Spanish and Portuguese Military History,
Wargaming, and other stuff
Back in 2003 I was inspired by an article by Jim Esler called “Meet the Aztecs”. Jim offers an informed critique of the then WRG, primarily DBM and DBA, army lists for the Aztecs. Since then both DBM and Jim’s page has disappeared. I thought I’d pull Jim’s article back from the WayBackMachine and make … Read more
I picked up a small Aztec army on ebay. I didn’t know the figure manufacturer but Peter Feinler kindly pointed out they are Naismith Design available from Navwar. They are compatible with Essex and Gladiator although a tad more slight that either, and a lot smaller than Falcon. I’ve also mixed in three Essex figures … Read more
This page covers the shield designs of both Aztecs and Texcalans (Tlaxcalans). The list below is not comprehensive and I recommend you look at the painting guides for Aztecs and their enemies for other shield patterns, or go straight to the Codices for more ideas. The nahuatl for shield is “chimalli”.
This page is largely based on Jim Esler’s “Meet the Aztecs” web page and Cronofus’s “A Simple Guide to an Aztec Wargaming Army”. Plus various other sources.
Indian words are in Nahuatl, and specifically Aztec, unless otherwise mentioned. Most references are from Heath (1999).
I’ve seen few of these figures so this page is largely based catalogues and on comments from the Meet the Aztecs web page by Jim Esler. Jim’s web page went through the figures figure code by figure code, but I wanted them sorted by the use of the figure.
2023 went pretty well although there were a few bumps and I still didn’t complete nearly enough of my plans. So what is on the megalomaniac agenda for 2024? Well, you’ll see below. As usual I present this as a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less … Read more
So 2022 went okay. And now it is time to lay out my megalomaniac plans for 2023. I will try to tone them back a bit as, despite a lot of activity, I achieved depressingly few of my goals last year. As usual I present this as a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. … Read more
My big history book case is in the living area and not surprisingly my wife gets annoyed when the books get messy. Recently I tidied it up. Aside from the fact it took hours – which I didn’t enjoy – I found it interesting what this filing task highlighted about my interests. Aside from my … Read more
I am pretty happy with my efforts in 2021 and now it is time to lay out my plans for 2022. As always they are crazy megalomaniac plans. 2021 proved that even pumped I can’t achieve all my annual goals. But I’ll try. I start with a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those … Read more
My Confessions of a Megalomaniac were my 2021 aspirations. How did I do? I started the year with huge ambitions, and didn’t achieve them all, but it wasn’t a bad run.
2020 was a good year for wargaming projects and I thought I should lay out my plans for 2021. Crazy megalomaniac plans, of course. As usual I’ve done a brain dump of my active projects, i.e. those all projects that are more or less “in progress”. No off the wall fantasy here. They are all … Read more
2020. New year. New decade (depending on how you count these things). 2019 was a good year but I want 2020 to be even better. My crazy inner megalomaniac demands I monologue about my world conquering (i.e. overly ambitious) list of what I’d like to get done this year. Get ready for the ride …
So here we are. 2019. My inner megalomaniac is as crazy as ever. I’ve talked about my recent successes in 2018 Reflections of a Megalomaniac Wargamer and Amateur Historian. Now it is time for the overly ambitious, world conquering even, list of what I’d like to get done this year.
I recently rebased my Reconquista armies on Big Bases. That includes the elements I use for Big Base HOTT. In this post I feature the Christians which can also serve in Arthurian HOTT. You might have seen some of these guys on small bases in my Strathclyde Welsh (Northern Cymry) for Britannia 600 AD. Of … Read more