This post was originally inspired by fellow wargamer Ardwulf’s Lair (Gary) whom I follow on Twitter (@Ardwulf) and watch his videos on YouTube. A few years ago in 2018, I saw that he took the time to categorize his entire wargame collection into several different classifications and then shared those statistics on social media for us all to see and envy. If you want to see that post that details my collection as of November 2018, you can check that out at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2018/11/12/wargame-metrics-a-look-inside-the-numbers-for-grants-wargame-collection/

Since that time, my collection has blossomed, or more appropriately put, has exploded like a nuclear bomb dropped on my loving wife and unsuspecting family who often refer to my room simply as “the collection”, growing from a relatively modest 122 wargames to the now bloated number of 365. I am ashamed….or at least I should be….right?

If you know anything about wargamers, you know that we are obsessive about many things, including our collections and numbers. In fact, I spend hours clipping the counters in my wargames to make sure that they look nice on the table and that they don’t have any annoying fluff from the sprue. I find it very comforting to classify things and place them in nice and tidy categories. With wargames this can be a very fun and easy task to accomplish as there are games on all the major and minor wars that have been fought through time and across the centuries….and sometimes even across the galaxy!

So let’s take a look at what type of games make up my collection and then do a simple comparison to that makeup when I did the original post way back in 2018! Oh, man….I am not sure that I can look.

My Collection

If I have learned one thing over the years, it is that each wargamer has their own individual tastes and are drawn to various conflicts for many different reasons, including connections to various wars, in what decade we were born and even when we started seriously playing wargames. As mentioned earlier, my collection contains 365 different games (not including expansions) and has grown considerably over the past 5 years as Alexander and I have worked to grow the presence of the blog and YouTube Channel. I have given away or traded several games in the past, so I am never married to them but must say that I do have ones that I would never consider parting ways with, such as any volume in the COIN Series from GMT Games or Old School Tactical from Flying Pig Games.

Here are some pictures of my collection, generally organized and on shelves. Picture #1 is my largest shelf that is mostly devoted to my GMT Games collection, but also contains those from Flying Pig Games, Compass Games, Dan Verssen Games, Multi-Man Publishing and others.

Picture #2 is a hodge podge of games that are newer to my collection and which is located closer to my gaming table as I have been playing and reviewing these over the past year. Most of my solitaire games reside on this shelf from publishes such as Hollandspiele, Dan Verssen Games and White Dog Games.

Shelf #3 is a part of my other game collection, which is mostly made up of heavy Euros, lots of negotiation based multi-player games, area control and includes most of my games from Lock ‘n Load Publishing and PHALANX amongst others.

I would rather play a good wargame than have a good wargame sit on my shelf for years collecting dust…but some of my games are dusty! That being said, I am definitely a collector. I have collected all types of things over the years including baseball cards, action figures and of course games. As I mentioned before, my wargame collection checks in at 365 games and takes up two full Kallax shelf units (black and consisting of 16 cubes each), one smaller Kallax shelf (having 12 cubes) as well as two half Kallax shelves that each have 8 cubes. These shelves are located in my man cave where I spend most of my free time playing games, clipping counters and watching sports or shows on my large screen tv! I think that they look really good in there but it does give a very interesting impression to anyone that is coming into our home for the first time. I am sure that they think that I have a problem and am a hoarder! I do have a problem but I don’t see it as being a hoarder, but more as a collector! I also have a lot of my folio games located in several different areas in baskets and organizers but I didn’t take pictures of those.

…by Period

There are no real surprises found in my statistics here though. My favorite historical period has always been World War II with the American Revolutionary War a very close second. As a child of the 1970’s, I used to watch all of those fairly cheesy war films such as Battle of the Bulge, The Dirty Dozen, Battle of Britain, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Midway and of course, A Bridge Too Far among others. I have always been intrigued by the exploits of the “greatest generation”. This is definitely reflected in the largest category in my collection being World War II at 115 games or 32% (this category was only 52 games when I did this post last in 2018). I really prefer World War II operational games like Holland ’44: Operation Market-Garden, No Retreat: The Russian Front from GMT Games or Demyansk Shield: The Frozen Fortress from Legion Wargames but also love my WWII Tactical including Combat Commander and Old School Tactical. I also love my several Grand Strategic games including Empire of the Sun, Triumph & Tragedy and Conquest & Consequence all from GMT Games. A new publisher on the scene has been VUCA Simulations with their fantastic production values and I own 4 of their games focused on WWII including The Chase of the Bismarck, Donnerschlag, Traces of War and Crossing the Line: Aachen.

