Just How Old Are We Axis and Allies Players?

I played my first game in 1987 as a young boot Marine on Camp LeJeune NC.
I remember it well since the board got turned over due to the submarine rule…Hahah!!
I haven’t really played much since but it got me into 1/285th scale modelling. I actually scratch built tanks for each faction and started collecting most of the A&A games when the pieces started getting more accurate in their portrayals.
I actually got to serve with the descendants of the Desert Rats during Desert Storm, while ironically using West German military vehicles, all allied together  rather than enemy.
I love the evolution of the pieces and will eventually get to painting them all. However, I’ve been modifying the A&A pieces into more realistic pieces and having more fun doing that than actually playing the game. With the advent of 1941 and the 1942 reprint I plan to have some gaming fun…If I can get the pieces painted.

On a historical note, My maternal grandfather refused to surrender with MacArthurs forces and fought on as a guerrilla. I was in Desert Shield Storm and Calm while my cousin flew AS choppers in the Navy.

Can you put pictures up?

It would be great to hear more from you, sgt!  Only 4 posts?  That is our loss

By the way, I’m 44 now. Sorry but I can’t post pics til I hit 20 posts. I’ll see when I do manage to get it high enough.
Here’s what I have been working on.

100+ PzIII from HBG in the following Aufs. G,H,J short barreled versions
20 Revised Panthers into Aufs. A,D and protoyping G with the newer version of Panther
30 UK Shermans into M4A1 early with 3 piece Tranny and Cast tranny.
20 UK Matildas 1 prototype finished. Just added more detail to make them look like the real thing.
30 HBG Stuarts. basically refining them
50 US Shermans into M4A1 remanufactured, 76 wet, and M4A3 76 HVSS. So far I only have prototypes
60 USSR T34s into 41,43, and T34-85 versions
16 M13-40 from FMG which I got from HBG (was shorted 2)
15 38T hulls with puma Turrets in a what if build basecoated

90+ PzIIIs are built and need basecoating
30 Scratchbuilt PzIIIs already finished and base coated
15 PzIV scratchbuilt and basecoated
30 PzII  Scratchbuilt and basecoated
10 HBG 38T with scratchbuilt turrets basecoated
10 Scratchbuilt Crusaders basecoated
30 Scratchbuilt US shermans 10 M4A1s, 10 M4A3s, 5 M4s, 5 Fireflies
10 Scratchbuilt ShinHoto Chi-Has
10 Scratchbuilt T26s
10 Scratchbuilt BT-7
10 Scratchbuilt T-34s (Turrets are good but the hulls are kinda crappy)

Still tons more to do and that’s only land units before the new shipments of 41 and 2nd edition pieces come in.
Might be worth looking out for. Still working on these and will need to set up a photo shop to get pics.
Some pics are here
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=28013.0

Man, just post 4 more times right here - it’s no problem!

@Krieghund:

I first played in 1984.  I got the Milton Bradley version as soon as it hit the shelves.

same here…loved the game ever since and it also fed my hunger to learn more about world war ii…now i have many books and dvds on the subject and i love the stories and history

I was born JUST before 1984… you guys are old men. lol…

I bet you are one of those annoying kids who sit on the bus and plays his music loudly and does not get up for we older citizens. The youth of today!

I especially like sitting in the ‘special accessibility’ seats. :D

Well… that was when I rode the bus like 12 years ago lol…

@wittman:

Well said Loz. Totally agree.

I turn 40 in the fall. First time I played I was about 20ish. A bricklayer a couple doors down showed me the game. It took me about 10 games or so before I beat him and he was no happ when I did. Always wanted to buy the MB version but couldn’t justify it in the family budget. About 4 years ago I discovered a guy at work had been playing since 84 and I got back into it. Now I’ve spent about 20 times what MB version would have cost me and I’m totally obsessed.

I’ve been playing for 25 years now since 1987. I started playing w/the 1984 version.

I started playing as a sophmore in high school. I’ve played all the versions(Original, Revised, Anniversary Edition, Original Europe and Pacific, Europe and Pacific 1940, Battle of the Bulge, D-Day, Global). Even played World at War…

Wow, this poll is old. I have changed demographics of the poll, from the 20’s to the 30’s.

Yep, AB

But they still haven’t changed the totals to represent my 87 year old Dad
(a WWII vet) and my 64 year old brother.

“Tall Paul”

That is cool Tall Paul. My dad says I should stop playing games and grow up!
Has not let up for the past 25 years.

