old war games board games

[Shogun Gunner]

awwww... Poor, Probably-Pickled Prince Paddy Potentially Pouting

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


SPI was more hardcore. Unlike Avalon Hill, SPI games werent sold in retail stores, IIRC. You bought them mail order or you subscribed to their military history mag, which included a game in each issue. Which meant you had to be pretty hard core even to have found out about them. And this was before the net, so it wasnt like you could find out about them from websites or whatever (You could buy their games at their HQ in NYC, however)

was SPI the other main one?

I thnk my brother bought one from a store

or maybe that was Victory

it has been a while

Jon miller

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


was SPI the other main one?

I thnk my brother bought one from a store

or maybe that was Victory

it has been a while

Jon miller

I always thought of SPI and AH
As the two main game companies

But I know there were several others
Some of which also had a retail presence
But I never followed them
As I only bought games by
SPI and AH

Once you subscribed to S&T
You had more games than you had
Time for.

[Rasputin]

my brother forced me to play my first game at age 12 he needed someone to practice his skills on before playing against his other friend. but after his freind moved out of town i became my brothrs only adversary and once i mastered the game (cant remeber the nameof the game it was barbarrosa or something like that) we moved on to D - Day and then the Third Reich .

All he has left now is Third Reich and A3R, i still prefer Third reich to the advanced version.

yes many a weeknd spent playing campaign games ... it was great sorely miss it now,

[Standup]

or maybe that was Victory

Victory was an Avalon Hill off shoot. Can't quite remember why they were branded differently though. Most the Victory games i played were modern and quite complex - Vietnam being the best. Others included Aegean Strike, Central America and Gulf Strike.

[Urban Ranger]

Victory was formed by SPI employees after it went down, IIRC.

[Standup]

It was ex SPI staff who were picked up by Avalon Hill. Might explain the decision to give their own brand name ?

Web-Grognards

[SpencerH]

I had Panzer Blitz and Afrika Korps (AH)

Then I got the SPI magazine with their included games.

Then I started buying SPI games. I have about 15 including the War in the East, Waterloo, the 4 space games, sorcerer, invasion america, red star white star legion, etc.

[Urban Ranger]

I got some of the Strategy and Tactics games, they are quite nice. Probably too small to be called a proper game, mini-games?

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


SPI was more hardcore. Unlike Avalon Hill, SPI games werent sold in retail stores, IIRC. You bought them mail order or you subscribed to their military history mag, which included a game in each issue. Which meant you had to be pretty hard core even to have found out about them. And this was before the net, so it wasnt like you could find out about them from websites or whatever (You could buy their games at their HQ in NYC, however)

AH were definitely sold in stores and were the first big wargame company. I can remember buying Afrika Corps from a toy store in Vancouver around 71-72 I think. At that time, though, even AH were hard to find.

I wracking my brain (such as it is) about SPI games. They were sold in stores much later (for sure) but I'm not sure how I started buying them (i.e. did I find one in a store in the early 70's). In the 70's they were mostly purchased through the mail. I think I subscribed to the magazine first through an advertisement (I doubt it but SoF maybe) then bought the full games from there.

The magazine was excellent. There is no other way to describe it. The included games were very usually small in terms of the numbers of units but were interesting and extremely innovative. I think the first issue I recieved was a 'what if' for the invasion of the japanese main islands with the goal for the japanese player to inflict as many casualties as possible (with victory somewhere around 1M casualties). I also remember a North atlantic U-boat vs merchant ships game and a strategic Frederick the Great game.

[gmsh1964]

I am going to give 3R a try. Anyone else

I started with AH in 1975-1976 (Blitzkrieg, PB, PL, Squad Leader, Russian Campaign, etc.,) My favorite was 3R. So hard to find an opponent back then. When PC strategy games appeared around 1995 for me, I got re-hooked.

Anyway, after years playing HPS Simulations, and now CIV 4.., I found a yahoo group and a website that provides free downloads of 3R and all the manuals and articles.., really incredible. And the yahoo group for questions and challengers.

I hope others join me in attempting to remember this game. I plan on taking challengers in about 3 weeks after I practice with it. It is DOS based.., but it works!

Good luck to all.

http://www.sacvalleycomputers.com/3r.htm

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/thirdreichpc/

[Barinthus]

Sweet - will definitely have to take a look!

[Standup]

One of the joys of ebay has been buying all the old wargames i thought i'd never see again. So far bought 3rd reich, Squad Leader and the next two follow ups Cross of Iron and Cresendo of Doom. Also just got Conquestidor (sp ?) in the post.

Now if only i had someone to play them with, the time and the space to set them up I would be happy.

[Jon Miller]

lol

I need to get the civilzation games...

JM

[Paddy]

played diplomacy last night with a crew I used to play D&D with over 20 years ago

was a great night - lots of classic back stabs

a few ice cold beers, pizzas and lots of laughs