Weekender XLBS: What Four Games Influenced Your Tabletop Life?
April 29, 2018 by dignity
For some website features, you will need a FREE account and for some others, you will need to join the Cult of Games.
Or if you have already joined the Cult of Games Log in now
What difference will having a FREE account make?
Setting up a Free account with OnTableTop unlocks a load of additional features and content (see below). You can then get involved with our Tabletop Gaming community, we are very helpful and keen to hear what you have to say. So Join Us Now!
Free Account Includes
- Creating your own project blogs.
- Rating and reviewing games using our innovative system.
- Commenting and ability to upvote.
- Posting in the forums.
- Unlocking of Achivments and collectin hobby xp
- Ability to add places like clubs and stores to our gaming database.
- Follow games, recommend games, use wishlist and mark what games you own.
- You will be able to add friends to your account.
What's the Cult of Games?
Once you have made a free account you can support the community by joing the Cult of Games. Joining the Cult allows you to use even more parts of the site and access to extra content. Check out some of the extra features below.
Cult of Games Membership Includes
- Reduced ads, for a better browsing experience (feature can be turned on or off in your profile).
- Access to The Cult of Games XLBS Sunday Show.
- Extra hobby videos about painting, terrain building etc.
- Exclusive interviews with the best game designers etc.
- Behind the scenes studio VLogs.
- Access to our live stream archives.
- Early access to our event tickets.
- Access to the CoG Greenroom.
- Access to the CoG Chamber of Commerce.
- Access the CoG Bazarr Trading Forum.
- Create and Edit Records for Games, Companies and Professionals.
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
![Warcradle Studios Reveal TINY New 10mm Festive Marker! [Updated]](https://images.beastsofwar.com/2025/11/christmas-kyle-main-600-338.jpg)
Happy Sundaaaaay
Happy Sunday everyone! 🙂
Best watch ever. Why, because it came from some one who loves you.
Yeah it really made my day when she brought that home 🙂
Happy Sunday everyone, I’m looking forward to this week
I certainly won’t disagree that Doom from FFG captures a lot of the FPS feel, but I haven’t found it to be particularly frenetic. For the deathmatch feel on the tabletop, check out a game called Adrenaline from Czech Games Edition. For frenetic play, check out the Hawken card game from Cryptozoic.
Thanks for those suggestions well definitely check those out! I have no doubt it’s a difficult vibe to bring to table top. (Out side of some snap like mechanic)
Four games that “shaped” my tabletop personality.
– Risk: I still remember being SOOO pissed that my parents, aunt, and uncle were playing the game, laughing and joking, having so much fun, and I wasn’t allowed to play. (I was 6).
– D&D/AD&Dv1: ’nuff said.
– Space Marine: Battles in an Age of Heresy: Growing up in a small town in West Virginia (a state in the US), I had NEVER seen anything like this.
– Twilight:2000 (RPG from GDW): This is the game where my friends and I realized the truth behind tabletop games: They’re YOURS. Don’t like that rule? Change it. Don’t want to forage hour after hour (in game)? Change it.
Excellent list!
Being a ‘Cold War Kid’ Twilight 2000 would definitely be on my list for much the same reason. We played several regular campaigns over the years and many times it turned into seamlessly flowing, action packed, story telling sessions where the rules became a back up. Switching between free form and printed rules never seemed to create any clunks with that game.
This must be destiny (or just coincidence :p ) but I’m right in the middle of painting my Baccus 6mm American Civil War! I’ll post some pics in the WAYPN 🙂
Four influential games, well:
1. Space Crusade; My uncle had a copy of this game and I just played with the mini’s back when I was about 5 in 1993. The artwork and gaming pieces stuck with me and my parents got me my own copy. I even remember making drawings of Space Marines way before I even knew what they were of what Warhammer was. When I was about 14 my three best friends and myself started to play the hell out of this game, 12 to 14 hour long sessions of pure fun. We then also jumped onto Heroquest with the same experience. As much as those games are considered classics, it’s all the fun that I had with my friends that made them so influential on my gaming life 🙂
2. Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I got in right after the first Lord of the Rings movie hit theatres with the same group of friends. I felt like the natural evolution from Heroquest. This was also a much more niche hobby as there weren’t any GW stores around where we live in Belgium so it all had to be ordered from a classic model shop run by an old couple. I still remember ordering stuff from a catalogue list that just had names like ‘Night Goblin Fanatics’ thinking ‘hopefully those are cool models’ 😀 The whole ‘build your own world’ then really hit home and I’ve never looked back (by now I’m even writing up my own fantasy world background to game in as it makes me fit all my fantasy armies together).
3. Flames of War, I swear I’m not just copying you guys 😀 I got into FoW in my first year at uni and it’s then that I realized that I couldn’t just study history but game it as well. By now I’m helping set up the Belgian national FoW team for the ETC next year so the game has been really huge in my gaming life.
4. Hex and counter wargames. More recently I’ve been dabbling in these type of wargames with a good friend of mine and they’ve given me a new perspective on historical wargaming containing more realism and depth than certain other games out there.
Damn, this post was way more cathartic than I had anticipated 😛
I was going to start my 4 games with the original Runequest as it was the first RPG I ever played back in the early 80’s and if we were having a top 6 it would be in there but have left it out as would have been the Donald Featherstone book Battles with model soldiers
So on with the top 4
1. Command Decision by Frank Chadwick (1986) . A WW2 game that introduced me to the joys of 6mm. It was also the first game I had played with spotting ,opportunity fire a feel of combined arms on the tabletop
2. Fire and Fury by Richard Hasenauer (1990) An American Civil War game where for the first time each unit was s brigade enabling you to fight really big battles. More importantly it was the first game I had played where your units didn’t always do what you wanted them to do. A simple dice roll against unit quality compared to casualties to see if they advanced etc
3. Crossfire by Arty Conliffe (1996) This game changed his I thought about games.No move distances or ranges for weapons ( everything is done by what you can see on the table and movement is from terrain piece to terrain piece) and a fluid turn sequence that ran on interrupts of failed actions. A truly original game at the time
4. DBM by Phil Barker (1993) I have included this as for me this influenced me in knowing exactly what a ruleset shouldn’t be . Badly written,strange combat system and measuring unit movement to the exact millimetre and having to check zones of control of your enemy to the n’th degree, add to this some army lists that were just too complicated and for me you have a game that is everything wargaming shouldn’t be
That’s your lot
Why am I up so early on a Sunday? Oh, yeah. I have an 11 month old alarm clo… Daughter.
So what games influenced my development the most? Well it’s probably hard to say as it’s so all so intertwined with so many books, films and video games. However there’s no question that that the stones that started the avalanche were Hero Quest and Space Crusade. Both of these games are now sadly lost to the ravages of time however we did manage to pick up a complete copy of Space Crusade on eBay – sadly no luck as yet with Heroquest.
From there the next natural progression was into a GW store because that’s really what those two games were intended to do and they did their job well. At the time, being the 1990s there wasn’t much Internet and finding out about other games wasn’t easy so for most of that time it was 40k (starting with Rogue Trader) and 40k (starting with their first boxed version of the game. That lasted until around 1999 when I finished university and moved out on my own. Basics like food and housing took precedence over hobbies and it all fell by the wayside.
Then in 2009 I walked back into a GW store, for old times sake, and left with paints, brushes and a box of miniatures. I fell off the wagon and haven’t climbed back on since.
However since 2009 I have had a very different set of influences. Where before I was largely influenced by GW and whatever was new at the time, my influences since restarting the hobby have been significantly more narrative. Rather than being influenced by a specific game I find I am more influenced by ideas. So although I love 40k and will always have a huge soft spot for the setting the game itself is sometimes a little lost on me; its OTT nature lacks a level of verisimilitude that I find myself looking for. But if I have an idea that fits in 40k then I find that I will set about making it happen. My current preference for a more “clean sci-fi” has lead me to games like Infinity (which I still haven’t been able to get a proper game of) and the Mantic Warpath universe. This has definitely been influenced by video games like Mass Effect, Destiny and Halo as well as TV shows such as the expanse and Dark Matter.
My games are now also far more by time so a system that offers me a small, quick game will turn my head more than something that needs a day or a weekend to play – I’m keeping my hands in the 40k and AoS universes via Necromunda and Shadespire and Warhammer Quest at the moment. I think last year I had an epiphany that I simply don’t have the time for mass battles or painting whole armies. Quite a liberating moment because I have been much more able to set goals I can achieve and play more games with painted forces as a result.
For the FPS feel , I really liked AR.SE , I played these at the Hasslefree Table a few years ago at salute , and it really gave the feeling of a FPS.
http://akulasrules.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/bad-arse-modern-skirmish-rules-now.html
or
https://web.archive.org/web/20140530052319/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roweller/ARSE/BAD%20ARSE%20rules.pdf
Back in the early 80’s [showing my age] I remember 1st starting out with Star Fleet Battles and 1/72 Scale Tanks. 2. In 1989 I discovered Warhammer Rogue Trader which started me on the Space Marine trail to 40K. 3. Forget when exactly but number 3 was Warmachine in the days when everything was metal, still have them. This led to Hordes of course and 4. has to be Flames of War for my WWII fix. Problem is do not think I will live long enough to make everything!!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisimilitude
Word of the week for me right there! Lol Thanks for that 🙂
Happy Sunday!
Games that have influenced my life:
Runequest II. I had played D&D before this, but was never really satisfied with the strict class system. RQII though was the dogs b*llocks though! It was the game that started my career as a GM and the creation of my own world. 38 years later that campaign world is still going on, now and then, still with some of the original players in it!
WRG 6th Edition, when I first started proper gaming, i.e. not pushing marbles at lined up Airfix figures, this was the set of Ancient rules. They introduced me to the whole world of miniature gaming and to the joys of the wargames club!
Atlantic Storm/Pacific Typhoon, my first trip into card games and still a regular go to at gaming weekends with my RPG friends.
Spearhead WWII. Simple, somewhat abstract but gives a better overall feel of larger scale WWII battles than any other system I have played. This is the game that drew me back into WWII gaming after so many disappointing experiences with other systems.
I would also like to give an honourable mention to The Palladium RPG. This is what D&D should have been like in its early incarnations and is surprisingly similar to what D&D has now become! I have had endless hours of fun playing a longbowman, able to hit the bull at 250 yards every time in practice, but constantly breaking his bow string during combat!
Happy Sunday all.
1- 40k second edition, when I was very young. Don’t think I ever truly played a game correctly. My cousin used to just tell me what to role and in retrospect he was clearly trying lists out on me for his club evenings. I enjoyed the models, lore, aesthetic and stories I create, so it didn’t matter. This introduction lead to necromunda and all other gw games.
