"Do You the First Time .Ahem First War-game You Ever Played!" Topic

"Remember" is the missing word from the title….(I wish you could edit those damn things….)

Although I had been modelling different periods of war all my life I wasn't even aware of the concept of historical tabletop wargaming till much later in life (I blame living in a fairly remote and rural part of Ireland) and it wasn't till around 2004 that I came across Axis and Allies miniatures game (which I would regard more of a board game…pre-panited minis plus a game provided hex map doesn't really constitute?!? :) …)

I then spotted an article about Flames of War and its modelling style of table inspired me to take the plunge.

Over two months I modelled a normandy table (as you would a diorama which as you all know wasn't at all practical for the purposes of gaming ). My wife ordered a bunch of pre-painted 15mm buildings for Christmas so I officially opened my war gaming career on Christmas morning with a solo game of Flames of War. And I just loved it!

So when was your first time?

Not long before Kennedy copped it!

1963 for those too young to know!

If board games count, I started in 1958 with a copy of Avalon Hill's original Gettysburg.

LT

My boardgaming friends and I had been playing Avalon Hill's "First Bull Run" by Rich Hamblin a few hours per week, when I walked into a West Point con, in the early '80s.
Before my eyes was a 6x10 ft table doing the same game with Johnny Reb One rules. I was hooked.

My first real wargame was Battletech back in 1990 or there abouts. I had played Axis and Allies and Conquest of the Empire and some other stuff before that but the first with actual miniatures was Battletech.

We had also used minis in D&D games but they were definitely RPGs with figures to show where the combat was going on.

Board game was AH Waterloo in about 1969. I got Napoleon captured at Ligny (of course I was only 8).

My first Minnie games was Empire III in the early 80s.

"We had also used minis in D&D games but they were definitely RPGs with figures to show where the combat was going on."

Well that's true for me too. I had painted minis and assembled a limited amount of scenery when I was a teenager to play combat in RPG's….

1975. Avalon Hill's "1914". Having a rough time figuring it out so got a copy of "Tactics II". The good old days….

1978 or thereabouts, Bruce Quarries Airfix Wargaming book and Airfix kits: Matida 2, Panzer IV, Bren Carrier & 6pdr, 88mm & tractor and a couple of boxes of Airfix Afrika Korps & 8th Army. Contour hils made of cut out hardboard. Happy days!

1977 at school. It was a Napoleonics game and I was given the command of the boy scouts. WW1 American doughboys.

ie I was told what to do.

But I was amazed at the whole idea of rules and outcomes. I lusted after the Minifigs/Hinchcliffe figures that the other people had. Never looked back.

AH's Battle of the Bulge (the 1982-ish version).

It was when I was about twelve years old back in the 70s. We had seen the local wargames club put on a Napoleonic game in a church hall in the town centre. They had opened it to the public in a bid to get new members, I think.

Anyway. About eight of us at school decided this was for us. We bought and painted loads of Airfix figures. We had no idea of organisation so each box became one unit! One lad had a massive attic so we played on the floor up there. We each commanded our own figures. So those with the most pocket money and enthusiasm for painting had the biggest commands!

I can't remember the rules. I think we had got a copy of the local club's.

Simple, but FUN……

AH's "Panzer Blitz". My Uncle gave me his old copy back in 1976.

After I got out of the Marines I worked on the East Coast with a bunch of US Army retirees who were miniature wargamers (ACW mostly, from what I recall). I frequently and very roughly made fun of them.

I moved to Texas in the summer of 2009 and started looking for a hobby. I found TMP and, from there, lots of manufacturers and blogs. I became obsessive-compulsive about it, and finally bought my first toys from Picoarmor (along with the rulesets Crossfire and Blitkrieg Commander) in November 2009.

I spent the month of December prepping them, then played my first ever wargame (against my father) in January 2010. The rest is history.

V/R,
Jack

Mid-80s
link

Although it was DBA in the 90s that really got me involved
link

1975. I don't remember any details. But I do remember that my new Normans got slaughtered to a man. The reason why I don't remember any details of my first games is, my first dozen or so games followed the same preordained scenario. It was all fun, though. Eventually I started winning sometimes….

1972 Diplomacy

1975. I started working through the mysteries of AH's Stalingrad and Waterloo. Soon after, I played with some Airfix Napoleonics, followed by some 25mm Hinchliffe Napoleonics. Then on to my true love, World War II. The rest, as they say, is history.

1968, a cousin gave my older brother a copy of AH's Gettysburg. So in learned how to calculate a 3:1 while I was in 3rd grade. That and a lot of Airfix and Roco gotvme started and I have never looked back.

1974 AH Luftwaffe. Still have it on my shelf.

1973, a friend introduced me to AH's D-Day and Afrika Corps. The rest, as they say, is history

Found a reprint copy of Little Wars in an old bookstore. Bought a few boxes of Airfix Civil War and off I went.

Christmas 1959 or 1960 my mother got me a copy of Avalon hill's Gettysburg (1958 edition). The rest as they say is history. 😃

Larry

'68, Avalon Hill boardgames-Blitzkrieg.

Chainmail when it came out with miniatures.

then Tractics with minitanks, later GHQ(lost camoflaged tanks in a sand table).

After that rpg's and generally would play each type depending on interest.

Had to of been 1981, though I swear it was earlier. First game was Cross of Iron since I thought Gamette meant small game. That Christmas I got Squad Leader so I could play COI and Hitler's War. Miniatures was sometime in the early nineties with a Command Decision 2 group that met in the basement of a guy near Philly.

Panzer leader. When I opened the bookcase box and saw all the American Sherman's and German panthers on those awesome die cut sheets, I was hooked. I'll always remember the smell of new card board also….

