Pacific War - The Struggle Against Japan 1941-1945

[Pascal_slith]

ORIGINAL: PresterJohn

War in the Pacific 1978 - republished in 2006. Truly a megagame, never played it. one day maybe.

I have two copies of this one (the 1978 version). It takes a lot of space to set up and keep going. At this point these are collector's items.

[TulliusDetritus]

ORIGINAL: PresterJohn

The boardgame, 1985 Victory Games.

Just wondering how many of you have boardgame roots and have played this game? Whilst i'm just about old enough to have gotten it first time around I eventually purchased it via the magic of ebay last year. Played a couple of scenarios solo and it looks very interesting. Obvious inspiration for the computer game by Gary Grigsby.

I'm a frustrated boardgamer really oh yes and lack the space for these megagames, the wife was not especially impressed when i took over the living room table for a couple months for solo gaming World in Flames!! So witp ae suits just fine!

I had this EXCELLENT game. But as others have said, you need space... and the pets... cats... are really... dangerous [:D] So I finally managed to play without the map and counters. A bizarre system if you ask me but it worked.

[Capt Hornblower]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

I think we lived parallel lives. Third Reich was my second or third wargame purchase (around age 12 or 13). Flattop and Squad Leader were also favorites from my teen years. I own the entire Squad Leader series released by AH except for the Deluxe ASL games.

Bill

That strikes me as kinda young to have started on AH/SPI games. My first "wargame" experiences were with the Milton Bradley American Heritage games. I still have Broadside, Dogfight, and Hit the Beach!, along with my dozens (hundreds?) of more advanced board wargames.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

I think we lived parallel lives. Third Reich was my second or third wargame purchase (around age 12 or 13). Flattop and Squad Leader were also favorites from my teen years. I own the entire Squad Leader series released by AH except for the Deluxe ASL games.

Bill

ORIGINAL: Capt Hornblower
That strikes me as kinda young to have started on AH/SPI games. My first "wargame" experiences were with the Milton Bradley American Heritage games. I still have Broadside, Dogfight, and Hit the Beach!, along with my dozens (hundreds?) of more advanced board wargames.

I did very little that was considered "age appropriate". When I was born, my parents were in their 40s and I have one sister 10 years older who was skipped a year in school and was still ahead of most of her peers. They just weren't prepared for another small kid and I always felt expected to achieve at the level of my sister.

When I was around 4, my father read me excerpts from Robert Johnson's book "Thunderbolt" as bedtime reading. When I asked him to read me more about a year later, he told me to read it myself, which I did (it did take me about a month though). My sister could read college level in Kindergarten, so it was just assumed I could do the same. I was never as strong at English as she was, but I got by.

I also started building plastic models when I was three. I couldn't really read the instructions, but I could look at the pictures and figure out what goes where. They were clumsy efforts compared to someone older, but thinking back they weren't bad for a 3-4 year old.

When I got Luftwaffe at 5, my parents took me on vacation the week after Christmas with me and left my sister home. She said she'd figure out the game and teach me when we got back. I was shocked when she told me it was too complex for me. Nobody in the family had ever told me I was incapable of understanding something. She was right though. I couldn't figure it out then.

Bill

[Zorch]

Tactics II was my first game. I still have a very beat up copy of the 1958 version.
I played SPI's War in the East and Terrible Swift Sword for years.
I never could find anyone to play War in the Pacific, either.

[bradfordkay]

My very first AH wargame was Afrika Korps at the age of eleven. Dad and I were looking for Britains miniatures to try HG Wells rules system but saw all these games in the aisle at the Hobby Center. Gettysburg, D-Day, Midway, Blitzkrieg... we settled on Afrika Korps and I haven't stopped playing ever since. With multiple moves over the years, I have lost or given away more games than I have kept, but my closet is still full of many of the best - though they really don't get played anymore. 

[crsutton]

Had it, never even punched it out. Gave it away with a lot of other mint games years ago. Still got about 30 games in their boxes. Most unplayed. I am thinking about selling the rest on Ebay.

BTW, I will be going to ASL Winter Offensive the week after this. Only board game that I still play and I don't play that much anymore.

