I visited their office on Harford Road in the summer of 1966 (to the best of my memory). I insisted my parents take me there while on vacation from the west coast. There was a reporter from Parade magazine doing an article on the company and was astonished that a 13 year-old war game fan from Washington state was visiting the game company while on vacation. I ended up being referred to in the magazine article, but not by name. After visiting Avalon Hill it was off to Aberdeen Proving Grounds to look at their armor display. Great memories and vacation.
@@gregschmittgens1262 Did you ever get the SPI expansion to Blitzkrieg that came out in '69? I remember trying to mail order it in the 70s but they were always out of stock. I saw it way later at a hobby shop at the Dallas Galleria mall while I was on a business trip when I was in my early 30s but they wanted $120 for it. I passed it up due to family budget restraints. Always wondered what new things were in the expansion.
While attending high school in 1965, I and several friends helped play test both the Battle of the Bulge and Blitzkrieg for Tom Shaw. Instead of cash, after a testing session we each received a game as payment. I managed to accrue quite a collection of their classics in this way. The first AH title I actually purchased was Jutland.
I have most of these games stored in my basement. Sadly most young people have neither the desire nor the attention span to play these games. I find board war games are far more intellectually stimulating because you as the gamer had much to manage. The complexity of Squad Leader demanded your full attention. It was not a beer and pretzel game. With the mega games you could find your uncle Fred throwing a grenade in France. Those were the days. Great presentation, thanks for creating it.
@@anathardayaldar In reality they can not. What most “gamers” value today is the flash, video effects, rapid game play and continuous stimulation. Board games comparatively are slow lack visuals and are a more intellectual endeavor. They have never had the audience that today’s video games command. But they do bring back fond memories.
This is quite a trip through history as well as a trip down memory lane. Living in California, I did not have the opportunity to see the company first hand. I did at one in time own pretty much every AH game made, along with some by SPI. The one odd game out was the Warlord Game. Squad Leader holds a special place in my heart, but I will never forget the anticipation of AiW and Starship Troopers. I remember pouring over the General religiously. Heading into the 80s, my collection grew to include many games from a wide variety of publishers. I still have some to this day. Upon writing this I realized that I never have thanked my older brother for introducing me and my younger brothers to the hobby about 55 years ago.
Always glad to hear about how these videos spark such great memories! I am not sure if you checked out part 1 (or any of the others) already, but here is the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7-l83XaTLgw.html . I am putting together part 6 right now!
I cut my teeth on the table top war gaming front with several of their games. I still own my original copies of Panzer Leader and PanzerBlitz. Fantastic systems, both simple and yet varied with plenty of options. We took to using place cards with different town/city names, setting them over the one's marked on the boards. We also would inter mix boards from both games to expand the map size. We also found some hex sheets that were pretty close to the originals and created our own. Awesome stuff.
Thank you. I played first in about 1966. It made history come alive for me. Battle of the bulge was captivating, Later, Jutland. The physical quality of moving pieces on the board gave it a concrete quality. I am a pacifist by politic, a war history enthusiast, and most of all, a admirer of courage and passion in these events. I think it builds empathy for these heroic massive struggles. thank you all.
I think another key point was when they introduced the bookshelf format (borrowed from 3M) around 69/70. It really helped transition to games to be collected on a bookshelf that targets a hobbyist.
Oh that's awesome. I was born in 67 so I really did not start any pen and paper gaming until 1979 with StarFleet Battles, Car Wars, Battle Tech, and Advanced D&D. All those were in book format, well AD&D was book format of course, but you know what I mean lol.
I own a few of their games. Second edition Blackbeard, Caesars Legions, second edition Blitzkrieg, Luftwaffe, and Panzer Armee Afrika. Maybe more that I can't remember off the top of my head. Technically 2018 50th Anniversary Axis&Allies. Edit: What makes this amusing to me is I'm Gen Z. I'm a bit young to even know about these. The diving Messerschmitt (?) on Luftwaffe got my dad into wargames and he got me into them. I'm working on getting my friends into them and I've had some success so far.
Panzerblitz was the first wargame I ever played. I was overwhelmed by it's complexity as I had only previously played games that were simple enough to have all the rules printed on the reverse side of the box cover. Years later, after playing megacomplex games like ASL, Panzrblitz seems rather simple and easy to play.
Yes, the hobby grew up and became more complex as time went on. I'm sure Tactics II was quite overwhelming for some people at the time of its release...
