Sorry, just not for me.

[FierceKitty]

It's funny how some eras float your boat and others sink it without trace. I'm not particularly interested in wargaming WW1 onwards. I like the miniatures, particularly the vehicles, ships and aircraft ..... but with the longer ranges, need to dig in, concealed positions, off table artillery, air strikes etc., I just don't think it lends itself very well to tabletop wargaming with miniatures. Some WW2 games I've seen look more like 18th Century games with tanks the way the miniatures are lined up. Having said that, Chain of Command looks like a good skirmish level game and, possibly, out there is some higher level game that might grab my attention (Command Decision, Team Yankee?). Instead, I get my 'modern' kick out of computer games (e.g., Combat Mission).

[By the way, it's League of Augsburg] 

Verziehung!

[Orcs]

Interesting points.  Firstly as you are all probably aware I am a wargames "slapper". I will play any period, any scale, any level of conflict from small skirmish to a mass battle.

I try and avoid playing the French, as I am less than keen on some of our French cousins- although the waitress at the restaurant in St Aubin-Sur-mer in 2013 was alright      This has backfired on me as the rest of the club  will now always allocate me the French in a scenario if they possibly can.

I will try to avoid playing with rules lawyers, people you cannot trust to complete their move while you make the tea / get a beer from fridge, or those who you need to check what dice they have actually thrown.

That said I only collect periods that interest me.

Ancients

I like the chariot wars and have a 15mm Hebrew army, but no opponent. army.  I have 10mm  Early Imperial Romans, and Dacians
In general  I am put off by the sheer numbers of figures you need to paint to get a decent size army


Dark Ages

I have Byzantine, Viking  Arab as historic armies but they are normally used as proxies in Lord Of the Rings.  The historic period does not do a lot for me

Medieval

I like the colour of these and have a large 10mm force for wars of the roses

Renaissance- Italian Wars

This is really my favourite period due to the mix of weaponry and variety of armies - If only I could find a good set of rules.

The rest of the period does not really float my boat.

WSS

I like this due to the simplicity of the uniforms - but still cannot get the mojo to finish my British. Much to the disgust of Sunjester and last Hussar

Napoleonics
Like the idea of this period.  I have two reasonable size 1815 armies to paint (including French) in 15mm. Cannot get the mojo due to the uniforms. They are original Battle Honours and I have had them since 1986

ACW

I like this period and the original Fire and fury ruleset. I have both sides to paint in 10mm

Colonial

Only as a skirmish I have yet to find a set of rules that does mass battles giving both sides a chance. They either favour the natives or the Europeans.


WW1
I have several nicely painted 6mm armies - British, German, Russian and stuff to do Russian civil war.  But I cannot decide on what rules to use. An ongoing issue for the last 8 years or so.

WW2

My other favourite period. To stop me collecting everything I restrict what I do

I do early war in 10mm. Blitzkrieg in the west and up to siege of Moscow in the east. There will be at some point a Japanese army to take on the Russian

Western Desert up to El Alamein

In 20mm I do North West Europe

Modern

I play AK47 in 1950/60's Africa.

Nothing else  grabs me for this period. I keep thinking I might do a 1980s BOAR and Warsaw Pact in 6mm, but I have too much other stuff on .


As the above will keep me painting until I am 183 with what I already have I doubt I will be expanding into other periods ........ Unless of course there is a new rule set or nice shiny models. :-

[fred.]

For me the two biggies that hold no real interest for me are Ancients and Napoleonics. Not entirely sure why, they just haven't really caught any spark with me.  Naps not appealing is quite interesting as many years ago when I first was introduced to gaming by friends (who were brothers) and we played with various WWII stuff and some fantasy stuff. Their Dad was very much in to Napoleonic period - I can't remember if he was a gamer, or just a painter, but he had figures and many many books. And I played a couple of Napoleonic board war games. But as to actual figure based wargaming - its never happened. A couple of my gaming group are trying to get the rest to play some Blucher, but there is general ambivalence from the rest of us.

Also Naval and Air games don't appeal, whatever the era.

I'm with Peter that a good game matters too - I didn't play SciFi for years (despite reading loads of SciFi) but once I was introduced to Epic a couple of years ago, I have managed to accumulate 3 large armies in a very short period.

I do find historical games harder to play - mainly as everyone has a different view of how things worked (or what scale the game represents) which tends to bog things down in lots of 'well that wouldn't of happened' discussions.

