Interesting episode! So much history to delve into, so many niches its having the time and effort to properly dedicate yourself. All too often I’m like a kid in a sweet shop when I really ought to go with something, run with it then maybe actually finish something before moving onto the next project but alas my attention span often fails me.

@brennon I can heartily recommend Pikeman’s Lament from Osprey if you’re dipping your toe into ECW/Pike & Shot era warfare. Skirmish gaming, cheap set of rules that are quite malleable and you can effectively get a reasonable fighting force from a single box of Warlord P&S infantry. I’ve actually ported across some of the rules into Lion Rampant for my Wars of the Roses gaming as that was the first time we started seeing the use of handguns and pikes in Britain albeit usually in the hands of foreign mercenaries.

@avernos have you ever considered the War of the Heavenly Horses? You get people theorising over ‘first contact’ between China and Rome but truth is it happened earlier than that with Chinese interaction with the Greco-Bactrian successor kingdom. As the Chinese started to stretch there muscles into Indo China, into the deserts of the west they would first bump into the various nomadic tribes before hearing of a kingdom out there renowned for the quality of its horses. They demand tribute and submission, the Greco Bactrians say no then the Chinese send a number of punitive expeditionary forces and in the process annex huge amounts of land creating the modern western border of China. A successor force of phalangites, Greek heavy cavalry, all manner of Afghan and eastern levies besieged by the Chinese. Interesting stuff! Couple of good documentaries on the tubes about the successor kingdoms.

@warzan 19th century warfare has a lot going for it, especially if you’re happy to delve into pulp or alternative history. The wars in Afghanistan, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and the like are all fascinating but they all tend to be quite big. As Templar007 says, the Men Who Would Be Kings rules really let you play around more easily. How about the Fenian Invasion of Canada? After the American Civil War ended, hundreds if not thousands of Irish veterans or the war formed a republican army with US uniforms died green and attempted to invade Canada in the hope of stirring up a rebellion back home. Red coated Canadian militia against the invading Irish! You also have the Perry’s line of British Intervention forces for a very real possibility of British involvement in the American Civil War. The US illegally seized a Royal Mail ship (which fair enough, had two confederate agents on it), they through the crew into confinement and stole the cargo. Britain responded by sending tens of thousands of troops to Canada and it was only after Lincoln apologised for the actions of the US navy that war was avoided. Fuzzy Wuzzy is a racist term, it was used to describe the inhabitants on the Upper Nile, so people like the Beja tribes of the Sudan with their nappy hair. Well worth watching films like The Four Feathers if you’re interested in that sort of era.

The areas I’m looking at quite fondly at the minute are varied but all contained within the broader Victorian era. The Boer War, using Zulu Wars British infantry and American Civil War plastics as a cheap way of delving into the period. Also got family in Africa so could be fun to play out when they’re over! Boers attacking a British supply train or something. Confederates painted up right will fit the part, just have to forget that the Boers never used bayonets but hey ho.

Another area is the French involvement in Indo China. No reason whatsoever why I can’t paint a box of Perry redcoats in sky blue and use them as French Marines (also use them for North Africa for that matter). Using spare heads from the Test of Honour plastics I should be able to quite easily kitbash some Vietnamese again from the fairly ubiquitous American Civil War plasics.

Finally is a deviation on Zulu Wars. Why can’t I repaint/convert Zulus into Wakandans?!! Black Panther and the Wakandans fending off an incursion of British troops who have gone in thinking they are just another isolated African kingdom.

Lots of fun to be had! Hope we can revisit subjects like this in the not too distant future.