Absolutley OT: Growing Up

[John 3rd]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Ranger5355

I got a game called Bismarck for Christmas, I think it was Avalon Hill too. It Played like AH's Midway.

warspite1

That was my first "serious" wargame. Excellent game.

For me it was a toss-up between Flattop and Iron Bottom Sound.

[crsutton]

I am convinced that Gary Grigsby was a "Flattop" fan.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

You are probably talking about Airfix HO figures. I could not get enough of them. In fact my brief criminal career took place when I got caught boosting a couple of boxes from J. C. Murphy;s Five and Dime. Rather than calling the cops, they did me a worse turn by calling my father, who proceeded to whip my butt to the point where the notion of any sort of further criminal enterprise made me physically sick to my stomach. Airfix is still in business. http://www.airfix.com/ no thanks to my efforts.

Airfix has passed through a number of hands since your childhood. The original family sold the company to General Mills cereal in the 1970s and a lot of Airfix kits showed up on American shelves under the newly created MPC brand. Later they marketed Airfix kits as Airfix America or something like that. A British concern bought them back in the 1980s and went bankrupt. The Bank of Scotland ran the company until a couple of years ago when a private concern bought them and runs the company now.

All the surviving old kit names except some Japanese brands, have passed through many hands. Lindberg, MPC, AMT, Hawk, and a bunch of others are all brand names of a company called Round2. Most of Testors molds are owned by Italeri which has merged in the last year or two with Academy in South Korea. Italeri also bought up Accurate Miniatures molds and those are now appearing in Academy boxes.

Monogram bought Aurora's molds when they folded in 1978, but the molds were mostly destroyed in a train wreck. Only a few survived and only a few of those were deemed worthy of release. Monogram merged with Revell a few years later. Revell has passed through many holding companies since. Revell Germany broke off to form its own company, but in the last couple of years they got bought by the same holding company that owned Revell-Monogram in the US.

Keeping track of who owns what is not easy.

Synchronistic tangent, a friend in the UK sent me this today:

http://jetex.org/the-path-to-jetex.html

Bill

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I am convinced that Gary Grigsby was a "Flattop" fan.

Gary Grisby was designing computer games when AH was the biggest name in the industry. I'm sure he sampled most AH games for ideas and I agree that Flattop probably influenced Uncommon Valor. I remember playing Flattop with a friend back in high school (1980s) and trying to think up ways to computerize the game. This was before the IBM XT was on the market.

I was thrilled when I found somebody did it. Then I ended up contributing to AE.

My father gave my AH's Luftwaffe for Christmas in 1971 when I was 5. My 15 year old sister said she would read the rules and teach them to me. After spending a couple of days with it she proclaimed I was just too young. I waited about 5 years with it sitting there then went and made up my own simplified rules and played those for several years. It was a gateway drug. I started collecting AH games in high school and ended up here. [:D]

AH was probably one of the best board game makers ever. They might still be around if they didn't get into a lawsuit with Microprose over the name Civilization. IMO AH's Civilization was a far better game engine, but most people have never heard of it. When I was in college I read an article in the General about the philosophy of making their games and I recognized it was very much an engineering process. They strove to balance accuracy with playability and they came up with some brilliant game engines.

Bill

[msieving1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Ranger5355

I got a game called Bismarck for Christmas, I think it was Avalon Hill too. It Played like AH's Midway.

warspite1

That was my first "serious" wargame. Excellent game.

Same for me. From there I went to "Jutland". I think my mom got a little annoyed when my brother and I turned the living room floor into the North Sea.

[Big B]

This has been a good nostalgic thread.
I see I'm among my element [8D]

[Nikademus]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I am convinced that Gary Grigsby was a "Flattop" fan.

Gary Grisby was designing computer games when AH was the biggest name in the industry. I'm sure he sampled most AH games for ideas and I agree that Flattop probably influenced Uncommon Valor. I remember playing Flattop with a friend back in high school (1980s) and trying to think up ways to computerize the game. This was before the IBM XT was on the market.

I was thrilled when I found somebody did it. Then I ended up contributing to AE.

My father gave my AH's Luftwaffe for Christmas in 1971 when I was 5. My 15 year old sister said she would read the rules and teach them to me. After spending a couple of days with it she proclaimed I was just too young. I waited about 5 years with it sitting there then went and made up my own simplified rules and played those for several years. It was a gateway drug. I started collecting AH games in high school and ended up here. [:D]

AH was probably one of the best board game makers ever. They might still be around if they didn't get into a lawsuit with Microprose over the name Civilization. IMO AH's Civilization was a far better game engine, but most people have never heard of it. When I was in college I read an article in the General about the philosophy of making their games and I recognized it was very much an engineering process. They strove to balance accuracy with playability and they came up with some brilliant game engines.

