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As the title says, what conflicts and time periods are you interested in, and why?

I am interested in the Viking Invasions of Ireland to the Norman Invasion. I think it's because I spent a lot of time in my school history classes learning about it, and it seemed like a really exciting and turbulent time. I have also visited lots of ruins and reconstructions of Gaelic, Norman and Viking artefacts and buildings. I like the diversity of cultures represented and the fact that the conflicts were so multifaceted.

As well, it's fairly well mixed with the history of where I grew up- County Wexford was one of the first Viking settlements in Ireland, and it was also the entry point for the Norman invaders.

I'm not nearly as interested in WW2 for wargaming for example, even though I'd be more into the social side of that and I discuss it with my girlfriend (who is German) a lot.

What about you Dakka? Is it a personal connection like mine or a general interest that attracts you to your favourite period? Or do you like any and all periods?

Little bit of both for me - I started Force on Force and modern due to a desire to play a decent skirmish game set in a Arab style setting, sort of like a miniature gaming version of Call of Duty Modern Warfare. It also helped that I really liked the look of the Empress 28mm stuff too.

In terms of what I am interested in and could potentially do in the future is perhaps Napoleonics, thanks to an abiding interest in the Sharpe series and I also am keen to dabble in some 'alternative' future stuff, kind of like, what if the Soviets had invaded Germany in the 70s/80s, that sort of thing.

For me, the Classical Period. I always loved the Greeks, and the turbulence of the era led to interesting conflicts.

WW2.

If pushed to be more specific then Normandy 1944. I have had a lifelong obsession with WW2 having grown up with veterans and a family almost obsessed as I was. I used to visit Normandy every year and even lectured on the campaign when I did a bit of teaching at my old Uni.

After that its Seven Years War, ACW and British colonial warfare in India all neck and neck...

I would say Napoleonics or moderns. I really like Cold War gaming as well, since both my parents were stationed in Germany during the late 70's

For me, my absolute favourite would be the era of musket and horse, with special mention to the Seven Years War (and FIW), Napoleonics, and the American War of Independence.

I also have a thing for the American Civil War, and I just purchased a bunch of Zvezda russians for the Great Northern War.

Of lesser like would be the times of Republican and Imperial Rome.

I did have an obsession with WW2 for a very long time, and always wanted a 28mm skirmish style wargame, and when I finally got one that my club embraced (Bolt Action), it sort of... faded away in interest for me.

Right now I'm concentrating on WW2 and the bronze age around 3000-2000 BCE. So ancient Sumeria, Old Kingdom Egyptians, Elam, Indus Valley and the like.

Why do I like it? Lots of city-state vs city-state squabbling. There's lots of opportunity for pretty much anything people have fought over during human history. Resources, religion, personal insults, etc.

We also know very little about lots of it, so if I go with a paint scheme no one can say I'm wrong because we only have stone carvings, painted pottery and some descriptions to tell us about things. So as long as I stick to the colours of ancient dies (iron oxide, tumeric, lapis, etc.,) things will look right.

Terrain is also really flexible as you can have near jungle right by the rivers out to desert and even mountainous terrain. So I'm finding I can use a lot of my terrain collection, but at the same time I'm enjoying making some period specific stuff.

The Diadochi, the successor states after Alexander's death.

I love the period after the Romans left England, up to the Norman Invasion... The different types of people, the conflicts. I'm actually on a track to study it for a PhD I do also enjoy colonial Canadian history... Especially trending towards the French and Indian War.

Mine, would be ww2 THe BAttle of Ardennes.

WW2 by far. I love many periods of History but WW2 really does have it all and its potential for gaming is almost limitless. It's got battles/actions of almost every size and type and on almost any type of terrain you could care to think of.

If I had to pick a specific part of WW2 I love more than any other I would have to say Market Garden. It’s a truly epic battle complete with daring, desperation, bravery and with a side helping of utter incompetence.

I really like Celtic history from the La Tene and Halstatt periods up until the Norman invasion of Ireland. They're a fascinating group of people. I also enjoy ancient Germanic history, from Teutoburg to Canute.

