TOP 10 Board Games by SPI / Are These SIMULATIONS PUBLICATIONS INC's BEST Games?
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- SPI or Simulations Publications Inc, was one of, if not THE the most prolific board game companies in the 1970s and 1980s. But, if you had to narrow it down to 10 games, which ones would YOU say are their most influential, their most important, and their most worthy of commemorating? Here is our list of their most highly regarded games. With 380 games to choose from, we know we’ll miss some great games, so please add your own top 5 or 10 SPI games in the comments. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
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#spigames
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#avalonhill
Founded by Jim Dunnigan in 1969, SPI was a publisher of board wargames during the 1970s and early 1980s, when it went bankrupt. SPI also published several magazines, including Strategy & Tactics, Moves and Ares.
Several SPI titles have been republished by Decision Games (I), who are also the current publishers of Strategy & Tactics magazine.
=CHAPTERS=
0:00 SPI Games
0:54 Honorable Mentions
1:43 #10
2:16 #9
3:00 #8
3:40 #7
4:18 #6
5:16 #5
5:50 #4
6:35 #3
7:23 #2
8:03 #1
9:05 Bonus Title 
Игры
Started with AH, in the 70's, but my gamers' group moved to large games that we would play as teams for extended times, 4 to 8 weekly sessions. Cigarettes, cigars, alcohol, late nights, tolerant but aggravated wives...The Longest Day, War in the East, Korsun Pocket, Highway to the Reich, Panzerarmee Afrika, to name a few. SPI made most of the big games back then. As families grew and space became limited, we all had stopped by the late 80's. I still have fond memories...
Tolerant but aggravated wives....lol. This never changes. You sound like a beat Poet with a line like that. Thanks for sharing your story.
Large games. As in Flattop by Avalon hill.
Got into war gaming in late 70s by my Jr high science teacher. Didn't think he was weird though, just a big kid at heart. He recently passed away August 30th. So this a shout out to him, thanks Joe for all the great memories. I will miss you, like I miss SPI games. Always thought they had the best games, like I thought you were the best. RIP 🙏
It's so great to have such a strong connection to people who impact our lives. I had a cool grade 7 teacher who had a lot of war games on his shelf too.
One vote for Air War. I love how 6 seconds of flight took 20+ minutes of gaming.
Lol.
Gotta give a vote to Frederick the Great. The first game that broke the mold of the move-and-shoot sequence of play by adding a reaction movement feature for the defenders because combat was resolved. It was revolutionary at the time and helped inspire such games and Avalon Hill's War and Peace as well as OSG's Napoleon at Bay.
Nice! We haven't yet gotten to try any of them - they all look great. Which one should we start with?
@@LegendaryTactics Start with Frederick the Great. The graphics are obsolete but convey the necessary information clearly. I would get the Avalon Hill version since it has named leaders and a couple of rules developed by Joe Balkowski that are not in the SPI version. The rules are complete and easily understood but need to be read carefully, so you don’t miss anything important (especially depots and sieges). Enjoy!
I remember TSS fondly. 3 maps together with hundreds of counters that I'd put up on a wall with FunTak. The Napoleon Quad... Dawn of the Dead... but before The War of the Ring, we had Dark Ages to simulate the battles of LotR. All of these went by the wayside with the advent of PC games. Talonsoft was a company that effectively recreated a lot of the feel of AH, SPI and TSR tactical games. Great memories. Thanks!
PC games absolutely streamlined the "work" part of these games. But for many, that was the main reason to play them.
I really liked their game “Invasion America”. Fun!
You seem to be getting some thumbs' up on this pick. Another Jim Dunnigan design! Did you also enjoy the movie Red Dawn?
One of my old favorites, me and my circle of friends played it several times. Amazing to remember how much we overreacted to the Soviet threat back then, that such a scenario didn't seem that impossible. The 1970s were a fraught period of history.
@@LegendaryTactics Wolverines! Haha! As an aside there was one of those games that came in a magazine called “Jacksonville: Beaches of Doom” that was the same idea on a tactical level that was also a lot of fun.
Later they published Objective: Moscow as kind of a reply.
@@LegendaryTactics Both of them.
Had a "lifetime" subscription to S&T, then they went bankrupt and voided my subscription. SPI games had awesome offerings and find the top-heavy inclusion of fantasy games rather counter to what SPI was about. The monster game "Highway to the Reich" with its 5 foot plus map was an awesome effort. "Red Star/White Star" was worthy of a mention. "Chicago-Chicago" the '68 riots in Chicago was quite unique S & T game. A truly fun game was "Scrimmage" - man-to-man US football. I am also on board with the other comment on "Plot to A. Hitler".
Your picks are completely different from mine. That would have been awesome if you were still getting Strategy and Tactics as part of your original lifetime subscription today.
I also got the shaft when SPI went under, got several of the games you mentioned in S&T.
Still have almost all of them though they may be missing a few counters.
Let's not forget Yaquinto or GDW
Had game store for 14 years,still have. Creature that ate sheboygan and ouple S&T,s with unpunished counters
Do you still stock many SPI games? Are you a used game store or mostly new?
Or Task Force Games, although they leaned away from historicals the years went by. Then again, so did Yaquinto and GDW.
I spent 6 months at Ft. Monmouth in 1973 so I could pop up to Manhattan most weekends to playtest at SPI. I played a lot of games but put in enough time to get my RL name on the credits of Sniper. Lots of fun.
That's pretty cool. Hopefully you still have a copy of it somewhere....
I believe the name of the firm was Simulations (instead of Simulated) Publications Inc.
You're right. I was doing that meta data at 2am after I got home from a ball game that went into the 11 inning. Brain missed that. Thanks for pointing that out.
I really liked Panzergruppe Guderian precisely because of the uncertainty. 😊
My own personal top 10 SPI games are (in no particular order) Global War, Sniper, Star Force Alpha Centauri, Napoleon's Last Battles, Fall Of Rome, The Conquerors, Terrible Swift Sword, The Prestag Series (Pre Seventeenth Century series of games), Operation Olympic and Swords and Sorcery. I spent many hours on these games and wish I still had them.