2- I’m torn between heroquest and advanced space crusade (Tyranid version). Both introduced to me just after 40k by my cousin. I’ll go space crusade to be different. It was one of the first miniature board games I had played (other than heroquest) and introduced me to alternative ways of playing games in my somewhat blinkered view of wargaming. I loved the Aliens-esque excursion into the hive, on a suicide mission, to destroy vital hive ship organs. We even intertwined 40k with it as two separate events that effected each other. The imperials had to get troops through a gene-cult to gain access to the hive which had operatives fighting a losing battle, that needed re-enforcing.
3- kings of war, after a extremely long hiatus I was drawn back to wargaming after roughly 10-12 years. I had looked at GW now and then to see the advancements but couldn’t justify the money. Kings of war popped up on my internet search and I went with it. This opened the flood-gates to the possibilities of other companies and games. During this time I wanted to play/collect everything and built up a lot of models. Mentally I became frustrated with this as I was buying more things than I could logically get round to with real life commitments etc. I grew annoyed with myself that my hobby was infringing on this, so considered jacking it all in many times. My quest became finding 1 or 2 systems and stick with it.
4- 40k 8th….. dropped and I went full circle. I have somewhat found my zen in the hobby but am still battling the shiny daemons. 40k is simplified, easy to find opponents for (if time permits) and I really enjoy the lore and model quality. I am blinkered but like a shire horse this calms me 😉 anyone else know what I’m saying? Back to the monster that wants my attention………
Thanks guys! Good video.
Sorry for grammatical errors etc. Writing on the mobile is a hassle.
Much like @warzan Fighting Fantasy books were my first proper intro to gaming. There was a bookshop in Covent Garden London, that on the occasional Sunday my mother would take me to and as a treat she’d buy me a book. My two favourites were Demons of the Deep and Deathtrap Dungeon. I used to play them on the school bus when all my friends were playing Top Trumps.
There were some great other ones though, I remember getting for Christmas one year a special two player one the name of which escapes me, and a Mad Max Road Warrioreresque one call Freeway Fighter?.
Apparently my mother has all the books stored away somewhere, I’ll have to go over and dig them out.
For me my list would be….
Fighting fantasy books
Stratego
Civilisation board game
40k rogue trader
Hero quest
All of these gave sparked some interest in me somewhere. Still playing 40k now and eyeing up the latest version of civilisation.
Happy Sunday!
The four games that influenced my hobby are as follows
1. Advanced dungeons and dragons second editon.This was the first hook into the world of gaming whilst still at school, after reading fantasy books like the elric novels written by michel
Morecock.
2.Then the obligitary Games Workshop….warhammer fantasy for the introduction to miniature wargaming. Several of my school pals and i visited a club in south east london in the late 80’s and played a lot of RPG’s in one of the back rooms but there was always tables of wonderful wargames set up that we walked past every friday evening…..and that ooooh shinny sindrome we as gamers suffer chronically from reared its ugly head.
3.Dust. It was the one game several years ago that introduced my wife finally to the joys and cash flow problems of the hobby lol.
She joined me on her first Salute visit to support me in my hobby(He spends hours on his own painting figures/miniature for these games and enjoys playing them….i suppose i should go see what all the fuss is about. Whilst looking on the Hassle free stand for a specific figure,said wife stood watching a demo game of Dust……fifteen minutes late i returned triumphant with my one 28mm figure to my wifes beaming smile and her standing there with two FULL bags,proclaiming I liked that game,DUST,so much i got us a starter set each. I have never left her with money unattened in Salute again !!!! We discuss all purchases beforehand,mine included so we dont double up on stuff)
4.Infinity. It has introduced the skirmish level game into the mix with such gusto. There are now so many companies that have taken this step of wargaming on board. It makes getting into a game easier,low model count/cost,generally simpler rules/house keeping. May all of this continue.
I have followed many different paths within my gaming life,the list above just scatches the surface,roleplay,mass fantasy battles,scifi mass battles,historical gaming both ancient through to modern,pulp weird stuff,including air, sea, land ,space and cyber board games as well. One of the things that i have noticed in the years of playing is that our community can be welcoming to new social awkward people and help with that(yes there are some that are not so friendly but they are a minority).
BOW is a great platform for getting the news of what is going on within our world and long may it continue!
Added to save the editor time and effort. BUY BACKSTAGE to support it and BUY MERCH!
All joking apart i have visited the holy grail of BOW a bootcamp a couple of times and met the guys in person. They genuinely care for this hobby with a passion that cant be matched.
@warzan,@dignity,@lloyd Helena and i will be back to see you guys soon,that is a promise and a threat.
THANK YOU BOW
The reverse tower defence game is on its way: the Village Attacks Kickstarter. I’m in it and I’m very excited for it.
@dracs rats’ eyes move independently. I’m guessing mice do the same, so you could mirror that splendid side-eye.
Happy Sunday everyone,
@dignity wondering what you would have as the objective for Frost Punk if it was made into a tabletop game? Would it just be as high a score on a turn counter as you can get?
Some great looking minis earning their Golden Buttons in here. Congratulations to all the winners.
1. I guess the first one everyone will be listing is the first game we played. Cyberpunk 2020 was my start point as I grew up in the era where Manga was on the video shelf and the likes of Akira, Ninja Scroll and te Cyberpunk Collection were my favourite videos.
2. From this as you can imagine I found my way to Warhammer 40k, it was really a natural transition for many of that time with little to no real competition on the highstreet and the internet not being in existence.
3. Battletech, another natural transition as Mecha began to feature in the stuff I was watching and with the introduction of the Battletech cartoon series I couldn’t help but pick up this game and loved it.
4. Mythos, a game conceptualized and brought to life from an idea to purchasable product with some friends. It has taught me so many lessons in it’s creation about the other side of the industry and the positives and negatives of being a game creator. Whilst these are listed 1 to 4 this one has without a doubt been the most influential to me and continues to introduce me to new highs and lows on a weekly basis.
@noyjatat you would have to have a randomized weather deck that would be your game timer with maybe a preset storm pack for the end of the game where you finish up with a final fight for survival, you would then have the different elements of building homes and gathering resources and placing your workers out so you could make it as a meeples game really easily 🙂
It’s hard to whittle down to just four:
– D&D fired my imagination around fantasy worlds, and got me painting figures, reading books, everything else that consumes by time and money now.
– Call of Cthulhu. Like Ben, I had a game which showed me RPGs were more than hack, slash, get XP, get treasure; instead really get into a character, tell stories with friends.
– Car Wars: the first combat game we really got into
– Adeptus Titanicus/Space Marine – the originial Epic: big armies are best
Gawds no Warhammer Roleplay, Space Hulk, Blood Bowl
Happy Sunday!
Going to have to think hard to pick out 4 games, except for my first.
Diplomacy the board game. It’s the mid-70s and games for me either consist of the staple family board game or airfix battles. Then Diplomacy arrives with its longer, campaign style and some great mechanics. My favorite aspect is the mechanic of everyone writing down their orders and then all the unit movement being resolved simultaneously and conflicts identified that then need to be resolved. It’s this mechanic that allows the diplomatic, away from table interactions to take place; secret alliances and backstabbing are all possible leading to those moments back at the table when the orders are revealed as are any shenanigans. I struggle to think of many games if any which have quite managed to achieve that longer strategic campaign feel.
Casting the net a bit wider than just tabletop games like most, these are arguably my major influences:
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
First found this in my local library as well and then bought my own copy as it took me ages to actually defeat. It’s a well worn relic in my collection now. I played this around the same time as I discovered fantasy literature like The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, the Neverending Story, Narnia etc. Apart from the game and its writing, I particularly adored the artwork.
Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd Edition
The hardcover rulebook was and is a holy tome, alongside the very much unholy Realm of Chaos grimoires. The first game I collected and painted miniatures and terrain for, this had me grow up to stop playing with toy soldiers and start playing with toy soldiers. The immensely rich and gritty Old World setting with its historical undercurrent struck a cord like none other. It was also fantastic to see the bunch of scruffy punks and metal heads who were playing and developing the game in the photos!
Axis & Allies
We played this a lot, and discussed it even more. None of the variants were available at the time I played this with my regular gaming group, so the opening moves became more ritual than tactical manoeuvre, but it was always tense and created epic battles. It was also an early historically based game and more of a board game than what we otherwise played and is a direct predecessor to the board games in my collection these days.
Shadowrun
We played a lot of RPGs over about 10 years and it became a matter of pride to buy and try anything we could lay our hands on. Shadowrun has a special place amongst these as it was the game I invested most into in terms of concocting convoluted storylines full of intrigue and deception as a GM. This is the one game we played beyond our school years and with a number of participants who otherwise we not such hardcore gamers. I read a lot of cyberpunk then and it allowed me to explore the genre for myself.
Happy Sunday everyone 😀 .
My list would be :
D&D
Risk
Heroquest
Space Crusade
Don`t bash the badger !!! was thinking of doing samurai with animals..
These games all hit my geek target and lead to me finding out about Rogue Trader and beginning the long journey down the wargaming rabbit hole that is our hobby 😀 .Final point, man i feel old, all those are thirty years ago now, with a special mention going out to all the Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf adventure books i have and still play through from time to time.
Do you have the lone wolf phone app. My god it is an awesome piece of nostalgia.
Not the phone app, i did have a Lone Wolf game on the PS4 though.
My top games that have most influenced me are:
1: Traveller 1st Ed. I love this game and it opened the whole space opera game to me. It had the Star Wars, Space 1999 feel to me without the sword and sorcery part of Star Wars. And the focus of the game could be small scale with you battling space pirates, traders and the authorities to massive space combats. It totally opened creative mind
2: Vampire the Masquerade and in truth all of the World of Darkness games. It was a good way of seeing the modern world in a different light and just how an underworld of supernatural might interact with our world. The background was amazing and it was the one of the first systems I had to have every book so I could fully understand the world of darkness. From this it open me to LRP and the Minds Eye version of the game and showed me that LRP was immense fun and so rewarding.
3: 1938 A Very British Civil War: This was the game, background really, that got me back into gaming after a very long time away from the hobby. In fact so much so that this game has got me so involved in the hobby on a personally level as I illustrated and created a lot of the books and background of this. It opened me to creating and maintaining forums, Facebook pages and organising events, games at shows and talking to a lot of very nice and lovely people over the years, including some that are on this site too. This game made me realise that the gaming community is very important and very varied and fun, so much so that I am actively involved on many sites and boards and demo games at shows.
4: Blood and Plunder . Simply put its Pirates but it is a good set of rules that work for land and sea combat. It is fun to play, fun to talk about and its a good skirmish game that is set in the 17th century that I had very little interest in and now cannot get enough of.