[zace]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

Most of my table top was D&D, Boothill, and Gamma World. And my favorite passion, Starfleet Battles. I still have the original counters and maps from the early 80s.

All my D&D stuff too!

I wasn't the only person who liked SFB.....

IMHO some of those were the perfect size getting a win in a weekend or so.

[erstad]

A friend and I left the SPI WITP game set up for over a year, and got through the first year of the war, before we had to call it. That was about 30 years ago; we both wrote down all our unit locations in case we ever got the chance to continue!

Ditto! I still have the notebooks somewhere.

[CaptDave]

I found a copy of PW in a game store in the early 90s. My lifelong opponent lived 1800 miles away, so never had anyone to play against, and found the 6 hours necessary just to set it up rather daunting. Pounced on the computer-based PW as soon as I found it, though!

I started board wargames with said opponent when we were in 6th grade. At that age my favorite was always Kriegspiel, although it wasn't long before I preferred those based in reality. Our favorites were Panzerblitz (for some reason, we didn't like PanzerLeader quite as much) and Third Reich.

My pie-in-the-sky wish, for when capable computers are routinely available at affordable prices, is a WitP equivalent -- with improved ground combat, of course -- covering the entire world, forcing the US player to consider political realities as well as everything military.

[DaveConn]

ORIGINAL: Knavey

ORIGINAL: DaveConn

Probably a sad commentary, but I believe I have played every single game mentioned in this thread!

How about Amoeba Wars? Board game by Avalon Hill IIRC.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DaveConn

Probably a sad commentary, but I believe I have played every single game mentioned in this thread!



How about Amoeba Wars? Board game by Avalon Hill IIRC.

Played it (at least I am pretty sure I have). Raise you a Junta (can't remember the original publisher right now!)

--Dave

[Andrew Brown]

ORIGINAL: DaveConn
Played it (at least I am pretty sure I have). Raise you a Junta (can't remember the original publisher right now!)

Junta is a great game! I think I still have a copy kicking around somewhere.

How about "Awful green things from outer space" (with expansion)?

[erstad]

How about "Awful green things from outer space" ?

Yes...

(with expansion)

No...

[DaveConn]

Same here; played the game without the expansion.

[wdolson]

One of my favorite non-war games was AH's Civilization, which eventually led to the demise of the company.  AH sued Microprose over the name when they used it for the computer game and the litigation costs ruined the company.

Bill

[YankeeAirRat]

I used to have Flat Top when I was younger and played it with a friend of mine. We even added in optional rules of once a game the Hornet could launch a strike of B-25's. Beyond that the only other war gaming on table tops was Risk, Axis and Allies, and Larry Bond's Harpoon Series (with both its WW2 and WW1 expansions).

[morganbj]

First game I played was Tactics (not tactics II). Well, it was kinda like Tactics II, but it had round, not square counters, and the board was much more crude. I also played the hell out of VG Pacific War. Didn't care for the AH Pacific game. I still have them both.

BTW, my wife and I are in the "getting rid of all out stuff" stage of our lives so our kids don't have to go through all the crap when we're gone in a few years. I just can't seem to get around to putting all the stuff on Ebay, though. (I just don't have the time to get it all organized, is my excuse, but actually it's just hard to give the stuff up.) But, one day, they'll be there. Lot's of games. Lots.

[vettim89]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

I had and played the SPI version that came out in 1978. 10 large map panels and thousands of counters.

Me too my partner in crime. In fact I broke down and tossed it just a few months ago. It had been largely destroyed by some water and rodent damge. Kind of funny because ten years ago, that baby was worth at least $250.

[Mundy]

Ah Amoeba Wars...

I bought that on sale back in the mid '80s for five bucks. We only quit playing about eight years ago when the board finally fell apart.

I broke into this as a Jr High kid back in 1983 when I bought the old AH Midway. Every battle seemed to end with a massive surface battle on Midway after everyone's planes were gone. I tried playing Flat Top several times, but could never find a large enough cat-free place to keep the map. UV turned out to be that on steroids, which finally filled a gap in my life.

Ed-

[Ebusitanus]

Heh, just the other day I managed to play a game of Avalon Hill´s "Flatop"