Wooden Ships, Iron Men! Old School Avalon Hill love!

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

AH's Dune is probably the best-designed game, ever. It achieved what every game since has tried -- multiplayer, distinctly different teams, and play balanced to within an inch of its life. It was accessible to novice gamers, and could grow with you as you got more and more sophisticated and clever. Plus, it had a completely non-random combat resolution mechanic that was just brilliant.

Civ was good, but we eventually discovered that there was a 'perfect path' that would guarantee a win unless the other players openly teamed up against you.

BTW, anyone know of someplace on-line where I can get some 'Pirates of the Spanish Main' stuff? Every place I've looked is out of stock

 

[WizarDru]

It looks like the second wave of PotSM is sold-out. Again. A 3rd wave is due to ship by the middle of the month, so if I were you, I'd pre-order some.

The first expansion will have forts, in addition to more crew and ships, btw. That's Pirates of the Crimson Coast, due out in February.

 

[Conaill]

The biggest problem with Titan is that a game with experienced players could take days to finish. That really sucked for the person that got knocked out early and had to sit there all night while you played.

Ah... one of my favorite gaming anecdotes...

Several years ago, when I was still in grad school, a couple of friends and me had started a game of Titan late afternoon. As the hours went by, players dropped off one by one (I think we started with 5-6 or so), until it was down to myself, the person who's apartment we were playing in, and another friend. Eventually, well past midnight, our host found herself in an unwinnable but extremely well defended position. Essentially, it was up to the myself and the other friend to duke it out amongst ourselves, and then gather enough troops to dig her out and finish her off. Since it was something like3 am at this point and she had classes the next day, she decided to go to bed, leaving her well-defended pieces on the board. "You guys feel free to keep playing. Just let me know in the morning who won..."

Next morning at around 9 am or so, the two of us had finally managed to obliterate each other, and host who had been asleep for hours had won! Seemed like a very fitting end to such an epic battle...

 

[Zoatebix]

Before my friend introduced me to WS&IM last week, I'd only played Diplomacy and Colonial Diplomacy (both introduced to me by him).

This thread is starting to look suspiciously like a "must buy" list to a life-long RPGamer and Avalon Hill neophyte like me.

...Must...protect...money... Too late. Time to go fishing on Ebay
-George

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Before my friend introduced me to WS&IM last week, I'd only played Diplomacy and Colonial Diplomacy (both introduced to me by him).

This thread is starting to look suspiciously like a "must buy" list to a life-long RPGamer and Avalon Hill neophyte like me.

...Must...protect...money... Too late. Time to go fishing on Ebay
-George

Let's see --

Non-hardcore games
===============
Dune (a must-have)
Gladiator
Circus Maximus
Titan
Starship Troopers

Hardcore games
===============
Bismarck
Caeser Alesia
Squad Leader
Third Reich
Hmm....Panzer Leader/Blitz? Storm over Arnhem? so many choices...

Oh, and stay away from the Dune expansions, Spice and Duel. They take away from the Zen-like purity of the original game. And if you're interested in the games from a "I want to play" standpoint rather than as a collector, Multiman Publishing has re-done and re-fined most of the Squad Leader stuff.

 

[cdsaint]

For me its always been Squad Leader. I started playing Squad Leader and AD&D at roughly the same time, so the two competed for my gaming dollar for about two years of Jr. High, and all four years of High School. Third Reich and Diplomacy are also old favorites, and I still play Diplomacy every time we can get a seven player game together.

Eventually, Advanced Squad Leader was released, and I took the plunge, and even quit D&D and other RPG's for over a decade. The only game I played for about 16 years was ASL. I eventually got back into D&D with the advent of 3e, and as I said I play Diplomacy once or twice a year, but ASL is still my all time favorite. My son recently picked up the ASL Starter Kit to try to get his friends interested in playing because it's generally hard to sucker people into playing ASL because of the size and complexity of rules.

I think I'm rambling, so I'll go. I just had several teeth pulled today, and my pain meds are making me loopy!

Chris