SPI marketed quite a few "quad" games where four quick playing games sharing a common theme were packaged together. Noted in the video is the Napoleon's Last Battles quad. Quad games that I have collected are Modern Battles, Modern Battles II, and Thirty Years War. Deathmaze was a good fantasy game. Even better was the follow-on game Citadel of Blood which was more detailed. This game was included in an edition of SPI's sci-fi/fantasy magazine, Ares.
My favorite monster sized game was Objective: Moscow, which was a division level game of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The game was published in 1978 and the two large scenarios were coalitions of US, European, Middle Eastern, and Chinese forces invading the Soviet Union in a contemporary time-frame (i.e. 1978 and thus Iran was an ally of the US) and a future scenario in 1998. The partner to this game was Invasion America, in which the European, Asian, and South American forces invade North America. Both games utilized untried units first introduced in Panzergruppe Guderian.
The Battle for Germany had a very interesting game mechanism. It is a corps/army level game and the setting is central Europe from Dec 1944 to Apr 1945. The game's objective is the Soviet and Western Allies race to Berlin.There is no German player. The Western Allies player controls his own forces AND eastern front German forces facing the Soviets. The Soviet player controls his own forces AND western front German forces facing the Western Allies. The concept is for one player to be the first to take Berlin and to also prevent his allies from achieving the same goal.
Berlin '85 (Warsaw Pact forces assault on West Berlin during an hypothetical '80s war in Europe) is a good example of a game where the opposing forces are unequal but victory conditions are determined on how long the West Berlin garrison can last before surrendering. This was another Strategy & Tactics game and the magazine included a fascinating fictional story from the viewpoint of an American staff officer in West Berlin describing the battle for the city day-by-day until the garrison's surrender.
You really sound like someone I should have talked to before I made the video. I'm guessing you spent a bit of time with SPI games. I haven't played Citadel of Blood, but now I may need to see if there's a Tabletop Simulator mod. Battle For Germany and Sniper! were the two games I had to choose between for the #10 slot. I'm glad you mentioned it here.
The Civil War quad games were fun too. Quick & Easy.
Berlin 85 was a favourite of mine - helped by that story (I think the events fitted with Hackett's The Third World War). The system didn't suit urban combat (Modern battles IIRC) but the map was stunning. I played it endlessly using chits from Victory in the West, my all time favourite system. Games using VitW are still being published.
Battle for Germany was very interesting. Where one side controlled the Americans and British as well as Germans on the east front. While the other side was Soviets and Germans on west front. First one to Berlin wins. Very interesting approach to war gaming. You also didn't mention Winter War, Finland vs Soviets in early years of WW2. I had a subscription for 2 years in the 70s. I wish I could have stored all these treasures better.
Thanks for your presentation.
I totally agree with your view on Battle for Germany (so much so, I wrote the same thing prior to reading your own comments).
No problem. I talked to Nato before I made this (the creator who did the Avalon Hill video), and he suggested Winter War. Unfortunately, I didn't listen to him. Thanks for mentioning it.
Great to see such a professionally presented video on the subject. Late 70's there was a bookstore in town that had a mysterious upstairs full of tables ladened with SPI titles or "monster" wargames, like War in Europe & Terrible Swift Sword. I was mesmerized by the sheer magnitude of it all and hooked for life.
Thanks for your encouragement. I'd sure love to have seen that store.
I really think "Swords & Sorcery" deserved an honorable mention, at least. Not the best wargame, but a whole lot of fun to play.
I've just added it to our production schedule. We'll need to give it a go!
@@LegendaryTactics Outstanding. Looking forward to your take on it.
The mechanical similarities between S&S and War of the Rings are so strong I consider them to have shared the top slot here. And Freedom In the Galaxy is a close cousin to both.
For my money, War In Europe was the #1 choice. It certainly had its flaws (awkward shotgun marriage between War In The East and War In The West, counter-mix limitations, unclear rules, need for huge amounts of table space to physically locate the maps, etc.) but provided a simulation that, up to that time, had never previously been attempted. I remember those days fondly, though it looks like they may never come again.
I've been surprised at how many people in my age bracket who shared similar experiences with SPI and Avalon Hill games growing up. Discord may be the way that some of these gamers can find opponents as they never could back in the 70s and 80s.
The one time I played War in Europe, I was overwhelmed by the counter density in the West. We had stacks of division-sized units all adjacent to each other and kept knocking them over. I wondered if corps-level counters would have helped.
Gary Grisby's War in the East 2 (PC game) has the underlying mechanics and data for a full war in Europe simulation at regiment/division level - fingers crossed it may happen one day.
Played it solo with pins through the counters into a cork board on a wall. The 2 computer versions are easier to handle!
War in Europe might (I stress might I am doing this from decades old memory) the monster game that in the late '70s into the early '80s at Gencon they ran a game of it the whole convention. I think you could sign up to take a time slot to play. I just remember a map of Europe that was spread across the floor that was huge. Anyone reading this if you recall confirm or correct me. This game's map was huge.
I remember Ney vs Wellington. A great deal of fun. Panzergruppe Guderian was also brilliant.
I loved all the Blue and Grey series games. War of the Ring was incredible as was Gondor battle of Minas Tyrith.
I enjoyed playing "Shiloh" quite a bit.
good job on this vid which tickled my wargamer memory. After marrying in mid-70's and before the birth of first child my wife allowed me to have a 'map room' and i set up SPI's "War in Europe". If i recall, it's map was 43 square feet.
I played solitaire till the winter of '43 and even tho' Germany seized Spain, Britain and Turkey, the Wehrmacht simply bogged in the mud and sat w/o supplies.
oh yeah, i was a lifetime subscriber to S&T mag. When sometime in the 80's i remember thinking "man, it's be MONTHS since i got my S&T"
ack!!
That's awesome. Everybody needs a map (board game) room. Hopefully with the kid all grown up, you can reclaim the room now.
Yeah, Sniper! Those parallelogram buildings left a deep impression upon me and it was one of the childhood memories that somehow I could never forget.
Great video...fast paced yet clear...well narrated. I was an A/H fan but I played SPI games occasionally. I was invited to play Terrible Swift Sword with a Group of Army officers back in the 70's (I was an NCO at the time) and it was a blast...it took days to complete (they left it set up in one guys dining room, his wife was not happy)...but it was a great game.
