Rolling Back the Years

I have been looking at the boardgame collection and noticed a definite recent trend of things morphing back to earlier times and by early I mean there are some things that are whispering to me from 1977.

Yep, almost 50 years, where the hell did that go!

Despite that passage of time and the huge number of wargame designs that have been published over those years, it surprised me just how much of my relative recent purchases can be considered legacy design work from back in the day.

I suppose there is an entire topic to explore as to what games in particular have remained good publishing topics. It is clearly not the case that everything then was good and it will be true that my own buying is selective to personal taste, but never-the-less, the draw of the past is very much present at the moment, to me at least.

As a teenager, I had been figure gaming for a few years when I stumbled on a hobby shop that sold not only figures, but they had a large selection of boardgames - wow, I had never seen anything like it. New in was the latest issue of Strategy and Tactics magazine, each issue contained a boardgame and issue 68 was all about Operation Cobra (the closing of the Falaise Gap, 1944). I was hooked, smitten and a button was pressed that would gift me a life-long hobby.

Throughout the years, I have since bought (and sold) into hundreds of titles and the truth be told, many of those were only played once …. or less! Never-the-less I have enjoyed that journey, but recently I am tiring a little of the merry-go-round of new stuff constantly entering the collection and needing to be serviced, each time with a new set of rules to read, then getting played a little, if at all and never proficiently and then the next thing comes along.

I feel it is time to choose some favourites and getting to know them a lot better. Now I am certainly going to avoid saying that older titles were more playable, there were just as many complex games and duffers going on back then and you played them without internet support. None of this business of a  designer only ever being 12 hours away from your ‘desperately seeking help’ post!

However, some publishers are dipping into a back catalogue of designs, pulling some of those very playable games / mechanics and putting out new editions that benefit from a beautiful modern presentation and at the moment, I seem to be drawn to those same titles.

Are there rose tinted glass being worn here - well yes, a little bit, but in an age when superb visuals and quality are easily attainable in game production, I have seen examples when seemingly producing something lovely has been given a priority over getting the actual game development done properly. So one advantage to stepping back in time is that some of those games will have already developed an excellent track record and the errata has been identified.

Anyway, it is of course simply a matter of gamer taste and preferences. In 2026 I have a bad back, stretching across two maps and wading through long games is now more difficult than it was. Our face-to-face sessions are shorter than they have ever been and we are favouring those games where the rulebook can stay in the box and we can just concentrate on play and I don’t want to have to fully re-read an entire rulebook twice every time I have spent some time away from a game and so this sets the tone for the more recent purchases. The aim now is to get to know some games really well through regular play.

So, what sort of games are influencing the collection?

Cobra - I start with this, simply because it was the first boardgame that I was ever exposed to, it represents the flame that ignited everything that followed. 

Looking back, dropping on the right game for a first playing experience was hugely important, especially in an age that was pre-internet, unless you knew someone who played these games (I didn’t), there was no-one to hold your hand!

If my first game had been a different, more opaque design, would that have ended my enthusiasm there and then? - Perhaps!

Anyway, Cobra came out in magazine format in 1977 and a few years later, TSR brought out a boxed edition, which included a second map. This map basically contained the D-Day coastline and it married with the original map, giving a mega game of D-Day 6th June 1944 through to the Allied breakout and encirclement of German forces, culminating on 26th August.

In 2019 Decision Games put the two map package back into print (box art shown here). Each year I promise myself that I will take a trip down memory lane with this and each year it gets squeezed out. But not this year :-)

Advanced Squad Leader Stater Kit - I had the basic Squad Leader game (1977) 4th Edition by Avalon Hill and I would put it as the most influential design ever on my own hobby aspirations, making tactical WWII my prime area of interest. 

The game sold a ton and everyone of a certain vintage will recall their first exposure to scenario 1 - The Guards Counter Attack.

