Since this covers about an entire century. The Imperial Conquests range can cover a lot.
So admittedly I've been wondering just how many different era kits can be adapted to this era. WW1 minis seem like an obvious one, but I've been wondering about Napoleonics...... mainly just the British Riflemen. I've also been wondering if the WGA British Riflemen wouldn't look out of place fielded alongside Warlord Game's Black Powder American Independance Artillery.
@Charles Tottington the The Sharps Riflemen set actually would look out of place everywhere practically but the Napoleonic era timeframe and maybe some actions in the decade just after maybe.
British and Americians tended to change their uniforms every decade for every theater practically after the early 1700's, if one wanted you could do a 19th century line thats just British in diffrent uniforms of the timeframe and have a diverse bunch of guys (they would not even have the same guns half the time). the AWI happend in the 1770's so I am not even sure if the cannon from American War Independance would work with the British Rifle, but the crew would for sure look out of place, that said Victrix does Nappy Artillery.
That said though you can use the Afgahns for almost any conflict from the 19th century they where involved in as is at least and maybe sub in for east indians for the later actions in the Sharps Rifles book series.
I think you've got most of it there - this era overlaps the Napoleonic era on the earlier end, and WWI on the later end, and you can surely find a use for at least some of the more flexible Napoleonic and WWI era sets.
Don't be afraid to check out the WWII sets as well, there's a few of those that are flexible enough to overlap the later end of WWI, and would surely fit in alright in the latter part of the Imperial Conquests era - the Italians and French especially come to mind.
You might need to handwave a couple anachronisms here and there, but if you and your gaming group are OK with that, then that would probably cover most of the Wargames Atlantic historical territory. You might spot a couple digital sets I wouldn't think of outside of these rnages (for example, the Victorian Era, the Wild West, and the American Civil War would all be contemporary with much of the Imperial Conquests range), and so digital is probably worth looking at in more detail, but there's surely not a lot left in boxed plastic sets.
As usual, things are a little more flexible for you if you're into fantasy gaming - and the Imperial Conquests equivalents to fantasy would include things like Victorian Sci-Fi, Steampunk, and Pulp adventure, horror, and sci-fi. If that's a direction your interested in, then be sure to check into Wargames Atlantic's Death Fields, Classic Fantasy, and Pulp Adventure ranges (the Lizard Men and Bulldogs for example would fit in well with Victorian sci-fi), as well as the new "The Last War" tabletop wargame available through WA (which runs by default on WWI figures but doesn't necessarily have to and could easily be adjusted to a pulp Imperial Conquest setting), and don't be afraid to check out earlier eras for armies to populate lost continents with (WA's First Empires Persians - perhaps combined with bits from the Death Fields Accessory Sprue - would make fine Atlanteans or Lemurians, the WA Renaissance Aztecs would look right at home in any Hollow Earth or Lost World setting, the French Resistance can be modified into pulp adventurers, gangsters, Cthulhu investigators, and other such characters pretty easily, while Digital Atlantic has lots of stuff for pulp gamers to work with, too!)
But if you're strictly going for historical gaming, and you don't mind some anachronisms here and there, the only thing I can think of to add to what you've already mentioned would be to check out those WWII French and Italians, and scan through Digital Atlantic to see if there are any surprises there.
@Yronimos Whateley Yeah, I was wondering if the Napoleonic British Riflemen can be adapted into the Victorian age so I can steampunk them up a bit.
Problem is trying to figure out how to make something steampunk. Since the steampunk aesthetic is unfortunately hard to define aesthetically.
Two kits I absolutely plan on getting are Werewolves and Zombies. I'm just trying to figure out if the repeater gun in the British Napoleonic Riflemen has an equivalent in Silver Bayonet. I know that I have Fistfull of Lead: Age of Steam, so I might something there.
@Yronimos Whateley While you have a point about the French, the WW2 Italians don't really fit in that well anywhere else if we are talking actual history gaming. Otherworld/high imagination set games (ie a non-historical setting which is not our world) where your looking for a late 19th century colonial vibe, they would work for that as long as you avoid the modern design iron helmets and paint them bright colors.
@Charles Tottington steampunk has a lot of variation, so it's mostly about deciding what elements you want to adopt.
personally, if i was going steampunk, i'd draw on the Girl Genius comic, (comic wiki) where the infantry is largely napoleonic, but you have all sorts of weird monsters, steam/clockwork robots, and armored vehicles to draw on because of the mad science elements of the setting. you could easily justify anything from before WW1.
