Liberators!

Professor Matthew Brown's new blog

2012-01-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

Professor Matthew Brown of Bristol University sent me a link to a new blog he is starting called The Bolivarian Times. Bookmark it as it looks like it will be a great source of English language information. Don't despair when you first go there and everything is in Spanish! Just scroll down and the same post appears in English.

Professor Brown has published many works focused on the British and Irish Legions. He and Professor John Lynch are arguably the 2 most important English language researchers in the world on the topic of South American independence. I used a couple of his books in "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions", especially the fascinating "Adventuring through Spanish Colonies". I caution that it is a scholarly read but there is so much information packed in there regarding the sociological aspects of the subject that it's not even funny. Professor Brown has also developed a database with the names of over 3,000 men who served in the conflict, including notes of their service. He hopes this blog helps expand this database and encourage genealogical research into the British and Irish mercenaries.

Supporting cast

2012-01-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

I've been spending the last few weeks assisting others with their projects rather than working on mine. The middle to end of December was spent helping Miguel Simon Costa of Capitan Games work up and English translation of their new Master and Commander Close Quarters rules. These rules focus on gaming Napoleonic naval boarding actions. It's a pretty exciting system that would be great for a convention or club game. And they're free! Mike Broadbent has sculpted a full range of 15/18mm miniatures and Miguel has offered suggestions on how to adapt the range to fit South American navies.

I've also been helping Ben Hughes with his latest book on the British expeditions against Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807. Ben is writing in a similar style to last year's "Conquer or Die", using first hand accounts and primary sources to drive his narrative wherever possible. My role has been to simply critique the chapters as they come. I also supplied Ben with a copy of a rare memoir that Rene Chartrand sent to me years ago. I'm not sure what the schedule for publication of this book is but I can tell you that if you enjoyed "Conquer or Die" you will enjoy this as well.

It looks like the casting issues have all been sorted out, except for a replacement mold for some of the Venezuelans (it's a count issue and doesn't affect the product at all so it's nothing you'll ever see). I got my first shipment in, mainly Argentina infantry and artillery crews for each faction. I need to get more guns in stock and round out a couple of other references but I'm pretty well stocked for the foreseeable future. Feel free to visit the store and order away!

Mark Ryan suggested (again!) that I write some articles for some of the wargaming magazines. He thinks that would help spread the word to folks that are interested in the period but haven't taken the leap. I agree but I don't think I have a photogenic enough army to support an article. Zach Haydt has done some incredible work for me and El Mercenario did a unit of Royalists as a present a couple years back but these don't add up to an army. If any of you have well staged pictures and would like to help promote our period, let me know!

For a little eye candy, check out Handgrenadealien's latest South American conversions.

Bits and Pieces

2011-12-18T21:02:00.000-08:00

A few things to check out as we approach the year end holidays. If you haven't already, visit Handgrenadealien's Great Lament; it includes some spectacularly painted 28mm figures converted from various ranges for South American use.

Speaking of 28mm figures, be sure to check out Park Field Miniature's new South American range. Simon Lee is the sculptor and owner and our UK friends should look for him at various shows around the country. Great work!

I am helping Capitan Games with an English language version of their new Master & Commander Close Quarters rules. The version they currently have is fine but I am trying to make it more readable for the English language gamer. Mike Broadbent is now sculpting for Capitan Miniatures and has done a full range of 18mm figures to go with M&C Close Quarters. He is also working on 28mm Napoleonic figures for Miguel and hopefully the Spanish troops will go along with Simon's range. Great to have some dedicated options for the 28mm gamer.

In the back of my mind I'm thinking of the 28mm Buenos Aires 1806-07 range that Carlos is working on in Argentina. While you're on the site, check out the exposition they recently held at the famous Galerias Pacifico shopping center in downtown Buenos Aires! Some awesome games from all different periods. I see that Francisco was there; those Zulu War figures look awesome!

Finally, I am still working with my new caster, Monday Knight Productions, on getting the molds sorted and an effective ordering method established. I have plenty of stock on hand for most of the references but I am currently short of Argentina infantry and 2lbr, 4lbr and 8lbr howitzers. I have made these first priority and anticipate having them in hand in a matter of days.

Gateway demo game AAR

2011-09-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

Gateway 2011 was a lot of fun. The turnout was solid, especially considering SoCal Smackdown was going on in nearby Orange County during the same time. Mostly in the large ballroom where the open board gaming was going on. The miniatures area was a bit dingy, suffering from a distinct lack of lighting, but there was plenty of gaming going on.

I ran the Laguna Salada scenario from the new "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" book. This is the same scenario Chris Herschel ran at Cold Wars, using Chris' unpublished "Huzzah and to the Bayonet" rules. We had 2 father and son teams, all new to both the period and the rules. After a very brief explanation of the rules we got to the gaming.

The Laguna Salada scenario features the Irish Legion, in the form of the Irish Lancers and Cundinamarca Light Infantry battalions, leading a small Patriot expedition under the command of veteran Venezuelan commander Mariano Montilla. The Irish are supported by a small unit composed of survivors of General English's British Legion, some Venezuelan Marines and several companies of hastily recruited and trained local troops. Although the Patriots have no cavalry they are supported a well handled section of 2 4lbrs, crewed by English and Irish gunners.

The Royalist army is a motley collection of militia troops led by the experienced Spanish Colonel Vicente Sanchez Lima. A small unit of Cazadores, augmented by recently arrived Maracaibo Militia, provide the backbone of the force. Various regional militia, collected into a battalion, along with garrison troops, make up the balance of the infantry. The Royalists have 2 cavalry units, one of dragoons the other of lancers, both inexperienced and poorly trained. The Royalists also have a band of Guajiro Indians that provide a strong skirmish force.

Historically, the Irish and English troops were on the verge of mutiny after a difficult 2 month campaign that had seen very little success. The Patriots had been hounded by the Indian guerrillas and were simultaneously hungry for revenge and ready to quit. In the game the Patriots need to win a quick, solid victory to bring the Irish back into the ranks while the Royalists want to keep their army in the field and inflict enough casualties to cause the despondent Irish to abandon the ranks altogether.

The battle started with a strong Patriot push in the center, lead by the Irish Lancers and the Cundinamarca Light Infantry. The Venezuelan Marines and the British Legion Tiradores formed a 2nd line supporting the right while the Peasant conscripts and artillery protected the left. The Royalists placed Gomez' Indians and the Riohacha Cazadores in ambush in the woods on the Patriot left while the various militia held their ground, drawing the Patriots into the trap.

The Lancers and Cundinamarca closed to musket range and the superior training and fire discipline of the mercenary forces quickly made themselves felt. The Royalist garrison troops, as well as the various militia companies, formed into a composite battalion, found themselves locked into a cycle of losses and morale failure that dogged them for the rest of the game. Despite their precarious position, however, neither unit broke and skillful generalship by the Royalists kept them in the field. Of the main Royalist battle line only the Milicia Blancos de Maracaibo retained their effectiveness.

All was not well for the Patriots, however, as the Royalists sprang their ambush. While the Indians focused on the peasants the Cazadores teamed up with the Maracaibo Militia to put the Cundinamarca under a withering crossfire. The Maracaibo traded frontal volleys while the Cazadores poured fire into the flank. The Patriot artillery were admirably handled and tried desperately to assist the Cundinamarca by training their fire on the Cazadores but the Royalists, deployed in skirmish order and protected by the heavy woods, proved too elusive a target for the two Patriot 4lbrs.

In the middle the Royalists shrewdly, if cynically, sacrificed their cavalry in repeated frontal charges against the Irish Lancers. While this cost them heavy losses neither unit broke and their alternating charges kept the Patriots from concentrating fire and finishing off either of the pinned and helpless Royalist infantry units. On the Patriot side the Tiradores and Marines, after extricating themselves from the woods on the banks of Laguna Salada, found themselves poorly positioned and unable to deploy effectively. Eventually the Tiradores worked themselves into the line to the right of the Irish Lancers but displayed incredibly poor musketry, failing repeatedly to score hits against any target and serving as the butt of many Royalist taunts.

The Patriots, preoccupied with the relentlessly feinting Royalists and fearing losses to the Irish Lancers, stopped advancing and tried to break the Royalists with firepower alone. This played into the Royalists hands as they patiently focused on breaking the Cundinamarca. The Patriots belatedly recognized the threat and shifted the Venezuelan Marines across the line to try and replace the battered battalion but before they could reach them the Cundinamarca broke completely and were taken from the field.

As dusk fell across the battlefield (we reached the time limit for the table and had to clear for the next event), the Patriots found themselves almost completely encircled. According to the victory conditions Chris had written they had achieved a tactical victory: the battered Patriots withdrew to the town and the disgruntled Irish, already on the verge of mutiny, abandoned the cause. The Royalists, panicked across almost their entire front and having suffered heavy losses among their lancers and dragoons, did not pursue but contented themselves with knowing that they had thwarted the Patriot threat....for now.

Thanks to Zander, John and their dads for the enjoyable game. I enjoyed their enthusiasm and it was cool to introduce some young players to the period. They got into the storyline of the game and were fascinated by the history of the Irish Legion. There was also a good deal of walk by traffic and folks stopping to look at the figures. The poor lighting was regrettable (hence the lack of pictures in this AAR) but people were still drawn to the table, especially the new Llanero/Peasant figures. As at Cold Wars, Chris' rules were well received and quickly adopted by the participants. After the game I handed out a few cards so maybe it'll lead to a new recruit or two to our period.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-08-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend Grenadier Productions will be having a 25% off sale on the entire catalog. The sale begins Friday, September 2 and ends Monday, September 5. If you've been thinking of purchasing anything, this is definitely the time to do it!

Martin, Ian and Des of the South London Warlords have finished their Ayacucho demo game and will be running it at several major conventions in the coming months. I believe the first appearance will be at Crisis in Antwerp on November 5, 2011. All our European friends, keep and eye out for them and be sure to support their amazing effort.

Also, I'll be running the Laguna Salada scenario from the "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" book at Gateway 2011 in Los Angeles on Saturday, September 3 at 2:00pm. If you're going to be at the convention, join in or swing by and say hello. The convention is being held at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel.

Otherwise, things have been fairly quiet on the Liberators! front. I've been taking something of a break and indulging some other gaming interests, mainly World War 2 and also having a go at League of Legends. Enjoyed a good game of Dune a couple weeks back as well.

We don't exist...it says so, right there on page 104

2011-07-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

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.

A fun diversion, a good idea & assorted good news

2011-06-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool blog I stumbled across via TMP this morning: http://militaryminiatures-carloantonio.blogspot.com/

On other news, John in Chile and I have been corresponding again. You'll remember John as the source question of the free article that discussed my confusion around the Cazadores a Caballo, the Argentinian vs. Chilean units and the uniforms of each, that I published a couple of years ago. In response to a uniform query by Rolf, John posted some photos of the 1813-1814 Chile campaign uniforms. That got he and I into a private correspondence on the topic, in the course of which John suggested I start a wiki.

What a good idea! I have been increasingly aware of what I call "messy paper syndrome": we've reached the point where there is a lot of information out there, especially on the Yahoo Group, and it is getting difficult to keep it all straight. Especially given that this project is ongoing in nature and our knowledge base is evolving as more information and viewpoints get brought into the period, a wiki seems like a perfect vehicle for presenting the current "best information". Obviously, a wiki is a lot of work and moderating it and keeping it updated would be quite an undertaking but I am seriously considering at least getting one started and building it as we go.

