And in 1987 Standard Games released "Outremer", set in the Third Crusade. Lovely to see the games, I used to see the adverts in magazines back in the day!
The first of these games I owned back in the 80's was Samurai Blades, bought in the model shop in Kings Lynn, had travel an hour by bus from the village I grew up in to get there . I went on to buy all of them, but by far my favourite was Siege! The rules and the quick reference sheets were great. GREAT video.
Thanks for sharing! My favorite was the first one, Cry Havoc, I very much liked the Village Map. Siege was very good but a little confusing with the different heights to manage in the Castle.
How lucky the kids in USA were with such games being available. I grew up in former soviet union and we could only dream of such things if of course we knew about their existance which we did not.
In the USSR there was the game В АТАКУ released at about the same time (a couple of years earlier I think) as Cry Havoc, and which was very good even if simpler.
you missed the Miniatures adaptation ;) Great Video, one of my all time fav games and brought back all the fun i had with the game. I still have the miniatures rule bookk and the board game maps but the counters have long since been lost :(
Thank you for this great video. These games are very immersive, because of the great graphic of the counters and boards and the scale of one counter one fighter or assest. It is a pity, that these games are out of print. When I was a young man, I bought one of them (Siege) but unfortunately not the other.
These videos (published both here and in your other channel, "Retro Dream") remind me of how many things I have missed due to my young age (20): what a pity! When I was little, I liked board games but I never had the opportunity to find anything similar to the games you show in this channel. Great design and beautiful illustrations indeed! From Ultima to Tolkien's books, Lone Wolf and these board games, I suppose you truly appreciate fantasy, isn't it? :)
@@AgeofInk Both your channels are very informative and your videos are made with passion and effort. When I was little my dad played The Elder Scrolls Oblivion and I liked following the story along with him. Good memories and a beautiful game despite all the parodies about dialogues and NPCs, ahah! I am more into science fiction (especially books) but I am also discovering fantasy: it fascinates me more than I thought before. I still need to read Tolkien's books (shame on me!).
Me and my brother played Cry Havoc to death lol……we had several expansions as well. We absolutely loved this game. We even played the game using 1/72 scale minis.
Some fascinating facts here that I wasn't aware of! I first read The Hobbit in about 1980 and have been hooked on Middle Earth and fantasy since. I live in a run-down city in the north of England called Hull. In 1983-4 me and my friends used to walk down Cottingham Road on Saturdays to visit a Cafe where they had a small selection of arcade games. The walk took us past a university building named the Dennison Centre and I found out 7 years ago that Tolkien began writing Middle Earth lore there while recovering from war injuries! I was utterly blown away. If I had known this as a young teenager I would have just stared in awe at the place and imagined... It also turned out that he had the idea for the tale of Beren and Luthien after watching his wife dance in some woods which are a short distance from here. Me and my brother made a pilgrimage there recently and I swear there was a kind of magic there.
Wow, fantastic story, my friend! Thanks for sharing with us. I didn't know about it either (the fact that Tolkien was influenced by the forest near Hull). And I daresay it has a magical feeling around it.
@@AgeofInk It's hard to describe how bizarre it felt to find out aged 44 that Tolkien began writing just 10 minutes down the road. All that time I never knew he had connections here. The woods were very pretty, right beside a little medieval church in a small hamlet named Roos. Interestingly, some very strange and eerie bronze age wooden figures were discovered there - the Roos Carr figures. I like to think there is some kind of magic there. He was there in the spring when hemlock covered the woods in a carpet of white so I may try and visit again at that time and make a video. I'll let you know if I do! I found your channel searching for videos on Fighting Fantasy and saw you played all the games I did and had a love for medieval stuff!
@@nodarkthings Sure I do love medieval stuff, and Tolkien stuff even more. And sure a video of the forest place you describe would be welcome, since there don't seem to be anyone yet. Maybe Tolkien saw Lothlorien through this as well....
I'd wager that Firefly Studios had this game laying around when they were making the Stronghold games! Especially the siege equipment looks suspiciously similiar
We played the hell out of these games back in the 80s. We wouldn't use the scenarios but split all the counters between us. The piles of dead bodies soon became impassible walls. But the rules for crossbows were terrible. The bow rules in Samurai Blades worked a bit better.
