Why do we choose the armies/sides we do?

[MPO]

Well my main army is my Royalist ECW army which mainly caught my interest due to being and ECW reenactor haha other than that I have a small force of Bolt Action British mainly because a few of my friends all wanted to get into WW2. I also have a battalion of the Perry Napoleonic British just because I thought they looked nice as is the case with my Front Rank Monmouth Rebellion regiment haha!

Mike

[grant]

For me:
ECW Royalist Army Don't tell mikeland, but I started with a New Model Army. Everyone makes mistakes! I sold them to a friend (that's how you make sure you have an opponent!) and then started up my true and proper Royalist army.

French Napoleonics had an abortive start with British at Waterloo, my local gaming group did some goofy things regarding basing, and I got tired of the whole thing and dumped them. Started up my French with an awesome deal the Perrys were running at the time, including a copy of Black Powder. I now have a lifetime supply of French!

WW2 Fallschirmjager by Bolt Action - who wouldn't want to build these? Newest project. I have made SS before, and wanted something different.

WW2 Pacific Theatre - USMC and Japanese by Bolt Action - I was really tired of Northwest Europe, and had just watched Letters from Iwo Jima - it was a no brainer. Plus, I blame Helen for her great painting!

[Eumerin]

It depends.

For World War 2, US because how can you not like an army that has a vehicle nicknamed "Hellcat"?

And Romanians because they're definite underdogs who probably never should have been in the war to begin with, but ended up fighting anyway due to all of the picking apart of Eastern European countries (including - and this is the important part - Romania) that happened in the early stages of the war. They faced down JS2s with up-gunned R-35 tanks. You can't get much more underdog than that.

And French because I was given a box of French 15mm armored vehicles for Christmas in 2010 (that I still haven't quite finished painting... )

I couldn't tell you why I picked Russian for the Napoleonic era. I went with Wurttemberg because I needed some troops for when I was fighting on the French side of the table, and everyone automatically thinks of France for that. Wurttemberg was one of the often forgotten German allies, and had quite possibly the best units of any of the German states.

And finally, I like the Sassanids because they've got cataphracts in all their beauty and glory. The elephants are a nice little bonus, but I just like the way that some of the middle-eastern cataphracts look as if they've been dipped in scale mail.

[Big Al]

My favourite army is the Mycenaeans. I absolutely love the Iliad and Oddyssey and the whole thing just caught my imagination and never let go. My other favourite is Roman. I first got into ancients through these and they've stuck with me.

Other periods tend to be down to patriotism. Is that a bad thing? I used to live in South Africa and Rhodesia back in the late '60s and most of the '70s. In South Africa, I had the Boer war rammed down my throat and how we Brits were despised, regardless of the fact that everything happened about 100 years before and I took some right stick for it. This raised the patriotic levels and once it takes hold, there's no letting go. As a result, I have tried building a Napoleonic Peninsular army, I have two WW2 armies, one force of Paras and a Carrier platoon utilising 10 BA Universal Carriers.

I would like a Desert Army in 28mm. I have always adopted the 4th Light Armoured Brigade, both in 1/300 and Fow and it's about time I got one in 28mm, but Warlord haven't come up with the goods yet (Hint, Hint!). They seem to be heading that way with the BEF gear they have acquired.

[Cubster]

Something needs to hook me. It could be a good book, a film, a game, the toys I played with as a child, or even just some good models.

I do tend to go for British more often than not, presumably because I always did as a kid.

[Eumerin]

I would like a Desert Army in 28mm. I have always adopted the 4th Light Armoured Brigade, both in 1/300 and Fow and it's about time I got one in 28mm, but Warlord haven't come up with the goods yet (Hint, Hint!). They seem to be heading that way with the BEF gear they have acquired.

Not that I play 28mm WW2, but Warlord does seem to have some odd gaps in its coverage. For instance, the French DLMs aren't represented at all. No S35 (at the time, believed to be the best medium tank in the world - until the Panzer III said otherwise), no H35/H39 (the latter was a new production version of the former with an improved engine), and no AMD35 armored car.

I guess no one will be using Warlord's models to refight the Battle of Hannut for the time being.

[RoughRider]

Usually I base my choices on the models- it's all in "the look" for me. An exception would be my ECW Royalist army, chosen simply because of the charismatic figure of Prince Rupert.

[Thaddeus]

I'll be honest, most of my historical projects are inspired by thoughts of "Hey, it'll be much cheaper to make [insert fantasy army] with these historical figures than with those overpriced goofy-looking fantasy miniatures." Then, as I start assembling and painting the miniatures, I find myself drawn into the actual history they represent. This has happened (in approximate chronological order) with:

Parliamentarian ECW: originally intended as zealous witch-hunters, fanatically devoted to a certain fictional hammer-wielding deity.

Vikings and Rus'/Early Russians: savage hairy northmen exist in almost every fantasy setting, but before the historical bug bit me I did have plans to paint a few eight-pointed stars on this lot.

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Cossack Rebellion: winged lancers are awesome in fantasy and reality!

Actually, though, Polish/Cossack project is sort of the reverse of the other two; it's the first one I conceived of primarily as a historical project, with backup plans to combine them for fantasy if my group gets back into that game. I've even picked out specific Orders of Battle (Berestechko) to try to emulate as I collect.

Looking back, I suppose my deeply rooted Slavophilia might also be a factor in my choice of armies...

[ady2650]

I suppose I choose my armies because I feel some personal connection with them, either that or they're tied to films I like or they just look cool.

My first foray into historicals started with a Saxon Heptarchy force for WAB largely because I grew up living a couple of hundred yards from this:

Most of the figures came from Gripping Beast and shortly after I started collecting them they released their line of Picts so I got some of them too as they looked really nice minis. Then Warlord plastics came out and I filled my boots with Romans and Brittons because they were dead cheap in comparison. There are several Brigantian hill forts dotted around Sheffield, possibly as part of an effort to stop the Romans coming any farther North, so I did up a version of WL's Boudicca as the Brigantian queen Cartimandua. Apparently she was a bit of a Roman sell out so I had to swap the captured standard for a British looking one as it's not very polite to go pinching your supposed ally's stuff.

Other than that it's Royalists for ECW. The Earl of Northampton's regt. as I'm now living there, Woopert's wegiment because they're cool and Newcastle's whitecoats as he lived over at Bolsover Castle, again near Sheffield.

And then we come to the besterest of all! I have a bit of a pith helmet fetish after collecting a huge army of GW Praetorian Imperial Guard and watching Zulu, Zulu Dawn and the man who would be king too many times so when WL's AZW stuff came out it was a bit of a no brainer really

Is that at Dore in Sheffield ?

[Undave]

Is that at Dore in Sheffield ?

Yup. I live near Northampton now though. It's nice enough but there aren't enough hills and certainly no moors to go tromping across