OT... Military Board Games

[geofflambert]

The first war game I ever played was AH or Strategic Simulations or something. I was playing against my older (and still smarter) brother the battle of Borodino. I had never played a wargame before but I examined the game and determined, as the Russian, I could block all the paths up the heights behind the Great Redoubt on the Russian right with just an artillery battery and a single battalion of infantry. This I did and moved the rest of my forces on the right, save the Cossacks, to the center and crushed him. The game was too simplistic, of course. I played that battle with my friend's version of it on both sides and won not once.

[John 3rd]

Forgot about 3rd Reich and Bismarck. Those were fun games...

[Chris21wen]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

I have a collection of those old boardgames numbering somewhere between one and two hundred (if you count the folio games).

At least a few of them are WWI games.

Me too. I've not touched them for years and have considered getting rid as I'll never play them again.

[USSAmerica]

I have a box with Third Reich, Squad Leader and Cross of Iron, and Second Fleet still packed away. It's been a very long time since I had them out, but I loved playing all of them. My biggest wish for a new computer game would be a modern update of Third Reich.

[jamesjohns]

First game I owned was tactics II when in middle school. In the 80's in high school/college played Advanced Squad Leader, War int eh Pacific, Third Reich, Panzer leader, King Maker, Casear at Alesia, and many others. (Along with D&D) Still own ASL and many of the expansion games, several other Avalon Hill games.

[rustysi]

I have perhaps 20 AH games and a few others, including the magnificent Terrible Swift Sword (Gettysburg regimental-level game).

Thought that was SPI, fits on a 4x8 sheet of plywood?[:D]

The Longest Day (not sure that's AH),

Yes,AH.

First game (besides Risk and the Milton Bradleys') was 'Guadalcanal'(AH). Friend of mine had 'D-Day'. Played them for days at a time. Had '1914' and 'Jutland', remember trading one or both with a friend for 'Anzio'. Still have one WWI game, 'Guns of August' might be the name.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Avalon Hill had a WWI dogfighting game. I'm not positive of the name, but Red Barron might be it. I have it in a closet.

I have perhaps 20 AH games and a few others, including the magnificent Terrible Swift Sword (Gettysburg regimental-level game). My collection includes Advanced Third Reich, Empire of the Rising Sun, 1776, Blitzkrieg, Tobruk, The Longest Day (not sure that's AH), Pacific War, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Here Come the Rebels, Midway, Over the Reich, Panzer Leader and Panzer Blitz.

I didn't have anybody to play with, except my father on a very few occasions. We had some fun playing Midway. In college, I played some Third Reich and A3R head-to-head, which was a lot of fun. Then there was a way to play A3R, ERS and the comb (Global War Y2K) via email, which I did for several years. That was fun too. I moved from that to Fighting Flattops, a basic but fun online Coral Sea game. When Fighting Flattops went defunct for awhile (returning as a pay game), I started looking for the "next thing" and came across Uncommon Valor. The rest, as they say, is history. Or it was destiny. Or both. Has there been any better series in history than UV, WitP, and AE? Can't be.

Guadalcanal game I have is the spiritual successor to Midway. I liked it.


Other than that, I haven't played any cardboard counter wargames in the same vein. When I was a kid (early 90s), that was exactly the kind of thing wargame enthusiasts were putting into computer form. Some of the early computer wargames were very good.

Empire 2: The Art of War was probably my favorite. It didn't have much and didn't need much for graphics - just a visual representation of what was going on in-game. It was completely moddable and easy to do your own things. The engine was designed to let you (or your in-person hotseat opponent) play any battle from any era, real or imagined, because you could set every parameter of any unit you wished to create. And you could create your own maps.

[jbdenney]

I cut my teeth on the old AH game on the invasion of France (France 1940?) Became a SPI fanatic. Especially the "Monster" Games. I had the original "War in the East" and then when they reworked "WitE" and turned it into "War in Europe". Also got "War in the Pacific", Highway to the Reich", "Battle Over Britain" and the infamous "Campaign for North Africa".

Not to mention "World in Flames", "Squad Leader", "The Longest Day", and "Star Fleet Battles".

As self defense I had to Acquire and learn to use "Cyberboard" to convert the games to computer format.

Those were the good old days.