My second most games are Ancients, which is quite surprising to me! In 2018, I only had 9 games focused on Ancients but this category has swelled with a total of 40 games or 11%. I really enjoy the Ancients period with their formations, use of cavalry and skirmishing troops and the focus on the world’s greatest historical leaders such as Alexander the Great, Caesar and Pompey to name a few. Some of the new additions include titles such as Cradle of Civilization from Compass Games, Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East from GMT, Storm Over Jerusalem from Multi-Man Publishing and Barbarians at the Gates from Compass Games.

My third most games are in the Modern Era, which I defined as any game post Vietnam. This is most likely due to my love affair with the COIN Series from GMT Games as there are several that are modern. In this category I have 38 total games or 10% (this category was only 11 games when I did this post last in 2018) with titles such as Armageddon War from Flying Pig Games, Labyrinth: The War on Terror, 2001-? and A Distant Plain: Insurgency in Afghanistan both from GMT Games and Kandahar: Southern Afghanistan 2008-2010 from One Small Step Games. I have added several new titles over the past few years including titles such as We are Coming, Nineveh! and FITNA both from Nuts! Publishing, Next War: Pakistan and Next War: Vietnam from GMT Games and Desert Storm: The Hundred Hour War from Accurate Simulations.

Rounding out my top 5 are Other at 35 games or 10% and the controversial Fantasy/Sci-Fi at 25 games or 7%.

I definitely need some more American Civil War games. I have added quite a few WWI focused games but there are lots out there that I want to get. I have also been chided for not having enough Napoleonics games but I did add a few over the past 5 years with a total of 8 games. Frankly, I need more games like I need a hole in the head!

Look at WWII Category by Theater of Operations

Because I like World War II so much and it is represented so well in my collection statistics, I wanted to further break the category down by taking a look at my games by Theater of Operations.

It seems that most WWII games focus on the European Theater of Operations, and that holds true for the games in my collection as well with a total of 38 of 115 games or 33% set in the ETO. The Pacific Theater is one that I enjoy quite a lot and have been building my collection with recent acquisitions like Band of Brothers South Pacific from Worthington Publishing and Carrier Battle: Philippine Sea from Compass Games. The PTO is well represented in my collection with 28 games or 24%. The 3rd largest category by Theater of Operations is the East Front with 21 games or 18% which has grown considerably since 2018 where I only had 7 games. One of my most recent acquisitions in this area is Stuka Leader from Dan Verssen Games. Rounding out the look at my WWII games by Theater, we have the lesser represented ones in the Mediterranean (8 games or 7%), Global (6 games or 5%), North Africa (6 games or 5%), North Atlantic (3 games or 3%), Battle of Britain (3 games or 3%) and CBI (2 games or 2%).

…by Publisher

I know it might appear that I am a GMT Games fanboy as 27% of my collection are their games. I admit that I love their games and have found the most joy in their fantastic Card Driven Games, such as Wilderness War, Washington’s War and Here I Stand to name just a few. But there are a lot of great publishers out there and I am trying all their games.

I own games from a total of 73 different publishers! That is a lot of different publishers and I am actually very proud of that fact. A lot of those publishers, 23 in fact, only have 1 game that appear in the collection. After the leader GMT Games comes Compass Games with 28 games or 11%, High Flying Dice Games with 18 games or 7%, Worthington Publishing with 18 games or 7%, Dan Verssen Games and White Dog Games each with 17 games or 6% and Hollandspiele with 12 games or 5%.

I have increased the number of games in the collection from Multi-Man Publishing from just 2 to 9 games as well as from Hollandspiele from 4 to 12 games since 2018.

…by Player Count

The final area of my collection that I will examine is my collection by player count. Used to be wargames were pretty much 2-player affairs. But not so anymore as there are many well designed solo games as well as games that have solo bots. But the biggest change in wargames is the number of games designed for various player counts including 1-2, 1-4 and multiple games that are 2-5 or even 3-6.

In my collection, I have mostly 2-player games with 176 or 48%. The second most games in my collection are solo only with 84 games or 23%, which is really shocking to me. I don’t consider myself a true solo gamer but over the past few years have been playing more and more solitaire games. I wrote a post a few years ago on my Love/Hate Relationship with Solo Gaming that you might find interesting. I really enjoy a well designed solo game that has an intelligent AI and is difficult to best. Some of my favorite solo games in my collection are Comancheria, Gato Leader, Sherman Leader, War of the Worlds and Pavlov’s House.

The other interesting trend in wargaming are solo bots that make multi-player games 1-4 player. This category represents 25 games or 7% of my collection and are typically all the COIN Series from GMT Games. I also have a lot of 2-4 player wargames totaling 11 games or 3%. I love that there are more and more games on the market with varied player counts as they are typically a little more flexible and can make it to the table more often with my regular gaming group.

I hope you have enjoyed this look at my collection and get a better idea of the wargames that I like. What does your collectiong look like?

-Grant