Vintage Wargaming Rules

[shadegate]

I agree with Comte Michel. I like the old books, rules and games but I am generally very happy with the way the hobby has progressed over the years. Full colour rulebooks, plastic miniature ranges, large range of suppliers - I wouldn't have it any other way.

I like to collect the older games that I actually played rather than just an 'old game' collection.

[clivethecelt]

It was Operation Warboard and Quarrie's TBIM that started it for me, but I think, like everyone else, I've moved far away from the old days of WRG Ancients/WW2, Challenger and Firefly (via Cambrai to Sinai) to preferring smaller-scale battles with DBA and skirmish-type wargames like Once Upon a Time in the West. I guess the gamesmanship of wargaming that used to exist in spades (which drove me to roleplaying - and I still have all my D&D/Runequest/Traveller/Mechwarrior books) has lessened - or perhaps I'm just not encountering it any more. I still have a loft full of boardgames (Charles Vasey's brother was on my course at uni), and, though I regret getting rid of all the SL expansions (and really regret disposing of SPI's War of the Ring etc), I still think there's little to eclipse Dragon Pass, Blue Max or Merchant of Venus for gameplay. Collecting boardgames became a bit of a hobby, so there's some stinkers up there that've only been played once or twice, but most are well-used; now I'm done with that, and it's back to collecting wargames rules ...

[mikeland]

@clive
If you are liking smaller scale wargames sounds like the new BA rules will be a perfect game for you...

[Big Al]

It was Operation Warboard and Quarrie's TBIM that started it for me, but I think, like everyone else, I've moved far away from the old days of WRG Ancients/WW2, Challenger and Firefly (via Cambrai to Sinai) to preferring smaller-scale battles with DBA and skirmish-type wargames like Once Upon a Time in the West. I guess the gamesmanship of wargaming that used to exist in spades (which drove me to roleplaying - and I still have all my D&D/Runequest/Traveller/Mechwarrior books) has lessened - or perhaps I'm just not encountering it any more. I still have a loft full of boardgames (Charles Vasey's brother was on my course at uni), and, though I regret getting rid of all the SL expansions (and really regret disposing of SPI's War of the Ring etc), I still think there's little to eclipse Dragon Pass, Blue Max or Merchant of Venus for gameplay. Collecting boardgames became a bit of a hobby, so there's some stinkers up there that've only been played once or twice, but most are well-used; now I'm done with that, and it's back to collecting wargames rules ...

Operation Warboard was my starter, too. I still have it somewhere. The next step was when I was learning to drive. My instructor's son was, is a big wargamer and has written plenty of rules. We became very good friends and still are. I'll be seeing him at Triples when he visits from Guernsey. I also played WRG ancients and moderns, but couldn't really get on with DBA. Still have Once Upon a Time in the West. Excellent rules, as were Rudis.

I also have Blue Max, which had some of the most beautiful counters I've seen in a game. Check Your 6 follows a similar mechanic and the Paragon WW1 rules, although I have now switched to Wings of War/Glory.

[clivethecelt]

@mikeland: (There isn't an emote for a Smiley with a fishhook in its' mouth!)

@BigAl: You're tale sounds very familiar; I still have those rules - and GI Commander and Combined Arms, and others I can't fully recall! Wings of War/Glory is real eye-candy, though - I dare not start collecting that! We started off with Ace of Aces (not the PC game) and it went on from there. I recall some of the older games and the crummy graphics on the counters (e.g. most of the AH games) and then think of newer games and rulesets - Oriflam did a new edition of Dragon Pass for their Hero Wars series (in French) and the counter art is superb. And the HC/P&S books are a world away from the old, drab rules of the 1980s. But perhaps the old joke about how many folk singers it takes to change a light bulb could be modified for wargamers ...

[Big Al]

Very true, Clive. Got to admit, the old rules production values were poor, but some of the rules were quite good. Or is that just nostalgia talking?

[Correus]

I agree with Comte Michel. I like the old books, rules and games but I am generally very happy with the way the hobby has progressed over the years. Full colour rulebooks, plastic miniature ranges, large range of suppliers - I wouldn't have it any other way.

I like to collect the older games that I actually played rather than just an 'old game' collection.

Well said.

Something else I like to do is look through the old books, and gaming mags, and see just how far the hobby has come along.

[johnm]

I've got some of the Cry Havoc games some where lol

[Alan Charlesworth]

I think this must be an age thing - but to me Vintage Wargames Rules really means pre 1970 or at the very least pre 1980 if you really want to stretch the point. Anything since then is really quite modern

[Comte Michel]

Vintage to me is Featherstone, Grant, 1st edition WRG Ancients and the old red covered WRG Napoleonic rules. Yep, I'm getting old....