War in the South

The War in the South covers the conflict between Spain and her colonies between 1810 and 1826. It focuses on the Argentine contribution to independence – and San Martin specifically – covering the fighting in northern Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru.

Tucuman – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Battle Report

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Tucuman-338 Centre - Patriots encircle Royalists - Banner

Adam and I play tested Bolivar’s Very Bad Day using my Tucuman Scenario. We wanted a small game to test my variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day for the South American Wars of Liberation.

Summary: Good little game with the Patriots strong in cavalry and the Royalists strong in infantry. My Patriot cavalry stripped off the weak Royalist cavalry and encircled the Royalist infantry columns. Then we had a hard grind with repeated cavalry charges against the staunch Royalist infantry. Eventually Adam accepted he couldn’t win and conceded.

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Tucuman – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Scenario

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Table - Tucuman - Map 1c - Bolivars Very Bad Day - Banner

Feedback from the guys was that Battle of Sipe Sipe (29 Nov 1815), although a good game, was too big for regular play testing of Bolivar’s Very Bad Day. So they asked for a smaller scenario with less terrain. The Battle of Tucumán (24-25 September 1812) seems perfect for this. Although the deciding battle in the War of Argentine Independence, it was a small scale affair with, in game terms, only 11 units on each side. It also features the a wide range of troop types and troop quality. And it has Gauchos. This scenario is based on my write up of the historical battle and how to wargame the battle. Bolivar’s Very Bad Day is my Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

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Sipe Sipe – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Battle Report

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SipeSipe-106A Royalist right and centre - Banner

Jamie and Adam came over to play test Bolivar’s Very Bad Day, my Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day. I’d just finished the hill for Battle of Sipe Sipe (29 Nov 1815), so decided to give the associated Sipe Sipe Scenario a go. Because we were play testing the rules, we wouldn’t have enough time to complete the battle but we figured we’d give it a go anyway.

Summary: Draw because we ran out of time. But good play test of the scenario and rules. Lots on insights most notably, the jungle fighting felt wrong under the draft rules and there shouldn’t actually be jungle fighting at all in the scenario. Both rules and scenario need tweaks.

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Musing on Commander Special Attributes in Bolivar’s Very Bad Day

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I like the way John Fletcher (2005, 2006, 2011, 2018abc) assigns special abilities to the generals of the South American Wars of Liberation. In Liberators QPR generals are classified on a five rating scale from abysmal, through poor, average, good to excellent. That is nice but then he goes further and gives some generals extra abilities e.g. improved initiative. It is these special attributes that I really like. So how would that work in Bolivar’s Very Bad Day, my Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day? This post is about the rules mechanism, the framework, and I’ll post separately about the actual generals of the South American Wars of Liberation.

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Alternative Chacabuco – A Bolivar’s Very Bad Day Battle Report 2

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Chacabuco-833 Melee results on left - Banner

Chris and Adam played my variant of John Fletcher’s Alternative Chacabuco scenario, my go to for testing out rules. We were play testing incredible rough draft of Bolivar’s Very Bad Day, a Liberators variant of Tilly’s Very Bad Day.

Summary: Really good fun game. Adam’s Patriots took the game but it was down to the wire. Adam lost Bernardo O’Higgins and his command stalled. Chris lost Field Marshal Del Pont and his command evaporated.

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Alternative Chacabuco – A Live Free or Die Battle Report

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Chacabuco-603 Maroto's Division waiting at Chacabuco Farm - Banner

Chris, Adam and I had a go at Live Free or Die. The scenario was Alternative Chacabuco so a Liberators game using my Live Free or Die house rules for Big Base Liberators. Chris was the Patriots, Adam the Royalists and I was rules interpreter.

Summary: The game system defeated us. After hours of play we were no where near a conclusion so we gave up.

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Alternative Chacabuco – A Live Free or Die Scenario

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Chacabuco-603 Maroto's Division waiting at Chacabuco Farm - Banner

I’m on a roll. A Liberators roll. Jamie got me started but this scenario is because of Andrés Ferrari. He suggested I look at Live Free or Die for Liberators. I needed a scenario to play test it on and John Fletcher’s Alternative Chacabuco (13 Feb 1817) is my go to scenario for trying out rules for this period. This is my conversion of John’s scenario to Live Free or Die.

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Alternative Chacabuco – A Liberators HoTT Mass Battle Battle Report

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Adam, Chris and I had a go at my Alternative Chacabuco Scenario for Liberators HOTT. The South American Wars of Liberation are becoming a bit of a theme in late 2021.

Summary: Good game. Infantry slog felt like an Napoleonic style infantry fight. Columns pushing through lines in a bloody and extended battle Cavalry fight was brutal and heroic, more Lord of the Rings than South America, and took too long.

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Alternative Chacabuco – A Liberators HoTT Mass Battle Scenario

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Table - Alternative Chacabuco - Liberators HoTT - Massed Battle - Banner

I already have a Alternative Chacabuco Scenario for Liberators HOTT, based on the Alternative Chacabuco scenario from the Liberators Supplement by John Fletcher (Fletcher, 2006). But that is for a typically small HoTT game and today I wanted to play a big game of Liberators HOTT. A “Mass Battle” in HoTT terms. More elements. More figures. More players. More fun.

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Steven’s 1815 Argentine Army on Big Bases

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Liberators-841 Argentine 1815 7th Infantry Regiment - Back - Banner

I thought I’d show off my 1815 Argentines. I my thoughts on Using Big Base Liberators Figures of 1817-18 for 1815 I highlighted a few gaps that I needed to fill before I could refight Sipe Sipe. I could use some figures from my 1817-18 Argentineans but I had to get a few more.

If you are interested in the other side, I’ve already posted on my 1815 Royalists.

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Steven’s 1815 Royalist Army on Big Bases

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Liberators-876 Royalist 1815 Partidario Battalion - Column - Banner

My thoughts on Using Big Base Liberators Figures of 1817-18 for 1815 highlighted a few gaps that I needed to fill before I could refight Sipe Sipe. I could use some figures from my Royalists of 1817 and 1818 but there were a fair few units that didn’t have a direct equivalent. That gave me an excuse to get some more. Okay, it isn’t hard to convince me to get more figures – in this case it just took some fancy uniforms that aren’t seen in other years of the Wars of South American Liberation.

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