How did you get into Wargaming?

[Perturabo]

When I was a kid, I got Commodore 64. I don't remember when, precisely. I think I was 7 then, judging by how the first computer game magazine that I've read was from 1991.
My first games were on cartridge that I got with the computer. It was some kind of a soccer game, a chess game and some kind of a weird game that was very abstract.

Soon, I wanted more games. The main way to get new games would be to buy cassette compilations of pirated games.
Using a cassette would require loading every game on the cassette at least once to discover the counter position of every game.
This way I got to play tens or even hundreds of games, ranging from shoot-em-ups to wargames.

I was particularly fascinated with simulation games. Sadly, most of them were only one level. Full games were available only on diskettes but I couldn't afford a diskette station.

It was impossible to obtain original versions of most of games. Practically the only games released officially in Poland were games by Zeppelin Games which were usually very poorly balanced.

Some of my favourites were: Gunship, Up Periscope!, Silent Service, Strike Fleet, Legions of Death, Laser Squad, Druid II, Army Moves, Desert Fox, Midnight Resistance (I had an original version and I finished it), Bismarck (I had an original version and I finished it), The Spy Who Loves Me (I had an original version and I finished it), Commando, Great Escape, Into the Eagle's Nest, etc.

When my mother got a PC, one guy from class borrowed me a case of diskettes and a several original CDs.
On the diskettes I have discovered Transport Tycoon Deluxe, X-Com2 (I loved both and bought them later in a "classic edition"). I also played Warcraft II a lot.

Later I would be playing a lot of demos from demo CDs. I remember enjoying playing demos of simulations and wargames. I was especially impressed by Close Combat 3 but I could never afford it as it was very expensive - two times more expensive than other new games. I played all kinds of games but bought mostly simulation and strategy games and shooters. I was in privilleged position as I could afford buying original games (mostly when they were in prices of current GotY edition games, though).
I loved playing X-Com, Firefight (the shooter), Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Syndicate+, Crusader no Regret, Strike Commander, Wings of Glory and similar games.
Later I got into cRPGs. I loved Ultima VII, Fallout 1 and 2 (bought both of them when they were still full priced), got really disappointed with Baldur's Gate.
At some point I finally had an opportunity to play Close Combat as I got Close Combat 4 from a game magazine. I remembered loving the gameplay but not being really satisfied with the setting.
Then I got Close Combat 5 as it was released in a cheap edition.
I remember trying to make a mod for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun that would make it more realistic. It was an exercise in futility.

Around 2006 I got into Close Combat modding and learned about existence of Matrix Games when the Cross of Iron was released.

[Titanwarrior89]

Walked into a gaming store in Killeen,Tx to buy a book and what do I see-racks of historical wargames.  My first was squad leader.[:)]1978

[Yogi the Great]

When I was 11 years old, my 16 year old brother bought Avalon Hill's Gettysburg (The original square boxes not hexes). He was so desperate to find someone to play it with he asked me. I won the game and was hooked for life. For quite a few years after that I purchased most every board game release from AH and a few other companies.

My first real computer wargame I can remember was also Gettysburg, an early primitive version for the Apple IIc

[planner 3]

My oldest girl child had a disc with an old version of Silent hunter, so while her and thw Misses were jawing I fooled around with her comp and game, it led me to SSI and more games after I purchased my Win 95 machine etc.

[Perturabo]

Oh, in primary school I was into plastic models and into boardgames - there was a period when there were some affordable simple fantasy/sci-fi wargames.

I had these:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3464/melee

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/ ... -sheboygan

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3466/warpwar

I also was fascinated with Battletech but never got to play it.

[parusski]

I was in high-school, 1982 and 16 years old. I got into wargaming when Fulda Gap arrived one day and I skipped school the next morning to play it. The affair with wargaming has lasted longer than my marriage. I was married two years after I started playing wargames.

[Hanal]

Fell in love with the cover art for PanzerBlitz back in the day when they had brick & mortar hobby stores and never looked back.....

