So I was driving home Sunday morning after spending an enjoyable Saturday gaming with friends in San Diego (a WW2 game, not South America). There was a traffic accident on the 405 North that was backing things up pretty severely so I thought I'd use the opportunity to stop in at Brookhurst Hobbies. I had just received an email from Bill Witthams, our HMGS/PSW president, informing me that Brookhurst would honor our membership with a discount and I decided to take advantage of my good fortune. After spending a good hour just milling around I decided to catch up on a rules set I'd been thinking about for months. I bought a copy of Black Powder.
I got home and started leafing through it. It looked like a fun, not too serious rules system in the Games Workshop school of "simple mechanics and a handful of d6s". Great. I like simple. I like fun. I was thinking to various posts and questions on the Yahoo! Group about how to adapt the rules to South American Independence...
And then it happened. I hit page 104.
"Spanish control of her colonies weakened during the Napoleonic period, and South American countries began to assert their independence. Latin America remained entangled in internal wars for some decades following the creation of Argentina in 1810. However, these have failed to attract the interest of either wargamers or figure manufacturers so we shall not dwell further upon them. In Spain itself we have the civil war known as the Carlist War beginning in 1833. British, French and Portuguese troops were also involved. Up until now it has not aroused the interest of gamers, but with the availability of an attractive model range who knows?"
I guess it's time to pack it all in folks. I don't make the figures and you don't have the interest. Thank God Rick Priestly, Jervis Johnson and Warlord Games told me so! I might have done something really, really stupid like start talking with Mike Broadbent about expanding our Royalist infantry range or setting up a new casting arrangement here in the States with Monday Knight Productions! Wheh. Thanks, guys!
As long as we're talking about things that don't exist for people who aren't interested, I'll be at the Gamex convention in Los Angeles, September 2-5 at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel. I'll be running the Battle of Laguna Salada scenario using my friend Chris Herschel's "Huzzah and to the Bayonet" rules. I'll also be giving a talk about my new book "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions in South America, 1817-1824". It'll be a fun day and I hope to see some of you there.
Speaking of talks, for UK readers Ben Hughes, the author of "Conquer or Die!" will be giving a presentation on Tuesday, July 26 at Bolivar Hall, the Venezuelan Embassy's cultural centre, 54-6 Grafton Way, London, at 7:30pm. Free admission and drinks to boot!
And saving the biggest news for last: Daniel Pedrazzoli has just released the English language version of his latest 1813-1815 Alto Peru booklets, "Uniforms of Pezuela's Army". Fair disclaimer: Daniel did illustrations for my "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" book and we have been in contact for years. In fact, it was Daniel who introduced me to Julio Mario Luqui Lagleyze. That said, Daniel's series is a must have for the period. This book covers the Royalist infantry units that comprised Joaquin Pezuela's Royalist army in the battles of Vilcapugio, Ayohuma and Viluma (Sipe Sipe). He goes into great depth on the uniforms of each and every regiment and battalion, covering every aspect from junior officers to drummers to separate illustrations for fusilier, cazadore and grenadier companies in both summer and winter dress. It builds on the groundbreaking archival work of Professor Luqui Lagleyze and fills out the material I presented in "Liberators!". "Uniforms of Pezuela's Army" gives the reader the most complete depiction I have ever seen of the outfits worn by the men who fought these battles. The booklet is available as both a PDF download and a hard copy edition. I just had to have it so I went for the download but I will soon be ordering the entire series in hard copy. Superb.
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4 comments:
Interesting, I didn't read that bit. I suppose we are therefore into the realms of fantasy gaming then.
However, I am also going to look at using BP for these wars and will be trying to come up with suitable stats for the armies.
Simon: what's even more interesting is that on p.174 they show some figures captioned as "20mm Latin American Wars of Independence (Conversions based on Italerai models)" that look a lot like figures from Martin Gane's collection.
That said, I am with you: it would be good to come up with stats for our fantasy period!
I'm a double fantasist as I'm interesting in South America and the Carlist Wars.
I am sure it would be relatively easy to come up with some stats, they can be enhanced with the special rules.
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