Bill

From a suspense and FOW point of view, I still feel that Gary's "Carrier Force" is the undisputed champion of the computer carrier centric wargames I played.
Still remember to this day....one particular frustrating rendition of "Coral Sea" where'd I had spent countless hours sweating as I tried to locate the enemy flattops and take em out. Got one small attack in early on....but then they vanished. I spent the rest of the scenario trying to find them, their menacing presence so influencing my decisions that I allowed the Port Morosby invasion force to saunter in and land.

The tedium and suspense of each turn with no "combat results" broken by the inverse (in an 8-bit Atari) flashing message "Japanese troops coming ashore at Port Morosby" shocking me out of my stupor. It was too late for me to do anything.

Turns out at the end of the scenario, my great menacing enemy was way NE of my position....both carriers burning uncontrollably and doomed! My small attack had apparently caught them with planes arming and it was Midway 2.0 Only prob was I never realized it thus the Fog of War resulted in me being Fletcher cautious and allowed the enemy invasion to succeed. I was so chargrined. 14 year old Admiral Nik was promoted to a deskjob after that.


Thanks for the memories Gary!

[wegman58]

Avalon Hill - the gateway drug for a lot of us. AFRIKA KORPS - the all important die roll for the attack on Tobruk.

[Big B]

And that anxiety was only for a computer game...I'm sure you got a new understanding of Adm. Fletcher after that - he had a little more on his plate [:D]

ORIGINAL: Nikademus
...
Turns out at the end of the scenario, my great menacing enemy was way NE of my position....both carriers burning uncontrollably and doomed! My small attack had apparently caught them with planes arming and it was Midway 2.0 Only prob was I never realized it thus the Fog of War resulted in me being Fletcher cautious and allowed the enemy invasion to succeed. I was so chargrined. 14 year old Admiral Nik was promoted to a deskjob after that.


Thanks for the memories Gary!

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I am convinced that Gary Grigsby was a "Flattop" fan.

Gary Grisby was designing computer games when AH was the biggest name in the industry. I'm sure he sampled most AH games for ideas and I agree that Flattop probably influenced Uncommon Valor. I remember playing Flattop with a friend back in high school (1980s) and trying to think up ways to computerize the game. This was before the IBM XT was on the market.

I was thrilled when I found somebody did it. Then I ended up contributing to AE.

My father gave my AH's Luftwaffe for Christmas in 1971 when I was 5. My 15 year old sister said she would read the rules and teach them to me. After spending a couple of days with it she proclaimed I was just too young. I waited about 5 years with it sitting there then went and made up my own simplified rules and played those for several years. It was a gateway drug. I started collecting AH games in high school and ended up here. [:D]

AH was probably one of the best board game makers ever. They might still be around if they didn't get into a lawsuit with Microprose over the name Civilization. IMO AH's Civilization was a far better game engine, but most people have never heard of it. When I was in college I read an article in the General about the philosophy of making their games and I recognized it was very much an engineering process. They strove to balance accuracy with playability and they came up with some brilliant game engines.

Bill

Pretty much similar to my experiences Bill. I found an unopened AH Gettysburg. (the old one with square hexes) in my dad's closet and pulled it down and begin playing with it. Had to be not more than seven years old. I did not care for the rules. I just loved the map and fought my own battles in real time moving the pieces around. (The Rebs always won) That started my love affair with history. I started collecting the games, Tactics, Jutland, (I paid an outrageous $9 for Jutland) amassing quite a few. I played fantasy battles and then started reading the rules for solo play until I was 15 when my mother remarried and my new 15 year old step brother turned out to be a gamer too. First head to head play was Alexander and the rest is history. I still play an occasional game of Advanced Squad leader but that is about it for board gaming these days. It just broke my heart when AH went south. I only played their game up until them. Use to love going to Avaloncon. First real computer game was the old Atomic Games WWII series-which were actually very good. I remember my excitement when I sent my first turn by email. Talk about a quantum shift. Been mostly computer stuff since them.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: wegman58

Avalon Hill - the gateway drug for a lot of us. AFRIKA KORPS - the all important die roll for the attack on Tobruk.

2-1 odds

This may be off a bit.

1: Attacker eliminated
2: Attacker back
3: Exchange (with the attacker always taking the higher loss)
4: Exchange
5: Defender back
6: Defender eliminated

You had to have a 3-1 to get rid of the attacker eliminated result. The one die CRT was brutal and showed no mercy.

