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So, this Saturday is pretty much awesome.

Friends, beer, pizza, and the newish Axis & Allies 1940 Europe & Pacific, together, in one giant game.

Its going to be epic.

Seriously, I can't wait. Probably 5-6 hours of drinking and being a nerd minimum.

I've only played the 1940 Europe version and it certainly has things you need to do differently than the original, but that isn't really a bad thing. I just need to hone my skills as the Soviet commander and hope for the best. (As in NOT rolling 6 sixes, not once, but TWICE in my defense of Moscow).

Any of you guys play A&A or other wargames?

I will be doing much the same. Driving up to Bellingham to spend the day playing mini and war games. There will also be lots of beer, pizza, and burgers. Headed up around 9 am and getting back around 2 am.

Yarbicus wrote:I will be doing much the same. Driving up to Bellingham to spend the day playing mini and war games. There will also be lots of beer, pizza, and burgers. Headed up around 9 am and getting back around 2 am.

Hell yes!!!

I wish I had someone to play warhammer with.

Of course, that would require getting my minis in playing shape again. Which I loathe doing. *sigh*

Wifey and I's conversation just went like this:

Her: What time will you be home saturday?

Me: Not sure.

H: Will you be home by 6?

M: Maybe, but when I say I'm not sure, I'm really really not sure. Plan to be without me until further notice.

I actually haven't ever played Axis and Allies but I would like to. I will .likely be playing Malfaux, Infinity, Warhammer Fantasy and 40k. That's right--toy soldiers all day long!

Yarbicus wrote:I actually haven't ever played Axis and Allies but I would like to. I will .likely be playing Malfaux, Infinity, Warhammer Fantasy and 40k. That's right--toy soldiers all day long!

Awesome!

A&A is a great mid-level wargame. There's more too it than Risk, but its not nearly as involved as the hex-squared Avalon Hill games of yore.

Between A&A and HeroQuest my brother and friends and I spent probably hundreds of hours playing growing up.

Man, hexed-based games by Avalon Hill and Metagaming were my life in high school!

Tonight my wife actually said to me, "Hey! Stop playing computer games! You miniatures to paint for Saturday."

Not in years, but I was sort of an elder generation wargamer. Played first generation D&D when the books came in a box set that was about 9"x6"x2", graduated from that to playing naval games and star trek variations on those that involved pushing little model ships around a college classroom or gym and using a tape measure to try to calculate whether you had ranged your shots right, then moved on to designing hex based games. There was no money in it and the guy who was running the company was brilliant technically but didn't have a clue as to how to figure out what the market wanted, so I stopped after a while and found a job with a salary and all.

Oh yeah, also played "thermo-nuclear war", which was a strategy game played by people hooked up to via terminal to a mid-seventies mainframe on the Caltech campus. It involved sending messages and conspiring with people representing various nuclear powers to get someone to use up their arsenal prematurely so you could then wipe out the rest in World War III. That game was run by the computer operator for the school, and I shudder to think now how much that computer time was probably supposed to cost in 1975 dollars.

In the late '70s my apartment was a beta test site for space invaders, which is probably the last video game I spent much time playing.

Sounds like winnage.

I have the OG A&A - haven't played it in years though, and I've played the newer edition for both the 1941 and 1942 setups (The 50th Anniversary edition). I always found that you kinda figured out how the game was going to play out in the first 3 turns or so - everything after that seemed to just be going through the inevitable.

PurpleTrails wrote:Not in years, but I was sort of an elder generation wargamer. Played first generation D&D when the books came in a box set that was about 9"x6"x2", graduated from that to playing naval games and star trek variations on those that involved pushing little model ships around a college classroom or gym and using a tape measure to try to calculate whether you had ranged your shots right, then moved on to designing hex based games. There was no money in it and the guy who was running the company was brilliant technically but didn't have a clue as to how to figure out what the market wanted, so I stopped after a while and found a job with a salary and all.

Oh yeah, also played "thermo-nuclear war", which was a strategy game played by people hooked up to via terminal to a mid-seventies mainframe on the Caltech campus. It involved sending messages and conspiring with people representing various nuclear powers to get someone to use up their arsenal prematurely so you could then wipe out the rest in World War III. That game was run by the computer operator for the school, and I shudder to think now how much that computer time was probably supposed to cost in 1975 dollars.

In the late '70s my apartment was a beta test site for space invaders, which is probably the last video game I spent much time playing.

Sounds like Star Fleet Battle Manual.

Nice to meet another old schooler! I also had the D&D "blue box".