As I mentioned on the Yahoo Group, Julio and I have a new article in Military Historian & Collector on the flag of the 7th Argentina Regiment, now conserved in the Museo Nacional in Montevideo. Julio did the research, took the photos and submitted a draft, which I "ghost wrote" into English. It's a fascinating tale and offers a glimpse into how errors get introduced into history and how items of significance can quickly become lost in a collection. It's also a good piece for those of you who are interested in what Argentinian regimental flags looked like. You can get a copy from The Company of Military Historians.

Finally, I thought I'd let you all know a couple of things that are happening on the miniatures range. I am looking at moving casting to the US. Mike told me a few months back he wanted to cease casting for me and I agreed that it was a good thing for all of us. I am close to closing a deal with a new caster and, during the transition, some references may disappear from the Grenadier Productions website. This is because Zen Cart, the shopping cart I use, removes out of stock items from the catalog. It's not an option I can control. Anyhow, since there will be a lag time as molds are shipped, etc. there may be a run on figures. Rest assured that they will all return as soon as the new caster is up and running.

Also, Mike is going to cast what I call "1815 Uniform Spanish". These figures are going to be Spanish/Royalist infantry in short tail coats, lapels, French style bell-top shako and bearskins for the grenadiers. The bearskin is not the usual Spanish style, with the long colpack down the back as seen in the 1808 uniform but a modified style that came to use late in the Napoleonic Wars that was based on those worn by the French Imperial Guard. These figures will translate very well for South American regiments that had lapels as well as for Spanish infantry in the Peninsular War.

As always, visit the Yahoo Group, keep your eye on the Grenadier Productions webpage and feel free to write! And if you haven't bought your copy of "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions", why not do so now?

"Adventures" released...what's next?

2011-05-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

As most of you reading this already know, "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions in South America, 1817-1824" is now available at the website. It was a long time in coming and it feels really good to have new material out there, especially material that leads to a new theater with new troops, leaders and history. "Adventures" is set in "The North", that is, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. It is a first introduction to the battles and campaigns of this region and contains the first scenario featuring Simon Bolivar.

At the same time, we can celebrate the new release of a South American variant at the Capitan Games website and the development of an upcoming variant for Regimental Fire & Fury. There are new British/Irish Legion, Royalist Command and Llanero/Peasant figures at the website.

For the next few weeks I plan on doing some support work for all of this new good stuff. I have promised Miguel of Capitan Games some scenarios to use with the variant. He has the OBs but needs maps; these are my first order of business. I also have some plans for supporting "Adventures". One of these includes providing some scale maps of the fortresses of Cumana. There are 2 scenarios set in Cumana in the book and while they are certainly playable "as is", I figure since I have architectural drawings of these forts (both from the 1700's but certainly applicable to 1819) it would be cool to translate them into game terms and present them to you. I would like to do the same for the forts at Portobelo, Panama but I lack the source material. I am sure period layouts exist for these forts, I just can't find a source. If anyone has any colonial era diagrams or illustrations, please contact me. I also have a couple of scenarios from "Adventures" that didn't make it into the final book. I'd like to work these up and post them as freebies. The Battle of La Cienega in 1820, is one in particular that I want to see released, sooner or later. It was in the book until very late in the editing process and was pulled because I felt the map could have been better.

By end of summer I plan to start pulling together all my various notes and writings on "The War in the North". As I have written before, I have a lot of this book written. Over the years I have been compiling and organizing material and while there is still a lot to do it's not like I'm starting from scratch. On a personal level I really want to get this book out as it will fill out the period and give you a better appreciation of the vast scale of this conflict as well as expand your gaming options for the period.

Good things keep coming

2011-04-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

Miguel released his first South American variant for his Capitan rules system. The system is at a scale of 1"=10 yards. Each figure represents 1 officer/leader or 3 men. This first supplement focuses on the Chilean campaigns of 1817 and 1818. The rules are free, as is the supplement and are available in both English and Spanish. If you're looking for a proper skirmish scale game, give them a try.

Rolf Grein has taken the lead and is working up some very good and interesting material for the Regimental Fire & Fury South American variant. This variant will allow you to play the larger "tactical" scale battles, with each unit representing a battalion or squadron. It's looking like RF&F is well suited for covering this period and I'm really looking forward to running a local playtest or two before this comes out.

I have slated May 14 as the official release date of "Adventures of the British and Irish Legions". On May 15 I begin pulling together "Volume 2: War in the North"!

It is almost here

2011-04-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

I received word today from the printer that "Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" has shipped! The printer tells me the book "really looks great" so I am excited to see the final product. It should arrive sometime next week and will be available for sale shortly thereafter. It is a great relief to know that it is finally a reality; a tangible item that I can share with you. It was a long journey and the last few months have been especially difficult. I poured a lot of hours and effort into these 72 pages and I hope you all find it worthwhile.

On the miniatures front there are several issues that I want to make you aware of. First, Mike has informed me that he wants to cease casting the Liberators! Miniatures range. I will miss having him cast the figures. Mike has always been easy to work with and it was very simple to tell him what I needed as he sculpts the range and is as familiar with each of the references as I am. On the other hand, having the casting done here in the US should help as I'll be spared the excessive shipping costs of getting the figures shipped from Australia. Mike supplied me with a contact and I have collected a couple of others as well. Now I need to formalize a supplier. Mike is still the sculptor for the range and I intend for him to remain so for as long as the range continues. As a gamer I want the range to be complete and unified. Mike's work is top notch and as the range is 80-90% complete there is no reason to even consider a change.

Although I have not received any formal notification I have learned via third party that Principles of War, my UK dealer, ceased taking orders as of late last year. I will begin conversations to find a new UK distributor. If any of you know anyone, or are a dealer/distributor yourself and are interested in selling the range, please contact me and let me know.

Miguel Costa is about to release his first South American Independence variant for his Capitan rules. Capitan is a skirmish level game where each figure represents one officer or 3 soldiers. This first variant focuses on the campaigns in Chile 1817-1818. Francisco Erize and I worked with Miguel to establish unit ratings and I am finishing up 3 scenarios from the Crossing of the Andes in 1817 to go with the release. The rules are free so have a look!

Rolf Grein has taken the lead initiative in getting a South American Independence variant for Regimental Fire & Fury developed. Rolf, Rich Hasenauer, the author of RF&F and I are collaborating on this and I am as excited about it as I am for Miguel's release. I have been a fan of Rich's work since I first played the original Fire & Fury back in the late 90's and I'm also using his World War 2 rules at the moment. This variant will be in the works for a little while but if you play RF&F and have any thoughts, please let me know.

Finally, I wanted to point you all to the new miniatures range Gringo40s. They're beautiful figures.

As always, please visit the Yahoo Group and be sure to keep an eye on the web store.

Cold Wars Report

2011-03-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

Cold Wars is come and gone and I had a great time. I was very impressed by the size of the convention, which was as big or bigger than anything we have on the West Coast. As a dedicated historical convention it was certainly larger than the historical section at any con I've seen out here. I was also impressed at the range of periods in the games and the imagination within the games. It's really cool to see people willing to try different periods or a different take on a period.

I ran 2 seminars; one on Friday, the other on Saturday. Both had about a dozen attendees. I spent a lot of time developing my seminar and felt like I had a good overview of South American Independence delivered in a coherent fashion. The audience seemed to enjoy both presentations, although I felt my Friday delivery was better than the Saturday delivery. There were some really good questions from the audience, especially on Saturday. It gave me some food for thought on how to present the "personalities" in The War to the North and also how to rate both leaders and troops in any potential future rules system.

I ran the Battle of Vilcapugio on Saturday night. Mark Ryan graciously had Liberators! Miniatures armies painted up for the game and, as always, it was extremely gratifying to me to see how nicely the range presents itself on the tabletop. Evil Bob's Painting Service did a bang up job and the uniformity of the painting...meaning how each figure looked the same in quality and detail between units...was very impressive.

The scenario itself is from The War in the South. I used Lasalle, based in large part on Francisco's enthusiastic posts over at the Yahoo Group. I'm glad I did. Lasalle is a good convention or pick up game set of rules that adopts itself well to South American Independence. The scenario features 2 of the most evenly matched armies in all of the Independence period. They are almost mirror images of each other. The battle is fought on a flat, open field with no terrain, making it a good table for players who don't know the rules as it limited LOS questions and terrain issues for movement and combat. The one big factor in this game was that I assigned both armies as using the Linear Tactics special rule. This limited their ability to charge into melee and has a profound effect on attacking armies.

The Patriots began the battle by massing their artillery in the middle and weighing their forces to their left flank. They left one good battalion on their right to hold off and Royalist counterattack or the anticipated arrival of Royalist cavalry reinforcements.

The Royalists evenly distributed their forces across the line, keeping a good reserve including their only on board cavalry unit. As soon as the battle began they shifted some forces to counter the obvious Patriot flanking move while advancing their left against the weaker Patriot right.

The early portion of the battle consisted on some inconsequential artillery fire by both sides, although the Patriot 8th Infantry Regiment, which was in the middle of the line, was soon brought to 2 disorders; an uncomfortable position for an attacking unit. It is difficult for an attacking force to remove disorders as you cannot attempt to roll them off if you do a "maneuver": any kind of wheel or move other that directly forward. Even the act of moving makes it twice as hard to roll off a disorder so attacking forces need to take great care in their approach. Regardless, the Patriot line got into its desired position fairly easily, with a strong strike force positioned on their left, at a 45 degree angle to their main attack line.

The Royalists, however, did not simply sit back and await the onslaught. Just as the Patriots began their final close the Royalists used a clever combination of putting some battalions in square, leaving others in line and positioning their cavalry and artillery to deliver maximum damage to the Patriot line. After a successful cavalry charge by the Patriots against a Royalist artillery battery the situation changed decisively in favor of the Royalists. The Royalist cavalry unit charged one of the Patriot battalions, which failed to form square. The unit was predictably routed off the board. The next turn the Royalists continued the charge, charging the cavalry against the battalion the Patriots had in the 2nd line acting as their local reserve. This bold move exposed the central weakness of the Patriot deployment: by working to get a flanking force they had very little depth and any breach of the line could easily split their line. It was imperative for the Patriots to win this combat. The Patriot battalion succeeded in forming square and all of the advantages rested with the more experienced infantry, securely in position to repulse the Royalist charge. Instead, the Royalist dragoons decisively defeated the square (achieving a 2-1 advantage in hits despite rolling 4 dice versus the Patriot's 10!). The square broke and routed off the table. Compounding the disaster, the 8th Infantry, which had been brought to 3 disorders, failed to rally any of them off and also routed in the face of the Royalist firestorm.

The Patriots restored some order by charging a battalion of the 1st Regiment into the center, which succeeded in eliminating a Royalist infantry battalion but that unit was swamped in its turn by the surging Royalist forces. In desperation the Patriots charged both their cavalry units against a Royalist battalion in square that anchored their far right flank. Accurate Royalist artillery fire ripped one of the units, bringing it to 3 disorders. The gallant but foolhardy charge predictably failed to break the Royalist square and resulted in the 3 disorder cavalry unit being removed from the board. The remaining Patriot cavalry fell back unable, due to falling out of command range, of doing much else but keeping the Royalist battalion in square, thus denying it the ability to join in the rout going on across the Patriot front.

The final insult came with the Patriot general, Belgrano, being overrun and wounded by the surging Royalist line. At this point the Patriots were split into 2 wings, both losing, with the Royalists merely picking which unit they wanted to destroy this turn. On turn 18 the Patriot army formally broke. The final casualty count was the Patriots losing 4 battalions out of 8 and 1 of 2 cavalry units. They lost none of their 3 artillery batteries. The Royalists lost 2 infantry battalions out of 7 and 1 artillery battery out of 3. It was a decisive Royalist victory. I was very impressed by this as during my play tests I had seen a decisive Patriot victory and minor victories by both sides but never a decisive Royalist win. It was a tribute to Francisco and Eric (and Chris, who closed out the game running Eric's troops when Eric had to leave), who expertly handled their army, showing a true grasp of the combined arms concepts of the rules, the need to keep depth in order to recover from losses and the ability to keep the initiative once they had obtained an advantage by splitting the Patriot line.

