At Flashbak: The American Heritage Games of Milton Bradley

This week at Flashbak I also remembered some of the great military board games of my childhood: The American Heritage Games of Milton Bradley.

Here’s a snippet, and the url: (http://flashbak.com/american-heritage-the-war-games-of-the-1960s-generation-from-milton-bradley-364754/ )

“In 1961, American Heritage Magazine and toy-maker Milton Bradley teamed up to release a series of memorable “American Heritage” war games. Each of these board games recreated for young gamers a war scenario or milieu from American history.

There were five games in all.

In 1961, Milton Bradley premiered the American Heritage Game of the Civil War (also known as Battle-Cry). This game was set in the 1860s, and pit the Blue (North) against the Grey (South), using cavalry, infantry, and artillery. In some cases, rails could be used to advance troops to their destination.  For two to four players.

In 1962, two games were released under the American Heritage banner (and they happen to be my favorites of the bunch.)

First, there was Broadside, a sea-bound “Command Decision’ game featuring miniatures of ships (and their sails, which had to be inserted manually).  Basically, the goal was to cannonball the enemy ships, and destroy your opponent’s fleet. You could play as the red fleet, or the blue fleet.

Even better, however, was Dogfight, a game set during World War I, the age of the Red Baron In this case, you could play as either the Americans or the Germans, and had a squadron of three bi-planes with which to battle the enemy.  Once in the air, you could perform maneuvers including a loop or barrel roll, and the ultimate goal was to strafe your enemy’s landing field, preventing future take-offs…”

Please continue reading at Flashbak!