"Dark Ages Boards" Topic

Hi Bill,

Would it be possible to add the Dark Ages to the Boards array? I know some will complain that there are already too many boards on TMP, but we all have freedom of choice regarding boards simply by checking or unchecking a box in our preferences. The new Age of Arthur book and the related flurry of interest would look magnificent under a new Dark Ages board. Thank you, for your consideration.

there are already too many boards on TMP

I can agree with that part.

If there are to be no new boards, it would be helpful to come to agreement on whether topics concerning Arthur (early dark ages?) and vikings (later dark ages?) are "Ancients" or "Medievals" under the current scheme. Or, come to agreement to crosspost to both boards.

Agreed on the agree about where to post things that fall between the edges of topics.

Vikings are definitely Medivals in my book. Arthur is closer to Medival than Ancient, but just barely.

I draw the line at ca 450, ymmv.

Good heavens, no. It's annoying enough that that every thread that deals with this period needs to be crossposted to both the Ancients and the Medieval boards; we really don't need a third board for the same period.

And no, wargamers are never going to agree on where one period ends and another begins, or what the proper name for a period is. Not as long as many of them get all their historical knowledge from twenty-year old wargame rulebooks.

The classic description of 'Medieval' is 500-1500 and the 'Dark Ages' really starts before that but I think it reasonably fair to include it in Medieval rather than Ancient.

The problem lies, I think, in that the splits in those boards with heavy traffic tends to make people feel that all boards should be split, whatever the level of posting. I don't think this is necessarily a good thing. Surely a little bit of cross-posting isn't going to be a problem.

Tony H

A dark age board is long overdue.

Every manufacturer have their "Dark Age" products listed in the "dark ages" category, and many other gaming groups have dark age discussions. Why not here at TMP the biggest hobby site of the lot?

Seriously, we all know the dark ages starts somewhere around the end of the Western Roman empire and ends somewhere around 1066 and all that so what's the problem.

We have boards for "Animals", "Art" and "Birth Announcements", and that's only the first 2 letters of the alphabet, so why don't we have a seperate board for one of the most popular periods in tabletop gaming.

All this nonsense about Early Medieval sounds pedantic. I don't know anyone who plays with dark age armies who talks uses the term "early medieval". Lets leave that kind of nit-picking to the college professors.

Medieval gaming is about knights and longbowmen. Dark Age gaming is about hairy barbarians with axes. They are not the same.

Rant over.

Oh and Pluto is still a planet as far as I'm concerned!

Medieval gaming is about knights and longbowmen. Dark Age gaming is about hairy barbarians with axes. They are not the same.

We'd probably agree that arms, armor, tactics, and cultures varied greatly in Ancients times as well. Still..I don't see loud cries (yet) for splitting Ancients into Biblical, Alexandrian, and Roman Boards among others. And imagine the confusion when a Chariots board is later created and then renamed so we have both Ancients and 20th century Battlewagons boards..

I game Dark Ages and I don't have a problem with its inclusion in a Medieval Board. I don't see any value to having a separate board created.