Background

More recently, the redoubtable trio of Donald Featherstone, Brigadier Peter Young, and Charles Grant were largely responsible for the growth of the hobby in the 60's and 70's. They were certainly responsible for me getting into it. Their books are still inspirational. I can recommend Charles Grant in 'The Wargame', Peter Young in 'Charge' and Don Featherstone in 'Wargame Campaigns'.

Since then, Phil Barker has largely been responsible for making Ancients Wargaming a science, and now the hobby is probably better off than it has even been. Long may it continue!

For those of you still in the dark, the idea is to move model soldiers across a miniature landscape following rules which hopefully allow you to approximate what might have happened on the real battlefield. It makes a grand spectacle, and allows you to believe that you would have made a better commander than Napoleon. It is also a painless way to learn a lot of history.

I play in many periods, from the Bronze Age through to World War 2, and put on games of battles on land, water and air. I'd hate to be restricted to just one period.

All my figures are in the 'old-fashioned' scales of 20mm or 28mm. 15mm has become very popular recently because it is cheaper, but I have too much stuff in the big scales to change now. Besides which, excellent hard plastic 28mm figures have recently become available. There's a certain amount of snobbery associated with attitudes to plastic figures. Some people dislike them because they are cheap. It's also true that you have to take certain precautions when painting the soft plastic variety or the paint comes off as fast as it goes on. I've found that using acrylics with a good solid acrylic undercoat solves most of the problems.

I play the following periods:

Ancients from Bronze Age up to the end of the Classical Era (say around 500AD). I have six or so large armies used to recreate biggish battles plus some smaller ones.

•New Kingdom Egyptian, Hittite Wargames Foundry figures

•Neo-Assyrian Garrison, Lamming, Hinchliffe, Foundry

•Hoplite Greek Heroics & Ros (hard plastic), Hinchliffe, Ral Partha, Foundry

•Early and Late Achemenid Persian Hinchliffe, Irregular, Essex, Old Glory, Newline

•Macedonian/Seleucid Hinchliffe, Essex, Irregular, Vendel, Foundry, Navigator

•Parthian Minifigs, Navigator, Newline Designs

•Republican Roman 28mm Wargames Factory, Foundry

•Carthaginian 28mm Victrix, Navigator, A&A

•Gallic Wargames Factory, Foundry, Old Glory

•Caesarian Roman 28mm Wargames Factory, Wargames

•Late Imperial Roman (small) 25mm Essex. Hinchcliffe

Dark Ages - I have some figures for skirmish games of Viking raids on peace-loving Saxons, along with some Normans and Welsh a mixture of Irregular, Essex, Gripping Beast and Foundry figures. I also have a complete Viking boat with crew - a Czech plastic kit, and a scratch built empty Viking ship - I normally swap these over when the Vikings land.

Medievals Crusaders and Saracens. Both small-ish forces. Agincourt era English, French, Scots (and soon Swiss and Burgundians).

I’ll also include here the Guards of Traitors Toll; a sort of high Medieval with a bit of Fantasy cooperative game

English Civil War A fun period - I have two armies for Royalist and Parliament made from the excellent Revell 20mm plastic 30 Years War range, with a bit of conversion, plus some metal 20mm Pikemen from Kennington.

18th century a small collection for the French & Indian wars. Regulars, rangers, Coureurs des Bois, Compagnies Franches, Indian allies. Northstar, Redoubt, Front Rank, Old Glory

Napoleonics of various nationalities in 28mm, plus some scratch built 1/600th scale ships for naval games now expanded with the excellent Black Seas and Hagen models. I realise that scratch building Napoleonic ships is the height of folly, but they were begun by my late, lamented brother 30 years ago and never finished. Since he was the one instrumental in getting me into the hobby, I felt the least I could do is finish them! Also some 1:2400 scale ships for larger actions.

American Civil War Two fairly substantial armies with lots of infantry, a few cavalry (mounted & dismounted) and loads of guns. The train and paddle steamer also get used for this period. Figures are 20mm plastic Airfix, ESCI, Revell, Imex, Italeri, and a few metal Zouaves by Kennington.

Pirates - done as skirmish games, including a three large boats (two scratch built, one converted from a galleon made by a great uncle in the 1920s. Figures are 25mm from Foundry

Wild West - done as skirmish games, including a stage coach, a paddle steamer, prospectors, longhorn cattle… Figures are 25mm from Foundry and West Wind.

Zulu War The 20mm stuff was sold and replaced with very nice 28mm chaps from Warlord and Perry. I now have 50 or so British including a gun, and 100 or so Zulus who can be reinforced with Darkest Africa figures if more are required.

Darkest Africa A new period for me. Four columns from White Men, Zanzibaris, African Kingdoms and Forest Tribes. Perhaps 120 figures in total, all from Wargames Foundry

World War 1 planes (1:72 scale - 4 planes a side) plus a fairly large fleet of 1:3000 ships.

World War 2 of various nations (Germans, Russians, British, Americans, French, Italians, Japanese, Australians), plus lots of 1:3000 scale ships for naval games, 1:1200 scale coastal forces, and 1:600 and 1:200 planes for Battle of Britain Air Games. Figures are 20mm plastics from Airfix, Matchbox, Revell and ESCI, plus tanks and vehicles from Airfix, Matchbox, ESCI, Revell, Fujimi, Hasegawa, Roco, Akheton, Britannia, Cromwell, Frontline and probably some I've forgotten. The ships are Davco and Skytrex. The coastal forces are mostly scratch built The 1:600 planes are Tumbling Dice, the 1:200 are Warlord