"What got you started in your favorite periods?" Topic

I started with WRG Ancients. A friend said he would get armies in this period. So I got armies in that period. It grew. Now, I've sold everything off.

A 6 issue series in the Courier on the French and Indian War(s) got me started in FIW. I cut back a bit, but still have enough for small battles. If I call my Spanish and Austrian infantry French, Robert est votre oncle! I still have tons of generic "Mohawk" Indians, and AWI British can play the part of FIW in tonight's entertainment.

American Revolution. The 1976 Bicentennial, the rules 1776 and Hinchliffe. And then it grew.

I saw a random clip on YouTube regarding Spanish vs Comanche in Mexico, ca 1757. I was hooked. Interestingly enough, if you shop the numerous 25/28mm manufacturers of Plains Indians, you can assemble a huge tribe of ~100 unique mounted warriors, and still have some you need to get. Brigade Games, RAFM, etc. Back burner at the moment, but I still slip some Comanche in while painting Hungarian Hussars. "Uniforms"? Surely you jest.

A friend who is the ultimate Flea Market shopper ("You do not want to take this box home with you… (Jedi Mind Trick)) gave me around 100 nicely painted Grenz and Hussars sans Cheval. Naturally this lead to Ospreys, uniform books in Hungarian…

Some I deliberately set out to do, some I stumbled across.

Either a Movie (Waterloo, Zulu, etc.) or being at a caon or with a group that played a game (ACW, WW-1/2, FPW)

Personally, I blame Airfix. At least for WW2. Zulu for Colonials.

Otherwise, it was Julius Caesar during Latin lessons. I was always interested in the Ancient period, nothing has changed over the years.

I think the start was War and Peace and Waterloo when was a young kid. First kind of war game I made up was a Napoleonic game
D&D was first miniatures but quickly dropped it for Napoleonics

Airfix initially. But I had a small book on uniforms with lots of bright pictures of soldiers through the ages when I was about 12. I really liked the pictures of lansknechts, but the book didn't explain the pictures other than they came from Germany.
We had a German lady who lived up the road and came into our shop, so my Mum encouraged me to ask her. She explained their origins, nowhere near as much as I know now, but it was enough.

I was introduced to a club in Stockport by a mate at college, and I was hooked!

A poem by Lord Byron: "The Destruction of Sennacherib". Led me into Assyrians and their enemies @ 700 BC.

All my life, I've been _very_ tempted to do some early Roman skirmishes, after reading about Horatius (Thomas Babington Macaulay).

An illustrated book at my grandmother's on the age of Napoleon with the front end covers of various Lancers. I have never looked back.