I appreciate you taking the time to watch and leave a comment Brian. As Anthony said above, it sounds like we all had "tolerant but aggravated wives". Or perhaps it was our mothers.
My Co Commander took me to a map exercise for the Battalion. Declared himself dead, and had his Sr E-4 declared CO. So that is how I ended up fighting to save Seattle form "De bad guys".
Love to find this page! I was a game developer at SPI from 1973-1976. Some of the most interesting years of my life.
Awesome. What was the best game that you were part of developing?
UK resident and former subscriber to S&T. In no particular order beyond my number one SPI game which is Napoleon's Last Battles. China War, Dresden, Seelow, Arnhem. I own three big games Wellingtons Victory, Atlantic Wall and A Gleam of Bayonets and love them all but I have a special love for AW. May I recommend a World Wide Wargames title, its a physically small game, quite simple but an excellent and competitive game called Blenheim
Blenheim is a decidedly terrible name for a game, but I think that's the same designer who did Red Baron. Thanks for the suggestion.
I'd recommend "Fast Carriers" and the "Arnhem" portfolio game. "Barbarossa" was also quite replayable.
Panzergrupe Guderian was the best game they ever put out.
Originally, it was going to be number 8 or 9, but I kept revising the list and it kept creeping closer to the top.
Great game. The only SPI game I played more was Frederick the Great.
I've found myself really leaning toward these off the beaten path games lately. Castle Itter and the other Valiant Defender games from DVG, SPI games, Sea Evil from Emperors of Eternal Evil and one of my grail games Magic Realm from Avalon Hill. Love this stuff and so glad to have discovered this channel. Subbed.
Awesome. Let us know if you find any gems
Loved the tribute and the recap! You had a different perspective, bringing Redmond Simonsen's fantasies up front. I did a term paper on Operation Cobra in high school and consequently PGG and Cobra were my all-time favorites. It is worth noting that when it came to do a "SPI revival" magazine, after PGG, Winter War was the next (and final installment) in that series.
I should say that in HS, we played "War in the East" with team play, with various players responsible for different fronts, etc. I was truly changed by SPI wargames and considered many issues from tactical and strategic viewpoints!
Glad you enjoyed this.
I am surprised that Starforce: Alpha Centauri did not make the list just on scenario, game mechanics and map.
Agreed. I loved that game--the mechanics of play were very different from anything out there, but as it was my first wargame ever, and I but a wee lad I had no idea it was different. Plus the board was amazing.
Outreach was pretty remarkable too. And of their scifi titles Battlefleet Mars was quite innovative as well, although I found the gameplay a bit disappointing.
Always wanted to see Worlkiller expanded with more scenarios and the 3D map re-done in the style Willis invented for Godsfire and Holy war over at Metagaming. That's how you do 3D right, at least on a small map.
well beyond brilliant ... massive Thankyou's !!!
Thank you for watching and commenting!!
Thanks for the Memories, I loved SPI as a publisher, I even visited the office when I was in NYC and bought Sniper direct from them.
No problem. It's was fun to go back and look at these games that really don't get talked about much these days.
The two games my friends and I played the most were Foxbat v. Phantom and Red Star/White Star (I hope I got the names right).
My Dad and I liked playing Red Star White Star. Miss the games with him
At least you have some great memories to look back on...
This is pretty titled to the late SPI games, and it misses the games like USN, 1812, Combined Arms, Flying Circus, … that built the company. It was amazing they put out so many games each year, with a ton of research behind many of them.
I will say, I doubt there are many people living who have played all 380 games. I did most of my playing in the early and mid 70s.
We're putting together a People's Choice video that summarizes all the selections that are mentioned in the comments to see what the community likes best. Hopefully you'll find some of these games in that list.
Wow! Brings back memories. In my youth I was a Play Tester, the only one I remember is City Fight form SPI.
It seems like there were quite of few of you SPI playtesters.
As you say them the thoughts that come to mind are: Sniper was fun but a little hard but I was young when I first played it, Ney v Wellington I only played a few times but the combo of infantry, cavalry and artillery was great. Having to decide if you infantry bunch up to defend against cavalry but made getting hit by cannon fire worse or spread out to minimize cannon fire risks but that made defending against cavalry harder. I was a young teen when I played it and that kind of multi level tactics pushed me to the edge of what I could do at the time. The memories of the Creature that ate Sheboygan. I didn't play it much but the title was fun. Our family favorite monster game by SPI Strategy 1. You could play wars from 350 BC to 1984 (it was published in 1971 so that seemed far away at the time) The modern rules that were about WWII level of tech had it all. You had naval, air, land based units. Those broke down into sub-groups. There were supply rules. The board has resources and you have production rules. You had to plan out what kind of units you want to produce in and you had to account for lead time. The game had weather rules. You play any other SPI game and if it had a wrinkle to add realism this game had it also. It could take weeks to play a single game which is most likely why it never caught fire in terms of popularity.
I am enjoying these videos. I guess I have reached the point where trips down memory lane are fun.
In 1979 I dropped the $100 for the massive The First World War, where, you need a huge room just to lay out the maps. It is the prize of my collection. Of the playable scale SPI games I have, I like Air War, Sniper, War of the Ring, and the Battle for the Ardennes quad.
That was a TON of cash back then. I wonder if that has increased in value much? But it sounds like you wouldn't part with it, even if it had. The big game I saved up for as a kid, that seemed to be ridiculously overpriced at the time, was Axis and Allies.
Preferred Avalon Hill games but SPI Publications was a short walk from my high school. Loved dropping into see what new games they had for sale. They always seemed to have a huge table with a game of TSS ongoing. Never had the time or enough crazy friends to play it.
That's neat - I love hearing these stories
Loved SPI. Subscribed in the 70's with Raid being the first issue and the only one I punched the counters out. I just enjoyed the articles, always interesting. Followed up with WWW and again didn't punch the counters out. Great value for money. I was an impoverished student then. Still got the collection. Leaving it to my son for posterity. He'll likely stick it on Ebay. No matter. I'm tempted to open my boxes.