Outside of my seminars and game, I got a chance to see the beginning of Francisco's Maipo game and the end of Chris' Laguna Salada game. Both were excellent games and the groups that played them had a great time. On the dealer floor I bought very little: the Uniforms of the War of the Pacific book and a Spanish book on Cevallo's expeditions in the 1760s and 1770s. I also bought some 1/144th scale Sherman tanks for a WW2 project my group is planning (yes, I game periods other than South American Independence!).

Most importantly, I finally got to meet some long time Liberators co-conspirators in person. Mark, Francisco, Alvaro and many of the guys who go by the name of High Order of Owls. I got to have a some nice but all too brief conversations with other people and introduce them to the period. It was an awesome convention and I will definitely attend again if at all possible. I said it to them at the con but say it again here: thank you to everyone who ran a game, attended a game or otherwise supported Liberators and our period. We did a lot to raise the recognition of our period in the hobby and to show others the potential that resides in gaming South American topics. Cheers!

The new figures and adapting the range to the regiment

2011-03-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

An email this morning on the Yahoo Group asked if the new releases will allow the building of armies for Carabobo. In the course of answering that, I figured I should expand a bit in a blog post.

One of the new releases is Venezuelan infantry. They will look very familiar to most of you because it includes a large chunk of figures that have already been released: Chilean infantry. The uniforms, especially at 15mm, look almost exactly the same. I had Mike sculpt only the uniforms that differed, specifically, the cazadores and captains. The reasoning was that, like many people in the US (and the UK, Spain and everywhere else!) I'm going through some tough economic times. Mike and I discussed the situation and agreed it made no sense to sculpt new references that would look exactly the same as existing references.

This thinking carries through to the rest of the range. The range is now complete enough that I will only be having new sculpts made for figures that you couldn't reasonably assemble using existing figures. I line with this, we need to develop a way for you guys to think in terms of "what figures, regardless of what the label says, best resembles the unit I am trying to build?"

Here's an example that's a little ahead of where we're at in the series but that demonstrates the point. In building the armies for Carabobo you will need a large number of Royalist Lanceros del Rey (King's Lancers). These troops look, at 15mm, almost exactly like the existing Argentine Granaderos a Caballo in terms of uniform cut, features, etc. Their uniform is red instead of blue but that's a painting thing, not a sculpting thing. So instead of paying the hundreds of dollars to have sculpts made, hundreds more to have moulds made, etc. it is far better to simply say "use Granaderos a Caballo".

As an old school gamer who grew up in the days where my only options were whatever Airfix figures my local hobby shop had in stock, I got used to the idea of "stand ins". "Roman Infantry" was every type of Roman infantry for every period of Roman history while "Ancient Britons" was Gaul, Briton or every Germanic tribe Rome ever fought. The hobby has changed since then and if people need 12 figures of "Granaderos de Casa Grande" they expect to see that figure in the catalog. What I'm talking about is splitting the difference. If the "Granaderos de Casa Grande" look 90% like the "Cazadores de Casa Pequeño", then you should use those figures. If it's a case where the "Granaderos" look substantially different than anything else, then I'll have the sculpts made.

The difficult part is building a system that will tell you exactly what reference you need for what unit. I have started such a system with the current catalog listings but it needs to be much more accessible. In the past people have asked for break downs scenario by scenario. I have resisted this as being too cumbersome but am beginning to think such a system is, indeed, the way to go.

It also impacts things like packaging. In some cases the only difference between units is, say, how the sergeants look or whether or the way officers wear their epaulets. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to put packs together that get you the figures you need with a minimum of "extra" troops or unwanted figures, etc. I also have to think in terms of castings, spins, wear on moulds, etc. It's a pretty big headache, especially as I am pretty ignorant of the whole manufacturing side of the hobby. Mike has patiently explained things to me (repeatedly) but it's still a bit of a mystery and I'm certain that I've made mistakes over the time I've been building this range. But that's my headache to suffer outside your view. For you guys, the key is thinking in terms of the figures, not in terms of the labels.

I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get such a system established. For years I've seen Napoleonic gamers happily adapt figures to fit whatever regiment they're trying to build, be it an obscure Austrian militia regiment or minor German state infantry battalion, and you guys know that you can email me with any questions and we'll sort out the best selection for you.

Good News Bad News

2011-03-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

First the bad news: my printer informed me yesterday that he cannot make the deadline for Cold Wars. This is the 2nd printer I've had drop the ball on this project. I canceled the job as I was paying a premium to make the deadline. I will attempt to line up another printer today but the book will now probably not be available until early April.

Obviously, I am deeply disappointed. Nevertheless, the book is done and it will be available in a matter of weeks. Just not in time for Cold Wars.

The good news is that I received an order of castings from Mike so all of the new references will be released on schedule, coinciding with Cold Wars. This means you'll be able to purchase British/Irish Legion infantry, Venezuelan infantry, Infantry (no uniform), Llanero cavalry and updated Royalists, now with captains and sergeants (2 variants of each). Don't know how much, if any, of these figures will physically be AT Cold Wars but they WILL be available via the web store.

I'm looking forward to meeting as many Liberators! folks as possible at the convention so do not hesitate to say hello. I'm really excited to hear about your projects, how you game the period, what rules you use, etc. It'll be a great chance to get a sense of where you'd like to see things go as I transition into finally getting "War in the North" from Word document to finished book.

Volume 1 Supplement PDF temporarily Out of Stock

2011-02-22T17:13:00.000-08:00

As I write this I am in the process of updating the Volume 1 Supplement with the errata that was compiled in the database section of the Yahoo! Group. This new, up to date version of the Supplement will be available in hard copy from On Military Matters and on the Grenadier Productions website on March 11. An updated PDF file will be made available as well. Knowing a new version is coming, I did not think it proper to keep the old PDF version available for sale. If you're looking for the Supplement, it will be available very soon.

Sneak Peek!

2011-02-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone:

Head over to Trial By Fire Games for a tantalizing glimpse at the references that will be released at Cold Wars. Chris, who runs Trial By Fire, is running the Battle of Laguna Salada, May 25, 1820 using his very own rules. Laguna Salada is one of the scenarios in "Adventures of the British and Irish Legions" and features the Irish Legion, supported by a small contingent of British Legion and several hundred Venezuelan troops, taking on an ad hoc Royalist army just outside the town of Riohacha. This will be the first public exhibition of the scenario and the figures so it will be an exciting time for certain.

The Horse and Musket version of Chris' rules use companies as the basic maneuver unit and feature simple mechanics that are influenced by a small number (but wide variety) of event cards. There's just enough chance to keep things edgy and just enough control to have a fair shot at responding to both your opponent and Fate. We've used the rules for everything from Alamo to Ragnarok, Samurai to Road Warrior, WW2 to Zombies.

Have a look and enjoy!

Rushing along

2011-02-14T21:30:00.000-08:00

Still working hard on wrapping up "Adventures...". Every time I think I've got it another last minute thing springs to mind. Basically I keep stepping back, reading the book and saying to myself "what will someone ask ?". Each time I stumble across one thing or another that leads to inordinate amounts of work for a half page of text. Still, I trust in the end it will all be worth it. I've basically decided that, like the original "Liberators!" "Adventures" will never truly be finished.

Dealing with the printer and haggling to make the price do-able. This is one area that has changed immensely since I published "Liberators!" in 2005; the rise of digital printing has not only made short run publications like "Adventures" much more feasible, the turnaround times are amazing. They need 3-4 days for a standard job and less for a rush job. It seemed like "Liberators!" took 3 months! I don't mean that in any way negative towards the printer of "Liberators!", I was and am very happy with them and the work they did and would recommend them to anyone; it's just that the world keeps speeding up and turnaround times that would have been inconceivable just a few years ago are standard business practice today. There's 2 sides to that coin, for sure...

As I've been rushing about getting ready for Cold Wars, with not enough time and too much to do, something came to light that just stopped me in my tracks. Over on the Yahoo Group Francisco announced that his brother is coming all the way from Buenos Aires to attend the convention. To say I'm flabbergasted....gobsmacked....Wile E. Coyote-eyeballs-and-jaw-rolling-around-on-the-ground amazed...would be putting it mildly. It's difficult to state just how honored and amazed I am by this. It is so cool to be developing a product for a period that you all enjoy so much that someone would actually fly halfway across the world to be part of an event involving it. It's really wonderful and I just hope I remember to step back enough to enjoy the convention; meeting and hanging out with those of you who are attending. If any of you see me stressed out and rushing around (as I am wont to do...just ask the band I tour manage!), drag me away for a beer!

Mike has casted up the new references for Cold Wars. You'll be seeing British/Irish Legion, peasant dress infantry, Llanero cavarly and Venezuelan infantry. In addition, you'll get first crack at the introduction of sergeants and captains for the British/Irish. Royalists and Venezuelans. In time I'll go back and add them for the Argentina and Chile armies but for now, I hope you enjoy the additional figures. The minute I get back from Cold Wars all of these new figures, plus the "Adventures..." book and a new rereleased hardcover version of the first Supplement, will be added to the website.

I'm looking forward to the next few months and I hope you're getting excited as well!

Cold Wars & Liberators! News Update

2011-01-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

A quick update in the midst of creative madness...

"The Adventures of the British and Irish Legions in South America" continues in layout phase. At this point the layout is 90 pages but this will change. That's a lot more than I anticipated. I was shooting for somewhere between 48 and 72. This would affect both printing and retail costs so I want to bring the page count down without affecting the amount or quality of information presented. I am very pleased with how the book is turning out and I have no doubt you will be as well.

It looks like Dennis Shorthouse from On Military Matters will be reprinting hard copies of the Liberators! Volume 1 Supplement. We have been in discussion on this and while the print run has not actually occurred yet we are in agreement on terms and the hard copies should be available at Cold Wars. Dennis will also be stocking Liberators! Volume 1 and Conquer or Die! at Cold Wars. Definitely swing by his stand and say hello.

On the webstore, I have reduced the price of the pdf of the supplement. This decision was independent of Dennis' offer. I had simply come to the conclusion that the price was a bit too high for a 1.7MB download. If you haven't been to the store lately check out the new packaging and pricing of the miniatures range. While the numbers have changed the price per figure has stayed the same. This restructuring is in anticipation of an eventual dedicated set of Liberators! rules beyond the Quick Play set. They should also help for basing with systems like Lasalle.

Miguel Costa of Capitan Games has approached me to provide advice and suggestions for a South American supplement that he is developing for the Capitan! rules system. I will be helping him with this as I wind down the final layout of "The Adventures of the British and Irish Legions in South America". I have always meant to play these rules and it looks like Miguel will make it easy for all of us!

I have found a painter for my Liberators! Miniatures collection. His name is Zach Haydt and he runs Forward March Studios. I should post a couple of pictures of his work. I sent him a test order in December and they look fantastic. A follow on order is going out this week with the intention of using all of the figures as samples during Cold Wars.

As always, feel free to start or join in a conversation at the Liberators! Yahoo Group. There's a lot coming in the next few months and it feels good after such a long stretch with so few releases.

Best,
John

Battle of Gavilan - May 5, 1817

2010-08-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Over at the Liberators! Yahoo Group, in the Files page, I have posted a new article and scenario on the Battle of Gavilan - May 5, 1817. This battle was fought in Chile a few months after the Battle of Chacabuco. This article continues the trend I started with the release of the Battle of Cerro de Pasco scenario of highlighting some of the smaller combats that occurred during the Wars of Independence.

