How we got sucked in!!!!

[Die Kriegerin]

I thought it would be interresting if we shared our stories of how we became addicted to this unique fixation. Maybe then, and only then, we could get help. Our wives could live happily ever after. We could have a normal life, no longer dreaming of conquests. ......Not.

I entered a hobby shop at the age of 12 in 1970, I was a military modeler. The store owner showed me wargames. My first game was Stalingrad, a very crude, unhistroical, game. But that was it. Between AH and SSI, I bought every WW2 wargame I could find ( over 60). But still the Russian front is my first love, for 32 years.
I told people a time was coming when I'd play it on a computer screen. I wouldn't have to worry about my cat getting under the bed, ( the game was stashed there ), and I wouldn't have to sort pieces. Thank God.

Next

Jon

[cimamc]

My wife thinks I'm a little too addicted to this stuff as well. My first game was War at Sea by AH. I was just a kid. I bought some of the other board games and loved them. Later on as an adult I saw AH Third Reich on computer. I thought it was awesome. Then I saw War in Russa and others on the computer! I thought I hit a bonanza! I'm just about ready to play my first PBEM game and look forward to fun strategy. My significant other is going to be jealous. I'll try to limit my time so she won't get angry about it.

Anyway, it's fun to strategize with others.

[RickyB]

Originally posted by Die Kriegerin
I entered a hobby shop at the age of 12 in 1970, I was a military modeler. The store owner showed me wargames. My first game was Stalingrad, a very crude, unhistroical, game. But that was it. Between AH and SSI, I bought every WW2 wargame I could find ( over 60). But still the Russian front is my first love, for 32 years.
I told people a time was coming when I'd play it on a computer screen. I wouldn't have to worry about my cat getting under the bed, ( the game was stashed there ), and I wouldn't have to sort pieces. Thank God.

Gosh, I can just about copy this verbatim for my start also. I put together models starting at 7, got Stalingrad as my first wargame at the age of 12 (in 1972 - yes somebody is younger than me;-)), collected probably 80 boardgames, and now have somewhere over 100 computer games, mainly strategy and war.

[CRAZY_HORSE007]

For my part, my first wargame was Panzer blitz from AH at the age of 12 I think . The first of a long serie like( The Russian Front, Gettisburg, Third Reich, Fortress Europe these are my prefered). For the computer started from very very beginning I do not remenber the name but I hear the sound of the audio tape for the loading incredible far from now. It was a greek battle with troops and ships. My best computer game on commodore was USAAF and Gettisburg from ssi. I must have tons of others in well burried place somewhere in my house. I think everybody here have the same story.

Marc

[Montenegro]

Like many of my teenage contemporaries in the 80's, Atari had taken me from Space Invaders to Eastern Front (1941). The original game I played on a tape drive, and later, on a cartridge updated version with fliegerkorps and a '42-'43 scenario that was pure easy, quite the contrary to this wonderful game.
Thre prime mover of it all though was RISK. To this day, it's a great, simple way to annoy and compell your opponents...I mean, friends. Being both Slavic and Germanic, all that is Operation Barbarossa is my fate, and WIR is the endless strategy high.

Montenegro

[screamer]

if you count axis and alies as a wargame i started at the age of 10 i got it for my birthday.[1996] Then in 1997 at the age of 11i bought panzergeneral2, and closecombat2. i bought close combat 4 when it came out got combat mission for last xmas. last week i got the europe front edition of axis and allies.

nowadays im constantly searching the net for wargames, last week my mainboard burned trough[dust and electricity], in that week i missed wargame TO MUCH , i have a new mainboard now and i can return to my hobby.

about models , i started at the age of 8 but i have a jagdpanther here didnt work on it for about 2years, never felt like doing it.