Eastern Europe from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries, here; all the bits and pieces trapped in between the various states in what is now Germany, the Turks, and Russia, and the politicking and warfare that resulted. Also the Polish dudes with the flags on the back of their horses that GW patterned the Ravenwing look on.

The winged hussars?

I'm also seriously being tempted by Sengoku era Japan.

It's actually a really strange period to wargame given how things were organized. The evidence suggests that troop types were not brigaded together, so the normal method of wargaming where you have infantry units and archer units and arquebusiers and cavalry all separate doesn't really apply.

Instead you have a given noble Samurai showing up with his retainers and spear armed infantry, archers and guys with guns all mixed together with small/tiny squads of cavalry occasionally darting out from their retinue formations. And because these men came from the samurai's land holdings, it was bad form for him to trust their lives to someone else as well as potentially suicidal if he would be left without anyone to work the land because of losses.

Archers and arquebusiers would fight side by side so a rate of fire could be maintained even while the guns were being reloaded. And spear formations were right mixed in with them to fend off any melee trooper from getting too close to them.

Archaeological evidence (specifically examining the skeletons of horses) shows that they didn't have mounts suitable for charging and the relative lack of horses made formations of cavalry incredibly rare. Instead, you have horse archery and a dragoon approach where samurai might or might not get off their horses when the battle lines were joined.

And "battle lines" doesn't even really make sense as it looked like you had retinue blobs sort of deployed all over with the fighting being in a very chaotic manner.

I'm really not sure what to do. Do I do the typical wargamer thing and hand waive all the history away and make European style trooper separations? This has been the approach take by most feudal Japan based wargames and boardgames, where they separate cavalry into cavalry units, archers into archer units, etc.,.

Or do I develop some sort of combined stats approach? Where each retinue is like an RPG character with a different mix of capabilities? This particular Samurai is rich and thus can afford a higher mix of guns. This other one has loads of horses so his "unit" has more cavalry related stats. This other one is poor and has pretty much just a bunch of spearmen and archers alongside himself and his son.

The other option is to limit the scope to one retinue meeting another in the larger battlefield and then go with individual bases and more of a skirmish game. But I must admit, I really do like the higher level battle game approach.

The Seven Years War for me and even the previous conflicts on the War of Austrian and Spanish Succession.

The bright coated cuffs and black powder with cavalry charges has always been fascinating to me. Plus Frederick the Great is argueably one of he best generals ever as well. Not perfect but flawed makes him very interesting to read about.

I have restricted my list to the periods for which I have or had (and sold) built up armies.

Biblicals
I’ve always liked stone age/bronze age armies like Egyptians, and Incas/Aztecs to extend it a long way.

early Roman Empire
Lots of scope for all kinds of enemies and battles including civil wars. My troops are painted like the soldiers in Asterix.

Later Mediaeval
Very colourful, all the heraldry, retinue colours -- 100 Years War, Wars of the Roses.

Napoleonics
Huge armies, arguably a perfect balance between the various combat arms so there are no special weapons.

ACW
I’m not even sure what attracted me but I was given a good book by my grandfather before I started wargaming and that must have sparked an interest.

Vietnam
Interesting large infantry skirmish supported by vehicles and helicopters. Lots of great model kits on the market to support this.

Naval warfare
WW1
WW2

Well, I decided to limit my early bronze age stuff to ancient Sumeria and not get into Egyptians or the Indus Valley civilization. I was also briefly considering medieval Spain/Reconquista as another project.

In the end though, Sengoku period Samurai won out and I put my first order in for some miniatures.

The final thing that won me over was the fantastic Samurai Archive podcast. There are lots of good history related podcasts on the internet, but one specifically focused on military history is of great appeal. http://samuraipodcast.com/

Well my signature should give you a good idea

I tend to get into a modern era (WW1 onwards) and then, having built an army or 2 for that I go for a medieval/classical era, I thin variety is the key, just hacking out one period gets boring very quickly. My main period is WW2, though I have been war gaming that the longest, and the majority of my friends play it and so it's pretty much the biggest period. I do force them to play other periods though, since I get bored just shoving tanks around a table and debating who had the better tank.

usually I will get into a period because of a film or book. The Chinese civil war I play though comes from school, since we did Chinese history and the civil war was part of that.