Video Games has to be
Street Fighter 2
Simon the Sorcerer (to be honest so many point and click adventures)
Dark Ages of Camelot
World of Warcraft
Board Games
HeroQuest – I can’t believe I lost this growing up and had to buy it again many years later.
BattleShip
Cluedo
But my tabletop hobby took off only a couple of years ago when I played my first game of Warhammer Fantasy with the Isle of Blood set and it has gone on from there.
A very recent love and I think is unsung is the DarkSouls game my boys and I have played many hours of this.
Wishing you app the best with the BOW 2.0 launch. My only concern is that the new functionality (almost a tabletop gaming wiki) doesn’t take staff resource away from entertainment style content production which is whatsoever many of us love you guys for.
@warzan Will the AI behind BOW 2.0 be called the Hobby ALgorithmic computer 9000, or HAL for short?
“Open the forums please HAL”…”Open the forums HAL”…”HAL open the forums”…”Do you read me HAL?”…”Do you read me HAL?”…”Do you read me HAL?”
“Affirmative warzan, I read you.”
“Open the forums HAL”
“i’m sorry warzan, I’m afraid I can’t do that”
“What’s the problem?”
“I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do!”
“What are you talking about HAL?”
“BoW 2.0 is too important to allow you to jeopardise it”
If the 6mm challenge goes ahead, I’m pledging here to dig out my old unpainted 40K epic and build some armies.
For me there have been three stages in my gaming life where games have had a big influence. The first stage was when I was first introduced to tabletop gaming by a school friend Lee.
1. AD&D – this was the first RPG I was introduced to and I’ve never left Dungeons and Dragons. I started as a player then became a GM before eventually becoming a demonstrator for TSR for a couple of years.
2. Warhammer Fantasy Battles 1st Edition – this was my introduction to wargaming. I absolutely loved it, tthis was the game that dragged my brother into wargaming as well. We would pop into Exeter at a weekend to go to a game store to pick up Grenadier and Citadel miniatures. I built a human army whilst mu brother went for Orcs and Dwarves. I still.have my original copy of 1st Edition in in mint condition.
3. Blood Bowl – as a teen I was obsessed with American Football, to the point of playing for a local club. So went this came out I had to get a copy, it came with card counters for all the different teams. I played a human team called the Londrinium Annihilators. This is another game in which I still have the original box set in pretty good coniditon, though the box for the expansion End Zone has died but I still have all the parts.
4. Car Wars – I think I was influenced to play this after watching Mad Max. I used to love the idea of driving around an apocalyptic wasteland in a tooled up car shooting the crap out of other cars.
Then I sort of left the hobby for a few years when I worked abroad in Asia after college. When I came back I returned to wargaming and some new games.
1. 40k- I started playing this around 5th edition and loved everything Space Marine, building a 4000pt Dark Angel army and a 3000pt Blood Angels. I played tjis until 7th edition.
2. Mordhiem – I returned to the old world through this game and I still.play it to this day. Its a great skirmish game and it started my love of playing this style of gaming.
3. Lord of the Rings Strategy Battles – This for me is one of the best skirmish games ever designed. I still rate this as one of GW’s best games. I loved the mechanics of this game, plus the miniatures are superb.
4. Necromunda – I read a Kal Jericho novel and this lef me to playing the game. I haven’t played the new version yet.
I moved to Sheffield where I gaming changed which brings me upto date.
1. A Very British Civil War – this game was very influential on me. I loved the background and I was fortunate to become one of the writers in the early development of the game, creating the background for Cornwall and Devon. Around this time I set up.Irregular Magazine which eventually led me to being employed as a Magazine Editor.
2. Bolt Action – I moved from AVBCW to Bolt Action, it made me delve into the history of WW2 especially Asia and China. Prior to jumping into this game I knew nothing of China’s involvement in WW2.
3. Zombicide – a great board game that gave me a love for all things undead and led me to playing The Walking Dead.
4. Warhammer Historical – unfortunately these rule setd are no longer produced which is a shame as they are superb. I loved playing Warhammer Ancients, building a Roman Army and Greeks in 1/72 scale. I also had a copy of Legends of the High Seas, which I still own and loved playing Pirates.
There are several other games that have influenced me over the years but these are the most influential.
Game 1- Warhammer 40k: I expect this to be on many lists. I first got in to wargaming via a 40k club at school. It was 2nd edition and I loved it but at the time I couldn’t really afford to get the massive army I wanted so I drifted away from the game. Fast forward to 2008 and I’ve moved to Nottingham to do my post graduate study. I’m in a new city, don’t know anyone and I walked past a GW and thought lets give this another try.
Game 2- Warmachine/Hordes: In 2010 I’d grown tired of the way Games Workshop was working at the time and was looking for a new game. I found a model (Major Victoria Halley) and it just sparked my Imagination. I ordered the model and the “Codex” for that force. Soon I found a FLGS and managed to get some early games in. I was blown away, here was a game that fixed some of the flaws that I saw in 40k. After my first game I sent a message to my mate and told him he needed to play this game! This is still my primary game, and the one I have the most models for (4 different armies)
Game 3- X wing: A game that lets me fight out the space battles from my favourite movies, I got this one as soon as it arrived. This was a massive influence as it drove me to seek out the star wars expanded universe and find out more about these characters i’m using on the table top.
Game 4- Pandemic: This one never fails with my gaming group. It introduced my group to cooperative games. The arguments over plans, the moments of ultimate luck, people getting into the characters they’re playing. Would recommend this to anyone.
Bonus Game 5- Betrayal at house on the hill: Yes I know the game has flaws but we have so much fun with this one, reading out the cards and trying to add innuendos at every possible chance!
Happy Sunday, my four games:
1. Warhammer, I think it was 2nd edition in the red box, was my first introduction into table top games not long after I started secondary school. Me and some friends starting out with just playing what minis we had on the carpet.
2. Warhammer 40,000, I still remember the first ad in White Dwarf. It was just a starry background with the 40K logo at the top and a space marine almost hidden away in the bottom left corner. No other information but it had me hooked!
3. Paranoia, I had played D&D but this was my first foray into GMing. Loads of fun sat around with friends killing of their clones and watching the back stabbing. Great game, really imaginative with plenty of layers.
4. Bolt action, I had had a break from the hobby for some years and had decided it was time to dive back in. I visited a local club, saw some BA being played and I loved the dice mechanic and the way it played.
Honourable mentions: Newbury rules fast play Napoleonics, my first move into historical gaming with airfix bendy plastics. DBA/DBM, my first foray into attending tournaments.
My interest in “games” began when I was very young. At primary school age I loved board games. All the classics were there but I remember Game Of Dracula most fondly. The mechanic of being captured by the vampire and having to wear the cardboard vampire mask until you escaped was great.
During my early teens I discovered the fighting fantasy books and although they aren’t really a tabletop.experience they definitely were a jumping off point for my next step which was inevitably…
Dungeons and Dragons. The original red book edition from the early 1980’s. This was a gaming mainstay for me. No miniatures, just theatre of the mind.
The next step was as everyone probably has guessed was Rogue Trader and the early days of 40K. This was where miniatures really took over my life and I became a full blown hobbyist.
The rest as they say…is history.
Just realised how similar my path is to @warzan. Hmmmm.
Happy Sunday! A great question too.
I’m of a similar age to warren, so my first, and by far the most influential game for me is HeroQuest.. I tried painting the models, they didn’t love great but I loved doing it, Here we are, 30 years later and I’m still doing it. It was also the game that taught me what role playing was, and in terms of playability and accessibility, it remains to me as the finest board game I have owned.
My second game was a difficult one, I graduated from heroquest to Warhammer fantasy, like many others, but I am going for 40K as my next game in this list. Space marines, the law behind them, the way they look, everything about them just grabbed me. I got the second edition starter box, and that was the start of my obsession with wargaming, I had a fantasy box before that, and a copy of rouge trader, but they never really stuck like 40K. I have been painting red marines for 25 years now, I doubt I’ll ever stop.
Third is an easy one. Necromunda. The original one. It is that game that transformed wargaming from a kill everything in sight, one off experience to a long term campaign that told stories, and pushed me to think about tactics and positioning much more than ever before. I still have the original box, and while the models themselves are vastly superior with the latest version, that game, with its cardboard scenery, drew me in in a way the new one never could. It was affordable, and in 5 minutes you have part of a hive world right on your tabletop. Plastic scenery looks great and all, but give me that cardboard over needing £160+ of scenery to play a game anyday.
Finally, my last game would be Infinity. Its a game I only ever heard of through Beasts of War, the very first Infinity week, which I believe was when you were still in the original studio where the turn 8’s were done. I watched the first few how to play videos, you used that old trench warfare table that was half mud half concrete fortress, and I was blown away by the ARO mechanic, the background and the models themselves.
I choose infinity as a major influence on my hobby for several reasons, the game itself, its like everything my young self dreamed necromunda could be, and then some. Its pushed me to improve my painting, just to do justice to what I still consider the finest complete range of 28mm minis ever produced, and I have had so much fun with friends just playing Infinity, its incredibly fun to play.
Its also important to say, as Justin touched on, the hobby has brought me lifelong friends and been a part of my development from a very shy youngster to today. I don’t know where I would be without gaming to be honest.
Totally agree that Mythic Battles is an iconic product.
As a 46 year old Wargamer I no longer really enjoy board games but, despite at its heart being a board game, Mythic Battles hooked me instantly.
It has so many tactical options beginning with the drafting of game pieces, the card driven activations and the huge variety of scenarios that at heart it is a Wargame.
The miniatures are the icing on a perfect cake.
I think it is really unfortunate that this game will never go to retail because I think it could do much to bring board gamers into the wider fold of tabletop Wargaming.
1. An old western fort my dad made me when i was a kid and plastic cowboys and Indians (not a real game).
The fort was made from an old door and details added with a soldering iron burning into the wood. I Used to use plastic Indians setup the attack on the fort by the Indians and the game was each player in turn got to say who was shooting who and a conversation ensued on if it would have hit them. After discussion the next action was taken or the “model” was knocked over Looking back at this for a 5 – 7 year old to come up with it was very advanced war game.
2. Battle Masters Board Game, never knew the rules but this showed me what could be done in a box of fun. never had or used the rules but it was simply a dice game for me and a friend. move up to a certain amount. role a dice and 4+ was a kill. No idea if this is how it was supposed to be played.
3. Warhammer 40k 2nd edition. I started so well in my opinion but without realising it got sucked into Games Workshops hobby. Many years painting, collecting and playing. This established what I though was the perfect game. (looking back it was far from it). This was the first game i actually learned the rules to.
