Well, this was a 'second chance impulse' buy. I first saw it in a local "Yorkshire Store" shop, one sells all manner of goods, with a rambling toy section [sometimes useful for picking up cheap "counters" and the like for games] - I had it in my clammy hands but put it back down. Driving home, I regretted it, though I was in a little bit of a quandary as to what it actually was (and for £20 was I going to just get a pile of "plastic tat?"), A fortnight later I was in the same store looking up at (probably) the same box and it was a case of "green for go in my head" <the sound of the cash register follows or rather a "beep" in these modern times> - done deal, item bought (see below, I opened it up and was well satisfied that it was not the feared "plastic tat" but a nicely presented, mounted board, with good plastic playing pieces, simple instructions and even better, "something" that could be extended in traditional maverick Wargames Design fashion):
But who would play it with me "out of the box"? My youngest son (11) started but he then aborted after a few moves, sad emoji. Next I tried my "old sad puppy dog eyes" on the wife and much to my surprise she acquiesced and we played a couple of games, in the wings my eldest son (16) eyed events with interested curiosity but it was my (14) daughter who took up the gauntlet - egged on by the wife ("you go beat him" [I gave no mercy in my games with the wife]) and I'll be damned if she nearly did and took me to the wire (I was facing a "female team" at this point). Great fun, great fun, so it looks like the dark nights will be partially filled with more than a few battles. Thank you Yorkshire Store and Jumbo Games ;)
Update: The daughter expressed an added interest to move onto chess :)
5 comments:
Geordie,
It seems as if I am not alone in discovering the potential fun to be had by some older board games,
I’ve looked at STRATEGO in the past, but have not yet bought a copy. I may well do so now.
All the best,
Bob
Hello Bob,
I think it is well worth a poke at £20 for the Jumbo Games version
To increase your interest more
I got a Portable Wargame "vibe" connection with it
You start out with 40 individual pieces with it
But after the second game I started thinking of things in "blocks" of four's
Next I was seeing a Portable Wargame appear before my eyes
The one element missing is "artillery" in the pieces
But that does not stop some adventurous soul putting it in ;)
Best Wishes
Mark
Chess I recommend highly!
One of my favourite games when I was a kid. Lots of nights spent playing this on family holidays. Funnily enough, I was looking at a copy of this the other week and humming and harring over whether to get it or not!
I recently used my Stratego game board as a proxy for playing Trebian’s “Spartans & Successors” with 6mm figures.
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