For reasons not worth elaborating here, it grew to become a hugely complex system and in 1985, it was essentially replaced by a stream-lining of the system and rebranded as Advanced Squad Leader. ASL is huge within the hobby, but it has a deserved reputation for still being very complex.

In 2005, Multi-Man Publications (MMP), the new guardians of ASL, brought out the first of a series of starter kits, the idea being that step-by-step, it would bring the none ASL players to slowly absorb the fullness of the ASL rules, with an intention that at some point, they would jump from the Starter Kits to full ASL. I think that has been a successful pathway for many, but equally there are gamers who are happy just to stay within the starter kit universe (me).

Anyway, I am being drawn back into the system and have started to re-buy into the starter series. The photo here shows the new starter magazine that is intended to support the new or newly returning player.

Considering I am talking mostly about easy play games here, ASL would seem to fly in the face of that, but if you play it a lot, much becomes second nature and there is a saying in the ASL community that you only use 20% of the rules 80% of the time!

The graphics are exactly the same as the were 45 years ago, so this does not feel like playing a new version of an old game, it feels like the old game, but with the easing in that the Starter Kit rules are meant to do, it does get me back closer to the pleasures that I found in the old Squad Leader games and I expect to be playing this a lot, certainly as a mid week game on a small board.

Considering that almost 50 years has passed since John Hill’s initial Squad Leader design, this system visually and physically has changed little and it takes you right back to that time.

Battles in the East - published by Decision Games. This is a new series designed by Antony Birkett, but relevant here is that it is an evolution of the classic games Panzergruppe Guderian, Army Group South and Cobra - all of 70’s vintage and contained here in just 14 pages of rules.

There are now four volumes, each with two games, plus a game in a magazine, plus a 5th pairing being worked on, so those 14 pages of rules will be able to deliver a lot of gaming situations. Units are representing regimental to divisional formations and playing time is estimated at 2 - 4 hours across the series.

Volume 4 has brought the latest rules, which are backwards compatible and now look to have settled down nicely. Just some good, solid operational gaming going on here.

Presentation is clever, the components are clearly benefiting from modern production, but the company definitely wants the buyer to associate the product with the legacy of 70’s designs, so the maps are relatively tame and the rulebook is given an old school style, nicely exaggerated by the paper used.

Bulge - The Battle for the Ardennes 16th December 1944 - 2nd January 1945. Originally this title was ‘The Big Red One, the game of the 1st Infantry Division at the Battle of the Bulge’, published in 1979 by SPI.

Ty Bomba did an updated version on gloriously large hexes in 2009 for the World War II magazine (a mag with a game in it). 

That version added a BloodBath (BB) result to the combat charts and had very unforgiving exit conditions. Basically, If the Germans could get a supplied unit off the map they automatically won - but with very generous movement allowances, this made the allies desperate to close down every potential avenue of breakthrough, while the Germans were desperate to find a spot to breakout before the allies reinforcements were able to close down the entire road net.

This is an interesting design concept because it puts the players in the emotional seat of the respective commanders and so it is that aspect of desperation and frustration of the Bulge commanders that underpins the fundamentals of the Bulge simulation in a ‘soft’ way, rather than what the rest of the system is actually doing.

When Decision Games chose to re-release it in a boxed format in 2021, they returned to the original design (The Big Red One) rather than going with the Bomba version.

The system is a good example of ‘design for effect’ and gives us another 1979 game wrapped in modern clothing and intended to play in that 1 - 2 hours time slot.

Napoleon’s Last Gamble - published by Operational Studies Group (OSG) and designed by Kevin Zucker. The Genesis of this game was in the old quad game Napoleon’s Last Battles, by SPI, designed by Kevin Zucher, published in 1976.

It covered the battles of Waterloo (Waterloo, Wavre, Ligny and Quatre Bras 1815) and was presented as a quad game, one battle per map and all the maps could be mated to give the campaign game.

The design was quite straight forward and memorable to me simply because one long afternoon in summer in the early 80’s, I played the full campaign game with Mike and it was a great, easy play, long 6 hour session. A sort of mini game fest I suppose.

