Avalon Hill's Gettysburg.  Not the later versions with hexagons, but the really old one with big squares, different sized die cut counters for infantry, cavalry, artillery, HQ's and OP's, and a special ruler for movement when you didn't want to be bound by the squares. 

I can't remember exactly when this was, but I think it was slightly before 1960.  Tactics II had squares, but after that everything was in hexagons.  They eventually did a remake of Gettysburg using hexes, though I never played that one.

I gave  up wargaming for a few years when I went off to college.  What brought me back was SPI's Year of the Rat and Destruction of Army Group Center.

45 years old.

Axis & Allies in '84. I made my own rule expansions for this, always a frustrated game designer (even now!).

Next up in order were Aegean Strike, AH Third Reich and GDW's Third World War series and everything possibly considered a classic in the 80's and 90's; then UMS collection on the Amiga, Civilization II in 1997 then Hearts of Iron I on the PC in 2002...

SSG's Battlefront (the C64 version)

I'm 43, and my first hex-based wargame was Steve Jackson's OGRE (with G.E.V. soon after).  This was around 1980, and I was chiefly into D&D at the time, although I did make sure to own SQUAD LEADER (never had a group to play with) and PANZERBLITZ.  I also got into CAR WARS, which, while not hexes, was definitely a tactical battle system.

My first really hardcore wargames were actually on the Apple IIe:  SSI's GERMANY 1985 and their D-Day game.  These were full-blown attempts to do on the PC what Avalon Hill was doing on cardboard, and they were pretty impressive for the time.

40 years old, first game was AH's Victory in the Pacific, followed by Midway.  It was a long time ago.

It wasn't so much a game but a movie. In '77 during the summer a friend and I saw A Bridge too Far. It was then the novel idea occured to me, are there games that simulate warfare? How wonderful this would be. A visit to the local hobby store really opened my eyes to what was out there and I was hooked for life. Started with AH's Midway then Panzer Leader. Kriegspiel and the ground breaking Squad Leader the following year.

Being 58 we would play Bismark by Avalon hill. Later in school it was 3rd Reich and some of their other products but it always seemed to be 3DR that we always played.

When the Amiga 500 came out I was hooked on computer games, especially when 360 and SSI came out with some of there

products for the Amiga.

Wayne

Milton Bradley Broadsides.. I think there was a WWI Dogfighting Game... For PC, I think it was Perfect General II and then of course Steel Panthers... After that Close Combat a Bridge to Far..

Artifact and Alert Force.  Recall a long gone local game shop sold these microgames for around 5 bucks.

Originally Posted By Paul Roberts (18 FEB 2012 3:06pm)

I'm 43, and my first hex-based wargame was Steve Jackson's OGRE (with G.E.V. soon after).  This was around 1980, and I was chiefly into D&D at the time, although I did make sure to own SQUAD LEADER (never had a group to play with) and PANZERBLITZ.  I also got into CAR WARS, which, while not hexes, was definitely a tactical battle system.

 

My first really hardcore wargames were actually on the Apple IIe:  SSI's GERMANY 1985 and their D-Day game.  These were full-blown attempts to do on the PC what Avalon Hill was doing on cardboard, and they were pretty impressive for the time.

Holy deja vu. I am also 43 and was playing a very similar list of games during that period (sub in SSI's White Lighting for Germany '85)

The one that got it all going for me was an encounter with AH Flattop when I was 14. I was instantly hooked for life.

Cool thread. Glad it got a well deserved bump.

Age 42

Not that Empire (the old computer game) is a real wargame, that is the first war-themed one I can remember. I have played lots of lighter wargames like the original Close Combat series, panzer general. Dabbled in Hearts of Iron. I'm sure I don't qualify to be bestowed the title of a true wargamer 

Oh I see many familiar games above

cmurphy:

There was Broadsides and yes a WWI fighter game in which you put the planes on pedestals and moved them around the map. MB also made a Civil War game with Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery pieces.  Can't remember the names of the last two.

Quick Internet Search:  Dogfight and Battlecry

59. 1964-AH Battle of the Bulge, my fate sealed in 1970-AH Panzerblitz, computerized 1984-TRS-80-AH Dneiper River Line.  Never looked back.

Originally Posted By Johnnie (18 FEB 2012 6:42pm)

cmurphy:

There was Broadsides and yes a WWI fighter game in which you put the planes on pedestals and moved them around the map. MB also made a Civil War game with Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery pieces. Can't remember the names of the last two.