Good video. Many thanks
Once upon a time, I was a lifetime subscriber to Strategy & Tactics. I think i paid $150 in 1974 or thereabouts. I'd played Panzerblitz and France 1940, SPI/Dunnigan-Simonsen games picked up by AH. S&T was a big part of me learning to look a bit deeper into what tactics and strategy really meant. PGG was perhaps the groundbreaking highlight, but Cobra with that same system is my favorite of the two. I played Conquistador, Sixth Fleet, The East is Red, American Civil War, and especially PanzerArmee Afrika and Fast Carriers. I'm probably forgetting a few. Still have a bunch of the magazines, some with unpunched games.
I was pleased to see the honorable mention for "To the Green Fields Beyond." Sometime after I became a lifetime subscriber, I got a phone call from David Isby. He'd tracked down our home number by last name and address, which wasn't a trivial thing in 1977. He asked if I could check out a book about Cambrai from a local university library and send it to him for use in his research. I had a friend who went to that school, so he checked it out, and I sent it to Isby at SPI. A couple weeks later, the book comes back to me, I give it to my friend, and it's back in the library before its due date. Isby offered me a copy of any SPI game I wanted, so I asked for "Highway to the Reich." I actually managed to play that monstrosity once at a friend's house over a Christmas holiday. I've never played "To the Green Fields Beyond."
$150 was a lot but you got in early, I'd say you got good value for your money...
Loved Cobra! First came in S&T #65, then came in a box, then was translated to Spanish and sold by NAC, and then there was a final revised version included in S&T #251. It’s 2 games in one: D Day and Paton’s Normandy breakthrough (“Operation Cobra”).Many summers, when it was too hot or rainy, we played the game. Ah, the memories!
SPI board games were a huge part of my mid-late teens. Played Highway to the Reich 3 times to completion, but my all time favorite was the S&T game Conquistador.
Honorable mention here goes to --- "Campaign in North Africa." It was also known as "Bookkeeping in North Africa" as the rules were insanely detailed (if memory serves Italian units needed extra water rations for their pasta. Yes, you had to track stuff like that.) And my favorite SPI release of all time was "The Atlantic Wall." Always loved the monster-sized games; still do.
Lol. Big time.
When I played Campaign for North Africa the 4 guys on my team made me the commanding General as he had to plot & control all reinforcements, supplies, causalities & decide who got what as well as where to attack/counterattack!
I was very good with the strategic planning while the Marine Capt & the Army 1st Lt had the tactical. The USAF Capt had control of the Air Force while the Navy LtComander had the Navel forces!
We laughed at the rule about the pasta but if you did not allocate the extra water the Italians would lose units so there goes the the Italians!
It was a lot of work but it was exciting and fun right down to the end when the Germans made a drive on Alexandria and broke through the British lines because as the German Commander I had the Malta forces take Malta then with the British supply lines cut it was the allies who had the supply problems not the Germans so we had the Allied forces at Alexandria out numbered and once we had taken it Cairo fell and that was it for British Egypt!
I wish I had a copy of it right now it would be fun to get it out and play again!
Ahhh SPI the makers of rules manuals with some game pieces thrown in. LOL Creature that ate Sheboygan is my favorite.
Good pick.
Back in the 70's, I had a subscription to S&T. My brother and I played The War of the Ring more than once. Memories!
Awesome! Have you tried the newer version of it?
Was a playtester for spuk in the 80s. We got free copies of games for producing errata. Great times.
Hopefully you kept them.
I have a few favorites that might make nobody's Top 10, but are still worth note:
AFTER THE HOLOCAUST: Come for the post-apoc US breaking into separate countries, stay for the intense economic simulation that's a good intro to the "dismal science"
MINUTEMAN: Also used hidden unit strengths (simulating how likely US troops would fire on civilians) and some interesting mechanics for showing how to build a resistance cell
BATTLEFLEET MARS: Very realistic space combat (a seperate board for Z-axis plotting) and positional navigation (your trip was affected by orbital positions around the sun) and it was also a great background for the setting, in a time when the solar system was being exploited
GLOBAL WAR: Took the WORLD WAR 3 system and improved on it in terms of making it more dynamic, and had a unique unit production system where you plot out what you needed and hoped that they'd still be of use when they came online
OUTREACH: Yes, the system was a bit abstract, but the sheer audacity of doing a game where the hexes are 1200 lightyears across, with a scale like that, it was probably a foregone conclusion
And, I have one that wouldn't make even *my* Top 10, but worth note:
SORCEROR: Well, give them credit for the pull-magic-from-the-color-terrain mechanic, which predates MAGIC: THE GATHERING by decades, but OY that map...
Thank you for such a rich summary of these. It's nice to see different games highlighted. Does Battlefleet Mars still hold up against modern space combat games?
@@LegendaryTactics That's a good question, as I haven't kept up on the latest such games in that genre. If you have some to suggest to enable a comparison, that'd be appreciated, thanks.
Yet another innovative game and game system, Russian Civil War.
@@LegendaryTactics The strategic game in Battlefleet Mars I think is still pretty good. The 3D tactical game really needs a computer, as does Air War.
@@Hunpecked Agreed. SPI did take another stab at a much simpler realistic physics spacecraft game with Vector 3, but I found it a bit too light for tastes. Their Worldkiller was also an attempt at 3D maneuvering (albeit without the realistic physics element) but their attempt at 3D mapping was much less effective/playable than the style Willis used in Godsfire and Holy War over at Metagaming.
Jim Dunnigan is still alive and he did a series of StrategyTalk podcasts in the last year talking about the history of his involvement in wargames. Worth checking out.
I would very much like to interview him for the channel, but I haven't had any luck finding his contact information. He's been so influential in the hobby.
@@LegendaryTactics Are you seeing this?
@@LegendaryTactics
I own his book THE COMPLETE WARGAMES HANDBOOK - How to Play, Design & Find Them!
I have read it several times and gotten great ideas I have used to design my own board games!
It was published in 1980 and cost $7.98 when I bought it!
I do not know if it is still available but would be a good book for gamers even after so long!
James Dunnigan was a brilliant man and designed some of the best games!
We spent many days in the library playing War of the Ring back when it first came out. We had more fun with that game than almost any other though we mostly played more traditional military simulations.
Can I take that as confirmation that it IS indeed the best SPI game?