Anyway Kevin Zucker went on to add some chrome to the system and he created what has become known as the Library of Napoleonic Battles, a series of games that has gone on to cover most of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The module covering Waterloo is called Napoleon’s Last Gamble, but the beating heart of the original Napoleon’s Last Battles is still clearly in there.

Two things of note, the Combat Result Table is in the main one of advances and retreats and so players need to think about cutting off retreat routes, so that retreating units are eliminated for being unable to retreat rather than just being pushed back. There are critics of this, viewing that such manoeuvre does not feel very napoleonic as there is an absence of the effect of frontal assault - though there are some results for Exchanges and Shock results, which does in part represent that sort of thing. Regardless, as a game, it seems to work and I ran a rather nice Quatre Bras / Ligny AAR from this module (see resources below).

Secondly, as well as the battle scenarios, there are scenarios called ‘The Approach To Battle’ which basically starts the battle with units in positions they were in the day before, so as both sides manoeuvre, there is every opportunity for the actual main fight to shift somewhere else! and this gives the players a good feel for ‘campaign’.

It should also be said that the maps are lovely.

The Russian Campaign - It doesn’t get any more 70’s than this. Originally published in 1974 by Jedko and republished in 1976 by Avalon Hill, with the improved second edition out in 1978. My copy is the gorgeous 2023 5th Edition Deluxe by GMT.

It covers the full war, 1941 - ‘45 on the eastern front and can be a long game, though there are some shorter scenarios. It is the only game that I can claim caused me to stay up until 4 AM to complete ….. and then off to work just a few hours later (those where the days!), so it remains fairly memorable to me.

This Deluxe remake with the original designer sold like hot cakes and was due for a re-print, but the designer has pulled out of that for now, making this version quite collectable and again the legacy thing is quite visible as gamers are willing in 2026 to be paying for a re-make of a 1974 game.

The downside for me is that the deluxe version is a two mapper, even so, it remains the only two mapper that I won’t get rid of!

Blue & Gray I & II Deluxe - It is a collection of eight battles that the hobby was first introduced to in 1975 in the form of two quad games, Blue & Gray Vol I (Antietam, Cemetery Hill, Chickamauga, Shiloh), to be later followed by Blue & Gray Vol II (The Battle of the Wilderness, Chattanooga, Fredericksburg, Hooker & Lee - which covers Chancellorsville).

Decision Games have just released the Deluxe version that combines the two quads and the formula for the recent round of Deluxe reprints seems to be providing the original rules intact and then having variants and optional rules at the rear of the rule set, to be employed as the players see fit.

It lacks some things that I would like to see in a modern wargame such as command and control restrictions, so there is nothing to compel divisions and corps to stay together, but in truth, as a ‘problem’ this pretty much disappears during play and you end up with a simple engine that allows the players to concentrate on the game, with the rule book being rarely needed.

We played the Antietam scenario the other day and the absence of the rulebook from the table and the simplicity of the system, allowed us just to concentrate on manoeuvre and gaining positions of advantage.

My memory of the game reminds me of being in work in 1980 and a new photo copier had arrived. They were really expensive in those days and you had to fill in a ledger to show what you had used it for. I’m not sure what I wrote down when I copied my eight page Blue & Gray rulebook. :-)

The Deluxe version upgrades the Cemetery Ridge scenario by adding extra counters to expand the order of battle by breaking it down into smaller units, as there had been some earlier criticism that this was the weakest scenario because it pitted divisions agains demi-brigade sized organisations.

Yet another game that sits in the ‘under 2 hours’ time bracket for play.

Napoleon at War Deluxe - This is the latest entrant to the collection, released just a few weeks ago. It is literally a straight re-print of the original SPI 1975 quad, but with the known errata dealt with. As a quad, it covers the four battles of Marengo, Wagram, Jena-Auerstadt and Leipzig. It is very similar to the Blue & Gray design.

