Re: Age and Complexity

Thomas Barclay wrote:

> > > Anyway he had a friend over and these two 8 year olds had made up
their
> > > own wargame with all their toy soldiers. You role one D6 and the
number
> > > is how many guys of the enemy you get to kill. Wow hows that for
simple.
> > > Of course I right away sent him a page of suggested erratta.
> > >
> >
> > What kind of erratta?  My freind and I started mini-gaming that
way....We
> > started moving these old plastic medieval mini's around on his
bedroom
> > floor.  At first we just knocked over one man on the other side
(simple!)
> > After a while we added a d6 roll, whoever rolled higher knocked over
the
> > lower roller.  Men could move 5", and Archers could attack over
anything
> > within 2 feet.  I have many fond memories of those games....
>
> I had a variant on standard toy soldiers. Started with either Airfix
> 1/32nd scale (or 1/72nd) from WW2 or other periods. We used to use
> the 1/32nds with terrain and then we'd take turns picking our force
> (didn't have points, but we knew the better figures from the worse)
> then set them up in cover and then we'd take turns salvoing the
> other with sucker tipped darts from spring loaded dart guns. If you
> knocked down a standing/kneeling figure, he was dead. If you flipped
> over a guy lying down (I specifically remember a Japanese figure with
> an LMG that was really hard to overturn) he was dead. Eventually we
> got to using a Tennis ball at intervals to simulate artillery (this
> could flip vehicles!). Good thing Airfix made its figures pretty
> tough. I still have racks of 1/72nd scale WWII and a bunch of 1/32nd
> scale buried away in an old toy box.
>
> My uncle used to work for Palitoy, and I had a whole medeival castle
> and a bunch of really spiffy figures (knights that had a stand, legs,
> a belt, a torso, two arms, a head, and a weapon and shield that were
> all separate and most interchangable). They were great! Wish I still
> had that castle. It would be awesome in 25mm - had Merlons, towers,
> main gates, and all in about the right scale for 25mm. The figures
> would have went well with 25mm fantasy. Alas, I fear this treasure
> trove (and the Cowboys, Indians, and western log bunkhouse) are
> gone..... sigh.
>
> :) Tom
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> Thomas Barclay
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  Was it a full castle?  In my early gaming, we never had enough mini's
or
building materials to do a full castle seige.  So we just did one side. 
You
wern't allowed to go around the ends.

Donald Hosford