So today I want to take a break from the usual ratmen, warhammer, and privateer press discussion I usually present and talk about an all together new topic (at least for the blog). What originally drew me to play miniature wargames? At first it was largely the social aspect but over the years I have become a student of military history and tactics. Indeed, my everyday work involves the military and my college degrees (and my master's in progress) can all be traced to my love of history.
More specifically to history I adore classical and military history (especially classical military). For years I have desired to start playing more historical games and recently I have resolved to begin that adventure. Let's have a discussion of my hopes, plans, and rulesets that I plan on visiting in what will hopefully be a fulfilling adventure.
The first decision I need to make is what scale to play? This will largely affect the ruleset chosen and also hone in what miniatures I plan to buy. I started playing miniature wargames back in roughly 1990 with Battletech. From there I branched out into Warhammer 40k, and then Epic Space Marine and Titan Legions. While I enjoy 28mm models for the modelling and painting aspect, I really prefer playing 10-15mm games like Epic. So I set the scale at 1:15mm. Now, I know my friends and getting them to play a 15mm game will be a hard struggle, so I also decide to check out 28mm games to lure them into the fold.
Period
I highly recommend those of you interested in historical games to choose a period that holds some personal interest, provides a breadth of opponents, and is personally meaningful to you, the player.
I mentioned above that my favorite period is classical. But what specific period? Classical history covers a wide breadth of regions and periods spanning roughly 1500 years from Mycenean Greece, to the rise of Persia, Alexander the Great's conquests, both Republic and Imperial Rome, the Celts, and the invasion of the Germanic tribes. To narrow in on a specific time period will prove difficult because I am very passionate about all of classical antiquity. That being said, I do possess favorites and nothing excites me more than Greek Hoplites and Roman Legionnaires. So at the end of the day, I choose two periods; Greece circa 500-400BC and early imperial Rome circa 25AD- 170AD. Both are periods I read and study extensively.
Greece circa 500-400BC is the era of war. Early in the period the Greeks fought against the Persians and later, after much politicking and maneuvering the Greeks fight the internal Peloponnesian War among the two super-powers of the age, Athens and Sparta, and their proxies. This period is rife with conflict and thus, I feel, a suitable choice given the number of notable armies and conflicts.
Early imperial Rome circa 25AD to 175AD covers many famous wars fought to expand the Roman empire. Enemies of the state include the Jewish rebels, Parthians, Gauls, Germanic tribes, Britons, Dacians, and internal Roman civil wars. Again, this provides a wealth of armies to collect, historic battles to fight, and is generally a period within Roman history that I adore and is also well understood by many armchair historians.
My only sorrow is that I will miss some of my more curious interests such as Etruscans, Hittites, and Scythians. However, I need not worry about that, nothing is stopping future investments.
Factions
Just like choosing a period, pick factions that you feel a personal connection with and that you find compelling.
I based my decisions on two aspects, interest, and diversity. For interest, I have to possess a personal interest in the army or I will never collect, assemble, or paint the models. Also, the more passionate I am about the chosen armies, the more I can convey my passion for ancient wargamming to my opponents and hopefully convince them to invest as well. With diversity, I want armies that have a broad depth of selection. I don't just want a unit of heavy infantry and some cavalry on the board. That get's stale and boring and will lead to me, and my opponents wandering away. Since I am also picking up two armies per period, I also need armies that are diverse from one another so as to create vivid imagery and inspiring moment son the tabletop.
For the Greek period I choose my two opponents pretty quickly. The first will be a Greek army that I will determine a home city for later. I'm usually drawn to Sparta, Argos, or Corinth in these affairs. The second army causes some internal discussion but really shouldn't be too surprising. I decide on the Persians since their empire during the early years of this period they consisted of a broad swath of central Asia where many civilizations coexisted under Persian rule.
Again, the choice of Imperial Romans for my Roman years seems a forgone conclusion. For the opposing army though, I have a number of alternatives and this causes some heated internal debate in my mind. I really like the idea of Germanic tribes or Britons as they offer a different sort of army from the Romans but the Parthians were every bit the foil to late republic and early imperial Rome. In the interest of style and tactics however, I decide to go with the Germans or Britons, whichever I can more readily find miniatures available.
Ruleset
Any number of rulesets exist for Ancients. Many of these rulesets cover both 15mm and 28mm but some only cover one or the other. After much researching, I decide to look at Field of Glory, by Osprey Publishing, for my 15mm endeavor. For those of you who have never heard of Osprey before I suggest you check out their website and their line of non-game books. These offer a wealth of historical knowledge.
The Present
So that is pretty much where I stand at this moment. A friend walked me through a test battle with Field of Glory and afterwords I decided to order the main rulebook. After reading halfway through the book so far, I am impressed at how complete the rules are and the diverse situations that they cover.
The Future
The next step is to purchase the rulebooks that offer the actual army lists I desire. I would have already taken this step but I'm awaiting the release of Warhammer 40k 6th edition like everyone else and am uncertain exactly how much I will drop on that product. After that I will write up some test lists, fight a few proxy battles to make sure that the armies are balanced against one another, and then do more research for miniature manufacturers. Right now I already know of several 15mm ancients miniature lines such as Corvus Belli and Xyston.
After I finish my initial investments in 15mm I will take the bigger step of investing in 28mm historicals. I may use Field of Glory for that too but I am also looking at other rules such as Hail Caesar!. I only wish Warhammer Ancients hadn't been discontinued since that seemed to be the standard used at the larger conventions.
So hopefully in the next few months you will see some posts regarding historicals on here and my progress.
So have you considered taking up the historical banner? What era is your favorite?
Does anyone know of a ruleset (and miniatures) for ancient sea warfare (triremes, quinquiremes, etc)? I have been unable to find any rules governing this aspect of ancient warfare and it is one that interests me greatly.
As a note, all the images in this post were taken from other sites. I have no 15mm models at the moment.