Avalon Hill

[Hals und Bein Bruch]

if u are old enuff please submit your first encounter with AH. (Tactics II,ca. '65) war stories encouraged...

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Mine was with "Battle of the Bulge"

[FAC257]

I was an Avalon Hill fanatic.

I cut my Avalon Hill teeth on "1914" which is still probably my all time favorite board game. It was just heck trying to find opponents back when it first came out. The artwork alone on the board I'm not sure has ever been bested.

I had an ultra-complete set of Panzer Blitz & Panzer Leader. I was a subscriber to the "General" at the time so I had all the add-on punch counters and scenerios. Even went as far as buying all the custom plastic tray inserts for the boxes. As many years as I had those I made sure they stayed complete and in pristine condition.

[Overshoe]

Tactics II & Dispatcher in '64. General subscriber. Convention goer. Early SPI involvement S&T subscriber. Active wargamer into 1998 when I drifted away to computer games exclusively. Best win-loss record, AH Battle of the Bulge 73-1, Worst win-loss record, Panzer Blitz Countless losses to very few wins. Most played: AH Richtofen's War. All time favorite game: Victory Games - The Civil War.

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I loved Avalon Hill. I still have 1776, D-Day and Battle of the Bulge in their original boxes nothing missing. I wish I still had outdoor survival and kriegspiel - loved those games. I also have the blue and gray a civil war game - same era same theme - different company.

I moved on into computer games but then stumbled across a freebie - TAO2 - the ardennes offensive 2 a computer based battle of the bulge with multiple scenarios. I have played the heck out of it but it only works on pre-XP systems as I understand it. Suffice to say the maker of TAO2 is strategic studies group (SSG) and their computer games bring back most of the old Avalon Hill thrill. I have Battles in Normandy and am going to buy Kharkov. Outstanding games but still TAO2 is a favorite. I will always try to keep a Win98 system around so I can play it.

-Ed-

[Hern07]

My first, like so many of you was Battle of the Bulge, the second was Crete. The main thing I remember was it took about an hour to set up and you had to be very careful not to juggle the board. But, boy, was it historically accurate. I still have it in mint condition. I wish they had computer versions. The few computer games I've played couldn't touch it for making you really think about the battle and tactics. Remember all those straight edges for determing lines of fire?

[Craig Taylor]

My first two were Luftwaffe and Richtofen's War. Up until a few years ago when I moved, two friends of mine and I would get together every six months or so and play a marathon session of Third Reich. We'd start about 9am on a Saturday and play until someone admitted they couldn't win and surrendered - then we'd go out for breakfast. :costumes:

[eddie]

Hard to remember which AH game I ever got first, but its a tie between Battle of the Bulge, Midway and Chancellorsville. Don't have them anymore, but I do still have Fortress Europa and Gettysburg. Have the PC version of Third Reich, which brings back great memories,lol Have to check to find the link, but you can still dl the PC version of TR for free, and works just fine on XP.

For those of you who remember the great designers of these type board games, Red Simonson died in 2005, but Jim Dunnigan is still around. I still have his book on watgaming, that gives great memories too!

EasyEd, check this link for AH board games, 7 pages of them, which you can still purchase. Some are quite spendy though,lol

http://www.nobleknight.com/ViewProdu..._A_GenreID_E_0

[Panther_99FS]

Avalon Hill....Now this brings back some found memories

Does anyone remember a WW-I game that you played with a deck of cards? I have some memories of this but I can't recollect the name of the game...:isadizzy:

[crashaz]

First one I got was Panzer Leader .... a Christmas present. That had to have been... oh 1978. Was really kinda of too young at first to know how to play.

In 1982 I got Flattop... a birthday present. By that time I was old enough and of course it dealt with the Pacific. Spent many a weekend gaming with it and by that time Panzer Leader.

Mom and Dad used to go off to work and of course we had a list of chores to complete. As soon as they were out the door... my friend came over and we would set up the boards on the kitchen table. Gamed for the next 8-9 hrs... then spent the last 15 min doing chores. :costumes:

My gaming ended in college around 1990.... found no one who wanted to play?

I bought a pristine copy of Flattop a couple years ago off EBay... counters still in the sheets. Will bust them open again when I can find someone who wants to play.

[FlyTexas]

I loved those AH games! First played Luftwaffe back in the early 70's. Owned Richtofen's War, Luftwaffe, and after moving away from my gaming partner I purchased B-17: Queen of the Skies...a single player game. I'd highly recommend B-17: Queen of the Skies to anyone who doesn't live close to a gaming partner. Here's a few links regarding the game.

Brian

http://www.homefrontcenter.de/English/b17_review.html
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/111915?size=large
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-...R2M5Z4G9CCXR3A

[Hals und Bein Bruch]

LUFTWAFFE !!! I'd forgotten that one!! Richthofen's War, of course, ... and MIDWAY, natch...yet, I gotta say, Origins of WW2 and yes... 1914! THE greatest board ever mated to a game EVER !!! were my paragons back "in the day" mind you I never finished a game of 1914 in my life- anyone who sez he did is LYING...

[Dain Arns]

"Richthofen's War". I've always been very interested in WWI airplanes and that air war. When my parents moved to Montana, it was hard to find folks that played. I think that's one of the reasons I later played "Red Baron" to death on my PC in the early 1990's.

I started up playing those types of games again in college, with a couple AH games my friends had, sorry can't remember the names now. One was a eastern Europe - Cold War scenario game it seemed like.

We ended up playing with a new one that was going around called "Battletech". I've still got the original 'pamphlet' style game books that were the mechs with the stats in them, before the figurines. We used to go to a gaming shop called, Merlyn's in Spokane, WA. It's still around today.

[Cratermaker]

No one had Squad Leader/Iron Cross?

[dhasdell]

I had U-Boat, but my favourite was B-17, Queen of the Skies, which I still have. My B-17 was "Pretty Peaches", and we had some real heart-in-the-mouth experiences!

[Eoraptor1]

No one had Squad Leader/Iron Cross?

I had both, and the French 1940 Campaign expansion. I never got GI: Anvil of Victory, though. I also had the whole PanzerBlitz series of games. My first AH game was Luftwaffe. I think my favorite was Tobruk.

JAMES

[Craig Taylor]

Wow - I had completely forgotten about Squad Leader. I also had Cross of Iron and Crescendo of Doom. They later were adapted by Microsoft and another software company whose name escapes me (Atomic Games, I think) into the Close Combat series real-time strategy games for PC. There's a strong cult following (check here for more info http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/) with lots of mods out there. Both single-player and multiplayer are supported. Even the Marines have signed on with the developer for a customized training simulator.

[GT182]

I've never seen The Queen of The Skies board game, but I'd love to get my hands on a copy of the mission chart. It could be useful for the computer game B-17 Flying Fortress "The Mighty 8th".

[FAC257]

Anyone remember clearing a large part of the floor to serve as the ocean and bringing out Jutland? That was another of my favorites.

I had a best friend that was also an Avalon Hill fan and just about my only opponent. Between the two of us we had a good collection. Anzio, Afrika Korps, Jutland, 1914, Panzer Blitz, Panzer Leader, Squad Leader, Gettysburg, Kriegspiel and a few others.

My favorite will always be 1914 which as was stated earlier never saw a finished game. My buddy was a fanatic for anything German and always took the Axis side. We'd play the full scale version which could easily take a month to play at several hours a day. About 2/3 of the way through every game he would eventually give in.