"How Did You Get Involved in Historical Miniature Wargaming?" Topic

Through wargames books I found in my local library.

As a kid I`d always liked war films, bought war comics and played with toy soldiers in my parents garden.

Actual wargaming was just a logical progression, I discovered my first book on the subject at secondary school when I was 11, from that moment there was no turning back.

34 yrs later I have no regrets.

I started with Airfix toy soldiers. From there I went on to modelmaking with Airfix kits. I played Diplomacy at school. Later I joined a club in Blackburn, England and played Dungeons and Dragons. Through the club I started historicals with WRG 6th (roughly 1980).
I stopped for many years and started again with GW Lord of the Rings.
Mick

I first learnt about wargaming watching "Callan" as a very young lad and it took off from there.

My main indoor interests as a kid were history, modelmaking and games so the progression was a rather obvious one for me – once I found out that wargaming existed, thanks to Don Featherstone's book.

Helped start a local club when I was about 14 and its been downhill ever since.

I blame the whole damn thing on Pzgeneral and The Fantasy Trip. Death Test sticks out.

Another one for Airfix.

How on earth did this get to a poll with nobody mentioning them. They were responsible for recruiting a whole generation of UK wargamers.

As kids our Dad used to take us to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio every year. When I was 12 I started building model kits and playing Avalon Hill boardgames. When TSR came out with the D&D boxed set with the Warrior and Wizard facing off the Red Dragon on the cover I got into Role-Playing. Then in 1979-1980(?) I went to Michicon @ Oakland University near Detroit (Return of the Athelfrog was the featured event, I still have the program in the attic) I played in my first miniature's event. I think it was a Middle Ages battle, I got a Mounted Knight figure as a participation prize. The rest is history.

I think the Miniature Producers of the world owe someone in the Ohio / Michigan area a big thank you………

Well my brothers played with Airfix figures and made Airfix models, but I put down 'other' as it was a friend who introduced me to getting involved with wargaming proper.

I had played fantasy and sci-fi games for a while, then I read 300 and had to start playing historicals.

need to be able to pick more then one, I started with about half that list

Avalon Hill to SPI to miniatures.

Although I did play with Airfix soldiers, I'd rather go with the direct approach. When I started wargaming, I started with Warhammer 40k. Picked up a blister of Space Marines. Then I discovered Terragenesis online, and through it, the Major General's website. And because of it, I joined up with a local gaming club to take part of their Colonial campaign. That was over a decade ago…

Many influences for me, but the primary one has to be plastic modelling.

During one of my frequent visits to hobby shops to buy model kits, I spotted Avalon Hill's "Panzerblitz". Meanwhile, adverts in model magazines exposed me to Avalon Hill, SPI, and Metagaming.

Avalon Hill boardgames led me to SPI games and Metagaming microgames, then D&D, which had 25mm metal figures, which opened my eyes to the universe of wargaming miniatures. Up until that point I didn't really understand those GHQ adverts in model mags for 1/285 scale microarmour.

Airfix got me interested in figures, but plastic modelling got me interested in tanks, which got me interested in gaming.

As a kid I played with plastic army men and even scratch built tanks and trucks from scrap lumber. When I encountered A-H games as a teen I became enthralled with those, starting with "Gettysburg." From time to time I would buy Aairfix figs but never gamed with them. Then I read an magazine article about British figure gamers and read H.G Wells' "Little Wars.' ( I never knew he was actually a smoking hot chick until "Warehouse 13" revealed the Truth that was out there.) Not long after I visited a shop in Dallas and found 25mm Mini-Figs for sale. The result was a nightmare descent inot hopeless miniature gaming addiction. Hello, my name is… and I am an historical gaming addict.

I had always played w/ plastic army men and read history. I began collecting 54mm figs and cannons, read H.G. Wells "Little Wars" and "Floor games". But it wasn't until well into my late 20's that the real estate agent selling me my first home noticed my collection in a wall cabinet. She commented that her husband, a school teacher, used something similar to play history games with students. I obtained an invite to look in on an after school game and the rest as they say….

It started with Helen of Toy American Revolution and Romans in the backyard. The old Battle Cry boardgame had figures so that grabbed my interest too. Then came Airfix and plastic models. I stumbled upon Avalon Hill games and the book The Wargame (by Peter Young). Then the epiphany in 1975. I walked into the Tin Soldier in Centreville, Ohio and saw a massive Lord of the Rings game going on using Custom Cast fantasy figs. I was smitten! Spent money that day and haven't looked back.

