Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Why this blog?

I've created this blog to share my interest in wargaming in general and miniature wargaming in particular. I grew up in the 60's with 4 brothers and a father who played 'wargames'; waiting impatiently for the new Avalon Hill games to be released. Back in those days they were $2.50 or $3.00 each. I still have some of those titles, including Stalingrad, D-Day and the original Gettysburg.As I grew older I drifted away from board games and in 1975 bought my first miniature; a 25mm wizard from RalPartha. Soon I was knee deep in orcs and goblins and playing Chainmail by the weekend. This lead into D&D and by the late 70's it seemed like that's all we played.About 1990 or 91, while visiting my older brother I mentioned I had a hankering to get back into wargaming. My brother lent me his old Squad Leader stuff and within a few months I was already buying all the ASL stuff I could get my grubby little hands on. Enter the internet and game forums and soon I had helped to establish a local ASL group with about 6 or 7 other guys. Our first meeting was March 25th, 1995. I am happy to say that most of us still meet every Wednesday night at my house to play. We no longer play ASL exclusively but we still go back to our 'old faithful' often enough.Several years ago, I again got that 'hankerin'. I was really missing the fun that I had from mini's. After looking around a bit, I decided to give WHFB a try, even though, once again, I knew noone who played the game. Quickly most of our 'group' was sucked in and soon we all had multiple armies and played at least once a month, taking turns hosting. I quickly tired of the game however and moved into what I really wanted to do, and that was historical mini's. To make a long story short (too late, I know), I now have about 10,000 painted miniatures ranging from Ancients to WW2 and just about everything in between.I like DBA and BBDBA, as well as DBMM, Warmaster Ancients, DBN, Rapid Fire and Fire & Fury, just to name a few. For every rules set I have listed I have 10 more waiting to be tried.
So, this blog is very new. I hope to fill it with photos of stuff I've done and projects in progress. Like I said I've a lot of mini's to photograph and upload here so check back every now and then and see what's been added.
I dedicate this little piece of the internet to my father, who was a Marine in WW2 and scheduled to be part of the invading force of mainland Japan. Luckily they were diverted to China. My father taught all of us that history is as alive as we make it. I intend to keep it that way. Thanks dad.

3 comments:

M said...

Welcome to blogland Steve. My first ever wargame was Squag Leader at the age of fifteen, a friend who travelled to England for the summer between middle and high school bought it and brought it to Istanbul. We played the shit out of that game, me and four other friends (Emre was one) throughout high school.

M said...

That should have been Squad Leader, of course.

Armando said...

...heh, I thought Squag Leader was the Turkish version ;)

My first game was PanzeyLeader.
That and Squag Leader were the only games where the rulesbooks actually disintegrated from fingersweat from hours of rereading them...ciao
Mondo