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[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Fred, you missed the Italians on the Eastern front!

[Nick the Lemming]

An entirely unrepresentative survey of 9 people (4 "gamers" and 5 "general public") leads me to believe that the Dark Ages is "Vikings and looting and pillaging and stuff" while Early Medieval is "probably the Crusades or Simon de Thingy and Magna Carta."

That's High Medieval (13th C+ is Late Medieval).

[fred.]

Fred, you missed the Italians on the Eastern front!

If that's all I missed, I'll regard it as not too bad!

[Ithoriel]

That's High Medieval (13th C+ is Late Medieval).

It may be if you are a professional or amateur historian but for most of the world (wargamers and non-wargamers alike) it's the Middle Ages where King Arthur and his knights wear armour that wouldn't be out of place at Bannockburn or Agincourt and live in Renaissance castles.

Familiar, if dated, nomenclature is to be preferred when dealing with non-specialists.

[Nick the Lemming]

It may be if you are a professional or amateur historian but for most of the world (wargamers and non-wargamers alike) it's the Middle Ages where King Arthur and his knights wear armour that wouldn't be out of place at Bannockburn or Agincourt and live in Renaissance castles.

Familiar, if dated, nomenclature is to be preferred when dealing with non-specialists.

It's the correct term. If you're doing a range of historical minis, then historical accuracy is a good thing no?

[Ithoriel]

It's the correct term. If you're doing a range of historical minis, then historical accuracy is a good thing no?

For me it depends on whether your prime objective is to educate the public or sell toy soldiers. But ultimately it's Pendraken's decision.

Just putting the case for the prosecution

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Early 16th C. English/Scots
During the early 16th Century, England and Scotland were both military backwaters compared to many renaissance states. They were both embroiled in yet another series of wars, which led to a Scottish alliance with France, and while Henry was diverted fighting around Flanders, James VI launched what would ultimately be the disasterous Flodden campaign. Out-manoeuvred by the English northern army, and forced to fight on ill-suited terrain, this resulted in the death of James VI and the annihilation of the Scottish nobility and army in 1513.
Meanwhile, Henry VIII himself was leading a series of expensive, and ultimately pointless, campaigns in Northern France with his allies, The Holy Roman Empire. Henry invested huge amounts of money in continental mercenaries and prestige weapons such as artillery, all of which failed to bring the French to action, apart from 'The Battle of The Spurs' and a few sieges. Eventually, Henry's allies formed their own peace with France, and Henry returned to England to deal with domestic issues, while what continental gains he had made were shortly lost.

The ranges allow you field everything you need for these conflicts, including English billmen, both heavily armoured and local levys, as well as longbowmen, knights and foreign mercenaries such as pikes and hired gendarmes; the Scots have heavily armoured pikes, artillery, and some interesting highlanders and archers. Also within the range are character figures for each force at Flodden Field.

Mollinary and Cameronian, you chaps might want to spin this differently...

[Orcs]

Polish
Battle for Poland
Battle for France

Germany attacked Poland on 1st September. the invasion of Poland and the Germans refusal to withdraw brought Britain and france into the confict on 3rd September.  Outnumbered and outgunned the Poles fought hard. Most of their armour were small tankettes. The Poles did have some better tanks. Their own adaptation of the license built Vickers the Single Turret 7TP was better than most of the German tanks., but there were too few of them and they were not ready for the "Blitzkrieg" style of fighting.   The campaign included frequent use of Armoured trains. The cavalry charging tanks  is a myth. On one occasion at Krojanty Polish Ulans charged some German infantry and routed them, delaying the German pursuit for 24 hours. The cavalry did suffer heavy losses from machine gun fire  when caught in the open by German Recce troops.  The countries fate was sealed when Russia invaded from the east on 17th September, finally surrendering on 6th October.  Many of the Polish Troops fled to Britain to continue the fight. Including most of the legendary 10th Cavalry Brigade who retreated through Hungary and fought in the Battle of France with French supplied tanks

Addition to above.

The Polish Army used quite a selection of French equipment.  The following codes from the Fench range are also applicable to this army

F9 FT17 Round turret 37mm
F9a FT17 Hexagonal turret
FRE14 Unic P-107 Halftrack
FRE2 Hotchkiss H35
FRE55 75mm field gun
FRE56 Laffly S15R
FRE12 Renault R35

[Leon]

Thanks for the replies again, I might have to pare some of them down a bit to fit in the box, but keep them coming!

On the Dark Ages / Early Medieval debate, I don't think we'll be looking to change any of our categories for now, we've not had anyone confused by them so far so if it ain't broke don't fix it!

[Subedai]

16th Century Polish
This is the army that includes one of history's most iconic cavalrymen -the Winged Hussars. Created by the King of Poland, Stephan Bathory, in the 1560's these heavily armed and armoured warriors more often than not carried the field for the next century, culminating in the importantEuropean victory over the Ottoman Turks at the siege of Vienna in 1683. The Polish Commonwealth of the time extended far beyond its current borders and included Lithuania, modern Ukraine and parts of Russia; there was even a Polish Czar. Ably supported by artillery, pancerni cavalry and uniformed units of arquebus and axe armed hajduk infantry, the Polish army was definitely the one to beat in Renaissance Eastern Europe.

MickS

[DFlynSqrl]

American Civil War
The American Civil War (ACW) was fought between the United States (Union) and Confederated States (Confederacy) from 1861 to 1865.  The Confederacy consisted of states that opposed the abolishment of slavery.  Both sides tended to use the same weapons and equipment.  The Union typically had blue uniforms and the confederates were either grey or butternut.  Other names used to describe the ACW are "North & the South" and "The Blue and the Grey".

[Luddite]

The Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were a series of three conflicts fought between the Mediterranean super powers of the ancient world, Rome and Carthage.   From 264-146BC, these two powers fought bitter battles over control of Sicily and the sea trade of the Mediterranean, and in this maelstrom some of history's greatest generals are found; Hannibal of Carthage and Scipio of Rome.  The Punic Wars escalated into a conflict for survival that ended in the final defeat and destruction of Carthage, and the ascendency of Rome.

[DFlynSqrl]

Plains Wars
A series of conflicts between the United States and Native American Indian tribes in the Great Plains area of the United States from 1850-1880.  Some of the Native American tribes involved in the conflicts were the Sioux, Lakota, Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, and Arapaho.  The most well-known battle of this period was the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876), in which General Custer and some of the 7th Cavalry Regiment were defeated by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull's combined armies.  This period is often popularized in stories and movies of lone US cavalry patrols or outposts making "last stands" against hordes of Indians.



These dates are pretty debatable, but basically covers all the popular stuff I think.

[fred.]

WWII French
At the start of WWII the French had a large, well equipped army. Unfortunately they were organised and deployed for a refight of Verdun, while the Germans where planning a different war. While on a strategic level the battle for France in 1940 was very much the Germans in the ascendancy, but on the tactical level the French did well, and inflicted significant casualties on the Germans. The French tanks were deployed in elaborate camouflage schemes which look great on the table!
For Free French forces for 1944 onwards, the figures and vehicles in the American range are appropriate.

[fred.]

WWII Canadian
Canadian troops served as part of the British Commonwealth forces thought WWII, their units were normally equipped with the same uniforms and equipment as British ones.
The RAM tank was built in Canada, it never served as a gun tank during WWII, but many were used as Observation Tanks, and with turrets removed, as armoured personnel carriers, gun tractors and munitions carriers.