Where is the Yes option? No one answer, but a combination of them.

I started with plastic army men in the back yard; also grew up in an area with lots of historical sites and a father with a small budget for vacations so we saw a lot of the sites and events which led to an interest in history.

Then came D&D which introduced me to gaming and the concept of miniatures in more than 5 poses (unless you got the deluxe bag of army men that came with 6!).

At the LGS at the time, the grognards wanted nothing to do with early-teens, so we stuck to RPGs for the most part. Our only historical gaming was a couple SPI and Avalon Hill titles that my buddy Richard got in the mail from his oldest brother when he was done with them.

Then came an almost 20 year break. I got back into gaming when my wife came home from the book store with some Mage Knight Dungeons stuff and wanted me to try it out with her. After about a half a year, we traveled to a convention that I read about to play MK with some more folks and discovered more games and genres including historical and more importantly, people having fun with games and willing to "share the fun".

It was a downhill run from there.

Picking one is tough, an "all of the above" would apply for me. I always had an interest in history, watched war movies, figured out the rules for the 1964 version of Gettysburg when I was 10, had Airfix ACW figures to fight battles on my fathers HO scale train layout, etc, etc. By college age I was playing Advanced Squad Leader at a local board game club that also had a group of miniatures guys. One meeting I got into a Fire&Fury Antietam game just to see how it was, then played microarmor Spearhead the next month, and was hooked.

Too old to remember but probably Airfix figures and some form of written mention somewhere: it's a LONG time ago

The article in January (early), 1965, issue of "Sports Illustrated" about a Charlie Sweet AWI wargame. I believe the title was something like "A Little War can be a Lot of Fun"(?) Have a photocopy of it somewhere.

I picked "Allways loved History as a kid" as the best answer, but really I got started back at about age 13 after finding Joe Morschauser's book, "How to Play Wargames in Miniaure" in the public library while looking for boooks on Chess strategy. I've always loved games as well, so the boook just completely fired up my imagination, especially as the other book I took out of the Library that month was… The Campaigns of Napoleon by Chandler. Interestingly, before that I had never played with toy soldiers, plastic army men, etc. In college, I met Charlie Sweet (who was then probably about my current age) and his son David, and enjoyed several games at their home in Bristol, CT, over the next few years. I've never looked back since then!

Western Oregon Wargamers club in Portland Oregon, sometime in the Early 80's. Used to play RPGs there but was introduced to historical games there.

-Will

I can't really remember _not_ being a wargamer.
When I was very young I played with Airfix figures (and Action Man) and making models was never enough for me – I wanted to do something with them. The owner of my local model shop suggested Charles Grant's book and I've been on the slippery slope ever since.

Definitely through fantasy games.

I was born with minatures gaming in my blood! Seriously, I can't remember life before miniatures or not being interested in history. Seems like I always had something as a kid – airfix, green army men, marx playsets, plastic models, GI Joes. Hard to say which of those was first. Probably all started with movies and looking at picture books and artifacts my grandfather had (he was in WWI) before I could read, though. Then comics, books, American Heritage boardgames, Avalon Hill and "serious" miniatures rules. The rest, as they say, is history!

Marx to AH and Airfix through DnD to Napoleonics and beyond!

Interest in history got me started (and included reading a good bit and watching "history" on television and the movies as well). I always loved history -- my parents exposed me to lots of history for me as a child, starting with How and Why books. Family vacations always included a battlefield or fort. As I got older, I read as much history -- military history -- as I could and, after a brief and foolish flirtation with an engineering major in college, I went on to earn undergrad and grad degrees in history. I have had the good fortune to combine my passion for history and my livelihood as a history professor for the past 20+ years.

The first miniatures I "gamed" with were plastic "flats" ordered from the back of comic books when I was six or seven years old in the mid-60s. There were Romans (IIRC there were teo armies -- blue and yellow plastic), medievals (in black and white), and World War II. I then graduated to Airfix, really getting into it in starting around 1970 when I did quite a few conversions from series in Airfix magazine. I think my first serious games were played with Airfix American Rev figures (Washington's Army and British Grenadiers) using Charge! Or How to Play Wargames. A couple of years later came Column, Line, and Square (and my first metal miniatures by Der Kriegspielers) for Napoleonics and then WRG Ancients, 2nd edn, using Minifigs 25mm shortly thereafter. And I have been happily gaming ever since.