[fred.]

Firstly as you are all probably aware I am a wargames "slapper".

Is the word wargames needed in that sentence?

although the waitress at the restaurant in St Aubin-Sur-mer in 2013 was alright 

[Orcs]

Interesting points.  Firstly as you are all probably aware I am a wargames "slapper".

Is the word wargames needed in that sentence?

In all honesty probably not

although the waitress at the restaurant in St Aubin-Sur-mer in 2013 was alright  

I suppose I should have qualified that while I try not to play the French in wargames I have nothing against playing with an attractive French lady.

   

[Sandinista]

There's no areas of the hobby I won't play, If someone has taken the time to research, paint and bring their armies to the club the least I can do is take part and do them justice. As others have said collecting is different, and that is just down to not spreading my meagre resources to thinly.
I never thought I would play late 17thC games, but when buying a few of the new LoA figures to use for Vienna 1683 I thought wow, these are great. Inspired me to read up on a new period, changed some of my preconceived ideas - a Dutch invasion no less and collect 1000's of figures!! I now have the largest single group of figures in my collection are also the newest part of my collection.

So for me it is never say never to a period 

Cheers
Ian

[fsn]

Good point. How do we get into new periods? By playing/researching etc other periods.

Even so, there are some that just won't spark for me, and the reasons why interests me.  For example, I have several books on the English Civil War. Every now and again, I look at them and then look at the Pendraken catalogue and say ... "no". Why is this? Part of it is the mix of musketeers and pikemen. To show that adequately, you need really big units. Eight pikemen and 16 musketeers just looks too "bitty" for me. Probably need units of 72ish to look the part, and then there's the cavalry, dragoons etc. Is that it? Are there too many "bits" to the armies of the periods? Not like the Napoleonic period! Simple, just with line, light & guard infantry; lt dragoons (of various types), hussars, lancers, dragoons, cuirassiers; battalion, foot, horse and rocket artillery! Oh! and Guerrillas. And Grenadiers. Carabiniers.  Siege guns ... and engineers.

Could say the same about Ancient Persians. Lots of different unit types, and irregular, so I'm not that fussed. Carthaginians now ... lots of different types and irregular ... bring it on! :-

Again, why do I look upon fantasy as something that youfs play, but do like SciFi? Both are imagination driven, yet I can't see me ever buying an Elf army. Is it a hangover from the D&D generation? I did play fantasy RPGs until I went to university. Never touched the stuff since. Why? I'm not beyond reading good fantasy fiction, though IMHO there's a lot of bad fantasy being spewed out nowadays. Having said that, I re-read some Michael Moorcock recently and was very disappointed.  :-

There are some common themes emerging. Firstly the clear difference between playing and collecting.

Ithoriel won't play periods in his lifetime, I won't play from the time I went to University. (Ithoriel - would you play Team Yankee?). I can still p lay Korea, and I hadn't been born yet.  

Subedai is not interested in collecting periods too close to those he's already playing, which I can identify with.This is though, counter-intuitive to a degree. You can play the SCW with Bf109's, T26s and L3/33's - just as you can early WWII. I recognise it, but don't necessarily understand it. I claim special exemption for the Korean War, because of the Centurion tank.

Fred's post is interesting. He was exposed to Napoleonics and yet the period didn't catch with him. But why? Interesting that the two periods he mentions fantasy and WWII are a whole lot less "formal" than Naps.

I suppose there are a number of reasons, but it's that visceral "no thank you" that interests me.


 

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

If I had the money and time (and storage!) I would play just about any period.

I think the only thing I have to date been resolute about not doing are Wierd WW2/Napoleonic etc. - mainly this is because there is so much to game in the historical versions.

Of course there are a 'low priority' periods. These are such either because I do not generally find them that engaging (Samurai) and/or building an army would not be time effective I.e. I would be unlikely to use it much (e.g.Colonial - though I do occasionally hanker after the Sudan).

Regards

Edward

[freddy326]

I can't do ancients, medieval, Napoleonics (played them when I was young, thin and had hair!) or pretty much anything after WWII. There are other periods that don't interest me, others that do and I have armies bought for, but just lost interest in painting them!

play RCW, 20C Polish - Russian, 20C Baltic - Russian but not WW1, play early WWII but not SCW! got loads of 6mm modern (CWC hint, hint) but only coz there was a huge box for sale at a car boot really, really cheap!

