"Anyone else remember these golden oldie games?" Topic

70's Christmas's were just the best weren't they?….. regelndeskrieges.blogspot.com

I vaugely remember the Tank Battle game,but not the Airfix.

I had a copy of "Tank Battle", much better then the ones you order from the back of comic-books from "Helen of Toys"

The old MB game Dog Fight was always one of my favorites.

Oooh!, Never seen 'Dogfight' before.

When I was younger in the 1970s, I loved these MB games. I used to own two copies of Dogfight because I played them so heavily! Sadly, I own it no longer. I still own Tank Battle. A fun little game.

Here are some other of my favorite games from the MB line:

I still own Chopper Strike.

Dog Fight & Broadside were two of my favorites back in the pre-Avalon Hill days in the 60s.

Rick

Yeah, Dogfight and Broadside were a blast.
Thanks for posting this, you brought back good memories.
Joep

Remember Carrier Strike? I had a lot of fun with that one too.

Allen

Wow! Chopper Strike. I have fond memories of playing that game. Wish I still had my copy.

Sub Search. It was Battleship on steroids!

I still have my copy of Broadsides from when I was a kid.

Broadside and Dog Fight are well and fondly remembered.

I also seem to remember a ACW game (Battle Cry?) and another MB game set in WWII-Pacific (island hopping game). I was very young and I believe they were my first two war games I ever played.

When I first started playing miniature age of sail games, I used a friend's left over Broadside ships cause you could remove the masts. Used to own Dogfight and would love to have it again.

I had Tank Command and Carrier Strike. I remember playing Carrier Strike all the time.

"….another MB game set in WWII-Pacific (island hopping game)."

I remember something about little yellow Japanese machine gun nests for playing pieces. Can't recall the color of the US Forces though.

Duck

Oh my God! I had forgotten all about those game. I had them all. I guess that was the beginning of my love for miniatures. The sad thing is that it shows how much I really have forgotten due to a stroke. Thank you all for making me 8 years old again.

It was the Milton Bradley 'American Heritage' series.
Broadside (1812)
Battlecry (Civil War)
Dogfight (WW1)
Hit the Beach (WW2)

They were all great games -- I still have the old copy of Broadside and it's still fun to play!

I still have battle cry. we still play it every once in awhile.

Dogfight and Hit the Beach were double plus good! Dogfight could be said to be ahead of it's time if you've played Up Front!

In Hit the Beach, up to four people could play the Americans, and the Japanese were set up initially to a set pattern. Once you took out a Japanese machine gun nest, you could place it somewhere else on the board where it would impede one of your competitors. The idea was to be the first to reach the Japanese stronghold in the center of the board. Not, of course, that any Allied commander would have tried to hamper one of his colleagues just so he could reach the goal first.
Grelber

What about American Heritage "Civil War"? This was my first wargame. My parents got it while I was laid up with Chickenpox.

Loved Dog Fight even my sisters enjoyed playing that.

So who is running these games at the next Recruits convention in Lee's Summit? I've never heard of any of these, they look interesting!

What about Code Name: Sector? It was a great electronic sub hunt game that was one of my greatest Christmas presents as a kid:
link

I loved playing 'Battle of the little bighorn'
I saw it recently on Ebay and was soooo tempted to buy it.
Sadly, I know my kids wouldn't play it as it isn't electronic!
They did play Space Crusade for a couple of years though.

Got one for Christmas called Sonar Sub Hunt. You put your subs under the board on your side and your opponent did likewise. The board was a circular green plastic with squares on it. Just beneath it you could see a crosshairs that you moved with two dials. Once you selected a square you pushed down on one of the dials and if there was a sub there the crosshair lit up and a buzzer sounded. You crossed out the empty squares with a black grease pencil and the ones that had subs got a red x. You won when you sank all the other guys subs. Oh, and in one corner on each side was a "periscope" that let you watch the movement of your opponents search crosshairs. In retrospect it was a really cool game of Battleship. My brother and I wore it out.

Had dog fight, forgot all about it

I've never heard of any of those before! Good grief, had I seen any of those as a kid I'd have jumped on them like Michael Jackson on a 12 year-old.

Hmmm the bug bites deep, there's a few game here which I'd still want for Christmas.

My fave which I had to rebuy and with some difficulty because I wanted the traditional swastika emblazoned box…

Escape From Colditz a truly classic game, loved the Appel and Shoot To Kill Cards and collecting all the Escape Equipment.
Only ever managed an escape in the Staff Car once :-)

Nostalgic thread……………………….

I forgot about Escape From Colditz!… I had that too!… Does anyone remember the Airfix Waterloo game? Played on a vinyl map (that stank!) and used dividers for moving the troops? I think this would have been available around the mid 70's if memory serves me right.