I'm loving this series. I started with AH games in 1978 with Luftwaffe and Starship Troopers, but I am really looking forward to see what you do with Squad Leader and it's gametes. For me, Squad Leader is what made Avalon Hill king!
Had a friend tell me about a game of Panzer Blitz (or Panzer Leader) he played against a guy who was a real artillery guy in the army. He said he scattered his arty pieces across the board in a manner he found -- puzzling. And no matter what he did, he said he was caught in cross-fires of artillery everywhere he went. 😄
Still have Titan, Civilization, Third Reich and the entire original Squad Leader set. My non gamer friends loved board game Civ, we played it all the time. The simple mechanics of shoving people forward and population dynamics reduced the need for tactical delays in turns as in say Risk. And dealing disasters to each other in trade was a dynamic really missing from Civ computer versions.
I officially got into the hobby on December 25, 1968 via Blitzkrieg and Afrika Korps. The following year I got 1914 and a General magazine subscription and eventually joined the Sparta International, Inc. and International Federation of Wargaming game clubs. Those were the days!!!
Just happened upon this site today. Never heard of the set. D&D was the biggest, and, only campaign style game I ever knew of back then, in the early 80's. These games sure seem like a "full day" game. Or whole weekend....
I owned a hobby shop 20 years ago. Guy walks in somewhere around 2002, asks why I didn't have any AH games. "They went out of business in 1998," I said. "Why did they go out of business?" "What was the last year you bought a game from them?" "Maybe 1993." "That's why they went out of business." I know Hasbro bought them, but they only kept the assets. Used the logo for Risk! mods if I recall. I see D&D, 40k, and MTG are still going. Buy what you love.
Thank you! If you would like to re-visit one of their catalogs, I did another video on that: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jDLG69tMV30.html
My best friend and I received Midway on Christmas, 1968. It began a lifelong friendship and a dedication to wargaming, both board games, miniature gaming and attending conventions. Jutland and Richthofen's War were great favorites.
Thank you for going down gaming memory lane. My first Avalon Hill game was Verdict, which was given to me by my grandfather (who was an attorney) for my birthday, in 1963. There was a stationary and gift store in my neighborhood and that is where I found board games for sale. I purchased Gettysburg at that store for $4.98 and I was on my way to becoming a AH fan. I ordered Afrika Korps for their catalog and kept on ordering new games as they were released. As an amateur historian, I began to design my own war games. The map board designs using hexagons instead of squares for movement, was a game changer for me. I purchased blank sheets of hexagon maps from AH and I never looked back. By the way, I purchased a copy of Stock Market and I still play it today. It is a great hit with my friends and it does not take a long time to complete one game (only twelve rounds), very different from Monopoly. I still own all my AH games and they are in mint condition.
I owned PB and also had a study folder/designer notes/whatever. It listed the strength and weaknesses of each unit. It was pointed out that the german infantry unis weakness was not attack or defense but it’s size. I remember this because of the tongue-in-cheek writing.
I was about to make this comment but checked to see if someone else had first. There were charts on how to make up higher level units - battalions, regiments, brigades, even divisions - out of the individual platoons and companies, though.
@@LegendaryTactics You could well be right, but I don't remember ever seeing a solo version of Flat Top. It required an umpire because the hidden air fleet and task force movements were plotted on large pads, which needed to be scrutinized at the end of every move. The pieces only appeared on the board itself if they came within spotting distance of an enemy unit. Even then, you had squall lines which reduced visibility. Quite some game design ! :)
Mine was "Third Reich". Endlessly fascinating. My only complaint was stacking units. Made it hard to know what you had in a given place. I ended up making a much larger board to alleviate the problem, which brought up the next problem, space! Another problem with the pieces presented itself when a grasshopper landed on the western front. When it hopped off, the western front was blown wide open.
Is there a part 3? Midway was the first war game I actually managed to win. After that, the genre became a passion. I even ended up helping play test Advanced Third Reich.
Part 3 is in the works! I am writing it now, but, man, there were a lot of games published in the 70's and 80's! I hope to have it done for next week! I have heard of this Advanced Third Reich - what was that about?
@@LegendaryTactics Advanced Third Reich started out as an evolution of Third Reich. We started play testing it as 5th Edition Third Reich and it became different enough that they made it a new game. The diplomacy system was really enjoyable and dramatically increased the variations possible in the game. The Rising Sun followed and was a sort of companion game using the same system for the pacific, with additional rules for carriers and such. You could play the two together as a global war game, but in my opinion the Rising Sun part fell short of A3R.