[Leman]

Anything post 1925 - don't know why but it holds absolutely no attraction - probably to do with mechanisation and lack of colour.

WWI trench warfare - and the point is?

Fantasy - nah

Naval - just not into ships.

Air warfare - just not into planes

Napoleonic - don't know why but could be to do with the sheer scale of the enterprise.

AWI - not enough cavalry - SYW so much more fun to game.

Biblical - no interest at all in this.

Science fiction - too busy watching it to play it.

[FierceKitty]

AWI - not enough cavalry - SYW so much more fun to game.

Well said, that man.

[Matt J]

My interests include any period that includes a sword or a tank 

But then I'm a collector not a gamer. But if I was, I'd probably find interest in any period, surely its the game (and scale) not the period  :-

Also its interesting to see how forum members opinions change over the years. IIRC the esteemed opening poster once dismissed Korea as being 'too hilly' 

[Wulf]

It's interesting, while I happily play any sort of fantasy boardgame, I do not play minis games with fantasy armies (unless you could Saga, which is a bit fantasy). I do have the Crooked Dice fantasy rules (7th Seas, is it?), must try them...

[fsn]

My interests include any period that includes a sword or a tank 

Ooooh! A challenge! Cavemen.  Sub-Saharan African tribal conflicts. Aztecs.

Also its interesting to see how forum members opinions change over the years. IIRC the esteemed opening poster once dismissed Korea as being 'too hilly' 

Don't think I did, did I?    I may have remarked that it is very hilly, but that's a challenge to be accepted. Besides which - Centurions!

[FierceKitty]

Many swords in the conquest of Mexico. Even Eric the dog has one.

[DanJ]

Having though a small bit more about my last post I don't tend to see my wargaming in a vacuum, personally I'm as interested in the art, architecture, politics and literature of the Renaissance, Ancient Rome or Egypt as I am about the battles.  The new period I alluded to was WW1, something I'd shied away from for years as I'd been heavily influenced by the 'Heros led by Donkeys' view of the 1960s historians I grew up with.  After several years and lots of research I've changed my mind, the slaughter was vast and horrific but the factors which caused it were many, varied and very complex.

Currently I can't see me going for any new periods as I don't have the time to invest.

But I do like a bit of Steam Punk, must be the memories of Jules Verne and HG Wells.

[FierceKitty]

Come to think of it, the factors leading to the existence of donkeys are far from simple.

[fsn]

WWI is one of the periods I go to and then shy away from. I like the thought of early 1914, before the trenches got dug. Also like the thought of the 1918 break out but bit *meh* about the middle.

For the Lions/Donkeys proponents I always ask "you have no tanks, limited artillery, raw troops, no aircraft worth the name. You have no flanks, just a long line of well dug in, well defended enemies. What do you do?"

Mespot though ...

[FierceKitty]

Send a telegram or two suggesting negotiation?

[Westmarcher]

... Some WW2 games I've seen look more like 18th Century games with tanks the way the miniatures are lined up .....

Apologies if taken adversely. No malice intended. Sometimes it's hard to find the correct way to express one's thoughts. Not so much sneering (coz there was no smile) .... more like .... genuine bewilderment* and serving to reinforce my impression that there are too many difficulties to replicate this period on the tabletop satisfactorily enough for me.

I'm no expert on the period myself but have read a good number of books on the subject over the years. As I mentioned, I've being computer gaming this period using Combat Mission and whilst not perfect (thankfully), it just seems to capture the feel of warfare in this era. Nothing happens for ages and I find it very tense probing forward to find out where the enemy is hidden to avoid walking into ambushes - then all hell breaks loose! (I get so engrossed that the little pixellated guys are almost real to me and I so hate it when I lose men!). Then when you do find out where the enemy are, there's the challenge of how to advance without being mowed down - what hidden ground is there? Will my flanking force blunder into another concealed position? How can I support the advance with suppressing fire? How long will it take to organise an artillery strike? What was that firing? Where is it? Wow! I've never seen the variant of that vehicle before. Gee! If you zoom in, you can even see the instructions for use on that panzerfaust that grenadier is wearing! ...... I just can't get this on the tabletop (perhaps Umpire supervised games are the answer?).

Each to their own.   

*why would they do that? e.g., is it a lack of background research, the table size, the rules?