Tabletop Wish List

My wife asked me to create a list of games I'm considering purchasing, for the benefit of anyone who asks her what I might want as a gift. Here's a selection of things on my radar. Unfortunately, many of the games I really want are either out of print or too expensive to make a sensible gift. But there are certainly some exceptions I can include. I'll update this list as I acquire games, so it remains current.

Card Games
Star Realms (Expansions: Bases and Battleships, Events, Fleets and Fortresses, Heroes) - This fast and easy game is essentially a PvP variant of Ascension. It comes with a variety of custom decks, but each of them is individually affordable in the $10 to $15 range.

Core Worlds (Expansions: Galactic Orders) -  A more complicated and technical treatment of the same theme, this is also a relatively more expensive game at around $30. It takes much longer to play, and gameplay involves balancing a larger decision matrix than most other card games.

Mini Games
Axis and Allies Naval Miniatures - The game itself looks moderately fun, and the ship miniatures could be reappropriated for a other gaming purposes. Core game is around $25, expansion packs go for $10-15.

Memoir '44 - Looks like a fun WW2 implementation of the Battle Lore-style of simple wargame. Runs around $40.

Modern Euro-style Standards
Small World (+ expansions) - A Euro-style wargame with a light fantasy feel. Used copies are pretty common, will run around $40 new.

Pandemic (+ expansions) - Well-known cooperative game. Relatively inexpensive (around $25), and available at many general-purpose retailers like Target or Walmart.

Eclipse (+ expansions) - A multiplayer area-control game with some obvious Catan similarities, but more directly player conflict and a science fiction theme. Somewhat expensive ($60 or more), maybe better to purchase a used copy.

Stronghold - A medium-complexity castle-siege wargame using wood blocks for pieces. Shouldn't be too expensive, maybe $40 or so. I think it's only available used right now.

Classic Games
Dragon Rage - Given a nicely updated re-release, after decades of being off the market. Hard to find new, should run around $50 used. A traditional asymmetric hex wargame; think OGRE with dragons.

Britannia - A simple historical game that I remember playing back in college, running over a millennium or so of British history. Somewhat expensive in the newer Fantasy Flight edition. The old editions from the 80s are dirt cheap on Ebay ($20 or so), and still playable, although not as impressive as the new one.

SPQR - A nice Roman-era wargame that's hard to find these days. Please don't pay $845 for this on Amazon (the current list price!)

Mega-Sized Games (none of these come cheap)
Mage Knight Board Game - Hybrid deck-builder and 4x game that uses cards for movement and combat actions. Features a build-as-you-go modular giant-hex map like Magic Realm. I already found a used version of this online, but there are two smaller expansions I wouldn't mind having and would make reasonable gifts.

Twilight Imperium - Fantasy Flight's deluxe multiplayer sci-fi wargame, this takes hours to complete and works best with a large group of players.

Runewars - Another Fantasy Flight behemoth with loads of plastic and cardboard pieces. It looks fairly complicated, but supposedly it plays fast like an Axis and Allies clone when you get the hang of it.

Battle of the Five Armies - An adaption of the War of the Ring game to the final battle of the Hobbit, using some of the same game mechanics and game pieces.

Empires in Arms - Out of print for years, but you can still find used versions. Desperately in need of a reprint edition. Also comes in a computer edition.