Miss: average dice (for newbies, these were numbered 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 to give you a much less divergent range of results; they were used for things like morale tests for regular troops)
Don't miss: endless silly sticks with sliding paper sleeves, triangular templates of rickety wire, plastic blast-circles; all the gimmicks from the days when props counted more than the script, to coin a metaphor.

Your ideas, chaps?

Miss

Everything in one book - no innumerable must have supplements

Dont miss

Having to play my wargames on the bedroom floor

Miss One rule to rule them all, where everybody was playing the same game.

Don't miss Oodles of tables, penetration charts, written orders.

Miss
Decent generic wargame shops where you could spend ages chatting with the staff who were also wargame enthusiasts who served the customer rather than trying to pressurise them into buying a particular range.
Miniature Figurines Mythical Earth,Valley of the Four Winds and Scifi Ranges.
Good eyesight so that I could paint my figures better 

Don't Miss
Experts who would tell me that I had the wrong shade of a particular colour on my figures. I even got told that my goblins were the wrong colour!
[I imagine that these people may still exist but perhaps my grumpy countenance puts them off from talking to me.  ]

Quote from: capthugeca on 27 December 2012, 11:05:32 AM
Miss
Good eyesight so that I could paint my figures better 

Treat yourself to an Optivisor Hugh !....I really MUST sort out some sort of commission from the manufacturers. 

But how on earth can you paint something the 'wrong colour' if it doesn't really exist......Sheesh !!
Cheers - Phil

Miss
WRG ancients (I know we're not allowed to say it but it was a great game)
Also miss local independent games shops
Having no ability to photocopy play sheets etc
Public Libraries having shelves full of wargaming books

Don't miss
All rules seemingly requiring chinagraph pencils - I'm pretty sure there was no such thing in Middlesbrough
Enamel paints
Having to send an SAE for lists and then write a letter with a cheque to buy things

I've touched off quite a thread, I think. Much here that speaks to me down the last four decades....my God, I've given my life to this hobby!

Miss:
Middlesbrough wargames club when it was at Bertram Ramsey school, Saturdays from about 10am - 5pm. You could just turn up with a 25mm ancients army and be guarenteed a game without having to arrange one beforehand.
Playing above with WRG 5th edition
Simple D&D without oodles of supplements

Don't miss:
aching arms from 25mm metal armies in metal toolboxes carried on the 263 bus.
Lack of pictures of models, having to send off for samples before deciding to buy
Walking to school to save bus money to buy toys

Miss: being single 
My local hobby shop who is now long closed
Working on a second hand market, which ensured me i had first picks of anything interesting before the doors opened :p

Don't miss: spending too much money on gw stuff.
Having to take a train to get some supplies or models (internet is way easier :p )
buying the same old army book every other year just because they tweaked some points

Miss
Popping down to  "Gamers in Exile shop" in Kings Cross  in my lunchbreak to pick up a few figures or just have a chat
Being able to paint without an optivisor.
My huge 6mm Eastern Front tank Armies
Local wargames shops
Bargains on Bring and Buy at shows - Destroyed by E-bay
Going to loads of shows helping out trader friends

Don't Miss
ex-wife - sorry wrong train of thought 
Long complicated rule sets.
Keeping tally of casualties until you got to 20 and could actually remove a figure
Having to justify toys
Enamel paints
Lack of avaliabilty of stuff you needed

Miss
Being a student and having nothing but time to paint and game.

Don't Miss
Being a student and not having any money to buy figures.

Miss
- Being a kid and the excitement of getting some new Airfix 1/72 soldiers.
- Wandering around Ren Models in Cambridge as a kid looking at all the lovely kits (well they seemed that way in the early '70s).
- A little wargames shop in Cambridge, the name of which escapes me, that had all of their figure ranges on display. So early D&D, Valley of the Four Winds and Ral Partha, the latter at that time seems amazing sculpts.
- Getting the Tamiya catalogue and looking at the Verlinden dioramas contained therein.
- Playing with Action Man with friends for days on end in the Summer of '76.
- Playing 'War' in the woods and fields during the Summer holidays with friends. Countless days spent in sheer bliss.
- Playing Mordheim.

Don't Miss
- Playing Warhammer against 'beardy' opponents.
- Buying GW stuff.
- Enamel paints and the headaches from the fumes.
- Playing games on the floor or bedroom tables.
- Rules sets with endless supplements.
- Playing FoW.
- Getting a new ruleset and figures for other club memebers to then move onto another period and/or ruleset.

I remember that little shop. They had little I wanted to buy, but it was most picturesque.

Was it called the 'Old Soldier' or something similar? It was located opposite the Catholic Church, conveniently close to a bus stop on the way into town from Comberton where I lived at the time. Happy memories .

Don't recall the name, but in a crooked little lane near John's. White-painted wooden window frame.