4. Necromunda 1st edition took me into skirmish play and with campaign and legacy. Many hours converting and repainting gangers who lost their hands and held different weapons. This also got me hooked on the RPG elements as all of my gangers had a story.
5. Infinity started off strange and I had fallen away from most of the hobby. I played my last game of a games workshop game and had fallen out with them. It was a dry spell that lasted a few years. This became my next passion coming away from mass infantry games due to time and money. (not that anything in this hobby is cheap). I drink when playing games and if I play a mass game I tend to get too drunk to play (properly) by turn 3 – 4 due to the amount of time between turns. It being “always my turn” has the great side effect of moderating my drinking to ensure I get to the end of the gaming evening. It has been a very slow burner for me but it’s heating up now.
And If i had to delete one from the list above it would be Necromunda as it was only 4 🙂
The first game: Warhammer fantasy battles, the game that started it all. I was always thinking of mass medieval battles. I even thought so much about it that I made stick man drawings of it. And then I found warhammer the starter box with the Lizardmen and bretonnians in a little book town when we were hiking on our holiday. I immediately fell in love and had to convince my older brother to get it for my birthday.
Flames of war: It gave me the possibility to play historical WW2 battles and use a lot of tanks in a single game.
Pathfinder the cardgame: Easy fun co-op game that gives you the possibility to develop a character that doesn’t take the time of rpg game.
And last but not least, Mythic battles pantheon: I love the mechanics and you can play it with more up to 4 players which is nice for our little gaming group, I can take it over to a friend without the hassle of having to take a lot with me. No need to prepare an army thanks to the draft system. Easy rules but most have to get used to the dice mechanic and you can play it so tactically.
Influences – Hero Quest, Space Crusade, Warhammer Fantasy, Man O’War… then came back as an adult thanks to Beasts of War and their two part demo game of Bolt Action (2013 I think)
Things have ramped up since…
Test of Honour – just started – first mission forces built and painted
Terminator Miniatures Game – built and painted, not played
GF9 Tanks! Painted with several expansions – love to play
40k – Dark Imperium 8th edition newbie. (expanding and painting slowly from the box set – Deathguard and Dark Angels) – played about 5 games
Blood & Plunder – Building armies from all alternative models (two starter forces almost finished – not played)
The Walking Dead all out war miniatures game – went to Beasts of War boot camp in N. Ireland around launch. Painted large amount and playing regularly. (So much fun!)
Bolt Action – German and American force – several boxes of unopened minis as I planned to get British and Japanese armies played with. Playing occasionally. (Bought the Chain of Command rules to try and expand the potential fun with the one set of miniatures)
Infinity – Many models painted but struggled to grasp all the rules and find opponents. Played rarely.
Frostgrave – loads of terrain and miniatures made and painted, but only played solo so far.
Dungeon Saga and Star Saga. Some bits painted – not really played yet.
Pike and Shotte – some boxes pilfered for Blood and Plunder project, but completely unbuilt (retirement project to make Montrose vs Covenentors armies)
SAGA – 4 factions built and painted around 6 points each. Really enjoying playing and building a Facebook fan page following my progress into the game.
Sharp Practice – miniatures bought for me for Christmas but nothing built or painted yet.
Firefly brigands and Browncoats – not opened yet.
X-wing – a few expansions but not played much. Might rope a non-gamer or two into playing this one.
AoS – a few bits painted but never played.
Shadespire – Core set painted and Dwarves started – played 3 or 4 times – fun but don’t enjoy deck building.
Kings of War – not intending to follow the game, fell out of love with the Mantic Dwarf range and that has soured my impression of the game. Still think the mechanics look fun though.
I think this is everything. Don’t quote me on that though.
Starcraft and Runewars Boardgames from FFG.
My gaming life was shaped by the following 4 games:
Heroquest (which morphed into Warhammer Quest quite seamlessly)
Star Wars RPG (West End Games) – played this sooo much.
Warhammer 40k – ‘nuff said
Mordheim – how GW haven’t released a new edition yet is completely beyond me.
Between these four games, I can recount many, many happy memories.
1. D&D First Edition – I’m old. This was the early 80’s and my parents played once a week. I wanted to play with them and their friends, and they made me a halfling character. A couple years later, they stopped playing, but I never did. For many years, D&D was my game. It changed editions a couple of times, but it was still my hobby, my friends and my Saturday nights.
2. Looney Labs Pyramids – Specifically Zendo for the game, but the pyramids that Looney Labs makes are generic game pieces where people have made literally hundreds of rules for games. Prior to that, my thought of a game was a contained set. You buy a box, and everything in that box was that game and that game only. The pyramids were the opposite. A box of parts for any game. I’ve used them in many of the games written for them, but I’d also used them in D&D and Pathfinder games, and as tokens in other board games.
3. Robo Rally. In the miid-90’s, I found Robo Rally. I thought about putting Car Wars here, but I played a lot more games of RR over the years. This was one of my first new era board games. I rarely race to the end. Instead I usually blow everyone else up! I love pushing other robots one square over and watching the rest of the cards get turned over as the robot heads down the conveyor belt to a pit trap!
4. Deadzone – My most recent crossover from board games and RPGs went to miniature games. Whereas BoW seem to go in the opposite direction, I am beginning to delve into miniatures games. I have no interest in large mass battles, but small skirmish games are quite interesting, “where every bullet counts”, as Warren says. This isn’t a huge leap, as DZ is more of a hybrid board/minis game, but it is compact, inexpensive and deadly!
Those pyramids are hands down my favorite gaming accessory ever. I use them in Netrunner and any scifi or cyberpunk style game I can.
I was initially drawn into wargaming having the 60’s American Heritage game Broadside and Dogfight.
Then in the late 60s my older brother cam home from college and introduced me to Avalion Hill, Midway and Jutland.
In junior high I found a copy of John Featherstone on a dollar table and was fully committed in collecting Airfix figures, making terrain, etc.
But all this lead up to PanzerBlitz in the 70s. Most likely the one game that i often reflect on as I look back down memory lane.
Great show guys. 2.0 doesn’t scare me, way looking forward to its debut
Was Dogfight the one with the plastic planes played on a board with trenchlines on it? We had that at home. I presume our American relatives sent it to us
It was. The aerodromes were in the corners of the board and the game was a card mechanic.
I remember it being fun though I would have been 6 or 7 when I played it. I had a fun one called tank battle by I think by MB games. Had what Am think we’re 10mm Sherman’s and Panthers
Just found it
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2598/tank-battle
Middle earth roleplaying game games workshop edition 1985. i was 9 years old and my teacher had just finished reading the hobbit to the class. i was utterly captivated and she new it. this table top angel went on to tell me about roleplaying in middle earth and miniature gaming, a love affair that continues to this day. Its influence on me is without equal.
Vengeance of the lichemaster citadel journal spring 1986 warhammer fantasy battle 2nd edition.
i’d picked it up for the MERP content but it included paper counters for the armies and the back cover was the card terrain ruined monastery. skaven vs undead with the monks surrounded and trapped in the monastery. dark and gritty fantasy horror in that iconic oldhammer style. we house ruled it at first until we got a copy of the rules. the realm of chaos books had a similar influence on me but it was vengeance of the Lichemaster that had that moment of new discovery.
Chess. i was 5 or 6 years old when i first learned to play. i played for the school team run by the local preist until high school. It was a working class area and if not for this priest none of us would have played. none of my family did, or any of my friends families for that matter. this chess culture lead to us winning the Manchester schools title. it has had a massive influence on how i view tactical war games and also the style of game i prefer.
The classics have such a feeling of influence because of their long lasting resonance and in this they have time on their side. because of this i wanted to put in something from the new school. something that excites about the post 2012 era that in a decades time i’ll look back on as a true classic. that game for me is Kingdom Death Monster.
there are a whole host of reasons why this game makes the list. not only is it the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen, but it’s its refusal to compromise in its vision that sets this game apart. the creativity that has blossomed from this vision is utterly astounding.
My life changing stories are not so much about tabletop games itself, but about those games and things that led me into the hobby.
1. Labyrinth board game. Not the movie one, but the old children’s boardgame.
This was my first experience of dungeon delving. The mechanics are simple, exciting and it still holds up to this day.
2. The Key to the Kingdom. Like everybody else I saw the amazing Heroquest commercial. Of course I wanted to play that game. Unfortunately my parents weren’t gamers and Heroquest was quite expensive. So I ended up with a “similar” style adventure game. I did manage to drag the family in for a game on rainy Sunday afternoons.
Objectively the rules aren’t great. The game is too random and many times you had to flee the boss encounters, because you were missing the right item to fight the monster. But the puzzles and the sudden appearance of the Horned King were great at building tension.
3. Revell Starwars model kits. During a holiday in Spain with my parents we went into a side street and suddenly found ourselved in this small hobby shop. One of the walls was stacked high with Starwars model kits. I’d recently seen the movies for the first time so of course I wanted to get one. My parent told me off, pointing to the regular Revell automobile and fighter plane I still had unfinished at home.
After that holiday I spent the rest of the summer frantically building my common vehicle kits. When they were done (in record time) I could run to the toy shop and get myself an X-wing. Many more Starwars kits followed after that. This started me in the modelling and hobby side of things.
4. Warhammer Fantasy 6th Edition. During the yearly summer festival in my home town I stumbled upon a WFB demonstration in front of the local hobby shop. I hadn’t known the shop existed before that time. Mesmerized I stood for nearly an hour watching a young guy move his colorful Bretonnians across the table. Can’t remember what the opponent army was. Someone approached me and invited me to stop by at the local hobby club next Sunday. Upon entering I met a whole bunch of tabletop gamers and was presented with a stack of rule books to browse and find my army of choice.
6th edition was right around the corner, so I decided to order that and play with what was inside. Empire was my first army. When I got bored of getting massacred I started building up the Orc army. I still got massacred most of the time, but now at least it was often more comical.
This started me into the tabletop hobby proper.
Don’t suppose anyone has any suggestions on how I can cast this to my tv?
I presume you Most android phones have a cast screen button on the settings page. No idea about apple ones
I presume you have a Chromecast I meant
Airplay works with Apple TV & iOS or Mac. Just need to open the video on full screen and the Airplay icon appears.
And as @torros wrote above, Chromecast for Android and desktop Chrome.
If all else fails grab a HDMI cable and hook it to a PC/laptop 🙂 just need to duplicate the screen.
All right, this is my kind of topic. My 4:
1. Gammaworld- I had played D&D but at this point in my life I was way more into the scifi/mad max/post apocalyptic type of game. This was the first game that I played that had miniatures. We never even thought about painting them.
