"When did you first game WWII miniatures..." Topic

When did you first game WWII miniatures and what rules did you use? How did you like the game and the rules?

1970 with green and gray armymen.

What Ron said…Guns of Navarone playset

With formal rules of some sort?

Not long after WWII--some time in Ike's second term, anyway. Soft plastic 54s and line of sight casualties. Might have been an early Marx set. Later Marx made Germans, which simplified matters.

About mid 70s think I was 12, Airfix 54mm DAK, 8th army, and Commandos all over the back garden lots of figures, me an my mate loaded up with clods of earth and had the best of times, do miss those beautiful long summer days and the simplest of gaming, I'd go back in a click to do it all again.

The plastic army man, boxes of 1/72 figures, and Roco Mini-Tanks in my childhood. If I recall correctly my first formal game of WW II miniatures with an actual ruleset was Panzer Tactics, I believe.

Mike

2009 or so.

Early 70's played "1944".

1973, micro armour, home brew rules.
Before that various Avalon Hill games.

Late 60's Marx Playsets

Back in the 70's with Airfix figures… can't remember the rules…

Late 50s – 60s Army Men, Marx and Airfix

Airfix 1/72nd men and tanks. We made up our own rules – we were about nine or ten so about 1970-71. Then progressed to some from a Military Modelling magazine I think.

Somewhere I have some photos of a Bridge Too Far game we played back when I was young, thin and had hair. I do remember that we deployed the paras by dropping little bits of white paper that fluttered down onto the board from about a metre up and that is where the men were placed.

Of the four of us who used to game together all the time three still collect, paint and or wargame (although we all live in different parts of the world now) and one is dead. Not bad for our age I would have thought.

Mid nineties with Command Decision 2. Liked it. Never bought my own minis till 2005+ however.

Played board wargames since the late seventies.

Toy Soldiers: 1980s
Boardgame: Axis & Allies 1980s
Miniatures: 2004 Combat WWII.

1960s with plastic soldiers in the basement and the back yard. Late 70s with lead mini tanks and board games

Command Decision II in about 2003. I quickly switched rules to Battlefront: WWII.

Around 1980 with Airfix 1/72 infantry and Roco Mini-Tanks. I used "The PSL Guide to Wargaming."

Tactics, 1980.

I started with scifi and fantasy stuff.

WW2 somewhere around 96 or so. The rules were either "1943" or "Red Poppy White Feather" or possibly a conversion we made of the Warzone 2nd edition rules.

60s with airfix,Marx,and mpc

Used little wars, and home grown – smiles with thrown tennis balls and cannons with toothpicks and even a few firecrackers

1973 using Tractics and GHQ minis. Once they came out went over to Panzer Warfare because Tractis was just not working in the campaign we were running.

Mid 70's with Arfix figures/models. Rules were Airfix Magazine Guide #15 – WWII Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie.

1963, Airfix figures, rules not unlike Little Wars. Instead of spring-loaded cannon, artillery fire was by calling out the range and then measuring. A burst circle was placed over the end point.

Infantry fire was a D6 for casualties for every six figures or single MG. Assaults counted up figures, roll a D6 and multiply. High score won, low score lost 50% and retreated, winner lost half of loser's casualties.

June 1970, the day I finished 5th grade, with Rocco Minitanks.

The day that derailed me from having a productive life…

WRG 1925-1950 in 1983

Not counting plastic army men, 15mm Panzertroops from the late 70s, if memory serves.

Yup, I was about 7 or 8 in the early '70s. Big Green Army Men, some hard plastic 1/72, later Airfix sets. Still later finally got some metal ones.

Back in the previous century.

Some time in the 60's with a game called Woods Edge. Ordered from a comic book. Had a plastic sheet with woods and a town printed on it. The figures were Giant.

~2006 or so, Flames of War. Bought a bunch of Flames v1 stuff for the Desert (LRDG and SAS), bought more stuff since. Got American 1ID at Omaha, Brit Desert Rats, Panzer Lehr, Fallschirmjager, and a Weird War 2 force of Germans using Eureka scifi German stormtroopers.

1950's, home rules.

Yea, 1960s for me with those cheap little plastic army men and vehicles – one had a small halftrack with twin MGs mounted on it (loved those).

Then 1/72nd scale infantry from Airfix, and of course, the Rat Patrol playset. The latter was really cool, and even came with plastic dunes, and everything. Used to pull that out while watching the show on TV. Never mind that machine guns can't really do much if any damage to tanks – it was still great fun, anyway.

2006 or so, Flames of War….no this isn't Lion in the Stars again…but similar beginnings

Mini tanks 1970 . rule roll 1 6d 6 is a kill 5 is a track hit 1-4 miss.

Right after Flames of War came out. Probably 2004 or thereabouts.

1968, Morchauser rules.

"The plastic army man, boxes of 1/72 figures, and Roco Mini-Tanks in my childhood. If I recall correctly my first formal game of WW II miniatures with an actual ruleset was Panzer Tactics, I believe.

Mike"

"Airfix 1/72 infantry and Roco Mini-Tanks."

Still doing that and have since about 1963.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Mid 70's, Airfix kit and home made rules. The family bought a new dining table and I was given the old one to put in the bedroom. My hills were layers of foam rubber decreasing in size and stitched together, my trees were dyed cotton wool on matchsticks. I had the Airfix gun emplacement that probably was used in every game …….. Happy days.

Next, I discovered 1/300in a city centre store. My parents allowed be to lay four 2 X 4 foot pieces on the new dining table to get an 8 X 4 surface.

My point is that in both cases my parents made my gateway into the hobby easy rather than hard and because of what that led to, I will be eternally grateful and would encourage all nurturing of interests that children have.

Some time in the late 70s with Airfix figures and kits. Rules were the Airfix green book by Bruce Quarrie.

Someone above mentioned parachute drops using small pieces of paper. We did that as well. I got the idea from a book but can't remember which one!

April 1979 at a friends house with 1/35 plastic soldiers and a halftrack. my first game with figures and miniatures rules. I was nearly 14. Rules were WRG Infantry Action 1925-1975. Never played them since :-( The next game was later that year with 1/72 plastics and Tractics. I was hooked and played lots more of the same for another 5 years.

2014 Bolt Action. Enjoyed and still play it. I did by a Flames of War army before I found a club but it's never gotten used.

Airfix infantry and Rocco tanks, 1974. The rules were a 2 page mimeographed set called Kool's Rules written by a Lt. Kool. We soon graduated to Tractics.

1970's Airfix and Matchbox figures played solo with Charles Grant's Battle rules.

1968
Minitanks with airfix combat group for brits and germans These figures were quite small so they worked well with minitanks. there was scale creep even in those days!
the minitanks were great. A strange selection of vehicles. we used the late war minitanks half track instead of hannomags. Took the little wheels off to stop tanks on slops from rolling over the enemy.
I thought the German with the panzerfaiuste was a loader for the panzershrek.
The german doing a heil hitler was not good at blending in to the terrain.

Great days and the gnes were not poorer for the lack of huge ranges of kit

martin

Back in the 1975-76 timeframe. Tractics with 1/285th scale GHQ on my buddy's dad's pool table.

Boy was his dad annoyed at the bits of lichen left on that pool table…

Approx 75 – 76, using Tractics rules and Airfix figures and tanks.

"I thought the German with the panzerfaiuste was a loader for the panzershrek."

Same here.

Started playing miniatures during the early 1970s with FAST rules and Airfix miniatures:

link

In a few years we had advanced to TRACTICS, and enjoyed playing with Mike Reese, their author, when he would come to town and judge games for us here in St. Louis.