The Ancient period is one of major interests, although I got into it rather later in my gaming life than many other wargamers (Ancients gaming has traditionally been a staple of the NZ Wargaming Club scene, and traditionally the majority of club members in most clubs play it). As with some of my other interests I started in 15mm (with Minoans/Early Mycenaeans – my very first army, followed by Burgundian Orddonance; then Gauls; and finally Polybian and later also Marian Romans) but have since abandoned the ‘wee scale’ and am playing exclusively in 28mm.
My current and long-time favourite army and interest are Minoans (2300BC – 1650 BC) and their more warlike cousins Early Mycenaeans (1800 BC – 1250 BC) – covering the ‘Palace Civilisation’ & early City States of the Aegean & Eastern Mediterranean, the Minoans being the currently favoured probable source of the Atlantis legend.
Another favourite is Mid & Later Republican and Early Imperial Rome (and their enemies) – the eras of Scipio Africanus & Hannibal with the 2nd Punic War, conquest of Spain, & the Macedonian Wars (Mid-Republic & the histories of Polybius), through Pompey & Julius Caesar, several Civil Wars…
…the conquest of Gaul (the Late Republic), and the era of Octavian (Augustus) to Trajan and beyond (the Early Empire), culminating in the defeat of the Dacians in 106 AD (and eventually the last major campaigns in Germany 70 years later) – these are the periods where Rome was at its greatest, constantly expanding it’s frontiers and enlarging it’s empire, including (as mentioned) wars against the Gauls, Germans, and Dacians.
Other favourites are Hittites (a possible neo-historical enemy of the Minoans or Mycenaeans if these were, as believed, the probable founders of Troy and similar colonies near Hatti along the Asia Minor coast); Joan of Arc & the 100 Years War; and parts of the Dark Ages covering Arthurian and later Anglo-Saxon Britain, the Carolingian’s (& Charlemagne), the German Saxons & Vikings, and lastly Hastings (English Saxons) and the Norman invasion of Britain ultimately concluding in the early Medieval period with the first 3 Crusades.
