A monster game is a
game
A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports or games) or art (su ...
that is either very large, very complex, or both.
One criterion sometimes adopted is the number of pieces; a game which puts greater than 1000 counters into play at once may be considered to be a monster game.
This classification can technically be applied to any board game, but most commonly refers to the kind of non-
abstract
Abstract may refer to:
* ''Abstract'' (album), 1962 album by Joe Harriott
* Abstract of title a summary of the documents affecting title to parcel of land
* Abstract (law), a summary of a legal document
* Abstract (summary), in academic publishi ...
wargame
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
s in which a large amount of time is needed to play each turn as a result of a relatively high commitment to period accurate military
realism. There is controversy over which would have been the first monster game in the field of wargames with many stating that
Drang Nach Osten!
''Drang Nach Osten!'' ("Drive to the East!") is a monster board wargame published in 1973 by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) that simulates Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The game was the first of what wa ...
(
GDW, 1973) was pretty universally accepted as the first monster wargame. Drang Nach Osten and its companion, Unentschieden led to the Europa Series games, a giant WWII game.
Wargames that are considered monster games include:
See also
*
Europa (wargame)
''Europa'' is a series of board wargames planned to cover combat over the entire European Theater of World War II at a scale that represents units from divisions down to battalions and game turns that represent two weeks of time. The series was l ...
*
War in Europe (game)
*
List of board wargames
This is a list of board wargames by historical genre (and some subgenres) showing their publication history. All games can be presumed to have been published in English unless another language is noted.
Historical
*''The Art of Siege'' (Simu ...
*
List of wargame publishers
*
Simulation game
Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...
*
Tactical wargame
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Drang Nach Osten!(Boardgamegeek)