What exactly got you into wargaming?

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warspite1
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What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by warspite1 »

Rtwfreak mentioned in another post that it was watching war films that got him into wargaming.

What was it that got other posters into wargaming - whether both board and computer (or just computer) and how much is knowing the history behind a game important or not to people?
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Orm »

So what is your story Warspite1?
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shunwick
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by shunwick »

TOAW II.

I was not into wargames, war books, war films or military history. I don't even remember what made me buy TOAW II in the first place since it was an unusual purchase for me. However, 20 minutes after installing it I was hooked. Only abandoned TOAW II in favour of TOAW III.

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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by ilovestrategy »

Being a lifelong Star Trek fan since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I once saw in high school some fellow nerds playing some weird board game with Star Trek ships. And I wanted to play! A year later I was deep into that strange game called Star Fleet Battles. I had maps, literally hundreds of counters, and stacks of rule books that I had memorized. I could tell you the BPV of every ship from from a Lyran Democratic Republic frigate to a Gorn Heavy Cruiser. By the gods I loved that game.

Only a wargamer could understand.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by 0311USMC »

The board game 'Risk'.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by nelmsm1 »

Was always interested in military history as a youngster but one day saw an add from Avalon Hill about their war boardgames in the back of an issue of Boys Life and since I had some hay baling money on hand ordered Stalingrad. Lots of hay baling money went their direction until it turned into my weekly wages from full time work. Marriage and kids came along and I didn't figure that a wargame set up on the kitchen table would work so I abandoned the hobby. Kids old enough to have their first Nintendo and I was walking through the store with them looking for a new game and I came across a copy of Talonsoft's Gettysburg in the bargain bin and there was no stopping me this time.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: shunwick

TOAW II.

I was not into wargames, war books, war films or military history. I don't even remember what made me buy TOAW II in the first place since it was an unusual purchase for me. However, 20 minutes after installing it I was hooked. Only abandoned TOAW II in favour of TOAW III.

Best wishes,
Steve
warspite1

So has an interest in military history followed or are you happy to play wargames without additional knowledge?
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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warspite1
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: 0311USMC

The board game 'Risk'.
Warspite1

So were you interested in history/military or was it just another game to try?
Now Maitland, now's your time!

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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Hanal »

Sometimes, the reason can be as simple as being drawn to a new game by the cover.....

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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by TulliusDetritus »

A classmate of mine, when I was 13. I still remember the really first game we played: La Guerre des Ducs aka The Dukes' War (a small, light game which came with a magazine if I remember correctly).

Yes, that's how the whole thing started.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Walloc »

Started reading "military" history when i was 7-8. Made miniatures and model planes from around then too. Learned Chess and Stratego when i was 5. Beat every one at my daycare center including the staff. Wargaming was just the next natural progression that i was introcuded too in a fantasy/wargaming store at the age of 13.

I started to read those books when i was at my granfathers he had been in the resistance during WWII so i guess i owe it too him, tho i think it was in the cards from very early on. Going by my parents stories of my personality from an very early age. As it has been mention in another place on these forums lately. He even took me to tour HMS Sheffield of falklands "fame" a year or 2 before it was sunk. When it was visting Copenhagen.

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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by SapperAstro_MatrixForum »

Started by reading my fathers old 'Commando', 'War Picture Library (and derivatives) comics. Looking at the pictures and reading as my skills increased that is...

Then on to other WW2 books, movies, etc. Finally, 'Axis and Allies' came along, and it went from there. My next move was using my pocket money to purchase a second hand version of http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2447 ... operations

Bought the Pacific version after that http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/8976 ... operations

Other board wargames followed...

On computer, the first game I had and played was bought from a bargain bin. Life was never the same. It was the original Battlefront from SSG; http://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=http%3A ... FID%3D3732

I ended up buying every SSG game for the C64 and PC until sometime in the mid 90's when real life took over.

I bought various other wargames for my C64, but none really made the same impression as the SSG games. Once I had an Amiga I bought a game that I played quite a lot; Fire Brigade; http://www.mobygames.com/game/fire-brig ... -kiev-1943 a huge step up in wargaming for me. Second Front http://www.mobygames.com/game/second-fr ... turns-east was also a big hit.

Once I got a PC in the early 90's, Clash of Steel http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/clash ... pe-1939-45 , more SSG games, Steel Panthers 1, GG's War in Russia and a host of other games.