Work on "The Adventures of the British & Irish Legions" continues apace and I am very pleased with how this book is shaping up. I also received the initial batch of British Legion figures from Mike Broadbent. I'll be having some of these painted up for use in demonstration games. There's some awesome, colorful uniforms in the upcoming book so I can't wait to get some of these color schemes on the new figures!

Finally, the new Osprey book on the British & Irish Legions, "Conquer or Die"* is on the verge of release. Be sure to get a copy and let the good folks at Osprey know you want to see more South American titles. I've still got that 1806-07 British Expedition to Buenos Aires title for the Campaign Series waiting to develop! Ha ha!

* I tried linking to Osprey Publishing but their website is not responding as I post. I'm sure most of you have it bookmarked or can find it easily enough....

Back From Tour

2010-07-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

Just over an hour ago I got home from my tour managing the British hardcore punk band GBH. An incredible 2 month stretch covering the entire USA and eastern Canada. It's a whole separate life I have alongside my "Liberators!" work and is always an amazing life experience. I'm going to spend a day or so just recuperating and sorting some of the business end of things for the tour but then it's back to "Liberators!". Despite my absence, good things have been going on, including new sculpts and artwork that I'm very excited about. The tour has undoubtedly affected my release schedule but the "Adventures of the British and Irish Legion" is fairly well advanced and I still should be able to get it produced in a timely fashion.

It's good to be back and I look forward to gearing things up again in the coming months!

May 19 Update

2010-05-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

Wow. Lots happening under the surface here in Liberator-ville. In no particular order: the "Adventures of the British and Irish Legions" book is coming along. It's becoming bigger than I anticipated but we'll see if I need to edit it down or not. Right now it's all sort of "2nd draft" level material and I could probably tighten it if necessary. The thing about printing is to make sure you have multiples of 4 so you don't go to press with empty pages. Why pay for nothing?

There are some good things going on art-wise on the new book, although I don't want to say much more at this point. Let's just say that if things pan out it will have some very cool illustrations!

The feedback and suggestions throughout this process have been incredible and have benefited the book substantially. It started with the online survey comments and has continued through the handful of folks who I've shared rough sections with.

I've also gotten some research assistance from Rene Chartrand and Michael McNally. Each has been instrumental in locking down the uniform of a unit and I'm very excited and honored to be the one who gets to present that information to you.

On another project, I am working with Julio Mario Luqui Lagleyze on an article about the flag of the 7th Argentine Infantry Regiment. It's a very cool piece, sort of a detective story. I don't know if he has a publisher yet but I suspect he'll submit it to Military Collector & Historian. Once again, here's the pitch: if you are a member of the Company of Military Historians you get their quarterly journal, Military Collector & Historian. It's a great journal that focuses on the armed forces of the Americas. Within that framework you'll find all kinds of articles on every imaginable topic; in a single issue you might find articles on World War 1 canteens, Canadian militia uniforms and a history of the Mormon Battalion. It's all over the map but uniformly entertaining. Membership is only $45 in the United States and $50 outside the USA and I can assure you that the journal is worth every penny!

Back to Liberators! Mike Broadbent is currently working on (surprise!) British and Irish Legion figures. The plan is that when the book comes out you have figures to play the scenarios. Actually, when he completes the legionnaires we'll be about half way done with the entire range for the War in the North. As I've mentioned before, he's already sculpted llaneros and civilian dress infantry. All that really remains are 1813 Regulation Venezuelans and 1815 Regulation Spanish regulars.

"The War in the North" has not been forgotten. Indeed, as I've been working on "Adventures of the British and Irish Legion" I've been naturally ping-ponging back and forth as material fits in this book or that. The goal is to have that ready for Cold Wars 2011. I know I'm way behind on that project but the mix of Cold Wars 2011's theme being Latin American Independence and the upcoming Osprey release of "Conquer of Die!" about the Legions has really lit a fire as this presents a great opportunity to build our period and bring new folks into the fold.

Along that line, I encourage you guys to help me out. Nothing builds enthusiasm like enthusiasm. Just recently Steven Thomas posted some photos of his figures online. The feedback and inspiration has been very cool and I know I draw a lot of energy from those kinds of things. It's one thing to be sitting up here in my office flipping through a pile of books trying to sort some obscure question; it's another entirely to interact with folks who enjoy the period and put their own efforts into sharing the period with their friends.

Unfortunately, things are going to go into a lull next week that will last until mid-June. Work calls and I'll simply be unable to write, research or otherwise tend to the things that are currently happening. Rest assured that when that gig is over I will redouble my efforts to get you new product by, hopefully, September.

Moved In

2010-04-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to report that we've finally moved in to the new house and that I am writing to you from the new office/game room/product development suite/warehouse in the back! It is better than I could have hoped and far less cluttered (so far) than I expected. In the old apartment the closet (aka, the warehouse) was stuffed to overflowing. Here I've got all the miniatures stowed away nicely in the built-ins along the wall. I have a table set up specifically for assembling packs and/or painting (like I ever paint anymore!) with a desk on the other side of the room for writing and video editing.

Speaking of writing, things have been going magnificently with the upcoming "Adventures of the British and Irish Legions" booklet. I have been getting some real quality time in digging through the source material and putting the relevant bits to paper. I am trying to keep the booklet concise while including as much first-hand material as possible. As some of you might know, there were a decent number of legionnaires who wrote accounts of their service in the Americas. Most wrote about the 1818-1819 era but their observations and recollections really give the booklet a good "period" flavor and I hope will present a view that has never been seen in print. I also hope it will excite you all to buy the figures and game the scenarios!

Artwork is being developed and I received an excellent suggestion from Pedro Manzano to include the expedition of Xavier Minas in 1817 if I include scenarios with Norte Americanos. I had never read anything on Minas as he operated in Mexico (an area I have put off studying while I concentrated on South America) but it is a fascinating tale and the British and American angles fit in perfectly with the work at hand.

The "War in the North" book has been receiving some attention as well, especially regarding uniforms. The Britons who wrote accounts sometimes seem to have spent more time observing the dress and manners of the South American troops than their own compatriots! I have also added some useful information on the logistics and supply situation of the Patriot army as well as some material on tactics.

In short, it has been one of the best weeks for "Liberators" in quite some time.

San Martin Museum Photos

2010-04-23T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to some photos taken by Des Darkin on a recent trip to the San Martin museum in Boulogne-sur-Mer: link

Enjoy!

I am in the process of moving and will be without internet access for a little while. I'll keep in touch via work as best I can and hopefully I'll be back at full speed soon.

In the Midst of Moving

2010-03-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of moving. We are fortunate enough that our new place has a bonus room above the garage. This room is my new gaming room and office! I'm very excited as I haven't had a dedicated gaming area since the 1980's. I will finally be able to leave things set up and to physically work on rules and scenarios rather than having to sort them in my head and then take them to San Diego or send them off to London for testing. Hopefully this space will lead to better and more frequent product development, be it free scenarios for the website or better rules for possible release. The room will also give me more efficient and expanded space for storing and packaging Liberators! Miniatures. As I have mentioned before, up until now my "warehouse" has been a basic closet about 8 feet to the left of where I'm sitting right now. The figures and packing materials are stacked floor to ceiling in a pile of bins and boxes that I have to drag out and stack back with each and every order. To be honest, this situation has occasionally delayed orders as I have just been too tired or couldn't dedicate the extra few minutes to breaking things out or digging for this or that reference. The compound effect has, unfortunately, made assembling orders one of my least favorite activities. In the new room I have a row of built in storage cabinets that will allow me to arrange everything on one horizontal, easily accessible row which should lead to easier assembly of packs and, hopefully, a more efficient and pleasant order processing system.

Speaking of rules, thanks to Francisco's excellent work on the Sam Mustafa website, his message thread on the Liberators! Yahoo Group and his creation of 1818 campaign army lists, I picked up a copy of Sam's "Lasalle" rules. I read them through and agree with Francisco that they offer a splendid opportunity for South American Independence. One of the first things I am going to do when I get my new room set up is run a couple test games. As far as 3rd party rules go, I am still partial to Piquet and its appropriate variants but Lasalle looks like it could be a real winner.

Martin, Ian and Des continue their invaluable assistance as I have just sent them the rough OB for the Battle of Urica on December 5, 1814. The debate has turned to which set of 20mm plastics is best for representing the llanero troops, the northern cousins to the south's gauchos. Of course, for everybody else, the solution will be to buy the specifically sculpted Liberators! Miniatures versions! :-) Along these lines, Martin has written a brief summation of the various 1/72nd scale plastics out there and his choices for representing South American troops from among the various ranges. I'll get that posted on either the website or Yahoo Group in the next few days.

A Blog On Blogs

2010-01-20T09:11:00.000-08:00

One of the joys of gaming is seeing what other people are up to. Whether it's going to a convention and checking out figures and terrain or browsing the latest rules set (even when you know you'll never play them!) it's fun to see how people approach things and what periods and projects are capturing their attention. With that in mind, I'd like to point you to 3 blogs that I really enjoy.

In previous posts, you've seen me mention my friend Chris in San Diego. I've know Chris for over 20 years now and he has always been the most prolific gamer I've ever met. We began gaming together using Napoleon's Battles. NB required thousands of figures for many of their scenarios and even a small game required hundreds of troops. We'd decide on a scenario, see what figures we needed and Chris would crank 'em out. Same thing when we moved to ancients using Tactica. Chris supplied 6 of us with entire armies. So it has continued to this day. The past few years Chris has become known as the host of great games on almost any topic you can imagine: from the Alamo to Ragnarok, WW1 trench battles to Super Heroes vs. Zombies, he's done them all for the enjoyment of a group of about 15 Southern California gamers. In the course of these games his terrain building skills have come to the fore. He has started a new blog showing his work on his latest project, a Road Warrior inspired game:

Trial By Fire Blog

Next up is Carlos, a member of my Yahoo Liberators group. Carlos lives in Buenos Aires and his group put on historical games across a range of periods. The text is in Spanish but even if you can't read it the pictures are great and it's a great chance to support what looks to be a very active gaming scene in Argentina!

Juegos de Historia

Finally we have Helen in Australia. Helen is an awesome painter who regularly documents her work. She has a very clean style that typically utilize some really nice 3 shade color work and she's very prolific. If only she didn't stick to 28mm maybe I could get her to paint some Liberators! Miniatures for me!

Tank Girl

Speaking of Liberators, things went pretty much to the back burner since I last posted. I've helped some individuals with their projects, including some topics that I intend to eventually cover in full such as the British expeditions to Buenos Aires 1806-07 (La Reconquista y La Defensa) and the 1816-1820 Portuguese invasion of the Banda Oriental (modern Uruguay). Ian, Martin and Des in London have been play testing scenarios for the next book, which has been very helpful both in terms of clarifying and focusing those particular scenarios but also in reminding me that I need to be clear when writing as I sometimes assume knowledge of armies, battles or campaigns that the vast majority of the gaming world have never heard of. This has led me to do some writing in the section on armies, formations and tactics and I've done some editing of the text in general. I've been swamped at work these last few months, which hasn't helped things, but I'm hopeful that things will settle down a little bit soon and that I can get refocused on the project.

Best to everybody in 2010!
John

Back From Japan

2009-10-02T15:13:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing trip. Tokyo is a wonderful city. The people, the place, the food (and drink), all top notch. I might be going back to Japan in the next few months for work and, if so, I definitely want to add a couple vacation days in.