[Phatguy]

Old age has dimmed the memory a bit......First game I ever got was a copy of the S&T magazine with South Africa in it from my history teacher in high school...Second game he ever gave me was a copy of AH's France 40...... I do remember receiving a game for Christmas(would be around 70 or 71) in school from the nuns.All I can remember of it was it had a map of Poland and many heraldric shields..I was a bit too young to figure it out

[Aurelian]

While in school, a nun gave me the job of putting all these WW2 magazines in binders. Memory fails me for the name of that series. (it's been that long.)

Remember making ships with those old style Risk blocks, then using pegs from Battleship to bomb them.

[JWW]

As a kid I played with little toy soldiers.  Eventually I bought some little bags full of plastic toy soldiers about one inch high, mostly Civil War, but some others.  I loved reading about military history and started recreating battles using the toy soldiers.  I had about 200 of them.  Toy soldiers and dominoes to make hills and forts and the such.  I flicked a button to simulate gunfire, and would alternate moves and flicking the button.  I was actually playing a very crude miniatures game but didn't realize it.  Then one day in a local toy store I saw a couple of Avalon Hill games and bought Kriggspiel.  I was hooked.

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

While in school, a nun gave me the job of putting all these WW2 magazines in binders. Memory fails me for the name of that series. (it's been that long.)

Remember making ships with those old style Risk blocks, then using pegs from Battleship to bomb them.

Was it this magazine which was published in 1974? I collected all 96 issues, but unfortunately I only have a handful remaining.

[cantona2]

ORIGINAL: Perturabo

When I was a kid, I got Commodore 64. I don't remember when, precisely. I think I was 7 then, judging by how the first computer game magazine that I've read was from 1991.
My first games were on cartridge that I got with the computer. It was some kind of a soccer game, a chess game and some kind of a weird game that was very abstract.

Soon, I wanted more games. The main way to get new games would be to buy cassette compilations of pirated games.
Using a cassette would require loading every game on the cassette at least once to discover the counter position of every game.
This way I got to play tens or even hundreds of games, ranging from shoot-em-ups to wargames.

I was particularly fascinated with simulation games. Sadly, most of them were only one level. Full games were available only on diskettes but I couldn't afford a diskette station.

It was impossible to obtain original versions of most of games. Practically the only games released officially in Poland were games by Zeppelin Games which were usually very poorly balanced.

Some of my favourites were: Gunship, Up Periscope!, Silent Service, Strike Fleet, Legions of Death, Laser Squad, Druid II, Army Moves, Desert Fox, Midnight Resistance (I had an original version and I finished it), Bismarck (I had an original version and I finished it), The Spy Who Loves Me (I had an original version and I finished it), Commando, Great Escape, Into the Eagle's Nest, etc.

When my mother got a PC, one guy from class borrowed me a case of diskettes and a several original CDs.
On the diskettes I have discovered Transport Tycoon Deluxe, X-Com2 (I loved both and bought them later in a "classic edition"). I also played Warcraft II a lot.

Later I would be playing a lot of demos from demo CDs. I remember enjoying playing demos of simulations and wargames. I was especially impressed by Close Combat 3 but I could never afford it as it was very expensive - two times more expensive than other new games. I played all kinds of games but bought mostly simulation and strategy games and shooters. I was in privilleged position as I could afford buying original games (mostly when they were in prices of current GotY edition games, though).
I loved playing X-Com, Firefight (the shooter), Transport Tycoon Deluxe, Syndicate+, Crusader no Regret, Strike Commander, Wings of Glory and similar games.
Later I got into cRPGs. I loved Ultima VII, Fallout 1 and 2 (bought both of them when they were still full priced), got really disappointed with Baldur's Gate.
At some point I finally had an opportunity to play Close Combat as I got Close Combat 4 from a game magazine. I remembered loving the gameplay but not being really satisfied with the setting.
Then I got Close Combat 5 as it was released in a cheap edition.
I remember trying to make a mod for Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun that would make it more realistic. It was an exercise in futility.