[nashvillen]

I bought all my own games from a meager job after school cleaning the woodshop at school. Worked about 7.5 to 10 hours a week at 2.15 an hour in 1977. Used all that money to buy my wargames with. Started with War at Sea, then Victory in the Pacific. I even convinced the Principal of our school that playing VitP was studying history and that I should be able to play it in study hall with some friends. [:D]

So many like experiences here from Wonder Woman to the Guns of Navarone playset. You guys are truly my brothers! [&o][&o]

[John 3rd]

I worked for my Father at a movie theatre and bought my games that way. Avid D&D Fan, AH Fan, and played the monster version of WITP.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I worked for my Father at a movie theatre and bought my games that way. Avid D&D Fan, AH Fan, and played the monster version of WITP.

AD&D, Runequest, Shadowrun, Advanced Squad Leader, Axis and Allies-these were my allowance money kryptonite growing up. [8D]

[rockmedic109]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I worked for my Father at a movie theatre and bought my games that way. Avid D&D Fan, AH Fan, and played the monster version of WITP.

AD&D, Runequest, Shadowrun, Advanced Squad Leader, Axis and Allies-these were my allowance money kryptonite growing up. [8D]

Ahh. Runequest.

I stopped playing AD&D to play Runequest. No longer an arbitrary character level or character class determinging who can do something. Everyone playing in the same universe and history {at least our local game room did}. Creative spell use. Playing jokes on the Duck in the party.

Thank brings back some fond memories from the depths of my addled and aged mind.

[Eambar]

The War At Sea was my first naval oriented AH game.

Pretty simple game, I was probably 9 or 10 when I got it. The by-line on the box is "Begin a lifetime of pleasure! Begin with WAR AT SEA!" and so it proved to be.

Then moved onto Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz and Squad Leader.

(I recently just bought an unpunched Panzer Leader on ebay, mine was too worn out to play, too many counters lost over the years.)

I also enjoyed the non-WW2 oriented - Shogun, Kingmaker, Civilisation and Richtofen's War.

The trading component of Civilisation was one of the better parts of the game - seeing what you could get away with. I recall there were three truths you had to say but I can't recall the third one - 1. The amount of cards (always 3), 2. At least one of the commodities had to be correct, 3. ??

I'll have to dig it out tonight and see what that third truth was...

Edit - I tried to paste a picture but couldn't seem to get it to work?

Cheers,

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Doggie3

The War At Sea was my first naval oriented AH game.

Pretty simple game, I was probably 9 or 10 when I got it. The by-line on the box is "Begin a lifetime of pleasure! Begin with WAR AT SEA!" and so it proved to be.

Then moved onto Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz and Squad Leader.

(I recently just bought an unpunched Panzer Leader on ebay, mine was too worn out to play, too many counters lost over the years.)

I also enjoyed the non-WW2 oriented - Shogun, Kingmaker, Civilisation and Richtofen's War.

The trading component of Civilisation was one of the better parts of the game - seeing what you could get away with. I recall there were three truths you had to say but I can't recall the third one - 1. The amount of cards (always 3), 2. At least one of the commodities had to be correct, 3. ??

I'll have to dig it out tonight and see what that third truth was...

Edit - I tried to paste a picture but couldn't seem to get it to work?

Cheers,

warspite1

Yes, when I said Bismarck was my first serious wargame I did not include War at Sea - although perhaps should have as it was an AH game. It was pretty basic but got me on the road to proper wargaming so wasn't all bad [:)]

[bush]

I was strictly an SPI man and loved getting Moves and S&T magazines from them. In Moves there was an article about how to combine WiE with WitP. The interesting slant to it was that armored units were treated like land "carriers" that you sent tanks out on missions as opposed to aircraft.

[wegman58]

SPI came along after Avalon Hill. Played both back in the day. Shipboard life meant that the wargames were lost in the past.

[Eambar]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Doggie3

The War At Sea was my first naval oriented AH game.

Pretty simple game, I was probably 9 or 10 when I got it. The by-line on the box is "Begin a lifetime of pleasure! Begin with WAR AT SEA!" and so it proved to be.

Then moved onto Panzer Leader, Panzer Blitz and Squad Leader.

(I recently just bought an unpunched Panzer Leader on ebay, mine was too worn out to play, too many counters lost over the years.)

I also enjoyed the non-WW2 oriented - Shogun, Kingmaker, Civilisation and Richtofen's War.

The trading component of Civilisation was one of the better parts of the game - seeing what you could get away with. I recall there were three truths you had to say but I can't recall the third one - 1. The amount of cards (always 3), 2. At least one of the commodities had to be correct, 3. ??

I'll have to dig it out tonight and see what that third truth was...

Edit - I tried to paste a picture but couldn't seem to get it to work?

Cheers,

warspite1

Yes, when I said Bismarck was my first serious wargame I did not include War at Sea - although perhaps should have as it was an AH game. It was pretty basic but got me on the road to proper wargaming so wasn't all bad [:)]

Yes, that's the one. USS Texas (I think) on the cover! And they even admit on the cover (to paraphrase) that this is the entry drug of choice to serious wargaming!

Cheers,