"Which era allows for most fantasy ... " Topic

… (historically incorrect) leeway?

I'm especially talking about uniform paint schemes, army composition, and so on.

(Because I'd rather invest my money into minis than expensive Osprey books and the like.)

And while we're at it, which era is the most skirmish friendly (excluding 20th century)?
Where skirmish is individually moved miniatures, representing exactly one man.

I would think medieval or ancient armies would be able to do double-duty in historic and fantasy games, if I understand your question. In a pinch your ancient Greeks could be lead by Jason against the harpies, or your feudal Scots could assault the lair of the dragon.

As far as non-20th (and I assume non-21st) century skirmish, most armies prior to the late 19th century fought in lines, so skirmish combat would be a bit non-historical (however, small scale actions such as raids could lend themselves to skirmish rules very easily). You might consider gladiators, or Wild West gunfighters for more historical one-on-one actions.

I would hazard a guess as to the late 15th/early 16th century. The time of the condotierre, so many mercenary bands, and who knows what colour schemes they all wore?

As for skirmishing, surely that can be any era? Although any of the colonial wars sound ideal.

NVidia SLI is much better than Crossfire. NVidia had the drop on ATI with the dual video card combination and ATI kind of threw something together that was good, but not nearly as good as NVidia SLI. However, the newest version of NVIDIA graphics accelerator card, the GeForce 8800 GTX is so fast you don't need it. Yet, you can SLI 2 of them anyway! See the Computer Shopper review for details: link

Pre-gunpowder ios most conducive to human fantasy gaming. The Conan stories have everything from Ancient Egyptians on chariots to mail clad knights.
If pinned down, I would go for the Norman Conquest era, with a side excursion into the Byzantines and Seljuks. That coverts the Lord of the Rings pretty much, and lots of Conan.

I have two skirmish intensive periods. The French and Indian war (including the American War for Independence) and late 19th Century, where I have Northwest Frontier and USA invasion of Canada campaigns going. Both use single figures, with "Sword and the Flame" or "Battles by GASLIGHT" rules used.

For a combination of hisrtorical, fantasy, & skirmish, Vikings would be a good choice. Early Samurai might be another.

Are you asking which era is most suitable for crossover to Fantasy?

OR are you asking which period(s) you could paint by imagination and still play historical games? i.e. buy minis, not Ospreys, and still wind up with a good army?

The latter, Extra Crispy.

Medieval and ancients are probably the easiest to crossover into fantasy settings.

If (as Extra-Crispy suggests) you are looking for maximum latitude in painting historical armies then the Renaissance and Dark Ages periods would work well. Uniforms, in the modern sense of the term, simply do not exist during these periods and you can get pretty outlandish and still not wander too far outside the bounds of historical accuracy.

Dave

F&I War is another period where you would be looking at not too much research and a lot of skirmish. You need maybe one plate of a soldier for each side. And by need I mean could use.

After that you have a lot of civilians, indians and what not.

And Conquest has a nice and expanding line of figures out there for it.

If you get together a dozen or so indians, a few French marines and some armed settlers along with a couple of British soldiers and an officer you could have a very good game.

There is also a long tradition in wargaming of imaginary countries/armies set loosely in the "Lace Wars" era, dating back, at least, to Brig. Peter Young's Charge! rules.

Skirmish scenarios are possible in any era you might care to pursue, really, even when main armies met in long, linear battles (e.g. Lace Wars, ACW) there were lots of small unit duties to be performed. Raids, patrols probing enemy lines, attacks on pickets, etc. It is, however, more difficult to find written accounts of such encounteres for some eras.

I second french and Indians, or Pontiac's rebellion, or war along the frontier during the American revolution.

caml1420 is reading my mind, right down to the long tradition business. Or I'm reading his.

Anyway, if I have time and energy to build charge armies again, it will be made up countries.

But if you don't want the detail nazis to snear at you, go medieval and renaissance.

Spanish Exploration of early America could be another option. Also the Pirate genre offers a lot of what you are looking for as well.

And you can always pop into the local library and see what kind of free references are to be had…

The 1800s is very good for both skirmish and fantasy armies which is why VSF is so popular.

For flashy uniforms and exotic armies the 1700s colonial eras can provide a framework. native Americans, Asian Indians , Burmese and African (Northern and Southern) armies can provide a very exotic feel.

In regards to color schemes, the flashy full color affect of non-historical armies in Purple or bright green uniforms can be eye catching.

Colonials. Make up a continent. Populate it to your specifications. Add Imperialst powers, real or imaginary. Easily shades into VSF.

Marlburians are the easiest for not-entirely-history gaming. Pick a province, state, or region. Assume it will use the War of Spanish Succession as an excuse to do whatever. Flags are available on the internet. Uniforms are relatively simple, and Baccus has even provided lots of painting guides.

Ancients.

I would try -

Dark Ages, no real uniforms – anything except dayglow colours would be fine. Plenty of opportunities for skirmish; Viking raid, border raid, bandit raid etc.

Wild West – as above, with all the potential for TV style western shoot outs.

"Most (historically incorrect) leeway?" No idea. But I agree with the suggestions of:

Colonials – pith helmets with or without dinosaurs or rivet-strewn contraptions,

Wild West – gang shoot outs, bank robberies, rustling, and

Dark Ages – clashing warbands, settlement raids, cattle raids.

yeah, I do understand that Traj, but even Wellington could not be at all the hot spots all the time. Even though we read where he was all over the place even at Salamanca he had to leave his right flank to their own devices so he could concentrate on the center….

Many other battles he had to trust his subordinates to a degree.

- AncMed: in the tradition of Tony Bath's 'Hyborian campaign': many Fantasy armies are copied on historical ones, you can mix historical and fantasy minis (even Elves: we used them for 'spider-haunted Zamora' because of the Drows' Spider-cult: pass easily for humans on the table-top) – and you have *Amazons*!

- Lace Wars, in the > 30 years old tradition of P. Young's 'Charge' and C. Grant's 'The Wargame'
TMP link
Currently in full expansion, with a new blog almost every week
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link

Propitious to amusing, yet elegant and efficient, ideas
TMP link

Can be extended to oversea theatres of operation
TMP link
link

and you ca, easily 'spice' the seting with Sci-Fi elements
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
TMP link
link
with inspirational sources, e.g.
TMP link

And, YES, you can still field AMAZONS
TMP link !

A very friendly and convivial group on the web:
TMP link
emperor-elector.blogspot.com

Minis / uniforms are rather generic, so your fictitious troops don't look like 'Prussians painted unhistorically', and you even have free uniform template to design, try -and share!- your original uniforms before painting a single mini
nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com

Jean-Louis
aka Louys de Monte-Cristo
link