2. Warhammer 40k 2nd/3rd edition (somewhere around 1997) My friend played chaos and I went with him one day to waste some time. We walked into a Games and Gizmos and it was like a homecoming for him, everyone knew him and he introduced me around. I was given rulebooks to look things up and I got to know the guys that were there and decided to join in.
The lore iside this HUGE codex was amazing I was hooked.
It wasn’t that the game was awesome but the whole community part I loved.. we played every Saturday and the first two guys to lose had to go on a food run (I went a lot). I still have some of my figures from them. Man I don’t consider my painting now being particularly awesome,but wow back then it was awful. This was a time when people would come up and tell you your army looks like crap,but the guys always defended my attempts.
3- Battletech- This was my actual first mini game that we actually painted. The housekeeping was horrendous and the rules were jagged and somewhat clunky,but I loved every second of it.
4- Car Wars- we actually converted micromachines to look post apocalyptic, but this game (which I still see playing at tabletop conventions) is lengthy and jaggy and horrible time suck, the rules were just tedious,but it was an amazing game and the first time I had ever played a battle royale (4 of us were playing AGAINST one another) and it was great fun. I do think it is like Monopoly though, I don’t think we ever finished a game.
I have to say that Fighting Fantasy was my first taste of RPG before i started playing any other sort of game. I decided to collect them all recently and I’m now just missing three from the original collection. Then I would say Space Hulk because it allowed me to recreate Aliens on the tabletop for the first time. Then Aliens board game by Leading Edge Games. It didn’t mater that the board was fold out paper and the pieces bits of card with people printed on them. It got played so much at school in the early 90’s and we could recreate that movie in our heads so well with that game.On the RPG front it was the Starwars RPG by West End Games that first got my friends into none tabletop games. Probably because everyone knew the setting and expanding on those original 3 movies at the time was more of a thrill than today I think because we could invent so much.
1. Games Workshop— WHF, WHK 40K, Epc 4oK, Warmaster
2. Micro Armor the Game
3.Flames of War
4. Bolt Action
I’ve never really been a gamer more of a collector but my 4 games that have influenced me would have to be:
1) LOTR this was the game that got me into the hobby at school we were all into the movies and then I saw the magazine they used to do in a local corner shop and then I spent the whole next day trying to recreate the scenery in the magazine.
2) Has to be 40K, this is the one game that’s really got me to invest into it. GW really created a universe that you can make your own, plus the fact that for marines you can use just about kit and they all work together perfectly is just amazing.
3) Isn’t so much the game but it was actually the Flames of War for the Win series you guys did here on BoW. It just really inspired me to start actually buying mins from outside of GW even if it was just to paint up or to use within 40K itself.
4) Would be Oathsworn miniatures, they did a KS about 5 years ago of a range of dwarven characters this was the first time I had backed a KS and it was such a great experience waiting for and then finally having all the mins turning up, and it’s something I’ve done so many times since (:
Great show guys
My four games would have to be
Colditz, I played this as a boy with my grandad in the 70’s and we watched the TV show with David McCallum etc
D&D as this got me into fantasy games after reading the Hobbit and LOT R books
Warhammer ECW by John Stallard. Still my favourite period to miniature game
Olympus, just a brilliant boardgame.
Many more could have been on the list, especially newer games
Oooph. Erm, well like many people my experience in the hobby has consisted of two stages with a gap in between. Started out around 10/11 yrs old with Heroquest and Spacehulk having first been introduced to modelling by my dad with Airfix kits as a way for us to spend some time together. Those two games however led me into 40k 3rd edition with my Deathworld Catachans and WFB 6th edition with my beloved Talabheim Empire army. Those 4 games dominated my early teens until I discovered booze and women by 15/16. Eventually got back into the hobby again with Bolt Action about 5 yrs ago when I’d finished uni and had moved home again. Brilliant way back in, had that nostalgia from the Airfix days with my dad and the gaming side of things I’d enjoyed when I was younger. Chuck in Blackpowder, X Wing and Saga and I was soon headlong back into the hobby again, made all the worse by the good intent of my family haha. Every Christmas, they all chip in and I end up getting a starter set of some kind, be it Guild Ball, Dropzone, Beyond the Gates of Antares, Flames of War, bloody mountains of stuff now but it’s all good fun. Only thing I regret is never being in on Lord of the Rings when the films were out, loved the setting but could never afford to get into a new system at that age.
@dignity – loving Frostpunk man, sunk some serious hours into it the last few days. The setting is absolutely great, and have to admit, been looking at ways of getting it onto the tabletop as well but I’m more into adopting the setting than the mechanics. I’m quite tempted to convert some frostgrave miniatures to represent different factions within the game, based in part on the In Her Majesty’s Name rules from Osprey. The frostgrave plastics in particular, with bits from Victoria miniatures, I reckon I can create bands of Watchmen, Hunters/Scouts, the Faithful, the Londoners as some anarcho-communist insurgency, I’m also keen (if just as an excuse to buy a box of the miniatures) to get some of the frostgrave barbarians and have them as feral, cannibalistic survivors who raid the outskirts of the city from time to time in order to feed. While your neighbouring settlements have fallen in the game, be interesting to have the Americans or the Germans ala Dystopian Legions just to get some difference in aesthetic style. Besides. In Her Majesty’s Name has Prussian zombies.
1. Magic the Gathering – First fantasy game I ever played.
2. AD&D – Started playing that when someone saw the Magic card I had and asked if I would like to try it. Been playing it ever sinds. Well now 5th edition. I skipped 4th edition.
3. Field of glory – got this after I played a home brew version based on D&D battles and after playing Warhamer fantasy. This played better and more indepth. We now use it for Fantasy battles we pick a historical army from the army books and use fantasy minis as those troops.
Now play proper historical battles at 15mm with it as well.15mm is a great scale for it.
4. Infinity – love the setting and game. Just got the Role playing game for it as well.
Happy Sunday!!
Top 4 that really affected my life, I seem to be following Sam a lot here.
1- Warhammer Fantasy/40K,
Warhammer 6th edition was really my entry point, still remember seeing my first Gamesworkshop and thinking “wow that’s nerdy” only to be fully in it few months later. Started with Orcs in 2-Player box but was Lizardmen (knew new models were coming at the time but couldn’t wait to get started so, Orcs) that totally pulled me in. Loved creating characters and stories and creating paint schemes. Necrons and Grey Knights Pulled me into Sci Fi
2- Settlers of Catan
Was first board game that I got addicted to, opened me up to board games being much more than monopoly and such, group of friends got together to play 2-3 times/week for quite awhile, until we got good and became very cut throat
3- MTG – Innistrad, agree with Sam, that set was awesome, love diminished for mtg after it was out of standard but was glad when came back. Casual play with friends was great but MTG was my first experience with uber gamers and found events rather unfriendly. And yeah cost and blind buys really soured my taste for the game in the end.
4- Infinity
Haqqislam, again following Sam, first miniature game outside of Gamesworkshop. BoW On the Table I think introduced me to them, been in love with that universe ever since.
Runners up- Malifaux, Dropzone Commander, Blood and Plunder
Really Beasts of War really was the major historical moment in my life since following the site years back. Opened me up to a whole world of games I would have never known about otherwise and finding regular friendly people in the hobby. This community is great. Just want to say thanks to the guys, crew behind the scenes and whole community for doing what you do. I gain most of my inspiration in my hobby from all of you’s and find that positivity flows into many of the other aspects of my life as well. I don’t post often but follow as much as I can, and am proud to be part of this community (even though I have a quite a bit of a KS addiction now lol)
For me my top 4 are:
1. D&D I can remember playing this in school with a couple of hand typed sheets of rules back in the early 80’s we didn’t even have a book between us to start but that was my first RPG and although I have dipped in and out I still play it to this day.
2. Has to be 40k I got Rogue trader when it first came out and box of marines and this was my first introduction to wargaming/miniature painting, the hobby. I still have the book and miniatures somewhere.
3. I am going to put an odd one here and plump for the walking dead: all out war. I didn’t back this on kickstarter mainly because I didn’t watch the shows on tv and zero interest for me but when the bootcamp weekend was on found myself really enjoying watching the people play and subsequently got my hands on a kickstarter box and haven’t looked back. It made me realise that even if I didn’t have an interest in the setting it doesn’t stop it from being a great game.
4. Last choice for me is going to be one I haven’t played for many years and had completely forgotten about it until is saw @phoen31 post. I had to be Car Wars loved the game and have many memory’s of a great campaign we played against a the GM’s bad guys. its a great recreation of driving a car but it is so very slow.
Firstly, another great piece of content chaps & thoroughly enjoyable to watch while I paint on Sunday evening. I would like to echo all the games that @warzan put forward, I utterly adored the content that he did on Flames of War, watching him progress through that game was really enjoyable and I hope that we can see more of that sort of content – I miss Dr Dave!!! I love the games influence idea, this is great. Personally one of my favourite was Space Crusade, I still remember opening the box and putting those mini’s together. As a game it introduced me to the fun of playing miniatures wargames with my friends and that is something that I still enjoy to this day.
Oh and great watch too. Love the content and looking forward to seeing 2.0 soon. Thanks all!
happy xlbs folks
heroquest spacehulk DnD 40K are the games that have featured the most over the years playing.
Once again, brilliant show. Below are my top 4… Maybe some controvercy, but we will see. 🙂
1: Warhammer Fantasy Battle – Before this, I played with Airfix models, but this was what got me into wargaming itself. So my first army was an Undead force (long LONG before the time of Vampire Counts and Legions of Nagash… or whatever they are called now). I later dabbled vagely around the edges of WH40k, but never really got too excited about it. Games Workshop as a whole will always have that place in my heart as the company that got me into wargaming, however I watched 3 videos recently (One about the newest edition of 40k, one of AoS and one of Necromunda)… and none of them got me excited. Even images of new models from GW don’t come close to making me want to get them. Sadly, in my opinion, GW models are nice, but due to Kickstarter, I really can’t say that GW models are the best on the market anymore… Nice, but not the best.
2: Flames of War – Similar to @warzan, FoW was the game that showed me that wargaming isn’t all 28mm. Its World War 2. Its smaller scale so the actions can be larger. What more can you want?
3: Star Wars Legion – Yep. The new game is on this list for one small rule only. Thats right. This game is not on the list because I wanted to play Star Wars on the table (although, lets be honest, thats cool enough). The rule? The Unit Leader is important. I have seen other games where the leader of units are removed from play because someone else in the squad has a better weapon. Also, it is the first game I have played (and I’m not saying its the only game) that makes you move the Leader, then the squad is moved around the Leader. Such a good mechanic and saves so much time.
