How did you get your start into War games?

R Hooks

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I love miniature Napoleonic's have spent countless hours painting and mounting them, much less time playing them, but that at least reach's days playing. We also used a lot of D&D miniatures and played some fantasy miniature battles, the club fantasy army collection burned up when the old trailer house we met in was struck by lightning. About 4,000 figures melted, D&D and Mech Battle models, I was the only one who painted Napoleonic's and they were safe.
 
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Pyth

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At a bookstore in the mall I saw that orange and black Panzerblitz bookshelf game not long after it first came out. Man it was the coolest thing I ever saw. I was 10? 11? Love at first sight.
 

Lawrence3106

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My first war game was Afrika Corps. I think that I bought it during basic training as I remember playing one of my fellow squad members one evening.

Lawrence
 

vetsurg

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Must have taken a roundhouse to the head and lost my credit card. When I finally came to, a couple of thousand was charged to my card and all of these boxes showed up on my bookcase with Raaco’s filled with counters.
 

R Hooks

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Must have taken a roundhouse to the head and lost my credit card. When I finally came to, a couple of thousand was charged to my card and all of these boxes showed up on my bookcase with Raaco’s filled with counters.
OMG you were robbed by some genius level credit card thieves, wonder who they got to put the counters in there, My Raaco boxes have been setting in my closet for 12 years, no urge to fill a single one. If they're ever caught let me know maybe I'll hire them.
 

TopT

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OMG you were robbed by some genius level credit card thieves, wonder who they got to put the counters in there, My Raaco boxes have been setting in my closet for 12 years, no urge to fill a single one. If they're ever caught let me know maybe I'll hire them.
I have 1 complete box set of RAACO's and not one counter in any of them either. Maybe someday.
 

von Marwitz

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OMG you were robbed by some genius level credit card thieves, wonder who they got to put the counters in there, My Raaco boxes have been setting in my closet for 12 years, no urge to fill a single one. If they're ever caught let me know maybe I'll hire them.
I have 1 complete box set of RAACO's and not one counter in any of them either. Maybe someday.
But why do you hesitate?

All the thinking has been done for you. Where to put what, complete with labels...

All you need to know:
http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/index.php?resources/the-ultimate-raaco-storage.16/

All the labels ready for print:
http://www.texas-asl.com/download/ASL Counter Labels for RAACO A75 and A78 inserts.xls

von Marwitz
 

TopT

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But why do you hesitate?

All the thinking has been done for you. Where to put what, complete with labels...

All you need to know:
http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/index.php?resources/the-ultimate-raaco-storage.16/

All the labels ready for print:
http://www.texas-asl.com/download/ASL Counter Labels for RAACO A75 and A78 inserts.xls

von Marwitz
Yeah, I am going to get around to it one of these days. I am actually waiting for Red October now -good excuse :)

I have purchased all of the reprints and am going to put Infantry & informational counters into 5 RAACO containers and the AFV's/ Guns into envelopes. Just got to get my motivation going once i get Red October.
 

Elfego Baca

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(Posting this in the correct topic thread.)

Being a Baby Boomer, I was immersed in post-WWII backwash. Besides playing “War” with my buddies in the hills outside the NJ town where I grew up in (and now realizing that I was disrupting rout paths by sneaking behind their positions), I also played Risk, Stratego, plus the plastic men & tanks that you bought from the back pages of Sgt. Rock comic books, and lastly those weird games from a company called Avalon Hill …. Tactics II, Stalingrad, and D Day (fondly recalled that intriguing pink counter named Lehr.) PS> I also remember my mother saying in Oct `62 to run home if the fire alarms started screaming.

Lost interest in games during HS & college, but distinctly remember rediscovering AH’s Jutland in a Toys R Us in East Brunswick, NJ (always fond of naval games.) From then, it was onto PB, PL, and a host of other AH games.

Discovered SL while attending Origins III in July `77 at Wagner College in Staten Island, NY. John Hill & Don G. were hawking it at the AH table there, and I picked up a copy for (I think) $15. I recall John telling me that if I didn’t like the game, I could always kill off the Sgt Hill SMC.

Was NOT impressed when AH decided to morph SL into ASL, but I stuck with it thanks to the emergence of the WWNet, CompuServe, and GEnie. (You young un’s will have to look that up.) Not surprisingly, I lost interest in ASL around the same time Jackie & I had the kiddos. Sold my collection off (ugh), but recently rediscovered the system … and my desire to play it.