Been getting the new computer up and running. Like everything in my world, it seems to take about 10 times as long as it should but I'm almost there. Today I was looking at fixing the last couple headaches from the recent website hack/rebuild; namely getting the Liberators banner posted again and getting some obnoxious text out of the order confirmation email. On the latter point I'm completely stumped. I use Zen Cart and the way the set up email is just confounding. There's multiple places where the error could be and if I don't fix them all, in the exact same way, the error stays. Headache inducing. If anyone knows Zen Cart I could really use a hand!

Not much new on the writing front. Honestly, I haven't done anything in the last few weeks. Disappointing but true. Mike is also waiting for instructions on the next set of sculpts. We are working on the Volume 2 figures and I'd like to have the full set of references available when the whole thing "goes live".

Chris is trying to get me down to San Diego for a playtest of a revamped version of the miniatures rules he's been working on. Maybe mid-October, we'll see. Ian and Martin have been doing some playtesting of the Battle of Boyaca, one of the scenarios in the new book. They've given me some good feedback and it's always illuminating to see how folks approach these games. Lots of good food for thought and I hope to recruit them for a couple more scenarios in the next few months.

My real life work is very busy from now through the beginning of November. I don't talk about my video editing much but if you're into astronomy, science or just cool things, do a Google search for LCROSS. It's a satellite I did a lot of support video pieces for and the mission will be coming to a rather spectacular conclusion early in the morning on Thursday, October 9 at approximately 4:30am PST (Los Angeles) by deliberately impacting the moon. After that I have another space oriented piece that's due in early November. After that things might slow down a little, which is good news for Liberators as my slow periods are when I tend to get things done.

Off To Japan

2009-09-16T08:20:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for Japan in a couple of hours. I'll be back next week. Cheers!

Book Update

2009-08-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

I'm dutifully typing away at the new book. So far I've got most of Bolivar's campaigns covered (just finished the 1821 campaign today) and quite a few of the "minor" campaigns (Marquis del Toro, Miranda, Nariño, etc). As I write I occasionally head to other sections to put in a paragraph here and there while a thought or piece of data is fresh in my mind or at my fingertips but I haven't really shaped those sections yet. A couple of the scenarios are more or less complete while the majority are still in the rough stage. I've added the Battle of Urica, December 5, 1814 to the list as I have recently unearthed a solid OB that also happens to make for a fairly balanced scenario (most sources list ~7,000 Royalists vs. ~4,000 Patriots, this OB initially makes the same claim but counting up the numbers tallies 5,400 Royalists vs. 4,200 Patriots).

I'm not sure at this point if I'm going to do the little uniform charts for each scenario like I did in the first volume. Quite frankly, the uniform information for the north is just not as prevalent as the south. I'll keep digging but in the interest of not printing pages of uniform outlines with a big question mark in them I'll probably end up just presenting what data I do have as a general list and then provide suggestions for the remainder (hint: you can never go wrong with dark blue with red facings!).

The new version of the rules are still in a state of great confusion as I just haven't codified anything yet. I've got a vision of how I want things to play; the feel I want them to have and the tactical concepts I want to represent but I haven't achieved it in actual design. It's really a job in and of itself but I'm fairly confident that when I start feeling like it's going in the right direction it'll become much easier. Success builds upon success, as they say.

As you can see, there's a lot of ground left to cover but I'm hacking away at it and each day it gets a little closer!

Billing Email Error

2009-07-17T13:38:00.001-07:00

I was just notified that some of you received emails yesterday that may have looked like invoices. This was an error on my part. I was doing some record keeping and updating order status from "processing" to "delivered". Unfortunately, there is a box at the bottom of the record that says "notify customer". It is checked by default. I should have unchecked it. If you received an email, please disregard it. I apologize for any confusion.

John

Doom Sunday and a some nice bits of news

2009-06-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

My computer died this morning. Well, to be exact the msgina.dll failed to load. Obviously, the first thing I did was go to Microsoft support and look the problem up. Their nifty 2 part, 3 steps per part solution did not work. Of course. I did a little digging around the web and discovered that this particular dll failure is a near show stopper. Long story short, I've already begun planning on getting a USB Universal Drive Adaptor and delving into a serious data retrieval operation.

Rest assured, this isn't a "the dog ate my book" post. But it is a setback.

I've been doing a bit of a deathbed watch on this particular computer for several months now. It's an old computer and the main reason I liked it was because I'd optimized it for what I needed. It was stable and, until now, reliable. Sure, the software wasn't the latest version. Sure, the video card was beyond obsolete. Sure, there wasn't enough RAM and it would take a long time to do basic tasks, especially if I was working in my Adobe suite. But it was a tank whose very age (I originally bought this computer in 2001 with a couple of guts swap-outs over the years) enabled it to bypass many headaches, especially in regards to OS, program and driver conflicts. Back around the New Year I noticed that the hard drive was becoming really noisy. I took the panel off and gave things a giggle and a rescrew a couple of times but inevitably the wheezing and rattling would return. Things got more worrisome a few weeks back when Service Pack 3 somehow downloaded and wanted to be installed. I was shocked by this as SP3 for Windows XP is hardly new and it was a surprise when it showed up in my automatic update queue. I tried load it but it failed. Every now and then it would try to load again and would fail again. I tried to boot up this morning and this error appeared for the first time. It must have tried to load again (maybe during start up?) because from what Microsoft says on its support page, my problem comes from a failed security update.

This is where we get to the setback. Due to my worries about potential hard drive failure I bought a nice, new, 250GB external hard drive for backing up. Unfortunately, the last backup I did was in mid-May. I've been doing some good work on Volume 2 in the last couple weeks and none of this was included in the mid-May backup. In fact, in one of those synchronicity moments that I've learned I ignore at my peril, before Sharon and I headed out last night for a summer evening stroll and gelato I thought about backing my South American files up but held off. I had been doing some work yesterday and felt good about the admittedly scattershot nature of my progress (I had been alternating between listings for Royalist units in the "Armies and Leaders" section and the 1809-1812 Ecuador listing for the "History" section) and figured I'd continue on today and then let it back up overnight tonight. Oops.

So what that all means is that in the next couple of days I'll either have recovered what I lost or I'll have to go back to the last mid-May version and pick it up again. Not a killer by any stretch but a bit frustrating...just enough that I figured a blog post vent was in order.

In other (good) news on Volume 2 a coworker of mine who does animation, including terrain, is working on doing up a 3D version of the Boyaca battlefield. I'm very appreciative of the attempt and he's spent a lot of time getting detailed USGS data so I'm not saying anything as I don't want him to feel pressured. Nevertheless, I can't wait to see what he comes up with and I'd love to have 3D maps at least for Boyaca, Carabobo, Pichincha and Ayacucho in the next book...if not all the scenarios! Now, I'm not promising that these will end up in the book; it will depend on how good this test comes out, how my friend feels about doing any others and how long it takes to generate each example, but it's just one more way I'm trying to make this book better than the last.

Next, if you're in the central Texas region please support Great Hall Games in Austin. Rob Smith and I have been in contact and he told me that some of his customers have been talking about Liberators and he's looking into the range. Of course, as a business owner it really only makes sense if there's some profit in it for him. Why not put on a game at his store or drop by and say hi. I've had a lot of orders from Texas, it would be nice to develop a base where everyone can gather to enjoy our period. Rob mentioned that there's a convention in November, maybe someone could host an event...

Scenario Design

2009-06-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

Kubla Con has come and gone. 2 weeks ago, in fact. I had a nice time; good to see Bob Burke again and do some recreational gaming. No Liberators but plenty of fun.

As I've mentioned, I've been working on the next book. Today I was shaping up the order of battle for the Battle of Araure in December 1813. OBs are always a nightmare for me; sources conflict and inevitably I have to make some choices that I'm not entirely comfortable with. Here's an extreme example: in the 1st Battle of Carabobo in May 1814 most sources say the Royalists had somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 men. Unfortunately, you'll never find what we call a true OB. Just 5,000 to 6,000 men. If you dig, you'll find some unit names. The sole source that I have ever found detailing the Royalist army is Mariscal de Campo Juan Manuel Cajigal's memoirs. Cajigal was the Royalist commander at this battle. His OB, which goes to the battalion level, is roughly 2,000 men (depending on how you count the detached cazadore companies, Cajigal is a little unclear on this point). Bolivar's army is usually given as 5,000 men. So what to do? Cajigal could have been understating his strength to explain his defeat, or a later author may have decided to exaggerate the Royalist forces to heighten the importance of Bolivar's victory. Maybe a little of both. All I know is the one primary source I can find, the general who commanded the army in the field, says the Royalists had 2,000 men. Now, if I'm doing "history" I'd be tempted to cite Cajigal's numbers and look at the battle through the prism of a 2-1 Patriot advantage in numbers. If I'm doing a "game" then I should probably ignore Cajigal and assign 5,000 men for an even match. If I present both I'll guarantee I'll get emails for years asking which one is correct (and it'll screw up the page layout of the book).

And so it goes.

The other difficulty, which I have mentioned before, is that specific numbers are extremely difficult to come by for the pre-1819 battles. I've gotten pretty good at culling numbers from my sources but, given the difficulties mentioned above, the cumulative effect are OBs that can be less than certain. With Araure I am lucky that I have a source that gives a very detailed order of battle. It is also one that is different from most others out there. So again, I had to make choices: do I go with the standard, less detailed OBs or do I go with this somewhat unique but very complete OB? In this case I chose the complete order of battle if for no other reason than I would later be able to point to the source and simply say "it's the most complete OB I've ever seen. If you want to use another, feel free".

I've assembled a playtest version of the Battle of Boyaca in August 1819 that I'll be sending out to a couple of people to see how it goes. One element of scenario design that I'm paying a lot more attention to in this book is placement and arrival of each side's army. In the first book I would go with whatever was shown on the map, which is almost always the start of the "main combat". With Boyaca that would've meant a situation where Bolivar had already driven back the Royalist vanguard and achieved a strong "central position" deployment with the Royalists divided in two on opposite flanks. If I did that for the scenario it would make for a very unbalanced game. Instead, I took the clock back an hour to when the two vanguards first began to skirmish and the main armies were just coming on the field. Hopefully the playtests will bear out my intent to deliver a much more balanced game: a meeting engagement where things can play out any number of ways and one side doesn't find itself hamstrung from the first die roll.

I have a couple of days with no work so I hope to knock out one or two more scenarios before the end of the week. I'll keep you posted. As always, comments are welcome!

Kubla Con

2009-05-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'll be heading up to Kubla Con in San Francisco this weekend. I'll be there the 23rd and 24th. I'm not going to be running any Liberators games; instead I'm looking forward to a couple of days of just drifting from table to table, seeing what other folks are up to and joining in whenever something looks good. My friend Chris will be there running his Ragnarok game for his upcoming Trial By Fire games release so odds are good you'll find me hanging around there.

Things here are progressing at their usual leisurely pace. I've been working on maps for the next book. I'm currently working on the Battle of Boyaca in 1819. I received a lot of feedback regarding the maps in the last book, which I'm trying to incorporate into these maps. Key among those comments were a desire for a consistent terrain legend and clear notation of scale. I'm also trying to improve the look of the maps, given my limited graphic skills.

Just last night I was over at UCLA where I stumbled across a couple of sources for Ecuador; including a 3 part article on the 1828-1829 war between Peru and Gran Colombia that peaked with the Battle of Tarqui and a descirption of the Battle of Miñarica in 1835, which was part of an Ecuadoran civil war. Neither will appear in the upcoming book but both will be presented when I move to the immediate post-Independence wars.

There's been no progress on the rules lately. Simply put, there hasn't been time in my real life schedule. I'm hoping to get some designing done at Kubla Con, or at least some good ideas flowing over a couple of beers! It would also probably be a good time to sit down at the lap top and sort of codify/solidify the notes I have scattered across various binder notebooks and legal pads.

