Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Cribtop

I played two huge SPI games - ETO and PTO I believe they were called, as well as Flat Top. I have box sets of all three. Played them in the 90s mostly. I recall a monster game where we combined ETO and PTO and the Axis won for once. Even then I was a JFB, interestingly enough.

Warspite1

I played ETO and PTO a lot (loved the yellow they used for the Japanese units) - they were really good games. I then stumbled across World In Flames, just at the time Planes In Flames (and shortly after, Ships In Flames) came out. Didn't play anything else for many years - and won't again if MWIF ever puts in an appearance [&o]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

ORIGINAL: DD696

The demise of SPI was nearly as serious as the death of Elvis Presley.

ORIGINAL: Empire101
++1

I always preferred Avalon Hill to SPI. AH didn't have the monster games SPI had, but they focused more on playability than any of the other war game makers.

AH was the last company standing from the golden age when everything shook out. If they hadn't become embroiled in a lawsuit with Microprose over the name of the game Civilization, they might still be around as a separate entity. Ironically Hasbro now owns both the AH name as well as Microprose's library of titles. Hasbro sold off the rights to many of AH's biggest wargames to other, smaller companies. What they wanted was the rights to some of AH's multiplayer games like Diplomacy for making online versions, which never really happened.

About all that happened was Hasbro moved Axis and Allies to the AH brand and re-released a few AH titles under the new AH and that's about it.

Bill

The problem there is that Hasbro spun off the A&A brand name into two different entities. You have the boardgame versions (Pick your flavor: Original, Europe, Pacific, D-Day, 1942, Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal.) or via Hasbro's owned and not controlled Wizards of the Coast entity the A&A Minis with three different versions of these games out (Air, Land and Sea) everything else of the AH line they tried to have computer games as well as the board games. The Computer games stunk and in turn for a new generation of gamers who might have played the board games they think the original boardgames are a pain the in arse. Add in that Hasbro has also diluted the quintessential wargame "Risk" with just as many versions (I think my last time in a game store this month I saw every possible pop fad from Mechwarrior style theme to Game of Thrones and Battle Star Galatica) as they have of A&A. Hasbro and Parker Brothers are the "Beer and Preztels" of game makers. Everyone else that I know from Decision Games to GMT Games strive for everything in between in their catalogs.

As for myself I have gotten back into board and minis gaming because it just been fun to sit there with some friends in person. Trash talking or chit-chatting as the dice are rolled and trade shots of a bunch of PT boats and ADBA Destroyers attempt to defend some vital waterway from the Tokoyo Express or wonder if by zigging instead of Zagging in tactics that some of the more infamous events like Op Oboe could have gone a from being a marginal or minor victory to being the brillant victory they were expected to be. Also it is easier to factor in RL into a table game then it is a computer game recently

ORIGINAL: YankeeAirRat
The problem there is that Hasbro spun off the A&A brand name into two different entities. You have the boardgame versions (Pick your flavor: Original, Europe, Pacific, D-Day, 1942, Battle of the Bulge, Guadalcanal.) or via Hasbro's owned and not controlled Wizards of the Coast entity the A&A Minis with three different versions of these games out (Air, Land and Sea) everything else of the AH line they tried to have computer games as well as the board games. The Computer games stunk and in turn for a new generation of gamers who might have played the board games they think the original boardgames are a pain the in arse. Add in that Hasbro has also diluted the quintessential wargame "Risk" with just as many versions (I think my last time in a game store this month I saw every possible pop fad from Mechwarrior style theme to Game of Thrones and Battle Star Galatica) as they have of A&A. Hasbro and Parker Brothers are the "Beer and Preztels" of game makers. Everyone else that I know from Decision Games to GMT Games strive for everything in between in their catalogs.

Many people in the industry were scratching their heads when Hasbro bought AH. The sort of games AH produced were a mega hit if they sold 10,000 copies over their lifetime. Hasbro considered a game a flop if it failed to sell 100,000 copies a year. Very different scales.

What Hasbro wanted more than anything else was the rights to Diplomacy which they thought could become the next online gaming wonder and AH's parent, Monarch Publishing, needed to unload the gaming wing quickly to settle the law suit. In the end Hasbro didn't do much of anything with Diplomacy. If they released a computer game of it, I didn't notice.

I see ads for AH in a history magazine I subscribe to and my stomach kind of does a flip every time I see the ads. It's like seeing a great actress like Meryl Streep do an Ed Wood quality movie because she's sunk so low.

As for myself I have gotten back into board and minis gaming because it just been fun to sit there with some friends in person. Trash talking or chit-chatting as the dice are rolled and trade shots of a bunch of PT boats and ADBA Destroyers attempt to defend some vital waterway from the Tokoyo Express or wonder if by zigging instead of Zagging in tactics that some of the more infamous events like Op Oboe could have gone a from being a marginal or minor victory to being the brillant victory they were expected to be. Also it is easier to factor in RL into a table game then it is a computer game recently

I don't have anybody in the real world even remotely interested in these sorts of games. I'd love to just get some people together to play AH's Civilization, which isn't really a "wargame", but can't get any takers. My schedule is too erratic right now to play a real person anything that takes more than a day anyway.

