"When you were a newbie......." Topic

…..what rules made the biggest impact on your early gaming?

For me WRG 6th and Rally Round the Flag.

How about for you?

Tractics!

Rally round the Flag. My first set of miniature rules.

Star Fleet Battles is my biggest rabbit hole though.

Some 19th century rules published in Strategy & Tactics magazine. Way before the started including board game in every issue.

Knights and Magick
The Sword and the Flame
Courier Version of They Died for Glory

Slims Ancient and Medieval Rules circa 1972 and Peter Gouldesbroughs Napoleonic Rules circa late 60's.

But then all you 'mericans won't have seen much of them.

Chainmail.

+1 for StoneMtnMinis. Add 1813c for Napoleonics and you have a Trifecta.

Angriff along with boxes of Airfix and Atlantic 1/72nd figs. WRG 5th, Rally Round the Flag, and Chainmail were quite popular in my area as well.

Hardtack
Chainmail

Featherstone's rules from his book War Games, 1962. My first set.

Board games really.

Those 1970s and early 80s miniatures games definitely helped keep me out of miniature wargaming (Tractics, Angriff, Newbury, WRG — so much chart dreariness; I would rather stuff cupcakes in my eyes than play those).

For games with minis that were enjoyable: OGRE/GEV, Battledroids/BattleTech. Later: Command Decision, Rules According to Ral, and later still DBA.

The first wave of GW big boxed games really opened up my miniatures gaming quite enjoyably.

The original Milton Bradley American Heritage Battle Cry and Dogfight and the 1812 game in the early 1960's started it off. But I was 10 in 1960. It was in the 1980's that I got into metal miniatures and, by that time, an old rules set called Warlord. We played it with 25mm figs on 1"X1" bases. It was basically a medieval skirmish ruleset. It was a "shop" game for anyone who wanted to join in with whatever they had. Armor level, weapon in hand, light or heavy speed. Foot or mounted speed and modifiers. Simple rules for fun and speed of play.
Rally Round The Flag was next. Fun at regimental level.

I'm a bit younger than most of the posters ahead of me, but flipping through Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader in 1990 was the eye-opener. I had found the connector between building models and playing games that I didn't know I was missing. I remember the lightbulb moment like it was yesterday.

Getting away from games that are inherently very competitive and switching to scenario-based games which are far more "fun-focused" came later but every bit as meaningful in shaping me as a gamer.

Charge!
The Wargame

Grelber

Napoleonic rules from a book by Don Featherston, I can't even remember the name of it.

Started with Squad Leader, then Advanced Squad Leader. This set the stage for my interest in miniatures gaming. I could not afford miniatures in either Middle, nor High School. I got a copy of 2e BattleSystem fantasy miniatures rules in 1992, but it wasn't until three years later that I had enough figures to game with.

I played Command Decision III (reminiscent of SL/ASL boardgames), as well as some Empire Napoleonics rules, and a few games of Johnny Reb, along with a couple of WW II Seekrieg games. One of my all-time favorites, though, was/is Red Baron: biplanes flying on sticks, ascending/descending each turn, banking, and (God help us!) pre-plotting, and being committed to what we plotted on paper, no matter that we often ended up crashing into each other in the big open skies above the tabletop!

The most impactful game for me, however, is one I wrote and self-published, 1998-2007: Plastic Wars. I created it for my three sons. We still play it together, today, though not as often as I would like. Looking forward to teaching some of my grandchildren how to play Plastic Wars, with green and tan Army Men. They just might take enough of an interest that they join the miniatures wargaming hobby beyond my PW games… Cheers!

Grant's The Wargame and Napoleonic Wargaming.
Featherstone's War Games and Tank Battles in Miniature.
WRG's War Games Rules 1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D.(Ed.3), Infantry Action 1925-1975 and War Games Rules Armour & Infantry 1925-1950.

I got The Wargame as a 13th birthday present, and that sparked my interest in the hobby. The other choices were governed by what was available at the local and school libraries, and what figures were available from Airfix, Bandai and Esci.

+1 Grelber

I'm surrounded by kids! "Column, Line and Square II."

Featherstone's rules

Tricolor, WRG 5th

D&D (Holmes "Bluebook"), Risk, and a bunch of Dragon magazine games, followed by Ogre/GEV. But that didn't give me the minis bug (it just stirred some interest). Battle Masters (Milton Bradley, with GW designed minis and rules) was probably the first game with miniatures that were what they represented. Space Hulk (2nd ed) followed that.
I looked at WHFB and WH40K, but for some reason I didn't bite on those (might have been price).
Warmaster won me over as the first "true" tabletop miniatures game, and is still my favorite (I bought my original WM armies at half-price on clearance). I honestly don't recall where I bought the rules.

Robert,
Ah yes, CLS. I never got the nappy bug, but when we played it was CLS, (bounce sticks anyone?) or as I called it Column, Line and Squabble

CLS and TSATF.
My best Napoleonic games were CLS games.

Angriff, Tractics, Grants Napoleonic Wargaming,CLS, Milton Btadley games and Gene NcCoys – Wargamers Digest.

Aux Armes by Pete Bennett; early 70s.

Panzer Blitz.

First Napoleonic rules I ever played was Lee Tucker's "Short Rules", followed by "Napoleonique". Then "Chainmail" and "Angriff", but perhaps the greatest influence was that I had the good fortune to belong to Potomac Wargamers when Wally Simon was devising and playtesting new rules on a monthly (weekly?) basis.

DBA. Kings of War.

Empire 4 and DBA

"How to Play War Games in Miniatures" by Joseph Morchauser.

"Angriff" by Dick Zimmermann and Dave Myers.

Sniper!
Firefight
The Fantasy Trip
Striker
Mayday

D&D in high school followed by Battletech in college.

Chainmail and Angriff!

Rally Round The Flag (still base my 25/8mm ACW infantry as 4 figures on a 2" by 1" stand)
Chainmail
WRG 5th edition (until I played in a tournament at an early convention; completely soured me on ancients)

And while no longer a newbie, these rules had a great impact when I first played them:
Jagdpanzer
On To Richmond!
Napoleon's Battles

Board Games: "Napoleon at Waterloo" "Midway" "Third Reich"

Miniatures: "Rally Round the Flag"

Panzer Blitz in 1969…. miniatures followed in 1971 with Charge for H&Musket era games and in 1975 WRG 3 for ancients.

Squad Leader in 1978,then Advanced Squad Leader in 1985.
Still my favorite.

In 2008 took plunge into spaceship minis,the only miniatures I have. Full Thrust rules are my fave for spaceship gaming.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Chainmail…. specifically 3rd ed

"Battle" by Charles Grant in 1972, followed by WRG 1925 to 1950.

Operation Warboard!

TSATF, Complete Brigadier

Charles Grant's Charge for miniature battles.

WRG 7th
Empire
Johnny Reb

SPI, AH, Chainmail then Command Decision.

Grant's The Wargame and Napoleonic Wargaming.

Angriff! for miniatures.

SPI and AH for board games.

Tractics!
Empire III