[offenseman]

Started in the late 70s with the AH and SPI games. I still have many of them. No WWI games though

[jbdenney]

BTW - the comment above about "Terrible Swift Sword" Is an SPI Game - as was the 4 map SPI "Waterloo" (can't remember if that is the name). I built "Cyberboard" version of both of those as well as "The Longest Day".

[Zorch]

Some of the '70s AH games were SPI (Jim Dunnigan) designs, cleaned up, given a hard map, better graphics, and sometimes retitled. See https://boardgamegeek.com/ for details. Jim Dunnigan was an incredibly prolific designer.

Gorn - your first game might have been SPI's Borodino, published in 1972. Coincidentally, it was my first games as an S&T subscriber.

[wneumann]

All of the above, particularly WWII.

Many of my favorites were from GDW (Game Designers Workshop), including Europa (WWII Europe) series. Several of the Europa series games proved interesting played as stand-alone campaigns - Poland 1939, Norway 1940, another game (Marita-Merkur) combining the spring 1941 campaigns in Yugoslavia and Greece (excluding Crete). Play balance in these games not what you'd expect, a (usually) inevitable German win but far from a "cakewalk". GDW also had a decent campaign game covering France and the Low Countries in 1940. And of course... Drang Nach Osten and its sequel (Untenscheiden).

[jbdenney]

I finally remembered the name of the SPI Waterloo game I owned and converted to Cyberboard - 'Wellington's Victory".

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: jbdenney

BTW - the comment above about "Terrible Swift Sword" Is an SPI Game...".

TSS was re-released in 1986 by TSR not Avalon Hill.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: wneumann

All of the above, particularly WWII.

Many of my favorites were from GDW (Game Designers Workshop), including Europa (WWII Europe) series. Several of the Europa series games proved interesting played as stand-alone campaigns - Poland 1939, Norway 1940, another game (Marita-Merkur) combining the spring 1941 campaigns in Yugoslavia and Greece (excluding Crete). Play balance in these games not what you'd expect, a (usually) inevitable German win but far from a "cakewalk". GDW also had a decent campaign game covering France and the Low Countries in 1940. And of course... Drang Nach Osten and its sequel (Untenscheiden).

I have all of the Europa series except Norway and Unetscheiden, although I do have the replacement game Scorched Earth along with the replacement for DNO, Fire in the East.

GDW was eventually superceded by GRD (Game Research Design). I think at least one of my Europa games was published by GRD.


The first wargame I played was Kreigspiel by AH, followed by Blitzkrieg.

It was the third game I learned that I really cut my teeth on and led me to make my first purchase, Panzer Blitz.

I wore out the counter mix on three AH Russian Campaign games and played Third Reich every Friday night with my local wargame cell for almost 15 years straight.

Managed to get my name (real name: Merrill Wright) published in the design Credits of Advanced Third Reich as a playtester.

[btd64]

I had a WWIII series from GDW. Was a cool game. From Avalon hill I had the Panzer Blitz/Leader series, plus Squad Leader and all of the Advanced Squad Leader games and maps. The General was a good magazine. I miss it. Plus of course I had Pacific War, 7th fleet and the entire fleet series. But the easyest game of the all was a pocket game called One page bulge. Very simple and I could take it with me and play it anywhere....GP

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: btd64

I had a WWIII series from GDW. Was a cool game. From Avalon hill I had the Panzer Blitz/Leader series, plus Squad Leader and all of the Advanced Squad Leader games and maps. The General was a good magazine. I miss it. Plus of course I had Pacific War, 7th fleet and the entire fleet series. But the easyest game of the all was a pocket game called One page bulge. Very simple and I could take it with me and play it anywhere....GP

SPI produced a simple quick play game designed to get newbies playing that I recall were being given away for free at a convention one year.

I believe it was called Drive on Moscow.

[btd64]

I remember that. I think I had that one too. Old memory.[:D]....GP

[Zorch]

Old wargamers never die...they just disengage.

[Korvar]

Although I've never played it, I like to think of The Campaign for North Africa as one of the spiritual successors (as far as detail / complexity) of WitPAE.

Twilight Struggle is available on Steam. It has the reputation of being the most highly-rated board game (or at least on the short list) of all time.