"Assistance with new periods of interest" Topic

I've done several periods over the past 25+ years starting with Napoleonic, Ancients, and Late Medieval then ventured out into skirmish (28mm) with WW2 and French & Indian War. I've decided to keep my collection of Napoleonics and sell most of the rest. I haven't done much new in the past 10 years or so and have been reading about the following: TYW and WSS. I'm looking for something different in style of play given what I've done previously but also want to have access to written materials. I've decided to likely go with Blue Moon 15/18 in either ECW (painted/Flags as TYW) or WSS as I want to purchase all at once at discount and I'm stuck long term with a table that is 4' x 6' so I won't be going any larger the 15/18mm. Any opinions? Preferences?

Tyw has much more options than ECW. You can snatch the excellent new series of books from Helion plus the tradi histories. ( Parker etc.)
See also Khurasan who has the right figs plus bits at Old glory 15 that can be cheap.
Wss had bigger linear battles, might be too cramped in 18 mm on such a small space. Look also at using a boardgame for campaigns to spice up the thing. If you are lucky enough to have a player;) there were very good threads here on this.

TYW as above noted, MANY options.

There are even horror/zombie rules for TYW.

TYW, 10mm great ranges and great visuals on the tabel

If you're looking for something very different in terms of style of play from the classic army battles of the periods you listed then I strongly recommend WW2 using Chain of Command – it's very different. If you want a taste try the Tactical Painter blog for some great AARs; there's also tutorial videos by Too Fat Lardies on YouTube.
Or you could really ring the changes and do some naval wargaming?

You can try two sets designed for doing large historical battles on reasonably sized tables. Most battles can be fought on a 6 by 4 table or less.

They are available here – pikeandshotsociety.org

The Twilight of the Sun King set covers the WSS battles (and also others from the era). A scenario book is also available and a 2nd WSS scenario book will be published soon – link

The Twilight of Divine Right set covers the TYW battles (and again others) and also has a scenario book – link

TYW also allows you to wander east and explore Poles vs. Swedes vs. Russians vs. Turks with Cossacks lurking around every corner.

WSS isn't that different from other horse and musket periods but the uniforms are very nice and much faster to paint (less straps and lace)

But if you want something like WSS but more different. I'd go for GNW, it feels quite distinct with a very unique flair.

Or TYW as others have mentioned.

I've always eyeballed the By Fire and Sword stuff.

link

I have never played so can't comment about the game itself.

Didn't Gunther Rothenburg do a fairly comprehensive book re: renaissance armies including the TYW. I don't recall the title, but I found it very helpful and chock full of illustrations.