Before PRESTAGS ... there was my first wargame

I still have my first ever wargame, and I purchased it not long after I first met Maurice. I guess we are talking 40 or 40+ years ago now! Can you guess what it is? Easy:

Yes, it is Battle of the Five Armies. Check out the combat strengths for Smaug versus the other units. There are no such extreme ranges in PRESTAGS.

It may be hard to read in the image, but Smaug is 100-100-15. But there is more, because this wargame includes the absolutely classic rule (which must be a joke by the designer):

Almost half a century later the subject matter of this wargame will be included in the third instalment of Peter Jackson's "Hobbit" movies. I can't wait. The wargame included a lot of the units and characters, even a great little grey counter for Gandalf, but there were no hobbit counters. Below is Dale from the wargame map and Dale from the Hobbit movies.

This old game holds a lot of memories for me. Of the introduction of a new hobby - board wargames. And of the introduction of a new friend, also about to become a wargame addict.

In the era of early wargames like Battle of the Five Armies, they certainly weren't shy about including the name of the game in the middle of the map!

After PRESTAGS, for obvious reasons of sentimentality, this is my favourite game. And, I do believe you could play Battle of the Five Armies with PRESTAGS, albeit without Smaug!

Comments

[PythonMagus]

I still wake at night to think up tactics of how to get the goblins up on the spurs without rolling down the hills.