[mogami]

First board game 'SPI's "War in Europe" 1976
first computer game C-64 SSI "Knights of the Desert" 1984 it took about 20 minutes for the cassete to load the game. When the first War in Russia (C-64) game came out I was in heaven. The Second Front Then the New War in Russia. Now I am dreaming of the War in Russia 2by3 is going to put out in 2003-04

[Ranger-75]

My first wargame was Panzerarmee Afrika (SPI) in 1974, but I was building model tanks for many years prior to that. I still have that game and nearly 100 others boxed up in my garage. Some of my favourites were Road to the Rhine (GDW), Fortress Eurpoe (bought by AH), Lords & Wizards (FGU, anybody remember THAT one??), Invasion America (SPI), Firefight (SPI) & GDW's Europa series, although that one is too unwieldly to play.

My first computer wargame was Sword of Aragon (SSI) in 1990. That was a cool strategic / tactical game, with lots of detailed unit statistics. Just substitute "magic" for artillery and you have a real war game. I still have it loaded on 3 of my computers.

Now I waste time on the forums and occasionally get to play something.

[Preuss]

My intro to wargames came in 1988 while I was stationed in Hawaii. The guy two doors down in the barracks needed a seventh for Empires in Arms...and my love for wargames began. Occasionally we would play some other AH Panzer games. In late 88' we went to Okinawa and were too busy to wargame...but on return to Hawaii my friend bought an Amiga computer and we'd play (don't laugh) Romance of the Three Thrones.
After my discharge in 91' I bought an Amiga 500 and my first wargame...SSI's Waterloo...where you typed in orders to your corps commanders...I never won a game less than that one.
My next game was SSI's Second Front which I really enjoyed.

I'm still hooked:)

Gary

[Chairman]

I bought my first game when I was around 10 "War of the Worlds" but at that age I could not read in English so I had to find someone to show me the rules.

So I went back to the store, the one and only in my city and was told that there was a place to play games, the wargames club Fenris in Gothenburg. The first person I chansed on was a member of that club and he put me in front of a large table, were an army of 35mm plastic figures was placed and I was made an general on the spot. I am still member in that club even after 24 years, my wife dont mind that, she knows were I am atleast

My first computer were Spectrum with a 48k memory ram and got a lot of computer games to it (still got the computer as well as most games)
But I have to say that the game I always comes back to is WIR always been an favorit of mine.

Anders, Chairman of the wargames club YLVA (old Fenris)

[boba]

My first wargame was Tobruk on C-64 (think it was SSI's) in '86 and I was hopelessly hooked up for the rest of my life . Since than, I played countless games on computer, some of them I'll always remember (like Johnny Reb II, Iwo Jima, Midway on C-64, Waterloo, Austerlitz, Borodino, Second Front on Amiga etc.) Of board games, I only played Diplomacy and my favourite, Empires in Arms...

[Lokioftheaesir]

Wow

Listen to all us 'old farts' dredging up the memories. Pz Gruppe Guderian and Russian campaign got me hooked in the mid 70's. From there my wallet was empty for years as i scrounged every cent to buy the next copy of SSI or such treasures as DNO or Next War. I say we all get together in one room and plot the geopolitical future of this planet.

Loki

[varjager]

Fpr me it all started with Eastern Front.Atari 800XL.After that i went and bought 3R and Russian Front from AH.Guns of August and Squad Leader.Now i play mainly comp games cause i it saves space and time in the deployment phase:).

[GROND]

My father bought me a copy of Tactics II when I was 10 (1964). I have been hopelessly addicted ever since
Have gamed eveything (from 1500+ figures/side napoleonics minatures to car wars to star fleet battles) over the years and am deeply grateful to Matrix for supporting WiR and breathing new life into a game that I had thought dead and lost to me forever.
I would also like to say that the number of not merely intelligent but quality people that I have met on this site has been a pure delight and wish once again to appologize to those whom my (currently diminished) circumstances have caused me to be a dissapointment. Your kindness and understanding has been more of a blessing than I deserve.

Jack (grond,hetzer,hetz,sigh....) Mckenty

[Die Kriegerin]

Just because you think your story, isn't a story' dosn't mean you don't have a story. You still got sucked in.

Jon


P.S. Join in, it's an addiction, if it's a week, or 20 years...GROUD said it plainly, we are a certain type of people, intellegent, and have alot in common. Dave Wolf whom I didn't know 2 months ago, has become a friend of mine, whom, I value...I hope to find many more relationships.

Ed, I'm curious????