Wargaming in the 1970's

[pierre the shy]

Some of you more mature gents might recognize some of the gamers playing in this British TV series hosted by Edward Woodward refighting Waterloo, Chalons, Edgehill and Gettysburg.

Looks like the three piece suits from the 60's have been replaced by some fairly large mullets.......

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdAPAly2sNIUdymRCXrz3gImY388My00J

[jimduncanuk]

Some of you more mature gents might recognize some of the gamers playing in this British TV series hosted by Edward Woodward refighting Waterloo, Chalons, Edgehill and Gettysburg.

Looks like the three piece suits from the 60's have been replaced by some fairly large mullets.......

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdAPAly2sNIUdymRCXrz3gImY388My00J

Mature gent here:

Yes, seen all of these many times before, know (knew) some of the guys involved, those were the days.

[Leman]

I remember an episode of Callan, in which our hero had a Crimean wargame set up. He was baiting a Russian spy over the fact that Russia lost.

[jambo1]

Great stuff, have seen this before but it is still a good watch.

[paulr]

A very enjoyable watch

I'm off to partake in some 70s style Napoleonic gaming this evening, complete with Airfix figures and bounce sticks

[Leman]

On the other hand I regard wargaming in the 1970s as a point in the development of wargaming. Since then both rules and figures and variety of periods have improved and it is now a major hobby. I would not want to go back to that time.

[FierceKitty]

No, definitely not. Those clunky rules, mismatched figures that wouldn't hold paint and never covered any period satisfactorily, and endless fits of sulks by players in their teens (I suppose that one's still with us today. In fact, I'm thinking of a particular 32-year-old teenager...).

[fsn]

Oh I don't know. There was an innocence and simplicity about the time. It was a lot more forgiving insofar as if your French Chasseurs started life as US cavalrymen, then that was fine. You didn't complain that the shako cords were the wrong pattern for the 4th December 1811. The rules were a lot simpler - yes. In the 1980s they got complicated, but in the 1970s they were very simple. Probably the accent was more on the "game" than there is now.

My figures stayed painted - except for the musket barrels.

[FierceKitty]

In my experience - I speak for nobody else - the game took six times as long with fewer tactical decisions in those days. Remember I was out on the fringes, however.

[vonlacy]

I remember we only had one show in the Northwest - Northern Militaire. You had to que for half an hour to get in!
We would get exited when ever Minifigs, Hinchcliffe or Garrison released a new figure, there seemed to be only three figure manufacturers in the late 60s early 70s, if you didn't count plastics like Spencer Smith or Airfix or 15mm like Mikes Models.

How lucky we are today!

[Leman]

Unusually I agree with FK on this one. Hour after hour trying to work through WRG 4th and 5th editions. I seem to remember it was the 60s that was the period of simpler games. I remember a set of rules for the ACW produced by a London group right at the end of the 60s or very early 70s which were so complex and detailed that they were virtually unplayable.

[Ithoriel]

I moved to WRG First Edition Easter of 1969. They were a revelation at the time. Rules that took the WAR part of wargames as seriously as the GAMES part. In those days I had time and opponents aplenty but I don't recall finding WRG fiddly - gone were the buckets of dice, the weird paraphenalia like canister triangles and bounce sticks and in came a hobby I could claim as studying military history rather than playing with toy soldiers.

"Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back"
I thought I knew what love was - what did I know?
Those days are gone forever, I should just let them go
but ... "

[Leman]

Which about sums it up. I like to see a battle un folding, but at the same time I want a fun game. Couldn't give a monkey's whether the heavy bladed weapon has one edge for a factor of 1 or two edges for a factor of two. I wonder if this is why skirmish games were invented?