The Wargaming Thread

[Vladd67]

Used to play many Avlon Hill games back I the 80s when I was at secondary school, Third Reich was the most popular I remember.

 

[reiver33]

I also played DNO/UNT when it first came out, and then the revamped version Fire In The East. Pax Britannica is also a favourite of mine (we never avoided WW1). In terms of the semi-abstract board game then the old SPI classic Empires Of The Middle Ages is a stand-out.

 

[Galactic Journey]

I also played DNO/UNT when it first came out, and then the revamped version Fire In The East. Pax Britannica is also a favourite of mine (we never avoided WW1). In terms of the semi-abstract board game then the old SPI classic Empires Of The Middle Ages is a stand-out.

We've played A LOT of Pax in our time. That's a game that's either amazing or terrible... and you never know which you're going to get till after 12 hours of play. Much like Kingmaker.

Empires of the Middle Ages is great. We played 35 hours of a campaign game once. Stopped in the 11th century.

P.S. This is our "Kingmaker: Serious Business" pic

 

[HareBrain]

I still have a large collection of games (including all of Advanced Squad Leader up to and including Doomed Battalions).

Bloody ASL. Every time I finished reading through the rule book it was time to start again. It was an amazing game, though. I once destroyed my friend's three aircraft in a single go with my Wirbelwind.

I've still got a Dragon Pass game in my cellar, which I've never played and keep thinking I ought to.

 

[Paul_C]

I've still got a couple of Avalon Hill boxes somewhere, The Arab - Israeli Wars and (IIRC) Panzer Blitz.

I used to have loads of Warhammer 40,000 stuff but all I have now is about 3 years worth of White Dwarf magazines. I had Heroquest and Space Hulk too but gave it all away

 

[Vladd67]

I've still got a couple of Avalon Hill boxes somewhere, The Arab - Israeli Wars and (IIRC) Panzer Blitz.

I used to have loads of Warhammer 40,000 stuff but all I have now is about 3 years worth of White Dwarf magazines. I had Heroquest and Space Hulk too but gave it all away

And now you see the ridiculous prices on eBay.

 

[Overread]

Warhammer Quest (Heroquest mkII) is at least back on retail sale. GW did bring Space Hulk back but only in limited sales; however there's a new genestealer minigame on sale and genestealer cults are their own faction in 40K again; however yes ebay prices tend to be high as soon as any product is on limited sale. Plus you get the companies which charge WAY above that asking price into the hundreds just because its limited (I think they either run on very few sales or on buying the item to order secondhand anyway and thus have to charge more) .

 

[Toby Frost]

They do seem to bring Space Hulk back out every few years, probably because it's a very good game and can be relied upon to sell. For a while, GW seemed to lose interest in everything apart from the two Warhammer games: a couple of years ago, they got a new chief exec and appeared to remember that they also sold skirmish games. The problem (for them) is that the market has changed: there are decent alternatives to Blood Bowl, Man O'War and Mordheim in the form of Dreadball, Dystopian Legions and Frostgrave. Companies like Privateer Press have changed the market by giving rules away for free and engaging with the customers. The market has changed - for the better, I think.

 

[Vladd67]

A pity Warhammer historical folded, now if you want a set of rules they are going for ridiculous money. As an ex member of Prince Rupert's Blew Regiment of Foote, or Rupert's Bluecoats, in the Sealed Knot I have always had a soft spot for the Warhammer English Civil War rules with the regiments last stand at Naseby on the cover. I even have a framed copy of the original print on a wall at home.

This of course is just a portion of the whole picture.

 

[reiver33]

I binned my entire range of Warhammer rules and supplements...

 

[reiver33]

Just saw a comment about Third Reich! Had some 'epic' evening/all night games, but could never adjust to sitting (as Germany) with the board upside down.

 

[Cathbad]

Although nobody played it, 2nd Edition AD&D included asset of very good mass combat rules.

 

[Overread]

Mass combat in DnD? I have a mental vision now of needing a bucket of dice to roll that one out

 

[Cathbad]

Mass combat in DnD? I have a mental vision now of needing a bucket of dice to roll that one out

Nahh... it was a good system. I ran a couple battles with it, and it wasn't bad.

 

[Foxbat]

Just saw a comment about Third Reich! Had some 'epic' evening/all night games, but could never adjust to sitting (as Germany) with the board upside down.

Me too. One memorable game ended up with my Italian armour invading the UK. We'd either missed or misinterpreted the rules regarding amphibious invasions and never applied the restrictions the Italian navy suffers outside the Med.

It became known as the Panzer Uno affair

 

[Toby Frost]

I've got a friend who plays the 28mm WW2 wargame Bolt Action. It's got good rules, but frankly nothing inspires me less than the idea of painting 200 tiny Nazis in the same shade of drab green, except perhaps painting 400 tiny Communists in the same shade of drab brown. Give me one space wizard any day.

 

[Vladd67]

Looks like Games Workshop are facing a small problem.
Games Workshop is Being Sued For $62.5M - Spikey Bits

 

[Toby Frost]

Yes, I saw that last night. To be honest, I'm unconvinced by a lot of it. The particulars don't look very lawyerly, and I think they'd have a solid defence in that things like powered armour and space monsters were part of the general background of sci-fi and not breaches of specific IP. The arrangement with the individual shops might be more likely to succeed, but I don't know how restraint of trade works in the US (depending on whose law is binding on the contract).

I think this is probably on one end of the gaming spectrum, but I have a blog about models, here: In A World of Paint

 

[Overread]

I think that article is only getting attention because its being pushed by at least one news site that apparently has some personal agenda/annoyance with GW. Yeah the legal document is laughably bad in scope and content and apparently the guy issuing it also a recaster (ergo illegally casts his own GW models for commercial sale). So its no surprise GW ended dealing with the guy.

In better news and slightly more toward DnD than wargames; but Bones 4 is currently running on Kickstarter and is well worth a look for some affordable models.
Reaper Miniatures Bones 4: Mr. Bones EPIC Adventure!
The Bones material is a kind of soft rubberyish plastic that holds good levels of detail. The idea is to have cheap models that can be painted right out of the box (the colour is a kind of white/grey); its aimed at the DnD gamers who want models but don't want to spend a fortune on them; but also works for wargames.

 

[Toby Frost]

I did one of the earlier Bones kickstarters a couple of years ago. The models are perfectly fine but not cutting edge, either in detail or style (they're generally older models and some are a bit cheesy) but the larger models were very high quality indeed. There is a certain amount of flash that needs to be cut off rather than filed. I got a Jabberwock from Bones and thought it was excellent, although I'd suggest spraying an undercoat on rather than painting it, as the models didn't take paint terribly well without it.