It all started with Battlecars...

This article was originally a submission for the House of Paincakes, HoP Idol competition. I have no idea when or if they intend on posting it because they've scrapped the weekly challenges, plus I dropped out of the competition. It was the weekly challenge for week 3 of the competition, along with some Haiku, which can be found Here. While I've tended so far to re-post my entries here on my own blog, this challenge did get me thinking... how did all of you get into wargaming? What drove you all towards playing with toy soldiers and what was your first game like? Honestly I'm genuinely interested, let me know in the comments below.

My first gaming experience was roughly 27 years ago, and I was 5 (you do the math), and I don't really remember too much about it as a game... but I do remember an awful lot about how it made me feel! It made me feel awesome, and I don't think I've looked back since. The person who introduced me to this hobby was my dad and the game he did it with was Battlecars!!! For ages I thought it was called Dark Futures (this is what it eventually became), but I was reliably informed that it was indeed Battlecars and having seen the box art I now know that it was.


All of my memories of the game are really sketchy at best, you see my dad could be quite an intense person and was normally deep in thought and didn't really suffer fools gladly. I don't want to paint him as some ogre because he wasn't all bad, he could be lots of fun at times. However, for me the first real memory I have of actually having genuine fun with my dad was playing this game. I'd seen him painting and I knew not to feck around with his toys and paints... but they looked cool and I kept nagging him as only little kids can do, and eventually he agreed to let me 'play' the game with him.

The game I remember was played on a blue-grey grid board, with card buildings and some 3D buildings my dad had made. I was disheartened to see him get out his card tokens as opposed to his painted metal toys... but he was just teasing me! He did let me play with the real deal. I remember also that the game had these cool profile cards for your cars where you'd assign weapon systems, and that it used D8's, and that rolling dice gave me unbridled joy. The feelings I have looking back on that game were one of genuinely just loving spending a little time with my dad and how he made silly engine noises and gun sounds as we played, I may have picked up this habit myself!

I can't really tell you much more about the game from memory, although I'm sure if I looked it up on the internet I could tell you some convincing lies. Suffice to say my dad instilled in me that wargames should be fun. You can play to win and to be tactically challenged, however, in the end it's about being entertained and spending quality time with friends or family. I've taken this to heart and I try to bring the same animation and joy to the games that I intro for people. After the game had finished though my dad started me on my prime love with the hobby... painting. You see there was a new car on the board during that game primed white (black spray paint hadn't been invented in those days) and at the end of the game he told me it was mine!!! Although I think he instantly regretted it when I chose to paint it pink and yellow... oh come on I was 5. Peace out!