What was your first wargame?

[Nikademus]

SSI's "Carrier Force"

The beginning of many hours spent in front of a computer on evenings and weekends.... [:D]

[Peter Fisla]

East Front for ATARI 800XL, cartridge - I was using joystick to move the units on the battlefield [:D] After that I didn't really touched wargames until I played Steel Panthers and Across the Rhine. The #1 wargame that I love very much and I can't live without is Close Combat 1 from Atomic Games. Wrote about 4 editors: Map Editor, Scenario Editor, LOS generator, campaign progress editor. I even learned how to crack games just so I can remove the CD check from the executable so I can run the game from HD on Win XP so that I can use my own custom campaigns

Peter

[Caranorn]

To date I have only lost 1 game (Kingmaker in the original English version, by brotehr lent it to a colleague at work and lost touch with the guy). My brother did sell or trade a few games too. But otherwise our double collection is now entirely in my hands (he died a few years ago). So I now have several hundred wargames from the late 1970's till the late 1990's (only bought one board game recently as I'm entirely broke these days). That's not counting magazine games like Command, S&T etc.

And of course I have a bunch of duplicates as this started out as two collections (Longest day twice, Pacific war twice, Squad Leader series twice etc.).

And yes, I also made up rules to play with Plastic figurines. But I only did that years after starting to play board wargames. I tried to lure my sister's kids to the hobby that way (did not work:-). On the other hand, I created my own Panzer Blitz/Leader, Squad Leader and other game counters, maps and materials from the start (A Squad Leader module for North Africa all hand drawn;-).

Sadly I haven't played a board wargame for a while now (exception a medieval skirmish game for which I also produced add on material for internet distribution the past few years). I neither have the room (probably because all my games boxes are already stacked on the big tables along with history books etc.) nor the inclination to spend that much time these days.

Marc aka Caran...

P.S.: First computer wargame was Utah Beach by Atomic Games (I got into computers pretty late).

[Sardaukar]

First board wargame was Squad Leader, I think. Been long time ago [:)].

First comp game was some SSI one on C-64 Commodore...about Normandy invasion...followed by Knights of the Desert. That was definitely what Oliver Heindorf played too [:)]...hard to forget those supply depots [:D]. The one situated into Normandy was also same series.

Most enjoyable boardgame was Imperium Romanum II, but I had few chances to play it...oh why hasn't someone turned that into computer game. Rome: Total War and Europa Universalis II are not quite into it's class.

Cheers,

M.S.

[MadmanRick]

My first (board) wargame was War At Sea by Avalon Hill round about 1974. Still have that sucker around here someplace too! Many, many more soon followed. I'll never forget the days (months?) of Carrier Strike...or Fortress Europa.... I think my fondest memory though was when a friend and I combined ALL the Fleet games into one and tried to game that monster! Talk about a logistical nightmare...but such FUN [;)]

My first computer wargame was the original Harpoon on 5 1/4 floppies. From the moment I booted that sucker up I was HOOKED! Since that time I've upgraded my hardware 7 or 8 times, just to play games....guess I qualify as a real geek!

Rick

[Mike Scholl]

AH's "GETTYSBURG" in 1959-60. Played it until the counters were literally worn out.

[anarchyintheuk]

Panzer Blitz and Panzer Leader

[Sabre21]

Well I guess toy soldiers, Risk, and Stratego don't really count:) considering I had been playing with the former since I was knee high to a grasshopper. As for a real bonafied board wargame, I reckon the first I tried was a WWI type. I think it was called Guns of August or 1914 or something like that. It was back in the mid sixties. It was a bit more than I could handle at the time, shooting real guns was a bit more entertaining then..hehe.

I still have a closet full of the things..like Panzer Blitz, Squad Leader, Pacific War, Empire at Arms, Flattop, Fire in the East, 3rd Reich..oh and of course Star Fleet battles (trekkie). I don't want to even think about all the great boardgames I have lost or gave away and as for computer wargames..there's a couple hundred of them too and that collection is still growing thanks to Matrix.

Sabre

[steveh11Matrix]

ORIGINAL: Chris H

Mine was from SPI's S&T #29 dated Nov 1971. USN and I've been hooked ever since, especially with the war in the pacific. The designer was Jim Dunnigan and I still have it. Wild horses wouldn't make me part with.

([:D]However for a considerable number of pennies I might consider it)

Beat you by one: I had S&T 28 - "Lost Battles".
But before that I played miniatures for several years. Donald Featherstone's "Wargames" and "Naval Wargames" were my first books on the subject, my friends and I campaigned through three summers using them - with additions, amendments and deltetions of our own, of course! [;)]

Someone else mentioned SPI's "War in Europe" - did you know it was computerised? CWIE, published by Decision Games. It may be available as abandonware now.

Edit: Probably not: It's still being advertised on their site:
http://decisiongames.com/wwii/europe/europe.htm

[8D]

Steve.

[tanker4145]

That would be AH's Battle of the Bulge in the late 80's. My parents got it for me for X-mas since I was so interested in everything war related. I think I was in 7th or 8th grade when I got it. Actually, it may have been more like 5th or 6th grade now that I think about it. Never got to play it against another person, but played it solitaire a lot.

[siRkid]

I don't know how to spell it but mine was from AH called Krigsepl or something like that. Its a german word.

[steveh11Matrix]

Kriegspiel? Very early game, played in squares not hexes?

Steve.

[carnifex]

Mine was Third Reich (starting easy, right? lol). Bought it when I was age 12 because the box cover had planes and soldiers and stuff.

Took a while to learn the rules. Meanwhile I would play with my cousin just for fun, setting up every single counter on the board and free offensive options for everyone.

[Mr.Frag]

AH's Jutland, 1974 ... god that was a lot of money back then! Took over the basement! [:D]

[brisd]

I had most of the AH games listed. My first wargames were in 1975, I believe they were AH's Tactics 2 (which I quickly set aside), Stalingrad and Blitzkrieg. My first computer wargame was SSI's (GG's) Computer Bismarck.
Most were played solo, I never really got into too many face-to-face games, AH's Third Reich, The Russian Campaign and some of the SSI Napoleanic operational games (Waterloo series) come to mind.

[Hammer2001]

Avalon Hill´s "Afrika Korps" and "Midway", in early 80´s. I don´t remember wich one first. Those were very dificult to find at that time on my country, Spain.

[tsimmonds]

Seapower II with 1:1200 scale miniatures, starting in 1968. Halsey and I and a couple other buds had hundreds of the things.... Many wonderful Jutland-style duels to the death with WWII era ships from all nations....

[Chaplain]

My first wargame was a folio game from SPI called 'Antietam' in 1975. I was 12 years old and already interested in history (reading Catton) and I thought it was a magazine on the battle. I got home and opened it, realized it was a game, and sat at the table all night figuring it out.

From there, I was hooked.

Next came Afrika Korps, then SPI's Leipzig, then Waterloo, Gettysburg, and a slow graduation into the "hard stuff" (A3R, ASL, et al).

*sigh* "Memories ... "

[dday]

Gosh, I missed War in the East, huge maps (6 in all) and over 2,000 pieces. We used the pool table to play it, and then Jutland was played on the floor. Computer game, I guess it was Midway. [8|]

[Zeta16]

Mine was UV, but I did have Victory at sea, but it never worked so I don't count that.