How did you get into Wargaming?

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Hanal
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Hanal »

Well if my memory is not failing me, I think games like PanzerBlitz and PanzerLeader were in the $30-$35 range back in the '70's. Some of SPI's monster games like Wacht am Rhein, War in the East, and War in the West went for $85-$100. Third Reich was around $35. Some of the AH flat box titles were around $25-$30. Anyone is free to correct me of course but those are the numbers that come to mind.
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Perturabo
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Perturabo »

According to one net calculator 30$ from 1971 is 161$ today O_o .

What kind of games people would mostly start? I mean the complication level.
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htuna
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by htuna »

1981 worked third shift in the computer room.. Discovered this game called Empire on our Vax 11/780.. became totally addicted.. used to stay like 4 extra hours on Saturday mornings playing Empire... Then a few years later Empire Deluxe came out on the PC and I thought that was pretty cool.. Perfect General 2.. and then Steel Panthers came out!
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Hanal »

I can only speak for myself of course but I started with mostly Avalon Hill titles at first...Kriegspiel was my first game which was a good introduction to be followed by the usual suspects PB and PL along with most of the flatbox titles such as Gettysburg, Africa Korps, Stalingrad...then one graduates to more indepth games such as Tobruk, Lufftwaffe, Third Reich and for the truley complex and expensive, the Squad Leader series of games. Once you venture into other companies like SPI and GDW then all bets were off with regard to size and complexity.

You know, there was a game during the 80's which had a familiar situation to many of the releases that are delayed here at Matrix and other pc gaming sites. It was to be the companion to Third Reich for the Pacific theater called Empire of the Rising Sun. The delays for this release were endless and since we had no internet then, the only news we could get about the game was from The General or the occasional gaming convention. Since there were some actual hobby shops which had huge gaming tables to play boardgames one, we would gather there for news about the latest releases. There was a sence of community among gamers which is lost today.

Sorry to bore you with this stuff but some of these recent threads have awakened long forgotten memories.....
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by gsmart04 »

I started way back in Junior High School as they used to call Middle School back then. Was introduced to Avalon Hill wargaming by a friend. First game was 'Bismarck', second was 'Chancellorsville', but it was A/H's 'Stalingrad' that really hooked me. Eventually wound up playtesting 'Battle of the Bulge' for A/H (they were a local company) and started a club in High School on Military Science. Played and owned just about all the A/H wargames. Got involved with PC based wargames as soon as they came out.

Been out of the hobby for a few years then discovered Marix website and went bananas again. Right now I'm just waiting to get Windows installed on my Mac then I've got many games here to order that interest me.

Impressed with the forums here too!
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Falkon1313 »

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon
You know, there was a game during the 80's which had a familiar situation to many of the releases that are delayed here at Matrix and other pc gaming sites. It was to be the companion to Third Reich for the Pacific theater called Empire of the Rising Sun. The delays for this release were endless and since we had no internet then, the only news we could get about the game was from The General or the occasional gaming convention.

I looked for Rising Sun for years. Finally found a used copy, unpunched and perfect condition, sometime around 2002. I was elated. It was like bringing home a treasure chest and finally being able to end a quest that I had long since given up on. I still haven't played it though. I think I've grown too lazy over the years to manually implement 170+ pages of rules. 20 years ago, I thought it was great, having so much detail and depth, so many possibilities and things to consider.
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Obsolete
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Obsolete »

When I was  a university student, a friend of mine had many games, including this one:

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Hanal
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Hanal »

ORIGINAL: ird

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

ORIGINAL: ird





aaahh man - I used to have some of these in the seventies - they were great. Unfortunately I no longer have them. I'd totally forgotten about them until I just saw your post. I remember a Battle of the Atlantic issue and possibly one to do with the Battle of Britain.

The biggest problem with the mag was the font size. It was no larger than the directions on an aspirin bottle label. To try reading one now, I would need a magnifying glass.


I hope the font isn't too bad - I decided to have a look on eBay and have managed to pick up the full set with binders for £12!!!!! Is that a bargain or what?

Font be damned...I went on Ebay too and bought a complete set and 8 binders to boot! I will just need to read them with the mag up to my nose!
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Mobius
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Mobius »

It started with Risk, Stratego and Conflict. But then saw AH Tactics II at the store one day.
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shunwick
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by shunwick »

Well,

I was extremely bored one day and started to put together my master plan for world domination complete with souless minions and legions of terror. Then I realised that I could not afford the snazzy uniforms and secret hideaway in the Carpathians...

So I got into wargamming instead...

It's not the same but at least I don't have MI5 trying to increment me...

