"Your Most Influential Game" Topic

D&D, hands down- started with the read box. After a loooong hiatus, just rediscovered 5th edition and started a campaign with my two boys, 9 and 11….

It all started with dad bringing home Milton Bradley's Dogfight. Then he worked-in Tactics II. At this point I was definitely hooked on tabletop military games. The big one for me was finding AH Afrika Corps and darn near wearing the finish off the boards. Then, I think to be fair, it was the trio of Fast Rules, CDII, and TSATF that ensured I would be converted to a lifelong miniatures gamer.

First game AH Panzer Leader.
Game that got me hooked – SPI's Wellington's Victory.

First mini game -Frappe

Mini game that really hooked me – Original Fire & Fury

The game I final realised that most rule writers have either never read a real account of a battle and the associated manuals or just ignored them so that using pieces of equipment that worked in the real world failed utterly on the wargame table. To whit in my case a Landrover Wolf. we decided either, the Landrover Wolf was the biggest mistake in the world OR the rule we were using had no connection with reality. Guess what? It was the rules that were in fantasy land not the British Army (what a supprise).

That was the final straw that made us go back, ignore 90% of the so-called rules writers and write our own rules where actaul infantry tactics worked as apposed to the wierd fantasy's of most games. That was 12 or more years ago.

"The Wargame" in 1975.

Chess.

Kriegspiel -- the back of box said your knights are tanks, pawns are infantry, etc. +1 for Avalon Hill marketing.

D&D/Traveller -- You don't just have to read Tolkien or 'Doc' Smith (or other fantasy/sci-fi author), you can play in their setting, not to mention the Star Wars and Star Trek universes.

WRG Ancients/Empire Napoleonics/Command Decision WWII -- Wargames without hexes? Models instead of counters? What a concept!

Fire and Fury and Silent Death

D-Day AH
Luftwaffe AH
Afrika Corps AH
France 1940 AH
Winter War SPI
Civil War Quad SPI
Third Reich AH
Napoleon at Waterloo SPI
WWII – SPI
Midway – AH

Would like to say Wellington's Victory but to this day I can't play it because of that bright yellow map.