Spanish and Portuguese Military History,
Wargaming, and other stuff
After reviewing What to Simulate in a Vietnam War Company-Level Game, I decided to take a closer look at whether standard Crossfire could handle it. By “standard Crossfire,” I mean the version in the rulebook (plus HTD), where a rifle stand represents a squad of 9–12 men.
The short answer? It doesn’t — but I already knew that.
The point of the exercise was to identify the gaps. And those are exactly the gaps I’m aiming to fill with Wombat Gun, my draft variant for the Vietnam War.
I’ve been toying with the idea of creating a variant of Crossfire for the Vietnam War—still at company level, just like standard Crossfire. I’m tentatively calling it Wombat Gun.
Then the other day, Adam came over and we played Charlie Don’t Surf by the Two Fat Lardies — another company-level game. That session really got me thinking: what are the key elements worth simulating in a Vietnam War company-level wargame?
Here’s where I’ve landed so far. These are the key features of the conflict that I think any ruleset should simulate. Please share if you have other ideas.
I’ve been working on Bolivar’s Very Bad Day, my variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day for the South American Wars of Liberation, for a while now. Years even. So I thought I’d make it available for download (thanks to Hugh for the nudge). It is only four pages long with another two for the Quick Reference Sheet (QRS). And there is a massive caveat: it is only Beta. I thought it better to get it out there and gather feedback. All feedback welcome.
Chris and I played the 12th game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. Actually there were four of us on the night. Adam joined me, of course, on the Royalist side. And in the absence of Jamie, Big Dave turned up from the USA to help Chris with the Parliamentarians.
Summary: Fantastic game. Parliament did some clever moves with well timed interpenetrations. Chris’s careful manoeuvring and Dave’s shear impetuousness was a winning combination. That and the fact Parliamentary shooting killed two Royalist Generals. Parliament victory.
Here is my first company of the Soviet Airborne Forces or VDV (Vozdushno-desantnye voyska SSSR) for WW2. They are for Crossfire and Deep Battle.
I’ve updated Populous, Rich and Rebellious to version 2. Populous, Rich and Rebellious is a Campaign game system for the First English Civil War (1642-46) in England and Wales. The campaign assumes Tilly’s Very Bad Day as the tactical rules.
I’ve been quietly painting 1819 Patriots since I posted on my 1815-1819 War in the North – Steven’s Wargaming Project back in May 2024. Roughly a year later, it is time to unveil my 1815-19 Patriots (Phase 1 of the project). These are of course on Big Bases for South American Wars of Liberation using Bolivar’s Very Bad Day (a variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day). The men are either from New Granada or Venezuela and I chose the units because they fought at Battle of Vargas Swamp (25 July 1819).
So I’ve been Musing on the Vulture’s Feast, a Thirty Years War version of my Populous, Rich and Rebellious Campaign for Tilly’s Very Bad Day. Most of the flavour of the campaign comes from the Campaign Cards. I’m not sure which ones I’ll end up with but I thought I’d share the possibilities. Please comment if you have endorsements, tweaks and/or new suggestions.
We’re really joying Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. But people keep asking me, what about the Thirty Years War? (Most recently Peter Godden.)
Adam and Chris played the 11th game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War.
Summary: In probably the best game yet, Parliament thoroughly crushed the Royalist defenders in Wales.
After a 10 month gap, Adam and Chris played the tenth game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. Unfortunately we’d forgotten about Game 9 so it was a bit of a replay … with a different result.
Summary: A strong Royalist attack crushed the Parliamentary defence of the South-East.
Adam and Chris played the ninth game of Populous, Rich and Rebellious, our four player Campaign using Tilly’s Very Bad Day, and set in the English Civil War. Actually, they played it on 9 Apr 2024 and I forgot to post it.
Summary: Parliament successfully defended the South-East from a large aggressive Royalist army.
We’ve played this a couple of times now so I thought I’d put it into my scenario format. This is a Crossfire scenario for a fictional battle between 2 NZ Division (Kiwis), including Kiwi Armour, and German paratroopers (Fallschirmjäger). It is primarily to play test my Balagan House Rules for Crossfire Armour (2nd Edition).
People often criticise the armour rules in Crossfire. For anybody who, during 2022 and 2023, was following my Musing on Revised Crossfire Anti-tank Rules, you can download the final Crossfire Armour – Balagan House Rules here. Enjoy.
My original title for this post was “Iphicrates, peltasts, thureophoroi, phalangites, and shielded cavalry”. Iphicrates was a leader of mercenary peltasts and is attributed with creating, or at least inspiring, both the Greek thureophoroi and the Macedonian phalangite. I keep reading bits and pieces about this but they are like a pieces of jigsaw puzzle scattered over the table. Reading about thureophoroi lead me to reading about other troops: Illyrians; the Thracians with their rhomphaia; Thracian cavalry shields (using them before the Greeks); and Macedonian cavalry shields. I thought a timeline for military innovation across the Macedonian Wars would help to position the various bits in relation to each other.
The timeline covers the period up to the general adoption of the Macedonian phalanx including the encounters between Pyrrhus’s phalanx and the Roman legions. Obviously it covers explicit mentions of Iphicrates, peltasts, mercenaries, thureophoroi, phalangites, and shielded cavalry, but it also covers Macedon’s neighbours Greece, Epirus, Illyria and Thrace. The Greeks, Epirotes and Illyrians all invaded Italy at one time or another so the timeline also has to cover elements of Italian history as well. This is not a complete timeline, just an attempt to map out the pieces of the puzzle.