"How you pick a period to game in?" Topic

1.Shiny new figures
2.Popular new rule set
3.Fellow or local wargamers interest
4.A prior interest or study of the period

I am solidly in the #4 category.
If I have no interest in the period including a library and study I will not game it.
My prior interest leads me to my gaming I interest-- not reverse.

Russ Dunaway

Could be an article, book, documentary or movie I see. Someone else is starting a period I am interested in. A new release is in the scale I like for a period I want to game (your 18mm Blue Moon Mexican revolution as an example). A YouTube video explaining a set of rules or Battle report that grabs my interest.

Thanks.

John

It has to be a period of history that interests me. I would rather not play a wargame if I have no interest in the period…. that's why I don't game ancients or modern warfare.

You don't. It chooses you.

Well, I am going with number 4 also. It's the history that interests me. I do have to add that I am heavily motivated into periods of history that catch my eye through visual mediums. Paintings, photos of armies or units on the web, photos in wargame magazines, etc. often inspire me to get into a certain period. For example, my love of the Franco Prussian War was born as much from the De Neuville, Rochling, and Detaille paintings as from the excellent narrative of Michael Howard. My intense interest in the Medieval Eastern Roman Empire came from pictures in National Geographic and Wargame Magazines as well as from the John Julius Norwich trilogy on the Byzantine Empire. So, I guess it's a 50/50 for me. After all, ours is a very visual hobby.

2-4 for me.

#4 – usually an interesting character in the period too. El Cid at the moment.

Seriously. Always only ever #4

My love of period is the choice for me a solid 4, but no man is an island and in a club sometimes you have to play with others who have interests of there choice so number 3 as well.
Luckily my interests cover most periods and their military operations and campaigns

Often, when Old Glory came out with a new line of figures, I would consider taking up that period. Also, more movies than books.

#4 by a long shot. If the guys were all excited about the Second Slobovian War of Unification and I had a passing interest in it, I could probably be talked into throwing a brigade together.

Article, book or movie

Once saw used figures in flea market and was off on new period

Convention games good chance to see rule set and flavor of a period

My first project was WRG Ancients, because that's what my partner in crime wanted to get into. When he ran away from home and joined the army (🙄) his pissed off wife sold me all his toys for a song.

I got started in colonials…. I honestly don't know why. But the availability of Minifigs, Ral Partha and TSATF played a huge part.
GASLIGHT only reinforced that.

I was tepid at best with 15mm Napoleonics, but all the Cool Kids were picking an army. When I was told I would be allowed to do British, I kind of went along, but I soon sold out.

The Bicentennial got me hooked on AWI. That plus the 1776 rules were virtually a clone of WRG Ancients (yes, but using D10). Plus Hinchliffe were very easy to mail order from England. Then Texas stepped up. 👍

My 1916 Irish came about from playing in Leo Cronin's games at con. That Sunday I'm making an "I still have money in my pocket" tour if the Tennis Barn when I spotted figures for sale.

My Comanche project came about via a YouTube algorithm that had me watching Comanche v Spanish in Mexico.

Mostly #4 but sometimes #1.

I agree that convention games are a great way to get pulled in. Fr'instance, I was really interested in the Great War but never saw it as having much gaming potential until Mark Hayes and Tim Goodlett started running their games at HMGS-E cons in the 1990s. OTOH I had nearly zero interest in Feudal Japanese skirmish games until I started playing in David Hill's Yamashiro extravaganzas.

For me it is normally #4. However, I can be influenced by our group/club, so #3 applies. We are currently in the midst of a 30 Years War project. It has been a while since we launched something new, so it is fun.

4 and Fat's '5'

Largely #4.
That said, there have been some exceptions. Sean Connery as Agamemnon in The Time Bandits got me going in Ancient Greeks. Patrick Leigh Fermor's book Mani got me interested enough to put together a skirmish game of rival Maniot clans and their Turkish enemies. The folks in my group getting into 15 mm Napoleonics encouraged me to buy a package of Saxons and make a minor contribution to our games, just to add an additional color to the games (it turned out to be white, but I didn't know that going in).

Grelber

No idea I just seem to fall into stuff sometimes it's history, sometimes it's the miniatures rarely is it the rules.

Having said that I've become very taken with Neil Thomas's one Hour Wargames Rules. The book contains several period specific simple rules sets and I'm mulling over building two matching sides for each period set.

Fat Wally +1

If it's prior interest and study in a period, I already started doing it long ago!

