If I have forgotten any please don't vote and say which era I have forgotten I will add it for you, I find it so hard to choose, I find all of the eras so compelling.
The Ancient Era is so interesting because it was the beginning of Tactics, Chariots and such
The Roman Era naked the dawn of conquering, instead of raiding the Romans actually assimilated the countries they invaded
The Middle Ages, the politics are interesting in this era, all the backstabbing within Europe, and the Crusades, Saladin and King Richard were the pioneers of Chivalry, when Richard was sick with fever Saladin sent him snow, an extreme luxury in Arabia. The mounted combat was also interesting, considering archers and footsoldiers were far more usefel, and yet, they held so much less standing.
The Renaissance Era is good from a tactical point of view, Horatio's naval prowess is probably still unmatched (as it is no longer necessary)
the dawn of the Gunpowder Age Sure, gunpowder was used in cannons long before, but it was the best I could come up with, Corteses assaults are impressive, fighting through unfamiliar territory with men with low morale, severely outnumbered, and yet he still retained command
The Pre WW1 Era also captivates me, the way that guns and swords worked in unison is interesting, but the Civil War was ridiculous, the two sides just marched towards each other shooting at the other side, with next to no tactics
WW1 itself was the beginning of Trench Warfare, taking the siege away from points of tactical signfigance
WW2 is by far the most interesting war by weight of content, both political and military wise, so I placed my vote hee
Post WW2 marked the end of unquestioning nationalism, there were now obvious reasons for why the wars should be fought and why they shouldn't be fought
The Current Era is by far the least 'chivalrous' with civilians becoming the main target not soldiers

Early Modern period or 'Early gunpowder age'.

Pikes! Pikes everywhere! Arquebusers! Tercios! Dutch resistance!

er.... why's Napoleon listed under Renaissance? :ermm:


That aside, I'd say either the Roman Period or the Middle Ages; though I'm basing it more on with the general historical period, rather than wars.

I'd call the Renaissance (or Napoleaonic Era) Early Modern age, but the Dawn of the Gunpowder age was intended to cover the whole gunpowder age

Im gonna have to say either medieval times or WWII. Medieval because of the reasons of the war and the style of fighting. The WWII because of the extreme measures gone through to win.

He came up with a lot of Renassaince ideals imo, (The Renaissance is also pre and post Renaissance)

I think you forgot the None option. For me, as sick as it is, I wouild say WWII because it has the most "toys". Ever since I was alittle boy, who didn't love to pretend they were in a tank? Or flying a WWII fighter in Dog Fighting. If you look at most computer games with vehicles, it is almost all based on WWII type fighting. Halo series and Warhawk, while set in the future, it is fought as it was in WWII era.

Look at Star Wars. That is WWI and WWII dog fights. So for me, it is WWII. Love the tanks, planes, battleships, (Yamato anyone?) As I grew up, then I realized how sick it was to enjoy these "toys" once I found out they were used for destruction and actual people lost their lives. Once I realized this, I liked to learn history then.

It isn't 'sick' this isn't a tread about your favourite war era, just the era you find the most interesting, be it for tactical reasons, social reasons, economic or just equipment reasons, WW2 and 1 bot influenced modern day pop culture far more tan most people think

I didn't say this topic was sick. I said sick at myself, not to anyone else. I found it wierd how I could like something that caused so much death and despair.

Again, I didn't say sick to anyone but myself.

Great topic

For me the most interesting era of warfare are those in which there were technological advances which changed the way warfare was fought.

For me these are the eras which saw the development of steel/bronze weapons, first use of machine guns, etc, etc.

I was reading about the conquest of the incas and how badly they were slaughtered just because of steel weapons and horses.

Seeing all those periods of human warfare makes me realize that those people w/ the "co-exsist" bummer stickers need to get real and take an objective look at human nature.

We are a violent species. Always have been, and likely always will be. Sad but true.

They also showed the Spaniards their tactical spots, as origanlly they thought that they were Gods

EDIT: Corteses conquest always depresses me, because the natives, in their innocence (or arrogance) didn't even consider the possibility of someone attacking them, so they were overly trusting

Roman era will always be my favorite historic era. That and Vikings.

Depressing indeed. But incas had a large empire with a significant military force as well, right? I think cortez turned some of the incas againist each other as well, which fits in to the how the spaniards found out about there tactical spots.

