"Did a Movie Get You Started?" Topic

Writing in Miniature Wargames magazine, Phil Portway recalls:

The first time I heard of the Battle of Waterloo was an advert outside of the Odeon Cinema on my way to Saturday morning pictures as a young lad at the tender and impressionable age of 11. After watching the film a week later, I was well and truly hooked. Down to my local toy shop I hastened with the couple of pence to buy my first box of Napoleonic infantry…

Did a movie help get you started in miniature wargaming?

No.

For me it was Analog Magazine. They used to have ads for Metagaming stuff, and I got hooked by Ogre and Chitin 1.

I was playing with toy soldiers before I started watching war movies, or probably any movies for that matter, unless you count Winnie the Pooh.

It was plastic army men of various periods and sizes for me.

No. I probably was most influenced by watching miniature wargames -- especially ancients -- at Origins in the late 70s early 80s. Boardgames were my first love. I finally bought some miniatures at the 2nd Historicon, 3-4 packs of Ral Partha hoplites (some which are still in my collection).

No.

For me it was going to a dinner party with my parents when I was 10 years old.

I was mightily bored (no other kids) until the guy came down from his attic with three file boxes full of painted Hinchcliffe Napoleonics.

I looked at them all night, transfixed, until it was time to go home.

The next morning I came down to breakfast – what was on the kitchen table? – yep, 3 file boxes!

Chokes me up just thinking about his generosity.

James.

No. I started with old Avalon Hill boardgames with my dad. At some point, he made the mistake of taking me into a game store that had miniatures as well as boardgames. My first miniatures purpose-bought for gaming were GHQ microarmor (WWII). But like many, I had loads of toy soldiers as a kid, though I didn't use rules with them.

"But like many, I had loads of toy soldiers as a kid, though I didn't use rules with them."

Nowadays we call that "free kriegspiel," and write articles about it… :)

Yes, Braveheart got me started in miniatures (15mm DBA) despite having been a board wargamer (TAHGC, SPI, etc.) for 20+ years before that movie was released.

Since then, seeing many movies have either got me started on other genres, including We Were Soldiers Once, Band of Brothers, The Patriot, Zulu, etc.

Say what you will about Mel Gibson, his movies have caused me to buy a lot of minis.

For me it was a movie with a wargame in it--there was a scene in I Claudius where Augustus is playing a game with Gaius and Lucius, speculating about how many legions it would take to conquer and hold Britannia, and whether it would be worth it…I was hooked.

I wouldn't say a movie got me started, but along the way several have delivered kicks of sufficient violence to my painting/collecting posterior to get me back in after an extended hiatus. That I can remember, these include:

Excalibur
Zulu
Thirteenth Warrior
Fellowship of the Ring
Aliens

Jason

Seeing a movie did not start me with wargaming, but many a movie has inspired me to start the episode of the movie. Most recent examples are Michael Collins, Dark of the Son, Blackhawk Down, and Treasure Island (after the Foundry Pirates came out) and Lion of the Desert.

I had loads of toy soldiers as a kid.
In 70 or thereabouts my dad was at a doctor's office and I was wandering the strip center. I found a shop there that had tons of lead. I bought none as I had no money on me and never found the shop again.
Then in 76 I bought my first lead, some mounted Knights and King Arther sets by Hinchcliffe.

I played with 54mm Britons and Mignots in the back yards of Chicago where my cousins and I threw rocks to "kill" them. Then in 1939, when I was 9 years old, my father took me to one of the big theatres in Chicago's Loop and I saw "Gunga Din". That began my serious wargaming. The film "Zulu" in 1963 inspired me to begin writing The Sword and The Flame (in 1973). But "Gunga Din" started it all……

Larry Brom

Stuff like Zulu etc certainly helped.

Nope, my dad gave me old Roman Gladiator figures for one Christmas (at so early an age I don't remember when it was – before I started going to school, at least) and it grew from there.

Nope.

We shot rubberbands at the little green army guys. If you could hit them they were considered dead. Over 20 years later, seeing the Fire and Fury rulebook got me interested in wargaming and have been playing ever since.

No

Maybe reading LoTR or Conan or Commando comics as a kid, but it was books abd comics, not films

No.

I went from throwing rocks at army men in the back yard to Donald Featherstones book; War Games and AWI plastic soldiers from the back of a comic book in 7th grade.

