Classic AT that got me started

So, which classic AT games got you started in the hobby? Since I'm so ancient & crumbly I'll start;

Russian Campaign - Avalon Hill
Jutland - Avalon Hill
Cry Havoc - Standard Games

As you can see I'm an unreconstructed wargamer.

Cheers

Has to be Axis and Allies for me. The first time I saw all those pieces spilling out of the box, I just could not believe it. I knew I'd found my boardgaming "home".

When I was a kid, my older brother and I played lots of Avalon Hill's SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SUPERSTAR BASEBALL. I had Ty Cobb on my team. And Hippo Vaughn. We played PAYDIRT, too.

We also played TRIVIAL PURSUIT exactly once a week for a while. I don't know whether the recent card sets are any good, but I still think that the earlier decks were quite clever. And DEALER'S CHOICE, the used car salesman game, was always a favorite.

We never played RISK or AXIS & ALLIES. We actually had an old copy of Avalon Hill's BLITZKRIEG, but we never had the patience to play it.

That would be Junta and Civilzation for me. We used to do a club championship for the latter.

SPI's Sorcerer was my first.
Then the classics like Cosmic Encounter, Fortress America, Shogun.

If you go pre-teen there's Escape From Colditz, Risk, Exploration, Air Charter, etc; though whether you count them as Ameritrash is another matter.

I actually kind of came in through roleplaying, STAR FRONTIERS to be exact...but I think the first hobby board games I got were from a Circus World toystore sometime in the 1983-1984 range. I got these two Microgames, one was SAGA and the other was a science fiction one that I can't remember very well. Beyond that, it was DUNGEON, really. Yeah, I'd say DUNGEON was the first serious piece of ameritrash that I owned. From then, the Gamemaster stuff and on through the AH stuff (back when you could even get them at the bookstore at the mall), HEROQUEST, GW stuff, etc...

Then there was MAGIC...and then SETTLERS...

I couldn't even tell you my first games. My older brother, and to a lesser extent, my dad, had me playing wargames, Ameritrash-ish games and RPGs since I was in diapers. Early on they would just give me choices and I'd answer, "uhhh the first one" - that kind of thing. Apparently I used to enjoy chewing on Pippin from the original War of the Ring (SPI).

I really can't remember whether it was HeroQuest or A&A *second edition* that I played first, but thank God my brother had good gaming taste. Even though they were both his after we grew up and I rediscovered board games in high school I pretty much owned both by rite of playing.

Definitely played more A&A though... it was never hard to find 4 friends up for it. Rather it was hard to limit who could come over!

Good times.

Another Axis and Allies person here.

Although I have always had a fondness for Ogre, too (Yeah, you can argue Ogre isn't AT, but it has force assymetry, a big ass tank and nukes. IMO, it counts.)

Civilization - we played it in one of my junior high classes as part of a "history project". Heh.

I'd say Magic Realm, but we never actually played it at the time - my friend owned it with the 1st edition rules which we couldn't comprehend. Many years later he gave me the game when I mentioned making another attempt at understanding the rules, and the search for a new edition of the rules led me to that other gaming site as well as the Magic Realm listserv.

Though, if Michael's going to say Dungeon, that was a pretty early one for me too. Frickin' useless elf...

Yay! Dungeon! I forgot that one!
And it might be fun to take on Sunday for the newly- (or soon-to-be-) converted gamers.

Does King Oil count as Ameritrash?

If it does that was my first Ameritrash game. Later came Dungeon, Magic Realm, and Gettysburg from Avalon Hill.

I am mad because my copy of Magic Realm is missing!

Hah! I'd be pretty mad too.


Or at least, I would be if I got to play it on any sort of regular basis...

Heroquest baby!

For me it was a two old Avalon Hill card games, Wrasslin' and Slapshot, as well as a couple of quick and dirty James Bond boardgames that I have long ago lost the pieces to.