I remember saving up to buy Cry Havoc in the early 80's. A friend of mine had the samurai version and we cooked up a scenario whereby all the Cry Havoc characters had gone on crusade, but got sucked into a vortex which placed them off the coast of Japan and decided to have their crusade there. We used all the maps and all the counters. I think we got about 2 turns in before having to stop - the game just isn't designed for big battles like that. 😅
Magic of old games. But I still prefer hexes in war games than a ruler. It is make the distance so much more clear and make planning easier without making the game more streamlined.
Just found this video, well presented. Have you seen any of the revised series? Histoic'One has released 6 games that are fully compatible with the 1980s games. A new artist, Buxeria, is the designer/artist. He is on a par with Mr. Chalk (in my opinion, better).
Thank you! Yes I've got some stuff from Historic One, it's good but in my opinion the original remains better. Of course it's a good thing that people are still playing those, and trying to build on it.
Thank you! Indeed I love all the games of my childhood years but especially this one. Haven't played the newer versions (it's all about nostalgia), only used a couple of new maps, very good ones.
@@AgeofInk Agreed, there is a kind of magical connection we have for childhood games. I think it is because we embue them with so much imagination at that age that they connect with us in a way that is harder to do as an adult. In the past few years I have enjoyed revisiting some childhood loves with gaming and books. Most of the time it reminds me of what I have loved and for some why I have left it behind. Even then, I enjoy visiting old friends.
Also we were wanting them so much before we could actually own them, and were constantly thinking about them. They occupied our entire time. After all that, no wonder there's still there in our mind, associated with great memories of a time when we were young and carefree... in short, a better world
@@AgeofInk The game has evolved a bit. It's a tad more complex and it uses a differential rather than a ratio combat table, which some people may find easier to calculate.
I wish they would still make games like this. I much prefer colored counters that blend into the map rather than grey miniatures that stick out like a sore thumb
I got everything but only played it once and didn't like it. The big downside of this game is that it is a skirmish game in which a combat between two equally skilled opponents slightly favors the defender.
I dusted off my copy from the loft a few months ago and was reading the rules tonight. One thing it took a while to work out was that the character counters come in four ‘versions’ and it’s how you represent the character that accounts for things like the wounds
I purchased both Cry Havoc and Siege plus extra maps, the first scenario book in Canada during the 1980’s. I played mostly Cry Havoc and quite often too. Over the last decade I have bought new maps along with the second scenario book. I finally found a punched copy of Outremer in the UK last year and bought that. I have had such a grand time with this game. Even playing a scenario and changing the map(s) brings a freshness to that scenario. I liked your video, yet you needed to add the Outremer addition to the video as well.
The hand drawn art really does give a different feel! Thanks for sharing this!
For sure it does. Thanks for your interest!
And in 1987 Standard Games released "Outremer", set in the Third Crusade. Lovely to see the games, I used to see the adverts in magazines back in the day!
Absolutely! Thanks for your feedback
Great video!
I used to play this at the Birmingham gaming club at Ladywood back in the 80s
Loved it!
Thanks for sharing! Good to know that this was extensively played in clubs too.
This is a great overview. I can really see your passion for it, and I can see why, it looks really cool!
Thanks a lot, I really appreciate.
Glad you found it interesting!
The first of these games I owned back in the 80's was Samurai Blades, bought in the model shop in Kings Lynn, had travel an hour by bus from the village I grew up in to get there . I went on to buy all of them, but by far my favourite was Siege! The rules and the quick reference sheets were great. GREAT video.
Thanks for sharing!
My favorite was the first one, Cry Havoc, I very much liked the Village Map. Siege was very good but a little confusing with the different heights to manage in the Castle.
Played it yesterday! So much tension, easy to play and realistic rules (modified)...Great game!
Good to know people still play it!
Agree!! Superb wargames, so many hours spent playing them!
How lucky the kids in USA were with such games being available. I grew up in former soviet union and we could only dream of such things if of course we knew about their existance which we did not.
In the USSR there was the game В АТАКУ released at about the same time (a couple of years earlier I think) as Cry Havoc, and which was very good even if simpler.
Still have mine...and used it (and variations of it) with my history students. Awesome game!
Thanks for sharing!
love this game - to the point that I now also have some of the more recent 'adaptations' by Historic One Editions...