My maternal Grandfather for Christmas 1958 gave me some Britains Miniatures & HG Wells "Little Wars". It really took off with me & I was soon in to Elastolins, Scruby, Featherstone, Morchauser & the lot. Just kept growing from there.

I pulled a copy of the American Heritage Illustrated History of the Second World War down from my father's bookshelf onto my head when I was five, and, after I regained consciousness, I started reading it and was hooked on the subject.

By the time I was nine, I walked into a FLGS called The Little Tin Soldier that was a convenient four blocks away, where four guys in their thirties were playing GHQ's Tank Charts, and boy did *they* put up with a lot of stupid questions from a dumb kid! But…they got me to play, and I've been hooked for over a quarter of a century.

Many answers to pick from, loved history as a kid, played Avalon Hill games, Big Sgt. Rock fan as a boy. But I picked the through plastic army men response as the one that got me into miniatures. Yes they were Airfix WW2 (Brits, US Marines, Japanese, & Afrika Korp) and I even tried to paint them, with no success I might add. Then I went to the Tin Soldier in Dayton (back when it was on Salem Ave) And bought some Heritage Union and US Inf that I still game with over thirty years later.

Friendsof the family bought me a boxed set of marching British Guards by Cherico (?). I was hooked.

Always loved history – my Dad (who liked to make airplane models) bought me some boxes of Airfix, as I recall the Union and Confederate infantry and ACW artillery – and the rest was, as they say, history – did some boardgaming (Avalon Hill, rest their souls) and a lot of modelling (Tamiya's head office? I paid for it) but always came back to the little soldiers

I walked into Lexington Games (now The Source) in Saint Paul Minnesota looking for D and D supplements or miniatures. A game of micro armor was in progress on a sand table the scenario was WW2 east front 1941. The owner of the shop let me command a KV-1 and I was near invincible. I was just a kid so I had no concept of what I was doing, just drove around firing like a demented mad man until I took a track hit. The owner had to keep reminding the seasoned veterans my tank had no radio so they could not communicate with me and offer advice. I had so much fun I became hooked and it replaced role playing. I started to show up frequently to watch or play if someone would give me a command.

I really wanted to play Napoleonics but that group was so stark raving bonkers they rarely finished a game without some one going off the deep end.

I joined the high school wargames club (which was all Avalon Hill & SPI boargames) and found out from there that there was this club at the university…

Still would play boardgames, but it is easier to find miniatures gamers these days.

I have always had toy soldiers, but when I was 12 I got several boxes of Airfix Afrika Corps and British 8th Army figures, and some Airfix and RoCo plastic tanks. I thought they were WAY cool. The following year, I discovered Charles Grant's book on Wargaming, and 42 years later I am still at it. It's been a great run so far……

D&D//RPG's got me into miniatues.

Was stationed in Fla. and bored(out of room)with plastic models and gut at hobby/model shop sold me some Figures.
After I had painted about 25 or so, I asked what to do with them, and he sold me a copy of Chainmail.

I used to walk the 5 miles or so to a store that sold airfix minis. At some point my parents found out about a local group that played historical games ( I was 11) and my brother and I would go and marvel at Scruby miniatures. He got a taste for pure historical. I started with fantasy when Kreigspielers came out with Middle Earth, then found out about D and D when it was still in the soft cover booklet form. Played RPG in college and for a couple of years afterwards. I was at grad school at College Park when I saw a little deal about some historical thing called Cold Wars and stopped by. I have been doing a mix of historical and ahistorical ever since.
My son has the 40K bug and did a lot of gaming before heading out last month for active duty at Maxwell AFB , then down to Panama CIty for a year or so. Once he has an apartment we will ship the stuff to him.
I introduced my son in law to gaming through an All Things Zombie Game last Christmas but they are 2000 miles away so further indoctriniation will have to wait, but he is a geek and a modeler so it will only take time.
Both kids used to love the HMGS cons when they were younger and the kids room was more active

In fact a combination of several.
I had always been interested in history, and my parents really supported this.
My first army were semi -flat hard plastic figures that came with the Heudebert brand of biscuits. About 30 different figures both mounted and on foot portraying the Triumphal Entry of Charles Quint in Bruges. Found out these could be painted with Humbrol, which I had a few tins of for my Airfix aircraft models. My poor dad had to eat tons of biscuits.
Later there were the larger plastic Cafe Storme/Mokarex figures so I gather he got at least some coffee to wash them down as well.
About the same time discovered the Airfix plastic 20mm figures and nagged hard enough for my father to buy me two sets. 8th Army and Afrika Korps were the first, quickly followed by Foreign Legion and Arabs (thanks to my grandmother)
First metal 25s were Hinchliffe and Lamming Napoleonics and some 30mm 'Willie' figures. I still remember beautiful British colonial lancers, Sudanese? and Landsknechts.

