What does it mean to be "grognard" in HOI terms?

[pheonicia]

I think secret master gave the best explanation for hoi terms, but for board game terms I offer this.

Grognards are people who spent hundreds of dollars buying decades old games and reminiscing about how board game were so much better back in their day, completely ignoring how most of the mechanics have aged like lead piping (still technically usuable, will drive one to insanity).

Obviously they should spend their money on new board games that haven't yet had a chance to age poorly, like I did by kickstarting war room!

 

[Anaraxes]

Just reading about it made {Europa} seem like one insane game.

True. More of a cute idea to make them all interlock to win the Monster Game trophy, I think. In practice, I expect they were played as individual games rather than trying to lay them all out together. (Narvik or Western Desert are pretty simple and self contained, if someone wants to try the system.)

And if it had really worked out, just imagine what would have happened with a "Pacifica" sequel...

 

[Kriegsspieler]

Grognards are people who spent hundreds of dollars buying decades old games and reminiscing about how board game were so much better back in their day, completely ignoring how most of the mechanics have aged like lead piping (still technically usuable, will drive one to insanity).

I think you miss the point. Most of the people talking about the older games played them when they were new.
And I don't recall anyone saying they were better in any absolute sense. In fact, some/most of the Avalon Hill games were really poor.

 

[ArmChairAttila]

I think you miss the point. Most of the people talking about the older games played them when they were new.
And I don't recall anyone saying they were better in any absolute sense. In fact, some/most of the Avalon Hill games were really poor.

I agree, it is more akin to your first car as a teenager or admiring a 1969 SS Camaro. They are both inefficient by modern standards but hold some very dear memories (first car) or just a cool factor (old muscle car).

 

[Forster]

True. More of a cute idea to make them all interlock to win the Monster Game trophy, I think. In practice, I expect they were played as individual games rather than trying to lay them all out together. (Narvik or Western Desert are pretty simple and self contained, if someone wants to try the system.)

And if it had really worked out, just imagine what would have happened with a "Pacifica" sequel...

Both Marita-Merkur and Narvik were smaller games and could be played in a single setting. Battle of Britain and Case White were larger but still manageable. Drang Nach Osten and Unentschieden were huge and required space and time to play, and were more suited to team play. Of course that assumed you could get enough people to play.

I really think to play the entire game with all the modules would require separation into the different fronts to play, and having to corrdinate when playing next to the boundary lines.

 

[Harin]

Many board games actually had paper maps and counters. I even had a monthly subscription to one company for paper map wargames. The maps were heavy paper, but the counters were the same punch out type you get with board games. They were very good.

When I was a teenager, I hung two 4x8 pieces of sheet metal in my bedroom. I then bought many blue plastic boxes of magnetic counter holders and played wargames on my wall. I came up with this solution when I started playing a WWW III game in Western Germany. I think it was called 1985, or had that in its name. The game was a little like Europa, in that it was actually three or four stand alone games that could be combined into one larger game. I needed that wall for the maps to fit. I cannot remember how many counters it had, but it was many hundreds at least.

 

[Tisifoni12]

Valuing quality of game mechanics over quality of graphics.
Preferring historical accuracy over balance. For example old SPI boardgames would have victory conditions based on how the player performed relative to history, for example Germany losing, but losing in 1948 rather than 1946 could be classed as a victory.
In HOI4 terms probably preferring plausible variations on history over crazy fantasy.