Wargames in General
I cut my wargaming teeth on Avalon Hill's Tobruk back in 1977. Quickly following was Squad Leader, Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Star Fleet Battles and many, many other board games that used hundreds, if not thousands of little cardboard counters, reams of statistics papers, and so on. Unless you played one of the "quick" scenarios, you generally never finished a game because they were so detailed that it would take days to complete a full scenario.
Mike has renewed my interest in these classic games. He bought a game of Tactics II that we have yet to play, but just today, FedEx delivered a 7 pound wargame to me: Flat Top. This is a strategic level wargame about the Solomons Campaign in 1942-43. You track each ship, almost every aircraft, as you vie for superiority of the South Pacific.
This is going on on top of Epic:Armageddon and Warhammer 40,000. I am going to have to start pacing myself or there won't be any time for work I'll be gaming so much. ;-)
I am sad to see these kind of games go by the wayside, as many of these games have been out of print for years. No one but the most hardened wargamer wants to deal with games of such complexity and investments in time. Besides, the First Person Shooter and Real Time Strategy games are much more suited to the Instant Gratification Generation we are raising today.
It's sad. No one has the time anymore.