I think a good shallow, but broad brushstroke example (and paperback so it's inexpensive) for a taste of military history from a variety of nations and periods would be "100 decisive battles, from ancient times to the present" by paul k. davis.

Only about the first half of the book covers battles ...

There are quite a few miniature manufacturers out there. Most are available online.

I'd recommend 15mm as a scale to start out with, both for cost and accessibility.

OldGlory 15s have FOG "starter army" sets that are worthwhile and reasonable. The challenge is that you'll be hard pressed to find ...

That sounds like a solid plan/ color scheme to me. Think I'm going to go the same way.

Not sure if I've read anythign about white shields. I don't think I have. As far as how it looks, I've seen some "non-roman" white shields out there online and I didn't like the way they looked. Then again, if ...

I want to say that I've read that the plumes were for the most part horsehair (though I can't seem to cite a source at the moment), which has lead me to thinking that they should be some sort of naturally occuring "horse hair" color. Primarily black, conceivably this could be where the occasional ...

Goldsworthy also says that the signifiers wore bronze scale mail. I've never seen them depicted that way, but he does have a picture of some artificact bronze scale mail later on. I agree on the white tunics as well, though again, you don't seem to see them depicted that way too often. I'd be ...

This is great! Very educational for a new guy looking to build some terrain and not break the bank.

Thanks alot!

Will

I assume you're speaking of Surus? The one tusked Asian that survived the crossing of the Alps?

There's also suspicion that some of the elephants purchased from Egypt and Syria might have been Asian, though yes, the majority were the African "forest" type, which are generally considered too small ...

I've been doing a lot of looking around with regard to War Elephants. It seems to me that the Corvus Belli Carthaginian ones have the most realistic howdah tower (wood versus the mini stone castles that seem to be found on quite a few others). Likewise, their elephant without the tower looks pretty ...

Great to hear. Your website would be...?

I'm wondering if anyone knows about a vendor offering pre-packaged terrain kits?

In my mind this would be similar to a lot of miniature producers offering pre-packaged starter armies.

For example, similar to having Late Republican Roman Battle groups in a retail package, you would have the ...

Thanks a lot, you validated some of my suspicions and cleared up the issue quite a bit.

I've read de Bello Gallico 4-5 times and can't remember Caesar ever mentioning a battle wagon. My initial thought was that possibly it was something wargaming specific that every army seems to have regardless ...

Hello all, new guy question.

I read in the rule book about battle wagons. I've done quite a bit of research online and have found alot of fantasy and sci-fi references, but absolutely nothing about ancient ones. Are they something you have to fabricate yourself? If not, who sells them? What's ...