@@LegendaryTactics It's the best scifi/fantasy game for sure. I can't say it is my best SPI game of all times though. It's a tough call.
Alamo was one I liked a lot I started with AH original Gettysburg with the oblong counters
Thanks for adding it to the conversation.
War In The Pacific should have an honorable mention; it was my first monster war game
It did well in the viewer's choice video!
In the 21st Century Richard Berg submitted a War of the Ring design in competition with the version that was eventually published. I was a playtester and it was probably one of his best efforts in his late period.
Nice! It is a story rich with gaming possibilities. What did you like best about it?
@@LegendaryTactics The military game was markedly superior to the original SPI design and felt more like a wargame set in Middle Earth than the game that was published (which is a good game in its way). Berg had come up with a clever combat system that could factor in the non=standard military impacts of the Middle Earth world. I should break it out one of these days.
I was a major SPI fan as a teenager. I subscribed to Strategy & Tactics circa 1973-78 and owned dozens of their games. I'd started with Avalon Hill's overly simple and cookie-cutter games (such as D-Day), and thought Panzerblitz in particular was a breath of fresh air and "realistic". Then I found out that Panzerblitz was designed by SPI, I got one of their other games, and I was hooked. I eventually visited their offices in NYC and got to know one of their in-house playtesters. It's hard to pick my favorites. Sniper was really good and different. Terrible Swift Sword was the first monster game by them I bought; eventually I got Wacht am Rhein (Battle of the Bulge), Wellington's Victory, and Atlantic Wall. Never got around to War in the East/West/Pacific. I also had War of the Ring; it came out a couple of years after I read the books and became a major Tolkien fan. I did notice they weren't doing many medium-sized games, and the small games for the magazine were getting less appealing. I'd say they failed because they only appealed to grognards and not casual gamers. So they're gone and Avalon Hill lives on.
Yes, they had a lot of hardcore titles which would never have had mass appeal. But their games were great though!
Sniper! was an excellent game, and really tricky in some cases. I think SPI's enduring legacy is quite rightly Strategy and Tactics. It's always good, always interesting, and maintains the tradition, despite the prices.
I'm glad to hear we agree!
I played a number of their games at a store in PA called Conflicts. Dreadnaughts, Air War, Wacht Am Rhein, War in the Pacific and others. There was a club at the store with a room just for gaming
Death Maze / Citadel of Blood are STILL the best dungeon crawls out there.
Awesome! I can tell you had some great adventures!
AH was seen as making games that were easier to play game at the expense of accuracy. SPI put a lot of games with a lot of extra rules to make sure things happened at the right time and place, this was referred to as CHROME. Some SPI game where almost 60% chrome (or so it seemed that way). If the game was 25% or more chrome, I referred to it as rust. As it usually slowed things down to a stop by constantly having to check all these things to see what and when the had to be implemented. Games Designers Workshop tried to be the in-between company.
Ha. I've never heard the term chrome for that feature of SPI games. That's likely the single most important distinction between AH and SPI - the amount of chrome. Thanks for sharing that. I learn something every day.
My top 10 SPI games are:
1. Napoleon’s Last Battles
2. War of the Rings
3. TSS
4. A Gleam of Bayonets
5. Wellingtons Victory
6. Albion
7. Panzergruppe Guderian
8. The Green Fields Beyond
9. The Blue & Gray series
10. Atlantic Wall
Bonus Game:
CampaIgn for North Africa-
I played this one with fellow vets & active duty guys who was in a game club at Pensacola NAS back in the early 80s. There was 6 Allied & 5 Axis players and it took 6 Saturday’s to complete but was absolutely great fun and had the feel of being in command of the Axis army.
By the way the Axis won and captured Egypt to win the game (the allied players were split on how to place there units best so split there command into two groups “Western CMD & Eastern CMD” thus dividing there actions!
Good job playing Campaign. Impressive.
A quick trivia fact about "Sniper". The original working title was: "Street Fighting Continues in Stalingrad..." As it would sound on a radio broadcast.
Ha. I'm glad they stuck with Sniper! Nice RUclips handle. Is that a derivative of Grognard?
@@LegendaryTactics I agree, Sniper! was the best name. Didn't want gamers to think not another East front game. Yes, close to a derivative name.
We got a kick out of the rule concerning “ an erect man exposing himself through a window or door.”
I too loved Jutland though we only ever played 3 games of it(and I still have it) , we ( my buddies in jr and high school) played dozens of games of Midway- one of my all time favs, and a number of games of Bismarck. A super fun game I didn’t see is U-Boat, and we played loads of War at Sea. On land my fave is Dip- still playing it at WBC, and Bulge and D-Day and Africa Korps. Started playing AH games about 1963 and still own quite a few and play when I get a chance.
Great taste in games.
Scrimmage: An unappreciated masterpiece.
There are quite a few hidden gems in the SPI collection.
Still have my copy of the War of the Ring, SPI flat pack with Sauron and Gondor mini games. SPI's best IMO
Never let go!
My two brothers and I cut our teeth on AH games, but we had an Strategy & Tactics sub for years as well as buying dozens of the boxed games.
Terrible Swift Sword, Highway to the Reich, and War in the East were the monster games we used to legitimize our sibling rivalry. We'd set them up on half of a ping pong table in our bedroom (we'd crawl under it to get to our beds, lol). I'm not sure which one we spent the longest time playing a game, but the table was up for over two weeks at least twice. Good times!
Napoleon's Last Battles was a solid set of games - many enjoyable replays.
I subscribed to Strategy and Tactics back in the day. I enjoyed Waterloo because of its easy play with friends. Likewise, though it was an AH game, I enjoyed Jutland. Because I like naval tactics one of the games SPI did that I played a good bit was CA (CA- is a shorthand for heavy cruiser for the non-officianado.) Finally I bought a boxed version of "The Creature that Ate Sheboygan" it was fun.
Wow. Did not expect to see this list. I had a subscription to S&T and played a lot of their games.
My favorites were Panzergruppe Guderian, Winter War, Terrible Swift Sword and Highway to the Reich. When we played Highway to the Reich we had six players. What a memorable game.
A week ago, this video wasn't close to the top of the production schedule. But we had enough people asking for this in comments on our videos that we were forced to put this together. It was a joy to make.
