The top rated heavy boardgames on BGG
Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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I love the recent addition of game weight ratings to BGG. It's extremely useful for folks who are interested in a game but are looking for something perhaps towards the lighter end of the spectrum or something with a lot of meat to it.
This list is about the best of the beefy games. The games with a 4+ weight rating. For this list I have exluded all expansions and modules so that half the list isn't ASL or Age of Steam. I also only listed 1 of the Squad leader games as besides the one listed on this list there is also regular Squad Leader and two versions of ASL.
Games in order to make the list were required to have 20 game ratings and 5 weight ratings. Here are the results.
I must admit I am rather happy to see such a wide variety of games listed on this. You will find Euros, wargames and abstract games. It turned out to be a real cross section of the gaming hobby.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 9.03
weight rating: 4.42
This game is taking the wargaming hobby by storm. It and Bonaparte at Marengo will likely fight it out for all the wargame of the year awards. The artwork in this game has set a new standard for the wargaming genre and it uses the same card driven system so popular with GMT's series of CDGs. With this and Epic of the Peloponnesian War, Clash of Arms has really stepped forward from an also ran game company to one of the leaders in the hobby in my opinion.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.73
weight rating: 4.66
I wasn't surprised to see Triumph of Chaos sitting at #1 but I was surprised to see Clash of Arsm taking the top 2 spots on the list. Another sign of the quality games coming out of their company these days.
This game by the way contains a whopping 110 scenarios! It also has 420 aircraft counters and something like 200 total ship counters.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.66
weight rating: 4.00
My only surprise with this one is that it's not a flat out 5 weight rating. Half this list would just about be ASL modules if I were to include those.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.65
weight rating: 4.57
The first game from GMT to make the list but not the last. This game has been very popular since it's release last year and soon will likely share company at the top of many geek lists with the release of the sequel of sorts 'Burning Blue', which uses a very similar system to recreate the Battle of Britain.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.20
weight rating: 4.33
I actually heard someone once say this game was to complicated and to long to be a called a Eurogame. Whatever you call it there are plenty of people who would love it if you called them next time you break this one out to play.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.19
weight rating: 4.00
This one was a complete surprise to me although as I said I am glad to see the list isn't dominated by just the wargames. It's nice that there are some quality alternatives for folks who want to enjoy a heavier game without having to move into wargaming if they don't wish to.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.17
weight rating: 4.32
The extremely popular GMT block game. A warning to anyone thinking about getting this one....think fast. GMT in it's winter flier just said they are down to very low stock on this.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.12
weight rating: 4.23
One could argue that this is the most popular of the GMT card driven games with Wilderness War being the other.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.03
weight rating: 4.06
Big surprise for me. I've never actually played Age of Steam or even seen it played that I recall. While I knew it was an extremely popular game, I never knew it was considered a heavy game. I need to give this one a try sometime if someone breaks it out at my Thursday night group.
By the way, if I had allowed expansions and modules to be listed on this geeklist, two Age of Steam expansions would have been listed in the top 10. Those two expansions being Scandinavia & Korea and England & Ireland.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.02
weight rating: 4.33
I've never heard of this one. Tons of pieces in this game. I think this game has more bits and pieces than Arkham Horror.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.01
weight rating: 4.33
Anytime you hook up designers Richard Berg and Mark Herman together you are going to come out with a popular wargame.
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12.
Board Game: Go
[Average Rating:7.66 Overall Rank:121]

Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 8.00
weight rating: 4.26
Needless to say this is the oldest game to make the list.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.95
weight rating: 4.48
I must admit, I am very happy to see this one make the list. Great game and one that folks looking for a heavier game to add to their collection but dont want to play a wargame should seriously consider. It's also rather a beautiful game with really nice components.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
-
Game rating: 7.95
weight rating: 4.33
Another high level Eurogame makes the list.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.84
weight rating: 4.00
From the Great Battles of the Civil War series. This one recreates Lee's Maryland Campaign in 1862. It's such a pity that as great and popular as this series is that it's gone completely out of print.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.70
weight rating: 4.00
This game from my understanding is pretty much the grandfather of the popular game Power Grid.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.67
weight rating: 4.37
If I could pick any game currently out of print to be reprinted it would be this one. It was recently argued in the forum here that most older out of print Avalon Hill games are overrated and that they actually wouldn't sell well if reprinted. I would hold this game up as an example of an older Avalon Hill game that I truly believe if it were reprinted would be extremely popular.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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1870
Game rating: 7.61 weight rating: 4.38
1856 Game rating: 7.57 weight rating: 4.36
These two games actually came in 18th and 19th on the list, but with only two slots left to go and both games being so very similar I figured I could include them at 18 as a pair.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.56
weight rating: 4.17
Another recent and very popular title. I haven't played this but I hope to soon because I keep hearing such good things about it.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.43
weight rating: 4.25
Glad to see another older game make the list. This one is a true classic in ever sense of the word.
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Brian Morris
United States Raytown Missouri
2nd, 6th and 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan
24th Michigan Monument Gettysburg Pa
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Game rating: 7.39
weight rating: 4.00
I went to 21 on this list because I thought this was an interesting contrast. Here we have two games covering the same subject matter from a completely seperate approach. Yet they both are rated nearly identical with high ratings.
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