Grognards in the Attic

[Good Soldier Svejk]

Salute all!

I've noticed references indicating just how OLD :eek: some of you (us ) are, and also how far back into the roots of gaming you go.

Okay, out with it (you old buggers --and you young ones, too ). When did you first become aware of wargames? What was your first game (and when did you start playing)?

Me:

First Hooked: Saw Peter Young's beautiful book, "The War Game" in a public library back in the early 70s.

First pseudo wargame: Feudal (pre Avalon Hill version)

First real wargame: Luftwaffe (Avalon Hill)

Began playing Luftwaffe in 1972 or 73...something like that--I'll have to check the the rings on trees or take a core sample from the ocean bottom or something like that to get the date more precise )

Salute!

[wbs]

LOL! My first wargame was ALSO Luftwaffe, and ALSO in 1973. I still own it, but don't play it (or the other 75 board wargames I own) nearly as much as I would like to because:

1) Lack of opponents, and

2) My wargaming time these days is spent playing CMBO/CMBB

[ September 24, 2002, 12:44 PM: Message edited by: wbs ]

[RevJack]

well started playing war games with the Avalon Hill game 'Tactics' way, way back in the early 60's. Still have the game but dont have time for the board games anymore. I like to have fun with war games and am not to bad of a grognard.....fun first and details second, thats why I like SC....

RevJack

[benpark]

Ah yes, that Peter Young book. I remember I was about 8 when I saw wargames in a bookstore. I asked my father what they were, and I remember him saying that they might look really interesting, but that "when you opened the box, it is full of cardboard". That intrigued me even more.

By the time I was 13-15, I had bought Third Reich, Squad Leader (and whatever addons I could afford), Panzer Blitz/Leader, and a great Napoleonic strat level game called War and Peace (War and Pieces-lots of counters).

I still have 'em in the basement. The computer is great to have now with PBEM and an AI-no more press ganging less interested friends into "just one more turn".

[JimR]

Afrika Korps and Tactics II, both around 1966, I think. A friend in junior high school had them.

Those were the days.

[Flashblade]

Well i'm definetly one of the younger posts so far

The only board game I ever saw was "Buck Rogers", when I was about 10-12 I couldn't even find people who wanted to play a game that would take more than few hours, let alone days.

My first real computer wargame was Panzer General, I quickly mastered and when we got on the 'net in '96 I quickly found out about PBEM... where I found out I hadn't mastered the game after all!

I won some and lost more but had a great time... since then I've been on a quest to find a really good strategic level wargame. Played High Command a lot and really liked it...

I fooled around with some other Wargames such as Steel Panthers and played some great air combat sims (IL2 gives me my current fix!).

Now that i've finally found a good Strategic Level wargame: SC ... and i'm playing a half dozen or so PBEM games again!

[Compassion]

FIrst game I bought was 3R... Didnt understand a thing and put it away and got Tactics ][ instead in 1977.

First computer wargame? Computer Ambush.... or was it Castle Wolfenstein? Can't Remember.

[James Ott]

I love the smell of cardboard in the morning...

My first game was D-Day by AH, circa 1980. I remember waiting months and months for the next iteration of the ASL series. Also it seemed like the magazine the "General" always took forever. Its a shame whats happened to Avalon Hill since most of us cut our teeth on their games.

[Marc]

Well, first became aware of the darn things around 66 or 67, think I saw a copy of the old AH Battle of the Bulge in a store. Got serious the year I entered college, 68. First games were the classic AH ones, Bulge, D-Day, Waterloo, Afrika Korps and a few others. Now it is a sickness I am afraid. My collection is now over 1,000 (yes that is a 1 followed by 3 zeroes) wargames!

Marc

[J Wagner]

I cut my teeth on Avalon Hill's KRIEGSPIEL then moved on to their entire line. Between AH and SPI, I was in wargamers heaven back in the 70's. I still recall going to SPI's offices in NYC to get a copy of War in the East because I couldn't find it anywhere in Jersey...ahh those were the days............

[Sol Invictus]

Well it all started when I got RISK for Christmas around late 70's. Me and some friends played some all nighters of that and it was a blast. One of my friends saw 3R in the store and got it and I never looked back. We were in 7th grade and didnt use all the rules but it opened my eyes to a new world. The first game I bought was Caesar Alesia. I've only got about 10 of the old board games left but coincidentally, I'm getting divorced and an old friend and I are going to start board gaming again soon. I used to beat him to death in the old days, hopefully the old Arnold luck is still there. It was almost impossible but if you could ever get 4-6 people together, War and Peace was a great strategic Napoleonic game. Luckily, Matrix is doing a computer version of Empires in Arms with many enhancements. Ah for the carefree highschool days with friends and a boardgame. I think I'm going to cry.

[ September 24, 2002, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Sol Invictus ]

[Bullwinkle]

I'm one of the older guys here. I started in 1958 with Tactics from AH. From there I went to Gettysburg, D-Day, Afrika Korps, etc. My chess playing buddies were all into wargaming too.

Finally in the 70's I went into miniatures - specifically ancients. I almost won the U.S. Ancient Title in 1977 with my Parthian army - came in 2nd. Just lost by a hair (or a horseshoe).

Now my wargaming is confined to the computer, although my old miniature buddies still go at it.

[Esquire]

Ah yes, 1978, Leisure suits, inflation and "The Third World War" by SPI. Did not quite get the hang of it at first but quickly moved on to others including my favorite 3R. I got the board game in 1979 and the couputer version in 1996 (what a bust).

[Rouge]

ANZACS:Gallipoli back in ol' 99

Did any of u ever have a commodor 64? cause i dont belive that they only had 2mb

[AaronNorris]

Being quite young as this forum goes, I only got interested in wargames about 3 years ago.

