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Dark Ages.

The Renaissance due to the pike & shot wars

Roman Empire, not gonna argue. Such a great rich period.

I love Ancient Rome, but i voted Napoleonic period because why not? Its a great time for Britain and, SHARPE!!

Tokugawa shogunate.

I simply love the Japanese history. Also I really like the Bushido.

Dark Ages.

I like learning about ancient Rome and Greece, also I take an interest in the Napoleonic era, World War II has always interested me too.

Ancient Greece. I blame Percy Jackson.

I was into the Dark Ages-High Middle Ages for most of my childhood, but then I got bored, most of the books I could find just said the same things, and I got into WWII.

I've been into it ever since, have yet to run out of things to learn.

Certainly WW2 for me. I grew up watching the movies and studying the battles in the pacific.

Those naval battles interested me greatly all through my years.

I certainly feel that calling them 'The Greatest Generation' was warranted.

Where the hell is the viking age on your poll?

From a gaming perspective, WW2 comes a close second to the dark ages - fascinating and formative period in armoured warfare, and I have a great interest in tanks and tank strategy.

WW1 was the golden age of the dreadnaught, though, and I love those things.

Anything from the feudal era up to around 1600 or so. My opinion on firearms is perfected here: slow, unwieldy items that are very dangerous but very rare or nonexistent.

for me it's got to be ww2 aviation, always loved the planes, now, with war thunder, I combine it with videogames

I vothed other ancient period. The very first civilization (Sumer and Akkad, in ancient Iraq) is the most fascinating one for me, and its matricial role in our present civilization cannot be underestimated.

Bieng a historian i'm into people, and how events effected people and how one little thing can change the course of history, and how people coped in certain situations rather than a given period, but if I have to choose....

My favourite Period is the 1930's, mainly Britain, a period of political upheaval, economic struggle and success at the same time, the North of England struggling under massive unemployment while the Southerners raked in the money.

It truly was the beginning of the middle age with the birth of consumerism, house ownership for the lower classes, mass transport in the terms of Air travel and sea travel as well as the technological zenith of steam power, the beginning of the mass use of diesel/electric, the first gas appliances in the house etc etc

Military wise you see the shift from the old warfare (this begun in the American Civil War) of infantry backed up by artillery and cavalry executing well timed charges to the manouver tactics and mobile infantry and tanks invented by the British, and developed by the Germans. Some interesting advances in technology were made and as such a soldiers conditions changed.

The war in Spain was a showcase for all new tactics and equipment, as well as raising awareness of the fight against fascism and a warning of what was to come.

Fascinating period.

American Civil War comes in close second though.

French-Indian wars.

I went for "Other" but that's only because I could only choose 1

It's a tie between WW2 and the Hundred Years War for me. They're the eras I have models for anyway... I'm also pretty interested in the Crusades, but don't currently have models. (I don't plan on getting any either; I have too many damned projects! Although I know that one day I will weaken

Cold War era. I thrive on a bit of paranoia and such, but due to forces beyond my control I was born at the very tail-end of the Cold War era.

I've always found World War II fascinating...

Tokugawa shogunate for me. Like the different clans,colours the in fighting and the introduction of rifles.

Why is there no "all of it" option? Because to be fair they all affect the next option on the list (making a broad sweeping statement).

How the Greeks did things affected the Romans (also they may have indirectly caused the creation of Rome, if the theory of the surviving Trojans is to be believed). How each country behaved during and post WWII affected how they behaved during the cold war.

So in short, it's all incredibly interesting, and to hold one on a podium ignores the other rich area's of history.

Edit: wow the 2nd paragraph looked quite big in quick reply mode

While I agree with what you are saying Mozzy I think this is more about which era you prefer to play wargames in or paint models from rather than solely which one interests you the most. So I thinks its ok to just pick a few. Multiple options would be a good choice too though.

If I sounded like I was bashing people with a specific interest I didn't mean to. I just wanted to say that all of history is awesome, and having reread my post I do come across as a bit pretentious.

Damn the written language for not being able to properly express how things would be said in person

You didnt sound like you were bashing anyone at all in my mind. You just seemed to excited about history to pick one era.

Almost went with WW2, done a lot of air, land, and sea wargaming for it but the Tokugawa Shogunate (actually the Warring States period just before that) is an era I love reading about and I dig the classic samurai movies. Too bad I can't find anyone to play Ronin with.

