"Your top 3 favorite wargames "periods" to play." Topic

Most people that I know game several different historical periods. In fact, its hard for many people to name their favorite. So I'm allowing you to pick a top 3! I know, its hard, but try to just pick 3! After you name your top 3 , feel free to list a couple near misses.

The use of "period" is clearly a loose term so I'll try to come up w/ general conflicts or times that are well defined and cover the majority of mini games. If I miss one of your favorites, by all means write 'em in!

The choices:

Ancients (lets say EVERYTHING before 450AD)
Dark Ages (450-1066AD)
Medieval (1100-1500)
16th Century (all theaters)
17th Century (all theaters)
18th Cent. (all theaters)
Napoleonics
19th Cent. to pre-WW1 (post-Napoleon to 1913, to all theaters)
WW1
Inter-War Years (B/t WW1 and 1939)
WWII
Post-WWII ("Moderns")
Sci-Fi (all aspects, post-apoc, skirmish, space, etc….)
Fantasy

Ill kick it off:

1) Medieval (WotR & Samurai in particular)
2) 19th Cent. (Franco-Prussian and 7 Weeks War)
3) Napoleonics (Always been a Prussian fan)

Close contenders were the Sci-Fi, WWI Eastern Front, Ancient Romans and Britons, and WWII Market-Garden Campaign.

how many boards?

Lots. Didnt want anyone to be offended.

This one, that one and the other one.

"Lots. Didn't want anyone to be offended."

Unfortunately, you're more likely to offend people by posting on too many boards rather than too few.

1)WW2(North Africa and Late war, mainly allies)
2)American Civil War
3)Napoleonics

Very close runners up….

Late Roman period,The Great Italian Wars and English Civil War.

Regards………

1) AWI tactical – British Grenadier
2) AWI/Napoleonic skirmish – Sharp Practice
3=) Napoleonic tactical – General de Brigade
3=) WSS tactical – The War Game [Charles Grant (Snr)]

Modern
WWII
Sci-fi

And, cross-posting doesn't offend me, though people looking for pointless reasons to complain does.

And, cross-posting doesn't offend me, though people looking for pointless reasons to complain does

I am sure Bill has removed posts for excessive cross posting before now.

Colonials (should have been a choice).
Scifi.
19th Century.

(1) Scifi. (2) Hard scifi. (3) Space fantasy.

My apology to Uesugi Kenshin, I should have just been responsive to the question at hand.

No worries Mate. I appreciate the response.

Ancients
ACW
WW2

Runners up:
Napoleonics
Dark Ages
AWI
SYW
WWI
Oh heck, all of them.

WWII
Horse and Musket
Renaissance

Really, though, that is what I collect. I will play anything, and any period will be a favorite with good rules, good scenarios, and especially a good gaming group.

1) Ancients
2) Dark Ages
3) Medieval

Overall across the last few years
1) Sci-fi
2) Fantasy
3) WWII

Gaining momentum is 18th Century, Colonial, and Pulp/Interwars.

On the back burner, but still interested in Dark Ages, Ancients, and Samurai.

Depends on the moment – I'm likely to change. #1, though is WWI and WWII Air. The others are likely to include ironclads, Roman Seas, or WWI/II naval, WWII ground and Ancients (Dark Ages, Wars of the Roses, Hundred Years War, Crusades and republican/imperial Roman periods).

Actually I don't fit too well in any of your boxes…

Currently I am enjoying -

1) Zorro/Early Old West (1820 – 1850)

2) VSF Aeronef (waiting for Aquanef) – SF by definition?

3) 2D presented historical based games of anything that flies –

Top three subsets of that are :

A) 1948 thru 1973

B) 1914 thru 1919

C) currently inactive 1936-1945

4) Very close – Superheroes (Is that SF or fantasy?)

Gracias,

Glenn

Napoleonics
WWII
Crusades

1) Napoleonics, (1813) Big Battles
2) WW2, (1943)Italy
3) WSS

Also playing Anglo-Zulu wars using a version of Sharp Practice

1) Napoleonics
2) WSS
3) China's Warlord period

Runner ups

1) Naval-Predreadnaught
2) WW2-Air

ancients
hard scifi
post apoc skirmish
usually anything enjoyable(which means it must not have any association with GW)

Dark Ages (both European and Greek)
18th Century
Great War
Mahdist Sudan
Ironclads
Odd stuff

I don't know why people say I have wargamers ADD, I mean I only game … Ooh look! A chicken!

Currently playing:

Ancients (Biblical)
WW2 (PBI rules)
ACW (Civil War Battles rules)

1) Sci-fi big battles, humans and AI, no aliens/magic.
(I hate skirmish)
2) Naval all periods with maybe a slight preference to space fleet.
(I'd probably even like Aeronef, but without aliens)

I think air wargames (WW1&2) are alot of fun too, but lets face it: a good software simulation is the next best thing to real life.

Napoleonics
AWI
WWII (Normandy '44)

The first two are very close but heh, what the hell.

1. WWII
2. Dark Ages
3. Pulp, Zombie, Modern skirmish (same rules, different spins)

In order that I like to play
1 Sci-fi
2 Modern
3 WWII

Doug

1. Fantasy
2. Colonial
3. SYW

Then…
WW2
VSF
ACW
ANCMED
Sci-Fi
Modern

Sci-fi
Modern
Dark Ages

Runners up:
Ancients
Medievals
Colonials

Napoleonics
Ancients
ACW

WW1 &WW2 air/ACW/Napoleonics(including Fighting Sail).

1) WW1/WW2 Naval
2) Napoleonics
3) WW2 Ground
4) Dark Ages
5) Everything Else

1) Fantasy
2) Dark Ages/Early Medieval
3) WWII

I'm laughing at the arithmetically challenged.