Not any more anyway...

Best wishes,
Steve
I love the smell of TOAW in the morning...
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rhondabrwn
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by rhondabrwn »

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

ORIGINAL: ird

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon




The biggest problem with the mag was the font size. It was no larger than the directions on an aspirin bottle label. To try reading one now, I would need a magnifying glass.


I hope the font isn't too bad - I decided to have a look on eBay and have managed to pick up the full set with binders for £12!!!!! Is that a bargain or what?

Font be damned...I went on Ebay too and bought a complete set and 8 binders to boot! I will just need to read them with the mag up to my nose!

I always regretted not buying the binders... I have the entire set of the magazines though and in near mint condition. If I may ask, how much did you have to pay for the set?
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Hanal
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Hanal »

I bought the complete set (without binders) for $80 and are in very good condition with the exception of a handful. I then found 8 binders in very good condition on Ebay with another 50 mags for $40. I'll try selling the duplicates on Ebay for a nominal amount.
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Goragg »

I was 14 so about '78.

I bought a copy of AH Blitzkreig at a garage sale. Loved in so ran back and got Third Reich as well.

I then ordered just about everything from Avalon Hill. I still have the compete Advance Squad Leader set downstairs. It would take me a year to sort the counters :)

My frst PC wargame was Carriers At War on an Apple IIc

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TonyE
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by TonyE »

My 3rd person look at my entry into wargaming...
http://www.harpoonpages.com/Bios/bio098.htm

After that timeline cuts off the hooks went deeper as I became a programmer of Harpoon (Classic) and these days am the sole programmer of said game.  Just as, or more important is the database maintainer CV32 lest one think programmer is some all important role.

Harpoon is very very dangerous, for months on end it holds little appeal and then suddenly you realize you forgot to sleep and the sun is coming up [&o]
Sincerely,
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rickier65
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by rickier65 »


If I recall, my wife and I were browsing in a Krochs and Brentanos bookstore in one of the Chicago suburbs when we saw an curiously packaged game named The Conquerors, by SPI. The game actually contained two games: The Romans and the Macedonians. I'm not sure I recall how we came to the decsion to buy it, but we did, and enjoyed both the game as well as the history section in the Rules book.

We purchased others that caught our eye, mainly SPI or AH, but some by GDW as well. We subscribed to S&T and even had a "lifetime" subscription to the mag (which I beleive, didn't last more than a year after that investment).

rick
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Peter Fisla
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by Peter Fisla »

I started in the early 80's playing East Front game on Atari 800XL, it went down hill from here :) I bought my first board game Europa: Fire in the East in 1995. I got into ASL in 2005 and I have been playing it non-stop ever since.
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by carnifex »

I was 11 years and visiting my mother in Chicago for the summer. She was tired of me hanging around her restaurant and getting in the way so she gave me twenty dollars (a fortune in 1978 money), and told me to go away for the day and give her some peace.

I went across the street to the Sears department store, and spent some time playing the ATARI2600 sears clone they had on display then wandered over to the boardgame section in the toys department. I looked and looked and all of a sudden there it was: Avalon Hill's Third Reich. I saw the cover and I knew I had to have it. It was so much cooler than any board game I've ever seen before!

I took it back to the restaurant, commandeered an empty booth in the back, set up the boards and punched out the counters. It took me the whole summer to understand the rules, and I was mostly playing solitaire except when my cousin visited once in a while.

After I got back to New York I learned more about Avalon Hill and got their catalog. Soon I had Squad Leader in my hands and I was good to go for another six months.

A couple of years later the Commodore 64 came out and fortunately SSI got on the ball and I had a nice library of wargames to play with. Knights of the Desert was my first computer wargame, then I got Imperium Galactum, which was my first 4x space game.
rickier65
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by rickier65 »

ORIGINAL: carnifex

........A couple of years later the Commodore 64 came out and fortunately SSI got on the ball and I had a nice library of wargames to play with. Knights of the Desert was my first computer wargame, then I got Imperium Galactum, which was my first 4x space game.

Hey carnifex, Knights of the Desert for the Commodore 64 was my first computer wargame as well, followed by SSGs first Battlefront game.

Rick
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RE: How did you get into Wargaming?

Post by USSAmerica »

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

So, most of people here got into wargaming in 70s and started out by playing board wargames? Were board wargames more popular back then?

Dude, um, it was the 70's. There were no computer wargames yet, except some mainframe versions of Empire. [:D]

I think board wargames were as popular back then as "hard core" computer wargames are now. There are way more people playing borderline wargames on computers now, like Warcraft, etc, than played wargames in the 70's.
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