Little Green Guys with Guns (LGGwG)

Okay, so this is my review/plug for my favorite video game of the pre-teens**.


Little Green Guys with Guns (LGGwG) is a turn-based play-by-email strategy wargame in which you do battle with one or more opponents with a mix of troops.  What separates LGGwG from the typical turn-based game is that player orders are resolved simultaneously (or nearly so).  Instead of the Risk-style of play where I take all my actions, then you take all your actions, we submit our orders for all our units for the turn to the server, and the server resolves the first of my actions for the turn, then the first of your actions, then the second of my actions, then the second of your actions, and so on.  This provides a complex set of possible interactions, and because all your orders are submitted in advance of the turn being resolved, your plans often fall apart upon first contact with the enemy.  Shit happens, and because it's happening to pixelated vat-grown aliens from Tau Beta and not real people, it's wonderful and frustrating and funny; when your plans actually go right, it's glorious.


Also, the folks who are currently fans of the game are fun to correspond with -- the forums are fairly active without being overwhelming to follow, and in-game, with each turn of orders you submit you get to send a message to all the other players.  Wolff collects some of the best ones on the forum.


** Standard Disclaimers: I'm friends with the game's creators.  Also, I don't play a whole lot of video games; however, I try to choose good ones when I do play -- LGGwG, Warlords III: Darklords Rising, Wizardry 8, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Battle for Wesnoth, Audiosurf, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 is pretty much the whole list from the last 10 years.  You'll notice a pattern here; mostly strategy wargaming and RPG.  Audiosurf is really the odd one out, but it's tons of fun.