Beginnings? Re: That Age Thing

***
I am 53 and have been gaming in some form or other (board games first,
followed closely by historical miniatures) since I was 13 and discovered a
newly published "Midway" Game from Avalon Hill while visiting my grandparents
at Christmas time in 1960 or 61. That makes me roughly a 40 year old gamer,
and I am an active supporter of the "Old Farts Gaming Club".
***

I was recently challenged by a friend who was concerned when I showed interest
in APL board games. 'But you still prefer miniatures, right? I
don't want to lose you.' I discovered AH in the mid-to-late 60's, but my
intro to miniature gaming didn't happen until after college.

Well, officially. I've been realizing I must give credit to millions of
uncredited commanders of little green soldiers, many of whom developed rule
structures that would daunt my comprehension now.

Well's Little Wars was reinvented in every town I've lived in, and often using
real explosives, especially right after the 4th of July.

And, still is today, inspite of PCs and video games, much as I love them.

Weirder still, I've just realized the planetary assault campaign I'm working
on now looks very similar to, minus some orbital mechanics, a space war game
friends and I developed using a chess board and two copies of risk
in the about 1971. ;->=

In a message dated 2/20/01 12:02:51 PM Central Standard Time,
devans@uneb.edu writes:

> Weirder still, I've just realized the planetary assault campaign I'm

We created a naval miniatures wargame using the plastic ships from Milton
Bradley's "Broadsides". Each ship had its own index card recording EVERY

DAMNED GUN on board along with flotation and rigging damage boxes. Actually I
discovered miniatures through Donald F. Featherstone's book around 1963, I
guess. It was in my branch library when I was a sophomore or junior in high
school. Airfix miniatures and plastic model tanks became the rage. I sent away
for a set of small plastic soldiers advertised in a comic book when I
was about fifteen - A few hundred red and blue AWI figures. They got
used for everything from AWI to ACW to Napoleonics and more. Airfix World War
I figures, their Arabs and Civil war stuff all got drafted. After reading
Churchill's The River War, we slaughtered a lot of plastic dervishes in those
days.