Interesting thread Da Boss

I'm interested in a few periods, The main ones I have models for being WW2 and the Hundred Years War. For WW2, I'm mainly interested in Normandy, but I've looked into quite a few aread of it. I went on holiday in Normandy not long ago, on a tour of some of the battlefields, which was absolutely fascinating.

Recently I've been working on some HYW models, and they're a nice change to what I'm used to.


As an aside: I tend to put documentaries on whilst I'm painting, there's hundreds of WW2 ones to choose from, but it's more of a struggle finding good ones about the Hundred Years War, I've seen the fantastic BBC one, Chivalry and Betrayal (Highly recommended for anyone else interested ), but I can't find many more; they tend to focus more on either the Crusades or the Wars of the Roses... (I'm pretty interested in the Crusades, but I'm trying to avoid starting any more modelling projects! ) I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, so does anyone have any good Hundred Years War/ other medieval era documentaries they can recommend?

A, cool idea. if anyone knows any really cool documentsries or books


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Please do recommend them!

Does it need to be a documentary? Do you really watch it, or are you looking at your painting?

I'd recommend podcasts. There's lots of great historical ones.

It doesn't need to be, I mostly just listen to it, you're right that I'm looking at painting most of the time

I'm open to trying some podcasts, which ones do you recommend?

Yeah, podcasts are fine!

 Da Boss wrote:
As the title says, what conflicts and time periods are you interested in, and why?

3 weeks ago when I was in Austin for the weekend watching Mumford and Sons and walking down 6th street.

As for historical miniatures, I'd only be interested in Rome during and immediately after Julius Caesar.

I've taken to having documentaries/films on whilst painting also. It's good for the mood!

For example, I've been painting Artillerymen for my Russian force, and have had the Sovereigns Servant on in the background. That it's in Serbian and I don't understand a word is a bonus.

Whilst the film is apparently not that good storywise, the battle scenes (specifically the battle of Poltava) are really cool.



I watched Gettysburg (over 10 times by now) and various documentaries of the American Civil War whilst painting a 15mm force...



Last of the Mohicans for my painting French Indian Wars for the Muskets and Tomahawks rules...



I often intersperse all viewing sessions with renditions of Zulu and Waterloo. Whilst not exactly educational, it does greatly improve the mood.

 Da Boss wrote:
Yeah, podcasts are fine!

Then might I suggest the British History Podcast. They have a subsection of Dark Ages related material:

http://thebritishhistorypodcast.com/?cat=8

They cover a lot of different topics though. I did enjoy their podcasts about making some horrible mead and ale using historical techniques from the time.

Sounds awesome, thanks!

Tibbsy wrote:
Interesting thread Da Boss

I'm interested in a few periods, The main ones I have models for being WW2 and the Hundred Years War. For WW2, I'm mainly interested in Normandy, but I've looked into quite a few aread of it. I went on holiday in Normandy not long ago, on a tour of some of the battlefields, which was absolutely fascinating.

Recently I've been working on some HYW models, and they're a nice change to what I'm used to.


As an aside: I tend to put documentaries on whilst I'm painting, there's hundreds of WW2 ones to choose from, but it's more of a struggle finding good ones about the Hundred Years War, I've seen the fantastic BBC one, Chivalry and Betrayal (Highly recommended for anyone else interested ), but I can't find many more; they tend to focus more on either the Crusades or the Wars of the Roses... (I'm pretty interested in the Crusades, but I'm trying to avoid starting any more modelling projects! ) I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, so does anyone have any good Hundred Years War/ other medieval era documentaries they can recommend?

Try Timewatch: The Greatest Knight by the BBC, should be on I player. It deals with William Marshall, a knight around the 12th century along with the history of tournaments, I know it's a bit early but is an excellent documentary to watch for medieval information.

 necrovamp wrote:


Try Timewatch: The Greatest Knight by the BBC, should be on I player. It deals with William Marshall, a knight around the 12th century along with the history of tournaments, I know it's a bit early but is an excellent documentary to watch for medieval information.

Watched that one! That was a pretty interesting one I agree