Box and contents for this Old School game
Armchair General introduces a new series of short articles describing some of the "Old School" wargames we used to play way back in time. We will revisit them, see how well they have aged, and play them once more to share the experience. It is intended to be a fun look back, as well as a short history lesson on the subject matter of the games themselves.
A little background: What it means to be "Old School"
I probably got my first Avalon Hill bookcase game around 1984. Having grown up with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons , I was not intimidated by rule books of any size. I quickly became addicted and piled game upon game into my library, as quick as my budgeted allowance and birthday money would permit. For a period of about 6 years, wargaming ranked as one of my favorite hobbies, and I could never get enough of them. Looking back, this was certainly was my personal "Golden Age" of board gaming.
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This Golden Age neared its end as I ran out of a critical resource to play the monsters – space! If you were lucky enough to have a true "monster" game (my friend had War in the Desert), you know what I am talking about. Like a small nation hungry for resources and the proverbial "breathing room," board games required more space than most of us had available. This was the start of my downfall from the paper hobby and the start of another leg of my wargaming journey.
Even with the dawn of the personal computer, I didn’t see many games on those early gaming systems (Atari’s, Intellivision, etc.) that captured my imagination like board games had done. I couldn’t look at the ugly, blocky, pixilated "simulations" that were common in the mid-80′s without turning up my nose (something I still do at the sight of poor wargame graphics). It wasn’t until the early 90′s I started to come around to computer gaming. When I got my first "real" computer, one of the first "war" games I can remember playing was Warlords by SSG (control territory, capture castles, play against seven other humans or computer opponents). While in college I would go up to the computer lab early in the morning, sit in the back row and fire up Warlords and sit there until the lab closed late that night! One wonders when I ever studied?
Obviously this game captured my imagination, much as board games had done. But it required no floor space (try playing a wargame in a dorm room!), looked pretty good, and could be played solo against many computer opponents. Despite half-hearted efforts to continue playing on a board, the lure and benefits of the computer were irrefutable. The board games went into the closet?and computer games sucked up my meager college discretionary income. This continued for many years of school, many years of living in small apartments, and many years of life in general.
Fast-forward fifteen years.
Several times over those years I would crack open the storage bins containing my games just to get them out, look over the board and counters to reminisce. They reminded me of a time of kinder, simpler gaming (and dare I say, life in general). Board games are nostalgic for me. Taking peaks into them kept the fire of my hobby burning, even if the flame was very subdued. Yet, it burned nonetheless.
While playing my first new wargame in about 15 years (Mark H. Walker’s Lock N’ Load ), I realized how much I missed the tangible feel of cardboard counters, a playing board where I can see all the units without scrolling my mouse, and a player manual with black and white rules that aren’t affected by bugs in the software code. Just pure and simple gaming. It made me once again crack open that storage bin to see what was in there. The result is this semi-regular column where I will peak inside, find a game, and air it out by playing it and sharing my experience. Maybe it will conjure some of your own memories, like it has done for me and coax you into revisiting one of these old gems.
Pulling these games out was always therapeutic in a strange way, and perhaps it is not uncommon for computer gamers (such as myself) to revisit our wargaming roots? If you share this retrospective mindset, I hope you will enjoy taking a look at these Old Schoolers with me. Let’s get right to it!
