Background
The reconstructed Greek Trireme Olympias under sail
Miniature wargaming in something approaching its present form, with model soldiers being moved over a realistic landscape, dates back to the turn of the century, when H.G.Wells and his friends crawled round the nursery floor firing cannon at Britain's figures and having a lot of fun. You can read all about it in his book, Little Wars.
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 to. 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 25mm. 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, 20mm plastics are cheap, and you can mix 20mm and 25mm figures on the same table without causing too many raised eyebrows. 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 them 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.
Dark Ages - I have some figures for skirmish games of Viking raids on peace-loving Saxons, 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.
No Medievals yet - a lamentable omission. I have plans, but can't decide whether to do the Crusades or the later period (Agincourt)
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.
Nothing in the 18th century - shocking, but my excuse is here that my regular opponent has a ton of 18th century stuff, including loads of exotic Indian troops.
Napoleonics of various nationalities, plus some scratch built 1/600th scale ships for naval games. 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 feel the least I can do is finish them!
The figures are a mix of 20mm by Airfix, Revell, ESCI and Italeri, plus some 20mm metals from RSM (no sadly no longer available) and Hinton Hunt, plus 25mm metals from Prinz August, Minifigs and Hinchliffe. I have armies of French, British (& Portuguese), Spanish, Austrians, plus a few Prussians - no Russians yet.
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.
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 A British 'regiment' of 50 or so figures faces 8 Zulu Impis each of 24 figures. Also a small unit of Frotnier Light Horse and of course the Gatling Gun and some Zulu Riflemen. Figures are 20mm ESCI plastics, with some metal by Rose and Jacklex.
World War 2 of various nations, plus lots of 1:3000 scale ships for naval 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.