Yarbicus wrote:

PurpleTrails wrote:Not in years, but I was sort of an elder generation wargamer. Played first generation D&D when the books came in a box set that was about 9"x6"x2", graduated from that to playing naval games and star trek variations on those that involved pushing little model ships around a college classroom or gym and using a tape measure to try to calculate whether you had ranged your shots right, then moved on to designing hex based games. There was no money in it and the guy who was running the company was brilliant technically but didn't have a clue as to how to figure out what the market wanted, so I stopped after a while and found a job with a salary and all.

Oh yeah, also played "thermo-nuclear war", which was a strategy game played by people hooked up to via terminal to a mid-seventies mainframe on the Caltech campus. It involved sending messages and conspiring with people representing various nuclear powers to get someone to use up their arsenal prematurely so you could then wipe out the rest in World War III. That game was run by the computer operator for the school, and I shudder to think now how much that computer time was probably supposed to cost in 1975 dollars.

In the late '70s my apartment was a beta test site for space invaders, which is probably the last video game I spent much time playing.

Sounds like Star Fleet Battle Manual.

Nice to meet another old schooler! I also had the D&D "blue box".

Yeah, I think that was the name of the star trek game; my memory of all that is pretty hazy, as we usually started about 7 or 8 pm on a Friday night and played until 3 or 4 in the morning, sometimes longer.

I thought my D&D set came in a beige box, but at this point I really don't remember much about it beyond that there were I think three thin manuals in there. Most of the time we were using an adaptation of the D&D rules that had a lot more accurate combat system, and way more magic spells. They were on between a half inch to an inch thick printouts on the old 11x17 feeder printer paper. That's what I got for playing war games with the tech wienies at Caltech when I was in high school.

It's a shock that I never wore a pocket protector, nor ever got into a job that required the use of a slide rule or scientific calculator.

Yarbicus wrote:Man, hexed-based games by Avalon Hill and Metagaming were my life in high school!

Tonight my wife actually said to me, "Hey! Stop playing computer games! You miniatures to paint for Saturday."

Yeah I got a bunch of Avalon Hill games I never get to play. I need to find someone to do that with again. Someone with lots of free time....

Your wife is awesome.

Harvest wrote:I have the OG A&A - haven't played it in years though, and I've played the newer edition for both the 1941 and 1942 setups (The 50th Anniversary edition). I always found that you kinda figured out how the game was going to play out in the first 3 turns or so - everything after that seemed to just be going through the inevitable.

We'd run into that from time to time and switch up who was playing who. Its funny how some guys just didn't do good with other countries, even after seeing them played a hundred times.

This should be an adventure that's for certain.


Purple Trails, that is cool man!

I have a group of friends from work that i get together with every week and we play Pathfinder and Magic. All of us want to get into warhammer and miniature games but they're too expensive for our shitty part time college income

Nateispro wrote:I have a group of friends from work that i get together with every week and we play Pathfinder and Magic. All of us want to get into warhammer and miniature games but they're too expensive for our shitty part time college income

I LOVE Pathfinder. When 4e came out I jumped ship to a combination of 3.5/Pathfinder rules. Then all my group moved away or had babies.

Warhammer is awesome, but expensive. Though, if you're careful you can make it slightly cheaper buying off ebay and stuff. Or, I'd sell you a complete orc army and a small empire army for relatively cheap if you want. Books included!

Just saying....

Yeah, Warhammer is still one of my favorite games (both flavors) but it is getting more and more expensive. You should try skirmish games like Infinity and Malifaux. Malifaux is pretty much my main game right now and I loves it so!!!

The allies got our asses handed to us.

The game is fun, but it isn't without problems. Italy is FAR too powerful. The game doesn't weight for the quality of the forces, so italy starts out with a MASSIVE navy and fairly large number of land forces.

Now, historically, this is accurate. Except the QUALITY of Italy's land forces, air force and navy were shit for the most part. Except, there's no balancing for that.

That was more than a bit frustrating, but it wasn't the only reason the allies lost.

Its tough not just going by the original rules. I screwed up plenty by not utilizing some of the new features.

It was a good day.

What a great weekend! Played some new board games including Quarriors, Dominion, and Formula D (pictured):



I also played Warhammer 40k and Infinity. I love Warhammer but if you want to play a Sci Fi minis games that is MUCH cheaper, check out Infinity. Here is a shot of some of my minis on an amazing table build by my friend Brad:

That looks pretty awesome Yarbicus!

ovid9 wrote:

Nateispro wrote:I have a group of friends from work that i get together with every week and we play Pathfinder and Magic. All of us want to get into warhammer and miniature games but they're too expensive for our shitty part time college income

I LOVE Pathfinder. When 4e came out I jumped ship to a combination of 3.5/Pathfinder rules. Then all my group moved away or had babies.