Not movies, but the book The Hobbit is clearly at the core. My love for fantasy led a friend to suggest D&D. D&D led to Risk and the wargames in Dragon magazine, as well as their reviews of wargames, which led to Ogre. Skip ahead a few years past college and my eye was drawn in a toy store to Space Hulk and Battle Masters, which led to enabling on the part of my in-laws who gave me gift certificates for said toy store (at the time, I was collecting kites), which led to me trying other board-based wargames, which led to me writing my own, which led to me thinking, "I could do this with miniatures like those pictures I used to see years ago in Dragon," which led to me searching on the Internet for miniatures, which led me here. And the rest, as they say, is a definite, but delightful, dwindling in my pocketbook.

Now, movies have led me to interests in certain periods and figures, as well as specific product lines— like GW's LotR.

I had to hunt down the scene:

YouTube link

Augustus complaining, "but these dice have given you nothing but sixes," is prophetic.

I remember seeing "Callan" and thinking it was cool 'growed ups' still played with soldiers.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain….thanks nanna Dot….:-)

I used to get boxes of plastic soldiers, arifix probably and just played with those then one day came across a copy of Wargamers Digerst.

No.

Properly ('cos of course I had airfix figures) – Battle for Wargamers magazine.

And minifigs-skytex around the corner.

(print media and a shop – how old am I ?????)

Not really.
BUT…
Going to the Contigny Museum got me started in WW2 wargaming.

No, not in "miniature" wargaming. But one movie did get me interested in a particular area of mini gaming. "Ran" followed by "Kagamusha" convinced me to look into samurai for gaming.

I started by checking out every "samurai" related book in my college library. One of them was a Stephen Turnbull book. I was hooked after that.

Yes. I spent hours looking for cavalry and Indians to re-create movies like Fort Apache, Broken Arrow, She Wore A Yellow Ribbon,and countless other westerns. From there I was on to Airfix and other wargaming figures. Lots of figures…

1976 -- Saw "Charge of the Light Brigade" (Errol Flynn), went to the library because I remembered a book on models with a lancer on the cover. The Library had shuffled the books on the shelves, and were the model book should have been…

Little Wars by H.G. Wells.

I was familiar with him from "War of the Worlds".

So I checked it out.
Then came back for "The War Game" by Grant, "Wargames" by Featherstone, "Charge!" by Young & Lawford and "Operation Warboard".

I always find it amazing that a suburban library in Minnesota would have these books. I

f it hadn't, would I have more money to my name?
Or would I be a golfer?

No. I have enjoyed history ever since I remember. We lived in Charlotte,NC when I was in 5th grade in early '60's when I got my first Marx Civil War set. Years later I was on a business trip and found an article on the in-flight magazine entitled, "You Do What With Toy Soldiers?". Next I read and article in a St.Louis newspaper about ACW gamers. Then I went to the hobby shop and began playing an old set of rules called 'War Lord'.

Of course, I have not played in years, now. But I still have soldiers and will until they are pried from my cold, stiff hands.

Yes. The Warlord (Chuck Heston's "Norman" movie). I was a goner the moment I was shown miniature wargaming with RULES. I had seen the film not long before. The two influences were a fatal combination….

Classics Illustrated comics and airfix figures kept me playibg with toy soldiers Little Wars and Solo wargames got playing games.

A Sunday rotogravure article about Douglas Fairbanks, Jr's collection started my gathering of figures. Meeting some of those Washington State gamers in the early 70's taught me what to use them for.

No, but the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan in a large theatre with sound all around left me a little weak and really made me wonder about my hobby… why do I want to play that were my thoughts…

Thankfully, it didn't last that long…
--
Tim

They didn't have movies when I was a kid.

"Which Copperplate Got the OFM Started?"

Yes.

The naval battle scenes in Ben Hur and Cleopatra were a big influence.

YouTube link
YouTube link

Dan

Not into wargaming full-stop, but Sharpe and Hornblower got me interested in the Napoleonic period.

No, but "Battle of the Bulge" had me reshape the way I was developing my 20mm WW2 stuff – lots of Matchbox Chaffees after seeing that one :)

"Which Copperplate Got the OFM Started?"

He was one of the first to watch the newly opend coloseum 50BC

Nope. A combination of Airfix and Mr Featherstone. A deadly mix for a 12 year old on school holidays and bored. I've never looked back.

no

x42

If films had influenced my games then surely every battle would have a love interest?

If films had influenced my games then surely every battle would have a love interest?

Ah! Maybe that's why there are so many adverts for sex toy minis here, then? I never understood how one uses all those for wargames, but maybe you're on to something….
--
Tim

No a lfie long interest in history. However movies can peak my interest in a new era.

No.It was Chess.
The films came later to inspire which type of games and scenarios I played.

No. We only had t'wireless.

More than anything it would have to have been my love of toy soldiers and looking at dioramas in museums.