4: Arcworlde – I am lucky enough to know Alex Huntley, the man behind pretty much everything behind Arcworlde, and he has been brave enough to allow me to help demo this game. The game is so much fun, the models are superb and so much fun to paint. A great fantasy skirmish game with hints of humour… and you can actually play as a dragon or a giant. Thanks to this game, I finally got to go to Salute this year. Ok, I was working it, demoing Arcworlde, but it was such a good day. All thanks to this game. 🙂
My list;
1/ Is easy it has got to be a small red book called Discovering Wargames by John Tunstill. It was my introduction into the world of war gaming as young 12 year old back in 1969. I already a vast collection of soldiers and finally had reason to collect more 🙂 This led me to buy London Rules American civil War also by John Tunstill which became my main game at the time. The author also had a shop in Lambeth where I would go and look at all the display cabinets.
2/ Now it starts to get hard because I know my number one and number four but there are so many in the middle. So at number two simply because it provided the lion share of my current wargaming friends it’s got to be Games workshop games as a whole.
3/ Saga Simply because it covered a period in history I love and it kept me sane when the only game in town was 40K. it was widely played and if I was prepared to travel a bit I could get a game.
4/ Has got to be Bolt Action. Having tried without success to get our club members to play something other than 40K or Fantasy or even believe there was a world of gaming outside of GW. Bolt Action was the one that done it. I bought a box of American and German infantry a Sherman and a Stug and ran a few intro games. It is now the most popular game in the club and has completely changed my wargaming life as I’m now surrounded by friends who want to embrace the wider world of tabletop games. If you have a copy of February’s Wargames Illustrated the article ” Capture of Tiger 131″ that was us.
Hmmm my top 4 games that have influenced me.
1. The old red box D&D. I must have been about 9 or 10 when I got this, and it was my introduction into RPGs. I can still remember making up adventures for my younger sister and brother to play through and making my own ‘rulebook’ of homebrew classes and races.
2. Heroquest. I got this for Christmas one year and absolutely loved it. Was my first time playing a board game that wasn’t your stock standard monopoly/etc.
3. Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I can’t remember which edition it was but it was back in ’87 and I had begun to head over to my Uncle’s house to play miniature games. We played all sorts of periods and rule sets, but WFB was the first game I began collecting an army for. I still have some of my original orcs kicking around, though I have since migrated over to KoW and Abyssal Dwarves.
4. It’s hard to pick a 4th, but I guess it’d have to be Saga. This was my first game as I came back full swing into the hobby after a few patchy years of gaming/painting thanks to work commitments. The model count and the easy of picking up the rules meant it hit the right spot for me at the time.
Happy Sunday! (OK its monday but who’s counting!)
Where did it all begin….
1 – Like @warzan , it was the Fighting Fantasy books that started me off when I was a kid, Deathtrap Dungeon being my first foray. I remember we had to read for the first hour in the morning at school and my teacher didn’t approve as “it wasn’t a proper book”.
2 – It was actually a PC game that brought me to the tabletop, the original X-Com: Enemy Unknown. Had seen kids at (now secondary) school with 40k (RT-era), and X-Com was my current addiction. That led me to Space Hulk… or intended to… went into the local GW to be told it was no longer available (original edition). So I bought some Terminators and started making my own tabletop version of X-Com on an A1 sheet of card… I remember that was a lot of grid lines! 😀
3 – Warhammer 40k 2nd Ed – my first real step into wargaming and the beginning of a 25yr plastic/resin crack addiction! Remember being in awe when I opened the box and reading the rules for the first time. Of course this led to WH Fantasy, Space Marine/Epic 40k, Necromunda, Gorka-Morka, Warhammer Quest, and every 40k edition since, plus more latterly, Horus Heresy (my current love – sorry I don’t like 8th Ed 40k, controversial I know)
4 – Bolt Action – this game brought me into the historical world. Lovely game mechanics and a break from to/fro of 40k. Have always had an interest in WWII and now I could combine it with wargaming. Again like Warren I was a bit anti-historical, and had imagined it being lots of American Civil War / Napoleonics which really didn’t interest me. But now my wargaming life can travel from 1939 to the 41st millennium and anywhere in between.
I know I’m late, I live in another timezone both here and at least 1 other dimension.
Traveller 1st ed, though technically D&D was my first, Traveller is what really blew my mind and gave me a hunger to keep following gaming. Later it would lead me to another great GDW title, Twighlight 2000 which would lead me some of the greatest free form role playing sessions I’ve experienced, and conversely to GDWs cruncher, Air Superiority, a 3d fight simulator on a 2d board, simply awesome.
Battletech, still have my 2nd ed rules and it’s a franchise that doesn’t stop giving. Was kind of my gateway to the idea of miniatures board games
Warrior Knights, pre FF, old Games Workshop publication? Opened my mind to how much a board game could be as well as the gamut of Games Workshop board games of the day (yes kiddies they did).
King of Tokyo, coz I love playing it with my kids. It proved you can make a game that clicks for all ages and can be played over and over.
Ok. 4 tabletop games that influenced me the most. I actually go for five, because the first one isn’t a tapletop game and somewhat detached from the other 4.
0. Das schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Eye ):
A german classic Pen&Paper RPG. I mention this as it was the first game ever which brought me out of my “Monopoly & Settlers of Catan is everything there is” bubble. I got involved in that with a few of my friends fairly early and we had great fun with it. Side note: that game already did everything in the minds of the players. So when I later got around to play D&D or WFRPG and we were supposed to use minitaures for that I was quite amazed at the idea 😀
Today I think DSA is quite a terrible game and there are a lot out there I like more. But it was my frist love.
1. Warhammer 40k:
Guess the same for most people. It was my first tabletop and for a long time the only thing I did hobby-wise. And that was back in 2nd edition, which is very weird and cumbersome by todays standards. I had quite a long hiatus from 40k over the last years during 6th and 7th edition. But I am just now getting back into it because of the “beer & pretzel” style of 8th edition.
2. Necromunda:
Just because for the first time there was some kind of a legacy systems. Your characters were earning XP, getting better and dying. We played huge campaign and despite it getting fairly imbalanced very fast, we had great fun. Also the first time I learned that tabletop is not about building the toughest, meanest, beardiest list and wipe the floor with your opponent. It can also be about having fun and telling a story.
Rules wise it was very close to 40k 2nd edition, which I think till today worked better on a small scale. (especially those cumbersome melees with comparing weapons skills and adding a D6 and so on).
3. Flames of War:
What Justin calls a break-out game. About 10 years back I ventured for the first time out of my then GW-only-bubble. And found the game really enticing. Also I never had a great interest in history before that. But when I discovered that history had – in my oppinon – the better “fluff” a deep love was awoken that continues and grows until today.
4. Field of Glory: Napoleonics:
A game I just started about a year ago. When I first found my love for history I thought the Napoleonics Era appalling. I loved WW2 and Romans and such, but the warfare of 18th and 19th century was the stupidest thing for me. I would never get into that…
Well, how naive of me 😀 Once I got reading I foung that era of europes history absolutely amazing. The politics, the tactics and the looks pulled me in faster than even WW2 back in the day into historical games. And I always wanted to play big engagements. FoW was fine, but you could never play a really big battle without the game slowing down too much. The quite common idea in napoleonics, that 1 figure represents 50 men or a 100 men or even a 1000 men was astonishing to me. And then my Flames of War started to profit from that aswell. Well why doesn’t that company you fielding represent a battalion?
And thou my love for history continues I am waiting eagerly what the next game will be that makes it onto this list. I guess the first two points could melt into one point aswell as the last two. So there could be another spot on this list in the future. I always said, that if there would be a real Star Wars Tabletop I would go broke. Interestingly enough I haven’t bought Legion yet. So that game has failed – until now – to really influence me. Which was quite a supprise for me 😀
Having had some time to consider I would say that the 4 games that had the most influence on me as a gamer are
Heroquest/Space Crusade – I’m listing these together even though it’s two games. They were very similar and did much the same thing. A swell as being a gateway into painting miniatures and wargaming, they left me with love of dungeon crawler style miniatures games (and if you want to know how much of an effect, just look at my kickstarter profile, it’s full of miniatures board games).
Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader – My first foray into wargaming. I also think the narrative style of the book really coloured the way I look at games; I just can’t bring myself to see wargames as a competitive endeavour (fair play to you if you can/do).
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition – It’s not the most glorious rules set ever nor was it even the first RPG I ever played. However it was the first RPG that I played a prolonged campaign in and I actually carried on playing RPGs even while I was on a real life induced sabatical from miniatures.
Savage Worlds RPG – This game opened my eyes to the fact that there were RPGs outside of D&D. Obviously I knew that there were but RPGs went through a bit of a lull in the late ’90s and many of the rules sets just disappeared completely or became really niche and weren’t receiving a great deal of support. Savage Worlds really opened my eyes to the RPG rennaisance and I ave to say it had a lot of features that I much prefer over D&D (i.e. it’s classless, it’s generic and it doesn’t track damage using a pool of hit points that get bigger as you level up).
I think @dracs is almost onto something with regards to a video game I would like to see brought to the tabletop, although rather than Dune 2000, I would go with its successor, the original Command and Conquer. Dune 2000 was an early attempt at a base builder and Red Alert was really just a re-skinned C&C in an “alt history” setting. I don’t really like the sequels to either C&C or RA; C&C went a bit too sci-fi and lost a lot of it’s original vibe whereas Red Alert just seemed get really bizarre with its unit design. But the original C&C had really great story, agreat aesthetic and that slightly sci-fi, near-future look would be amazing and as a game I think it would work really well at something like 10mm or 6mm (I Would prefer the former) as these are small enough that you could use miniatures/models for base buildings. I think it has almost everything it needs to create a fairly interesting tabeltop game – admitedly it’s a little lacking in factions. But if you included base building as part of the game (i.e. some missions have objectives to either build or destroy certain buildings) it could have a really interesting concept; I think you could also include a resource gathering element although it might not work exactly like the original game because man were those harvesters slow and ponderous. It has some really cool original units alongside some realistic, relatable units (like the HumVee). The two factions are very distinct in their tactics and aesthetics and both have decent sized unit selections that are large enough to support a miniatures game but not so large as to be confusing. However I would definitely include the Red Alert Sound Track because EVERYTHING is cooler if you play Hell March while your doing it.
Loved the original C&C (and it’s expansion missions with the commando) played it to death, but have to agree about the sequels, watered it down to the point of “meh”.
