Ditto that. I still have a big pile of Avalon Hill and SPI games. Those of you, like me, who did the SPI thing in the '70's, know where Jim Dunnagin came from when you see him as an expert military commentator on CNN. I saw him once just after the terrorist atrocity, as well as during the Gulf War.
Anyone else play with the computer Close Combat series? Especially "A Bridge Too Far". Good stuff, especially in the all-infantry battles. Lots of vehicles tend to make the game get weird, due to vehicle unit AI (or lack thereof), but the infantry-only scenarios feel amazingly realistic.
We had a yard sale several months back, and my wife wanted me to put my old wargames up for sale (Panzer Leader, Panzerblitz, Luftwaffe, Third Reich, Waterloo, etc). When I objected, she said, "You never play those games--you haven't even touched them since we've been married! When was the last time you played them?"
She thought she had a point, I guess.
I remember one night in college--the day I bought Panzer Leader--the other fellow and I set it up that evening and played all night. Finally, when the sun came up, he said he had to leave and go to class. We played about 12 hours straight. Oh, for the days when I had 12 hours to kill playing a game.
To the point of the article, I majored in History in college, and I read history constantly, yet I have learned more about historical warfare from wargaming than any other source. I particularly enjoyed a much-maligned game called Alexander (Avalon Hill). The manual was a pretty good primer on ancient war tactics and the game was just flat-out fun to play. I loved that game. I learned about the art of marital forgiveness when my wife put Alexander in our open-air garage soon after we married. The heat/humidity/rain turned the game board into a wet paper bag.