six hour game to play through the entire full length of the core game here. It is a longer experience on a small footprint but it's throws a surprisingly varied number of options and ways that you can play the game, especially as the allies determining where you're going to attack. So, I feel like there's a lot of ground to explore and replay this. I played this two-player and solo now. Both are good experiences. It is at its heart. It's a two-player game, but the solo mode work I think solo play works really well where you're playing both sides because of the chitpole system. You never quite know which side's going to go next. and the timing of everything can mean each time you play the game, it plays out differently. Yeah, this is just an an excellent Hex Encounters game. I'm thrilled with how much I've enjoyed it. I look forward to playing it more and I'm just excited about this series in general. So, Traces of Victory from Vuka Sims, spot number four on our top World War II war games list.

16:54 Game number three on my top World War II war games list is, yes, another tactical game, but it is the tactical system I've played the most, and I've just had so much fun with this system. And I'm going to pick out one of the modules in it because it is a big system. Representing Lock and Load Tactical is Heroes of the Bitter Harvest. Why is this so high and why have I liked it? Well, first of all, this is the tactical system I probably played the most over the past 2, three years. It's a a ton of modules. So you Pacific combat, Vietnam combat. This is East Front Combat. There is the Normandy one, which is hard to get. It's it's out of print, but that's Western combat. So you've got a lot of modules to pick from. There's there's others that I'm not even mentioning, like North Africa and things like that. So you've got this wide range of modules, and this is without a doubt a a a very complex system. It's not on the level of advanced squad leader in complexity, but it does hit I think for me what has been a very sweet spot between complexity and playability. Even though it's on the higher end of complexity, I felt like the rules are very logical. The rule book has evolved. I think it's on I want to say version four or five or maybe six. I mean, it's an advanced rule set that's been refined over the course of a number of years. The system is very playable. And this module in particular, Heroes of the Bitter Harvest, which is East Front, Russian versus German combat, has a ton of stuff in there.

18:21 There's data cards. It's got big maps with big hex's, so you got plenty of rooms, room to put the troops in there. Beautiful components. There is a full soliter mode in here as well. There's also a campaign mode where you can play as one character and level them up up kind of an RPG element where you take this beginning leader and play through a number of scenarios. A scenario generator to build your own scenarios which is really easy to do. I mean this is a system that I feel is very playable and for whatever reason I have just really enjoyed playing it. I think it's well done. I think it's crisp. I love the role of leaders in this game and the narrative that it generates. I like the decisions it throws at you and I've just felt like the rule set for whatever reason just really resonated with me.

19:06 Game number three on my top World War II war games list, Heroes of the Bitter Harvest and Lock and Load Tactics. We're almost home. Game number two. Now, game number two is very much a nostalgia pick. This is one when I think back of all the World War II war games that I've played, this has probably created the most memories. And this is going way back in the time machine for me for this one. Game number two is Sniper Houseto House Fighting in World War II from SPI. Now look at this. This is falling apart. This game I played this so much growing up. I play this is this very well may I mean midway I've talked about playing it a lot, but this very well might be the game that I have played the most. Both solitire and two-player. Now if you're not familiar with this game, it is it's house-to-house combat. One of the maps is all buildings, right? So, you've got houses and rooms and multifloors. Each counter is an individual man. And then you write down all your orders and then you try to execute them together in this kind of we go system of combat that works surprisingly well for a game that's so old. Now, I'm not saying this is probably the a great game, right? I bet if I played this now, I might find a lot of holes in it and say like, why did I like it so much? But I love this game back in its time. I mean, I played this thing until the map fell apart. That's how much I played. I even bought like extra counter sets because I wanted to have this massive battle with hundreds of troops on the game board at the same time. It would have taken months to

20:36 play. It's so much fun playing this. Like people would go into rooms and they blow up and they they drop their grenade and then snipers would pick people off and every single patrol just generated these fantastic stories. I played this hundreds of hours easily in the terms of uh growing up in my formative wargaming years. So yeah, I could go on for a long time, but uh Sniper is my number two World War II war game. And what I just learned, surprisingly, what I just learned, and I got this from from Noble Knight Games, they made a new version of it, and it's much smaller, too. I'm not quite sure how it works out, but in 19 this is from the 1970s, I'm pretty sure. This is 19 1986. They redid it. I just learned this. So, I picked this up used from Noble Knight Games. So, I I'm actually really excited to see what changes they were made to this cuz apparently they did a really good job with the remake.

21:28 So, go Sniper version one and version two. And I'm excited to to get back into playing this one again. Game number two, Sniper from SPI. Game number one. We're here. You know, this is one too like every time I matched up game against game and I'd say, "Nope. Yep. This one's still there. Nope. Yep. And so I put the second game, the third game, the fourth game, the fifth game up against this one, I said, "Nope. Yep. This is still there." To me, at this point in my wargaming experience, being back now with War Games 4 years, World War II games, I don't have one that I can think of that I respect more than I respect this game. Soliter game, I've talked about it before in best soliter war games a long time ago. D-Day at Omaha Beach from Decision Games and designed by John Butterfield. Why? What is this game first? Well, you're in charge of the beach landings on Omaha Beach as the game would sing and you're solo player. So, you're playing the US against German forces, but the the way the system works, the German forces are very active. You have hard tough decisions and every piece of ground and beach that you take is so hard fought. And the system, the way it works with all the colors and matrixes on the game on the game board is so brilliantly designed. All your tanks will get blown up. You're going to have the frustration of everything going wrong and yet you're still trying to push forward. On my bucket list someday is to win this game through the whole campaign. I've yet to accomplish this.

22:50 But this game to me that there is nothing that I've come close to, especially in the soliter game that throws the challenging decisions at you and creates the same amount of narrative. This is just brilliant. one of I think the best war war games of all time. But in particular, if we're talking about World War II war games, I can't come up one that I've played that I respect and and think it think more highly of than D-Day at Omaha Beach. So, until something takes this one and knocks it off its crown or throne here, um I got to go with D-Day at Omaha Beach for my number one game. So, we've reached the end. Some quick reflections on this process. As I was making this list, I realized there are a lot of World War II war games and there are a lot of World War II war games and systems that I have yet to play. So, I felt like I could to a certain degree wait until I had a perfect sample of games to include in this list, but I could be waiting many more years before I could get there. I thought this would be better to do peace meal. So, I very much look forward to hearing some of your suggestions and recommendations for games you think I should play to bring them in as candidates for this list in next year's edition. And I'm looking forward to doing this on a on a yearly basis. It's been really fun to make these comparisons and to build this list. But there definitely are series like Advanced Squad Leader is one.

24:05 Battalion Combat series is one. Mark Simon's series of the apostrophe xxx GMT games is another one I want to play more to a point where I could bring these in here too. As well as some of the honorable mentions I mentioned. So there are a lot of games to look at. Despite I feel like I've played a lot of games, there are a lot of games to look at, especially at that operational and strategic level. So, I look forward to your suggestions and reading what games you think are your best World War II board war games down below. If you have enjoyed this video, you might also enjoy this best beginner war games video that highlights some of the games that I think are very good for newcomers to the hobby. Thanks for watching everybody. Have a great day.