Bill

ORIGINAL: SuluSea

ORIGINAL: Schanilec

ORIGINAL: Mundy

Probably the last boardgame I played a lot of was Victory's Tokyo Express, since it was designed for solitaire play. Absolutely loved it.

Ed-

What a great game.[&o]
I should check the Vassal game site to see if it is on there.

It's on Vassal.

They have one on Ebay that's an absolute steal at anything close to that price, but I'd bet some counters are missing.
There are sites online you can get missing counters but I have an unpunched version I can to email an image of any counters if anyone on here buys it and is short anything.

Cool! I'm off to Vassal. See ya'.

So Sulu, what sites have these missing counters. I have a couple of games that could used a couple of replacements. Such as 'Drive on Stalingrad' and 'Operation Olympic' (not on Vassal, damn).

I met Jim Dunnigan through his online Hundred Years War game. What a great guy.

ORIGINAL: Schanilec

So Sulu, what sites have these missing counters. I have a couple of games that could used a couple of replacements. Such as 'Drive on Stalingrad' and 'Operation Olympic' (not on Vassal, damn).

It looks like what you need may be here.

Yes siree. Good site. I guess I already have those two scans from another site.
Thanks much.

The great thing about Avalon Hill was the General magazine. I still have a bunch of them from the golden days of AH, the 70s.

ORIGINAL: wadail

I met Jim Dunnigan through his online Hundred Years War game. What a great guy.

Loved that game, too, but now they're not providing any support to it at all. I think I might have been their last active player, simply because I wasn't going to quit before my subscription was up, and it's not much fun with no opponents! I was playing it until earlier this year.

My two brothers and I always make it a point to play a board game (strategy themed) when we're together.

I love them. Computers have made playing them a lot easier.

You don't need the required space and said person any more.

However, I love nothing more than sitting in my sun room and playing Battle of the Bulge or D Day with my brother over a cup or two of coffee on a Saturday morning.

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

My two brothers and I always make it a point to play a board game (strategy themed) when we're together.

I love them. Computers have made playing them a lot easier.

You don't need the required space and said person any more.

However, I love nothing more than sitting in my sun room and playing Battle of the Bulge or D Day with my brother over a cup or two of coffee on a Saturday morning.

Sounds like a great time.[&o] Would you consider moving. Pleeeease.

ORIGINAL: Schanilec

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

My two brothers and I always make it a point to play a board game (strategy themed) when we're together.

I love them. Computers have made playing them a lot easier.

You don't need the required space and said person any more.

However, I love nothing more than sitting in my sun room and playing Battle of the Bulge or D Day with my brother over a cup or two of coffee on a Saturday morning.

Sounds like a great time.[&o] Would you consider moving. Pleeeease.

Walleye fishing and board games. Color me excited!

Damn spanky, we are long lost brothers.[;)]

Other than Risk the first game I ever played was Strategy and Tactics' USN way back in 1980 and have been hooked ever since.  Played many more and have still got all of the board games, both boxed and magazine but am looking to get rid of them. Due to the lack of opponents I thought of computers being the way forward with the idea that I could possible program as the AI.   Wishful thinking now but it did lead me into switching carreers away from electronics into computers for the last 30 years of my working life.
 
There's a moral in the story somewhere about playing games to get on in life.[:D]

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

ORIGINAL: Schanilec

ORIGINAL: jeffk3510

My two brothers and I always make it a point to play a board game (strategy themed) when we're together.

I love them. Computers have made playing them a lot easier.

You don't need the required space and said person any more.

However, I love nothing more than sitting in my sun room and playing Battle of the Bulge or D Day with my brother over a cup or two of coffee on a Saturday morning.

Sounds like a great time.[&o] Would you consider moving. Pleeeease.

Walleye fishing and board games. Color me excited!

Walleye, perch and huge bluegills! Great fishing and good eating! And board games! Ahhhh... Memories of my youth in the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY!

With the long weekend I think walleye fishing is in the crystal ball a round of golf wouldn't hurt either.[8D] My buddies aren't into board gaming other than Risk. So garage poker is pretty much our gig.

Looks like WitP 2ed (DG) is getting a rules rewrite. I am very fond of the game.

Starfleet Battles Baby! Snap Turn! Fire all phaser I's and photon torpedoes

Good God, I had some epic battles. There is nothing like having to maneuver your ship to fire the last remaining phaser when your shields are down.

I played countless hours of Star Fleet Battles in college (should have gotten at least a minor out of it). Also had a great Federation and Empire setup in my apartment at one point. I grew up playing AH games (Third Reich, 1776, War and Peace) against my dad, of course he always wanted to play the 'underdog' (CSA, Germans, etc). After college, we even played most of a campaign of Victory Games War Between the States by phone, we would plot our turns, call when we had time to do the moves and die rolls (and that game had a shifting initiative system, so mail seemed impractical). Great memories. Tried to talk him into Third Reich PBEM, but he never really got into computers.

Now my son is off to college, played a lot of risk but he never got into the 'hex' games. We did do some Civilization games together, but he is more into the FPS games.

Nashvillen-I know you are still involved with SFB/ADB, has there been any progress on a computerized version of Federation and Empire?