Reply To: Which bit of the 18th century attracts you most, and why?

[Hwiccee]

Personally I think the era has many of the best things of other periods, often to a greater extent than them, and also extra ‘pull’. For example the armies are more colourful than say a period like Napoleonics know for it’s colour. While there are many interesting and less well known battles, wars, armies, nations. This last probably is the reason for the popularity of imaginations set in this era – there were plenty of real similar nations around at this time. The period is also one of major developments in war from the earlier practices to the relatively modern practices of Napoleons time – it is a key period in the development of warfare.

For me though this led to a diminishing interest in imaginations, reality is just a lot more interesting than anything you can make up. I did it in the past and kind of like the idea of trying again some time but I foolish sold my Spencer Smith armies some time ago. It is a similar story for me with AWI – I have played it but not greatly. What I just love is the historical battles in the first half or so of the century.

Originally I was most interested in the SYW but then the search for the roots of warfare in this war led me to the GNW, which in turn led me to Marlborough’s wars. So in recent times my battles have been mainly in the early part of the century but I still love the SYW era as well. I suspect I will be revisiting the SYW era again in the future, or at least the WAS – a much under gamed war in my view. I also have started to dabble in Ottoman wars of this era, there are just so many possibilities.