How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre?

How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (Full Version)

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ravinhood -> How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 4:47:37 PM)
How many of you remember the first time you became aquainted with a wargame. What was it and why did you become interested. Mine was Gettysburg by Avalon Hill that a friend brought to school during the last week of the 6th grade, we had what was called "free day" just before school was out for summer and we could bring stuff from home or go play in the play ground all day if we wanted. My friend had a broken arm, so he brought this game to school. Now, at the time he wasn't a friend, just a classmate. But, he had set this game up in the back of the class on an open table and I saw the map and the counters and became "curious". Well it seemed simple enough to play and grasp the rules even at 12 years old, and from that point on I was hooked on wargames.

Arckon -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 5:10:28 PM)
About 8-10 years old couple of packs of plastic toy soldiers. Set up battlefield in the room, lego blocks for sandbags etc and my brother and I would roll marbles at each other forces (underarm lob for artillery had to land on the full though). I then started drawing up island maps with bridges connecting all the islands. We would roll the dice and move and attack the toy soldiers trying to take opponents islands. Then got too old for toy soldiers and not until I got my 1st computer years later that I started playing wargames again. Have never played a board wargame.

EricGuitarJames -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 5:18:17 PM)
Late 60s - Wargaming - Plastic toy soldiers Mid 70s - Board Wargaming - Being loaned a copy of 'Panzerblitz' Got out of wargaming in the late 80s, rediscovered it when I bought 'Airborne Assault: Red Devils Over Arnhem' about three years ago.

James Ward -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 5:40:37 PM)
I was lucky enough to live near the Avalon Hill offices back in the 70's. I saw some games in the window one Saturday as I walked by, went in and up tp the 3rd floor and have been hooked ever since.

Hertston -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 5:57:02 PM)
I played a lot of pen & paper RPGs at college, and bought Warhammer when it was first released as a combat system for those. From then on to miniatures and paper/counters wargames and boardgames, and on to the early computer stuff.

bradfordkay -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 7:16:59 PM)
When I was 11 my dad and I went to the toy store looking for some Britain's soldiers, as we were planning to play out a battle using the rule set from H G Wells' "Little Wars." As we were walking down the aisle, we saw these boxes with the titles "Gettysburg, Tactics II, DDay, Afrika Korps". WE purchased Afrika Korps and I have been hooked ever since. Dad quit early, saying that he needed a calculator to play (I think that it was because I trounced him every time!).

parusski -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 7:38:08 PM)
I started with "Fulda Gap." I think I got the game in 1981, I was a freshman in high school. I quickly bought "Squad Leader", "Panzer Blitz", and "Panzer leader." Since '81 I have purchased 70 different wargames, but nothing compares to "Squad Leader" and Panzer Blizt"

pterrok -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 8:01:00 PM)
My mom bought me the AH game "Squander" when I was 9 or 10--I looked at the little catalog and really would rather have had one of the wargames they had--which was just the big 6 back then--but I especially wanted Blitzkrieg! So I got to Toys 'R Us and found they had it for something like $2.00 and even though it said 12 and up she let me buy it. I'm still kicking my self because they eventually had a big stack of Guaducanal for $2.00 and I never bought one...

scout1 -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 8:15:33 PM)
My older brother got Blitzkrieg and I lived near a small RPG company (Judges Guild) which did alot of boardgames every Saturday ....

ravinhood -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/3/2005 10:55:48 PM)
quote: I'm still kicking my self because they eventually had a big stack of Guaducanal for $2.00 Lol a mint condition Guadacanal game unpunched today can go upwards of $200. hehe Those were the days too back in the 60's. Most of the Avalon Hill games then were $3.64 brand new.

wodin -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 2:55:13 AM)
Erm Car Wars in about 83 if you can calll it a wargame. Then Kingmaker.

Sarge -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 3:32:59 AM)
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Zap -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 7:39:22 AM)
quote: About 8-10 years old couple of packs of plastic toy soldiers. Set up battlefield in the room, lego blocks for sandbags etc and my brother and I would roll marbles at each other forces (underarm lob for artillery had to land on the full though). Yea the good old days. I played with those toy soldiers. For christmas my brother and I recievced each a civil war game set.One was a beautiful one with moulded plastic accesorry pieces which my brother got. I got a cheaper set. My parents must of thought I would'nt notice but I did and really raised a stink. First war board game was introduced to me by my brother. Don't remember the name but it had a few Islands It was blue against the red. He did'nt want to get anymore games so I continued on alone. I left playing in 84 came back in 2000

Maliki -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 8:47:54 AM)
As someone else here mentioned,as a kid i had a huge amount of plastic miniatures(i'm talking alot).I also got Axis and Allies for a present one time.After playing the boardgame i soon found myself making up rules for my toy soldiers using dice for fire and movement and casualties.The grand battles i had.[:)]Another honorable mention goes to Star Frontiers.It was a roleplaying game but they came out with a module that had you fighting space battles on a galatic map.I also had a couple Battlemech games. For video games my first introduction to them was Operation Europe and PTO:2 from KOEI.

Zakhal -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 2:15:11 PM)
Stone-tanks and pinecone soldiers. Then plastic soldiers and then legowars. Finally my first computer wargame crusade in the west for 64 tape. That game was amazing for its time.

ravinhood -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 3:05:29 PM)
quote: Stone-tanks and pinecone soldiers Now that my friend is the best "imagination" for wargaming I've ever seen. lol

FlyingElvis -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 8:23:05 PM)
To answer the question, it would be Panzer Leader in the 70s as a teen.

wodin -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 10:31:07 PM)
Ahh silly me!! Plastic Soldiers and marbles! A bit later Plastic soldiers and fire to replicate Napalm. Very dangerous aerosol flames were used. DOnt try this at home I was a trained 12 year old!

