Getting Started

My brother and I have been playing wargames for the better part of 30 years.  Over this time we have played just about everything from medieval to moderns and most things in between.  We started like many others in the hobby with board games.  The first being SPI’s Desert War in 1980 followed two years later by Avalon Hill’s Squad leader, after that the exact sequence becomes fuzzy. 

  

            Playing wargames has always been more than just the game itself.  It is the entire process.  The initial inspiration for a new period, era or specific game.  These ideas could be from a book, new rule set, a movie or just a conversation.   Next comes assembling the models, painting the figures and building the terrain.  More research into the chosen subject, deciding on the rule set to be used, building scenarios and setting a date for play testing.   And then finally getting together with my brother, nephew and friends to share a common interest in history.  Most of the time it never mattered who won or lost it was more about just getting together over the things we love and escaping for a little while.   

My brother and I got into miniatures completely by accident.  We had heard of people playing wargames with model soldiers but had no direct exposure to anyone in the hobby (this was way before the internet) and had no access to any of the miniature wargaming magazines of the time.  Then in the summer of 1986 my brother came home from a local toy store with a box of 1/72 scale ESCI Zulu War British Infantry which was followed a week or two later by the Zulus themselves.    My brother has always been more disciplined than me and had the 2 boxes of figures painted up and ready before the summer was out.  With no place to get our hands on a rule set we created our own and fought our version of Isandlawana.   Thus began our entrance into the hobby of miniature wargaming. 

Our first real project was a campaign game based on Avalon Hill’s War and Peace.  We amassed a very large collection of ESCI 1/72 scale plastic Napoleonic soldiers with a few boxes of Airfix and Revell thrown in for variety.  Again my brother did most of the painting.  The two of us wrote our own tactical rules and spent entire summer of 1987 pitting the Grande Armee against all of Europe.  

All through the late 1980s and all of 1990s, my brother and I battled over the hot deserts of North Africa with everything from micro armor to 1/72 scale plastic kits all in comfort of our homes.  We refought the invasion of the Soviet Union and Germany’s invasion of France and the Low Countries.  We assaulted Gaza and Beersheba with EMHAR’s Mk IV and Airfix Mk I Male tanks against the Turkish army made by Frontier Miniatures.  We witnessed the demise of Braddock at the hands of the French as well as Custer at Little Bighorn by the Sioux.  My brother and I brought many of our friends as well as our nephew along with us for most of these battles and wars over the years.  

One of my fondest gaming memories is a US Airborne attack in Normandy.  My brother and nephew commanded the US Airborne against a dogged German force equipped with an Mk IVG and a Marder SP ATG.  After a successful reinforced Platoon assault by our 10 year old nephew, he stated that he needed to consolidate on the position and bring up reinforcements.  He knew the Germans were going to counter-attack with armor in a few minutes and he needed to be ready.   My brother refused his request for additional forces, telling him that he had to make do with what he had because he was in the process of executing the main attack.  My nephew then modified his request and asked for one of my brother’s Bazooka teams since he was likely to be quickly facing the armor.  This request my brother granted and gave him one solitary Bazooka team.  No sooner had the team arrived when the German counter-attack against my nephew’s position started.  As soon as the Germans appeared this Bazooka team disabled the Mk IV with a lucky shot and broke the German counter attack.  My brother then led the rest of the Company in a wide flanking attack that completely surprised and destroyed the Germans to win the game.   It was not the actual game that was so much fun but our nephew’s statements. Hearing a 10 year old use the words “consolidate”, “Reinforce” and “counter-attack” all correctly, and then listen to him negotiate for additional troops all on his own was a lot of fun.