@@LegendaryTactics my now ex gave them to my 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son to play with. The kids dumped them all together. Needless to say, counter boards, rule books, etc, suffered. Many just disappeared. Took one day to ruin them. I didn't blame the kids.
I was quite young but really enjoyed Gettysburg. Kriegspiel was fun for true novices. Scores later, as a retired soldier I could make them significantly more realistic but they were great games for teenagers and civilian adults. Thanks for this video.
Thank you for the kind words, and thank you for putting together the mods...you did a great job! I hope it was OK for us to use some screenshots from them...
This video reminds me of my Starfleet Battles games in the late 70s, early 80s. All those counters, dice, and spread sheets all over the place. And a calculator too.
@@LegendaryTactics The set up for that game was so involved that we would spend(friends and I) Friday evening setting up, and play the battle over the weekend. It could literally tale two whole days if you were fighting with a fleet of ships because each ship had a separate SSD(system ships display) thesolomeeple.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/imgp0676.jpg
KS was my first game(Christmas) but it was not well liked. However, it piqued my interest enough to purchase Afrika Corp, starting a lifetime love of war gaming…thank KS!
I purchased all the originals back in the day and eventually lost them. Then during the early 2000's I obtained and still have all my old favorites (Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, Israel vs Arabs and the 1939-1940 P-Leader add-on) today. I had truly wonderful times playing these with my son during the 2010's. My only wish is If only computer game versions of these were were made.
Gods! I remember playing Jutland in a church basement. Took the whole floor as the battle surface. And we never once came into contact with the enemy fleet LOL! I didn't even know about the Christian games or things like Squander! and Tuf (a game that I will have nightmares about now, so thanks for that) Looks like I missed out on some goose eggs!
I enjoyed this trip down memory lane recalling many hours playing Panzerblitz and of all things, 1914! The WWI game was very counter heavy true (I solo gamed it, hard to find fellow aficionados back then), but the map was GORGEOUS! (IMHO). As a 'confirmed hippie' in that period, I do remember some inner conflict at playing 'wargames'. But I survived. 🤕🤒 In my mid-seventies now, I'm still at it, albeit, more with miniatures (Napoleonics) now. Man, its been over fifty years!
Played Panzerblitz with a friend so much that my wife shook talc powder all over the board and declared a Christmas Truce to get us to stop! Ah, the good old days!
This is the patch where AH designs really started to catch my interest, although I don't think I owned any for myself until 1972 or 73. I was still very young and it was hard buying their games on chore money back then. Jutland was particular important for me, being the closest thing to a naval miniatures rules set I owned for years. Dunnigan's involvement in founding SPI was big chunk of what drew me to them, and undoubtedly cost AH quite a lot of money (both mine and others') over the years. Maybe Tom Shaw should've kept his mouth shut.
Thanks for these great videos about the history of the hobby. I'll be waiting for the next episode and, as I think many other viewers will do, I am also hoping for a similar series about SPI!
Yes, I'm planning to do one, provided I can get access to enough good info about SPI. There seems to be less information in general about it, but I haven't really spent a lot of time looking yet.
The local model shop started to have board games in the late 1970's and was doing quite all right up until 1990 when they reverted to kits and models. They had a good range of Avalon Hill games, got quite a few of them, Tac Air, Air Force, Dragonhunt, Wizard's Quest, Red Barricades (a friend had the rules, so I bought a set to play with), Anzio, D-Day, Third Reich, Powers and Perils (sold that to a friend who liked it a lot more than i did) Fun days !
@@LegendaryTactics D-Day, Anzio and Third Reich were firm favorites. Later I bought Advanced Third Reich, but by then my gaming group started to narrow and most later players were either miniature wargamers or RPG players. If all I think I had the most fun with Anzio because any mistake could have devastating consequences. Third Reich was great fun too. Also played some Eastern Front, Advanced Civilisation, Republic of Rome, Empires in Arms, Jutland. Jutland is on my "get if convenient" list.
And some great designers that worked hand in hand with some alphabet Government Think Tanks in the 1970s and 1980s game out of this as well; Joseph Miranda, Don Greenwood, Larry Bond, James Dunnigan.
@@LegendaryTactics I have his book, 'The Complete Wargames Handbook'. His website is STILL actively pursued by most of us still involved with DoD/SAC/ISA.
