Columbia Block Games

Columbia's Block Games deftly re-create the fog of war by utilizing wooden blocks instead of cardboard tiles. The blocks are thick enough to easily stand on edge, hiding the identity of one's units from the opponent.

The blocks can also be rotated to provide four stages of damage reduction.

For an in-depth analysis see Christopher Weuve's page here.

A quote from that page from Jerry Taylor:

I've never seen a system deliver the kind of tense uncertainty and elegant command and supply considerations as those gorgeous blocks.

I still vividly recall an EastFront campaign game I played against Arius Kaufmann (he was the Soviets, I the Germans) when, by the summer of '42, both he and I were looking at the board in pure desperation. Chris Weuve was observing and conferring with both of us at the time privately, and we later found out that each of us was certain that our armies were doomed and were each considering throwing in the towel (kind of like Ali and Frazier in the third fight in Manilla). Arius cracked before I, but it was a near thing. After we had a chance to look at each other's true strength, we realized that we were each seeing ghosts where none existed and dramatically overestimating the strength of enemy troops. If memory serves, Arius was probably in more dire straits than I (I had just captured Stalingrad but didn't think I had the troops to go for the jugular and take either Baku or drive further east), but I was too intimidated to take advantage of the win right in front of me. If Arius had hung on, he certainly would have survived '42 and then, who knows? It was a real thriller right to the end, and when Arius resigned, I about fell out of my chair; I was probably no more than 5 minutes from doing the same!

Find me another game like that, and I'll marry it!