"Best Historical Period That's Not Popular?" Topic

For miniature wargaming, which of the less popular historical periods is best for the tabletop?

War of the Pacific 1879 – 1884

or

Wars of Latin Independence 1809 – 1829

Wars of Latin Independence 1809 – 1829

Given my wife is Ecuadorian & I lived there for several years, this is especially interesting for me…

Damon.

I researched an Army List book for a popular game system a decade ago. The focus was on the Latin American Wars of Independence.
Love the era. Great for a Napoleonics player.

Cabinet wars (commonly called "Lace wars" by english speaking wargamers), so 1650 to 1770. French expansion, Spanish succession to Seven years war in Europe – and not least the Deluge, Northern wars or Ottoman wars.

Highly formalized warfare that saw some of the bloodiest battles per capita anytime. Certainly already popular, but also certainly less so then the eras behind and before, the TYW/ECW and Napoleonics.

Neglected to mention the Safavid Persian wars of the 17th and 18th Century with the Russian, Mughals, and Ottomans with the military and economic system that Shah Abbas built

and

The Anglo-Persian War in 1856 and 1857

I really like the Mexican revolution battles.
Subjective of course.

martin

+1 on PreColumbian

Once popular but now forgotten.

Toy soldiers from companies like William Britain's came out in the 1890s. Things were relatively quiet, except for some colonial campaigns. Then came the Greco-Turkish War in 1897, creating interest in the Greek and Ottoman armies with their colorful and sometimes oriental style uniforms.

There was still cavalry to charge across the battlefield, adding some dash and flare to what otherwise might have been a vulgar brawl.

The Turks fielded just one brigade with smokeless powder rifles late in the war (much longer range than the black powder rifles all the other units were using).

The Greeks had one machine gun, provided by a wealthy Greek living outside Greece ("But it uses so many bullets," the Crown Prince is said to have pointed out, and it wasn't actually used). So, by and large, the war is lacking the rapid fire and long-range weapons that resulted in 20th Century wars being so spread out.

Grelber

War of the Triple Alliance 1864-1870
First Balkan War 1912-13

Korean war. I've seen very little gaming of it. I've done some. It's fun. US vs communist hordes in the mountains. Allows WWII US vs Soviet equipment without it being some stupid tournament game.

I guess I don't know what you consider "less popular". Do you mean not represented by a dedicated range of figures? Not played by more than a few niche players? No rules sets?

I don't know about best, but what doesn't get its due is:

The various Latin American Wars of Independence.

The Balkan Wars.

WWI in the Balkans, East, Middle East.

Russo-Polish War 1919-1921.

The Field of Glory rules had an army list book covering the pre-Colombian Native Nations. Can be used for early conflicts and the later European invasion forces. Blood and Blood written in part by me. Lol.

WW1. it's growing, but from what I see many people taking it up don't seem to quite understand the period.

The Seven Years War doesn't seem to be popular, outside of a small dedicated niche group such as the Seven Years War Association. I've been skunked for players whenever I try to run a SYW game at a major convention. I'll only run SYW games at their convention.

On the other hand, AWI seems to have decent popularity even though it is still in the Tricorn Era. Next year starts the 250th anniversary of the AWI.

Agree with DisasterWargamer, War of the Pacific, interesting, some great books on uniform, but really no figures. And Latin American Independence, at least some figures for that.

* 17th century Eastern North America — with the Beaver Wars and colonial extension of the Great Northern War thrown in for New Sweden. A bigger host of European and Native powers than FIW. (FIW I think counts as relatively popular if not super common.)

* Bakumatsu period — end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, latter half of the 19th century. A fun mix of asymmeticral weaponry and force strength, with distinctive uniform touches.

Some issues with these games not being played is a lack of knowledge that the wars ever took place to begin with, a lack of figures, and a lack of readily available material in English.

French Revolutionary period (1st Coalition)

1866 Austrian-Prussian War.

2nd Boer War
Mexican Revolution

I'd like to say --

King Phillip's War
Texas War of Independence
Mexican War
Indian Mutiny
Jacobite Rebellions (any)
Irish Wars (1916-22)

-- but all these seem to have had a resurgence of fringe interest (at the least) in the last decade or so. And minis are available for most of these to some degree. So perhaps not unpopular as some of the more obscure conflicts noted above.

I don't really understand the initial question. If a period isn't popular then presumably it isn't much good for playing on the tabletop?

There are a load of suggestions above which look pretty mainstream to me.

Lace Wars? WW1? 1866? These are all major periods played by lots of people. Even the Latin Wars of Independence are gamed extensively, but perhaps a bit less than WW1 :)

Good point about SYW as to AWI being more popular but that may be a US thing – I have to agree that the Latin American Wars (of Liberation, various Mexican wars) are very much under-gamed; and I have yet to see anyone locally (or otherwise) game the Korean War

its a USA thing

I believe the question is a bit too broad. I'm sure there are some Ancient to Renaissance wars that have never been gamed. Since my particular interest is the Horse and Musket period, here are my choices:

(a) Brabant Rebellion/Revolution – 1789. I've toyed with this period using 15mm OG15s and Miniature Figurines but with too many other projects, it'll have to wait.

(b) Polish Partition Wars – 1776-1794. Miniatures used to be available for the 1792 Russo-Polish War and the Kościuszko Rebellion of 1794 from FFUK.

(c) Russo-Swedish War 1788 – I only know of 1 person who has these armies – me. The late Dan Schorr had Russians and Swedes but I can't remember if he ever posted pics of his armies on the Net.

Obscure periods in the 1980s and 1990s are now played by many people. I remember the GNW being one of the most 'niche' periods out there – now, it seems that everyone and their dog has a GNW project. The Hungarian Rebellion of 1848 and the 1st Schleswig-Holstein War (2 of my current projects) were very niche for a while but have become more popular over the years.

I think most periods can be good for playing on the tabletop; however, I've never understood the fascination with WW1. I like to read about it but not game it. I also think that it really depends on your location.

Finally, I think a better question is why aren't certain periods more popular. When I was younger, WW2 held a fascination – now, not at all. Lack of resources, lack of 'dedicated' miniatures, lack of a 'popular' ruleset? I think there are many factors that go into why a particular period isn't popular; however, with the rise of 3d printing, I'd say those 'niche' periods will become less and less.

Piper,

The top five on your list are more popular than you think.

"I've never understood the fascination with WW1. I like to read about it but not game it…"

Rommel's "Infantry Attacks" provides a lot of inspiration for (semi) skirmish gaming; "Over the Top" has scenarios for actions outside the Western Front that aren't trench/siege encounters. One of my gaming groups even found that "Necromunda" could be transformed into a WWI skirmish/campaign game.