It was in 1994 that one of the wargame hobby's greatest innovations was created with the release of the game We The People by Mark Herman. It was the card driven wargame system.

The problem before We The People was how to include important historical events in a game that had a major effect on the conflict at the time without making it to linear? For example, the Emancipation Proclamation had a major effect in the American Civil War by allowing the creation of Black regiments, but how to include that in the game without saying it takes effect on an exact game turn and thus the players knowing and playing the game with that in mind. By including that as a card that can be played as an event, the event itself can be included in the game without being linier. So players never know when that event will occur or even if it will.

This system has now been used in a great number of different games in many different historical conflicts. From the American Civil War to WW I, Ancient Rome to the American Revolution. These card driven wargames are now some of the most popular wargames in the hobby and so I thought it might be fun to take a closer look at some of these card driven wargames and for people to chime in on what they like and don't like about this system.

Also I've noticed on the forum and on geeklists we often see people asking questions about the card driven games. What games are card driven, which are the best ones and so on. I figured it might be useful for some of those looking at the card driven games to have them all lined up so they can see what they have to choose from and hear what others have to say on them as well. Sort of like a new car lot but with games instead of automobiles.