If you didn’t know, Balagan means messy or chaotic. And lately my head has definitely been balagan. I’m trying to justify building up a Japanese force for Crossfire. I’m trying to find ways to fit the Japanese into my Official Focus of Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, and Israel. I’ve got to say, it ain’t easy. But with quite a lot of mental gymnastics I might manage it.
Spain
My specialty is the Military History of Spain and Portugal. The Spanish bits that seem to interest people the most are Carlist Wars, Rif Wars, Spanish Civil War and the Spanish involvement in WWII (mostly the Blue Division).
Steven’s Arthurian and Reconquista Christian Elements for Big Base HOTT
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 course they complement my “El Cid” Feudal Spanish Army for Big Base DBA and my Dark Age Horde.
Sagrajas 1086 – A Big Battle Big Base DBA (BBBBDBA) Battle Report
Chris, Jamie and I played the pick up version of my Sagrajas 1086 – A Big Battle Big Base DBA (BBBBDBA) Scenario. This was an excuse to use my new El Cid Army for Big Base DBA. Each side had 24 elements on a 6′ x 4′ table.
Sagrajas 1086 – A Big Battle Big Base DBA (BBBBDBA) Scenario
Chris and Jamie are coming over and I wanted to use my new “El Cid” Feudal Spanish for Big Base DBA. So, of course, I’ve gone crazy and devised a A Big Battle Big Base DBA (BBBBDBA) Scenario for the Battle of Sagrajas 1086. I’ve only gone for 24 elements per side (not 36). We only used the historical context to give a bit of flavour for the pick up game, but I have included suggestions for a more historical simulation at the end.
Steven’s “El Cid” Feudal Spanish Army for Big Base DBA
I’ve finally got a proper “El Cid” army. This is DBA army list – III/35b Feudal Spanish 951-1200AD. Of course my army is based for Big Base DBA
Revised El Cid DBA Army List – III/35b Feudal Spanish 951-1200AD
With my new “El Cid” army about to hit the table. I thought I’d have a look at the army list – III/35b Feudal Spanish 951-1200AD. The DBA 3.0 list has changed from the DBA 2.2 version. The changes are generally good but I thought I’d revise it to align more with the related Field of Glory army lists. These changes give more flexibility in the list. Personally I think flexibility is good because, really, we don’t know what any of the armies were really like.
My Wishlist for DBA-RRR Big Base Italian War
You have gathered from my recent posts on the Reformatted DBA-RRR Spanish Army Lists and Reformatted DBA-RRR French Army List that I’m currently keen on DBA-RRR and the Italian Wars (1494-1559 AD). I started this project 20 years ago when I commissioned the Spanish from a professional painting company. I got the Spanish infantry back but I never saw my Spanish cavalry figures or the money again.
It has taken two decades to get over the shock but I’m having another go. I’m repurposing what figures I have for big bases and filling in the gaps. Of course I’m outrageously ambitious, even for a DBA variant.
Reformatted DBA-RRR Spanish Army Lists (Italian Wars 1494-1558 AD)
Tony Aguilar’s DBA-RRR, for DBA Extension rules for Renaissance, Reformation and Restoration 1500-1700, look promising for playing the Italian Wars. Aguilar provides army lists to accompany the rules, based on those for DBR, but I have some gripes with the formatting. In this post I reformat the DBA-RRR Spanish Army Lists (1494-1558 AD) to more closely match the style of other DBx lists. I admit it also helped me internalise the lists – understand them better – with a view to perhaps tweaking them in the future.
KB4F The Embankment – A Crossfire Battle Report
Jamie Wish and Chris Harrod played “The Embankment” (KB4F), the third game of Krasny Bor, featuring the Blue Division in an epic Crossfire campaign. The Spaniards were defending the area of the Leningrad-Moscow Railway line – the Embankment – against overwhelming odds.
Summary: Jamie’s Soviet both infantry and armour – broke through the thin Spanish line. This will make the fourth battle tougher for Chris.
Spaniards in 50 Middle East Commando
Over the years Antonio Fajardo has kindly sent me information on Spaniards in British Service during WW2. As a culmination of over 25 years research, Antonio has managed to find the name of every Spaniard in the 50 Middle East Commando unit. He has kindly let me publish the list. In addition to the list itself, I have paraphrased various of Antonio’s comments to give some context.
Lasalle with Big Bases – Introducing Combat Value
All my Peninsular War infantry/cavalry units are on Big Bases with two big stands per unit. Also I don’t want to combine small units in the South American Wars of Liberation because there are already only a few units on table and I want to represent them all. So I need some way to represent the number of men, and hence number of stands, in a different way to standard Lasalle.
Jim Esler – Meet the Aztecs
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 it more easily accessible for the community. All words are Jim Esler’s; I have modified the formatting a tiny bit. Thanks to Ethan for finding the article.
Renault FT-17 and Schneider M16 CA1 Tanks in the Rif War
In 2002, perhaps because Jesus Dapena had published some photos of Renault FT-17 tanks in the Rif, Santiago Dominguez sent Jesus some more photos of the Spanish FT-17s. But he also included photos of the more elusive Schneider M16 CA1 Tanks used by the Spanish in the Rif War. Jesus recently asked me to republish them.
Renault FT-17 Tanks in the Rif War
Back in 2002 Jesus Dapena published some photos of Renault FT-17 Tanks in the Rif War; photos taken by Lieutenant Cipriano Briz (“Uncle Cipri”). I thought they were cool, got in contact with Jesus, and linked to his material from my Rif War pages (Timeline; Painting Guide; Sources; Orbat). Recently Jesus got in touch with me to explain that his site has now disappeared. Jesus kindly shared the content with me so I could republish them. All words and photos by Jesus.