Game time was limited for the rest of the 90's, with a brief foray into the 5 star series (Panzer General, et al), PG II and so on, Close Combat games, etc. With the fall of Club SSI, I discovered Matrix. Rest is history.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by warspite1 »

ORIGINAL: Walloc

..... Learned Chess...... when i was 5. Beat every one at my daycare center including the staff.
warspite1

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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by radic202 »


I was more into the RPG Real of Games until I purchased this ffrom Avalon Hill.

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Then I went on to the next 2 of their World at War Series. Darn too bad they stopped making them and I have tried countless times to get them to work in DosBox but to no avail. Operation Crusader is impossible as it still uses the old diskettes and my computer won't even recognize them even though I did purchase an external card reader just for that game. Plus I have a 64bit computer which makes it even harder to run any of those games. Praying every day the GoG (Good Old Games) will make a working copy available on their site one day.

I guess they will remain amongst my favorite games that I can't play and will never get rid of them as I loved them so much.

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I did play this one when it first came out but nowhere near as good as the Avalon Hill Games.


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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by decaro »

ORIGINAL: warspite1

What was it that got other posters into wargaming ...

Being stationed at a remote depot in the High Sierras, not to mention an interest in computer chess courtesy of Fidelity Electronics.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Fred98 »

As a boy I watched the TV series: 12 O'clock High.

That got me hooked on Airfix 1/72 scale model aircraft.

That led to Tamiya 1/35 scale models

That led to an interest in military history. And I want the models to be accurate.

That lead to regular visits to Napoleon's Military Bookstore........

.......where I discovered wargaming!



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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Arjuna »

Hey Napoleons Military Bookstore, that brings back a lot of good and some very interesting memories. I got into wargaming through my best mate who had bought a copy of France 1940. After playing it I left my school chess club and played every wargame I could get my hands on. In 1975 fresh out of uni I moved to Sydney for work and rocked up to Napoleon's Military bookshop in Pit St. I introduced myself to the proprietor Denis Brackman. He was a big yank who had fought in Vietnam. He puffed on a pipe non-stop except when he took a swallow from the ever present bottle of Coke.

I asked him if there were any wargame clubs in town. He gave me Ian Trout's number and Ian invited me over to his place for a game. When he opened the door I felt like I was the lamb ready for the slaughter. We played one of the SPI magazine games "Cobra 44". After 30 minutes he conceded defeat and demanded a rematch. Five hours later, around 2am I conceded defeat. Thereafter I was a regular at Ian's gaming sessions.

We played all the monster games and I was the only bunny prepared to partner Denis Brackman. It took me my first game of War in the pacific to realise why. Denis was looking after production and the Asian front including Indonesia. I was looking after the Pacific front. At one point after we had been playing for many weeks Denis called me out and in a flap highlighted the fact that Ian Trout and his mates had concentrated four carriers and were sailing north from Perth, headed for the Indonesian islands. He wanted to borrow my fleet of Betty bombers and all my carriers. I asked him why didn't he transfer all his bombers from Indo-china and the ones he had stockpiled in Japan. That was when he confessed that there were no stockpiles including the ones earmarked for me because he had lost them all in the massive air battles over Hanoi.

I was a tad pissed at hearing this but then wasn't the time to have a bruha over it. I said OK I'll send my carriers westward and transfer 50 of my Betty's to his level 5 airbase in Java. It was then that he told me he had not build a level five airbase in Java. My heart sank and I said to him "Then we have lost the war!"

But for all that I did enjoy Denis's company and look back on the four years I spent in Sydney with great fondness. They werre the best of days at least from the perspective of social wargaming.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by parusski »

Can no longer recall the magazine but I saw a great ad for Fulda Gap,1981. Begged for and got it. After that I was perpetually broke buying EVERYTHING. I Followed Fulda Gap with Panzer Blitz and the...Squad Leader.
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Chickenboy »

I think it started with chess, "Risk" and "Stratego" early on-certainly before age 10. This paralleled my interest in militaria. The first novel I read was "Red Badge of Courage", followed closely by "To Hell and Back". From there, it's been a gradual descent into "Axis and Allies", "Advanced Squad Leader" and many computer games.

For the last decade, however, it's been all about UV/WiTP/AE. Hats off to the franchise for an amazing run. [&o]
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RE: What exactly got you into wargaming?

Post by Jeffrey H. »

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

Sometimes, the reason can be as simple as being drawn to a new game by the cover.....

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Yep, only with me it was Panzer Leader.
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