@@paulprecour3636 I think you misread his comment. He overtook Jim Dunnigan. When I saw "passed," the first thing I thought was he died, but it appears to be wrong (thankful for that).
This is part 2, and covers Avalon Hill from 1964-70. Waterloo was covered in part one, and here is the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7-l83XaTLgw.html
Pile on! Fantastic series and I can't wait for more. This is the "Better Call Saul" of RU-vid for me. Even though I know it ends badly, the journey is fascinating.
@LegendaryTactics ASL is actually a simplification of the original Squad Leader. Once you get the basics down the rest is just covering special situations.
I would love to do something similar on SPI, but there isn't a lot of information that I can find, other than the descriptions of the games themselves. There isn't much in terms of company history. If you know of a good source, let me know!
My brother and I spent endless hours playing all these games. One in particular I remember; I do not recall when it was released, was Ceasar at Alesia. We only played it once. As I was Ceasar, my brother looked at me and said, "I hope you know we are never playing this game again". Ceasar got to reroll any result he didn't care for; I believe up to twice.
@@LegendaryTactics Yes, but somehow at some point of time, I think VG will be owned by AH... they have good titles like the Fleet series and Ambush... Also interesting will be towards the end, one of their games Bitter Woods came with map sheets instead of mounted maps... and the 2nd edition came packaged with MMP rules
Must be something wrong with me. 1914 is one of my favorite board games to this day. I also loved Anzio despite it's slope progress and counter mix/density. Of course I also loved Panzerblitz too, so maybe not.
There were lots of fans of 1914 - as I discovered, it was selling well when it was discontinued. Have you tried GMT's No Retreat Italy? It is an update/homage to Anzio!
PanserBlitz was my brother's first AH game and I continued playing them with him through Starship Troopers Don't remember which manufacturer it was, but I did meet a customer whose son had an entire western European ww2 map that was markers, dice and rules and measured about 5' x 5' but I do not remember its name. It did involve dozens of die cut markers for each side, and I do not recall if it was AH or not. That was about 1982, iirc.
I have a similar memory. A game with a thousand counters and huge map. Rumor (or marketing) had it the best played with 4 to 6 commanders on a side. Never actually saw it. I wonder if it was a one-off somewhere.
@@LegendaryTactics Ah thanks. I have several of these games in boxes. My ex used to love thrift-shopping. The only things to control my boredom at such places were the books and the games. Every so often an interesting game would show up.
@@LegendaryTactics rare. I was counting parts for squad leader. I still got the rest of the boxes to check. I forgot how many there are in all the box sets. I remember last big match we had every map board out and we did battle of the bulge. Our own scenario. 13 hour play threw.
Are any of these games available as computer games? I bought Panzer Blitz years ago, and have seldom played it because most people I know don't want to learn the rules. I always felt these games would be ideal computer games, but I have never seen them as such.
A lot of these games can be found on apps like Tabletop Simulator. Here is a link to a video we did on it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C2X6vhmHwq8.html
We filmed a lot of these on Tabletop Simulator. We did a video about it, check it out if you are interested: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-C2X6vhmHwq8.html
Having grown up in an area where I was one of only a few Avalon Hill game players, I had no one to correct me! :) It's like I have my own little AH dialect.
@@LegendaryTactics I am really enjoying your channel and I didn't mean to come across overly pedantic. I grew up with a speech impediment and parents with strong but different accents. So I should be the last person to criticize how people speak.
I would also add another major flaw of Panzer Blitz (and later Panzer Leader) was the ahistorical grossly overpowered indirect artillery, particularly the Wespe and Hummel units which could easily wipe out stacks of even the most powerful enemies. For the last game of the series, Arab-Israeli Wars, the problem was corrected. In that game, the designers notes describe the various flaws of the previous two games (the other major inaccuracy being the fact that vehicular movement was based on road speed instead of cross-country speeds).
@@LegendaryTactics Pretty much. The only problem is that they have a lot of new types of units that weren't around in WW2 - like helicopters and guided missiles. But if you know how to play PB or PL, you won't have a problem. In Arab-Israeli Wars they fine tune rules and other things. You could think of it as a kind of "advanced" Panzer Blitz (like ASL is to SL).
@@calessel3139 Lots of the online, underground stuff for PB/PL have corrected the movement values, and gathered all the fine tuned rules. Plus dozens of maps, and units for nearly all WW2 combatants, and the Maginot Line to boot.