Around 2006 I got into Close Combat modding and learned about existence of Matrix Games when the Cross of Iron was released.

Pretty much the same route, loved the C64. But add Pirates! and remove all the RTS. How could you have been disppointed with BG?!?!?!?! It was classic Dnd an, IMO, the best representation of pen and paper on the PC at that time.

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: cantona2

How could you have been disppointed with BG?!?!?!?! It was classic Dnd an, IMO, the best representation of pen and paper on the PC at that time.

I played it after playing Fallout 1 and 2, Ultima VII and ADOM. After seeing the directions that cRPGs already went into (heavily stat-based dialogue, non-linearity, multiple quest solutions, multiple skills, perks and stuff like that in Fallout and free exploration, interactivity, spells with reagents and the living world of Ultima, general game mechanics of ADOM) my general reaction to BG was - "1987 called, it wants its game back". Especially that it didn't have the creative problem solving that PnP D&D is famous for.

[martok]

When I was 15-16, I started playing Battletech with some of my friends in high school. A year or two later, I got into Risk as well. While neither probably constitutes an actual "wargame", they did at least introduce me to that world.

Then about 10 years ago (when I was 24-25), I got to be friends with a gaming group who -- in addition to being avid D&D players -- were also into board games a lot, including both Twilight Imperium and Axis & Allies. I discovered that while those games take forever to set up, they sure are a lot of fun!

[Anguille]

I started with Risk. It got me hooked and i loved to play it.

As soon as i got a computer, i played the following Wargames: Task Force 1942, Field of Glory (Napoleon's last battles) and Civil War: Robert E. Lee.

[sterckxe]

Changed schools when I was 15 - one of my new classmates was my longtime buddy Phil who introduced me and a couple of others to this new "wargame" thing.

I can't remember which one was first - could have been Tactics II, could have been Starfall, could even have been one of Phil's designs. Third Reich was the one which really captured me.

I became a software engineer so was around when computer wargaming took off - played all the classics from SSG and 360 Pacific, even 3rd Reich the computer game from AH

I'm still around, but mostly playing tabletop miniature wargames and boardgames now as those are the areas where all the exciting stuff is happening these days.

Greetz,

Eddy Sterckx

[bairdlander2]

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

While in school, a nun gave me the job of putting all these WW2 magazines in binders. Memory fails me for the name of that series. (it's been that long.)

Was it "Signal"?

[wodin]

Plastic soldiers and a marble...about 1977\78.

[ird]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

While in school, a nun gave me the job of putting all these WW2 magazines in binders. Memory fails me for the name of that series. (it's been that long.)

Remember making ships with those old style Risk blocks, then using pegs from Battleship to bomb them.

Was it this magazine which was published in 1974? I collected all 96 issues, but unfortunately I only have a handful remaining.

aaahh man - I used to have some of these in the seventies - they were great. Unfortunately I no longer have them. I'd totally forgotten about them until I just saw your post. I remember a Battle of the Atlantic issue and possibly one to do with the Battle of Britain.

[Hanal]

ORIGINAL: ird

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon

ORIGINAL: Aurelian

While in school, a nun gave me the job of putting all these WW2 magazines in binders. Memory fails me for the name of that series. (it's been that long.)

Remember making ships with those old style Risk blocks, then using pegs from Battleship to bomb them.

Was it this magazine which was published in 1974? I collected all 96 issues, but unfortunately I only have a handful remaining.

aaahh man - I used to have some of these in the seventies - they were great. Unfortunately I no longer have them. I'd totally forgotten about them until I just saw your post. I remember a Battle of the Atlantic issue and possibly one to do with the Battle of Britain.

The biggest problem with the mag was the font size. It was no larger than the directions on an aspirin bottle label. To try reading one now, I would need a magnifying glass.