On the miniatures side of things Mike is about to begin work on non-uniformed infantry. I'm still struggling with what to call these guys. My first thought, "Peasant Infantry", has a nice ring but implies a certain levy quality that may or may not apply. "Non-uniformed Infantry" is descriptive but boring as hell. "Civilian Dress Infantry" is close to it but doesn't sound martial enough. Any suggestions? These figures are important for a couple of reasons: they are needed for the upcoming War in the South supplement and they are the first batch of figures for the War in the North book. While I hope to have them sculpted and delivered by end of June I'm planning on doing a coordinated release with the new written material so don't expect to see them on sale immediately. It is nice to be moving into the next phase of the Liberators! project and I'm hoping that progress in each element; books, rules and figures, spurs progress in the others.

Playtest

2009-04-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I conducted the 1st playtest in what *might* turn into the new Liberators! Miniatures rules system. As I mentioned in my last post, I had been talking with my friend Chris of Trial By Fire Games (who'll be running a version of his upcoming Ragnarok game at Kubla Con in San Francisco on May 23...hint, hint) about the first hand accounts I had been reading of the fighting in South America and how to get the same feel in a game. He ran with it, applying some ideas he's been working on for the last several years and we sat down at the kitchen table. While it had all the roughness befitting a 1st playtest, it was also very encouraging. It was simple, elegant and distinctive. I wanted a game with a focus on morale and movement and it was a good start in that direction. I'll keep you posted as things progress.

Artillery are available. Core Southern range is complete!

2009-04-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

It is with great pleasure that I can announce that Argentine, Chilean and Royalist artillery crews are now available for sale at the webstore. I also have 2lbr mountain guns, 4lbr (short barrel), 4lbr (long barrel) and 8lbr field guns and 6lbr howitzers.

With this wave of releases the Southern range of Liberators! Miniatures is officially complete. I set out to release a range of figures that, complemented by figures from AB Miniatures (or here for the USA) and/or Warmodelling/Fantassin, would enable you to play any of the scenarios in the book. That has now gone from dream to reality. A million thanks to Mike Broadbent for sculpting and casting such a superb range of 15/18mm figures. They are, quite simply, some of the best Napoleonic era figures available anywhere. I am also especially grateful to Mark Ryan for his support at a key moment when I was seriously considering ceasing the line. I also want to thank everyone who has bought a pack of LIberators! Miniatures and those stores and distributors who have stocked the range. It really is a proud moment for me and having people enjoy the period as much as I do was the single goal when I started this project way back in 1997.

Having said that, time to tell you the next step. Mike's next batch will be non-uniformed, or "peasant" infantry. I'm really excited about this batch for a couple of reasons. First, they will look like no other figures ever released anywhere. In addition to your basic soldado carrying a musket there will be figures armed with slings, clubs, lances and even bows! Second, these figures will lead us in to the transition from the south into the long awaited northern campaigns...aka, Bolivar!

It's been a long time in coming and, quite frankly, I am years behind the schedule I initially envisioned for this project but even as you read this I am finally organizing the scenarios for "Liberators! Napoleonic Wargaming in South America, Volume 2: The War in the North". At this point the following are in the book: Araure 1813, 1st Battle of Carabobo 1814, 3rd Battle of La Puerta (aka El Semen) 1818, Boyaca 1819, 2nd Carabobo 1821, Bombona 1822, Pichincha 1822 and Ayacucho 1824. There are several others "on the bubble", the most likely of which is Mosquiteros 1813. As I have mentioned repeatedly, the uniform plates are in hand and much of the text is written.but it feels really good to have this piece in transition from the back burner to the front burner.

Of course, if there's one thing you should know about me by now it's that if one project is overwhelming my time and financial resources you can bet I'll pile a couple more projects on top of it! Even as I'm working on The War in the North I'm preparing a second supplement for The War in the South. This supplement focuses on the various campaigns in Alto Peru and Northern Argentina between 1810 and 1821, aka Gauchos! It also addresses some of the fighting in the Banda Oriental, today known as Uruguay. This theater has been overlooked thus far and it's introduction into the mix is long overdue. Finally, it hints at a period that has really caught my eye...and that I want to explore in depth once I finish War in the North...the period of Argentine Civil Wars. The period of the civil wars starts in 1815 and goes all the way into the early 1860s but I'm thinking of focusing on the period from 1820-1840. It's a project for down the road but it's definitely in my thinking.

On the rules front, I'm going down to San Diego on April 17 to try a playtest with my friend Chris. Chris is a lifelong gamer who I've known for almost 20 years. He's starting his own company, called Trial By Fire Games, but has been involved in the Liberators! project from Day 1. I had been doing a lot of testing with another friend and we had made really good progress on shaping the Quick Play rules while at the same time keeping them recognizable to those of you who own the first supplement. However, deep down they weren't satisfying me. They give a good, entertaining game but they weren't capturing what I was reading in the period accounts. Discussing it several times with Chris we've opted to try a radically different approach. The Quick Play rules are based on fire and melee; we're moving to a system based on movement and morale. I'm also looking to heighten the interaction between players. In Quick Play I did this with the opposed rolls. For this new system we're working on using cards or other "side modifiers" that players can use to gain an edge. Finally, I've received numerous emails of people asking for "starter armies" or wondering if there are standard unit sizes, etc. I'm in the rough stages of building army lists so that players can build their own representative armies, complete with variations for Patriot, Royalist or Caudillo (who can be Patriot or Royalist), geographic location of the army and year the army is engaged. Within that list I'm also considering providing specific unit attributes and possible special abilities so that players can modify and customize their forces while still retaining the historical feel of the period. All in all, when a rules set finally does emerge from this process the odds are good that it will look considerably different than the Quick Play rules they started out as. Of course, I will keep the Quick Play rules available because, as I have always said, the idea of Liberators! is that you can use any tactical level rules set you want...my goal is simply to attract your attention to and, hopefully, interest in this fascinating period of history.

A Quiet Week

2009-02-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

This week was spent doing the mundane things that go with Grenadier Productions. I had a nice order from Scale Creep Miniatures, one of the distributors of Liberators! Miniatures as well as a few website orders. You'd be surprised how much time it takes to assemble and package figures! I sorted out some new cardstock for another printing of the package labels and struggled with how to improve the layout of the small label sheet to see if I could cram one more row onto the sheet and also to make the final sheet easier to cut. I did some inventory and managed to squeeze in a little bit of research, going through "Anzoategui: Visiones de la Guerra de Independencia" by Fabio Lozano y Lozano; typically I skim through a book like this looking for info and then I go through it again with a closer eye on sections of interest. In this case it looks like a lot of material lifted from Vicente Lecuna's "Cronica Razonada de las Guerras de Bolivar" but there were a few original bits, especially about the llanero way of fighting. I also sorted through some photos and put together some information for Wargames: Soldiers and Strategy magazine only to find out this morning that Liberators! Miniatures were heavily featured in the news section of the January issue. That's very cool and I encourage everyone to buy the issue...I know I'm going to!

I confess that it's kind of frustrating to be so busy and yet to not be regularly releasing new material for you. I suppose that just comes with the territory of being a sole proprietor business...anyhow, I thought you might find it interesting to see how much activity goes into a quiet week.

Southern Range Almost Finished

2009-02-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

Since I last wrote the Liberators! Miniatures range has expanded dramatically. Generals, Gaucho cavalry, Infernales, Royalist dragoons in helmets, 3 versions of Universal cavalry and Militia cavalry have all worked their way in to circulation. I'm pleased to announce that Mike is currently sculpting artillery. There will be Royalist, Chilean and Argentinean artillerists to crew at least 4 different calibers of guns, including mountain guns!

I've been doing quite a bit of conceptualizing and play testing on the next generation of the rules. I want them to remain simple and fast but they are definitely moving in the direction of a dedicated rules system designed to address the specific training, tactics and troop types found in South America. I plan to use this blog to keep you informed on where the rules are going and to solicit your feedback and ideas.

Also, look for some articles in upcoming issues of various wargame magazines. I'm doing an article on the Battle of Gavilan for Historical Miniature Gamer and I'm going to put another article together for Soldiers and Strategy. If I can stay disciplined I might just put one or two in the queue to be ready upon request from anyone else.

As always, feel free to write or comment, either here or at the Yahoo! Group

2008-10-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody:

Over on the Liberators Yahoo Group Terry asked if any new miniatures are coming. The answer is: YES! Sometime this week I will receive Patriot and Royalist generals. Each pack contains one general and two aide-de-camps. There are Jose San Martin, Bernardo O'Higgins and Manuel Belgrano for the Patriots and Joaquin Pezuela, Mariano Osorio and Jose Canterac for the Royalists. Mike and I decided to do each set as a "story" that alludes to the character of each commander so O'Higgins is charging forward with saber in hand while Osorio is literally looking over his should while one of his ADCs scratches his head!

Also to be released this week are militia cavalry. These fellows are dressed in the half uniformed style of Alto Peru and wear top hats. There are four trooper variants, two with lance and two with sabers. There is also one officer and trumpeter. They can be used in the early scenarios (Huaqui, Tucuman and Salta) in units on both sides.

Finally, you get gaucho cavalry! This set features four gaucho variants in traditional gaucho dress, three with lances and one with carbine in hand. There are also four variants of the famous Infernales gauchos. These horsemen from Salta were so named due to their red outfits matching their demonic combat prowess. There are four variants of the Infernales, three with lances and one with saber. There is also a command pack featuring Martin Guemes, the leader of the gaucho forces, and another unnamed caudillo. I should note that the militia cavalry above are also useful for certain "regular" gaucho squadrons.

All of the figures above are of the usual Mike Broadbent quality; that is to say, they're very, very nice indeed. In fact, it seems every time I think he can't top himself, he does! Mike has started on doing universal cavalry figures that will be usable for both sides across the range of released scenarios. I hope to have these available by end of the year. After these are finished we have plans to do artillery and some civilian dressed infantry at which point the range for Volume 1 will be just about complete. At that point I'm going to give him a breather as I financially assess things and decide how to move forward.

On the scenario front, I am almost ready to give Pedro his early Christmas present: the Battle of Cerro de Pasco, December 6, 1820. I've been working this scenario up over the last couple of weeks and the only thing left to do is the map. I'm trying to resolve some ground scale issues and then it will be a matter of spending an evening in Photoshop putting it together. I'd really appreciate feedback from those of you who play the scenario. I ran it once years ago but it hardly qualifies as playtested. With your comments we can put the polish on it.

I'm also compiling information on a set of skirmish/company scale scenarios featuring the gauchos and other irregular forces that contested the Royalist forces in Alto Peru and northern Argentina between 1810-1821. The hardest part for most of these has been finding maps or reliable topographic information. If you have any leads, please let me know!

I hope you enjoy all the new goodies!
John

Salute Report and Other News

2008-04-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Liberators! scenario at Salute was a great success. I want to thank Ian Spence and Martin Gane for the incredible amount of work they did, both in preparation and the day of the show, in presenting and promoting an excellent representation of the period of South American Independence. They secured some great publicity by landing the cover of the April issue (#300) of Miniature Wargames magazine, as well as 2 feature articles in the issue. They entertained an endless stream of visitors, summarizing the period and answering their questions far better than I could. In a lot of ways it was exactly what I hoped for when I started this project: watching my esoteric passion become our collective interest. Richard at Principles of War did brisk business and Mike Pass did a great job painting up some display figures.

