Background, part 1

So, back to the beginning - what do I like, what do I paint, what do I play. In terms of periods, I have at least some degree of interest in virtually every period except modern, which I would define as post-ww2. Medievals are my first love, followed closely by American Civil War and Napoleonics.

My medieval collection is my largest by far, encompassing a number of different sub-periods and scales.

• 25mm Hundred Years War (Old Glory)
• 25mm Mongols and related opponents (Old Glory's Liegnitz range)
• 25mm Wars of the Roses (Old Glory and some Front Rank)
• 25mm Normans, Saxons and Vikings (Old Glory with a few Gripping Beast)
• 25mm Crusaders (Old Glory and a few Perry), serving more as "generic" medievals since I do not have 25mm Saracens or other opponents for these. Because of the horse archer nature of many of these battles, I elected to do the Crusades primarily in 15mm...
• 15mm Crusaders and Saracens (Old Glory and some Essex)
• 25mm Ottomans (c.15th century using Old Glory's terrific Eastern European ranges). I have bought a bunch of figs for this, but it is largely a future project. I have painted one unit of Janissary archers and 3 mounted leader figures for fun, but that's it.

In addition to medievals, I have the following other figures:

• 15mm ACW (Old Glory and Battle Honors). A good number of these.
• 15mm Napoleonics - Fench, British/Allied and a few Austrians (Old Glory and Battle Honors). A good start, but need more.
• 5mm Napoleonics (Heroics and Ros). Tons and tons of these little guys.
• 5mm Seven Years War Prussians and Austrians (Heroics and Ros). Enough to do a moderate sized game.
• 25mm Ancients - Republican Romans, Carthaginians, and related Spanish and Celts. (Old Glory).
• 25mm American Revolution (Old Glory and a few Front Rank). Modest sized armies.
• 15mm WW2 - American and German primarily (Old Glory and Quality Castings/Battle Honors). Modest sized forces.
• 25mm Early Renaissance Italian Wars c1490-1520 (Old Glory). This is another period where I have bought a bunch of figs but haven't painted much, with the exception of a decent sized block of Landsknechts that were shipped off to a contract painting service.

The rules I/we typically play are:

• Medievals - Chris Parkers' Day of Battle, Saga's Medieval Warfare, and home rules heavily modified from 2nd edition Day of Battle. I have played Might of Arms at HMGS conventions and thought it was ok, but don't play it at home.
• Ancients - Saga's Ancient Warfare. I have tried Armati and DBA and found both to be completely uninteresting.
• ACW - Fire and Fury. A bit abstract to be sure, but flows nicely and is easy to pick up and play again after a layoff.
• American Rev - Fire and Fury variant. Also Flint and Steel by Richard Kane from Clash of Arms games. I like these rules a lot and play them at conventions, but I don't know them well enough to run games at home.
• WW2 - Battlefront. Flames of war, aka Buckets of Dice holds absolutely zero interest for me.
• Seven Years War - Koenig Krieg. An oldy but a goody. Will also be trying Saga's Lace Warfare, which I have played at conventions and think is pretty decent.
• Napoleonics - this is a tough one. I love William Keyser's From Valmy to Waterloo, but it is a fiddly game that doesn't translate well to casual players, some of which my crew are. It is more for hard core gamers because of the level of detail and being pretty involved. Saga's Napoleonic Warfare is a pretty good candidate, because it is similar to all the other Saga products, so it seems familiar, and plays easily. A bit abstract at times, but...

A last comment on painting itself. I love to paint, and am decent at it, but lack the time to get large quantities of figures done. In addition to painting my own stuff, I use or have used the following for painted figures:

• Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka for excellent quality, reasonably priced figures done in bunches. I have heard mild complaints from a couple of friends on quality variation from order to order, but I have never had a problem.
• GAJO - I have bought a good amount of 15mm ACW and Napoleonics from George and later Craig over the years. I am less thrilled about the painting style that Craig uses now, but the quality is certainly terrific.
• Pretty much all of my 5mm Napoleonics and Seven Years War stuff was painted by Robin Miller, since retired. A great guy.
• As a general rule, I do not buy painted figures off of ebay or other auction sites as I tend to be really picky about my figures and like to have some idea what I am paying for.