We call ourselves wargamers and sometimes grognards. We play wargames. There's the politically correct term of course of "Historic Simulation Board Gaming" that gets used but that's mostly to avoid the people who like to go "You play wargames? I'm against war so I never play those games". Like if you play a wargame there's something wrong with you.

One thing wargamers tend to like is big complex games. We want to not just have fun playing a game but in the end have a greater understanding of the conflict we are recreating. As designers in the 70s began to create bigger and more elaborate games, they became so big that they began to be referred to as monster games.

Monster games are big and they are pretty much solely wargames. Don't ever expect to find a monster game version of Balloon Cup or Formula De. They in general have 1,000+ pieces and can sometimes take weeks or even months to play full campaign games. It's a game you set up in your basement where the cat can't get to it and play hockey with the pieces because it's going to be set up there until next spring.

Many wargamers actually own monster games with no illusions that they will ever really play them. For them it's a research tool to be used to learn about the battle or it's simply fun to set it out and fiddle with a few turns of it. It's the game version of the guy who owns a Ferrari that rarely leaves the garage but when his buddies come over he starts it up for them to hear and maybe take them for a spin around the block in it.

So without further delay, here are some of the hobby's biggest games. The monster games.