It's a very loveable game indeed. I also bought recent maps and units
you missed the Miniatures adaptation ;) Great Video, one of my all time fav games and brought back all the fun i had with the game. I still have the miniatures rule bookk and the board game maps but the counters have long since been lost :(
Right, that's because I prefer to focus on the original :)
Thanks a lot!
i remember having massive samurai vs knight battles with my friends. Ridiculous but fun.
Excellent
Thank you for this great video. These games are very immersive, because of the great graphic of the counters and boards and the scale of one counter one fighter or assest. It is a pity, that these games are out of print. When I was a young man, I bought one of them (Siege) but unfortunately not the other.
Glad you enjoyed. I tried to interest my kids in it. Not really successful ;)
Computer wargames have come in the meantime...
@@AgeofInk I had the same experiences with my two sons (with different board games). They were interested but ultimately mostly preferred video games.
@@AgeofInk Man that's a shame, I'm 15 and I grew up on Basic DnD. In fact at the moment I'm writing a Table Top Role Playing Game right now :D
Terrific video! fascinating history on Gary Chalk, you are right, he made these games captivating
Thanks a lot
These videos (published both here and in your other channel, "Retro Dream") remind me of how many things I have missed due to my young age (20): what a pity!
When I was little, I liked board games but I never had the opportunity to find anything similar to the games you show in this channel.
Great design and beautiful illustrations indeed!
From Ultima to Tolkien's books, Lone Wolf and these board games, I suppose you truly appreciate fantasy, isn't it? :)
Yea I was really into fantasy back then. Less now but nostalgia remains ;)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on my channels BTB !
@@AgeofInk Both your channels are very informative and your videos are made with passion and effort.
When I was little my dad played The Elder Scrolls Oblivion and I liked following the story along with him. Good memories and a beautiful game despite all the parodies about dialogues and NPCs, ahah!
I am more into science fiction (especially books) but I am also discovering fantasy: it fascinates me more than I thought before. I still need to read Tolkien's books (shame on me!).
Thanks again BtB and sorry for the delay, RUclips has a terrible notification system!
Great stuff
Me and my brother played Cry Havoc to death lol……we had several expansions as well. We absolutely loved this game. We even played the game using 1/72 scale minis.
Same here... Played with my brother for days on, such a great game
Some fascinating facts here that I wasn't aware of! I first read The Hobbit in about 1980 and have been hooked on Middle Earth and fantasy since. I live in a run-down city in the north of England called Hull. In 1983-4 me and my friends used to walk down Cottingham Road on Saturdays to visit a Cafe where they had a small selection of arcade games. The walk took us past a university building named the Dennison Centre and I found out 7 years ago that Tolkien began writing Middle Earth lore there while recovering from war injuries! I was utterly blown away. If I had known this as a young teenager I would have just stared in awe at the place and imagined... It also turned out that he had the idea for the tale of Beren and Luthien after watching his wife dance in some woods which are a short distance from here. Me and my brother made a pilgrimage there recently and I swear there was a kind of magic there.
Wow, fantastic story, my friend!
Thanks for sharing with us.
I didn't know about it either (the fact that Tolkien was influenced by the forest near Hull). And I daresay it has a magical feeling around it.
@@AgeofInk It's hard to describe how bizarre it felt to find out aged 44 that Tolkien began writing just 10 minutes down the road. All that time I never knew he had connections here. The woods were very pretty, right beside a little medieval church in a small hamlet named Roos. Interestingly, some very strange and eerie bronze age wooden figures were discovered there - the Roos Carr figures. I like to think there is some kind of magic there. He was there in the spring when hemlock covered the woods in a carpet of white so I may try and visit again at that time and make a video. I'll let you know if I do! I found your channel searching for videos on Fighting Fantasy and saw you played all the games I did and had a love for medieval stuff!
@@nodarkthings Sure I do love medieval stuff, and Tolkien stuff even more. And sure a video of the forest place you describe would be welcome, since there don't seem to be anyone yet. Maybe Tolkien saw Lothlorien through this as well....
I'd wager that Firefly Studios had this game laying around when they were making the Stronghold games! Especially the siege equipment looks suspiciously similiar
I noticed that too!
Man this is cool. I (13) love seeing videos like this. Keep it up
Thanks! Will do!
We played the hell out of these games back in the 80s. We wouldn't use the scenarios but split all the counters between us. The piles of dead bodies soon became impassible walls.
