Games that define us.

Well, a day late as usual. But I thought that this was an interesting one to try. So, here goes.

1.Risk:
I played many, many games of this over the years, quite a few solo when I had mono in the 6th grade. I still love this game, but can't get my family to play it. I bought Lord of The Rings Risk when it came out and am tempted to buy Risk Legacy

2. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons:
What else can I say. Started playing this around 12 or 13. I had seen the basic boxed set when I was 10 but did not understand it at all. Played all through high school but drifted away as the group went their separate ways to college etc.

3.Blitzkrieg:
I believe that this was my first hex and counter wargame. I ended up trading for it with the kid who introduced me to gaming. Many fond memories of massive armor battles in the Northern Desert.

4.Third Reich:
We tried to play this one several times with our gaming group, but we never had the stamina to finish. We tried the 1939 scenario many times, but the axis player could never get things off the ground anywhere near like how it went historically. For some reason the Poles and the French were always much more tenacious in our games. The 1942 scenario was a little more successful, but this time D-Day was always hard to pull off.

5.Squad Leader:
Perhaps this should be higher on the list. Many hours of fun and campaigns. Played through all of the original scenarios and Cross of Iron. Never bought Crescendo of Doom or Anvil of Victory. After a short hiatus I picked up ASL and played with a friend from work. We played a couple of tournaments in  Pennsylvania in the early 90's.

6.Gamma World:
Back to high school again and our secondary rpg of choice. We usually had one kid who DMed AD&D and another who DMed this one. He was so chaotic and zany that it just all worked. He came up with crazy mutated animals and had the idea for an all ammo gun. It was a gun with a funnel on the top, pour in the ammo and fire away. Preposterous but fun. Our main goal was always to find some kind of vehicle chassis that we could weld armor and weapons onto.

7.Traveller:
This one was my purview and I loved the gritty feel of this it. We always had a merc smuggler thing going on. The major problem for us was that creating characters took longer than they survived in play. As you may have surmised at this point, we were not a cerebral puzzle solving bunch. In whatever genre we played it was about arriving in town and immediately picking fights with whom so ever dared to face us. Which usually meant everyone.

8.Civilization:
Both the board game and the computer game. I think that this is what got me on the world building and epic sweep of history campaign thing. I would very much like to transport this to the tabletop, but have yet to achieve it.

9.Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition / Mighty Empires:
I had played some small staple bound black and white rules, which I've lost track of, but when I saw WFB I was hooked. Unfortunately I only really ever played one battle, which I lost and then tried to keep the campaign going by mail using the Mighty Empires set. My most successful map to date was of this game. I think I got back into the idea of gaming just to try and resurrect this campaign.

10.Medieval Total War:
This computer title really brought together elements of Risk, Civilization and Tabletop for me. While I have enjoyed Rome, Barbarian Invasion, Alexander and Medieval II (I started the AWI and Napoleonic ones but didn't care for the format change as much) the first one and its expansion were my favorites. I wish I could play them without crashing now. Maybe an emulator is the way to go. One of the things I have been hoping to do, especially after reading Tony Bath, is using concepts of resource management from total war to fight out a campaign.

At this juncture I have fallen pretty solidly into Two Hour Wargames, but have yet to really play one as I have become a terrible fiddler with rules, rather than just palying them. I need to rectify that, and get to painting some figures. So that's pretty much it.

Welcome to BattReps. I can't tell if you have a blog from your google friend.

And I've now passed the 5000 views mark, but have become a little frustrated about my lowly state as I  approach my 1st anniversary. Especially after reading this post from the Frontline Gamer.Well I suppose that writing about a niche within a niche will have that effect. I still need to read up on some blogging tips and I did re submit to Figoblogotheque and Table Top Gaming News Blog Network. We shall see.

*Update - I made it on Figoblogotheque. Woohoo!*