What got you started?

[levied troop]

What got you started on wargaming?

I was reminded by a Frothers thread and finding the book that started me off on toy soldiers at the back of the under-the-stairs cupboard last week:



I was quite obsessed by this book and it's illustrations, then discovered Donald Featherstone and realised I could play with them as well. My bank manager has wept ever since.

What got you going?
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Odo: Against whom and for whom did you fight?
Balian of Ibelin: For one lord against another, on a point which cannot be remembered.
Odo: There's better game now: one God against another. The pay is proportionate.

[Timmo]

I had lots of Airfix HO/OO figures and had begun making WW2 tank and vehicle models when a school friend told me about the games he played with his models that had rules, dice, measurements etc

Suitably fascinated he lent me his rule book that I think may have been an Airfix publication and I played a few solo games. A year later I moved schools and met quite a few lads who were into gaming, Shuke B, was one of those. Collectively they introduced me to metals. SB and I used to travel on the train to school so much of our time was spent discussing our gaming plans. My history teacher started my ECW interest which rose above WW2 and Napoleonics. After about a year I went to my first Salute and finally got a reasonably sound set of ECW rules – WRG George Gush.

SB and I played all sorts of things plus my school friends had simply massive 25mm Naps collections that I played with…

[Ronan the Librarian]

Issue 1, Volume 1 of Military Modelling and reading a copy of "The Wargame" by Charles Grant.

Before that, I'd just "played" with my Airfix figures. In fact, I was painting and converting before I wargamed, as I bought some Almark books on ACW uniforms (only recently sold them to Tel D ) and used them to produce more varied units.
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Muttley, you snickering, cloth-eared hound - when courage is needed, you're never around.
Those medals you wear on that moth-eaten chest, should be there for bungling, at which you are best.

[John Ray]

My parents/uncle purchased metal/plastic Toy figures for me every week.

From the age of five I was making my own figures from plasticine and pins.

Then like many I purchased Airfix but never painted any.

In my late teens met Steve Hezzlewood and away we went on a great journey........ and I have never looked back.

John

[Eccles]

A friend in college. He owes me big time.
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Has anyone seen my little dog?

[Gungnir]

Airfix ACW figures. Still got them, in the original 40+ years old horrible paint job.
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Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
Pee on it and walk away.

[levied troop]

My first ever painted army was Airfix Romans and Ancient Britons, complete with a general in a 4 horse roman chariot
_________________
Odo: Against whom and for whom did you fight?
Balian of Ibelin: For one lord against another, on a point which cannot be remembered.
Odo: There's better game now: one God against another. The pay is proportionate.

[Fire at Will]

"The Wargame" by Donald Featherstone found in my local library, soooo many years ago.

[Cornet]

I painted 1/72 Airfix figures when I was 11 ... probably WW2 americans, brits, and germans; and/or Americans and Brits from AWI. None of them particularly well ... and my interest didn't last long because the paint kept flaking off.

Actual wargaming with standardized rules started for me in High School. My friends and I played Avalon Hill and SGI bookcase games -- Panzer Blitz, Panzer Leader, Squad Leader, Air Assault on Crete, etc.

I wasn't until this year that I've tried combining the two.
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Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those/ Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loup'ed clothes.

[Peewee]

I used to do the old model kits thing when I was a nipper. But they were just toys really, until I got into D&D and all that malarkey and realised that rather than moving tanks around and making tank noises (although I still do) you can actually make a game of it. From then on it was Warhammer and it's been steadily down hill ever since...
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Anyone fancy a snog?

[brian horrocks]

Started on model kits then started on Donald Featherstones books because they had a shelf full at Bleakhouse Library near home,Got my first metal figures(Hinchliffe Naps) from a shop in Brum.Progressed to Quarries Napoleonic rules which we still use in a modified form,then WW2 and ECW with somw WW1 naval WW2 coastal,never done any serious Fantasy except for Call of Cthulu mainly because ive read most of the stories.
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next trains gone!

[Richard B.]

I`ve played with soldiers as long as I can remember, my Mum says i was an easy child to please a box or two of Airfix and i was happy

They serialised the Airfix WW2 rules in Action/Battle comic around 1970 and this was the first time I saw real rules.

