I am An Old Gamer!

      From Avalon Hill, SPI and Ral Partha to GMT, Dan Verson and resin miniatures of the 21st century, I am the Old Gamer.

    My interests were and are mainly historical games. In 2009 I became aware that the local game store was selling. So I bought it. It was a GW store and as there were a host of players, mostly 40K, I had a 'captive audience' per se. My dream was to convert them to historical gamers. Never happened. But I had my eyes opened to many very good and kind people that helped me out, business and hobby wise. From small to large miniature companies, and from my distributors, the number of people that want you to succeed amazes me still. Among these wonderful people were two guys from England, Great Britain, the UK, Richard Clarke and Nick Skinner, together known as Too Fat Lardies. Though I am sure they have no idea of the number of gamers like myself they have helped! We have never actually met,  yet they have done so much for my hobby and this old gamer from across the pond, I am forever a fan. The game that sealed the deal for me was Ain't Been Shot Mum.  I do not honestly recall how I found this rule set, I had just started doing business with Warlord Games and their line of WWII Miniatures under the Bolt Action name, but there were no rules published yet. Somehow, a copy made it's way into my store and I read through it. The activation of sections and teams via cards was a bit alien to me, but I set up a game for myself to play through just for fun using all the Flames of War stuff I had in the store. I used to do that in my store, set up a game and play solo or wait for a random customer to ask "What's this?" and play for a few minutes. Of course during this time Flames of War had begun and then came the Battle Group rule set, and it seemed as if History was going to come galloping in and save me from the 40K hordes. It didn't.

Then, came TFL and Chain of Command. No cards. Dice. Just the D6, nothing fancy. And the first game I set up had customers scratching their heads. All the figures we off to the side. A table full of terrain and not one figure? What is this?! 

I should confess also I am not into historical games that allow list building or points. I like to use games that have actual lists of what a platoon/company had. Understanding full well that many times these would be under or well under acceptable level. I am looking at a WWII scenario for Operation Casanova. Quick synopsis: The US was attempting to put a Regiment across the Meuse reiver in Late November 1944. The 95th Infantry division 388th Regiment was to cross the Meuse and drive the Germans out of the peninsula. But it had been raining and the Meuse was running high and rapid. Two Companies made it across with most of a heavy weapons company before the river was just too dangerous to send more across. The orders were to hold the peninsula. To make matters worse, it continued to rain and the ceiling dropped to 25 feet, there would be no air support. The Americans were cut off.                                                                                                                                                          Somehow they did hold. When finally relieved one company was down to 44 men able to fight, One had 77 and the heavy weapons company was down to 38.  Now a point system might reflect losses like that, but a list builder would probably take two heavy weapon companies, or more. Sorry, no tanks could cross! Oh, the Germans had some tanks and several companies in the village, they had been there for a while. Again, No Tigers. No Panthers. Just a few Mark IV's and a Stug. And while the Americans had no air support, neither did the Germans. (Although some very brave "grasshopper" pilots flew supplies to them almost continuously, ammunition, food and medical supplies were dropped, and all of the drops were successful. Most missions were flown below 25 feet! 

Well, that's my scenario I am working on. For now, Old Gamer. . .Out.