Speaking of painting figures, hopefully you've checked out the photos I posted on the Yahoo! group of the Royalist infantry painted by El Mercenario. I got a chance to meet him, along with a gaggle of other Spanish gamers who were attending Salute. We had a nice chance to discuss gaming and the hobby, as well as have a beer or two a couple of nights before the convention. I'm always impressed with the Spanish gaming scene and my opinions only increased with this group. I'm also going to post some photos Mike Broadbent sent of some painted examples of the upcoming Gaucho references. A couple others have posted photos of their figures and I think this is a really fun and exciting way for us to keep each other up on how we're doing. I've still got that 1st batch of Royalists and I'll put my humble efforts up as soon as they're done.

Over at the Grenadier Productions store you'll find a new book title: "La Legione Italiana, Bahia Blanca 1856; El Frente Olvidado del Risorgimento" by Cesar Puliafito. You undoubtedly recognize Cesar's name as the illustrator who did the uniform plates for Liberators, Vol. 1. He has written a full length book on the obscure but fascinating Italian Legion that formed the core of the garrison at Bahia Blanca. The 256 page book is in Spanish but it is easily comprehensible for English readers. It also contains numerous orders of battle, maps, photographs (those of the region today in color) and, of course, 11 pages of uniform plates. It is an incredible book and is a must have for anyone interested in the Argentine Civil Wars, Indian Wars or the War of the Triple Alliance. The book retails for $40, plus shipping. Here are some sample pages:

Gearing up for Salute

2008-04-12T11:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday, April 19th is the annual Salute convention in London, England. I'm really looking forward to this year's convention as Liberators! will be well represented. Martin Gane and Ian Spence have done a great job of getting word out about their featured convention demo game and I've heard there's a great article in the March issue of Miniature Wargamer magazine. Unfortunately, they hadn't yet received the issue at Brookhurst Hobbies (where I normally buy my hobby magazines) but they did have the March Wargames: Soldiers and Strategies from Spain which had TWO nice reviews of the Liberators! Miniatures line. It looks like I'll be meeting the editor of WSS as he is travelling with Javier Gomez (aka El Mercenario). Javier, for those who don't know, is an awesome miniatures painter who now works for the Perry Brothers in addition to his contract work and efforts helping the burgeoning Carlist Wars scene. I'm hoping to at least spend a few minutes with Alan and Michael Perry although I suspect they are going to be absolutely mobbed at their booth with their new line of ACW figures. Other folks I'm looking forward to meeting again include author/American Revolution expert Brendon Morrissey and sculptor Aly Morrison.

If you're going to Salute, please stop by the Principles of War booth and show your support by picking up a pack or two of figures from Richard. He should have plenty of stock on hand and I'm hoping we can introduce the period to a few more folks. If you have a friend who might be interested in the period bring them by and if you haven't bought any of the miniatures, please take a look.

While I know I will give in to the temptation to do some shopping myself and while I will also spend at least a few minutes taking in the spectacle of the day I intend to spend at least half the day hanging around either the demo game or the Priniciples of War stand. Over the last 6 months I've gotten to know many of you via email and I'm looking forward to meeting at least some of you face to face.

On a non-Salute note, Mike has sent me pictures of the gaucho master sculpts. He is also sculpting the "infernales"; gauchos from the Salta region who got their name due to the distinctive red clothing they wore. We should have both of these in production in the next few weeks and Mike has promised that he'll get to the generals in May. For the Patriots he is sculpting San Martin, Belgrano and O'Higgins. For the Royalists he is sculpting Pezuela, Osorio and Canterac. Both sides will also have ADCs. If you want to see the pictures of the gauchos, visit the Yahoo! Group and click on the photos link.

I'll post a report here when I get back from London. Cheers!

Cavalry Repackaging

2008-02-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that I changed the size and price of the cavalry unit packs. I wanted to briefly explain this decision. With the recent "lance or no lance" discussion I wanted to find a way to make the choice easier, more flexible and less expensive. The answer is to try cutting the size of the cavalry unit packs in half, from 24 horses and riders to 12 and organizing the packs by weapon type. Not only does this make mixing and matching units easier, it brings the price in line with the infantry unit packs. Future cavalry unit packs will also be packaged along these lines. The smaller unit packs should become especially attractive when we get to the Royalist cavalry, where you need to organize more by squadron than regiment. I hope you like this new packaging and pick up a few at the store!

Granaderos a Caballo

2008-01-27T11:18:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed the correction I posted on the Yahoo! Group webpage this morning regarding the Liberators! Miniatures Granadero a Caballo unit pack PS-001. I'd like to take a moment to explain what happened.

When I commissioned Mike Broadbent to sculpt the Granaderos, which were the first figures in the Liberators! Miniatures line, I realized that I needed a specific breakdown on weapons for the unit. When studying Argentina's cavalry, the sources I had were vague on what they actually used. Most say something to the effect of "cavalry used sabers, lances and carbines". I wrote Julio Luqui Lagleyze an email that asked something like "did the Granaderos use lances?" to which he replied "one company in each squadron had them, the other had sabers". I trust Julio's information and therefore I adopted this as how I would represent the Granaderos in the miniatures line.

When Terry wrote his question last week about how the lances were assigned, I saw a chance to delve a little more deeply into the issue. When I was in Buenos Aires last October I picked up a copy of Camilo Anschultz's 2 volume "Historia del Regimiento de Granaderos a Caballo (1812-1826)". Anschultz's book is considered an important source. I had copied a few pages from a copy at UC Berkeley but had never really studied the book and I thought it would be a good addition to my personal library. I brought it home and put it on the shelf as I'm spending most of my time studying material for the war in the north but when Terry asked started reading. Imagine my horror when Anschultz says the Granaderos used lances in Banda Oriental but not in Alto Peru, Chile or Peru (vol. 1, p.86)! I checked some of the material returns he provides for the 1817-1818 campaigns and, sure enough, the Granaderos have sabers and carbines.

Somewhat rattled I wrote another email to Julio, this time asking "specifically, tell me when the Granaderos used lances...also, tell me about the Cazadores a Caballo and all the other cavalry in Alto Peru and Chile". Coincidentally, I had plans to go to San Diego on Thursday so I thought I'd go to the UC San Diego library and look up some archival sources for the Peruvian campaigns to see what I could find. According to equipment returns for San Martin's expeditionary army to Peru both the Cazadores and Granaderos sailed for Peru using sabers and carbines. In another source I found a return of items sent from Ecuador to Peru, starting in 1822. It included 1,600 lances. When I got back to the hotel that night I checked my email. Julio had written back, saying that the Granaderos slowly abandoned the lance. He couldn't remember exactly whether they used them in Chile but he was sure they adopted them again in Peru. As for the Cazadores, he stated they did not use lances. This reply dovetailed well with the combination of Anschultz and the archival material at UCSD, at least regarding Chile: Julio's original reply obviously dealt with the early days of the regiment, confirming Anschultz's description of the lance tactics used by the Granaderos (vol. 1, p.85) and his second reply ceded enough ground to grant Anschultz's position on the armament of the regiment in Chile 1817-18.

Based on this reasoning I decided to issue the correction.

Still, I'm left with the problems of Alto Peru in 1815 and Peru from 1820 onwards. Anschultz states that the Granaderos did not use lances in Peru, yet Julio says they were used and I have a return from Ecuador showing that lances were sent to Peru. It is possible that Anschultz did not have the Ecuadoran material. It is also possible that none of the lances sent to Peru were assigned to the Granaderos. At this point I think the Granaderos went to Peru with just sabers but readopted the lance. Therefore, the references I have provided for the Liberators! Miniatures line are correct.

As for Alto Peru, I would take Anschultz at his word except that he conceeds that when the Granaderos were sent to Alto Peru they had lances. He cites a letter from Belgrano to San Martin denigrating the effectiveness of lancers as evidence that the Granaderos did not use their lances in Alto Peru (vol. 1, p. 380). However, Belgrano did not command the Northern Army at this time, San Martin (and, later, Rondeau) did. Just because Belgrano didn't think highly of lancers does not mean the Granaderos suddenly discarded them. More convincing is his statement (vol. 1, p.427) that returns for May 1, June 23 and July 1, 1814 "do not allude to the existence of lances". I am inclined to accept this statement but without seeing the returns I would not embrace it as definitive. At this point I would think one could field either lance/saber or saber only and be within the realm of historical accuracy.

One final note: it is my observation that the image of the Granadero with a lance is somewhat iconic in the Argentine imagination; akin to the vision of the Continental soldiers in the American Revolution wearing blue coats. Both are historically accurate in their period but the historical truth is greater than each as well. Personally, while this issue is important for a proper understanding of the historical armies that fought these wars I don't think it really should affect a game either way; just as a gamer using a unit in the wrong color coat to "fill the numbers" hardly disqualifies the game they are used in.

As always, thanks for the input and I hope to hear more from you all soon.
John

Miniatures Launch and New Shop Page

2007-12-10T23:18:00.000-08:00

It's been a full week now since the new Liberators Miniatures line hit the market via the new shopping page on the grenadierproductions website. I've learned more in that week than I have in the last year. First off, I want to say thank you to those that have bought some new figures. I appreciate your support and business. To say that this is a major undertaking for me is to put it mildly and it's been very gratifying to receive and send out this first batch of orders. That said, I certainly hope sales continue in the weeks ahead and look forward to emptying out some of these boxes accumulating in my storage closet!

I've encountered some issues regarding postage. I built my shipping estimator module using data from the United States Postal Service website. Since I send USPS I figured I could safely rely on their published lists to build my shipping estimator. I figured incorrectly, sort of. As it turns out, almost every order has had the shipping estimated higher than the actual cost of postage. I've gone back and looked at the weights per unit and the data in my tables. Both are correct and yet the final postage has usually been from 2 to 6 dollars less than estimated. I think the problem has to do with the fact that the USPS rates do not include the Priority Mail International flat fee option for items under 4 lbs. This option, when coupled with the International First Class $.90 per ounce fee for a second, overflow envelope, will make shipping most non-US orders much less expensive than the currently listed numbers. As of now I have simply issued partial refunds to those whose actual shipping costs have been more than one dollar greater than estimated costs. I will continue to do this until I can correct my estimator to provide actual numbers.

On the good news side of the ledger, the Chilean infantry in 1817-1823 uniforms arrived on Saturday. I was down in San Diego for a gaming weekend and have not had a chance to upload the references to the shop but expect to see them for sale in the next day or two. As I've mentioned before, these are some beautiful figures and I know you'll be very pleased when you see them for yourself. Mike has started on the Argentine "Army of the Andes" infantry and I expect to have those for sale no later than the end of January. These troops are suitable for all Argentine troops in coats with no lapels. As soon as these are finished I want to do a double whammy and get you generals and gauchos. After that I may take a breather for a couple of months and assess how things are going. There is need for several other troops, most notably Royalist dragoons, but I'll have to see how sales are going and evaluate where the remaining capital will be best used...I do have another book that will need publishing!

Speaking of books, the supplement is always one copy away from selling out. I think it's done and I find a couple copies squirreled away here or there. I am 99% sure that there are no other stashes anywhere in Casa de Granadero and, if a certain potential customer orders what he has indicated, I will have to sell one of my 2 personal copies to make the order. At that point, it really will be finally sold out. Richard Holling, my English dealer (priniciplesofwar.com) has indicated a desire for another batch of them and if demand remains strong I'd be willing to contemplate running another 25-50. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I got these printed up via a sweetheart deal and I may be able to extend it one more time. I'll have to look at the options.

Regarding the Quick Play rules in the supplement; I've been working on them trying to smooth out a couple of points that I've never quite been happy with. I am working on a new set of modifiers to the morale "saving" roll in fire and melee combat and trying to get the melee phase in general to work better. The thing is the current rules give a good result overall but, especially given the ground scale and the level of abstraction incorporated to make these actual "quick play" rules, it takes too many turns to get to that good result. Once units lock horns in melee I'd like to see a more decisive result.

