"Your Most Influential Game" Topic

In responding to a previous topic TMP link I posted a link to a series I did on my blog about the games that influenced me the most link

So what game influenced you the most?

Mine has to be first edition D&D. Pzgeneral introduced me to it around 1975-1976 and I never looked back.

Hmm. Column, Line and Square for national characteristics and unbalanced equality, DBA for quick play and stand removal. After that, it's about a toss-up between Charge! and the collected works of Aelred Glidden.

I was born around 1975-1976.

"Charge" and "The Wargame"

D&D & Diplomacy, Both made me a more social and engaging person.

AH's D-Day, introduced me to wargaming.

PanzerBlitz, original Squad Leader, and Empire III. Two of the three I am still willing to play

Mike

D&D probably, the red basic set…

After that, Battletech.

For historical gaming, I think the system that I was first really interested in, and had an impact later, was the Yaquinto Panzer / 88 / Armor series. But that was after the fantasy an sci-fi interests.

Chalfant

Avalon Hill's Gettysburg and Battle of the Bulge

Saw a little of a game of Napoleonic with maybe 4 – 6 guys a side at the Norfolk Campaign HQ 1981, next day went from a D&D player to a Napoleonic collector.

Squad Leader. The back cover description lured me away from sci-fi and the gameplay hooked me in.

Diplomacy

But the miniatures games that hooked me was the courier version of Died for Glory

courier version of Died for Glory……. I think I still have that. Was it printed on blue paper?

Empire III. Once upon a time it was all we played!

I was born around 1975-1976.

Pictor's, that's an unusual game. Can you tell us more about it?

Chain reaction. The simple method by which control is (rather realistically) taken from the player during stressful situations has informed many of my game design decisions.

Not a specific game, but in 1973 our local hobby shop brought in CnC micro armour tanks and vehicles. Never looked back.

I came of age during the 50th Anniversary of WW1. That's when I began actually learning stuff & remembering it. My most influential, Board Game, kid's game that is, has to be Milton Bradley's DOGFIGHT. My most influential Bookcase, Proper Wargame has to be Richthofen's War, Avalon Hill. With miniatures, Fight In The Skies, TSR, I bought 1/285 scale C-in-C Minis & painted those(STILL the best out there, btw) made my own much larger full color board & we played that for years. My first set of Proper Rules with Infantry, Artillery & Cavalry, by FAR, The Sword And The Flame. Got those in 1979 from Yaquinto. I had probably 7 or 8 other sets that I had bought before that, but they weren't good enough IMHO, to make me jump in. Not until TSATF, did I start buying little metal men.

CLS, Empire, 1776, Tobruk and SL/ASL.

Avalon Hill and S&T got me involved in wargaming.
7-10 years later I was introduced to miniatures, mainly WRG Ancients. If you can handle 4th Ed, you can handle anything. Minifigs, Airfix, Hinchliffe etc.
Then I branched out into AWI with 1776 and British Colonials with TSATF.

I don't do boardgames any more, and have long sold off my Ancients.
I still do AWI, having gone through many sets of rules.

For me, TSATF is the only game that has stood the test of time. First played in 1979, still going strong. So I guess that makes it the most influential.

Panzer Blitz got me hooked, SPI magizine games did the rest

Winston,
TSATF & who was Completely 100% Right about the ACW are about the only things we agree on. And here I am, Born, Raised & Still live in the South. I still don't understand this!…

So many.

If I needed to pick the top of the list:

1) Early S&T magazine where I first found wargaming rules.

2) White box D&D

3) TSATF

Started wargaming in the mid 1970s. I could not pin it down to just one thing that influence me so I will list the few that came together at the right time and place to create the perfect wargaming storm…

Avalon Hills
Gene McCoy's Wargamers Digest
Readily available (and cheap!) HO scale terrain and 1/72-1/76 scale kits
A Woodland Scenics store and a gaming store (the Little Tin Soldier Shoppe) right next to each other, and along a major bus line
Ballentine paperbacks

What more could a boy ask for?

Avalon hill boardgames. TSATF & DBA/HOTTS

Probably not a game exactly, but rather that magical moment when I realized that I could use dice to determine hits. Thatīs when it went from army men to gaming, and it sure opened a lot of doors.

Ah's France 1940 was my first ever game. I was about 10. Still have it. Played lots of RPG's and boardgames in high school. First historical mini game was in college (NCSU) with the Raleigh crowd at the Baptist Student Center. They put on a con with Larry Brom and Ed Mohrmann. One game of 25mm Nappies and I've never looked back.

If I had to pick one particular game it would be that first Nappie mini game in 1985.