But the rules for crossbows were terrible. The bow rules in Samurai Blades worked a bit better.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I remember saving up to buy Cry Havoc in the early 80's. A friend of mine had the samurai version and we cooked up a scenario whereby all the Cry Havoc characters had gone on crusade, but got sucked into a vortex which placed them off the coast of Japan and decided to have their crusade there. We used all the maps and all the counters. I think we got about 2 turns in before having to stop - the game just isn't designed for big battles like that. 😅
Haha nice try anyway thanks for sharing!
Magic of old games. But I still prefer hexes in war games than a ruler. It is make the distance so much more clear and make planning easier without making the game more streamlined.
100% agree
:) Ηello ! This is a legendary war board game !
Just found this video, well presented. Have you seen any of the revised series? Histoic'One has released 6 games that are fully compatible with the 1980s games. A new artist, Buxeria, is the designer/artist. He is on a par with Mr. Chalk (in my opinion, better).
Thank you!
Yes I've got some stuff from Historic One, it's good but in my opinion the original remains better. Of course it's a good thing that people are still playing those, and trying to build on it.
That was a lovely homage to a game you obviously love. Thanks for introducing me to Cry Havoc! Have you played the newer versions from Historic One?
Thank you! Indeed I love all the games of my childhood years but especially this one. Haven't played the newer versions (it's all about nostalgia), only used a couple of new maps, very good ones.
@@AgeofInk Agreed, there is a kind of magical connection we have for childhood games. I think it is because we embue them with so much imagination at that age that they connect with us in a way that is harder to do as an adult. In the past few years I have enjoyed revisiting some childhood loves with gaming and books. Most of the time it reminds me of what I have loved and for some why I have left it behind. Even then, I enjoy visiting old friends.
Also we were wanting them so much before we could actually own them, and were constantly thinking about them. They occupied our entire time.
After all that, no wonder there's still there in our mind, associated with great memories of a time when we were young and carefree... in short, a better world
Is the a name for this style/form of illustration? I like it, reminds me of old 2000ads
Kevin oniell is a good one
Still have the Outremer game, that belongs to that series too
Correct!
I've had this game and Samurai Blades for many decades. Never played either???????????????
This game is still supported and published under a different name by Historic One.
Now that's interesting, thanks for the heads-up!
@@AgeofInk The game has evolved a bit. It's a tad more complex and it uses a differential rather than a ratio combat table, which some people may find easier to calculate.
@@mwhite212Great, because that was actually the weak point: this table was too basic indeed
Cool! How does this compare to a game like Melee/Wizard?
Need to investigate
Don’t know who currently holds the licence for it but that would make an awesome Deluxe Designer edition reprint on something like kickstarter
That's sure
Is there a computer adaptation of these games? would be amazing to be able to play online
I think there are yes
I found Siege at a thrift store but got so disappointed when i found out it doesn't have all the pieces😭
unfortunately that was not exceptional. Had the same issue you know
Very cosy channel.
This reminds me a lot of heroscape
Lol
anyone know where i could get a copy? other than on eBay(I only saw one and it was 120$ kinda out of my price range)
why not ebay
I wish they would still make games like this. I much prefer colored counters that blend into the map rather than grey miniatures that stick out like a sore thumb
That's for sure!
where can I get my own?
ebay
I got everything but only played it once and didn't like it.
The big downside of this game is that it is a skirmish game in which a combat between two equally skilled opponents slightly favors the defender.
That's true
@@AgeofInk I always thought about making the table even by house rule and give it a new shot. What do you think about it?
Combat resolution in that series is absurd. A knight attacking a peasant is more likely to be wounded than his enemy.
Some things are strange yes.
I don't understand the combat system and the rule book is a mess :(
oh no
I dusted off my copy from the loft a few months ago and was reading the rules tonight. One thing it took a while to work out was that the character counters come in four ‘versions’ and it’s how you represent the character that accounts for things like the wounds
Ask in the comments what you are unsure about and let’s see if we can all help
I purchased both Cry Havoc and Siege plus extra maps, the first scenario book in Canada during the 1980’s. I played mostly Cry Havoc and quite often too. Over the last decade I have bought new maps along with the second scenario book. I finally found a punched copy of Outremer in the UK last year and bought that. I have had such a grand time with this game. Even playing a scenario and changing the map(s) brings a freshness to that scenario. I liked your video, yet you needed to add the Outremer addition to the video as well.