Ah my bad, thanks for very clear attribution in the message that I just totally missed :D.

If 7-Part Pact wasn't already on my watch list, you're post would have been enough to get it there. I really enjoyed your description of the system and how you adapted it. Thanks for the link! (On a related time-wizardry note, I'm really excited to revisit Ars Magica soon with the new edition.)

Having mostly engaged with only the "smooth time" (to use a grad school term from studies of romanticism) games like DnD and most CRPGs, I was shocked to find so many interesting RPGS doing amazing work with time from the 1980s. Runequest and Pendragon are both incredible and they are hardly alone.

One of my favorite early gaming experiences was playing The Magic Candle. The game starts by saying you only have X days to find the Candle. Later, I went to a town, ordered some Armor and they told me it would be done in 15 days. It was incredible, as a player, to see a cost rendered like this.

Also, Northern Pacific remains such an active part of my gaming life. It's my go-to title for knocking game players out of their comfort zone. I've had to replace my plastic clamshell twice because I so often take it with me on trips!

My favorite part of that story is that your invitation to write that piece on the US Civil War came to me at a time when I wondered if I was actually interested in working on games in a serious fashion. That little paid gig kicked off a whole chain of events for me too.

If I had to make a wargame only list, there would be a lot of overlap here!

It's one of the most unkind games out there, especially to stable groups that like to range over lots of different titles. But, to a house of 5 folks and their girl/boyfriends in 2008, it got as much play as any trick taker.

Back in college our house played so much Container that we stopped teaching it. If you wanted to play, you would watch the game and then hop in the next round. I think it was one of the first games where I got really deeply invested in understanding how it worked.

There are so many games that I could put on the list, but these are the ones I tend to keep returning to.

Off the cuff and in no particular order:
Diplomacy
18xx (1817, 1860, Old Prince)
Pax Porfiriana
Titan
Northern Pacific
Brass
Virgin Queen
Library of Napoleonic Battles (4 Lost Battles)
Blood on the Clocktower
Yomi (maybe Yomi 2)

Honorable mention:
Container

Also I can't wait to show you this expansion--it's such wonderful nonsense.

It's broken (sorta)! A lot of Oath cards flirt with disruptive play patterns. When it works, it helps give the generations a deeper sense of identity but sometimes it goes sideways. Happily, patched in the upcoming expansion to be limited to campaigns.

I love them!!

That is a wild song to sing in grade school!