@Brian Van De Walker - A lot is going to depend on where you date the end of the era of "Imperial Conquests", and, as always, a lot also depends on how sensitive you and your gaming group are to weathering the unbearable calamaties of a little anachronism here and there.
And it sounds like we're talking about a conversation where both the WWI kits and the Napoleonic British Riflemen are on the menu, alongside the zombies, werewolves, and a dash of steampunk.
To that party, the Italians are bringing Carcano rifles - a product of the Victorian Era - some uniforms that (to an untrained eye) wouldn't look very far out of place a couple decades ahead of WWII, and some really snazzy Alpine caps and pith helmets with outrageous feathers that would ook great on a classic pulp-era sci-fi/fantasy/horror/adventure tabletop.
And, is there a better match anywhere for Italians from anywhere between the 1890s and the start of WWII (when the classic age of "imperial Conquests" was basically punctuated by the atom bomb?)
Now, if you're strictly looking toward the earlier end of the rough boundaries for this era, toward the Napoleonic era (and earlier - I'd argue that it surely began with the advanced colonization of the Americas, before the American Revolution!), then it's a different story. The wider you cast this net, the harder it's going to be to ignore the anachronisms - those Italians are going to look a little more natural alongside the WWI British, Russians, Germans, and French, than they will alongside the Napoleonic British Riflemen.
I'd be fine with mixing Napoleonic and WWI troops on the same tabletop - improvise the best you can with what you've got to work with! - but, even I couldn't blame anyone for feeling a little anxious about immersion past a certain point.
I know the original topic specified Wargames Atlantic sets in particular, but if you're looking at a "pulp era" game setting with zombies and werewolves, I say those Italians will fit in well enough there. If you want to go full-steam Weird Tales, you've still got a few nice optons in 28mm plastic out there outside of Wargame Atlantic to work with, such as the Reaper Bones "Chronoscope", "Mythos" and "Deadlands Noir" figures, which include some great Cthulhu monsters and investigators, Victorians, steampunk characters, Weird Western gunslingers, and more... Reaper's fantasy range includes gargoyles, vampires, mummies, and all sorts of other useful gothic horror figures that would fit right in, too. There's also the Dead Man's Hand hard plastic gunslinger kits, and the Frostgrave cultists and wizards hard plastic kits, which make some great Cthulhu cultists, villains, sidekicks, investigators, and heroes - these figures tend to run a bit short and pudgy compared to Wargames Atlantic, but you can usually trade arms between these guys and Wargames Atlantic sets, and with a little work the heads can be modified to fit as well. There's also the occasional hard plastic set from one of Wargames Atlantic's other competitors aimed at the general Victorian Era - specifically the Zulu wars and American Civil War - which are also loosely compatible with perhaps a little modificaiton for head swaps, and might work within the earlier years of the age of "Imperial Conquests" - gunslingers, ACW soldiers, Victorian British soldiers, and the like will fit in nicely with various flavors of steampunk with no modification, and if you use the Wargames Atlantic Death Fields Accessory Sprue with those sorts of figures, you can add just that little dash more "punk" sci-fi to them!!
@Yronimos Whateley that would be one heck of an "untrained eye", more like doesn't really know about military history before WW2 "eye" 😆. Honestly WA's WW1 Italian digi sculpts would fill in better for the late 19th century, in fact the WW1 Germans and any late 19th century British would work better for WW1 and earler Italians given in WW1 they dressed like this:
While WA's WW2 Pasta eaters look like this:
The only hat that is the same are the Alpine caps which along with the Carcano rifles and maybe ammo belts are probably the only things that are the same. The jackets are completely diffrent, in WW2 they had ties (which carved on in the plastic set), the pith helmets are different designs, etc. You could have the WW2 Italians for pulp game alternatives to Nazis for mooks but it would still be the 1930's to late 1940's, not really anything earlier than that or much later even unless you are adding time travel into the setting.
That said if you go full "not our earth in anyway" fantasy. you can have Napoleonic Style Riflemen alongside Chariots fighting WW2 tanks and mounted knights or WW1 troops with steam powered seige towers. the sky is the limit.
@Mithril2098 I would actually say the infantry in Girl Genius is mostly more Crimean War uniforms with diffrent color schemes than napoleonic, but eh, its mostly about the nice hats😉.