Winter War and Highway to the Reich were two of my favourites as well. Another was Grand Armee.
Gotta throw some love to MechWar77 and Panzer44 (same system). MW77 was my first wargame back when I was 14. 45 years later and I now have over 500!
Lol! I have War of the Ring still! Drag it out and play the campaign once in a while. The mechanic of having only so many actions to perform as Sauron will test your strategic abilities to the max. My Dad had a 1 yr subscription to S&T. Got some great games like the original Sixth Fleet and Oil War (boy was that one a glimpse into the future!).
Brilliant. Don't ever get rid of that game!
I subscribed to Strategy & Tactics in 1974, my senior year in high school. A game with each issue just made it the most awesome thing going. Too bad it did not turn out to be, in the long run, a viable business model. (Strategy & Tactics is ongoing, I buy the magazine sans game from the newsstand...different ownership, different feel to the magazine these days, still worthwhile.) I mail ordered "Red Star/White Star", all about tactical combat between the US and USSR in Germany in the cold war. Just placing all the counters on the map for the first couple of scenarios told you all you needed to know about the "correlation of forces." Memory lane.
I wonder what their subscriber base was like. There seem to be a lot of people who have been on the list at one point or another.
Soldiers was great and USN remains, IMHO, the best playable game for WWII in the Pacific. Add to this what is possibly the greatest tactical war game of all time, Sniper. Not only a very playable and good game, but a decent simulation as well. Should have been much higher than number 10 on your list, IMHO!
Thank you for mentioning death maze, I was a subscriber and an SPI fanboy back in the day and I don't recall hearing of this game! Thanks!
Holy crap, you've actually played USN? Wow. I tried once (still have a boxed copy of the game). Fully agree about Soldiers.
No problem. The tricky bit is that ALL of the games feel like they should be ranked higher than they are. There's a really great module on Tabletop Sim for Deathmaze. Someone has spent a lot of time making it look really good.
If you find you like Deathmaze, be sure to look at Citadel of Blood as well. It polishes the same game engine a bit, adds a slew of new heroes from the Swords & Sorcery board game and has an overarching objective rather than just playing murder hobo.
Panzer gruppe guderian is a classic which I sitll play occassionally to this day, played it in the early to mid 80s.
Familiar and have played these games. Playrd War in the East, War in the West and War in Pacific. I owned most of these games, I had over 200 wargames, a lot were SPI. I gave them to my kid to help pay for college. My favorite was Barbarossa. I think that was the game that explained the best how the Germans was so successful the first year and how they lost the war. How they had to break up the powerful Panzer armies A group of us stayed after school to play SPI games. We would set up the mega games over a friends basement and play weekends over the course of several weeks. And of course, GenCon in Milwaukee in the late 70's and early 80's. Lot of memories.
Sounds like you are THE ORIGINAL Gamer. What a collection that must have been.
Loved War of the Ring, one of the few hex-and-counter games that are still on my shelf decades after I shifted my attention to computerized wargames. Another favorite that I still own is Berlin 1985, several varied scenarios involving the Soviets assaulting West Berlin. The chief feature was the inverted counters similar to PGG that showed attack facing and a defensive facing. You could look at your own, but the enemy was a mystery until you took the plunge. This was especially dicey for the Soviet player who always had to take the offensive. Thinking about hitting that isolated unit? Is it the recon outfit that's spotting for artillery, or is it the brand-new battalion of M-1 Abrams fresh from the states? Only one way to find out... What a great romp down memory lane. Thanks for this... a lot!
That sounds like a great mechanic. So glad you enjoyed this.
berlin 85 is brilliant, as is war of the ring. you have great taste.
@@laurencemoore8519, Thank you! That was a great era.
Great video!! Very minor correction-#1 (modern version) came out around 2004, not 2011. Second edition may have been 2011, but there are only minor differences between the editions.
Overall though, thanks for the list!
Thank you for the clarification! And for watching! What would your list look like?
My top ten SPi's are American Revolution, To the Green Fields Beyond, Russian Revolution, Battle for Germany, Winter War, Napoleon's Last Battles, Freedom in the Galaxy, Panzergruppe Guderian, 1812, and Year of the Rat. What might be interesting is a top ten of those games originally SPI but then republished by AH - Conquistador, Freedom in the Galaxy, Panzergruppe Guderian, Frederick the Great, etc
They certainly have cross-over appeal if they were supported by both companies.
I go for the monster games, War in Europe, Next War, Whact Am Rhine, TSS
definitely Star Trader, one of the reasons i decided to study economics 😉 also BSM Pandora
Fair point. Speaking of innovative scifi games, both Damocles Mission and its cousin Stainless Steel Rat were kind of ahead of their time designs. Solid attempts to push the "choose your adventure" game/book model forward in new and interesting ways.
Wreck of BSM Pandora and Star trader are my two favorites.
I didn’t play many SPI games but I liked Freedom in the Galaxy
I own the Avalon Hill version, but I haven't played it in many years. It's on the to-do list!
I had quite a few SPI games,but really the only one i reall took to was The War of The Ring,however Red Star/White Star was very entertaining.From the S&T magazine both Hell Hath No Fury,about the Iceni Revolt in Roman Britain and Hastings 1066 were both great games,all of these i still have from when i bought them brand new way back.
Have you tried the new War of the Ring yet? I wonder how it would compare for someone who really likes the SPI game.
@@LegendaryTactics If you mean the one by Ares Games,then your going to love it.You can detect a fair bit of DNA from the SPI game in it.It has quite unusual game mechanics but they work really well making both players choose to either use their Military units or Search for The Fellowship or move The Fellowship.Each player uses Action Dice to move etc,the Dark Player gets 7 and the Free Peoples player gets 5 to start with,these can be increased in number by various events in the game,although the DP has 7 if he rolls an Eye symbol that dice must be used to search for the Fellowship so 7 doest seem that bad on the surface.The Combat system is very simple and can be modified by Event and Combat cards and Characters Special abilities.Also once you paint up the 200+ miniatures the game looks awesome.There are 2 great play throughs on You Tube,one by Paul Darcy and this one. ruclips.net/video/qhkI0W7THxY/видео.html
There are currently 2 expansions and one final one in the works but i havent played with them as yet.If you want more info let me know.
