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

Introduction to Battle Gaming by Terrance Wise (in the 80's and early 90's mind) with an ecletic collection of 1:72 plastic kits and infantry – we could just about scrape together a company a side (about a quater of which was actually painted), but still way to many tanks and artillery pieces on table! Had a copy of Battle, but never got around to playing it. Can't say I ever noticed the PzSh loader thing in Battle, but then I knew it wasn't historically accurate as such.

Only recently played a couple of WWII games, after a very long hiatus, using Battlegroup, which felt satifying retro and modern at the same time.

Around 1975-76 with the TRACTICS rules and 1/76th scale veh. and Airfix fig's.

i would have to say roughly in 2010-2011ish, I was a freshmen in high school, and the system was flames of war.

@1974 Operation Warboard and Angriff!

I didn't start playing WWII miniatures until around 2012. Until then had been playing lots of other periods: SYW, Ancients, WWI dogfighting, medievals, etc.

I moved to Las Vegas in 2003 and looked for some stores that played historicals without much luck. The gaming in Sacramento I found was mostly just 40k before that.

Several years later I went to a local store in Vegas and they suggested FoW. Unfortunately the owner's description of the game was that it was basically 40k for WWII which immediately made me not interested.

Finally in 2012 I was invited to a tournament my the son of a friend I used to game with in Albuquerque. Had a good time, took 2nd and started playing regularly for several years after that. The group in Vegas got a little fractured over time though we put on some very fun Firestorm campaigns.

I had a difficult time with the realism flaws in FoW for some time until I just convinced myself it was a representation and nothing close to a simulation. I have a huge Russian infantry army but don't play much anymore and would like to find an alternative game for my 15s. I had wanted to look into Battlegroup but have not as yet.

Now I am delving into 6mm for Africa with my brother and hoping to find some other historical gamers for this or other periods in the region (NW PA).

maybe 1974 or 75 using Airfix plastics and Don Featherstone rules on the dining room floor….

Early 70s

60's. Fifty years ago using Rocco Minitanks, a Sherman cost 25 cents, and Airfix Infantry which I think was $1 USD a box of 50. As for rules we just made them up as we went along lol. Still doing that today too! Happy New Year!

Early 90s with "Battalions in Crisis" and at a convention with CD 1.

I got the Marx "Battleground" set in 1981, bought tons of 1/72 Airfix and ESCI throughout the rest of my childhood years.

Actual wargaming WWII was 2010, using Crossfire with 15mm Command Decision minis (US vs German).

V/R,
Jack

Correction on my prier entry:
Around 1974 with the FAST RULE by Mike Reese & Leon Tucker. These were of the GUIDON GAMES rules. And using 1/76th and 1/72nd scale veh. and Airfix fig's. I still have these rules and TRACTICS.

Around 1983-84 with 1/72 and 1/76 scale model kits, Platoon 20 metal figures and the Airfix rules.

OMG Now after all these years I find out that the loader was really holding a Panzerfaust We even used them with the new Airfix Germans because they did not have any anti tank guns.
1968 with rules Battle Charles Grant
1963 with match sticks fired from what I think were Crescent 18 pdrs

Early 1990s.

1972 with my friends (they were 12 also) in his sandbox (damnable cats). Home grown rules with Airfix and Roco minitanks..

Around 1972/3 with Airfix plastics and Don Featherstone rules.

Tractics 1981 with HO scale tanks and terrain, and Matchbox or Airfix 1/76 scale plastic infantry, with a war-game club on Andrews Airforce Base in Maryland.

Early 90's – forget what ruleset…. group pretty much met a grand total of once sadly… :(

First proper tabletop WW2 game for me,first played about 8-10 years ago. Unable to recall system,but I played Germans who successfully took on US troops on D-Day(the scenario) in 28mm. Been starting an FoW force of Germans lately,beginning with a company of PzG's(Panzergrenadiers)with half-tracks for transport.

Pleasantly surprised to see so many who started in the early 1970s.

So did I. Started about 1972 in the dirt of our backyard with Airfix 1/72 soldiers and various 1/72 and 1/76 plastic model tanks (with a few 1/87 Rocco Minitanks as well). Rules were our own, involving tossing pebbles from tank to tank.

Graduated to boardgames with PanzerBlitz in 1973 or 74. But was very dissappointed by using cardboard counters as tanks. Got a tip from one of the guys at my local hobby shop (Kit Kraft in Studio City, CA) about another hobby shop in the area (Valley Plaza Hobbies in North Hollywood, CA) that had "wargaming" stuff. What was this "wargaming stuff" I wondered … and off I went to find out.

Started buying GHQ Micro Armor to replace the cardboard counters in my PanzerBlitz game. Eventually bought a copy of WRG's Armor and Infantry 1925-1950 (1st Edition) in maybe late 1974 or early 1975.

Been stuck on Micro Armor ever since. Still have some of those original T-34s and KV-1s from 1974 in my active forces box today.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Late-war,BTW

4th grade 1977 with my 1/700 scale ship models. Every two barrels or torpedoes = a hit. Each ship type required X hits to sink.

About 1962-3. I was seven or eight and I used Airfix figures and Minitanks. I used my own rules which consisted of rolling a die for each guy shooting and a 6 was a hit.

1970's with Airfix models and Charles Grant's Battle. Great fun.

Mid '70s. WRG.

Mid '70s, Roco Tanks and Airfix Infantry home grown rules.

