http://ferbsfightingforces.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/games-that-define-us.html
Following a theme that Ferb above himself copied, a quick spin through my wargaming history
Early years
I stayed with my dad's mum occasionally (following the divorce when I was 6). He would buy me the occasional gift to make the stay more enjoyable - small board games etc.
But the toys that stayed in my memory were Britain's Knights which I played with constantly.
As I got older these were superseded by Airfix soldiers (1:72 scale) of which I had hundreds. Mostly British and German WW2 (the Yanks and Russians didn't get a look in!) including the awesome Gun Emplacement box set.
Most of my troops were lost in the desert or the jungle (the sandpit behind the grandparent's garage or the hedge by the side of the drive).
I then got into AD&D - I was in a youth theatre group and one of the adults running it invited me and some others to have a game. Most of the others jacked it in but I was hooked for a long time. It did cause some awkward moments trying to explain what I was up to to a mystified and concerned mother ("role playing...bloke's bedroom...3 men, a woman and me...). To be fair, it DOES sound dodgy even now!
University
I carried on playing AD&D at university. I did try a few other games but always preferred D&D. Probably the defining moment was discovering the games shop in Leicester where they stocked Citadel Miniatures, ral Partha etc. and the original White Dwarf (which I bought avidly for many years - until it became the sales catalogue for Games Workshop). I must have spent half my grant money on models and paints (Humbrol enamels) - I was a terrible painter then (no idea about drybrushing, washes etc.) but I loved doing it. Painting your own character and putting him on the table to role play...great stuff!
I recently downloaded about 100 old White Dwarf's off the interweb. Oh, the memories! Some of the scenarios we played out at University (Halls of Tizun Thane, anyone?) and it brought back some good times. But also a terrible memory. I once borrowed hundreds of old WD's from a mate at Uni (they were his brothers) and promised to send them back when I'd finished reading them. Long and short - I left them in a box at a place I was renting and forgot about them. When I eventually remembered...they'd been chucked by the new occupant. The guilt wracked me for days.
But as work and moving around the country encroached, I gave up on wargaming. I played RPG's and strategy games on the PC but didn't roll a dice in anger for many, many years.
Then my son got friendly with a lad at his school who invited us both down to the club for a D&D session. We went down and I felt I'd grown out of it. But my son was also getting into Warhammer 40k and LOTR (the Games Workshop moneyspinners) and asked me to paint them up for him.
So I invested in brushes, paints - and the GW how to paint book. Which is where I learned about drybrushing etc. But it was for Junior - not me.
But while down the club I would look around at the other games and meet other people. This is how I got an interest in ancients and Napoleonics (my first army was a 6mm British Naps army for PoW). But the killer was Field of Glory. That's the rule set that really got me hooked into wargaming (my second army was a Mid Republican Roman one to take on Russ' Carthaginians). While we would occasionally go down to Deeside Defenders, we were more likely to be found in Wallasey Tennis Club's Clubhouse fighting out the Punic Wars in temperatures that often got below freezing inside the club (I have played wearing gloves and a coat in front of a heater and still could see my breath!).
But the occasional forays to Deeside Defenders meant battles with a number of people (including Steve Oates of Baggage Train fame) and met a lot of really nice people. Russ and I were then lucky to hook up with Ian, Mark and Jono and were weaned off FOG to try a host of new genres, periods and rule sets.
This includes many epic battles played out at Ian's house - most of which you'll find reports about on the blog) but which have opened up so may new possibilities.
Through this lot we've fought WW2 using Spearhead and Victory at Sea, fought all kinds of battles and periods with Principles of War (probably my favourite rules - with Spearhead - despite my tendency to throw 20's at the wrong time) as well as DBA, DBM, Grand Armee and many others (including Impetus)
In between all this, I have also acquired massive WW2, Napoleonic and ancient armies (mainly 6mm and 10mm) - and sold some on as well.
I'm now firmly in the 6mm camp and happy to stick with a small range of rules but to try new genres and periods (hence we'll soon be doing Japanese in the 16C, WW2 battles with no Germans, American War of Independence and ACW, Sword Beach, Italian Wars and WW1).
It means straining the eyes - but 6mm opens up tactical possibilities that larger scales can't. And the armies are easier and quicker to paint! So I guess for the time being that sums me up.
However, I decided to sell all my FOG books on Ebay (they're up now if you're interested) - including FOG Renaissance and FOG Napoleonics and all my FOG ancient, dark ages and medieval supplements.
Except for 3 books. I've kept the FOG rule book, Rise of Rome and Immortal Fire. I've decided to hold on to them - for nostalgia or to see if I'll pick them up again. All my new 6mm ancients are based for DBA....and FOG! So you never know...