Then i discovered Military Modelling and Battle magazines when i was 11 and started secondary school. I also discovered Featherstone, Charles Grant and Terry Wise at our loacl library about that time.

Had a technical drawing teacher who was a wargamer, he introduced us to board games.

Took up D&D, Runequest and CoC at about 15 and actually ran a role-playing club for 10yrs until I rediscovered historicals and turned away from the dark world of fantasy
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Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie!"......till you can find a rock

I am the editor of the SOTCW magazine The Journal

[Count Belisarius]

Started as others with numerous Airfix figures but even though throwing and rolling things at them we still had 'campaigns' - the Danish Civil War comes to mind!

Then found a book on Wargames, can't remember by who, which dealt with Kriegspiel through to modern military wargames. Found the usual books at the library and then talked to my history teacher, Mr Smith.

He was a star. When we did Quebec he taught us all musket drill, took us outside and had one lot loading and the others marching then charging towards them, making us stick to the drill to see how effective our volley was!

Anyway, he introduced me to a fifth year lad who gamed and from that I started going to Shrewsbury Wargames Club

And rest as they say, is (military) history...

Andy
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My blog, Another Slight Diversion and my club, Tyneside Wargames

[Duck Crusader]

An uncle of mine who was a WWII Pacific vet who always bought me Britans Deetail soldiers when I was a pup, and who had a moth=eaten copy of Little Wars...
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When you're discussing MRE's in terms of acres you know something has gotten truly screwed up.

[Big Dave]

I was already a roleplayer when some one gave me a box of epic models.
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Dave's Wiki

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[Barry s]

Mum and Dad bought me a box of Aifix Cowboys in the mid 70's.

[Arthur]

I won't be terribly original here, but the Airfix plastic figures did it for me as well. Along with their Atlantic colleagues : I have fond memories of the ancient Egyptian and Greek series and the big boxed sets - the Trojan horse, the Greek galleys and the mammoth Roman Coliseum among others.

Those plus the Funcken books on the arms and uniforms of just about everybody throughout the history of mankind.
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'But apart from the roads, the schools, the sewer system and the efficient administration, what have the Romans ever done for us ?'

[Big Dave]

Should I be ashamed that I Was in my late 20's when I bought my first airfix product?!
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The Man, The Legend - BUY MY STUFF!
Dave's Wiki

http://www.amazon.co.uk/shops/indavesworld

[valleyboy]

for some strange reason always had an interest in things military
got some airfix figs one xmas ( remember lying in bed on xmas eve pretending to be asleep when my dad or father christmas brought in about 8 boxes of figs)

I recall the yellow Napoleonic Highlaners that eventually got a blue kilt painted on them but just about bugger all else and some French Cuirassiers.

Later as a final year student 1982 picked up a copy of MW in Smiths and was hooked. A few weeks later my wife went to London to visit a friend and called into Bill Brewers shop in Pekham and asked for some Naps - didn't know what just a few packets she left up to him and came back with some French and Brits. Later got Bruce Quarries Napoleon's Camppaigns in Miniature and now some 9,000 Naps later here we are
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"Heads up by God, those are cannon balls not turds"

[MikP]

What got me started?
A combination I'd say of some Timpo, Airfix and Britains toy soldiers given to me, some Britains rail fencing (which I used as a barbed wire belt when it was laid flat on the ground), a fort made for me by my dad, the Crossbows and Catapults game and then the Hamlyn book "Wargames" by David Nash. Somewhere in there too is borrowing a book on twentieth century wargaming from the library though I can't remember the exact title.

Oh and Prince August moulds from the local Toymaster coupled with a visit to an early Colours show helped move forward into metal and precast figures.
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"And when the party's over,
It's all over"
Blue Oyster Cult

[Theo]

Like wooly and I guess most of us I too always had an interest in military history.

