No this is not about you Ancient.

I was rooting through the closet the other day and discovered some old hidden gems. Do you remember the days before computer games? You know those days when nerds were really hardcore with real beards and everything? Back in the day when people actually played PBM campaigns with real mail?

I was just looking at an old copy of Panzerblitz I have and had a hankering to play, but alas no one to commit to the sorting of counters task. TAC Air still begs for that ultra campaign of the full assault of a Soviet division right down to individual arty batteries, but none to loan a guarded table space for several days.

Anyhoo, does anyone else out there still play these types of games? Or even remember them? Did you drop the ton of cash to buy the Red Barricades expansion for ASL. Or did you do like most people I know and trade them in to some second hand shop for some cash for weed?

Some of the older players in my group have some old war games played with cardboard on a hex marked paper. Is that the thing you mean? It was before my time.-puts toes together and tries to look innocent.

I still play them... one of my mentors growing up was a classic wargaming nut. He was the full beard nerd, I am just the kid.

my Father introduced me to them, when I was young.

we still play stalingrad and afrika corps by real mail, and as I slowly build my collection I'm sure we'll play more.

he also was the full beard nerd. (still is, come to think of it)

AH is a little boefore my time, but we have a few old SPI games in the cellar. "Napoleon at War" "Napoleon's Last Battles" "Atlantic Wall" Dad got them, my brother wasn't as interested in them as dad hoped but I got into them.

If I remember SPI was taken over by TSR for a while and eventually bought out by AH. Yep 'Wheels, those are the games I'm talking about. The best SPI offering was Onslaught:D-Day to the Rhine Mostly because of it's playability. Advanced Squad Leader Was to date the most comprehensive tactical simulation I've ever seen, unfortunately it took a master's level education on the subject to actually play, and sorting through the infinite amount of counters was always fun. Storm Over Arnhem was a personal favorite as one could actually play it in a night, the action was fast and furious and the large size counters easy to handle. (highly reccomended game)

I have copies of the following if anyone wants to know about them.

Storm Over Arnhem, Panzerblitz, Panzerkrieg, Panzergruppe Guderian, Air Assault on Crete, MBT, Tac Air.

How about...

Horrible Green Things from Outer Space?

(I wish I still had that...)

Or a simple paper & cardboard game: Revolt on Antares.

Or..

Car Wars. (Do they still sell this?)

I have Panzer Blitz, and I know that there is some sort of freeware program to facilitate pbem avalible.

we also have
MIDWAY
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
ARAB-ISRAELI WARS (the last of the panzerblitz system)
D-DAY
1776
OREGONS OF WW2

and from SPI
FIREFIGHT
RAID
TANNENBURG
COBRA (breakout of Normandy, not GI JOE)
PLOT TO ASSAINATE HITLER
WATERLOO
these were all from the S&T magazine except for Firefight.

Theres also a copy of Dunnigan's book on wargame design somewhere here in this mess of a house.

BTW, of those who have PanzerBlitz, how quick were you to start using those maps with Battletech? When we started BT we only purchesed the Compendium and went and found the maps for PB.

Car Wars was lot of fun, We layed one game where you had to customize your own actual vehicle in game stats with a set amount of cash. My old pickup ended up mounting a gauss gun, while my buddy's 82' Honda civic had so much armor it could barely move. The good old days.

I think CW was largely eclipsed by the appearance of GURPS's autoduel.

We mostly played BT with the miniature rules, which sort of ruled out using the PB maps. But at one time we were industrious enough to make SL maps from real locations, printing them out on a computer with hex overlays.

Speaking of board games, Are there any diehard A&A, Shogun or Fortress America players? Did anyone have the rare Broadsides and Boarding Parties?

Steve Jackson Games has a new version of Car Wars out, but they've changed the way it's distributed quite a bit. You buy these duel books that have all the rules, and enough counters for a one-on-one duel. The scale has also been increased, and the rules tweaked a bit. I have a few of the books, but haven't had a chance to play with the new rules yet. (They also haven't released vehicle design rules yet, which is really frustrating.)

SJG has also reprinted Horrible Green Things From Outer Space, Lantzer.

A friend of mine used to play Shogun, Fortress American, and Axis & Allies, though we never got a copy of Broadsides and Boarding Parties. I don't know if it's still available, but they reprinted Shogun under the name Samurai Swords a few years back. That's still a great game.

Hmm, Makes me feel old.

How about Circus Imperium? - Fun game, but I've never been able to get my hands on a set.

I agree, lodestar. There were a lot of fun things you could build with Car Wars.
Like:

1) The speedy Pinto with the flamethrower on a bumper trigger.
2) Cooter and Skeeter in a pickup truck with a ram plate,tow bar, and armoured beer fridge.
3) An unarmed station wagon with a bunch of lawn-care gear and 6 guys with guns.
4) The suicidal motorcycle whiz.

Ah, the memories...

Oh, and Thanks, Xon2000
I didn't know they'd re-released it.

I still like board games, though if I am going to spend 5 hours straight playing a game I would rather it be SR.

You want to know where all the hardcore board gamers are?

Boardgame Geek is where they hang out.

Sadly I play way more Settlers of Catan than Shadowrun anymore. Stupid reality!

I like old wargames. Get it from Dad. I blew a wad to buy my Dad a copy of "Campaign for North Africa" a while back.

Heh. I picked up an old box for "Starship Troopers". The original one. 5 bucks, and in nobody-bothered-to-open-the-box condition. Time to see how the gameplay is...

Saw that about 6 years back (about the time the movie came out actually) but I didn't feel like it at the time, whats it like?