Themes & Periods

It's a blatant steal of a thread from the Grimsby Wargamer; but a very good one, and opportune too, as I'm in the middle of rationalising my collections and storing what I'm actually going to keep.


My gaming interests are pretty broad, so here goes with a full listing of what and why...

Ancients:

Well, I'd split this into three periods really, Biblical, Classical and Imperial. In Biblical terms I have a 15mm New Kingdom Egyptian army, fully painted and based for DBM. An opposing Phillistine army awaits attention. In the Classical period I have Selucids, Thracians, Maccabean to Revolt Jewish, Etruscans, and Early Republican Romans in 20mm to DBM strengths. In boxes sit another Successor Greek army and a Campanian (southern Italiot) army awaiting building.

Then There is also my oh so nearly finished 28mm Spartans - 2000 points of WAB army; and a pair of 6mm DBA armies - Republican Romans and Numidians. Lastly for the Imperial period I have a massive Early Imperial Roman army and a huge Celtic force in 20mm. 'Ancients ' are certainly some of my favourites to work with and study.

Medievals:

Formally this is three periods too for me; Early Medieval (what we used to call the dark ages), High Medieval - from about 1100 to 1400, and the late medieval from about 1400 to 1550. Inside these realms is the bulk of my 25-28mm collections. Starting with a 25mm Eastern Frankish (Ottonian) army, mainly painted badly some 20 years ago. Then a rather nicer 28mm Viking army. Both around the DBM size of 200+ figures. Into the high meds and I have three large armies; all fairly recently painted and in 28mm: English, French and Flemish (Low Countries). The beauty of these is the number of other armies you can assemble between them; all told they total about 700 figures. The later period never really interested me; so is not covered; but that aside I love both the classic Hollywood 'shining armour and skintight hose' versions and the more accurate 'grimy' historical look and feel of the middle ages.


Renaissance:

I reckon this is 1550 to 1700 or so. I can count on my 15mm English Civil War armies in this area. But I also have that damn pile of 500+ plastic samurai to get dealt with one day. My interests in this period are more limited, and the Samurai are to be honest more medieval than their date implies.

Horse and Musket:

Or 1700 to 1865 or so. Not an area I've really got into, and it's all down to the uniforms! I've dabbled in the past, but really painting piping and braids has always left me in the playing with other people's toys category on this period.

Colonial:

I LOVE the movie 'Zulu'; it had a stirring influence on me as a child. As a consequence there are 200 15mm Zulus and about fifty British infantry, painted in boxes somewhere. Uniforms were the undoing of me here; even in 15mm I found painting British infantry a chore. One day I'll finish the rest and then we'll see...

Early Modern:

1900 to 1939: Really no interest. Plus I always found the idea of gaming WW1 a bit iffy.


Modern:

WW2 onwards. So many! For WW2 alone I have a large US armoured infantry force and tank company in 20mm. An Italian force for Tunisia and Sicily, Normandy/Italy period Germans, a small Japanese force too - all in 20mm and painted. Then there's the 28mm German and American platoon sized forces with a dozen vehicles each or so. Then of course there's the Axis and Allies ships - about 70 vessels now. World War Two was where it all started for me, as a boy growing up in the seventies it was in the movies and books(and let's not forget 'Battle' magazine) constantly.

After WW2 there's Korea in 20mm, with large Chinese and American forces. Then there's Africa in 15mm, with 3 generic African armies and a UN force to cover 1970-2000. Lastly there's the Yugoslavian Civil Wars in 20mm - Croats, Serbs and a sprinkling of Bosnians. Some years ago I made a decision to stop doing anything current, and drew an arbitrary line at the year 2000. As discussed in the past, I've had issues about taste when it comes to making a game of the Gulf war and other current conflicts; To be honest the Yugoslav wars are something I have to address very cautiously, so as not to offend players, observers; or myself for that matter.

Sci-Fi:

Um that'll be 40K then; Orks, Eldar, and Space Marines in 1500+ point forces. Those aside there's Epic scale forces for four armies store painted too. 40K is a safety game, you always know you can find an opponent somewhere...

Fantasy:

More Warhammer; more Orcs. 300 or so of them and their Goblin chums. Additionally I have my Vampire counts army, and an as yet unpainted Dwarf army, looking to be a winter diversion. I blame Lord of the Rings for all my fantasy and roleplay gaming weaknesses.