It is deserving of the term deluxe. Everything has been beautifully and sympathetically (to the original) produced. Apparently its popularity has encouraged the publisher to plan two more follow up quads, so that will be 12 battles working to a 6 page rule set.

One of the design traits of this game and of others mentioned above is the concept of ‘sticky’ zones of control (once you contact an enemy only a combat result can cause a disengagement) and mandatory attack, so adjacent units must be attacked and this requires careful planning as the armies become increasingly engaged and thus forced to attack.

Like Blue & Gray, these scenarios are themed games rather than simulations, that are skinned with a good dollop of historical detail such as the right order of battle and the correct terrain features that help inform the game.

Warlock of Firetop Mountain - I am throwing this one in, simply because it adds to the sense that publishers are reaching back to that 70’s thing.

The series of the Fighting Fantasy books have been brought back into print and it takes my mind back to that first ‘proper’ hobby shop that I found in 1977, which stocked them all …. Together with the two Steve Jackson games, OGRE and GEV.

The ‘Fighting Fantasy’ books were created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

You, the reader, become an adventurer, moving through the various pages of the book on what might best be described as a dungeon crawling type game.

It is what they call a paragraph driven story, so you will come to a paragraph that might say something like, there is a soldier up ahead, do you want to approach him (turn to paragraph 37) or do you want to back out of the corridor silently (turn to paragraph 110). The consequence of either action will be listed on those numbered paragraphs. If you want to retreat back, it might do something like make you take a skills test for your stealth and if you fail, you rouse the guard and end up fighting with him anyway.

At the start of the book, you create a character and with the help of dice, your character gets certain skill ratings, which your character will carry through the book. My current character that I created for my return to this book, I have named as Gyrth - Son of Godwin and he was lucky with the dice rolls when being generated. With a Stamina rating of 23, he will be a very robust Warrior, though unfortunately his Skill level is only 8, so I think he will probably be a brave, but rather dim warrior! …. Will he get me to the end of the quest?

The series has just been reprinted and I picked this one up as it is the first in the series and the one I remember best. This time I plan to make a map as I explore the dungeons as I usually get terribly lost and wander around aimlessly, before dropping dead from wounds!

Just being sized and priced as a small paper back book, they make great gifts and really every gamer could have one, just to have ticking over in the background - the ultimate pick up and put down game and a great plus for vacations or hospital stays etc.

So there we are. My parents had a saying of ‘what goes around - comes around’ and that certainly seems true here, the old old is the new new! 

If I can have repeat contact with all of the above this year, I will be happy.

It has really surprised me when looking at these games as a group, just how important the gaming legacy of the 70’s remains today. It is more than simply tapping into the nostalgia of a generation, they were just good games to play and deserve another chance at getting onto gamer’s shelves. 

The rest of my collection is not too far removed from these types of games in terms of playability and it is fair to say that overall mine has become a ‘players’ collection first and a historical simulation platform second.

I have a few periods covered by what might be termed ‘Berg’s’ Formation Activation System, with Great Battles of History, Men of Iron, Musket & Pike and Jours de Gloire (Napoleonic) being foremost. AWI is covered by GMT’s Battles of the American Revolution (8 battles), while another Napoleonic series from Legion / Pratzen, designed by Didier Rouy, called Vive l’Empereur, offers something visually (units deployed in line, column and square) that I think many will enjoy seeing posted here in due course.

At the end of the day, all of this is about hoping to change my gaming a little by having some titles getting to the table more often, so that I can get to know them better and get more from them, while at the same time, reduce my speculative buying on titles that I end up spending time on, but they just become shelf hoggers - never destined to reach the top of the ‘play next’ queue.

As these games get to the table, I will likely put up a few comments and observations on the blog, so we shall see how that goes!

RESOURCES;

The Quatre Bras / Ligny AAR (with some shots of my figures thrown in) LINK.

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2025/06/anniversary-battle-of-quatre-bras-and.html