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| Ages 3 and up |
I was aware that this sort of thing went on, of course, but I didn't fully grasp how the field had changed over the past eight years or so (in the early 2000s historical wargaming seemed rather an esoteric field, in the States at least). Having grown up with Warhammer and 40k, I was accustomed to (and had come to expect) a wide range of detailed, multipart plastic kits in 28mm scale, and until recently, this was something which was not available to historical wargamers.
I had experimented with 1/72-scale kits in the early- and mid-2000s, but they didn't really compare, and it's hard on the eyes to paint these smaller figures to the standard which I enjoy painting. I also tried getting into Flames of War, but quickly decided the scale was too small for me. It had to be 28mm or larger for my tastes.
However, with the advent of the Perry Brothers, Warlord Games, Victrix Miniatures, and several other manufacturers, there are now a ton of options in this scale for historical wargaming, a wide variety of eras to choose from, and plenty of rules-systems for almost all of them.
Feeling enthusiastic about the idea of a new world of miniatures wargaming, I now had only to choose an era, and being a history buff this was quite difficult, so I set a few "ground rules": the era had to interest me, have an existing rule-set or two for me to use, and have a wide miniature range, with lots of plastic options.
Why all the focus on plastic? Although many find plastic kits frustrating due to the required assembly and occasionally fiddly nature of small components, I actually prefer the customizability — it's rare to find a plastic box-set with less poseability and variation than a metal range, and even if you do you can still swap things around with judicious use of a craft-knife. With multipart kits, one also has the option to "kitbash" by mixing and matching heads, accessories, weapons, shields and so forth from different sets to create entirely unique figures, or represent unit-types for which no satisfactory miniatures are available.
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| Fiddly? Versatile! |
Budget is also a significant consideration for me, and plastic (especially in the historical field) tends to be far, far more affordable than metal. In my humble opinion, plastic sets often (though not always) have a higher standard of sculpting than many of the most popular metal ranges to boot (though shallowness of detail is a common complaint particularly in older platic ranges).
So, with these guidelines in mind, I did some research. After considering Dark Ages (Saga), WW2 (Bolt Action), Thirty Years War (Pike and Shotte), and various Black Powder-eras (Napoleonic, Victorian/Colonial, Seven Years War, War of Spanish Succession), I initially became particularly interested in the Wars of the Roses, firstly because it was an era I hadn't studied thoroughly, secondly because of its semblance to a real-world Game of Thrones, and third (most importantly) because of the excellent Perry Brothers range for it.
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| Perry WotR Infantry |
However, whilst reading about internecine dynastic struggles (like the WotR and, to an extent, the Hundred Years War) I came across an account of the events immediately following the death of Alexander the Great. I had read a great deal about Megas Alexandros in the past, but at the time was more interested in earlier Hellenic history (the Peloponnesian wars, the Persian wars, the Iliad, and so forth) so I never put much thought into what happened after his death, semi-consciously imagining a blank space in history between 323 BC and the Caesarian Era of Early Imperial Rome.
I immediately became captivated by the struggles of the Diadochoi, the wars which began with dozens of Alexander's generals as satraps (rapidly transitioning into warlords) vying for the scraps of his empire, and concluded with only a handful surviving to establish lasting dynasties.
Around the same time, I discovered Olicanalad's blog and was deeply inspired by his Punic Wars project — he proved to me that historical wargaming with massive armies at 28mm scale was possible, and inspired me to research another era I had neglected, that of the Punic Wars (which happened to occur during the Hellenistic Era). I'd read a bit about Hannibal and the second war, but mostly focused on the Caesars and the Imperial period of Roman history.
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| Nobody can ever complain about project-fatigue as long as Olicanalad is in business |
The multinational nature of the Carthaginian Empire and Army (and, to an extent, their Republican Roman counterparts) captivated my imagination, and as I read about these two nations (as well as the Hellenistic Successors) it slowly dawned on me that here was an era where several powerful empires coexisted and competed while being very distinct from one another aesthetically, tactically, and culturally. In essence, the "factions" in this era were about as distinct as the factions in the average fantasy setting.
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| Macedonians, Samnites, Galatians and Elephants — all in the same army! Pyrrhic Troops, illus. by Johnny Shumate |
The same could not be said about most of the other eras I considered. Certainly, there were cultural differences between, say, early 18th century Prussia, France, and Spain, and uniforms/military aesthetics/tactics differed somewhat as well, but at the end of the day a guy wearing coattails and a tricorn hat carrying a flintlock can only be so distinctive from his peers.
Aesthetic variation is important to me as a hobbyist, because it helps prevent boredom and project-fatigue from setting in whilst constructing, painting, and basing dozens of figures en-masse, and is in my opinion one of the major draws of fictional settings, from Game of Thrones to Warhammer to Lord of the Rings. This is not to put down eras of military convergence and relative standardization, but as someone transitioning from fantasy/sci-fi wargaming to historical, this is one element which I find a convincing selling-point.
It also allows for players with very different tactical tastes or approaches to enter historical wargaming without worrying about ahistorical (and potentially assymetrical) contests. A horde of Gauls fights differently from Iberian ambushers, who fight differently from Roman legionaries, who fight differently from Hellenistic Phalangites, who fight differently from Persian horsemen, and so on.
My next post will continue where this one leaves off, and begin a series on the full plan of this Hellenistic and Punic Wars project.
Note: It turns out I wasn't the only one to come to these conclusions: http://www.talkwargaming.com/2015/09/editorial-warhammer-9th-is-called-hail.html
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