"Did Avalon Hill Introduce You to Wargaming?" Topic

Were the games produced by the Avalon Hill Game Company your introduction to the wargaming hobby?

First game ever was "African Campaign" from Jedko Games.
Second game ever was "Panzerblitz" by Avalon Hill.

Panzerblitz in 1969 as a xmas gift. Miniatures came later in 1971…. so the answer is yes.

Yes! I remember when they were sold in department stores, and I had to choose one as a birthday present. With a ten year old's logic I chose Panzerblitz over Panzerleader (or was it the other way around?) because the back of one game had three examples of tanks, and the other had four or five. I chose the latter since obviously it was better because it had no6w tanks!

And, if I remember correctly, with a caveat this was many, many decades ago, it was $19.99 USD! Which was a lot of money!

Tactics II, Gettysburg, and Rictofen's War, were my first wargames.

Nsolomon99 +1. Except my 2nd game was Russian Campaign.

No, Airfix did.

Tactics II was my first wargame & Gettysburg the first I got in college.

Yes…Panzerblitz.

My first wargame purchase was Luftwaffe, when I was 9 or so. I was too young to be able to figure it out, and my dad didn't want to touch it, but it was my first taste.
Not counting green plastic Army men of course…

Yes. And I still remember my first game, and first disaster.
Gettysburg, 1962. Rather than "soak off" cleverly, I saw that I had 2/1 odds attacking some ridge or other with my whole army.
Yeah, I rolled "A Elim". First wargame ever. I still haven't broken even.

Yes. Afrika Korps, Stalingrad and Luftwaffe were among my first experiences with wargames. And then one of my buddies introduced me to Napoleonic gaming with miniatures. It all seems like so long ago, and it was.

Yes! "Battle of the Bulge"…

Yes. Richthofen's War. 1972. I had American Heritages' Dogfight, Battle Cry & Broadsides already, all bought in the mid-late 1960's. But Richthofen's War was my first "real" Wargame. Still have it too.

Yes, "Waterloo."

No esci.

Gettysburg, then Waterloo and Anzio

Yes they did. France 1940. It was amazing! 1973.

Starship Troopers. The original.

Definitely not!

Yes. Original Gettysburg

no

Yes Panzer Leader.

No Airfix my brother keep his avalon hill games locked up.

No. TSR was. I've owned several AH games, but only ever played Feudal and Amoeba Wars (which I did not own). The rest were either too complex to appeal to me, or too complex to appeal to my friends at the time. (I shan't count the newer Hasbro/AH games, as they're really not in the old AH style.)

No. Playing D&D did.

Afrika Corps. But four years later, some of the board game crowd showed me miniatures and I never looked back.

AH's Waterloo was our first historical game, played in 1973 I believe. We were total noobs, I think 13 & 15 years old, and at the end of the campaign there were 2 counters left, the Old Guard and Picton's 5th Division. I was the anglo-allied forces, as always, and I eked out a win when the guard lost to Picton's forces.

No it was SPI.

Original Gettysburg. Discovered Airfix boxes two years later…and mini tanks…yay.

Well, I played with green army men. As far as wargames, my brother did actually, but yes, it was with Richthofen's War. I was 8 or 9 and I was instantly hooked.

No, figures first, Avalon Hill's "D-Day" was mu first board war game though. Ahhh, the days of youth… so wasted on the young.

My first game was L'An 4000(4000 A.D.) by Waddington Games. Second was Starforce by SPI, but THIRD was Starship Troopers (the original game) by Avalon Hill.

Yes, Gettysburg and D-Day.

My first game was L'An 4000(4000 A.D.) by Waddington Games. Second was Starforce by SPI, but THIRD was Starship Troopers by Avalon Hill.

I had been making up rules for my green army men, ship models, etc., but my first real wargames were by AH: Gettysburg, Tactics II, and Afrika Korps.

No, got those little green men in the dime store, and then some Airfix ones later, along with tanks, halftracks, etc..

Then, the Rat Patrol boxed model set, including sand dunes – that was cool!!!

A friend had ship models we used to push around on the carpet too. Usually boring stuff like docking, and moving out of port, since we lived near a naval base, and didn't have rules for battle, and never thought of it.

AH did have the first boardgame I ever got though – Panzerblitz. Good fun.

Found microarmor in a train store, and Tractics in a bookstore, and it was game on from then on out.

Nope. Started with AD&D. First real 'wargame' was Federation Space. Moved into historical simulations with World in Flames. Then gave A3R a turn; but stuck with WiF. First miniatures games were at DallasCon with GM homebrew rules for age of sail actions and an undersea game to recover Hitler's brain from a downed transport off of the Argentine coast.

Afrika Korps then Jutland and Blitzkrieg.

Yes – Tactics II in 1975, shortly followed by Gettysburg and Panzerblitz.

Gettysburg in the latter 60s and then Blitzkrieg.

Of course army men with the opposing 'generals' inflicting casualties on the opponents forces with rubber bands or plastic missiles (or dirt clods out side) came first, during, and after.

Miniatures didn't arrive until college.

SPI did

Blitzkrieg. Xmas 1968, iirc. Charles Grant and Airfix came a couple of years later.

Panzerblitz and then Squad Leader

No CnC Microarmor. Then Avalon Hill.

AH Waterloo when I was about 8 with older brother (circa 1969).
The first one I ever owned was Panzer Blitz in 1972.
I still have both.

They contributed heavily.

My slippery slope looked like this:

Army men => Checkers => Chess => Stratego => Risk => Tactics II => D&D => everything.

Yes.

Luftwaffe.

Yes. I reminisced about it on my blog
link