Hanal -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/4/2005 11:37:37 PM)
Well once I stopped sending one dollar to Marvel Comic ads which got you 100 soldiers, tanks, landing craft, and planes to recreate D-Day, I moved on to Avalon Hill's BLITZKRIEG and KRIEGSPIEL.....once I got PanzerBlitz and played the Kursk scenario, I knew I was in it for the long haul...........

ravinhood -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/5/2005 12:46:51 AM)
Yeah I remember the Marvel Comic adds for toy soldiers, always wanted that American/British set in the very back of them, but, never did get that one. I did buy several though through Marvel and DC comics had almost forgotten about those.

sol_invictus -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/5/2005 2:09:19 AM)
I got the American/British set and the Chicamauga one from the comicbooks. I played for hours with those little bastards. Also had several GI Joes with training tower and jeep. I guess RISK was the first "wargame" I ever played. Me and some friends would have allnight marathon sessions with that game. Soon after, one of my RISK partners got Third Riech and the rest is history. The first true wargame I bought was Caesar: Alesia. Oh for the glory days of Avalon Hill and SPI.

benpark -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/5/2005 2:10:53 AM)
Airfix "little soldiers" were my wargame training wheels. Still lpove 'em. I remember first seeing the Avalon Hill Bookcase games when I was about 8. I asked my father what they were(and if I could get one...), he replied that they looked good, but were "just pieces of cardboard". I remember getting some books that had mini wargames in them soon after-with themes like Knights and Crusades, and one with a dogfighting game. I remember joining the Wargames Club in junior high school, and buying Panzer Leader, War and Peace, and Squad Leader(with all modules). I actually had people to play against, which was great. Then I had a series of girlfriends[:D]. End of wargames for a decade or so, until I find Combat Mission and TOAW-ACOW on the computer. The computer AI, girlfriend who thinks it's not too insane and many new computer wargames=Back to the fold for me.

ravinhood -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/5/2005 5:41:28 AM)
Lol my first wife got so mad at me for putting so much time into computer wargames, I came home one day and she was holding my commodore 64 over the balcony threatening to drop it if we didn't go out that night. lol

Bossy573 -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 2:36:37 AM)
Back in the early 80's I really got interested in the strategic and operational aspects of Operation Barbarossa and I started looking around for something to "play." Somehow I came across an issue of The General. Within a week I found AH's TRC and the rest is history. My first computer wargame was Command HQ and that, in some ways regretfully, in many ways not, basically put most of my boardgames into storage. A great hobby this. [:)]

sprior -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 6:15:36 PM)
Airfix soldiers, on the bottom of which I wrote a number , 1 - 4 which represented their strength (hey, I was 12!) and a large map of West Germany my soldier father obtained fromn somewhere. The higher number won the fight. I saw my first board wargame in 1978 moving into HMS Collongwood where in my locker I found a copy of AH's France 1940. First game played against someone else was Richtofen's War in the IFF room of HMS Galatea in 1979. All my boardgames are still in my basement on shleves and occasionally I go down and peek through them. One day... First computer games were on a speccy, Laser Squad, Peter Turcan's games (they were fun), and Arnhem, Vulcan etc.

Hanal -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 6:50:48 PM)
There was a series of HO scale plastic soldiers that I used to buy when I was a kid. There were, I think 48 to a box and dozens of different types you could buy, French WWI infantry, British 8th Army, German Fallschirmjager, US Marines, and the DAK are just a few examples...Does anyone remember the company name? I used to also buy HO scale armor vehicles as well, and then make dioramas using plaster of paris...ahhh the things we used to do in the "Pre Pong" Era......................

sprior -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 6:56:19 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: J P Falcon There was a series of HO scale plastic soldiers that I used to buy when I was a kid. There were, I think 48 to a box and dozens of different types you could buy, French WWI infantry, British 8th Army, German Fallschirmjager, US Marines, and the DAK are just a few examples...Does anyone remember the company name? I used to also buy HO scale armor vehicles as well, and then make dioramas using plaster of paris...ahhh the things we used to do in the "Pre Pong" Era...................... Wasn't that Airfix? They were, I think, 1/72 scale.

ravinhood -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 7:02:31 PM)
I'm surprised no one has mentioned using firecrackers with their toy soldiers yet.

sprior -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 7:12:57 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ravinhood I'm surprised no one has mentioned using firecrackers with their toy soldiers yet. My Airfix Matilda met its end that way...

Hanal -> RE: How Were You Introduced to the Wargaming Genre? (6/6/2005 7:23:16 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: sprior quote: ORIGINAL: J P Falcon There was a series of HO scale plastic soldiers that I used to buy when I was a kid. There were, I think 48 to a box and dozens of different types you could buy, French WWI infantry, British 8th Army, German Fallschirmjager, US Marines, and the DAK are just a few examples...Does anyone remember the company name? I used to also buy HO scale armor vehicles as well, and then make dioramas using plaster of paris...ahhh the things we used to do in the "Pre Pong" Era...................... Wasn't that Airfix? They were, I think, 1/72 scale. It was your post that jogged my memory but Airfix just did not ring a bell...perhaps you are right... I just searched and found a dedicated site to the Airfix soldiers...yep, that's them....thanks!

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