Ah's France 1940 was my first ever game. I was about 10. Still have it. Played lots of RPG's and boardgames in high school. First historical mini game was in college (NCSU) with the Raleigh crowd at the Baptist Student Center. They put on a con with Larry Brom and Ed Mohrmann. One game of 25mm Nappies and I've never looked back.

TSATF and On to Richmond.

First miniatures game i saw in person. It was the Tin Soldier in 76. Custom Cast figs doing something like the Battle of the Five armies with lonely mountain. I think the Dragon was there too. I got to play a bit and then bought figs that day and have never looked back. There are other games I loved. But that was my 1st!

Totten's Strategos: An American Game of War
Pratt's Naval Wargame

22 Jul 2018 6:52 a.m. PST
Empire III. Once upon a time it was all we played!

And still might

I started wargaming in the late 1970s.

Major early influences on my approaches to wargaming were D&D, Sniper!, Diplomacy, and many operational level SPI games like Fulda Gap and A Mighty Fortress.

Those experiences led to a lifelong engagement with Traveller and its wargames (mainly Striker, Snapshot/AHL, Mayday, Fifth Frontier War, and Invasion:Earth). Most games that I run today take place in the classic Traveller universe.

Fire and Fury. The brigade and the regimental versions. The maneuver chart is such an elegant game element. I've used the rules for ACW, AWI, War of 1812, and the Mexican American War. I have a burning wish to develop a variant for the Hundred Years War. One of my retirement projects.

If I had another choice, despite its relative newness, I'd nominate Daniel Mersey's Rampant rules. Since Lion Rampant came out, I've thought of few projects that don't fit into that millieu. Developed a variant called America Rampant, long before the announcement of Rebels and Patriots. I love the simplicity and fun.

AH Blitzkrieg, D&D, Command Decision, Fire and Fury

AH's "Stalingrad" in 1962.

Fletcher Pratt's Naval War Game, 1970

"Frappe,' 1971

TSATF (bought, 1971, but not played until '82)

After the latter, nothing has had a greater influence for me.

TVAG

"The Wargame", Chainmail, Charles Grant rules and AH's Afrika Korps

Red Box Dungeons and Dragons nad Universal Soldier by RAFM when I was in high school.

When I was 15 I bought this little green book by Lou Zocchi called 1944, for fighting WW2 with models and airfix figures. My brother and I played the heck out of it. Although all I had was Germans and Japanese we fought a ton of battles on the ping pong table. I still have the book.

A real blast from the past, a piece of wargaming history with huge sentimental value.

D and D first. I played the first and second edition. OGRE next. Then, I was out of the hobby for about 15 years. Various Games Workshop games got me playing again: Space Marine, 40K and Gorka-Morka.

D&D in the 70's then Warhammer Circa 1986 followed by Empire IV in college. It's been game on ever since.

Avalon Hill's 1914 was the first wargame I had access to. Too complicated to understand at first, had to get a Tactics II game to get the basics, then from there… the joys of S&T. Then minis.

I have an blog post I wrote about this in June of 2012 about this. I just re-read it I think it still stands:

link

In short:
AH Gettysburg (the original not the redesign)
TSR – White Box edition of D&D
AH – Squad Leader plus all the follow ons but not ASL
GDW – Traveller
TSR – Tractics
GDW – Fire and Steel
Mayfair Games – Empire Builder
Hartland Trefoil – Civilization
Adventure Games – Johnny Reb
AH – 1830
AH – Napoleon's Battles
Rich Hasenauer – Fire and Fury

These are the games that really shaped my gaming experiences

@bashy- Wonderful pictures, itīs so cool you still have the rules.

Blue box D&D: opened up the gaming world to me beyond what was on the shelf at K-mart. Also influenced my writing and is currently part of my job!
Risk: started my interest in wargames; also part of my job.
Traveller: in addition to SF gaming, introduced vector movement concepts.
Ogre: hex-based gaming, assymetrical conflict.
Space Hulk: first game for me where orientation and type of figure made a difference in play.
Warmaster: truly launched my miniatures gaming. Still my standard for "grand tactical combat" gaming.

Panzer Blitz and SPI Quads

The Wargame got me started while I was still in High School, but Empire really hooked me into miniature gaming forever and the whole concept of command and control. I tend to measure all others against Empire.

My most influential games were Avalon Hill's Tobruk,Chainmail, AD&D, and the old Vietnam skirmish rules Giac My. I was introduced to all four before 1980

Marvel Super Heroes RPG, the 80s TSR one. Introduced me to roleplaying games.

Fantasy Warriors. Introduced me to miniature wargaming…

Though we had some pretty massive superhero battles with MSH, like half a dozen supers leading companies of Shield or Hydra agents.