Blasts From The Past Part 1

I have used this old photo once before but it's a great introduction to another series of posts I am planning to do. The idea came to me whilst I was lying in bed half awake but not really wanting to get out of bed and not actually having to either. By the way I am the good looking one at the front of the group of young gamers and it's 1/76 scale WWII using my railway board as a battlefield. We got a lot of fun out of that board and the plastic figures and tanks.

I was 16 at this time and the rules we used were hand written half ideas though it was about this time we went to the Table Top Games rules Firefly that happened to play great, I wonder if I still have them somewhere and if they were that good after all?

That's more or less the idea, revisit old times, old rules, almost forgotten periods and systems and how I see them today. Funny looking at the photo I was the oldest by two - three years, of the four of us the only one not still gaming is Andy at the back. He stopped a few years after the photo was taken and died just two years ago. Rolf (the patch of brown hair) still I believe roleplays whilst Steve went to the dark side and plays 40K or was still doing so when Maelstrom Games was still in existence.

First ever proper wargame for me was with the plastic WWII though I had used my Airfix Napoleonic Le Haye Saint battle set as some form of wargame before I really got a real idea on how to do it after watching an old TV program showing grown men doing the same.

Though the first ever Wargames I played were actually board games, first was Gun's of August by AH quickly followed by Siege and Cry Havoc which to a lad of 15 is a real exciting step. This actually lead to my first metal figures from Irregular Miniatures.

I decided to replace the cardboard figures with metal ones and at Derby Wargames Show (at the Assembly Rooms) and each time I bought one figure Ian Key gave me a second one. I ended up spending the majority of my spending money in dribs and drabs that day.

Ian's generosity gained traction as I ended up buying my first full army from him, this being a 25mm English Medieval army, though it was never destined to be finished as I moved onto easier projects (where have we heard that before?).

Before I moved on though I did buy at the age of seventeen WRG 6th Edition Ancient Rules, rules that were to sit unplayed for too many years after a poor attempt at getting a game with Steve above. That though is another post for another week.