These days, intriguing army lists and/or figure lines open up interesting new fields of study.

Any intersection of movies and fun rules are likely to bubble into a new gaming period.

#4 but my age now has become a major factor. :-( I may like a period, but will I be able to paint enough figs to enjoy it?

At first it was where my historical interest took me. Recently, it became ease of play along with some interest in the period and a more thorough appreciation of the historical tactics.

1 and 4. Never 2 0r 3.

Darkest Africa – Basically because of the Wargames Foundry figures,
Northern Crusades – Fascination with the subject and the availability of plastic kits
Samurai 16th century – Kurosawa films and who doesn't love Samurai?
Boshin War – Unusual and exotic
Flint & Feather, French & Indian War, War of 1812, Fenian Raids, Northwest Rebellion – Canadian history
(I might do the Mackenzie Papineau Rebellion if I can find suitable figures/conversions)
Napoleonic's, Sudan and Afghan colonials and ACW – All wargaming staples!

Mostly #4 for me, although watching a movie has driven me into building armies for new periods such as the Sudan (Khartoum), ACW (Gettysburg), Zulu wars (Zulu and Zulu Dawn).

Usually something which stimulates my imagination, so a book or film. Is that option 5?

Im only really interested in historical or well founded fantasy and Sci fi (not some rubbish made up to sell figures) , so 4 too I guess, and sometimes something one of my pals is into.

4 every time. With the caveat that I will also happily play Little Wars/toy soldier type games simply because I like the figures and the simple rules.

4. If regular gaming buddies wanted to try another period, I'd participate, but they're pretty much dead or homebound now.

I apply the Rule of Cool.

Like: 25mm DBA using Warlord Epic 60mm strips…that's cool.

New project!

#4 prior or new interest in period.

visit to country or museum, books, movies, art.

+1 Fat Wally

3 and mostly 4.

+1 Fat Wally

Seriously -- I don't do "ancients" and have very little interest in it -- but I do Caesars Gallic wars because of his chronicles and a deep interest in the Gauls.
I have done or do Vikings, FIW, AWI, Napoleonics, Texas Revolution, Napoleonics pirates, American plains wars -- all these started way before I ever gamed it and my library would bear that out
Oddly enough -- though I am surrounded by it, no interest in ACW.
I do study and read WW2 -- but no interest whatsoever in gaming it.
Vast periods of military with absolutely no imterest in regardless the rules or figures available-- also wholly unlearned and ignorant about them.

Russ Dunaway

All of 1-4 at various times.

But the periods that have stuck tend to those with some depth whether it be reading material, films etc

Originally it was the Waterloo film and Airfix Waterloo sets.
WW2 has always stuck with me going back to just playing with Airfix, without actual rules.
The SF collection is fuelled by watching films and TV for decades.
I have had shorter term interests just because a nice range appeared eg Old West, pirates, Vikings,and pulp.
Ive tried to resist getting figures just because the period is historically interesting. Cant do everything.

Books. For example I started reading Michael Arnold's historical fiction about the ECW, sucked me right into the period. Books are my downfall concerning new periods.

There have been a few times that #1 has grabbed me. Most of the time it is #4 brought on by #2 and #3.

I have long had an interest in ACW and started in 15mm 80's( my first true mini's army.) Later I bought a bunch of GHQ ACW because I loved the figures. Sold those when no one else wanted to use that scale. Last year my weekly group started playing ACW in 28mm and I jumped in.

I am strongly fighting the urge to jump into ACW Naval.

I try to avoid any periods with villages that have umlauts in them.

I think Fat Wally and John the OFM split the win.

I haven't really thought about why I like to play the genres that I like.

4 Prior interest
5 It just pops in my mind, or is triggered by an article, film, painting, photograph… "It chooses you."

1-3 have little to do with it.

Number 4, primarily. "A prior interest or study of the period"

Altho' sometimes exposure to a good set of rules has led me to take an interest in a period that was previously unknown to me, because the rules made for a fun game and inspired me to learn more about the period.

DITO piper909 Number 4, "A prior interest or study of the period", one abandoned a period before buying models having decided the history was not interesting for me.

I don't pick a period. (Not a fan of the term either. "Period" means a span of time. I doubt most people play every war/combat in that span of time. What we play is more specific than a period.)

I find out about a conflict that sounds interesting, and work out from there. That usually leads to finding some other related interesting conflicts to play, and some uninteresting ones to not play.

Mainly 4, though sometimes 3 leads me astray.