Well, since we're all doing it:
I'm 36, and I've been wargaming "seriously" since I was 12 (i.e. in
1974)-
Airfix tanks and infantry using Charles Grant's "Battle: Practical wargaming"
rules, plus Donald Featherstone's books from the library.
D&D, Traveller (black box) and C&S (Chivalry and Sorcery) in secondary school;
I still have, and play, my original copy of Ogre, in its polythene envelope.
I am fundamentally a tank nut.
SF gaming started at school, using an American rules set called "Space Marine"
(Do Mekpurrs, Rauwoofs and the Azuriach Empire ring any bells?)
Starship gaming used an ultra-simple set of fast play ironclad rules
from a Featherstone book, and a small number of Garrison Starcruisers (which
now
form my Scottish FT fleet) supplemented by various toys and 1/72
aircraft ordnance.
ON TOPIC BIT! I discovered a bit of an old copy of the magazine "Battle", for
August 1978. In the review section it says, "Jonathan Tuffley of Felixstowe
has sent ussome samples of his new range of spacecraft models. These come
supplied as two halves cast in white polyester resin (SNIP). These excellent
little models range in price from 5p to 15p..."
There are four models shown; 3 are assymmetric designs, while the 4th is a
longish vessel with engine podes at the stern. I'll see if I can get a scan of
the pic.
Rob
> Well, since we're all doing it:
My God, someone remembers these..... :-)
They were done about when I left school, and predate the first GZG products
by at least seven years. Hand-cast in resin (2 halves to each ship - in
the same style as the first Skytrex resin spaceships of a few years before) in
hotmelt rubber moulds - the masters were made in balsa (yes, the grain
still showed a bit!!). Probably somewhere round at my folks' there are still
one or two of the ships buried under other junk.... the moulds have long since
passed into obscurity (probably a good thing!). They got reviewed in "Battle",
as Rob says, and I sold a few through the small ads column in the back of the
mag. I was using them for what eventually metamorphosed into FT. IIRC, there
were 2 forces (human symmetrical ones and alien assymetricals), each having a
small ship, a big ship, a freighter and a starbase, plus a couple of extra
designs used as "pirates" or similar. If you can scan the pic, by all means
put it up!
Now having admitted at all that, I'd better just recap my potted bio in case
anyone is even remotely interested.....
Born 1959* (good year that, especially for Cadillacs...). Interested in
military and SF from as early as I can remember (recall being bought issue
1 of TV21 when I was about four - wish I still had it....)
Did usual toy soldier things with 54mm and 20mm Airfix figures, mostly WWII.
Never liked Napoleonics (still don't...<grin>)
Started "proper" gaming in very early 1970s with the first 1/300
microarmour (Kirk and Leicester Micro Models, all WWII and so rough you
just wouldn't believe it - but they WERE only 45p for 10 tanks!!).
Converted Grant's "Battle" to 6mm, also read all the Featherstone and Wise
stuff. Discovered SF figures in about 73, with the first Minifigs 25mm SF, and
the first Skytrex spaceships about the same time. Yes, I had the "Space
Marines" rules too (FanTac, wasn't it?), which were later reissued as part of
the Space Opera system by FGU. Dabbled a bit in RPGs with first ed D&D (I
never owned one, but a friend had the white box set, plus Chainmail etc.) and
bought Traveller (black
box) as soon as it came out (1978-ish?), plus a few AH and SPI
boardgames (anyone remember SPI's "Sorcerer", with the different "colours" of
magic..?), but mainly stayed with minis wargaming. Published first GZG item
(G-CAV) in 1985.. the rest is history!!
Jon (GZG)
* For the arithmetically-challenged, yes, that DOES mean I turn the big
four-oh this year.... ;-)
> Rob
> Ground Zero Games wrote:
I turned 40 in December. So when's your turn? :-)
Let's see... There was Starguard, Space Marine, Alien Space, and the Star
Fleet Battle Manual. All the same early games. I brought Alien Space with
me to the first GZG-ECC Convention and nobody recognized it.
Triplanetary was my first science fiction game and it saw heavy use. The black
box Traveller set is still in my collection as well as the Striker rule set
and various editions of the Ogre rules. I wish I'd bought more Ogre figures
when they were available.
I used to own Sorcerer too with the colored magic and units. The colors would
determine the combat strength of your units on a given hex. I think I
sold it in an Internet auction along with SPI's War of the Ring.
A lot of fun gaming memories....
Space Marine = Tractics in Space (I still have both versions!)
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
Rob Paul started this bit with:
> Well, since we're all doing it:
Is it just me or did just about everyone start with some version (usually
heavily hacked) of Charles Grant's 'Battle' rules?
FYI I started gaming in 1972 with the aforementioned rules. Started RPGing
with the old D&D White box (still around the house somewhere) and spent most
of the late 70s hacking D&D into an SF game. Then somewhere around 1980 I
discovered US gaming mags, Traveller and other SF games and the world changed.
---
> Ground Zero Games wrote:
> Born 1959* (good year that, especially for Cadillacs... ). Interested
Ye gods, many similarities. One of the things I really regret is my
parent's throwing away my then-complete mint collection of TV-21 in 1968
when we came to Australia. If they'd only have consulted me as to what I
wanted to keep... Never mind. I had to give away my extensive Hornby Dublo set
as well. Having seen the prices for some of this, it would be nice to have had
a few hundred thou as a nest egg.
The first micro-armour I acquired were some 40mm guns on Quads. The
first microarmour was rough, really rough. If you looked at the
> Steve Gill wrote:
> Rob Paul started this bit with:
"Battle" rules...what are those...my first real wargame was "Warpwar" (by
Metagaming), and then "Tactics II" (by Avalon Hill)
> FYI I started gaming in 1972 with the aforementioned rules. Started
> On Wed, 09 Jun 1999 21:08:47 -0400, Jon Davis <davis@albany.net> wrote:
> Let's see... There was Starguard, Space Marine, Alien Space, and the
That's because I wasn't there! *S* I remember seeing ads for it in early
magazines. I didn't buy it (although a local store has Alien Space and the
Star Fleet Battle Manual). I DID buy the WW2 aircraft game with the similar
game engine. It works, after a fashion, too...
> Triplanetary
I didn't buy Triplanetary... I bought Imperium. I also have the black box
Traveller (with books 1 through 9), Striker and Ogre. I'm sort of so-so
on Ogre these days. I wish I had more of the figures to use with DS2, but I
played an Ogre game two years ago at GenCon and found that it's just a TINY
bit too simplistic for me today...
> I used to own Sorcerer too with the colored magic and units. The
I never bought it but always considered it every time I saw the box in a local
store.
And to answer someone else's question:
I'm 36 (37 in December) and yes I first started out with some version of
Grant's books... I played with Airfix Napoleonics and Airfix and Matchbox WW2
(still have many of the latter...).