Warhammer is awesome, but expensive. Though, if you're careful you can make it slightly cheaper buying off ebay and stuff. Or, I'd sell you a complete orc army and a small empire army for relatively cheap if you want. Books included!

Just saying....

I'm loving Pathfinder, since i haven't played any other variations of D&D i'm glad i jumped on the Pathfinder wagon. I love how easy the rules are for a noob like me to grasp. My group's going to be falling apart soon as we're already a small group and at least two of us will be moving My friend has ALL of the books in hard copy so i'm hoping me and him can get another group going

Nateispro wrote:
I'm loving Pathfinder, since i haven't played any other variations of D&D i'm glad i jumped on the Pathfinder wagon. I love how easy the rules are for a noob like me to grasp. My group's going to be falling apart soon as we're already a small group and at least two of us will be moving My friend has ALL of the books in hard copy so i'm hoping me and him can get another group going

Breaking up a group sucks. I'm currently not playing as my group all had children or moved.

Hard copies are awesome. I still have the free beta version of the Pathfinder core book they put out when they were play testing it. My group about crapped when I showed up one day, explained "ok, here's how grappling works" and a few other changes and off we went. I used a bunch of rules from St. Monte Cook's Books of Experimental Might.

If Pathfinder was your intro to D20, that's awesome. You probably would've liked 4e as well. 4e just wasn't my thing. I already knew 3e/3.5 and I just personally didn't like the direction it headed.

There are also places to acquire pdfs of pretty much EVERY D20 book ever made. Its mindboggling how many there and that some of them anyone ever paid for. I have 3 gigs of pdfs and I'm sure there's plenty more out there.

AD&D or gtfo!

Yarbicus wrote:AD&D or gtfo!

THAC0!!!!

Never played AD&D as that was during the "D&D is evil" 80s and early 90s.

Wrapping your head around THAC0 after playing 3e is pretty much impossible. I mean, I eventually figured it out as I was adapting some AD&D adventures for 3e, but holy crap its just so different.

ovid9 wrote:

Yarbicus wrote:AD&D or gtfo!

THAC0!!!!

Never played AD&D as that was during the "D&D is evil" 80s and early 90s.

Wrapping your head around THAC0 after playing 3e is pretty much impossible. I mean, I eventually figured it out as I was adapting some AD&D adventures for 3e, but holy crap its just so different.

Dude. THAC0 is SOOOOOO after AD&D! Back in my day, we had charts! And we liked it!!!

ovid9 wrote:

Nateispro wrote:
I'm loving Pathfinder, since i haven't played any other variations of D&D i'm glad i jumped on the Pathfinder wagon. I love how easy the rules are for a noob like me to grasp. My group's going to be falling apart soon as we're already a small group and at least two of us will be moving My friend has ALL of the books in hard copy so i'm hoping me and him can get another group going

Breaking up a group sucks. I'm currently not playing as my group all had children or moved.

Hard copies are awesome. I still have the free beta version of the Pathfinder core book they put out when they were play testing it. My group about crapped when I showed up one day, explained "ok, here's how grappling works" and a few other changes and off we went. I used a bunch of rules from St. Monte Cook's Books of Experimental Might.

If Pathfinder was your intro to D20, that's awesome. You probably would've liked 4e as well. 4e just wasn't my thing. I already knew 3e/3.5 and I just personally didn't like the direction it headed.

There are also places to acquire pdfs of pretty much EVERY D20 book ever made. Its mindboggling how many there and that some of them anyone ever paid for. I have 3 gigs of pdfs and I'm sure there's plenty more out there.

Yea my friend sent me over probably 10 gig's of D&D/Pathfinder books and i was freaking out.. i hadn't made a character before and i was suddenly flooded with this information ahaha i had to have a friend from work help me make my character I love it though.. my group isn't serious at all, we still get the job done but we tend to fuck shit up along the way last time we played me and another person burnt down an entire goblin fortress

Yarbicus wrote:Dude. THAC0 is SOOOOOO after AD&D! Back in my day, we had charts! And we liked it!!!

DOH, I was thinking of 2e, which was sometimes called AD&D but was different. Fail on me.

Nateispro wrote:
Yea my friend sent me over probably 10 gig's of D&D/Pathfinder books and i was freaking out.. i hadn't made a character before and i was suddenly flooded with this information ahaha i had to have a friend from work help me make my character I love it though.. my group isn't serious at all, we still get the job done but we tend to fuck shit up along the way last time we played me and another person burnt down an entire goblin fortress

Awesome!

My players had a tendency to want to burn things down too. More than once I had to remind them that "neutral" doesn't make it ok to be homicidal maniacs.