One game I had was 'Combat' published by Merit. It must have been good as it was endorsed by General Horrocks

I still have my battered copy of Battle Cry given to me by a friend of my fathers in the late 60s. Got the game out yesterday and my 5 year old son is all for playing a game.

I also have recently bought, in good condition, MBs Skirmish the AWI game.

At Uni in the Mid 70s we were big fans of a game called Seastrike. The game revolved around a battle to control the waters around some little cutout islands using what were (at the time) modern navel forces. Each ship was depicted in plan view on a cardboard tile faced with a glossy surface so you could mark damaged weapon systems with a chinagraph pencil. Combat was by any vessel that was within range firing any of its weapons systems and the result was by drawing from a pack of special cards.

Both sides could have aircraft based off table on "the mainland" the islands could have SAM sites for the diffending side. Scenarios/objectives for both sides were drawn from a set of pre printed sheets.

I think the game was meant to cover some type of fictional action in an area such as the Aegean. The slightly scary bit was how well it forecast some of the naval aspects of the Falklands conflict. Airstrikes against the enemies major surface assets worked well and were a very cost effective tactic as aircraft were far cheaper to buy than large ships and provided they could penetrate the fighter cover and point defense would often as not score critical hits. Super Etendardes with exocet v Harriers defending destroyers anyone?

Seastrike was/is ace! I'm amazed that it was never re-issued in some form. I still play it now with my cadets, who love it.

"Does anyone remember the Airfix Waterloo game? Played on a vinyl map (that stank!) and used dividers for moving the troops? I think this would have been available around the mid 70's if memory serves me right."

I must have missed this in 1975, when it came out, or thought it too simplistic, but I have acquired a copy from ebay today. Although many of the figures – hard plastic versions of Airfix's polythene 20mm figures – have broken off the bases, this is no problem for me as I plan to replace them either with sturdier, Napoleonic style RISK figures or with historically correct 10mm wargame figures.
I can't live with Napoleon being represented by a Cuirassier carrying a tricoleur and Wellington by an Hussar bearing the Union flag! Airfix were clearly cutting corners by not bothering to create new figures that were not already available in their 20mm range.
Luckily the vinyl map is clean and sound – and doesn't smell at all!

Wow, Dogfight!, Sub Search and Battle Cry. Had fun with all three of those. Thinking about Battle Cry… a friend made up a football game using the flip side of the hard mapboard. We drew yard lines on it, used the regular game pieces as football players and balled up a small piece of scotch tape to stick to the RB, QB or WR. I remember we used dice to figure out the result of each play but can't for the life of me recall exactly how we did it. Man, that was 35-40 years ago. Brings back memories.

Seastrike? Hah! I still have a copy of the original demo set that Phil Barker introduced to us to at Aldershot, '71 I think it was. 1 or 2 cards to lock on then the hits… a great little game.

I still have Seastrike, in the mustard folder. Ther was also a blue box version I believe.

Great game then, not sure it would hold up now.

The 'Buy Your Own' didn't work because both sides bought loads of cheap boats.

"System Failure"!

Mustard folder version here too. It still stands up very well indeed and even our cynical, XBox-obsessed teenage cadets can manage it.

Excellent, pleased to hear that!

10th Foot wrote:

I still have Seastrike, in the mustard folder. Ther was also a blue box version I believe.

The original yellow folder WRG edition is the one I still have -- the first wargame I purchased with my own money. The boxed second edition was by Gibson Games (Ariel Publishing). A couple of things were different; instead of card cutout islands, there was a normal game-board with islands printed on it, and the measuring stick lacked the triangular widget on the end because the turns of 90deg were allowed instead of 45deg. The purchase rules included a options for enhanced ECM or submarine silencing (only red crosses count for acquisition) or fire control radar or sonar (draw two fire control cards instead of one), which militated somewhat against the "hordes of FACs" tendency because it cost just as much to put ECM or imporved fire control on a FAC as it did on a cruiser.

An utterly brilliant game, and the objective card system was very well thought out.

Should we nag the WRG to re-issue it, or have they sold all the rights to Gibson?

All the best,

John.

I wish they would! I must confess thatthe copy we use here belongs to a friend. I'd love my own copy, as would several others here.

I'm toying with running a Falklands War campaign using Seastrike (and Larry Bond's excellent Harpoon/Air Superiority/Command Decision Falklands Supplement) as a bit of fun/educational exercise for my cadets, to commemorate the 30th Anniversary.

I still own the Airfix Waterloo wargame. I bought in Wales in 1977. painted all the figures. Classic game. As a kid I owned Battle Cry, Dog Fight and Broadside. Great games and wish I still owned them.

By the way.. I still have Risk in wooden peices.