Hello guys,

i just discovered this thread and I´m amazed because of this interesting stories.
My grandparents were sudeten german and had to flee at the end of WW2.
They came from a small village called Heflein near Znaim (today called Znoimo in Czech Republic).
My dad was born 1937 and told me things which sounds surreal to me today but very exciting.
Things like fleeing and hiding from russian fighters.
Or german soldiers retiering and throwing their hand weapons and grenades into a small pond.
Children from that village who played with the grenades and the one who lost his arm along the way.
Russian soldiers invading the village and share their food with the people.
One of my grandfathers was in Paris with Wehrmacht and the other fought in Stalingrad and get prisoned in Russia severel years.
So all in all, this time period and the history of the 19th and 20th century became my great hobby.
When I was a teenager I played Risk several times and I loved it.
At the age of 16 a friend of mine told me of a game he had played. It was the first game from ´84.
That was in the year 1997.
It was in my mind but I´ve never have the opportunity to play since I saw AA revised in a gaming store.
So I bought it, although I had noone to play with.
Luckily my roommate at college tried it once and was hooked too.
With him and two friends of him, we began to play regularly.
But it was only me who gehts fanatic :-)
So I bought every A&A game I could and now I only miss Anniversary and the old Europe game.
Our old group came together every  two or three months.
And I hope I meet more people in South Germany to play with.

Greets Robert

and im 43 btw…my grandfather on my mothers side was a gunner in B-24s in the european theater of operations…my grandfather on my father’s side was a doctor in the pacific theater of operations

@Krieghund:

I first played in 1984.  I got the Milton Bradley version as soon as it hit the shelves.

me too! I was 10 years old and got hooked for life since 84!!

@Frontovik:

14 :-)
i started playing a bit over a year ago
first game i was Africa-corps :-D
that’s why i’m rommel on 3A

wow, i’m 18 now…
a blast from the past XD

Love this thread.  Great stories.

My story goes like this.  It was 1984 and I had just finished mowing 3 lawns in the neighborhood.  After collecting my pay, I put it with my past earnings and realized I had enough…Fianlly!!  I begged my mother to take me to Toys R Us so I could get a game for my… Colecovision.  She of course refused at first, but I would not be detered.  I bugged her and begged and offered up many options of additional chores I would do if she would just drive me to Toys R Us.  My Colecovision was calling my name and wanted a fresh new game to be plugged into it.  My mother relented, and off we went. 
I knew the game I wanted.  Frontline!  I’d been eyeing that one for months now.
We arrived at the store.  I could barely wait for the car to stop so I could jump out and run in, grab that little piece of paper, run to the register, pay for the game and collect it at the game security booth (those of you old enough know what I mean).  I entered the store.  Took the all to familiar right, then left turn.  Walked right past the wall of board games.  I didn’t look at them.  No sir.  I was a video game junky.  I hit the Colecovision aisle.  Found the box for Frontline. Went to grab that piece of paper from the little blue pouch…EMPTY!!!  What!!! Empty!!!  Surely there must be some mistake.  Frantically I looked around for a Toys R Us associate.  There must be one close by.  There’s one.  I raced over to him and asked in an anxious voice if they had more copies in the booth or in the back.  He told me he’d go check. 
Minutes felt like hours…Then he emerged from the swinging doors that lead to the storage area.  What did he have in his hands!!!  Was it Frontline???  No, it couldn’t be.  It was much to large a box.
He walked up to me and said how sorry he was, but they were out of stock.  The emotions!!!  My stomach felt empty.  I went numb.
At that point, the associate said, “Hey.  Do you like boardgames?”
I told him that I wasn’t a boardgame type kid.  He told me that was too bad because the game he was carrying just came in that morning and it looked like fun.  He handed me the game he was carrying.  It was big and blue and said Axis and Allies.  I flipped it over and looked at the back. 
Oh!!! I thought to myself, look at all the pieces.  That could be a blast.  My brother played risk, but this looked better.  I wasn’t sure though.  I’d mowed so many lawns to get Frontline.  Could I spend that money on a game I’d never heard of? 
Then, good old Mom jumped in.  “You know you have lots of video games.  Why don’t you try this?”
Seemed logical at the moment, so I bit.  Went home and opened the box.  Talked my brother into playing with me.  Had a blast.
I eventually did go back and get Frontline, but it sat unused mostly.  I was hooked on Axis and Allies.  I have bought every version since and introduced countless numbers of friends and family to the game. 
I use to play 2 or 3 times a month, but now that I have my own child and can’t seem to find other players as easily in this busy world, I probably play once a month.  But I can promise you, I will play until the day I die.