Where and when did you meet TOAW?

[Okimaw]

I was checking out the forums today and took a good look at all the enthusiasm (for some it seems to border on obsession, a healthy obsession mind you :freak: ) that the hardcore TOAW community is expressing about the pending release of TOAW 3. After a while I started to wonder where did this all start for everyone?
For me, I worked at a small non profit in 99 and when I went in to work one morning the admin lady told me that she installed some demos on my comp that the tech guy dropped off (how many workplaces do that?) One of the demos was the all familiar TOAW Korea 50-51. After pushing my way out of the Pusan perimeter all afternoon I went straight to EB games after work and bought a copy of TOAW 2 that I still have 7 yrs later. Anyone else care to tell their TOAW story?

[Foggy]

Started playing TOAW in 2002 - Take2 website brought me to this site for
a patch - worth a couple of pizza's :clown:
Do patches exist for spelling? And do they charge? :)

[Boonierat]

Can't recall to be honest, only that I bought the first TOAW right away when it was published in 1998. I've always been a great fans of Talonsoft games and I was already an avid player of the Battlegrounds and Campaign Series when TOAW came out, I remember the buzz around it was frantic in the press and I just went down the street to buy it, you could find every PC wargames in french shops at the time, which of course is unthinkable nowadays.

[Telumar]

Can't recall to be honest, only that I bought the first TOAW right away when it was published in 1998. I've always been a great fans of Talonsoft games and I was already an avid player of the Battlegrounds and Campaign Series when TOAW came out, I remember the buzz around it was frantic in the press and I just went down the street to buy it, you could find every PC wargames in french shops at the time, which of course is unthinkable nowadays.

Ah a veteran. I came to toaw when i found Toaw2 in a videostore (you could also lend pc games). After lending it i brought it back to the shop, unfortunatly the guy didn't want to sell it, so i bought it from ebay and a few months later ACOW. Been always interested in wargames since i played a game named "A bridge too far" on a friend's CPC64 (long time ago) and TOAW was the thing i always looked for. The wargaming "scene" in germany is not that big as it is in the US/Canada and i can't imagine a german shop where you can buy wargames today (except RTS), might have been better eight or ten years ago.

[nemo]

Bought my TOAW I copy in 1998, in store too, after having played the Korea 50-51 to death. I knew from the demo that this could be the game I was looking for after my Mac died, leaving me without the V for Victory games (Utah Beach and Velikye Luki) I played for nights on end.

I was offered TOAW 2 (the French version) for Christmas 1999 and bought myself TOAW CoW in january 2001, online (the first thing I'd ever bought online mind you), as I couldn't find it in stores here in France.

After years of solitaire play and lurking on the various forums, I eventually joined WHQ in september 2003 and voilà :)

To this day, it's the only wargame that's been sitting on my hard drive continuously - and fact is, the only one today.

Nulla dies sine TOAW! :D

[Okimaw]

To this day, it's the only wargame that's been sitting on my hard drive continuously - and fact is, the only one today.

Ditto for me

[jeff norton]

bought mine as a present just after leaving the Army in the winter of 1999.

I had a drop-off playing it, since my daughter (and, wife, work, community, etc) had increasing demands upon time.

So, it lagered in the jewel case until Jan of this year. I had fears of relearning the systems, but, like riding a bike, it came back and you never really forget how to...

I wet my teeth on Two weeks in Normandy, until I got my legs under me. Now, I'm tinkering with Ben Turner's Alternate WW2 scenario. I can't wait to use the Improved Elmer and see how it plays.

Those commie DIV's are mosters - it takes quite an effort to get a breakthrough on the massive stacks of them...

But, I wait, patiently (HAHAHAHAHAH) until the release of TOAW3...

"Captain! Patients Ebbing!!! I think we need to sound General Quarters!!" <que strobe red light and Klaxton>

[Telumar]

Nulla dies sine TOAW! :D

Sic est. TOAW optimus ludus belli est.