40 years ago and I haven't regretted it for one moment.

Actually my first "wargame" came from the back of a Sgt. Rock comic in the 1970s. I think it was called Tank Trap and it was hyped as having "exploding tanks" etc etc. Just send in $1.50 USD plus shipping. What you got were plastic tanks in two halves held together by a rubber band and when you flicked the seam it "exploded". Came with a bunch of tanks, little soldiers, rules and a hexed plastic game matt. I do remember having fun playing it but maybe the fact I was about 8 years old had something to do with that. Growing up I always heard my Grandfather's war stories and read history books. Of course I had about 1,000 plastic toy soldiers and some models.

It was those boxes of Airfix miniature soldiers that got me started!

D&D and TSR Tractics lead eventually to GW. Due to TMP and all the beautiful historical plastic figures out there, that lead to WAB2. So my diversion into Historicals has just begun.

Blame Vic Morrow, Rick Jason, Sgt Rock and Marx….. I read one of Featherstone's books that I borrowed from the Public Library in Old Bridge, New Jersey, back in 1970 or '71. Three boxes of Airfix figures from the hobby shop in Spotswood (US Marines, WWII Japanese, and British Commandos, 49 cents a box), and I was off to the Pacific……

Never occurred to me that I could have just used the Marx toy soldiers I already had. I think the Featherstone book made mention of the Airfix figures and I just felt more "authentic" gaming with those.

I still have a Ziploc bag of those Airfix figures stowed away somewhere. Wish I'd kept the Marx ones though.

Nostalg-a-Duck

For me it would be the amalgamation of three.

I always loved history.
I was a military modeller.
And I got ed off with SciFi companies scrapping their games and people dropping it from that moment on and did not want to go over to the Evil Empire.

Cheers,

Burkhard

My dad had a big model railway in our loft when I was a child.
I thought this was cool.

He introduced me to Games Workshop and I got into fantasy gaming through Warhammer 2nd edition.
As I got older I wanted to play on his layout with my elves and stuff but that seemed wrong to me.

So he bought me some WWII tanks.
There was much parking on train tracks and destroying deltics and the class 47 "rail riders" locomotive.

This was my first deviation from GW.
Then I found a local games shop that had all sorts of non GW miniatures, including middle ages figures.

Never played fantasy or sci-fi since…

Although I had airfix figures as a child, it was really the good fortune to have the Minifigs-Skytrex shop open both 5 minutes away from my home AND on my route home from school that really did it !

Those window displays have a lot to answer for.

I loved, and read history as a kid! Spent most of my weekly allowance on bags of plastic army men at 100 (figures) for a $1.00 USD at the Five and Dime store inspired by TV shows like "Combat"!! Then I discovered the Model Train Store next door sold Airfix figures, and boardgames!!!

After that much of the money I earned from my paper route went for boardgames, and boxes of airfix figures again inspired by movies like "The Horse Soldiers" and "Waterloo"! Then while doing a school report on my favorite period, The American Civil War I found a book in the school library titled, "The American Heritage History of the American Civil War". Looking at the maps in that book I could only dream about recreating those on my bedroom floor!

One day while shopping at the hobby store I bought a copy of Gene Mccoy's "Wargamer's Digest", and discovered I wasn't alone, and my dreams could come true!! Thus was born another Wargamer, and I've been at it for over forty years!!!! So the vote is really a tough one!!

Paul

If it wasn't obvious, I clicked "other". It's a sad thing that with such a long list "wargame shop" doesn't feature.

Or, for that matter, by readingt a book on wargaming (which was something I did almost inmmediately after finding the shop – probably the Airfix wargaming guides, or maybe one of the ones from Shire Books, and Don Featherstone of course).

I started out as a roleplayer, but drifted away from RPGs as the rules got more and more abusable.