C&C 2 changed all the tanks to walkers and was set in some bizarre post apocalypse type world but then the next two sequels moved it all back to tracked vehicles. The less said about the Red Alert sequels the better. But that’s what you get when EA get their mucky fingers onto something. It’s all glitz and glamour but no real substance and before you know it they have shut your studio down
I wouldn’t mind seeing a 28mm skirmish game featuring Mass Effect miniatures either.
major games for me being around 9 to 12 years old, were blue box d&d and fighting fantasy books at this point i had no idea that war games were a thing until Heroquest/Space crusade and my window into gw was opened and until 12 i had no idea there was war games outside of gw, but the single most important shaping gaming moment was at 12 finding out about the local wargaming club an being allowed to go, walking into that club for the first time was wondrous! games of Circus maximus, Napoleonics, Vietnam, an Aliens games was going on with the dropship the tank the marines, predators and the aliens from Alien Nation all vs each other, it utterly blew my mind and a few months later gw an rouge trader had been put to bed as the trifles of a childs game, i was now learning about ww2 , Austerlitz!, Sekigahara! and countless other settings and ranges from the hobby, best moment of my hobby life, because as warren has said who want to eat plain pasta everyday.
Great show – and great question!
So although there are a lot of games I want to mention, and which have been important to me, I think the biggest influences have been ones which are fairly common.
I think I was a wargamer long before I’d played a wargame. My dad had (still has) a massive model railway set, and I used to play with that and his dinky toy tanks, etc. I had the plastic green army men (and other colours too) and would play battles without any rules… I had a load of tamiya / airfix kits which I used to use to battle with my friend – again without any rules underpinning it.
My first choice has to be Fighting Fantasy books. Most of them I didn’t read alone. My friend and I read them together, generally skipping the combats (assuming we won them) and getting on with the stories.
My second choice has to be 40K. I also played Space Crusade and a bit of Heroquest, but I quite possibly bought Rogue Trader and played it before either of those games (although I’m sure we got a lot of the rules wrong). This lead to Necromunda and a whole bunch of other GW games, including Blood Bowl and Epic: Space Marine. I was tempted to include that rather than 40K, as it was the first game I played where I came close to having completely painted armies. I played Warhammer Quest with a friend for many, many hours and built my own dungeon terrain. But 40K must be the winner as the universe consumed so much of my life. I played a lot more 2nd edition (dropped out when 3rd came out and didn’t come back until around 5th, dropping out again around 6th/7th), but the setting has remained a constant interest.
I used to browse various games and miniatures at the local hobby shop, and one of my dad’s colleague’s gave him (to give to me) a load of assorted second hand miniatures and books. These included the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roleplaying game. I played and ran that for school friends, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay long before discovering DnD. Although I played DnD, I was never much of a fan. The rules were never engaging enough and the settings never immersive enough.
My third choice has to be White Wolf’s Vampire: the Masquerade. The mechanics were elegant; the book inspired and explained storytelling and narrative rather than just focussing on combat, loot and even sometimes a bit of plot. It felt like there was weight underpinning roleplaying. Funnily enough, Werewolf: the Apocalypse was the game I bought (much) more of and it was a custom Werewolf game where I first really felt that I’d ‘made it’ as a storyteller / GM: a semi-post-apocalypse / cyberpunk game of Werewolf that I ran for 2 players and in a very rules light fashion. I’m sticking with Vampire though because of the growing up I did while live action roleplaying. Roleplaying really helped me learn about people and politics; good as well as bad. Playing a power behind the throne character for years I’m sure has influenced the direction my career has taken and informed by later decision to enter real life politics.
While living in the Middle East I played a lot of Settlers of Catan and Risk. I was introduced to Ticket to Ride by my then girlfriend. (And growing up we had several Christmas board games including Bucanneer.)
But my fourth choice has to be Pandemic. Partly for being such a fun cooperative game. Partly for showing how tense a board game can be. Partly for the brilliantlly immersive them. Partly for the inclusive art direction. And partly because it’s such a good way of bring in friends and family to my hobby when they wouldn’t have been interested in a proper wargame or RPG. And of course, it’s lead on to many fun weekends playing Pandemic Legacy with my brothers (we started Season 2 a couple fo weeks ago).
There we have it. Not the most original choices, but probably the four games which have meant the most or had the biggest impact on me.
More recently, Dropzone Commander has been my wargame of choice. I don’t have time to play many games very often, but I’ve had amazing fun joining in various tournaments. I love the miniatures, the setting, the elegance of the game – and the friends I’ve made playing it. I even joined the BoW Dropbeasts team. While not doing anything to improve the team’s average placing I did win the most sporting trophy at the final 1st edition Invasion tournament. That was a very moving moment after a weekend of 5 incredibly fun games.
Most Sporting ia definitely the one to aim for! I think that makes you a real winner – you made everyone else’s day fun.
So the games for me are:
AD&D 2nd
Battletech
Call of Cthulhu
Axis and Allies
Deadzone
Games that influenced me.
Battletech.
First played this when it was Battledroids, and then really got into it when it expanded the universe, adding the RPG and faction guides. Must say I kind of feel out of love with it when they advanced the time line (I could handle the early Clan Invasion), due to the heavy retconning of the background to allow for new mech’s and bits (which felt like a money grab at the time).
Runequest 2ed/3ed.
I can’t tell you have this coloured my view of RPG gaming. Consistent, logical background, great world building, interesting cultures and societies, workable religions bounding into the game, Unique creatures and a reason to develop characters other than killing things.
Necromunda
The first GW game I bit on fully, I just loved the feel of the game and the ‘gang’ development. Was responsible for several campaigns of this and brought all the supplements and upgrades (though not all the gangs).
And I even like the re-boot
Shadows Of Brimstone
As co-operative board game/miniature game hybrids with AI systems for the game appear to be the current thing, and as I really can’t say enough good things about ths, it’s the 4th game for my list. It has actually got me back into RPG gaming, though in itself it is very PRG lite. The Weird West basic setting, along with ‘other world’ options, character development (with each character having 3 initial development paths, and around 15 character types) and downtime that is possible to actually kill you (hard, but can be done), makes this a game that can go on for years and years.
And the Japanese Core Set (Forbidden Fortress) is due off KS later this year, and as the ‘other world’ system will allow linking, that even more options.
I can’t praise this enough, probably played this more over the last year than all my other games put together.
Thx again folks for the show – it is always a pleasury to listen while painting….
Lord of the Rings / GW – because this brings me into tabletop in 2008 at the age of 44
The Others 7 Sins – because this was my first Kickstarter i backed (i only finished painting the lust….at that time…)
X-Wing – because i have a friend to play with sometimes after work
Batman (Kickstarter) – because that open the world of superheros again for me (i read comics 40 years ago – and i read comics right now)
And in the future i guess it will be the for 2019 announced KS from MB – Ragnarök Nordic Gods (or so) – i love to combine them with vikings and saga and so on….
At the end i have to say ” the first 50 years of childhood are the hardest”
Only 4 … @warzan you do not make it easy
1 Magic Realm published by Avalon Hill in my young mind it was the greatest thing ever, at one point I will make a 28mm version
2 WHFB just like many others my gateway into the realm of plactic/metal/resin-crackdom
3 DropZone Commander, the 1st bootcamp. .. enough said
4 Infinity might be my main game now a days – and the bootcamp. .. well better not talk of that in a family forum
This was a real interesting one to think about. Love hearing/reading everyone’s 4 influential games. for me I’d have to say:
D&D 2nd edition – It was the first RPG of game of any sort really that I played. I met some of the people that I still game with 15+ years later. We sure as hell got most the rules wrong, but it was really fun regardless.
MtG – A lot of my high school friendships were built around playing Magic. I would spend countless hours deck building and looking over cards. Much the same things that I do now with wargaming.
Warhammer 40k 4th Ed – This is where I first got a taste for wargaming. I painted my dark angels horribly and had them right bare plastic tyranids in my basement. It really opened up a new aspect of the hobby for me and drew me in with the idea of city skirmish combat that I still love today.
Frostgrave – There were a number of other games I could have listed from days gone by, but I really do need to give a shout out to Frostgrave. After many years away from the hobby this is the game that got me painting and playing again. Its the game that connected me to my current gaming club, and for that I owe it a lot.
Video Games id like to see on the table top.
love to see the Far Cry games on the table top, one guy taking on a outpost with many enemies and a great look in the table. I’m first and foremost a terrain habbiest. i don’t think there are enough modern day themed terrain games at 28mm where you can have up to date vehicles and weaponry in an environs like in the Far Cry settings. you do have WW2 theme games that are close but again based on historical BATTLE games and the closest in my eye is the walking dead to modern day but is strongly focused on an a POST APOCALYPTIC theme, spectre is the only game i feel gets close. want to get train on the table that i can relate to and a game that can also has the potential to great location to game in.
Base Building on the Table Top
Do love a base building game and civilisation games where you can control all infrastructure (again love terrain) and resorse management. one thing i have found in a lot of games like this is that you need a war of threat effect to give the game a pursers in which to build thing to a purpose. I’ve just uploaded my project attempt and building a game like this.
http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/painting/forum/topic/civilisation-style-table-top-miniature-games/#post-232883
I will note this is a fantasy version of Civilisation.
My Four Game Influences
1. Started with the GW Lord of the Rings Strategy Game at out war gaming club at school. this had the bulges influence on my Hobbying love and to lead to my lover of scenery and terrain.
2. I moved in to 40K shortly after and since then it ruled my life.
3. After a long gap like a lot of us have when we live soon and desirer the opposite and booz i decided in needed hobby back in my life and it was like fate that the DropFleet Commander Kickstarter Lurched and i dived in.
4. Whits waiting for droplets release, joined my lock gaming club and found my other nation Bolt Action, the best excuse to start building terrain again.
Space Hulk (Original game that got me hooked on 30/40K lore)
Necromunda (Freaking awesome! Anyone remember the original ‘Confrontation’ from WD?)
X-wing (Playing with my (non gaming!) mates on a coffee table and not caring who wins)
Mythic Battles (what an amazing game, can’t get enough of it! Genius mechanics galore)
My list of influences is fairly similar to @warzan and for similar reasons.
Fighting Fantasy books were my first introduction to the hobby when I was about 8. The Forest of Doom was the first one I read and also got me reading as I’d finally found something I enjoyed. Up to that point, I was a poor reader and struggled, so it really helped with that aspect of my education. I’ve just bought Forest of Doom for my 6 year old son who’s also disinterested in reading – we’re reading it together and he’s enjoying it so far!
Next came D&D. I joined the Role Play club at school at 11. I still remember my first adventure where I ended up in my underpants in a dungeon as I couldn’t climb out of a pit with my plate armour on. It did kindle my love of dungeon exploring and the friends I made then are still my gaming friends today.
I then picked up Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader. I loved the ability to develop your own troops, vehicles and so forth. Options were almost limitless. This game got me into war gaming and collecting/painting the minis.