[Panzerpelle]

Bought my TOAW I copy in 1998, in store too, after having played the Korea 50-51 to death. I knew from the demo that this could be the game I was looking for after my Mac died, leaving me without the V for Victory games (Utah Beach and Velikye Luki) I played for nights on end.
Nulla dies sine TOAW! :D
...exsctly the same for me...I had some problems first with the IGO-UGO...I really missed the WE-GO bit in TOAW...but that was the first week.

[jlbetin]

Bought mine in 1998/99 can't remember bu for sure it was at Virgin store in London
I played against PO until I got a problem with TOAW II and NT4 IIRW, I did a research in January 2003 on the NET, got adress of WHQ (grand father of SZO), meet the great Jamian,
the TOAW section leader Siberian Heat with a new assitant called Mantis
Mantis became moderator and latter I became too his assistant and finaly
And I Became totally ADDICTED

DER WandererModerator

[nemo]

And then he discovered the colour feature in the posts...

[Mark Stevens]

Before or after he'd dropped the tab of acid?

[jlbetin]

And then he discovered the colour feature in the posts...

Yes Yes Yes with plenty of mistakes you help me to correct:lier:

Der WanderUseNemoAsSpellingCorrector :laugh: :laugh: :yummy:

[jlbetin]

Before or after he'd dropped the tab of acid?

No I smoked the carpet man, problem was dirty

Yeahhhhaaaeeeahhh

Der WanderSmokeOnTheWaterButtsInCendars

[Aries]

I found it at the TOAW Elite Edition Volume 1 release.

It had me captured when I realised "hey this is all my board games".

[Menschenfresser]

Walking down Broadway back in 2000, I chanced on a GameStop. Found a copy of COW on the top shelf for 14.99. I'd been reading about TOAW for a year or so. I've never been one to buy games the day they come out. I usually like to wait one or two years until a 'gold' or 'collector's' edition comes out with all the bells and whistles.

Bought it. Tried it. Put it away for a year. I was playing something else at the time. I forget what exactly. Eventually, I bored of the other title and one cloudy day decided to try out TOAW again. Something clicked. I started looking around the net to see if anyone was still playing the game. I think I found WHQ first...and then was invited over to the Blitz for a WWI tourney. General Staff was my team captain and essentially, my first tutor.

But that's all history...

[Bloodstar]

I have played TOAW since beginning in 1998. But, at first I played against AI and I didn't liked it and put it away... Only when I played few PBEM games against some Croatian players I realized THE POTENTIAL hehe. I played Market Garden, one Tobruk scenario, conqured London in some Axis invasion... also been tried Topp's Operation Blau - hard time for the Germans... I also won one PBEM - Decision in the North I think, East Front...
I lost PBEM called Barbarossa - I was going really slowly, I remember that when I reached Mozyr I sent email to my opponent like "Mozyr is captured!" and he replied "LOL, and it's turn 8 and you captured Mozyr". :D

Fast forward, TOAW II - ah I never was into modern battles so I didn't played TOAW II or WOTY... I was then still journalist so I charmed this lady at Take 2 UK office (PR manager) to send me a copy of COW because I am writing serious article on PBEM gaming and I need COW for my "research". She ordered COW from their US office just for me. Thanks again Take 2 UK :)
So I got a real boxed TOAW COW hehe collector's item.

Rest is history....


Mario


PS. I played Allies in Market Garden - and my opponnet quit after I seized some bridges in turn 5 or 6 - I used ignore losses - and he was demoralized how I got those bridges... :clown:

[Bob Cross]

I remember when Talonsoft came out with the very first "preview" adds for it and thinking "what an awful name for a game - this won't go anywhere". Little did I know. On the other hand, that might be why it never sold a million copies (when it should have).

[Boonierat]

I remember when Talonsoft came out with the very first "preview" adds for it and thinking "what an awful name for a game - this won't go anywhere". Little did I know. On the other hand, that might be why it never sold a million copies (when it should have).

Talking of which, does anyone have a rough idea of how many copies a game like TOAW sold over the years? I guess no exact figures are available, maybe several tens of thousands? less?

[shadow]

Ditto for me
Me too...unless you consider GTA Vice City a war game :laugh: