I have truly enjoyed playing several games designed by R. Ben Madison. He has a special skill for adding historical details into the gameplay, fitting historical events into the structure of his chosen system. This is usually the States of Siege Series, though not always. To date, he has designed 24 games. Most of these are solitaire games that cover many types of history. Topics range from the American Revolutionary War, World War I, and World War II to the American Civil War, Ancient Egypt, and the pre-Columbian Indian ‘mound builder’ cultures. He has also covered the Falklands, the Napoleonic Wars, and many more. Honestly, I have never played one of his games that I did not like.

A few years ago, I made a video showcasing many of Ben’s games on our YouTube Channel. You can check that out at the following link:

In this entry for the Best 3 Games with… series, we will look at some of my favorite games by Ben.

3. Jeff Davis: The Confederacy at War from White Dog Games

I love a really challenging and complex solitaire wargame, and I found a great one in Jeff Davis: The Confederacy at War. In this game, the player takes on the role of President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy. You must manage the Confederate government and the Southern war effort during the American Civil War. Your choices help determine the fate of armies and the struggle between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. The game uses the States of Siege Series model. This involves defending a central point from advancing forces on five different tracks.

One of the more interesting design choices in this game is the inclusion of slaves held by the South. In the game, their focus is as a re

The game also uses a very interesting method for determining your funds per turn. You have to run blockades against the Union to get funds to supply armies, move your troops, and invest in actions to build defenses. You can also use the Slave tokens as a sort of currency to take actions, but then those tokens are used up and cannot be reused. I have really enjoyed this one, although it is a full 3-hour game. You have to get through 40+ chits to survive to the end. There are lots of tough choices and interesting side issues, such as dealing with slaves in the southern economy and keeping politicians happy. This is a great solo game!

You can check out our unboxing video to get a good look at the components:

2. Mound Builders from Victory Point Games

Mound Builders from Victory Point Games is a solitaire States of Siege game. To me, it has a very intriguing theme that has not been gamed very often, and it really caught my eye. In Mound Builders, you represent the two largest pre-Columbian Indian ‘mound builder’ cultures. These cultures dominated eastern North America from before the time of Christ until the coming of the European colonists in the 17th century. Your empire represents the earlier Hopewell culture and the later Mississippian culture that derived from it.

The game plays in two distinct sections or modules. The first module deals with the Hopewell culture, which is the earlier of the two cultures in the game. During this phase, your goal is to simply expand the influence of your empire across the land. You trade with various chiefdoms and try to incorporate their dominions into your own. This increases your economic power through the accumulation of various types of resources. As time passes, your empire will grow and regress due to various factors. These include warfare, disease, and drought. However, more often than not, the real threat to your culture is simply the existence of other ways of life and beliefs. These will ultimately mix with your own culture.

During the second phase of the game, you will be beset on all sides by competing tribes. You will also face the nasty Spaniards. You will watch as the empire that you worked so hard to build during the Hopewell Era simply disappears from history. Each turn, a card will be drawn. This tells you which of the 5 opposing cultures will move into your lands along a siege track. Sometimes only one will move, but up to three can all move at once. Some can be moved more than once each turn. If you do not attack those cultures when they occupy one of your chiefdoms by the end of your turn and chase them off, your re

This is a link to a video unboxing of the game showing off the great components. Unfortunately, we have never done any other videos on this game:

1. Kaiserkrieg! The Great War 1914-1918 from White Dog Games

Kaiserkrieg! is simply fantastic! It is a solitaire treatment of The Great War using the States of Siege Series model. However, there is a change to a horizontal rather than vertical layout of spaces. Enemy forces can build up here and perform an ‘Over the Top’ move if you do not destroy their troops before then. The player takes the side of the Central Powers and must deal with events that replicate the history of the period. This includes the tumult of various revolutions, threats, and opportunities. It is a well-done game by Ben Madison that uses chit pull to activate the enemies and cause events. There is lots of chaos, tough choices, and history. It always seems to come down to the very end. The only drawback to the game is that it is long, taking 2-3 hours to play through an entire game. Each chit drawn has lots of information, and there are always lots of things to do each turn with your very limited actions.

One of my favorite parts is the use of Blockade Runners to gain your funds for the turn. During the Naval/Air Warfare Phase, the player will place out their available Blockade Runners on various sea zones. These are numbered 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3, and 4. You attempt to break Allied blockades and deliver goods and funds to Germany to fuel the war effort. Each of these numbered sea zones will provide a haul of Reichsmarks based on the number of the sea zone. This happens if they are able to evade the British Cruisers. This is determined by rolling 2d6 and consulting the British Cruisers Table. This finds out in what sea zones the available British Cruisers will be placed. If there is a Blockade Runner in the determined sea zone, it will be destroyed. It is placed in the Neutral Ports box where it will wait to be built later at a cost of 2 RM. If the rolled sea zone contains a Blockade Runner and the High Seas Fleet marker, the British Cruiser will be unable to destroy the Blockade Runner, and a naval combat will ensue.

In the picture above, the Central Powers defeat the British Cruiser with the High Seas Fleet. The 3 Blockade Runners placed in seas zones 2b, 3, and 4 bring home a cash haul of 9 Reichsmarks. This will be used to take actions and push back the amassing Entente forces in the various staging areas. This avoids an ‘Over the Top’ chit from being placed and prevents the built-up forces there from attacking into Germany. This process of gaining income is very interesting and unique. It really feels correct as you are trying to do your best to avoid and destroy the British Cruisers. This gives you your choice of the best producing sea zones without the fear of Entente intervention.

You can check out our unboxing video to get a good look at the components:

Here is a link to my video review:

Well, there you have my 3 favorite games from R. Ben Madison. There are so many good titles to choose from, making this exercise very difficult. However, the 3 that I chose were very enjoyable to play. What are your favorite Ben Madison designs?