Wargaming

[canada steve]

Does anyone else here wargame ?

I play LOTR, Flames of War and am just moving into building a Roman and Celt armies to play Fileds of Glory.

[Gantry]

I wrote my own back in the 80's. Modern warfare. Even developed a power law that helped me spec russian military jets, but it quickly became obsolete once they started using composites in their airframes.

[Tobias]

If Game of Thrones count as a war game, then yes. Other than that, no, not really. But I am thinking of ordering Memoir 44 eventually. And I would really want a copy of Heroscape as well ...

Hm. My BBG name is Tevildo, you can check out my modest collection of board games there.

[canada steve]

Tobias steer clear of Memoir mate, whilst it is quite a fun game the mechanics do get you annoyed after a while. For example you start with a 4 man infantry squad who if at the right hex distance can throw max 3 dice to hit against a tank unit, now even if that infantry squad is reduced to one man they still fire at full power against an enemy unit !!!! I have been told that BattleLore is a much better option as they sorted out the bugs like that.

[Tobias]

Tobias steer clear of Memoir mate, whilst it is quite a fun game the mechanics do get you annoyed after a while. For example you start with a 4 man infantry squad who if at the right hex distance can throw max 3 dice to hit against a tank unit, now even if that infantry squad is reduced to one man they still fire at full power against an enemy unit !!!! I have been told that BattleLore is a much better option as they sorted out the bugs like that.

Well, we view rules more like suggestions, but .. if you say Battlelore is a better game I will definetly look into that as well

[Johngee]

OK, I'm back and I'll try not to blog too long...

Hmmm...war games...well as a kid I had a plethora of plastic "army men", which was a new thing back then in the 50's and I enjoyed "Conflict" first and then the Milton Bradley Am.Heritage series: "Battle Cry," "Broadside," and "Dog Fight" (oh how I wish now that I had thought of and patented the concept of resolving conflicts between individual toy soldiers with a dice roll, with the number of dice used based upon the strength of the weapons they carried, etc. Ce la vie). 

In High School my friends discovered "RISK" which we played incessantly one summer.  Then in college I was introduced to the Avalon Hill, SPI, and S&T historical simulations with very small cardboard counters, hex-aggonized map sheets, and statistically accurate Combat Results Tables.  However, I did not pursue this as a hobby myself until 1975, when in the Army I chose a studious geekdom over the permanent [pertetual] party status of the monotonous barracks life.  While in Germany a co-worker brought me to his war gaming club, where they used hand painted lead miniatures to replicate in fine detail every unit in Napolean's Grande Armee.  Wow, I still consider that experience a glimpse at the major league, while I was still dabbling with T-Ball.  Someday I'd like to attend HistoriCon in Lancaster, PA, but only as an observer.

Two marriages, five children, ten homes, twelve careers, and twenty-five+ years later... I found myself curious about Dungeons and Dragons and fiending over the newly released Mage Knights with click-able bases.  When Peter Jackson's version of the Tolkien Trilogy hit the silver screen, I got totally sucked into the Lord of the Rings: Tradeable Miniatures Game, now Out Of Print.  So I migrated (or rather evolved) first into the Star Wars Miniatures Game (because my Son-In-Law is such a huge fan) and then into HeroScape (because I LOVE the versatility of the interlocking tiles to build three dimensional Hex'd battlefield game boards for ANY miniature).  Maybe this is what they mean by a second childhood (haha).  I just figure that I'd better build a decent collection now while I'm still working before I do eventually retire and have all that spare time on my hands to finally get to play games again. 

As a not so intelligent Intelligence Sergeant for almost a quater century I heavily participated in designing, planning, executing, monitoring, reviewing, and studing Force-On-Force military maneuvers, which are nothing more than glorified "War Games."  Our goal was to make it as REASISTIC a "simulation" as possible with the objective to train soldiers in what type of situations to expect and what needs to anticipate in a Real World hostile battlefield exvirnoment.  Some general once said, "The more you sweat in training, the less you'll bleed in combat."  So I've been there and done that with maps and compass, and tanks and trucks, and tents, and laser tag, and paintballs, and mud, and...etc.  It was really just a GIANT Roll Playing Game (RPG) with hundreds of people interacting. 

Meanwhile, I'll play any game that comes close to that ... my problem is finding willing participants, hehe.  I do like the Richard Borg style mechanics in:  "Battle Cry," "Command & Colors", "Memoir'44," and "Battle Lore," ...and own half of them, which I've expanded with multiple copies.  I also own, but have not yet played "War Of The Ring," "Diplomacy," the original "Axis & Allies" (not the new miniatures version - I just could not afford another sink hole in my wallet), "Attack!" with it's expansion and Eagle Games "Am. Civil War".  I guess some people would include Chess, Battleships, Stratego, and Risk in the "light" War Gaming category -- just don't mention them to a serious Grognard -- yeah, I've got them too, somewhere in my closet, and would rather play them than not play anything at all. 

You asked what war games I play ... now you're suck with my whole biography. How about embellishing your own comments; after all ,we become closer friends by getting to know each other's past, present, likes and dislikes.  Have A Nice Day; - )   ~Johnny G.