Quick Internet Search: Dogfight and Battlecry

Lots of board games here.  I'm only 26.  I've never even seen a board game other than Risk and Axis and Allies. 

As for me, I went to a friends house when I was 14 and played Steel Panthers 3 for hours on end.  My friend was dumbfounded when my wave of Shermans overran his battalion of Tigers.  Looking at the smoked out ruins at the end of the battle sealed it for me.

My first wargames were AH Squad Leader & AH Blitzkrieg.  I bought both back in 1977 at a local Hobby Shop (when there used to be Local Hobby Shops).  I was hooked right then a there.  I'm still hooked 35 Years later.

My first experience with computer wargaming goes back to the Ads I used to see for Talonsofts Civil War battlegrounds series.  They would be in the Civil War Times.  I finally got one (Ironicaly it was not a Civil War game , but Battleground Waterloo).  I remember playing it all night until I looked out the window and noticed it was light out.  Been hooked on PC wargames too.

Plastic soldiers (arifix ones I believe). I used a small amrble for small arms fire and a big marble for Arty. I'd set the up in the living room find ing nucks and crannies so it makes it harder to hit them.

Also I peice of paper and a red pen and a blue pen. Fold paper in half. Draw your stick soldiers and planes and tanks on one half, you or your mate then draws the other army on the other half. You then take turns what you do is draw a small circle and clour it in on your side trying to guess where it will end up whn you fold the paper over again. Fold the paper then find the back of the circle you drew (bit bigger than a dot) you then draw the circle again over it and it will leave an imprint on the enemy side, if it hit s its a kill. Two hits needed for a tank. 

A great game for 8 to 12 year olds even is they are on their own they can play it, plus it's free and you can add rules and be creative as you like. I used to use real big pieces of paper and do sci fi battles. At the end of the battle (if you drew the blood and explosions etc) it actualy looks like a devastating battle. That was my first homemade wargame.

I also owned Car Wars, Sunday drivers and Truck Stop.  Oh and Kingmaker (which was probabaly my first proper wargame)

I never really condidered the Milton Bradley games "wargames" per se.  I do, however, remember memorizing the historical parts of the instruction booklets on the toilet.

I was introduced to my first wargame, 1914, no less, by a friend who described it to me.  He also tried to explain that he could not go home and bring it back to the park bench where we sat so we could play it then and there.  He did, however, take it out and show it  to me.  Wow!  I was hooked for good.

This was long, long before on line shopping, or computers, for that matter.  The only retail outlet selling Avalon Hill Games, that I knew of, was a 60 minute walk cum bus ride away, a stationary store on the Grand Concourse off Fordham Road in the Bronx, "Shippmanns Stationary," if memory serves.  I saved my pennies and purchased:  1914;  Gettysburg; Waterloo; and Jutland over the next year or so. 

This post is starting to sound like a Norman Rockwell painting.  I'm 60 years old as we speak.  I must have been 17 or so at the time.  Time flies when you're having fun,  I guess.

41 years old.  My first game was as a 10 year old -- AH's Bismarck.  I then moved on the Third Reich in my teens, but the one that I very much desired, and didn't get, was the Germany '85/RDF '85/Baltic '85/Norway '85 set of "When SuperPowers Collide".  The ads were very cool, of course.  I did end up getting North Atlantic '86, but that was a rather different primarily naval game.

Avalon Hill's France 40 and Third Reich (1st Edition)

DCosta, your mention of the plastic soldiers reminded me of one of my favorite items as a kid:

Originally Posted By Rostfrei (19 FEB 2012 4:13pm)

DCosta, your mention of the plastic soldiers reminded me of one of my favorite items as a kid:

 

Wow...I had the exact same set.....it was the staple of my toy soldiers.  Love that thing.

Went from playing RISK straight to Third Reich in the late 70's. Ceasar: Alesia and Russian Campaign quickly followed and I was completely hooked. First computer game was Velikiye Luki from Atomic. Still the best wargame engine to date in my opinion.

It's been a while since I played any of the Atomic Games WW II series, but I think I agree with you.  I really like that it used simultaneous turns, and it wasn't afraid to use abstraction to model niggly little activities.  If anything, the use of abstraction not only removes the tedium of a lot of small, inconsequential activities, but is more realistic to boot.  I really wish John Tiller had taken a page from their book and been less literal about all the shooting.

And in the later games (Avalon Hill, I think), I loved what happened when you clicked on the pin-up girl.