Holiday gift guide

(c) boardgamegeek.com
Used by permission

Occasionally I'll get requests from friends for boardgame recommendations, and I've posted some targeted lists for specific demographics and situations (see links below).  But today I'm going to tip my hat to the folks at boardgamegeek.com, who have assembled a terrific holiday gift guide.  The recommendations on their list are uniformly excellent.  I could certainly come up with my own holiday list as well, but if anyone asks me for recommendations for boardgames as gifts, boardgamegeek is the first place I will send them.

The boardgamegeek holiday list has but two shortcomings.  First, it does not include my own Trains Planes and Automobiles, which is appropriate for any family with kids ages eight and up.  (Okay, shameless self-promotion complete.  Moving on.)

Second, the boardgamegeek gift guide does not help the shopper with a wargamer on his or her gift list.  Below are a few of my own recommendations for wargames available this year.  These are rather on the "light" end of the wargame depth and complexity spectrum:

• Band of Brothers: Screaming Eagles (Worthington Games): Although the website says "preorder," the latest Worthington newsletter says that the second edition (with updated rules) has been released and is available for purchase.  
• The End of the Triumvirate (Z-Man), specifically recommended for three players 
• Memoir '44 (Days of Wonder):  one of the more accessible wargames, a World War II game with card-driven command and control
• Battle Cry (Hasbro / Wizards of the Coast / Avalon Hill):  I just learned that the 150th Anniversary Edition of this Civil War game came out in 2010.  Like M'44, it is an accessible card-driven wargame, equally recommended.

Although I haven't played any of these, the highest-ranked wargames on boardgamegeek that came out in the last three years include:

• Runewars (Fantasy Flight)
• Risk Legacy (Hasbro)
• Washington's War (GMT)
• Labyrinth: The War on Terror (GMT)
• War of the Ring - second edition (Ares)

And finally, here are links to my own recommendations for specific situations and genres:

• Family games for three or four people
• Vacations
• Impromptu wargames
• Four-year-old children
• Family games for both kids and adults
• Card games