Monster game
{{Short description|Board games that are either very large, very complex or both}}
{{Wargaming}}
A monster game is a game that is either very large, very complex, or both.{{Cite book|last=Palmer|first=Nicholas|title=The Best of Board Wargaming|year=1980|chapter=Chapter 3 - The First Thousand Hours are the Hardest: Monster Games|publisher=Hippocrene Books|location=New York, N. Y.|isbn=0-88254-525-6}} One criterion sometimes adopted is the number of pieces; a game which puts greater than 1000 counters into play at once may be considered to be a monster game.{{Cite book|last=Palmer|first=Nicholas|title=The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming|year=1980|publisher=Sphere Books|location=London}} This classification can technically be applied to any board game, but most commonly refers to the kind of non-abstract wargames in which a large amount of time is needed to play each turn as a result of a relatively high commitment to period accurate military realism. Drang Nach Osten and its companion, Unentschieden led to the Europa Series games, a giant WWII game.{{cite book|author=((the Staff of Strategy & Tactics Magazine))|title=Wargame Design: The History, Production and Use of Conflict Simulation Games|publisher=Simulations Pubublications, Incorporated|location=New York|year=1977|isbn=0-917852-01-X}}
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Games that are considered monster games include:
| class="wikitable sortable" border="1" |
| style="width: 150px;"|Wargame
!Company !Year !Counters !Playing time (hours) !Description |
|---|
| {{lang|de|Drang nach Osten!}} (DNO)
|GDW |1973 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:1792}} |style="text-align:right;|200 |A game to cover Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of Russia.{{Cite book|vauthors=Freeman J, ((The Editors of Consumer Guide))|title=The Complete Book of Wargames|year=1980|isbn=0-671-25374-3|location=New York|publisher=Simon and Schuster}}. |
| Europa series
|GDW, GRD, Mill Creek Ventures and Historical Military Services (HMS) |1973- | | |A series containing 17 war games (the first being Drang nach Osten!), which can be combined, most games classified as monster games. |
| {{lang|fr|La Bataille de la Moscowa}}
|GDW |1975 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:1440}} |style="text-align:right;|16 |A simulation game of the Battle of Borodino. It is both complex and large. |
| War in Europe
|SPI |1976 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:3600}} |style="text-align:right;|6 |A simulation game of the war in Europe. This game is a combination of War in the East and War in the West with additional rules and mechanics.{{Cite book|last=Dunnigan|first=James|authorlink=Jim Dunnigan|title=The Complete Wargames Handbook|year=1992|isbn=0-688-10368-5|location=New York|publisher=Quill}}. |
| Highway to the Reich
|SPI |1976 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:2400}} |style="text-align:right;|6 |The game is set during the Second World War, covering ten days of Operation Market-Garden, from 17 to 26 September 1944, with two hours per turn. |
| War Between the States 1861–1865
|SPI |1977 (1st edition) 2004 (2nd edition) |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:1400}} |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:6}} |A game that covers the entire American Civil War, the major theaters of operation from Galveston, Texas, to St. Joseph, Missouri, and from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Jacksonville, Florida. |
| Empyrean Challenge
|Superior Simulations |1978 | | |A science fiction play-by-mail (PBM) game described by a reviewer in 1988 as "the most complex game system on Earth".{{cite magazine |last= Townsend|first= Jim|date=1988|title= The PBM Corner|magazine= White Wolf| issue = 11|page= 20|ref=Tow88}} Turn results sent from the company to the player could be up to 1,000 pages in length. |
| War in the Pacific
|SPI |1978 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:3200}} |style="text-align:right;|6 |A simulation game of the War in the Pacific with 7 maps.{{Cite book|last=Perla|first=Pewter P.|title=The Art of Wargaming|year=1990|isbn=0-87021-050-5|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780870210501}}. |
| The Longest Day
|1979 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:2603}} |style="text-align:right;|{{Formatnum:90}} |Mammoth Operational wargame of the WWII Normandy Campaign, JUN-AUG 1944 |
| The Campaign for North Africa
|SPI |1979 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:1600}} |style="text-align:right;|{{Formatnum:1000}} |A game about the North African campaign of World War II |
| Lords of the Earth
|Thomas Harlan |1983 | |25 years |A PBM game involving expansion by conquest lasting about 25 years per game.{{Cite web |last=Harlan |first=Thomas |date=2002 |title=Lords of the Earth: Basic Rulebook |url=http://lords.throneworld.com/players/loterule/lote_br_5_10_0.pdf |access-date=December 11, 2022 |publisher=Throne Enterprises LLC |ref=Har02 }} |
| Pacific War
|Victory Games/GMT Games |1985 |> 2000 |1–100 |A grand strategy hex and counter WW 2 of the entire Pacific Theater of Operations |
| The Great War in Europe
|1995 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:1200}} |style="text-align:right;|6 |A simulation game of the first world war in Europe. |
| D.A.K.
|1997 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:1540}} |style="text-align:right;|6 |A game that covers the entire North African campaign at the regimental level |
| Case Blue
|2007 |style="text-align:right;|{{formatnum:3500}} ({{formatnum:2660}} unit counters and 840 marker counters) |style="text-align:right;|375 |A game that covers both the Axis advance (between 1941 and 1942) as well as the Soviet counterattacks (Nov 42 to Jan 43) and the German counteroffensive at Kharkov (Feb-March 1943) including the Case Blue 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II.{{cite web|url=https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29285/case-blue|title=Case Blue (2007)|publisher=Boardgamegeek|accessdate=2017-12-28}} |
See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6942/drang-nach-osten Drang Nach Osten!] (Boardgamegeek)
- [https://www.spigames.net/spi_monster_games1.htm SPI Monster Games]
{{Wargames}}