 Orkeosaurus wrote:
WW1 for the win. Gotta love the Land Raider.

QFT.And death korps of krieg.We all know that the first few were just German soldiers that went through time and SPESS.

Other
I learned to read with McGuffey readers and books about the Second World War.
I used to think that the Second World War period was the coolest possible and tanks were the greatest fighting tool ever.
Actually, while growing up, I thought nearly every period on the poll was really cool until I actually studied the history of each of these times in depth.

One of my five degrees is in Military History and another was just a BA in general history before that.
Every time period is cool; every time period is a total fright.
Just disease by itself though makes nearly every time period an abject fright.

If I could travel in time, I would get immunized against everything I could first!
Else, I would be dead fairly fast as a modern person in those time periods.

Most of us live in either the G7 (the First World) or another "modern" industrialized nation (the Second World) and do not really have any idea of how good we have it in our respective lands.
Those of you who have lived for a length time in the rest of the world (the Third World) can understand what I am talking about.
Our planet is actually a very filthy place.
And as a consequence, it is disease-ridden in the modern era and only far worse as you go farther back in time from modern health science.

Any of you Americans that have never left the USA will not understand at all what I am talking about; our country is a very sterile place; the dirtiest city neighborhoods in this country could compare to some of the cleanest elsewhere; we just spend that much blood, treasure and effort trying to keep it clean.

I guess I would have to say my favorite period is the propeller aircraft period.
People still had so much to learn, but their opportunities to explore their world multiplied as a result of the aircraft, but life had some intelligent measure still to take it all in (no modern hustle and bustle stupidity without the jet engine, television and then the Net).

With the Net (I was done with my first college degree before this), personal computers (I used one of the first models of both the IBM PC and Apple II personal computers back in the '70s), jet aircraft (when I was born, flying was still a luxury mode of travel and much of it was still propeller-driven) and all of the MANY other modern amenities the "millennials" (the under 35yo crowd) have lived all of their lives with, the real wonder of our world and our existence has been seriously lost for them in my experience.
There has never been a generation that has had the opportunity to know so much that, in fact, knows so little, in most cases, but truly believes they know so much than their forefathers.
Instructing a good number of them in serious life skills has been, in the most part, an abject failure from my experience with these persons.
They are too filled with hubris and the never ending question of "What's in it for me?" for me to feel like a success in what was my line of endeavour.
These days, US President John F. Kennedy would have been laughed out of office by the Millennials for saying in his inaugural address, "... ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
"Duty" has become as much of a "four letter word" to vast majority of the Millennials as vulgar and profane language is to those of us that came before.
Selfishness, in all its facets, has become the rule of life for the bulk of these young people..

As far as people, the modern era is my least favorite if you cannot tell.
It contains true wonders as far as living a life is concerned, but those living it, in most part, have no concept how good, how truly blessed, they really have it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Harkonnen13 wrote:
Almost went with WW2, done a lot of air, land, and sea wargaming for it but the Tokugawa Shogunate (actually the Warring States period just before that) is an era I love reading about and I dig the classic samurai movies. Too bad I can't find anyone to play Ronin with.

Ashikaga Shogunate is what I believe you are trying to remember here, yes?
Or were you going earlier?
The Kama-kura?

Or were you referring to China instead?
The Warring States period is much more used for the time of 481 - 221 BC in China, most often made famous by Sun Tzu and his Art of War.

Ah, thinking about it more, I am believing you are referring to the Sen-goku jidai that if often mislabeled or misinterpreted into English as the Japanese Warring States Period, yes?
If yes, that era would indeed be the Ashikaga Shogunate and just slightly before.
Moreover, you are talking about the big Two of the late Sen-goku jidai, yes?
Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi?
There was some interest in these two back in the late '80s, I believe, all due to a fairly successful computer game at the time as I recall.
It has been a very romanticized period as well.
There are many Chūshin-gura style tales made up set in the Sen-goku jidai.
Anyway, I hope I helped despite going back into "lecture and command" mode on you.

Where did you have the time and money to get five degrees?

'Other Middle Ages'. Because Vikings. Beards, y'know?

Pirates and age of sail! Love me some naval wargames.

Not exactly sure where that would fit so I just kind of went other.