I have rebased my Argentine Army of the South American Wars of Liberation on Big Bases. All infantry and cavalry on 80mm x 40mm bases. 12 figures per infantry base; two bases to a battalion. 6 figures per cavalry base/squadron. Guns stayed on 40mm x 40mm bases; one gun per base.
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.
Using Big Base Liberators Figures of 1817-18 for 1815
A while ago I put together some thoughts on Using 15mm Liberators Figures of 1817-18 for 1815. That was for my old armies on bases 30mm wide. I’ve now gone for Big Bases so I thought I’d revisit what I need to do for the third campaign in Upper Peru (Jan-Nov 1815), featuring the Battle of Viluma / Sipe Sipe.
Maipo – A Liberators Portable Wargame Battle Report
Back on 10 Oct 2012 Andrew Coleby and I had a go at Bob Cordery’s Portable Wargame. I didn’t write it up at the time because I was busily converting this site to WordPress. Nominally the game was for the Battle of Maipo. I like the idea of wargaming on a chess board but the rules themselves need refinement.
Gavilan – A Liberators HOTT Battle Report
Back in December 2012 I played the Gavilan scenario for Liberators HOTT. I didn’t write up the battle because I was in the midst of converting this site to WordPress. But I recently rediscovered the photos and thought I’d share a few.
Alternative Chacabuco – A March Attack Battle Report
I quite like the Alternative Chacabuco scenario from Fletcher (2006). It isn’t historical but it is small and reasonably balanced so is a good choice to try out a new set of rules. As it happens I’ve been wanting to try out March Attack by Crusader Games for a while so once again Chris Harrod and I faced each other around Chacabuco Farm. Chris was the Royalists / Spanish. I was the Patriots / Argentineans. It was the first outing of my Liberators armies now they are all on Big Bases.
I’ll describe the battle and then make some observations on the game, March Attack and the scenario. The summary about March Attack is that the rules are optimised for Corps level actions and hence gloss over of details at the level of the manoeuvre unit (battalion, regiment). That speeds up the rules but at the cost of flavour that is significant for the small South American Wars.
Alternative Chacabuco – A March Attack Scenario
The Liberators supplement (Fletcher, 2006, p. 10-11) has an Alternative Chacabuco scenario. These are my notes for playing the scenario with the March Attack. See also the Battle Report.
Painting Guide for Viluma 1815
A painting guide for the Battle of Viluma / Sipe Sipe of 1815.
Maipo – A Liberators HOTT Battle Report
Chris Harrod and Kevin Pridgeon played my Liberators HOTT scenario for Maipo. Chris was the defending Royalists and Kevin the attacking Patriots. It was Kevin’s first try with historical wargames and Liberators HOTT in particular. A good fun game but the HOTT timescale didn’t work.
Gavilan – A Liberators QPR Battle Report
Chris Harrod and I played the Gavilan scenario for Liberators QPR. I was the defending Patriots and Chris the Royalists. It was great fun but another epic in terms of play time. The Patriots won. We’re not sure the Royalists can win even with beefing up Morgado’s forces.
Setting: Gavilan Hill, Conception, Chile; 5 May 1817
Maipo – A Liberators HOTT Scenario
This scenario is in the Liberators book (Fletcher, 2005, p. 66-67). These are my notes for playing the scenario with the Liberators HOTT.
Wargaming the Battle of Gavilan 5 May 1817
John Fletcher has published a scenario for the Battle of Gavilan (5 May 1817). I’ve got supplementary notes related to wargaming that scenario in various places and this post points to them.
Gavilan Scenario for Liberators QPR
John Fletcher published a scenario for the Battle of Gavilan on the Liberators 1810-1830 Yahoo Discussion Forum (in the files section). The scenario is nominally for Liberators Quick Play Rules and I have rewritten based on the anticipation of play testing on a smaller table.
Alternative Chacabuco – Liberators QPR Battle Report 2
Chris Harrod, Robin Doran and I played the Alternative Chacabuco scenario from Fletcher (2006) using Liberators QPR. This is the third time I’ve played the scenario; the first time was Liberators QPR, the second was Liberators HOTT. I was the Royalists / Spanish. Chris was San Martin with Soler’s Division. Robin was O’Higgins. This was Robin’s first historical wargame.
Summary: Another good game. Went faster this time. We got to a conclusion in 4.5 hours including set up. The direct tactics of the Patriots helped with that. These tactics also led to the rout of three squadrons of Elite Argentine Horse Grenadiers.
Maipo – A Liberators QPR Scenario
Maipo is a scenario in the Liberators book (Fletcher, 2005, p. 66-67). These are my notes for playing the scenario with the Liberators Quick Play Rules.
Battle of Maipo – A Lasalle Scenario
I outrageously copied the content of this scenario from Francisco’s Lasalle Scenario from Cold Wars 2011. All I did was put it in my standard scenario format. So, after this paragraph, all references to “I” means Francisco.