Around late 2005 at the age of 13. Thanks to the wonderful gamers in Spokane Washington, I was able to enter the Hobby through FOW. We played scenarios as often as we played tournaments and they guided me through the whole process. I loved my time in Washington. Flames of War led to GW and then continued into WWI, ACW, Napoleonics, Ancients, Medievals, Vietnam, AWI, and Moderns. Flames of war along with a wonderful club spawned this hobby that I will never leave. So, please do remember for those who are critical of FOW (I have grown so as well) because I never would have made it here if it were not for FOW.

Two bags of plastic army men from the drugstore in 1971. My brother and I would play for hours on end.

Originally, using the 40mm WW II figures and firing plastic pellets from a toy gun, in our backyards, while living in Union City. That was around 1973. In 1978, using the Airfix plastic 20mm figures, trying to understand Angriff rules. Way to complicated for me.

We graduated to Command Decision, using same figures, I think it was mid 1980's.

Airfix plastics from days as wee nipper. First proper games circa 1976 using Operation Warboard and Battle! Rules

1968-ish… Featherstone, then Charles Grant's 'battle'.

Discounting the "games" with my brother using Airfix figs, my first real WWII wargame was in the early '70s. Some with GHQ, but most games used Airfix, Roco and "Fast Rules".

Started playing world war 2 Wargames in the 70s with Airfix and Maxbox figures etc using Bruce Quarries rules from Airfix and the Tank battles in miniature books which led me to micro tanks.

Toy Soldiers: 1980s
Boardgame: Axis & Allies 1980s
Miniatures: 2006: Rapid Fire & FOW

1913, using HG Wells Little Wars. My gaming society had successfully predicted not only a World War 2 in 1939 but also World War 1 the following year. To us it was Science Fiction wargaming, imagining the weapons and tactics of the future! We used miniatures and armor hand carved from rocks.

1973 University of Wisconsin- Parkside GHQ
miniatures and some easy play ruleswritten by John Hill.

Back in 1970's using my own rules. A rifle killed one, a sub-machine gun three. Airfix figures.

I came to WWII gaming late. Aside from faffing about with plastic army men and home-grown rules (which most of us seem to have in common), I'd played sci-fi/fantasy games since the mid 1980s. But apart from occasionally dabbling at conventions I largely avoided historicals (because I'm a history buff and I knew I'd become obsessive about it). I'd played a WWII microarmor game a few times some time in the early 90's but hadn't done anything serious until giving Bolt Action a try in 2015. It was intriguing and I could definitely see the appeal, but I was just getting into Infinity at about the same time and didn't want to pick up another game. Then in early 2016 I played Chain of Command and was hooked.

As part of a recent move this last January, I sold off all of my old Warhammer 40K stuff (some of it dating back to the Rogue Trader days), thus more solidly securing my historical grognard cred. ;)

1970s, Airfix figures with each side having one of those diecast 25 pounders that fired matchsticks. Ah, life was simple then.

Early 70s with rules from Featherstone, Wise and Grant using Airfix figures and models. Graduated to WRG before discovering Avalon Hill board games. No games for ten years or so, then Advanced Squad Leader and other board games for 25 years, while quite separately making lots of models in 1/35. Was looking for miniature pirate rules for use with one of my sons when I discovered Crossfire. This led to a revived interest in miniatures – now I was gaming with the models I was making (albeit now in a smaller scale). Liked the way some miniature rules had evolved beyond I-go U-go and left pages of overly detailed charts behind, this led me to Chain of Command, which really scratches the itch.

1973,Microarmor,A couple of guys named Norris Darrall and John Hill got me into it. We used some rules John Hill whipped up. Then with the Help of some other friends(Like Mike Kehoe,BobBramshcer and Oliver Hayward we went to the University of Wisconsin -Parkside and founded the PAW Parkside association of Wargamers

I got my start in 1977 when I saw these

and haven't looked back since. I've found more challenging rules to play but sometimes I still go back to the beginning for some old style fun.

cheers

hmm…1984? Can't remember if it was WRG 1925-50 or Tactical Commander.

1970's when ever Bruce Quarries Aifux guide to world war 2 came out , using Airfix figures until I discovered 1/300th scale which led to using Bruce Quarries Tank battles in miniature rules and a lot of others at the time the more complex the better. prefer a more simple approach now.

Early to mid 1970s with Airfix figures and 1/72 kits. At first it was with some simple rules I found in a small green book in our local library. I can't remember the title or the name of the author, but it contained rules for Napoleonic, WW2 land and sea battles. I later progressed to the Operation Warboard rules, which I still have around somewhere.

Has to be around the early '60s … e.g. all the Marx sets, Airfix, etc., then later ROCO, Matchbox, etc., etc. Rules sets varied.

Had Timpo figures about 1968/9, first Airfix in 1970. Played with fun kiddy rules up to 1979 when I tried Featherstone rules. Been after a decent 'keeper' set of WW2 rules ever since!

2010 I think. France, 1940; Germans vs. Brits in 20 mm.

1974 using Airfix and The Airfix Rules by Bruce Quarry

circa 1973 with Charles Grant's "Battles",Airfix WW2 Russians & Foreign Legion and assorted Airfix vehicles.
Introduced to WRG's Armour & Infantry 1925-50 & 1950-75 (73/76 Editions) in 1978/9 and still my preferred 1:1 Company(?) level set.
Still own both with my original homemade templates