Which 80s wargames and adventure games do you still play?

[TheHand]

I still occasionally bust out BattleTech with some friends, but we don’t get to play it regularly.

The last big adventure game I played was “Wizards” with a group back around 2010 or so. It took about 10 hours to play, so a running joke with them became, “Anyone up for a short game of Wizards?”

 

[DrunkonDuty]

and table space

so much table space. I'd have to clear out the spare bedroom, buy a ping pong table and a couple of side desks. It'll never happen.

Which is a shame cos a few years ago I got a second hand copy of World in Flames at a con sale. All the expansions, all the counters unpopped. I'll never play it, but I like having it.

 

[trappedslider]

so much table space. I'd have to clear out the spare bedroom, buy a ping pong table and a couple of side desks. It'll never happen.

Which is a shame cos a few years ago I got a second hand copy of World in Flames at a con sale. All the expansions, all the counters unpopped. I'll never play it, but I like having it.

a table? pfft dry erase boards

 

[Koloth]

1957, so no.

Wasn't sure but the 80's was when I first played it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Found a model store with old boardgames.
.they had a copy of dogfight (1962) and Samurai Swords AKA Shogun. Used to play SS in the 90s.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

a table? pfft dry erase boards

Are you making counter stacks on the side tables, and then writing the stack name/identifier on the map (with dry eraser)?

 

[trappedslider]

Are you making counter stacks on the side tables, and then writing the stack name/identifier on the map (with dry eraser)?

tbh, i found the image via a search since i knew i had seen it before while looking at info about the game a few years ago

 

[The Soloist]

Mayday! by GDW with vectorial movement space fights, was my second purchase. I did like it's but it a bit more complicated to play. Does anyone still play it? I seem to remember it was an add-on to the Traveler RPG, correct?

Mayday

Sci-fi hex-and-counter wargame of ship-to-ship space combat from the Traveller RPG.

boardgamegeek.com

 

[Mannahnin]

Battletech I've played again fairly recently. One of my closest gaming buddies bought into the most recent release, and we've tried both it and Alpha Strike out, so I expect it'll see the table again before too long.

Same with Blood Bowl. Still an excellent game.

I bought deep into Car Wars and played that into the 90s, but it hasn't seen the table in forever. I have played simpler successor games at conventions, though.

I picked up the HeroQuest reboot when it was crowdfunded, but haven't assembled a good group for it. Most of the people I would play it with would be more interested in actual D&D, or Shadowdark or whatever OSR game I feel like running.

Every once in a while I break out GW's original 80s Talisman (much sweeter art than later versions) or DungeonQuest as a casual beer & pretzels game with friends.

Two from the 80s which my older D&D buddies and I occasionally play are Dragonmaster and Empire Builder.

If you pull in the 90's and pull in card games, I still regularly play Vampire the Eternal Struggle CCG (fka Jyhad). I'm in ~25 asynchronous online games right now, and have played roughly 10-15 IRL games this year.

Excellent. I haven't played in forever but I occasionally hear updates from Ben Peal, who is an old Boston goth scene friend.

The one game I really would like to play from the 70's is the one that got me into this nonsense - Magic Realm. We played in summer of 1977 felt like every single day. Then one of us got the AD&D MM, another got the PHB in 1978, and that's all she wrote.

I wonder if Magic Realm holds up. Also, I'd have a hell of a time getting Rick Dave, and Jason all back together in Dave's basement with his older sister yelling at us from upstairs

Read about it, never played it. Intriguing. Love the hex tile concept. The rules have been somewhat revised by fans. You can find the PDF in the files section of the game on BoardGameGeek.

I still have a set I bought at a convention in ~1991, but I've never managed to successfully play. A while back I dug into the tutorials online, introducing how to play via the simpler characters, etc, but the complexity still seemed excessive. It's on my bucket list, though, in part because the components are so cool. SOME day I'll put in the effort!

 

[GreyLord]

Too many to really list.

Some more popular ones though...

Dungeons and Dragons (BX/BECMI)
Star Frontiers
Axis and Allies (2e, which is the Game master version).
Conquest of the Empire (Gamemaster)
Shogun later Samurai Swords (Game master)
Fortress America (See a trend here...Gamemaster).
For the People (Washington's War today)
A House Divided (not sure, this may actually be a 90s game)
Merchant of Venus

And of course, there are some older games that were around in the 80s I still play (sort of like Star fire which you listed, but I think came out in the late 70s).

Risk
Acquire
Civil War
Waterloo (I think this was one of Gary's Favorites).