Following a theme that Ferb above himself copied, a quick spin through my wargaming history
Early years
I stayed with my dad's mum occasionally (following the divorce when I was 6). He would buy me the occasional gift to make the stay more enjoyable - small board games etc.
But the toys that stayed in my memory were Britain's Knights which I played with constantly.
As I got older these were superseded by Airfix soldiers (1:72 scale) of which I had hundreds. Mostly British and German WW2 (the Yanks and Russians didn't get a look in!) including the awesome Gun Emplacement box set.
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Most of my troops were lost in the desert or the jungle (the sandpit behind the grandparent's garage or the hedge by the side of the drive).
I then got into AD&D - I was in a youth theatre group and one of the adults running it invited me and some others to have a game. Most of the others jacked it in but I was hooked for a long time. It did cause some awkward moments trying to explain what I was up to to a mystified and concerned mother ("role playing...bloke's bedroom...3 men, a woman and me...). To be fair, it DOES sound dodgy even now!
University
I carried on playing AD&D at university. I did try a few other games but always preferred D&D. Probably the defining moment was discovering the games shop in Leicester where they stocked Citadel Miniatures, ral Partha etc. and the original White Dwarf (which I bought avidly for many years - until it became the sales catalogue for Games Workshop). I must have spent half my grant money on models and paints (Humbrol enamels) - I was a terrible painter then (no idea about drybrushing, washes etc.) but I loved doing it. Painting your own character and putting him on the table to role play...great stuff!
I recently downloaded about 100 old White Dwarf's off the interweb. Oh, the memories! Some of the scenarios we played out at University (Halls of Tizun Thane, anyone?) and it brought back some good times. But also a terrible memory. I once borrowed hundreds of old WD's from a mate at Uni (they were his brothers) and promised to send them back when I'd finished reading them. Long and short - I left them in a box at a place I was renting and forgot about them. When I eventually remembered...they'd been chucked by the new occupant. The guilt wracked me for days.
But as work and moving around the country encroached, I gave up on wargaming. I played RPG's and strategy games on the PC but didn't roll a dice in anger for many, many years.
Then my son got friendly with a lad at his school who invited us both down to the club for a D&D session. We went down and I felt I'd grown out of it. But my son was also getting into Warhammer 40k and LOTR (the Games Workshop moneyspinners) and asked me to paint them up for him.
So I invested in brushes, paints - and the GW how to paint book. Which is where I learned about drybrushing etc. But it was for Junior - not me.
But while down the club I would look around at the other games and meet other people. This is how I got an interest in ancients and Napoleonics (my first army was a 6mm British Naps army for PoW). But the killer was Field of Glory. That's the rule set that really got me hooked into wargaming (my second army was a Mid Republican Roman one to take on Russ' Carthaginians). While we would occasionally go down to Deeside Defenders, we were more likely to be found in Wallasey Tennis Club's Clubhouse fighting out the Punic Wars in temperatures that often got below freezing inside the club (I have played wearing gloves and a coat in front of a heater and still could see my breath!).
But the occasional forays to Deeside Defenders meant battles with a number of people (including Steve Oates of Baggage Train fame) and met a lot of really nice people. Russ and I were then lucky to hook up with Ian, Mark and Jono and were weaned off FOG to try a host of new genres, periods and rule sets.
This includes many epic battles played out at Ian's house - most of which you'll find reports about on the blog) but which have opened up so may new possibilities.
Through this lot we've fought WW2 using Spearhead and Victory at Sea, fought all kinds of battles and periods with Principles of War (probably my favourite rules - with Spearhead - despite my tendency to throw 20's at the wrong time) as well as DBA, DBM, Grand Armee and many others (including Impetus)
In between all this, I have also acquired massive WW2, Napoleonic and ancient armies (mainly 6mm and 10mm) - and sold some on as well.
I'm now firmly in the 6mm camp and happy to stick with a small range of rules but to try new genres and periods (hence we'll soon be doing Japanese in the 16C, WW2 battles with no Germans, American War of Independence and ACW, Sword Beach, Italian Wars and WW1).
It means straining the eyes - but 6mm opens up tactical possibilities that larger scales can't. And the armies are easier and quicker to paint! So I guess for the time being that sums me up.
However, I decided to sell all my FOG books on Ebay (they're up now if you're interested) - including FOG Renaissance and FOG Napoleonics and all my FOG ancient, dark ages and medieval supplements.
Except for 3 books. I've kept the FOG rule book, Rise of Rome and Immortal Fire. I've decided to hold on to them - for nostalgia or to see if I'll pick them up again. All my new 6mm ancients are based for DBA....and FOG! So you never know...