It all started with the demo for 'Onslaught', which used to be sold by BFC. (As a side note, has anyone else here ever played it?)

[Bruce70]

Originally posted by Rouge:

Did any of u ever have a commodor 64? cause i dont belive that they only had 2mb

You are correct they didn't only have 2mb, they only had 64K hence the name. If you wanted to spend up big at that time you could get a PC with a wopping 256K.

[daringly]

Yes, I am a gaming nerd.

My first wargame was Squad Leader at age 10. I sucked at it. Then I learned 3d Reich, and from there, any wargame I could get my hands on.

Way back in the days when BBSes were popular, I wrote an online strategy game called "Starclash" which was played, one player at a time, on the WWIV BBS system.

I am a big A3R fan. I was a playtester for the research rules, as well as Rising Sun and the Global War.

And now, I'm hooked on SC. Can't wait for the next version(s).

[JimR]

Yes, I tried "Onslaught" (bought it in fact from Battlefront). I found it an interesting twist on the old Avalon Hill "Blitzkrieg" game, but the AI was weak. "Onslaught's" combination of turn-based and real-time strategy was subsequently adapted for CMBO (some of the same people were involved).

I think "Onslaught" was Mac-only.

[Gregory Barnard]

Waxing nostalgic. Sol Invictus, my condolences. After my divorce I took on Las Vegas. No need to tell how that confrontation turned out! My first game was in 1969 AD playing Gettysburg with my best neighbor friend, Steve Ehlers, to whom I've lost touch with. We lined up all our troops along the classical lines without ever committing to battle. We called it a draw. It wasn't until days later that Dad said I lost because I was the South and had to win. My first lesson in Civil War history. Oh, my...

[Briggs]

My first "Wargame" as such was the classic Chess. My grandfather attepted to teach me as best he could when I was maybe 8 and of course I was mercilesly slaughtered. I ended up playing my dad for quarters and made quite a bundle of cash. A couple years later it was on to Risk with an old friend and his dad, then Axis and Allies with another friend's dad. (Not the crap original edition. We had new rules, new unit types, and all of our ships and tanks were lead miniatures. All on a custom made board 8 feet wide and some distance I forget long.) Hell, they still have the damn thing and as soon as we can scrape up 5 guys to play, we can do it.

When I was 12 I was grounded for doing a stupid thing and decided I need a good solitaire wargame. I was able to talk mom into taking me to Scenario (Our local hobby store) and wound up buying the Ambush! solitaire WW2 squad level game. That opened me up to Richthofen's War, Gettysburg (Smithsonian Edition and some other edition which is millions of times better) all the Ambush! modules, Open Fire, Submarine, A House Devided (More custom board goodness) Queen of the Skies (We built models to substitute the boards) and a horde of others.

I'm probably the youngest here at a whopping 18.

Man, I sure have played a lot in a few years.

[Carl G. E. von Mannerheim]

Ivw got you all beat. 14 years old, 5 of them as a war gamer. Winner of Youngest grognard competition is..... CVM!

started with CFS1 got hooked on ww2, read about the ground war, got into talonsoft's campaign series, A and A, so on and so forth. Finally, while at the wargamer to get some new scenarios i saw a banner for 'strategic command' the rest is history.

[ September 24, 2002, 11:18 PM: Message edited by: Carl Von Mannerheim ]

[BloodyBucket]

First commercial games were probably the old "American Heritage" games, "Battlecry", "Dogfight" and "Broadsides". That was back in the 60's when I was a pup, my older brothers were gamers and I grew up with it. Computer games started on the old Commasnore 64. My current collection includes titles from AH, SPI, GDW, VG, 3W, ADG, MB, etc. I only have about a hundred, so not many compared to some!

First real wargame, however, involved rolling marbles off a ramp at plastic army men, there were rules, but time has dimmed my memory... I will try to replicate them as soon as my little boy is old enough (He is almost three, so very soon!).

[Desert Dave]

Other than chess and Go and some traditional stand-bys, the first war-game I can remember playing was AH's "D-Day"... and playing it and playing it...

at the back of the schoolbus my friends and I, we'd huddle 'round -- ignoring the girls in their sassy pony-tails and droopy bobby-sox and REALLY snug cashmere sweaters (... well, I guess this is finally evidence that I didn't altogether IGNORE them ) and plan & plot various strategies...

and this carried over to class-room, and I can remember one time where the Teacher strolled by and discovered! that I was drawing up elaborate invasion plans of France in my notebook -- what to do about that nasty Panzer Lehr armor unit, etc, and so she grabbed it off my desk and carried it to the front of the room and held it up as an example of misbehavior... this could lead to "juvenile delinquency" I think she told everybody...

and then she looked at it and got this quizzical expression :confused: -- there was mostly NATO symbols of infantry and armor and the like, and she didn't have any idea what to say next... until some wise guy asked her quite innocent-like -- "Say, Miss Winsome, what's that about?"

So she glared at me and I could only slide down in my chair and shrug... (truth to tell, I had a crush on her and felt bad for my faux pas) utterly unable to say what it was -- THEN,

and so, I try to make up for that tongue tied confusion -- NOW... :eek:

[Rouge]

Originally posted by Carl Von Mannerheim:

[QB]Ivw got you all beat. 14 years old, 5 of them as a war gamer.

14 and 2 months

[sogard]

My first wargame was Avalon Hill's ANZIO which I bought in 1969 with some of my High School graduation money. I played that game alot that summer before I went off to college at Georgetown University and discovered DIPLOMACY. Had many late night sessions of back stabbing and other such fun (my room mate refused to talk to me for several days after my Russia failed to live up to an agreement with his Germany).

[ September 25, 2002, 07:36 AM: Message edited by: sogard ]