'He said three, you fool'

'Oh, how many is that?'

'One more than two, and two less than five'

'Yes, but how many is that?'

And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it." Amen.

Napoleonics
SYW
Renaissance

Ancient
Dark Age
Napoleonic

Not necessarily in that order.

Runner ups
ACW
WW2

- Ancient-Medieval 3.500 BC – 1500 A.D.: I decline to enforce a given culture's peculiar calendar at world scale at times when different *civilisations* collided: 'Renaissance' Amerindians were of the same technological level as Ancient Kingdom Egyptians, and are easier to wargame against Ancients than against their 'historical' opponents. I set the limit when gunpowder weapons got a decisive impact on the open battlefield, i.e. the early 16th C. in (Western) Europe. Then, when -more decades ago than I care to count- our group played a kind of 'Hyboria' campaign en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Bath one of us fielded a 'Southern Kushite' Victorian Zulu army perfectly fitting in the background. The extreme diversity of troop types, armies, costumes… is an enthralling source of never-ending wonders.

- The Lace Wars: mid-18th C. 'Western European' warfare, preferably with Imagi-Nations emperor-elector.blogspot.com link
Few troop types -C. Grant successfully refought major historical battles with only 'well trained professional infantry, cavalry and artillery'- simple rules (not preventing subtle tactics: no rules are as simple as those of chess, all said!), elegant warfare and uniforms…

- These are the only 2 periods I actually played, but were I to try a 3rd it would be Lacepunk: an early Steampunk / tuned down equivalent of Victorian Sci-Fi set in the mid-18th C.
picture
picture
picture
link
picture
link
link
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cugnot
If the Sci-Fi element is limited enough, the setting is more 'historical "What-if?"' than Sci-Fi: for instance, Cugnot's fardier link rolled in 1769: yet steams engines were used to power pump stations since the late 17th C. Thus a steam-powered variant of Da Vinci's 'tank *could* have be built since the GNW / WSS times -an impressive at first, but *totally inefficient* monstruosity. Thus, if the ruler of a mid-18th C. imaginary country, or 'historical' country wagging an imaginary conflict, experiments with a 'steam war wagon' (probably, like earliest historical tanks, more for breaking through 'defense' lines than for pitched battles in the open) -or 'merely' a steam-powered version of Sadler's flying artillery, as long as the contraption: -crawls / trudges with difficulty, forward only, no faster than a line of close order infantry advancing while shooting -and this only in very hard and perfectly flat terrain; takes a little infinity to turn; prone to engine failures; and is a sitting duck for atillery… *then* one is still in a 'perfectly likely, reasonable, 'not weird' "what-if?"' setting. It would turn to 'Lace Wars Sci-Fi' -Lacepunk ("steampunk by Lace Wars time")- *only* if the war machine is granted the (unrealistic) capacities of a Warhammer steam tank; or a montgolfiere link turned into a flying warship link (please replace shakos with tricornes!).
Now, if one is ready to allow for cavorite / liftwood or whatever, they were already here to be discovered: thus, if so inclined, you can have the 'Georges' Boys in Red' picture (DAF's 1st Foot Guards) and the Compagnies Franches Altercelestriales de la Marine warring on some ± Barsoomian Mars -the FIW or even the Plassey campaign link on Mars, link vs picture (DAF's IR1 Winterfeldt ), these picture (Bill Protz' characters) welcoming Princess Delia ( link TinMan)… And these 'Cloudships' link , perhaps turned into dirigibles to look more '18th C. compatibles', are too good to be ignored.

1. Colonial
2. ECW
3. Mexico- Max in Mex, currently looking at MAW

A) World War 2 (weird or regular…)
2) Pirates
iii) horror (any time setting…)

If forced to pick just three….

The Second World War
The First World War
The Wars of German Unification (1864-1870)

if might be argued that these are all wars of German unification :)

very easy:
1)WWII
2)Napoleonics
3)Dark Ages (450-1066AD)

WWII
Civil War
Dark Ages

Civil War

English?
Russian?
Spanish?
Angolan?

AWI
Napoleonic
WW1 Naval

I think scale should also be included as this can change the nature of a game to a great extent. Also Ancients really needs to be broken up into a few groups: Imperial Roman, Hellenistic, Greek/Persian Wars, Biblical. I would also be interested in knowing why people like their particular period.

With that said here's mine:

1. Ancients Hellenistic Period 25mm – there is a certain romanticism about this period, along with the clash of cultures and fighting styles.
2. WW2 15mm – I love combined arms and mechanized warfare.
3. Napoleonics 15/20mm – imo the apex of wargaming for horse and musket.

Looking to get into in the future:
- WW2 grand tactical battles with micro armour
- Collecting my own 15mm Napoleonics.
- Naval combat (haven't picked a period yet)
- Modern, if I ever come across a decent ruleset/figures. I don't thin

Have given a pass to:
- Fantasy, I have a decent collection but not really interested in it anymore.
- Medieval, I don't think it really brings anything new to what I am playing already.
- Sci-fi/futuristic – I like the style of the WH 40k universe but just can't get into the game.

18th Century (AWI)
Post-WWII/Modern (any and all)
Colonials (Sudan/Boxer Rebellion/Zulu War)

Modern (Post WWII)
WWII
Dark Ages

Thats just the top 3, not all of them by far.

Ed G.

ACW (Johnny Reb)
AWI (British Grenadier)
Crusading Era (If only I could find a set of rules I liked)

Twitchy

1: Ancients (using Impetus)
2: WWII (using home grown company level rules)
3: ACW (using RFCM's Civil War Battles)

I'm hoping to start playing 25mm (yes real 25mm)dark ages with Impetus soon.