The Tlaxcala sided with Cortes, the rest of the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans fought back, quite an accomplishment how how Cortes, with a handful (comparitively) brought three major empires to their knees

If pressed to vote I guess it would be the dubbed "Ancient Era" of warfare. However, I personally consider Hoplite warfare separate from chariot/Egyptian style warfare but its your topic. Where's the Hellenistic Era? Blocks of professionals wielding sarissa's and the first real proficient blend of a infantry and cavalry mix in battle. sixy stuff in my opinion.

And for how boring they seem, hoplite warfare has always interested me. Tactics be damned, I'm gonna throw my large block of men at yours and dammit, we will win!

EDIT: Oh, haha, there is a Hellenic section. Didn't see that So I suppose its just simpler if sections like that are massed into one.

I was doing the choices based on mainly chronological order, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought hoplite warfare was occuring in Greece at the same time as Charioteering in Egypt?

EDIT: Hellenistic would be borderline Ancient and Roman, I classed it as Ancient

Yes and about 1500 years (at least) before that while I believe hoplite warfare was "developed" around the Greek Dark Ages. Purely speculation on that though :shrug: (See edit above). I suppose lumping them together cuts down on tons of poll choices.

Yep, it's too hard to place ancient warfare tactics in chronological order, due to the fact that it is mostly speculation, they all used different calendars so no-one really knows when they began

Lots of things wrong with your poll. I am unsure how the Punic Wars don't fit in the Roman era (or even why you wish to separate that from the rest of Antiquity), though I can kind of see why you did that. Vikings however should clearly be in the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance (besides the fact that it is a cultural movement that happened in multiple parts of Europe at different times, and not a historical period) happened a couple of centuries before either Nelson or Napoleon was born.

That said, I easily find the Ancient world most interesting. It has people battering down on each other with swords, spears and axes in truly massive numbers that wouldn't be matched again until the time of Louis XIV. There are complex strategies and tactics, mighty heroes, both fictional and not, gear that looks really slick and there's epic hordes of brutal naked barbarian warriors kicking ass as well. All later history is boring in comparison.

That's the worst history summary I've ever seen ! Sorry to tell you ! Please review your poll from scratch. It sounds you know the history after 1850

Ancient= xxxx B.C. to 100 B.C. (Greek, egyptians, hellenic wars)
Rome and Byzance = 100 BC to 500 AD (Romans, punic wars, dark ages invasions)
Middle Ages = 500 AD to 1500 AD (Vikings, AZincourt, crusades)
Renaissance = 1500 AD to 1650 AD (Invasion of the Americas by Europe, War of the Roses...)

Napoleon wars (including Nelson naval battles) are from 1800-1815. If you want to talk about history, at least put a bit of accuracy.


Any wars has some strategy attached to it. The interesting part is that, the wars before the 19th were mainly involving brutal force. From the 19th century, the economy weapon started to become very important (not that it wasn't before). From the 1970's, the war is now including a very key element: the information, propaganda, fear, terrorism, de-information etc...
On computer games, the economic is toughly reproduced and the information is totally forgotten.

I would have to say WWII.

Civil War era. It was the last true gentleman's war.

Well, this is more resonable titled than the last thread. I would have to say WW2, all sorts of interesting prototypes were developed duting that time, especially by the germans. Also battleships were used at that time, nowadays it's only submarines and escorted aircraft carriers :shrug:

I find the US Civil war/Boer wars era to be the most interesting. On the cusp of modern warfare, but still retaining the characteristics of the old.

Plus I like all those flintlocks and early breech loading rifles, and the start of mechanised warfare with submarines, early machine guns and ironclad warships.

I've always been fascinated by WWII. As a kid I would always watch documentaries about it and I've maintained an interest in it ever since. I have an interest in military history in general, but WWII has always been the most interesting to me.

I'm actually reading Eugene Sledge's With the Old Breed right now, which is an excellent account of his experiences as a Marine in the Pacific during Peleliu and Okinawa. I'd highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in WWII. Before that I read Robert Leckie's Helmet For My Pillow which was also excellent. Many of you will probably recognise those two names from The Pacific (TV miniseries) as they are two of the books that it was based on.