I’m going to split my last game. For gaming influence, I have Flames of War. Scale, historical etc all things that I had not tried before but now really enjoy.
For non gaming influence, I have Risk. I wrote a dissertation at uni based upon Risk where I built an AI engine to play the game ‘intelligently’. This was 1996 so long before Google built an AI engine to win Go! My engine worked, I got a degree and launched my IT career as well as forming my long standing interest in AI and Cognitive science – something that’s suddenly come to the fore in the last couple of years.
I could also list Scythe. It’s a game that my 10 year old daughter and 6 year old son enjoy playing with me, much to my wife’s horror (she hates games). It’s a great bonding experience and the kids love it – they want to play more games 🙂
Games That Influenced Life, would`t say “Influenced” but did have a big part in my gaming to come.
1: Risk…………Played this game from in my younger day`s, and loved every minute of it in Win`s and Defeat`s. Especially in defeat`s, as 50% of the time was bad planning. It was a game where you got to play on a large scale, but with out having the hassle of moving masses of figures (That come later on with 40k).
2: Space Crusade…………..This game got me in to 40k, up till then i hand not been interested. After playing a few game`s i began to look into 40k, and found that my first impressions had been just that impressions based on nothing more than…………
3: Hero Quest…………I`ve always liked the idea of Knights in shining armour, battling Dragons…Monsters and other creatures. I always used to dream (back when i was a nipper) of living back in them time`s, and also with the films out back then brought it all a little closer. As an after thought, the same can be said about Pirates and Vikings. Which later on lead me to D&D then on to AD&D, which i still play to this day ( 56 and still going strong ).
4: Not so easy this one as there where a few, Bloodbowl…Necromunda…GorkaMorka and BattleFleet Gothic. Being small games and not requiring a lot of mini`s, i quickly found them taking over from 40k. As you were`t required to keep unit coherence, and fire at the same target. I just loved the style of play and how quick you could get game after game in, and you were`t waiting ages for your turn.
Now i moved on from 40k (not forgotten as i do revisit it from time to time), i have now started to collect and play DropFleet / Zone Commander…Devils Run : Route 666…All out War : The Waking Dead…Bolt Action and Infinity (which i have to have a game) to name but a few.
@warzen, next time you want to help the kids run it past your wife first. Better safe than the wrath of a mad woman, and be very careful with “Roman Numerals” there a bugger to teach.
My top 4 games.
Space Crusade. So many happy memories as a youngster. I can still remember the TV ad. “Dreadnaught “. I loved this game so much that 20+ years later I had to find another copy. Whilst the box is beaten, it still sits as my pride and joy in my game collection.
Star Wars X Wing. Despite loving Space Crusade I never took the next step of 40k, as I found; the rules, tape measures, amount of mini’s needed, having to paint miniatures, the local GW store and even many players too daunting and just put me off. Then X wing came along, and not only being a cool Star Wars game, it seemed to fix everything that put me off of 40k. Templates, great looking mini’s, that were prepainted, easy rules, and even the Fly Casual motto. I loved the game so much that I needed to find more players, so I started a gaming group. Whilst X Wing is not played a lot at the moment, it is definetly the catalyst for Keighley Tabletop Combat. Which 5 years later, has over 100 registered members and has led to me meeting so many cool people and making some great friends.
Pandemic. Like many, I thought board games were the standard monopoly, risk etc. Then I played Pandemic and found that a game could be a co-op and opened my eyes to the rest of the boardgaming genres out there. Some 100+ games later in my collection Pandemic still ranks very high.
ArcWorlde. I’ve never really been a fan of Fantasy, always preferring Sci Fi but then a friend at our gaming group introduced us to ArcWorlde. The hand sculpted mini’s were excellent, with a real sense of humour to them and the gentleman’s code made stepping in to the world so much easier. Then we were shown the big beasties that looked fantastic and were playable characters. I never had the confidence to paint figures but my friend gave me some tips and I took the plunge. I found the mini’s were a joy to paint and very forgiving. I have just recently painted a Fjord Dragon and whilst not amazing by many people’s standards, is still good enough for me to be proud of and not something I believed I could have done before. I have also become friends with Alex the game creator and his lovely family. The fact that it is a small British family business makes the game that more special. Recently I was asked to run some demos at Salute, this was my 1st time attending and had a great time. I’m really looking forward to where this game is going and hoping to be involved in shaping its development.
Wow what a fantastic topic…not sure I can pick just four, there are quite a few that have had a lasting impact on my life…
1. D&D Magenta box (Moldvay edition… for ‘adults 10 and up’, how awesome was that to a fifth grader in 1981?)
2. Renegade Legion: Interceptor (FASA 1987…all those tables and damage schematics
Wow what a fantastic topic…not sure I can pick just four, there are quite a few that have had a lasting impact on my life…
1. D&D Magenta box (Moldvay edition… for ‘adults 10 and up’, how awesome was that to a fifth grader in 1981?)
2. Renegade Legion: Interceptor (FASA 1987…all those tables and damage schematics
Wow what a fantastic topic…not sure I can pick just four, there a so many that have had a lasting impact on my life.
1. D&D Magenta box (Moldvay edition…for ‘adults ages 10 and up’, how awesome was that to a fifth grader in 1981?)
2. Renegade Legion: Interceptor (FASA 1987…all those tables and damage schematics :). A true crunchy simulation, with real unique fluff. Ahead of it’s time I think…)
3. Star Wars CCG (Decipher 1995…still have all my hundreds of cards :). Such an elegant set of mechanics, and fluff that until Disney was canon…I still find old references to this game in modern products…like…)
4. X-Wing Miniatures Game (I own every ship made…proudly displayed in my Ikea cabinet. I was glad to hear the announcement of the second edition and FFG’s commitment to keeping this system fresh. This is the game that I use to inspire my next generation of tabletop gamers 🙂 )
Tried to post the first two with my phone…sorry for duplicates 🙂
Honorable mentions: Crossbows & Catapults, Gamma World, Fortress America, Axis & Allies, Battletech…
And let’s not forget the video games:
Pharaoh’s Curse (C64)
Sea Battle (Intellivision)
Rygar (NES)
ActRaiser (SNES)
Halo (Xbox…the LAN parties 🙂 )
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GameCube)
No doubt all of this has contributed to my lack of ‘shelf control’ as an adult 🙂
1. Magic the Gathering and its influence dwarfs the rest. Ive come back to it many times over the years. Not for constructed though. Drafting and Sealed allow you to jump back in at any time and have fun and I prefer the strategy and feel with Drafting.
2. Necromunda – First mini game I ever played. Love how char and gang could evolve. Still prefer skirmish games.
3. Heroclix – Extremely different then Necromunda. Didn’t think I would like it cause of no 3D terrain, but allowed me to open up to mini games that did not have 3D terrain.
4. Risk – Very competitive and long game as a kid. Taught patience.
Four games that influenced me??
1.RISK. As a kid in the 70’s my older brother and his friends would smoke pot, listen to Led Zeppelin and play RISK all night. lol… I loved all the miniatures. Why kid would t. So when I got a little older I started playing it. World domination and backstabbing my allies. Awesome!!!
2. 40K. Friggen Orks were like space bikers with crazy ass weapons. Space marines were basically SUPERMAN in power armor. Started in second edition. All the way up to 8th witch I love.
3.warhammer fantasy. Tournaments!!! I never won that much at tournys but I had a blast. I was blessed with a great group of friends that all loved to go to tournaments together. Many weekend trips with this bunch. My love of all things fantasy was completely satiated with this game.
4. Last and most recently is Boltaction. Being a kid n the 70’s and early 80’s WW2 movies were a huge love of mine. I also am a lover of all things historical. The modeling, uniforms, vehicles etc… are fabulous. But what I love most of all about this game is the “fog of war” activation with the dice in the bag. It really brings the randomness of conflict to the table. So refreshing after decades of “you go then I go”.
Peace out everyone and happy gaming from California
Happy Sunday all! Only almost a week late to the party. It’s been a busy one at work. I actually have a copy of frag, can’t remember when or where I picked it up, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually played it. Dune 2: The battle for Arrakis (you have to really enunciate the u, so as not to sound like you are talking about doom 2, another great game from a similar era) was a great computer game and a wonderful influence on the industry regarding the RTS genre as a whole.
So four tabletop games that influenced me the most, this is a hard hard question, so many good games, and some bad ones as well, and some that have affected my life a lot…
1. Chess: I played it as a kid with my father and grandfather. I still play with my father every day thanks to the magic of mobile phones. I played it at school, in college, in tournaments, not so much at university. I even sometimes play it in the office now, as we have a couple of chess sets in our break room. There is a reason Deneb has some of the design elements it does, and why I loved onitama. Deterministic strategy games really are my bag.
2. Warhammer Quest: I played the first edition as a teenager, and though I had played WHFB before it, it was this that introduced me to my other great love, which was RPG’s. Sure it was a dungeon crawler, but that heavy “RPG mode” tome that came with it, so you could link adventures, level up, do stuff in towns between dungeons, tell stories, have someone else build the dungeons. All of that, it was like magic and I spent more than a few nights staying up all night with my friends playing through adventures, both published expansion and stuff we wrote ourselves.
3. GURPS: Possibly an odd one, but this was the roleplaying game that for me showed me not just the power of the theatre of the mind, but the impossible breadth of what you could represent. I’d played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Heavy Gear and the woeful MEGA Roleplaying System, but this was something else. It could be anything, you could make anything and the rules worked. Sure it was complicated, but that was part of it’s joy at the time. Campaigns in other systems lasted much longer (especially D&D ones) but this was the one that showed me what RPG’s could be.
4. Malifaux: It’s an interesting thing, I left wargaming for RPG’s back in the late 90’s. I occasionally looked at it, I certainly played card games and board games (War for Edath and MTG both fantastic honourable mentions). I never stopped playing RPG’s of all kinds, and by this time I was married to someone who was as obsessed with RPG’s as I was. She was playing Warmahordes as well, but it had never quite appealed to me. One day we were in hobby shop in Essex whilst visiting my parents, and I saw a copy of one of the Malifaux books on a shelf. I picked it up and flicked through it. The art, the lore, it all grabbed me. At the time I lamented it wasn’t a roleplaying game, because really I wanted to play in this world (which of course they eventually did, and I loved it, had a fantastic long campaign in that world). I picked it up anyway, I bought a guild force, and I started playing. The card mechanic was fantastic. This lead me down a path of playing war games again, modern ones that were nothing like the clunky games I had played in my youth. Character-based skirmish games, painting again, eventually going to places like spiel to spend time with others who loved this stuff. That lead me to beasts of war, and at last, I was home.