Games which you played along time ago.
What , why and why not now?
DBA
Fantastic/brilliant concept. Phil Barker is a great game designer. Quick games. Distances were necessarily very short due to the table size so measuring became too important. Great to be able to make a complete gaming table of only 2 feet by 2 feet. Would be great with grids?
WRG 4/5/6th edition
Choosing n army was challenging/fun. Rules lacked in encouraging the spirit of wargaming, More suited to matching and predicting that military tactics. Enjoyed them though. But not as relating to military tactics.
Skytrex (now in jail!) WW2 naval
Good fun but the rules gave no reasoning to build a combined force with overlapping roles. Percentage rolls for hit location, no intentional hit types. Ended up as a battle ship game. probably my fault though.
martin
First rules I ever played, 50 years ago, were Don Featherstone's ACW rules - 6 kills, but saving rolls, shell explosion templates, etc. Very simple and great fun, but now lost. Donnington Fast Play Ancients: gave a very enjoyable, but not especially fast, game. Another set I have lost but had many good games with, using mainly Minifigs and Mike's Models figures, was a 1980s set of Italian Wars rules. I think I may have moved on from them because they had a shed load of plus and minus variables.
To the Sound of the Guns....
My first ever set of rules for Napoleonics. What a tough set to start with, aimed at competition although I didn't know that at the time.
Victoriana...
A computer moderated set of rules (using a Spectrum 128k!) we used at the Stoke club for years to refight large ACW games using Dixon miniatures, usually 8-10 players per side. Games would last around 5 weeks. They were great fun back in the day (early 90's) but I'd have no patience with it now!
WRG Renaissance c. 1978, having met George Gush as an easily impressed teenager (me, not him) at Southern Militaire in Southampton. First proper army were ECW Minifigs 15mm strips - a period I finally returned to (using PP of course) only last year.
Bruce Quarrie's Napoleonic rules, with all those individual unit and national characteristics, distracted me for a while until I discovered WRG 6th edition Ancients. Then took a break from gaming during my 20's and 30's (as many of us do) when I discovered alchohol, women, mortgages and other real-life stuff, only returning to find that DBM and its various offshoots were predominant.
I remember WRG renaissance. Seemed great at the time. It was the main set for ECW. I found the green playsheet with tiny number difficult to read then so it would be impossible now! Those minifigs strips were absolutely brilliant!
martin
DBA: A truly revolutionary game, and meant that you could start playing when you'd painted your first 50 figures. I think there are better options for ancients rules now, and there was always a fiddly nature to the measurement.
Tactica: I always like ancients rules that don't let you zip units around the table willy-nilly. I really liked Tactica but nobody else I played with ever took to it. Also, I think 'Lost Battles' does a better job now.
I think Tactica's basing system at the time was too revolutionary for most people. I did like the idea that, theoretically you could accrue medals, although I never actually saw any.
Quote from: Sean Clark on October 25, 2016, 09:50:28 PM
To the Sound of the Guns....
My first ever set of rules for Napoleonics. What a tough set to start with, aimed at competition although I didn't know that at the time.
Christ, that set put me off Napoleonics for a decade!
Truly obtuse and faffy, and took ages to produce a non-result, which you then had to go through again and again and again the next time anyone did anything.
On the positive side, DBA was awesome - simple, achievable, playable and really felt like you were a general despite the tiny size. Lost all it's charm when blown up to DBM and it became all about the fiddling about with angles and tiny moves and not about the broad sweep of command.
Combined Arms & Command Decision - we played great games with that, well above it's scope really by the end. Divisional & Corps level clashes, air landings, opposed river crossings, and all. I still fondly remember the only counter to the speed, firepower and protection advantage given to the Abrams over Soviet kit - road march a Motor Rifle Battalion into their deployment zone so they had to wipe it out, then before they could seize all the good terrain and become invulnerable a Corps worth of artillery on each Abrams platoon in turn :D
TBH I found DBA retained it's charm when used with 10mm or 6mm figures on the 60mm frontage bases. Actually did look like an army. Still play it to this day using v.2.2+
Bruce Quarrie's Napoleonic Wargames. At the time, I thought all rules had to be like that. Interestingly they missed out orders and command & control to a large degree.
Tabletop Games' Tactical Commander (WW2 skirmish) - lots of charts and factors! But they worked (other then there seemed to be something missing about how machine guns were supposed to work, but we muddled through).
WRG Renaissance and then DBR for ECW. Both gave "fun" games for some reason and I'd still play both.
Newbury Fast Play [sic] Ancients, DBA, DBM: all somewhat more serious and "gamey" than the Renaissance rules above. I'd still play DBA.
Two Hour Wargames for Wild West and WW2. Got a bit complicated with all the "friction".
Force on Force: similarly, lots of to-ing and fro-ing, but lots of great period-specific scenario books.
Quote from: Colonel Kilgore on October 29, 2016, 07:00:49 PM
Tabletop Games' Tactical Commander (WW2 skirmish) - lots of charts and factors! But they worked (other then there seemed to be something missing about how machine guns were supposed to work, but we muddled through).
They were my rules of choice 30 odd years ago agree about the machine guns. Perhaps that was cleared up in the 2nd edition but I never got those. Loved the line drawings that were in all the TTG rules back then. May have to dust my copy off for a dose of nostalgia.
WRG was a great set too nice and simple elements based game or it was until the last edition which got far too complicated IMHO.
Speaking of which, I see the great Colditz boardgame is due to be rereleased this month...
This might go on my christmas list!
Available and 3O quid! Getting rave reviews.
Where have you seen it for £30? When I looked best I could find was £45.
Amazon-the shameless tax dodgers
Cheers could only find old editions on there previously. Want this as the family Xmas board game so will save a few quid.
Apparently Warlord Games are doing a pirate boardgame for £15.
Quote from: Leman on November 02, 2016, 01:36:22 PM
Apparently Warlord Games are doing a pirate boardgame for £15.
So they are - and down from £40 too:
https://store.warlordgames.com/products/pirates-of-nassau-boardgame
Nice spot!
Does anyone have any experience of this one?