This page reviews games which are more-or-less simulations of combat situations, on tactical and strategic levels. The goal is to kill your enemy (usually), and an effort has been made to approximate real-life issues involves in achieve your goals. It turns out that many of the games I review here are currently out-of-print. If you know that a game I review below is in print, and I don't have a link to it, please let me know.
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BattleTech

A robotic shoot-'em-up wargame, in which you can design your own robots and stage fairly complex battles. The game feels like a poor man's Star Fleet Battles, with somewhat lame physical combat rules (and no rules at all for, say, picking up another robot, or throwing things). Admittedly, the copy I have is somewhat old (© 1985). I may just be biased because in general I find the idea of giant robots a bit silly.

I think this is a poor game. A few readers have observed that later revisions of the game cleaned up some of the rough edges of the rules, or added new rules to fill in the holes. But since I've only played the fairly early edition I've played, my opinion stands based on what I've experienced.

Car Wars

In the near future, after the breakdown of the economy, drivers in heavily-armed cars rule the roads. And the sidewalks, towns, and fields. Car Wars is the game system of vehicular combat; you can design your own cars, accounting for cash, space and weight restrictions, and then pit them against each other on the road.

Battlefields are played on standard grid-ruled paper, with obstacles and the like. Each car accounts for its speed (and changes thereof), handling (which can lead to crashes), direction (you can turn in 15-degree increments, and make trickier adjustments as well), and weapons firing. Each turn lasts a bare second, and games can be over in six or seven turns. However, the rules are exacting, and a lot can happen in a tenth of a second. The damage allocation system is more straightforward than Star Fleet Battles, but the strategy seems murkier, and the capabilities of the cars never seems entirely satisfying. On balance, it seems less geekier, but it really isn't; it's just spreads the tedious bits around a bit more.

I think this is an okay game, but I must admit I prefer Star Fleet Battles.

Apparently there's a related game called Car Wars: The Card Game, but I haven't played it.

Divine Right

A very old war game by TSR involves lords of various kingdoms in an imaginary land trying to take over their enemies. It's kind of neat in all the different twists it provides to its geography, though it's best to play without a few of the rules that can really unbalance the game. It's more of a young persons' game.

I think this is an okay game.

Federation and Empire

Whereas Star Fleet Battles is a tactical-level game of ship-to-ship combat, this is the full strategic game involving high-level war between different races in an extension of the Star Trek universe (based entirely on the original series, not the movies or newer series). This game is very long, and the combat rules are rather cumbersome for such a large game. The SFB games have always been a bit hung up on rules and details, and tend to appeal to "rules lawyers"-type players (of which I used to be one). This one is just over-the-top, though; you basically need to set aside an entire day for a game.

I think this is a okay game.

One of Avalon Hill's World War II games, it's a pretty good game, but the rules are less-than-exciting (they provide incentive for people to dig in and sit tight, which may be realistic - attacking a fortified installation is very risky - but tends to be kind of boring in a game), and it would benefit a lot from rules to allow players to make their own scenarios.

I think this is an okay game.

Based on the original Star Trek series and the Star Fleet Technical Manual, it's filled with more details than you could possibly want to know (although perhaps Advanced Squad Leader has passed it in this regard by now). It's actually very playable, its biggest drawback being that resolving damage can take forever (there's a lot of die-rolling). But the ability to move starships around, work out formations and cover your weaknesses while searching for your opponents' weaknesses make for very fun game-playing. Real rules lawyers can take advantage of the many, many optional rules and variations, but once you know the rules, two or three players can play some simple scenarios in just a few hours.

I think this is a good game.