I bought many AH games. Loved them. Would love SPI games.
Yes, although SPI was more indepth and rules heavy, from what I know
I had lots of SPI games. I subscribed to S&T from #47 (Wolfpack) to #65 (Cobra) and bought loads of non-magazine games too. My top 10 would be (in no particular order):
Panzergruppe Guderian, for the reasons given in the video
October War, especially the campaign game where you went through about four battles; with the Israeli player carrying whatever units survived the last battle on to the next one, while the Syrian (or maybe Egyptian, I don't recall) got a totally new force of decreasing quality each time. The last battle was the battered Israeli survivors vs. Syrian cooks and mechanics
War In The East, the first of the monster games, but surprisingly playable. The later maps (from War In The West/War In Europe) were a lot prettier, so once I got WITW I always used them instead of the originals.
War In The West, the only other monster game that I owned and really about six games in one. The invasion of Poland scenario was a really well-balanced game: the Germans are certain to conquer Poland but can they do it in four turns against defenders who are no pushover?
Frederick The Great, later picked up by Avalon Hill. The SPI version had a horrible map, but some really clever mechanics that really brought out the importance of generalship
To The Green Fields Beyond, one of the last games I bought and half-way between a standard game and the monsters. A really beautiful design that brought out how hard it was to assault a WW1 trench system.
That isn't ten, obviously. I meant to alter that but forgot :(
An SPI game I played often was Sinai. In the 1956 and especially 1967 scenarios, Israeli victory is almost assured, so it is more of a race against time. However the 1973 scenario is a challenge for both players. Seelowe was my favorite what if game and a challenge for the German in planning waves of units and supplies across the Channel then not squandering limited supply. The game system introduced with TSS, great battles of the American Civil War, is imo a primo depiction of the importance of command, maneuver, facing, and morale of musket era linear combat. A non combat SPI game I have is Canadian Civil War which is a political game introduced during the time Quebec threatened to leave, so that looms large in the game. However I looked at it again recently and with updates to the issues and events cards, could still be pertinent
I don't know how RUclips finds the right people, but it's really cool that you were able to connect with the video and leave your thoughts. I haven't played, or I confess, heard of Sinai or Seelowe. Until now.
Wow, these games look incredibly well-designed, especially the war games. The Dawn of the Dead looks like so much fun and the names of some of those stores had me laughing and sound like something out of a Grand Theft Auto game. I grew up playing AH games in the late 70s and 80s, and although I was aware of SPI Games, I never saw their games in any hobby shop or department store in Rhode Island. Did they mainly stick to the west coast since AH was an east coast company?
That's a good question, but I think it has more to do with the fact that SPI was more "niche" than Avalon Hill.
thank you😄
No problem. Thanks for watching.
I never played "The Creature That Ate Sheboygan" but I watched most of *Dobie Gillis" and one of the running gags in that Sixties sitcom was that the only movie that seemed to be playing was "The Monster That Devoured Cleveland". I did own one great SPI gag game, though; I think it was something like "Swords and Sorcery". The game map had such features as New Orc City and the Natalie Woods. Units included Killer Penguins, something that Steve Jackson Games stole. I use a Killer Penguin as one of my online avatars.
Quite a few people are mentioning Swords and Sorcery. I may need to crack that out.
@@LegendaryTactics You really should. It's not so much a gag game as it is the gonzo SPI in-house D&D campaign come to life as a board game. The leader of the dragons in the game isn't named Gygax Dragonlord for nothing.
Personally, I rather liked the communist orc idea, complete with "White orc" holdouts trying to hold on to power in teh face of the revolution.
My family owned a hobby store when I was young. SPI's World War 3 was my first wargame even though I did not understand it at first (I was 10). I own A LOT more SPI than AH because they were cheaper, more titles flew thru the store (more AH sat gathering dust ?!?) and their sci-fi and fantasy titles were visually striking. From the list I have Death Maze and Sheboygan. I have Dragonquest (so good) and Universe/Delta Vee RPGs. I still have Time Traveller (LOL), Battlefleet Mars, Star Force, Star Soldier, Outreach, Freedom in the Galaxy and the Ares Magazine run.
Time Traveller? You mean TimeTripper, the one with the hopped-up Viet Nam trooper bouncing through time with his tweaked radio/time machine?
TSS'S Sister Games, Gleam of Bayonets (Antietam) & Bloody April (Shiloh) were Awesome & "Long Winded" as well. Some of my personal favorites was "The Next War" & "Pacific War" Monster Games, S&T #83's "The Kaiser's Battle - German Offensive 1918" & SPI Central Front Series: Fifth Corps (Vol. 1); Hof Gap (Vol. 2); & BAOR (Vol. 3.). AIR WAR on the other hand was too complex for most "Grognards." Mahalo for the memories; I own most of these to this day & my BFF & I play 6-8 times a year when our better halves allow it.😉😘
I played Terrible Swift Sword - and it took two weeks to do one day. Could have sworn it was Avalon Hill. Other Monster Games I ran into were Drang Nach Osten (Eastern Front) and Red Star, White Star (Cold War goes hot in Germany). Wish I had an opponent next door - it would still be fun.
thank you
You're welcome! Did you have a favorite SPI game?
My most played SPI game was Onslaught...D-day to the Rhine. Relatively simple buy very solo friendly because of the randomly alternating activations and turn ends.
I am _really_ surprised that _Empires of the Middle Ages_ did not make the list! A grand strategic game covering some 700 years total (circa 700AD to the early 1400s); with sub-games based on specific time periods. Instead of Armies, players manipulated entire POPULATION GROUPS (differentiated by Language/Religion). You struggled against your fellow players Politically (war/military was merely a subset of politics!), Economically, and in the development of your level of Civilization. The goal was to become the biggest/strongest/richest/most long-lasting empire in Europe. Probably the best *multi-player* game SPI ever made.
I needed your voice before I made the viewer's choice video!
Freedom in the Galaxy would be on my list
I have a hard copy of the Avalon Hill version, that is apparently a direct port of the SPI version
I would also have voted for War of the Ring, a game I have owned 4 copies of, at one time all 3 of the available versions at once.