Having the most fun time ever playing it via VASL …. thanks to Jeff Buser, who has taken me under his wing and guided me through it.

… and MMP is no doubt happy to hear the frequent “cha-ching” of my orders for ASL products.

Ahh, the Madness!
 

Jeff Waldon

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My friend bought Squad Leader in’82, he was 12 and I was 13, and we played Guards Counterattack. It’s been my obsession ever since.
 

R Hooks

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(Posting this in the correct topic thread.)

Being a Baby Boomer, I was immersed in post-WWII backwash. Besides playing “War” with my buddies in the hills outside the NJ town where I grew up in (and now realizing that I was disrupting rout paths by sneaking behind their positions), I also played Risk, Stratego, plus the plastic men & tanks that you bought from the back pages of Sgt. Rock comic books, and lastly those weird games from a company called Avalon Hill …. Tactics II, Stalingrad, and D Day (fondly recalled that intriguing pink counter named Lehr.) PS> I also remember my mother saying in Oct `62 to run home if the fire alarms started screaming.

I remember '62 (Cuban missile crisis for you babies) We had drills to lay on the floor under our desks to hide from H-Bombs.. lol.. and were allowed outside when a squadron flew over the school to watch the B-52's and the older B-36's from the air force reserve circle over our city at tree top level the noise was so loud that they couldn't teach class for about 10 minutes.. Crazy days. Beaumont was a staging area, bombers from all over the USA would meet there and go into holding zone waiting for the War to start. The B-36 then were up dated versions of the late WW2 plane.. anyone recall what they said about the later version? The answer is: 6 turning and 4 burning, they added 4 jet engines on them to give them more speed, one of very few 10 engine planes ever built.
 

hayman

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I started playing toy soldiers on the front lawn with my brother, then our grandmother bought us Tactics II and we swapped to AH board games from then on.

My brother lost interest in gaming in his early teens, but a friend & I discovered SL the year before we went to high school. He lost interest in gaming as well, so I played solo SL & all its gamettes through HS.

Started Uni and picked up a second hand Beyond Valour & rulebook. I've been hooked ever since.

I occasionally dabble in non-ASL games, but always play as much as family, work & sport allow. I mostly solo and enjoy SASL campaigns & 'strings' of ASL scenarios that act as psuedo-campaigns.
 

Aaron Cleavin

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On or around the 4th of July 1976, walked into a church hall with my father near the center of Christchurch in New Zealand (8.5 years old). There were a bunch of people doing a minatures reenactment of a seminal battle of the War of Independence as part of a bicentennial festival. I was hooked ... Rest of the story to follow
 

hongkongwargamer

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My buddies showed me this game : AH The Russian Campaign back in the early eighties. It was pretty dang cool but things didn't click for me until I saw Panzer Blitz. That led to Panzer Leader and then Squad Leader. That was it. (I was also playing Third Reich, Statis Pro Baseball, Magic Realm, Fire Power and Tobruk)

I don't exactly remember what happened but a few years before uni I wandered off. Most of my games were trashed (apart from Third Reich + Fire Power). Decades afterwards, spotting a copy of Squad Leader on eBay brought me into ASL.
 

witchbottles

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It would be great if we could get a group together to play Third Reich!
there is a semi-active 3R/A3R group online with VASSAL PBEM and VASSAL FTF play (nothing like the numbers you will find for ASL). you can find them in Yahoo Groups. It is where I play a few games every year. I do agree a 5 player game would be outstanding, but life being what it is 2 or 3 player games are far more common As is play of "A World at War" the post- avalon hill version of A3R.
 

JimWhite

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This was the Christmas present that started it all when I was around 10-11 years old:

Blitzkrieg.jpg

EDIT: The preview post shows the picture...but not when I save it.

Can anybody see the picture?

 
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A_T_Great

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there is a semi-active 3R/A3R group online with VASSAL PBEM and VASSAL FTF play (nothing like the numbers you will find for ASL). you can find them in Yahoo Groups. It is where I play a few games every year. I do agree a 5 player game would be outstanding, but life being what it is 2 or 3 player games are far more common As is play of "A World at War" the post- avalon hill version of A3R.
I don't like playing PBEM, and I definitely don't like Yahoo. It would be great to start a forum for other outdated Avalon Hill games here on gamesquad. I don't mind playing with only a few players, or even with just one opponent, I am just tired of trying to outsmart myself.
 
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