Tonight I looked up and realised it was 11.30, so Jo painting this evening, but I thought I would pose a question… Why do we choose the periods that we do? What draws us to them?
I will start…well that was a bloody stupid thing to say! Unless you are psychic and answered me earlier … Doh!
Anyway some periods I play and why….
First off The French and Indian Wars, this was simply down to the book Last of the Mohican’s that I read as a kid and later on the film.
Colonial… films when I was a kid again… Zulu, Zulu Dawn, and the four feathers…I decided to game the Sudan due to the different troop types available.
WW2, basically that was the stuff I was bought as a child… ww2 20mm Airfix, I dont really play it anymore but still have my 6mm Wermacht forces, plus some Americans I was given by my mate.
Other’s in the past were Vietnam, mainly in part to the influx of films like Platoon etc and also the Magazine ‘Nam’. I really like the crusades and medieval gaming, but I think this comes from Cry Havoc and Outremer board games,not to forget Samurai Blades which probably got me into Samurai gaming. OthersI haven’t got a clue… like Aztec and Conquistadors… haven’t a clue. Some might have come from the clubs I was playing in, but that was so long ago I honestly cannot say.
So the question is, why do you choose to do what you do…
Bogenwald 
Good question. I am drawn to many periods and genres. Of course, I have spent the last year+ on the Spanish Conquest. Why? Well, it was always a period that I felt that I needed to know better. The opportunity to write the period supplement for Feudal Patrol offered me a unique opportunity to check a few boxes – that being to get as close to being a game author as well as to collaborate with Buck Surdu and others on the project. The research began for me, and wow, I was blown away by the depth and breadth of the entire history. Then add in the wild range of costumes (cannot really call them “uniforms “) and the hobbyist challenges involved in building the world, and I was hooked. Plus I want anyone playing in my games to be at least a tad impressed. By that I mean giving them a new experience gaming-wise and visually. I guess that’s why I gravitate towards building worlds that are not as common, like my retro-sci stuff with OOP figures from the 70’s and 80’s. Or building massive scenarios for What a Tanker that go beyond the normal stuff you see. So in the end, my hook is doing stuff that I find cool, in my own way and to a grand vision, and that I don’t see anyone else doing, and doing it in a way that goes as far as I can take it. How’s that?
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Very much an age thing and the era of my childhood Steve. TV, films and toys all influenced my primary interest which is in Cowboys and Indians, Knights, WW2 and like You Zulu.
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Good question! 🙂 Like you, I did WW2 from being a kid due to the availability of Airfix figures and I’ve kept it going, although not as much lately. Have samurai forces after watching Shogun and finding the nicely-caricatured Dixon figures (that I love). Do WW1 because my wife bought me some painted WW1 figures not long after we were married! Do Boxer Rebellion because I wanted to do colonial wars but one where the opposition gave the colonial powers a bit of a hard fight. Do Crimson Skies ’cause it combined pulp and planes and you can make up your own designs. Do Franco-Prussian War because I wanted a more colourful toy-soldier look and never managed to do Napoleonics. Do Paraguayan War after first reading about it in the late 80s and getting really interested in such a David versus Goliath struggle. I also tend to look for off-the-beaten track subjects/projects and those that make me do the research myself, as opposed to being hand fed everything that comes in nice shiny packaging (although I’m not immune to nice shiny packaging)! I’m assuming you didn’t want a brief reply Steve! 😉
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I really have no idea, I think I’m mainly drawn to figures, so if I like the look of them I try and find a use for them (though these days I mainly just paint them and put them in the loft to gather dust 😉).
Cheers Roger.
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Great question! As my first foray into miniature gaming was War Hammer Fantasy Battle as an adult, the hook was medieval knights and “Lord of the Rings” (strangely I never did play or paint any of that game – might have something to do with my falling out of GW games in general). My love of early “Star Wars”, “Alien(s)” and other sci-fi of the 90’s helped me transition into WH40k.
After getting discouraged with GW, I just hung-up the brushes for a while, before getting the itch again, this time it was game mechanics, with Zombicide and Malifaux. Then came my early childhood love of comic books come alive with MCP.
Dang it! I need to get painting and play some games!
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I paint and play Fallout Wasteland Warfare because I love the video games, the post-apocalyptic genre, and because Fallout is a really rich world that is also a sandbox. You can kind of make whatever terrain and projects you want but you can also try and closely model things in the actual games too. Not many wargames offer that and I feel like its hard to paint and make terrain for multiple wargames so for me, flexibility and versatility is key!
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I have to agree with you Fallout is an awesome game. I only ever played Fallout 4 and loved it. I loved Skyrim too for the sandbox part of if.
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I hope that one day we might get remastered versions of Fallout 3 and New Vegas. They were fun at the time but I don’t know if they’ve aged well. Certainly not in the graphics department…
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I just bought a bed PS4 so Fallout 4 is going back on it. My 8riginal stopped accepting the disks
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New PS4
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Bugger me mate after all those intelligent comments from the lads I have come along the weird answer, That’s me every time!.It head gear mate !!! I started of with the standard cowboy hat, not really cool but the only thing I knew, then mum bought me a pith helmet to protect me from the ferocious NSW sun, oh shit mum pretty ugly!
Move to the city at 10 years old ad hit the royal show where they had ACW kepis in!! oh cool head gear at last!only problem was they were plastic and got bloody hot when in the sun!! Five years on and found a real replica, still got it!
So it is the shape of the head gear that i have found that has influenced me in my choice of periods, they all have to be peaked whether they are caps or helmets, it shows in my dio’s mate!!
I only managed to do the Rodgers Rangers one as they had green uniforms!
Very interesting subject mate that you have broached now I’m of to my Therapist with answer I have been seeking!!! Why am I bald!?
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Nope I totally get the hat bit, I have gladiator helmets, Viking helmets, a bucket helm and various other hats including a confederate kepi… apologies from the need for therapy… buy a new hat, that might help…
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😅😅😅
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