World History Tabletop Sims
Commercial Games
Geography (natural resources)
- Settlers of Catan (Mayfair Games)
Ancient World
Roman Empire
- Catan Histories: Struggle for Rome – Mayfair Games
Medieval Europe
- Domaine – Mayfair Games
- Agricola ( Z-Man Games) – Turn-based peasant agriculture in the Early Modern European world
Colonization
- Settlers of Catan – Mayfair Games
Cold War
- Twilight Struggle: The Cold War, 1945-1989 (info)
Free Games Online (Download and Print)
Leave a Reply
GTP Designer Talks
Interviews with designers of historical video games. Posted here and on Spotify , Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
Gaming the Past 
Aloha Dr. McCall,
Have you looked at the board game offerings from GMT Games of California?
In particular the Commands & Colors Ancients, a series of games focused on the ancient Greeks and Romans. The game mechanics themselves are relatively simple, allowing one to both enjoy the games in and of themselves and to use them as a jumping off point forf more detailed study of the battles and personalities involved.
You might find these games useful in your classroom projects.
http://www.gmtgames.com/c-6-commands-colors-ancients.aspx
http://www.ccancients.net/
The games have certainly spurred my own research:
http://narukamisthunderbolts.blogspot.com/2010/08/playing-at-war.html
I’m curious if you have ever tried to simulate the game of “Risk” in your classroom. I’m currently trying my hand at this for my Cold War summative assessment but am running in to a few obstacles.
I haven’t tried Risk in the classroom. Is there a Cold War variant? Send me an email (jmc.hst@gmail.com) and I’ll try to help you troubleshoot.
Twilight Struggle is only for two players (play in teams?) but has a really good reputation as a Cold War game.
Aloha!
This web site might give you a few ideas.
http://www.historysimulation.com/ColdWar.html
The Cold War is a tough one to simulate on a world-wide level as most games dealing with that time period focus on a NATO Warsaw Pact fight (a real tank fest) or on any number of the smaller surrogate wars in Africa and Asia.
As Dr. McCall rightly points out, GMT’s Twilight Struggle is, currently, one of the very best Cold War centered games.
I wonder if the old Axis & Allies game system could be adapted for the Cold War? Would take some work but the maps for the Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940, along with the unit tokens, would give you a good start. Just a thought.
Good Luck!
Excellent points all, Narukami. Thanks for your insight!
The Cold War link can be found here: https://www.historysimulation.com/