What was the first board-based wargame you owned?

warbuff11

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My first wargame was BattleCry, a game based on some of the larger battles of The American Civil War.
 

Pete G

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D-Day, by Avalon Hill, which I purchased at a gift shop either at or near Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. I was 12, and damn/bless that day for introducing me to this hobby.

From there it was a steady stream of AH titles, with a smattering of Metagaming and SPI titles. Victory in the Pacific will always conjure warm thoughts, as will the first time I picked up Squad Leader.

Arguably, what was nice about gaming "back in the day" was that a player had numerous approaches towards getting deeper into the hobby. Right now it's a bit of challenge converting my Axis and Allies buddies into fully-commissioned wargamers without a solid title that bridges the gap from dicefests (entertaining as they can be) to more challenging/rewarding fare. Perhaps Memoir '44 will step up and fill that void.

-Pete
 

moondog

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Holy Crap!!!

He was drained and nearly comatose after a 2 hour game of Steve Jackson's "Ogre".
Yeah buddy Ogre....what a fun game....lost mine in one of my many moves......but I didn't lose my Car Wars stuff......yessireebob!!!


dog
 

Pete G

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Re: Holy Crap!!!

Originally posted by moondog
Yeah buddy Ogre....what a fun game....lost mine in one of my many moves......but I didn't lose my Car Wars stuff......yessireebob!!!


I'll second that. Still have my SJG copies of OGRE and GEV, circa 1980-something.

Moondog -- you have Sunday Drivers for CW? Now THAT was a map. I seem to remember a scenario in there with an unruly biker gang. It's been ages....

-Pete
 
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Re: That depends.

Originally posted by Tom DeFranco
For instance, I would include Risk, Stratego, Dogfight and Hit the Beach. The first one of that kind (non hex based) was Dogfight. The first hexbased game was D-Day, which I bought myself for my twentieth birthday.
My God I'd forgotten about Dogfight. That had to be one of the first. Then Stratego, Battleship and Risk (and Castle Risk). I moved on to more difficult games, but I always had a tough time finding opponents. I owned at one time or another Axis & Allies, War in the Pacific, Midway, Sink The Bismarck, Shogun. Now its been 20 years since I have really played.
 

JSMoss

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The original AH Gettysburg was my first, although D-Day was soon there after.

I also was one of the poor fools who had purchased a full life time subscribtion to Startegy & Tactics only to have them go bankrupt a couple of years later and sell the mag but void all the life time subscriptions. :(
 
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The first wargame I got was a pseudo-wargame by Avalon Hill called Gunslinger. It focused more on shootouts than full-scale battles but it got me hooked on Avalon Hill.
 

moondog

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Couple of things.....

Pete G. I am almost positive I have Sunday Drivers around here somewhere.....man my friends and I used to have a blast with that game.

I also used to get Auto-Duel Quarterly......thought that was a pretty cool idea.

JSMoss, the original Gettysburg? The one with Squares instead of Hexes? And what? 3 different size counters? Loved that game....that was the first "official" board wargame I ever played.

dog
 

Pete G

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Ah, Auto Duel Quarterly -- that brings back memories.

Going to have to pull Car Wars out of storage and give it a once-over for old time's sake. Some of the counter art was quite nice, even if it was printed on that thin stock of theirs. There was a particularly nasty-looking sedan ... midnight blue if I remember correctly.

-Pete
 

Jim H. Moreno

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Car Wars was one of the games I took with me to the Gulf War (D&D was the other). Had some good times playing it while waiting for the action to kick off over there.
 

moondog

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I am digging through my old footlocker

to find Car Wars and all my supplements....have to get my boys into a game this weekend....see what they think of it. It never hurts to convert the younger generation into gaming......never.

dog
 

Siberian HEAT

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Re: I am digging through my old footlocker

Originally posted by moondog
to find Car Wars and all my supplements....have to get my boys into a game this weekend....see what they think of it. It never hurts to convert the younger generation into gaming......never.

dog

Spent a lot of time playing Car Wars myself. For some reason, most of my vehicles were big behemoth RV's like the one used in Damnation Alley. Those and big rigs were my mainstays...

I still have all my old cars, designs and "paperwork" associated with that game, back at my old house. Add to that the reams and reams of Dungeons and Dragons "paperwork" I had from playing that for many years...and it would take me several days to go through all that old stuff. :D

Fun to look through it now and then though...although I was recently at a game store and still saw quite a bit of Car Wars material out there. Glad to see it is still around!
 

Fenrir

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Re: Re: I am digging through my old footlocker

Originally posted by Brian King
Spent a lot of time playing Car Wars myself. For some reason, most of my vehicles were big behemoth RV's like the one used in Damnation Alley. Those and big rigs were my mainstays...

I still have all my old cars, designs and "paperwork" associated with that game, back at my old house. Add to that the reams and reams of Dungeons and Dragons "paperwork" I had from playing that for many years...and it would take me several days to go through all that old stuff. :D

Fun to look through it now and then though...although I was recently at a game store and still saw quite a bit of Car Wars material out there. Glad to see it is still around!
I still have my original Car Wars in the little black box as well as Car Wars Deluxe, Sunday Driver, Truck Stop, Car Wars Champions, Duel Track (gasoline engines and steel armor! plus rules for Road Warrior-Style Car Wars and Drag Racing) and about a half dozen issues ADQ. I still pick up old used ADQ when i see them at used book stores and garage sales. Whatta great game! it still plays well, too. Newbies think the action is way too slow, though.....

Steve Jackson made great games....
 

ol-wargamer

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Ohio,

An unpunched copy of Midway, that ought to be worth a few bucks:D Does it also have those little trays to hold the counters in? You've a real collectors item there my friend.

Eric,

In the SPI v AH debate I tend to agree with you. Avalon Hill had the better games overall. They were better balanced, more accessible, and had better maps (never cared for the unmounted map boards). Having said that SPI turned out so many games (and still are under the Decision Games banner) that some were bound to be good as well as some that were clearly horrible. SPI has/had the reputation of being for the serious wargamer, but give me a playable AH game anytime. Another good game company from that era that was mentioned by someone else was Yaquinto. They were not around long put they put out quality products like Panzer. You can still find them on eBay if anyone is interested in trying any.

My first wargame aside from the "beer and pretzel" variety was Panzerblitz. I've still got 3 copies of it. When Wooden Ships and Iron Men was publishes it quickly became my favorite. My gaming group even purchased Valiant miniatures of the ships and assembled and painted them. They are very neat to set up and play still.
 

Latenighteric

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My first, true wargame was SPI Mech War '77. I did have Stratego but never considered it a wargame. I think the Mech War '77 cost the ridiculous amount of $9.00 or so.
 
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