How long have you been a gamer?

[exilesjjb]

Well in my intro I told you I had been a gamer for a while, at my Dads this weekend I found the evidence and aske him to mail me a copy so here it is.


does anyone else have old pics of them gaming then


EDIT: Pic resized.

[Steve J]

No pics of my formative gaming years, which is probably for the best . I think I first started wargaming in the early 1970s with Airfix figures and tanks and a fantasy game called "Thane Tostig" IIRC.

[goat major]

Thankfully no early pics of me. Like probably everyone I starter with airfix and then in the late 70s migrated to Garrison Greeks and Persians (still got some of them) . I mostly got sidetracked by Role playing in the 80s before emerging unscathed.

Steve - I remember looking at the adverts for Thane Tostig in Military Modelling and thinking that those Minot figures were fantastic. They don't look quite so fantastic nowadays though

[Steve J]

I still have quite a few figures from that time as "Thane Tosting" led onto D&D and you're right, the quality is not the best. However, I can't quite bring myself to throw them away as they bring back many happy memories. When Ral Partha first appeared they seemed amazing.

[NTM]

My interest was started by receiving almost every box of 1:35 WW2 figures Airfix made from a couple of my Uncles for Xmas c. 1975. Got involved in 'structured' wargaming in 1983 when I went to Grammar school which had a wargames society. No pictures I am aware of from those times. All of the first plastic figures and my 1:300 stuff from the mid 80's have been sold off or given away but most of the rest remains including some early 40k figures which I have recently found out can sell for over £10 each!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Since I took out a copy of Feathersons "Wargames", roughl;y 1969/70.

ianS

[capthugeca]

Sorry - also no picks but I have been gaming as long as I can remember.

My parents used to paint 54mm figures for Britain's in their spare time so there were always figures around.

My father made a small board,  gave my brother and I Airfix ACW figures back in the fairly early 60's and taught us some simple rules.
He then further encouraged me (my brother was never that interested) with Airfix cowboys and indians and then a home-made castle and two sets of Airfix Sheriff of Nottingham figures painted with two sets of coats-of-arms. These were also with home-made rules.

Then came Miliitary Modelling magazine and I got into Arfix WWII figures using Battle for Wargamers.

And then when Minifigs brought out their Mythical Earth range (and a cousin nicked all my WWII figures) I threw myself into fantasy, using the supplement at the back of WRG Ancient Rules and then developing my own.

That describes the early days.

[Luddite]

Aye, no pics for me either.

First 'game' 1976 (dominoes and chess - at my grandfather's knee...he never did get me interested in cricket though.  Or gardening).
First roleplaying game 1980 (Dungeons and Dragons).
First wargame 1981 (Warhammer 1st Ed.).

[Dave]

Hi All
I started wargaming in the early 70's with airfix plastic napoleonics using a dice to play the game 1 move 10 men, 2 move twenty ..... 6 kill two etc going onto ecw figures from minifigs in 73 after watching cromwell and painting the roundheads with hooped sleeves orange -red and green red come to mind and royalists all in red.

Dave

[Sandinista]

Mid 70's Airfix for me, as a lot seem to be also. Then mid 70's a friend, Paul Sandbrook (hope he's well if he's still about) introduced me to Mr Lavan's after school games club and Skytrex & GHQ WW2 gaming. Then I heard of a bigger Middlesbrough wide club where i met "Goat Major" and a whole host of other nutters, ancients & medievals bit me big then and for someone with little income I remember having lots of 25mm armies. And the re-enactment thing which was big at the club at the time, was good fun too. Lost interest mid 80's and got back into the hobby about 2 1/2 years ago, and now have more metal than I ever had 

[nikharwood]

Kind of as long as I can remember - pretty much mucking about with Airfix & Matchbox since 5 or 6 [they were my older brother's...to start with!]. My first exposure to 'proper' wargaming would have been at the age of 8ish: went with Dad to The Model Engineering Exhibition at Wembley in '79...downstairs there were these huge tables with amazing games...IIRC Napoleonics and ACW...I was hooked 

This is a pic of me painting what look to be Airfix FFL figures on mum's kitchen table - I reckon I was about 9 in this one; shortly after this I embarked on my first 'proper' wargames armies: British redcoats and Zulus [using TTG rules] - I did these for a school project [and they're still knocking about - in the loft at my parents house I think...]

[lentulus]

Miniatures in 1973 (first year of high school), boardgames maybe a couple of years before that.

[Pruneau]

I haven't good pix from the early days either.  Which is a good thing, I used to look like a pathfinder in a clowns outfit.  I started playing wargames at the age of 16, thanks to a friend who was a few years older and an avid gamer.  Fanatical is a better description.  He has hundreds of wargames, including the entire SPI catalog, everything AH, and lots of other collectors items that sell for ridiculous amounts nowadays.

I started playing Squad Leader in 1978, we played that very regularly, then crescendo of doom, cross of iron, GI, anvil of victory, then switched to the brilliant ASL.  Meantime we played some other wargames as well, but mostly WW2 or modern.  Back then I wasn't very interested in other historical periods. 

We used to play RPGs as well: Chivalry and Sorcery, Dragonquest, then Runequest, after that Call of Cthulhu, Paranoid and Traveller and these were the only games we used miniatures for - just a few, to represent adventurers and monsters - and these were not all very nice.  Apart from that we only started using miniatures 6 years ago when my son turned 8 and received the GW basic battle box with the dwarfs and the night goblins.

My kids, on the other hand, have been introduced into the hobby at a very early age: my son played Warhammer at age 8, and my daughter just turned 7 and she plays Runequest on a biweekly basis.  Both love painting and making terrain.  In 40 years they are gonna be boasting about how they played games from the time they could read.

[Maenoferren]

Depends what you class as wargaming  I suppose late 70's with the airfix sets... my all time favourite being the royal horse artillery, loved that set , we then went through a stage of 54mm outdoor gaming using either Britains or Airfix, then early 80's home made rules, then off to Washington Wargames club, where my rules were very similar to another lad's there.  then we went into 15mm ancients and 6mm WWII, then various scales, periods but mainly 15mm my Texan army was about 600 figures when I played at Newcastle club, samurai, viking, Galatian loads of different types, which gpt bored with then sold and replaced by something else

[Last Hussar]

This is a pic of me painting what look to be Airfix FFL figures on mum's kitchen table - I reckon I was about 9 in this one;

Peg, That boy aint right.

Even back then you were a weirdo - at least the original post showed someone GAMING.