Spanish and Portuguese Military History,
Wargaming, and other stuff
Most rulers in Europe agreed that the Elector of Bavaria would succeed Charles II of Spain when the latter died. Unfortunately the Elector predeceased Charles, which left two contenders for the throne: Philip, the grandson of Louis XIV, and Charles, brother of Leopold I, the Holy Roman Emperor. Charles II died in Nov 1700 leaving his throne to the Bourbon Philip and the result war was nominally to put the Hapsburg Charles on the throne instead. Philip was supported by France and Spain less the Catalan territories, where as Charles had the support of the Grand Alliance including most other nations in Europe. The war was fought over a large part of southern and western Europe including the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Even though Charles withdrew his own claim to Spain in 1711, the war dragged on until 1715.
In our recent game of Tilly’s Very Bad Day Chris observed that, as the defender, he could exploit the terrain placement rules to his advantage. This is my proposal to address Chris’s concern. These rules allow randomised terrain for pick up battles in any period.
The terrain placement rules described here borrow heavily from Terrain Cards for a ECW Campaign.
What is the origin of the term ‘Tercio’ – the name adopted by the large Spanish pike and shot units of the Renaissance? The word literally means a bundle, or a one-third part of something (Notario Lopez & Notario Lopez, 2012) but he origin of the term for a military unit is not known. There are, however, various theories.
Chris Harrod and I played my Almanza scenario using my 5mm figures on a newly painted 3’x2′ gaming board.
The Yahoo Group: TwilightSK discuss various tweaks to the standard rules. In particular Tom Loback and Vincent Tsao of the Corlears Hook Fencibles generate lots of suggestions. This is my list of optional rules and/or musings based on that discussion. It is largely the suggestions of Tom and Vincent but with some twists of my own. Feel free to pick and choose from this list to tweak the official rules.
In 2001 I published a set of Fast-Play Rules for the Marlburian Period on this site. Andrew Coleby took these as a basis, refined them through play testing, and arranged for them to be published. They have since appeared as:
Annotated bibliography for Twilight of the Sun-King rules.
Painting Guide for the War of Spanish Succession. Just the Portuguese so far.
All details from Condray (1992), which, apparently is hard to get now. .
Paul Mitchell kindly sent me pictures of his 6mm War of Spanish Succession figures. Paul didn’t mention it but I assume these figures are based for Volley and Bayonet or Grande Armee.
The War of Spanish Succession was mostly fought in northern Europe, but as my particular interest is Spain and Portugal, I’ve restrict my history to the campaigns in the Iberian peninsula.
Annotated bibliography for the War of Spanish Succession.
15mm Wargaming Figures for the War of Spanish Succession.
The idea was the refight the Battle of Almanza (25 April 1707) during the War of Spanish Succession.
A Twilight of the Sun-King scenario for the War of Spanish Succession featuring the Battle of Almanza.
This is a set of fast play rules for the War of Spanish Succession including the campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough.
When writing Twilight of the Sun-King (specifically the original 2001 version) I kept in mind these principles.