Five formative (war)games?

[bayonetbrant]

How is it even possible for individuals to think about what influenced other to play anything?

Most of us have known each other for a long time.

Plus, thinking about the common ground we share, and the kinds of games that helped shape that common ground and helped gotten the community, what would you come up with?

Not just the aggregate of our individual games...

[Staggerwing]

Steel Panthers (in some form) has to be a formative wargame for at least some of us here. When it first came out I was blown away by it. I'd been reading about the development in some of the gaming mags for a few months prior and getting more and more excited. It wasn't the first of it's kind, as there were games such as The Perfect General, WCS: Tanks, and even Battle Isle (for a scifi take) that went for the 'digital minis' style but Steel Panthers just seemed to take it to a new level, with all the unit command link stuff, preplanned artillery barrages and airstrikes, and whatnot else. And the graphics (for the time) were pretty neat.

[bob48]

Diplomacy, aye  And we played a lot of 'Escape from Colditz' and 'Sorcerers cave'

[Tolstoi]

How is it even possible for individuals to think about what influenced other to play anything?

Most of us have known each other for a long time.
Plus, thinking about the common ground we share, and the kinds of games that helped shape that common ground and helped gotten the community, what would you come up with?
Not just the aggregate of our individual games...

From the podcasts, you all talk about the Civilization game series A LOT. Either the series or one of the specific Civ games should be on that list.

[Hethwill]

As I posted in that chain discussion and the theme is - five games that shaped the individual as a gamer that it is today.
The way I interpret is the games that one way or another, by the sheer impact of lore, mechanisms of play, social interaction, shaped the gamer personality ( which in so many cases can be seen in the games they usually share )

In my case were these five ( i would post 10 but I tend to follow the rules )

- Battletech (FASA)
- Darklands (Microprose)
- AD&D Birthright (TSR)
- Warhammer Fantasy RP 1e (Games Workshop)
- Mordheim ( Games Workshop )

[Sir Slash]

No love for Stratego? You want, 'Old School', how about American Heritage's Battle Cry? Waterloo was my first Avalon Hill game followed by Midway. For computers it was the original, Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. Since I'm only allowed 5, I'll stop there.

[Bison]

AD&D 1e
Conquest of the Empire
Axis & Allies
Guns of August
Bull Run

I am sure others were equally important but frankly that's about all we owned other than several other RPGs like James Bond and Champions.

[BanzaiCat]

James Bond RPG, indeed. I loved that system.

Also Top Secret.

[judgedredd]

Sorry - missed this before posting

BUT, it's not just what influenced you individually.  Think about the group as a whole and what you might see as our aggregated list that best encapsulates our whole community.