First Board war Game

[BanzaiCat]

Magic Realm for me as well, though I can't recall if it was that one or Luftwaffe.

[trailrunner]

My first war-game was Midway.  My mom bought it at a garage sale and brought it home because I liked games and I was interested in WW2.  I still remember "50 cents" written in big black magic marker on the box.  I was probably 11 or 12 years old at the time.  Battleship had already become boring to me, but Midway took that to a whole new level.

[mirth]

Victory in the Pacific was one of my first wargames. Still have it in the collection.

[MetalDog]

Tactics II was also my first wargame.

[OJsDad]

Either Gulf Skrike or WWIII Southrn Front was my first.

[mirth]

Either Gulf Skrike or WWIII Southrn Front was my first.

nice!

[MengJiao]

I remember looking at AH's Bismarck in my local Kaybee Toys back in the day. I must have been about 14 and the game couldn't have been more than 8 or 10 bucks. Why I didn't buy it then I couldn't tell you. I probably bought a Super Soaker instead :(

  I feel lucky that i played so many crude games back when all games were pretty crude.  i can't imagine trying to figure out the rules to more complex (and good!) games such as are around these days without a background in decades of crude games like the first Bismark or Gettysburg (first of a dozen or so Gettysburgs).  I think the first reasonably well-designed games were Jutland (1967?) 1914 (1968?) and France 1940 (1970?).  Panzerblitz was probably okay, but my brother and I revised it (and we had four copies of it -- long gone) so much I have no idea what the game was really like.  In our version the ultimate weapon was infantry riding on Armoured cars and the ultimate manoeuver was to overrun back into town (ideally with infantry to jump off and close assault etc.)

[Ubercat]

I think it was AH Battle of the Bulge with the pink Germans.

[Richie61]

AH: Tobruk: Tank Battles in North Africa 1942 and then Squad Leader followed  :D

[trailrunner]

I think it was AH Battle of the Bulge with the pink Germans.

That was my second game.  I played it solo many times.  Since I would be out of school for two weeks over Christmas, sometimes the date of the battle would be the same date that I was playing it, only 30 years later.

[MikeGER]

the real first board (abstracted war) game was the German wide spread "Mensch ärgere Dich nicht" ^-^
of course Risk, Stratego  and "Schiffe versenken" (Battleship) and a little Chess too

i also can remember that a school friend introduced me to 'a play' with what could be called a table-top variant with miniatures
like having groups of (tin?)soldiers , makeshift obstacles and simple D6 dices for combat results, and a folding ruler to check movement allowance of units in march or rush order and range of shots... but played on the floor not on a table. 
more like kids play then real table top

the first real board game i bought was Squad Leader, but at a time were i had already a C64 and  'Kampfgruppe" so kind of already giving in to a kind of retro feeling thing at that time.

I always liked in the early days: let the computer do the math and enforce the rules and i can concentrate on the tactical or strategic aspect of the situation. so it was V for Victory, Close Combat, Combat Mission such things  ...no board needed
and i didn't know about solitär board war games (if those even exists then?)  and liked to have at least an AI opponent instead of commute to a friend to maybe set up a game after finally finding a fitting time-slot in two peoples tight schedules

[JudgeDredd]

I believe mine was either Hunt for Red October or Red Storm Rising by TSR

[Crossroads]

AH Panzer Leader, back in 1983, followed by AH Rise and Decline of Third Reich a couple of months later. 

[DennisS]

I believe mine was either Hunt for Red October or Red Storm Rising by TSR

I played RSR on my Commodore until my fingers bled. I have also read the book at LEAST a dozen times.

[Crossroads]

I believe mine was either Hunt for Red October or Red Storm Rising by TSR

I played RSR on my Commodore until my fingers bled. I have also read the book at LEAST a dozen times.

NATO Commander was my first computer (Commodore 64) war game  :)