I think it began with mom getting me booklets in English in an effort to teach me English herself before I even got a proper teacher. These were small books for kids ( most published by a company called Ladybell I think or Penguin) and they were filled with beautiful illustrations and of course simple text. Mom knew of my fascination for history (she shares it) and the vast majority were on historical subjects. I still have a lovely one on Trafalgar and another on Napoleon. Growing up I had the immense luck to find an Irish lady who taught me English from the age of 8 to the age of 15. She eventually gave me every book in her library to read and she had lots with a historical context too.

In all that time I was buying the only toy soldiers I could find here which were plastic 54mm figures, set in the WW2. I remember spending hours in my granny's terrace setting them up etc.

A breakthrough came when coming back from shopping with grandma we passed by the local toy store. I guess she responded to my plaintive look 'cause we went in and there I saw the most brilliant sight I had ever seen. A huge box with British soldiers fighting the Zulus on the cover!!!(I had seen Zulu of course! lol). It was an ESCI box with 1:72 minis which ALSO had terrain in it!!!! A vacuformed piece of terrain depicting Isandlwana.
That truly hooked me to toy soldiers. It was the smaller size of minis that I loved I think. I went from a kid like all other kids who play with toy soldiers to an addict!
After that I also got the ESCI box with the Romans fighting the barbarians. That had an even cooler piece of terrain with the Romans defending a piece of low wall. Divine stuff!

My interest waned as I grew up and discovered basketball then girls (in that order). I always kept my minis though and did on occassion take out to fondle (yes even as a teenager! lol)

At 19 I left home for the UK to study at uni. Stayed for 5 years. It was during that time that I found out that there was an actual hobby revolving around miniatures, that there were metal minis, actual rules etc.
A critical role was played by the Spanner and Yank website ran by Mike and my beloved Dal which showed me the AB minis. That was it. I was hooked for life. The rest is history as they say :-)

[Purple]

Always fascinated by Military when I was younger, Movies, Books, etc. My Grandad used to give me lots of his books, mostly Naval and Arial Warfare - but he used to take me to airshows and museams etc - at one I picked up an Airfix Churchil Tank and my love affair with models and miniatures started.

Year later I found Donald Featherstones 'Battles with Model Soldiers'

I think I probaly read it 25 times at least.
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"I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members"

[Stavka]

My Mum and Dad instilled an interest in military history long ago. Had loads of Timpo and Britains plastic knights, and of course it was inevitable that they gave me a bunch of boxes of the Airfix Napoleonics.

The first ones I bought myself with my own pocket money, though, was the WW1 Royal Horse Artillery set which I still have somewhere (along with those knights and a castle to go with them!)

As far as actual wargaming goes, it was probably this book;



Along with Featherstone's Battles with Model Soldiers and Wargaming the Ancient and Medieval Periods.


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"History is my muse, not my tyrant." -me, 2009, channelling Eccles.

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[Prince of Darkness]

I've played with and painted plastic and lead figures since I can remember. I had a decent number of Airfix Naps and WW2, and then ancient Greeks and Egyptians by some other manufacturer. I was heavily into fantasy gaming with my school chums by age 12, and that ran concurrently with "wargaming" until I went to university.

But there were 3 events that made me realise what wargaming proper was about, all of which happened when I was 12/13. First, I had a long chat about it with Paddy Griffith (who is my brother's godfather) one Sunday afternoon; he devised a game with my plastic ancients ans gave me a copy of a book of strategy games he had just published. Secondly, I found a copy of Miniatures Wargames No. 11 in WH Smiths and discovered wargaming with lead figures in different scales. Third, I acquired a copy of Bruce Quarrie's "Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature" which was advertised in that issue of MW; I think it had just been published in paperback.

Shortly thereafter the Battle Honours 15mm Nap range first came out and I spent the next 5-7 years collecting Naps and also became interested in the Colonial 25mm figures that the Perries were producing for Foundry. I lapsed a bit at university, but kept collecting and painting (always on Friday afternoons, in between my last tutorial of the week and getting hammered in the college bar). I then "collected" and "painted" all kinds of things, until about 2002 when I discovered the "General de Brigade" forum and started actively participating in games.

I've always regarded myself as a "wargamer", because that was always the end to which my "collecting" and "painting" was striving towards. But in terms of actual "gaming", I suppose I am a relatively new participant.

[Ronan the Librarian]