Name: Joe Scoleri
Age: 31
Location: California USA
E-mail: themaverick@volcano.net (The Maverick)
Home Page: http://www.voicano.net/~themaverick
First wargame: Tactics II (Avalon Hill)
First conflict game.- Dogfight (M-B)
Favorite wargame: Ace of Aces (Nova)
Least favorite wargame: Air War (SPI)
Most wanted wargames: Merc-D.O.W. (Adversary), Zulu & Foreign Legion series (Bearhug)
Favorite wargame publisher: Avalon Hill
Least favorite wargame publisher: none
Favorite genre: tactical air combat
Least favorite genres: Napoleonic, ACW

My Game Related Web Pages:

http://www.volcano.net/-themaverick/ hafh.html - game lists, mini reviews

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/themav/ micind.html - microgame museum

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/ Lair/6747 - Macho Women With Guns

Game Buying Resources

(from most to least frequently used):

private party sales and trades in rec.games.board.marketplace (online newsgroup); online game stoie-s; game/ hobby shops; garage sales; flea markets.

How I Got Started In Wargaming:

My involvement with wargames stems from my childhood fascination with the military aircraft and aviators of WWI and WWII. In my younger days I played conflict boardgames like Carrier Strike (Milton Bradley) and Dogfight. When I was in junior high school I received my first wargame, Tactics II, as a birthday present from my best friend. In our minds the game didn't live up to the exciting description on the box, and I don't think we ever made it through a full game. My wargaming days might very well have ended there.

However, I discovered another Avalon Hill game at Kiddie World, a local toy store, and knew I had to give wargames another try. That game was Richthofen's War. After having read and examined the back of the shrinkwrapped box on many trips to the store, I was finally able to save up enough money to buy it. I wasn't disappointed, and many summer afternoons were spent recreating the air battles of WWI at a level far beyond what Dogfight had offered.

As my friends and I entered high school, our gaming interests turned more toward D&D ™ and other role-playing games. However, I frequented game shops quite often and managed to purchase several old favorites during my high school years. Growing up in Silicon Valley gave me access to several excellent game/hobby shops: D&J Hobbies in Cupertino, San Antonio Hobby Shop in Mountain View, and my all-time favorite game store: The Game Table of Cupertino. The first two stores are still thriving but unfortunately The Game Table is long gone.

While I was in college I found I had less time and less dorm room space for gaming. My game collection became something to be stored and moved rather than played. In addition, computer games took up more free time and gaming dollars in ,the late eighties and early nineties. More often than not, if I purchased a boardgame during this time it was at a garage sale or a flea market. Although these impromptu used game purchases were infrequent, I still made some good finds.

Fortunately my boardgame interest was rekindled by online newsgroups. I was amazed by what I could find for sale after a quick browse through the rec.garnes. board.marketplace newsgroup. So I sold off several of my treasured "dust collecting" games and then turned right back around and started buying games again.

About My Collection:

My game collection currently includes over 600 different items. While primarily devoted to board wargames and conflict simulations, the collection also includes role-playing games, family games, and children's wargames. It runs the gamut from run-of-the-mill titles to some interesting oddities and variant editions that I have discovered.

Due to my interest in aviation, I have sought out any and all air combat games I can find. Presently my air combat collection includes almost 100 different games, including duplicate editions of the same title. I have been collecting and playing air combat games ever since I purchased Richthofen's War (or earlier, if you count my Pursuit (Aurora) days.)

I also collect twentieth century tactical combat games. Although I had been a casual Squad Leader (Avalon Hill) player for many years, I never played or followed other games of this scale. However, a couple of years ago I read an article on the history of tactical wargames in Fire & Movement (it must have been issue 53.) Purchasing a couple of the games from the article piqued my interest and I have since acquired several more titles in this area. I currently have about 70 twentieth century tactical combat games.

Other areas of my collection include: an extensive microgame collection of late seventies and early eighties games from Metagaming, Task Force, Steve Jackson Games and the like; a complete set of the Yaquinto album games; old and new edition Lost Worlds books from Nova and Greysea; and most of the Gamemaster series games from Milton Bradley.

My Other Collections:

Collectors usually collect more than one thing, and here are some of the other things I collect: Atari home videogame consoles, cartridges and accessories; Cliffhanger serial videos, books and memorabilia; old and rare books.

Why I Collect Wargames:

I would have to say that my interest in wargames boils down to three different components: history, competition, and nostalgia.

History: in the spirit of the old Avalon Hill adage, who doesn't want to "recreate history" of an era they have studied?

Competition: although wargames are not inherently more competitive, their subject matter involves significantly higher stakes than your average game of Monopoly.

Nostalgia: this is my second chance to revisit the "old classics" and other games I shouldn't have passed up at The Game Table.

Sometimes people will ask if I am a player or a collector. Although most of my game collection is intended to be played, I do have some games that will probably be kept unpunched and unplayed. Often this is because I have a playable variant edition of the same game. In other cases, it might be because I feel the game has more collector value than play value. However, usually I am buying a game so that I can play it. And win or lose, that's the real fun of the hobby for me.