My first wargame was SPI's 'Napoleon at Waterloo' sometime around 1973. My first miniatures game was at Origins 1981 held at UMBC. It was an ACW game using 'Rally Around the Flag.' I wound up selling about 2/3's of my board game collection shortly thereafter to finance the beginning of my historical miniatures obsession.

It was about 1975, AH's France 1940. Played D&D with miniatures all through high school.

My first actual historical miniature game was in 1985 at NCSU, the TSS lads put on a con there every year. Larry Brom and Ed Mohrmann. 25mm Nappies.

My heroes!

First wargame: AH's Gettysburg around 1970. A classmate bought a copy at the Gettysburg Cyclorama gift shop on a grade school field trip.

First minis game: BAPS – a WWII scenario at Historicon in 2003. Also, my very first wargame con.

3M Feudal--I thought it was a wargame, before I actually opened it.
That had to be about 1971-2.

First real wargame was Avalon Hill Luftwaffe, somewhere around 72-73.

First mini game was a 15mm Napoleonic. Maybe 74 or so.

Back in the early '70s, we made up rules based on a Donald Featherstone book I found at the public library and used our 54 mm plastic figures--cavalry, tanks, infantry firing volleys, WWII artillery, all together. The Featherstone book was the first I'd heard of wargaming as a hobby.

Grelber

My first real minis game was at a convention in Cleveland in 1978 and was ancients using one of the WRG sets,dont know what edition.I had absolutely no idea what was going on but had fun despite that.

"The Wargame" using 1/72 plastics in 1974.

If board games count, technically the original 1960's Battle Cry.

If that's not crunchy enough, the first strategy wargame I played was SPI's Soldiers.

As for miniatures, it was 1984, where I had a gigantic exposure all at once to several different games at Gen Con during its last year at UW Parkside in Kenosha.

I played a fantasy skirmish set of rules called 'Knight's Hand' (I bought a set and still have it). Then, the next day I played JagdPanzer with 1/285 scale miniatures. The following year I played Harpoon (the first edition- which I also still have) with Larry Bond himself when Gen Con went to Mecca in Milwaukee.

I've been hopelessly hooked ever since.

1972 or 73. Probably Richthofen's War, which I came across in the toy section of a department store called Zayre's. I also got Panzer Blitz there around the same time, so it could have been that.

Early 70s with AH Waterloo and Battle of the Bulge is where I started.

Painted up some D&D figures in the early 80s.

Started playing Historicals in the early 90s with Johnny Reb and M&M.

It would be a toss up, either "Broadside" or "Dogfight" which were kind of combo war/mini games, probably around 1964.

Avalon Hill's Gettysburg 1961. It as a gift from my parents for my 12th birthday that May. We moved a few months later and I made sure I knew which box it was packed in. Guess which box I opened first when we moved into our new apartment?

Hmmmm, a number of different dates, depending upon your view of "wargame".

First recollection was with all those neat little plastic army men and vehicles, back in the 1960s. Less battle, and more just maneuvers, though there probably were some shooting noises, and men being knocked over.

Rat Patrol boxed minis/models set, back in the late 1960s, as above.

Cowboys and Indians with those inexpensive, very durable, multi-colored plastic men sold in drug stores. We used rocks and dirt clods against them, outside. Good fun!

First real "wargame", with rules, was with the Panzerblitz boardgame, in the early 1970s. Another kid I knew had Midway, so we tried that out at least once, too.

Tractics for my first set of miniatures rules, purchased around the mid-late 1970s. Trudged a few miles through snow each way, to the bookstore to buy that. Used them with some of the new, GHQ micro-armor vehicles – Shermans vs. StuG IIIs.

Been a bit expensive, but fun, ever since.

Proper toy soldier wargame with organised rules?

1968, Britains toy soldiers on the carpet during the school holidays based on a copy of Charge! borrowed from the library. Never looked back !

What surprises me today is that Charge! was only published in 1967 (so although it felt like we were doing something venerable and traditional – and as kids knew no better – the book was lest than a year old when we got hold of it so was, sort of, cutting edge) … Hmmm …

Phil

Mid 70s Seastrike – first miniatures game ACW airfix using the shire publications rules

AH's D Day around 1962. Introduced to miniatures by a guy I met through SPI's opponents finder service circa 1973.

December 28th 1962.

I had just gotten Joe Moreschauser's "How to Play
Wargames in Miniature" for Christmas. I was 14. Immediately I went out and bought several huge bags of 20mm knock-off of 54m Britains figures of Romans and Greeks with Chariots, get the material to make the bases and construction paper for roads, streams and buildings (till I got model railroad buildings

Hasn't stopped since.

> If board games count, technically the original 1960's Battle Cry.

If that counts then my first game would have been second grade – they had that game in the second grade game collection we could play the last few days of the school year. That would make it around 74 or so.

Boardgame, in 1979: Napoleon's last battles.

First gaming with little soldiers, I was about 8 – Airfix Union and Confederate infantry, ACW – and that great set of artillery in red; started using actual rules about a year later, as I recall a dumbed-down version of The Wargame

First board game, AH's Afrika Korps – man, did I love that game

First miniatures game; TSR Tractics about 1977 using our 1/35th scale models, which lead to the quick discovery of GHQ micro armor.
First boardgame; AH Gettysburg 1973 (I was 10)

Boardgames Mid 70's Midway.

Not long after 30mm AWI was introdueced to me by the friend that my father met through re-enacting.

Dynaman8789- I would have played Battle Cry around the 2nd Grade as well. Small world. Our library had a games collection, and I loved that game.

1970. Using "Charge" rules and a mix of Minifigs and Airfix representing SYW types, no table- just moved the furniture out of the way and played on the floor.