I bought my first board wargame (from here on just wargame) by accident and was immediately fascinated.

I grew up in a small town in southern Massachusetts and bought a copy of the original Avalon Hill Starship Troopers game (based on the Heinlein book) at our local main street department store, Baker’s. I have no idea why they had one copy of this game on the shelves of their basement toy department, but I read the rules and played solo games again and again as I could not fine anyone in town who was interested.

Once I went away to Andover I found a community of RPG and wargame enthusiasts and discovered a world of complex games using little cardboard counters and hex gridded boards.