Thread: WinSPMBT
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Old 08-02-13, 11:38 AM   #3
Wxman
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I concede that the graphics are somewhat dated. However, from the perspective of an old-time board gamer WinSPMBT v7 is outstanding. And LZ-Xray campaign from that web-site is an outstanding hi-res simulation

My baseline of reference is Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg. I have two of those games. My original game is in a dilapidated box, with many dog-eared pieces, customized board with mod'd terrain. In the late 80's I went to a GameCon and picked up a brand new unopened game. I can't remember if it was shrink-wrapped or not. Did they do that in 1964 when the game was initially released? I don't recall but it may have been cellophane wrapped.

I grew up on that sort of stuff. A buddy of mine had Wooden Ships, Iron Men and a Blitzkrieg successor Axis and Allies or something like that. Another buddy had Freedom in the Galaxy. Many a night sitting at the kitchen table, drinkin' beers and playing these board games unto the wee hours.

Most people were intruiged with the level of sophication. My Dad not so much, but once we had a Blitzkrieg game on-going in the garage for a few weeks. Mom would periodically come out and take stock of the situation find out who's winning. The guy I was playing was Polish and his Dad grew up in post-war Europe. He'd come over to take stock of what was going on. He'd accuse me of "not playing right", cheating and getting in my face about how inaccurate the game was. And he'd lambast his son for always being the loser. They'd get into arguments over strategy. My buddy would come back the next day and make more stupid moves and get his butt kicked again.



His Dad was something else on all that. He'd come over all liquored up and go off on some tirade about what was not right with the game. One day my Mom had enough of that nonsense and banned him from the premises. The kids are just playing a game for crying out loud. My Mom is Austrian and Dad is German and my Grandfather was tank battalion commander in Operation Barbarossa. My buddy's Dad definitely had an axe to grind about Germans and blitzkrieg.

The problem with these sort of strategy / tactics board games was where to store the board and all the pieces that have been moved while a game was in progress. Sometimes that was an issue for several months. One of my buddy's had Battle of the Bulge and rigged up a wooden board to hold the game board to a pulley system. Each corner of the board had a thick cotton cord attached that went vertically to a pulley mounted in the ceiling. There was an eye-hook in the center of the board on the bottom side where the cord could be hooked into. This kept the game out of harms way. We'd unhook the cable and lower the board onto a couple of saw-horses. Works good last long time. Until one day the pully binded when we lowered it down and the board tilted. Several hundered pieces scattered all over the floor like so much confetti.



From that perspective, WinSPMBT

Last edited by Wxman; 08-02-13 at 11:50 AM.
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