Avalon Hill "Classic" WWII Board Games??

OK, so this old duffer is NOT into computer games, but the "face-to-face" type that seem to be extinct. Moving little illustrated cardboard squares around a hex-grid map, etc., seems to have had its day in the 70's and 80's (AFTER the run of excellent games that Avalon Hill produced in the 1960's). You are the General/Admiral planning strategy-achieved-through-tactics, not the first-person "shooter" so common these days.

I have a bunch (and sold off a WHOLE bunch). My favorite is "Victory in the Pacific" and "War at Sea" and my special, custom combo "Victory Through Seapower, Grand Fleet" edition. My wepbage at:

Admiral U. Furashita's Fleet

"explains" some of the game (scroll down to the "Grand Fleet" link), has the (my) gameboard(s), and has illustrated exploits of the various ships (whose story actually happened in games played) that are used in the game.

CTBurke (AKA "Admiral U. Furashita")

 

I had perhaps 2 dozen AH and SPI games as a lad. Still have most of them, and most of the pieces too!

 

Good list, Have 4 of those myself.

 

Another I had, personal fav was Russian Campaign, could barely read the counters near the end!

 

Classics...Arnhem...World war 3 Europe...One I can't remember name of..had Nato naval forces in Atlantic mostly Brits..all the ships I remember and love the names of..And American reinforcement convoys...Just used to get it out of box....never played it...just looked at the counters...sad or what...All binned...Someone send me them again..and I'll bin the computer this time around...

 

Oh man, does this bring back memories!

Squad Leader & expansions
Advanced Squad Leader & Expansions
MBT
Flight Leader
Firepower
Air Force
Blitzkrieg
Midway
War At Sea
Victory in the Pacific
Panzer Blitz
Panzer Leader
Patton's Best(and created a modified version that allowed you to play German tanks)
Tactics
Up Front

and probably some others I have forgotten...

Ahhh! The good old days.

 

Would have loved to play them more; too many rules, too time consuming, hard to find anyone with the patience to learn them.

Also, hard to store away between turns without mucking everything up.

 

Vacume's and dogs, the great enemy!

 

Ooooo, played a lot of SPI games in my mispent youth AH were always regarded as the quality number, but there just seemed to be more SPIs around! For some reason Fulda Gap seemed to be a favourite among (weird) friends! God knows why...

 

lol! i really miss those days when we could spend a whole weekend on those AH boards.!

 

Yeah but surely you made your own rules up...I did...If I went with the real rules the games would have taken longer than the real war...And who can waste a day on logistics making sure you are in supply...Whats that all about...Charge....

 

Actually the dog was quite good...made a great 3rd Russian Shock army....The wife was the problem...before her the mother...Great...joined up...first leave back home..no games...and no dog...Mothers are mothers...

 

Fulda gap....great you've just named the one on 3rd world war I was on about..cheers...I'm going to check ebay...That was the best game of the lot...Just beat overlord...Fulda gap and the US calvalry holiding the line while reinforcements flown in...British division with a Belgian brigade up north trying to hold the lines of communication...Made you think what the real thing was going to be like if the balloon ever went up...And since I was in HQBAOR at time relevant...I always hit em with nukes though far too early...couldnt stop em when they released chemicals...So game over...I did like to take as many with me...

 

I had "Panzergruppe Guderian", but I usually prefer GDW games.

Some of the old Avalon Hill games were fun, like Civilization, Titan, Rail Baron & Kingmaker but I found the wargames to be a bit too abstract, with the locking ZoC's & such.

 

Titan was great fun, but my favorite was the Russian Campaign, still play it from time to time, (the L2 edition with the large size counters is good for my tired eyes) when I can get one of the gang top agree to "something simple", anything with less than 400 counters seems to be automatically unworthy of being played, current ongoing game is Great War in Europe deluxe (all 3 maps of course ) and one day I may be able to convince them to try the full Europa series . As a simulation nothing beats umpired Flat Top, but it played in close to real time (part of the realism in a sense) so you need 40+ hours to finish a scenario.

 

Slip; Lucky you-I sold all mine (cheap!) when we moved-now that I am retired I miss them! I am keeping a close eye on Craigslist for any that might turn up....Faves were Panzerblitz and Squad Leader. And the assertion that the computer simulations do not come close is absolutely correct! WHY are the modern computer simulations such pale reflections of the old AH and SPI games? Something to do with the programmers having a lack of physical contact with the real world? Maybe something inherent in the nature of cyberspace itself? Difficult to say why it is, but I know that it is...
JeffinMNUSA

 

I still have my copy of Fulda Gap, Napoleon's last battles, Fast Carriers and Firefight and a mint copy of Up Front with the Banzai expansion (allowing Brits and Japanese). I still boardgame occasionally" (I'm a big fan of GMT and block games like East Front, West Front from Colombia). We had a mates garage so had the space to play monster games and leave them up. Playing "War in Europe" over months and the massive "Battaille da Moskawa" countless times.

 

I was and am a weirdo then cos I want that one back..