This is both impressive and somewhat maniacal. 👏
Swords and Sorcery. Wellington's Victory, Citadel of Blood, Blue & Gray, Sorcerer, Wacht am Rhein, Albion I still have TSS, SaS and a dozen or so S&T's with games.
That's quite a range of games. You have eclectic tastes
@@LegendaryTactics Yes, fantasy and strategy both are fascinating.
I am a bit surprised that Fire Fight didn't make the list, but it is hard when you only can pick 10.
I know! They have so many great games!
I can't believe "CityFight" or "AirWar" weren't mentioned!
Airwar seems to be getting some love in the comments for sure.
Played SPI games from '72 to '76, so many of these titles were after my time. The ones I thought were keepers (and yes, I still have a few) because of their groundbreaking game system (not to mention that they came with issues of S&T) were:
PANZER ARMEE AFRIKA with its rhythm of blitz and stalemate due to 40-60 movement point allowances and serious allied command control problem.
WINTER WAR and those slippery Finnish ski patrols.
TANK! The first game I ever played with individual vehicle counters. Hugh improvement if you mailed-in for the expansion.
SIXTH FLEET Rules not so complex, but winning tactics were - not intuitive at all.
FREDERICK THE GREAT for the siege rules and "The honors of war"
and a few boxed games:
SOLOMONS CAMPAIGN with its hidden movement and its dozens of phases per turn. I loved the American intelligence rules, "Are you coming down the slot this turn? With capital ships?"
SOLDIERS Stacking up for the attack just gets you killed all the sooner.
SINAI for its "bloodless" combat system. It was also rather topical in those days.
FIREFIGHT Showing the futility of unsupported armor vs. infantry with AT weapons.
Was really glad you chose SNIPER! - great memories of that one, along with the field and stream version, PATROL!
In 1975 I got to spend a couple of days in NYC on a high school field trip and went by the SPI office one afternoon. Got the tour from Dunnigan himself, and then was joined by Simonsen. They asked me what would be the popular game subject in Dallas, TX. and I immediately answered "Fantasy." They raised eyebrows at one another and said, "Fantasy . . . Really?" It wasn't too many months before SORCERER hit the market. Of course they produced that game as a result of much feedback, but I like to think I had the first vote. ;)
As a creator, the best part of making this video is hearing stories like this. Thank you for sharing and for adding your detailed top list. If you in any way inspired the creation of any of their fantasy games, I thank you.
Same period of time for my SPI and AH game playing. I remember Sixth Fleet. I can still see the silhouette of MiG-21s, A-4s, Phantoms and Starfighters from that game. Sinai too, with the Arab Israeli Wars scenarios of 56, 67 and 74.
I went to school in NYC so visits to SPI were a semi regular occurrence. Polk's Hobby store was nearby too for tank models and the original Barnes and Noble for books on the campaigns.
Air War! A lot of fun, once you figured it out.
Cool! I don't know that one, but I'd like to give it a try sometime!
A couple of stray comments. At the start of the video, SPI is referred to as 'Simulated Publications' when of course it is 'Simulation Publications'. "To The Green Fields Beyond" is said to simulate "the first use of tanks in WW2", but it was WW1. Minor errors to be sure, but perhaps worth mentioning in the hope of corrections being made. Thanks for the otherwise excellent video.
One more mistake I made was when I said "The Green Fields Beyond", but I hastily dubbed in "to" after the fact when I heard that said it wrong. It's funny, but I really only ever called them SPI, so I had to consciously try to force myself to call it Simulations, rather than Simulated. That one slipped through the edit. Thanks for checking the video out.
@@LegendaryTactics And thank you again for composing it. Might be interesting if you have the time to have a top ten war-games from SPI and then top ten boardgames from SPI. There would be some tough choices concerning categories perhaps (what to do with Plot To Assassinate Hitler, assuming it would make one or the other list), but would be good to see.
It is a three-way tie for best. 1C is War in the Pacific, 1B War in Europe, and the one that wins this ties breaker the S&T issue which published rules and charts and a few extra counters to link 1B & 1C. May have been SPIs Moves magazine at 1A, not going through 10 banker boxes of games and Mags to find out.
I loved Victory in the Pacific and played the heck out of it... but it was an AH game, not SPI.
@@wolfshanze5980 Damn you right should have gone through those banker boxes. Edited.
War at Sea and Victory in the Pacific had a bridge that was published in The General.
SPIs monsters for long-term refighting the war AHs games for "Beer & Pretzels"
We've covered War at Sea on the channel. I believe Victory in the Pacific is its successor. Have you tried War at Sea? How do they compare in your opinion?
@@LegendaryTactics As with my reply to Wolfshanze I have all three games in the series WaS, ViP, and the Generals article that joins the two. Never could find anyone to play the SPI monsters with but have been able to play the AH games a few times. If I had someone that wanted to play a fast game in the evening I would pull out the AH games. If I could find a person or three in my area that like me doesn't have a life I would set up the SPI ones.
As stated earlier if someone would make them on the computer with an AI I would buy them. Decision games does have War in Europe on computer, but it has no AI.
Should also do a short run down on the rise and fall of Task Force Games and the drama behind Amarillo Design Bureau, i.e. one of the luckiest phone call/hand shake deal in franchise history.
I haven't heard about this. Do tell.....
@@LegendaryTactics Steve Cole essentially locked down the rights to create a game based on the Star Trek franchise based on a phone call with Franz Joseph, a limited IP based on Joseph's Star Trek Technical Manual written in 1975. Cole came up with the idea while playing Jutland on his dorm room floor and the rest, as they say, is history. Star Fleet Battles is what could be gently termed THE Monster Game of the 1980s. With the Commander's Edition coming out a little later, it puts it on a par with ASL as well as being slightly more playable. They aren't allowed to refer to any of the movies after Paramount purchased the Star Trek franchise, but...little anachronisms pop up here and there. The series actually uses quite a bit of Steve Cole's Universe at times. Strange to think about now, but gaming's main problem with cost back then was cardboard boxes and die cut counters. The digital era and print on demand was incredibly freeing for a lot of companies later, but the death toll for those who couldn't absorb these costs before.