That's about it for now. As always, feel free to contact me and please stop by the shop and pick up some packs of troops.

Liberators! Miniatures On Sale Now

2007-12-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

There here! You can order the first sets of Liberators! Miniatures, Argentine Granaderos a Caballo and Royalist infantry, at the new store. Chilean infantry are on the way and Argentine Army of the Andes infantry are on the workbench. More to follow soon. Enjoy!

Progress Report

2007-11-17T01:28:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that I've got a shopping cart well under way. I'm having a bit of a struggle getting the design to work and the shipping isn't working yet (apparently it's not good enough to have registered with the US postal service, I have to contact them to activate my rate calculators) but it's got all the current catalog and seems to be functioning in my tests. I'll be out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday but hopefully will have it up and running by the 27th or 28th...at which point you'll be able to buy the new 15m Liberators! Miniatures.

Speaking of Liberators! Miniatures, I just got the test castings of the Chilean infantry and they are fantastic! The uniforms are more ornate than the Granaderos a Caballo and Royalist infantry and Mike really delivered. He's going to do production casting this week so they should also be available when the new shop page debuts. We're moving on to "Army of the Andes" Argentine infantry, which will hopefully be done by the end of the year. January will see us do army command/personalities and at least one other unit type, probably either Royalist dragoons or gauchos. On the 28mm front, Mike reports that he's "slowly" compiling dollies so hopefully we'll get them going by next spring.

The lists of "suitable" AB and Fantassin figures are nearing completion as well. I keep going back and forth on this reference or that, debating whether or not I'll have Mike sculpt the proper figures for Liberators! Miniatures but for the most part it's a matter of snapping some pictures and spending an afternoon putting together a presentable one-sheet. There's a big convention in Australia in January so I know I need to get it to Nic and Mike in the next couple of weeks. While this list is probably not the smartest business move in the world it will help you fill in the gaps in your army and I hope it will increase both your desire to play South American Independence games and showcase the period to your friends and gaming clubs.

There's a new article on the Free Stuff page of the Grenadier Productions website. It's on a series of illustrations of Argentine flags by David Prando on display in the Museo de Armas in Buenos Aires. I also broke open the tabled Montevideo 1807 scenarios and am reworking them based on some fantastic new material I acquired on my trip (thanks to Jose Olivero, Julio Luqui Lagleyze and Nicolas Rossi). I hope to offer the Combat del Cardon, January 20, 1807 before Christmas. In response to many of your suggestions I'm working on victory conditions and need to playtest the scenario a few times to get them balanced.

A big thank you to Mark Ryan.

Stay in touch on the Yahoo! Group or email me via the Grenadier Productions website with any questions, comments or requests you might have and look for more new things come December.

Home From South America

2007-11-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

I'm back from my trip to Argentina and Uruguay and thought I'd give you an update on how it went. In a word: great. First off, I'd like to thank Julio M. Luqui-Lagleyze, Jose Olivero, Alicia Otero, Victoria Pannunzio, Mariano Araujo, Nicolas Rossi and Milton Pagola for their hospitality, information and services. Each one advanced the "Liberators!" project and made my visit more enjoyable.

I bought a lot of books. I especially focused on 2 areas: the British Invasions of 1806-1807 and the overlapping area of Uruguayan Independence and the Argentine civil wars of 1820-1852. I have not forgotten the tabled Montevideo 1807 scenarios I was building for the supplement. Eventually I decided I did not have the material necessary to present you with historically accurate information. I still want to get you what I was calling the "Combat at Tres Cruces" scenario (it'll be renamed) in the scale of "Liberators!" Look for it to appear as a free scenario before the end of the year. The "Assault on Montevideo" scenario will probably get redesigned for an edition of "Liberators! Skirmish", where it will appear alongside some 6-8 other scenarios.

I just got a photo of the Chilean infantry masters from Mike. As always, they look great. I know I promised these figures will be available before Christmas: that means I have to get off my sorry butt, upgrade the website account and get a shopping cart added asap. The Patriot Grenaderos a Caballo and Royalist infantry will definitely be available, as will the Chileans if we can get them cast in time. The Argentine infantry sculpts probably won't be done till December so it doesn't look like they'll be available before the new year.

That's it for now. I'll post some photos over on the Yahoo! Group. Of special interest is an 1814 Argentine cannon at the Museo de Armas that gives us our first firm answer to the burning question: what color did they paint them?

Ok, so the word is out

2007-10-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hopefully by now you've noticed on both the website and the Yahoo! group that I'm going to be releasing a line of 15mm figures under the name of "Liberators! Miniatures". I wanted to take this chance to tell you what the overall plan is and roughly when you can expect things.

Right now the first two sets of figures, the Granaderos a Caballo cavalry and Royalist Infantry 1818-1824 are complete: I have boxes of the little buggers stacked in the closet just waiting to go on sale. I'm personally painting a unit of the Royalists and I keep having to remind myself "this is your line, John. These are actual Spanish Royalist infantry and not stand-ins!" Better, they are really, really good figures. My sculptor, Mike Broadbent, has done a great job at both accuracy and feel. I am sure you will be very happy with the figures and I only hope we can all keep this line going together.

Yes, that was a sales pitch.

You see, this line will only go as far as you take it. Right now Mike is working on Patriot Chilean Infantry. He has references and instructions on Argentine Infantry. After that, it's anyone's guess. To be quite honest, I've blown through the capital I had generated on sales of the "Liberators!" book and supplement. The line will have to finance itself. To do that, here's what I need: 50 people need to buy what I call "max packs" of each set. A max pack is the maximum number of 24 figure units needed to play any one scenario in the game. At this point that will be 4 max packs of Royalist Infantry, 5 max packs of Chilean Infantry and 4 max packs of Argentine Infantry. Cavalry is a bit different. To be honest, the max pack for any cavalry set is 1. I encourage you to buy more but, strictly speaking, one max pack of 1812-1818 Granaderos and one max pack of 1820-1824 Granaderos will give you all the Granaderos a Caballo you will need to play any scenario in the book (assuming you game at 1:30 scale. At 1:20 you'll need somewhere around 28 figures). I will be selling the sets in 24 figure packs and I encourage each and every one of you to buy the max pack number. Of course, I will also be offering smaller packs of figures; 8 infantry and 4 cavalry, should you want to specifically build your units. Rest assured on one thing, however: all money made from this line will be reinvested in the "Liberators!" project for the foreseeable future. As I have said before, I have tried to build a community with this project. I think of each of you as a co-creator with me as together we build the interest and market in this period. Your purchases enable me to produce new material; new material helps us to expand our community.

So, with the rah-rah "now go buy one for the Gipper" speech out of the way, let me tell you what's coming. Besides the Chileans and Argentines, both of which should be out by the end of the year, the current list of figures includes personality packs for the generals, Patriot artillerists, Gauchos, Patriot Light Dragoons, Royalist Dragoons in helmet and shako and Royalist cavalry in top hat. When all that is finished, we will begin to work on the range for Volume 2: The War in the North. This range will include sets for llaneros, infantry "sin uniforme" (with muskets, lances and bows!), Patriot Venezuelan units in the 1813 uniform, later Patriot Peruvian units and Royalist Spanish Infantry in 1815 uniform.

You'll notice there are some gaps in the range. I am working with Nic at Eureka and Mark at Scalecreep to generate lists of compatible AB and Fantassin miniatures, respectively. As the Liberators! range expands I'll fill in these gaps with specific, correctly sculpted sets but this way you'll be able to build your armies now using reasonable stand-ins. My hope is that the Liberators! range is good enough and the armies in the Liberators! books small enough that you will want to replace any existing stand-in units with proper figures once they become available.

And we haven't forgotten about the 28mm folks, either. It's probably a year or so down the line but if things work out, we will expand the line. I'm particularly excited about this as the 28mm release will coincide with the first "Liberators! Skirmish" booklet. The "Liberators! Skirmish" series will cover the myriad company sized battles of the period, battles too small for the regular "Liberators!" series but just as exciting to game on the tabletop. I've got at least a half dozen of these in the queue; as always the determining factors will be available time and money.

So there you have an idea of where I'd like to take this thing. Please feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or suggestions. I look forward to hearing what you think of the new range when they become available and I look forward to your support.

October Update

2007-10-04T09:22:00.001-07:00

Things are progressing at their usual snail's pace here in the world of "Liberators!" The 2nd volume is creeping along, always making progress but never seeming to near completion. I suppose it's the curse of the one man show (and a rather disorganized one man at that!). What's there is quality: I think it is an improvement on the 1st volume both in terms of detail and clarity. I learned a lot in putting out that first book and I learned even more corresponding with you all about it. I have no doubt that when the 2nd volume finally appears you will be quite happy with the wait.

My brutal work schedule finally starts trending down so I should be able to devote more time to the project, which means that the long awaited "announcement" is almost here. I suppose it's an open secret now what the topic is and a few of you know exactly what it is but I'm going to stick to my guns and hold off on official comment until all the necessary elements are in place. I'm also hoping to get you guys another free scenario or two as early Christmas presents. To be honest, I've pretty much exhausted the southern theater, at least in terms of the scenario size parameters of "Liberators!": 2000-4000 men per side engagements. There are many smaller combats that I've passed over or intended to collect for the "Liberators! Skirmish" supplements I hope to write but I think I can squeeze at least one more good scenario out for your enjoyment. I might even work up a northern theater scenario as a prelude to the 2nd volume. We'll see.

On another front, I have been working with Julio Luqui Lagleyze, Rene Chartrand and Dave Sullivan on a series of articles on the War of the Triple Alliance. The articles have been appearing quarterly in Military Historian and Collector magazine, the journal of the Company of Military Historians, edited by Dave. This has been a great series and I'm honored to be associated with such notable names as Rene Chartrand. I've said it elsewhere but if you're not a member of the Company it is well worth the yearly fee.

Speaking of Julio, I am going to be visiting Buenos Aires at the end of this month. I am going to consult with Julio on uniforms, including some questions that some of you have asked that I have not been able to adequately answer. I'm also planning on getting over to Montevideo to visit some of the sites of the British assault in February 1807. Hopefully I can visit a couple of the nearby independence era sites and maybe, just maybe, Ituzaingo if it's not too far afield. Along with a second round of visiting Buenos Aires locations that figured into the Reconquista and Defensa of Buenos Aires against the British in 1806-07 I hope to be able to put together a useful photographic collection. I don't know if this would go into the supplement I hope to do on this topic one day in the near future or if it might all be compiled into an article for the Company (or any other publisher) but I'd love to give this topic a shot. I don't think anyone has done anything in English since Ian Fletcher's "The Waters of Oblivion" in 1991 and nobody has ever bothered to document what remains of the sites where the fighting raged.

I want to thank you all for making the "Liberators!" Yahoo! Group such a success. It has been much more vibrant than the old forum and I appreciate all of you visiting and posting. Please keep it up.

July Update

2007-07-23T01:06:00.000-07:00

It's been pretty quiet here for a while. I've got some things brewing but I really can't say anything as of yet. Just know that there's some good news coming down the pike!

As for "The War in the North" I've taken one step forward and two steps back...that have caused me to rethink things in a major way. I've been working on the text and stepped back to give a read to draft 1.0. Simply put, it was unsatisfactory. I had decided to try to give you a lot more detail in this book than in the first: marches, dates, reinforcements and detachments...all backed up with archival references you could check. Serious history. Unfortunately, as I read it my head started swimming and I realized that what I was delivering was the worst form of high school history: name, date and place over and over again with no context or reason to keep slogging through material that is probably unfamiliar to 99% of my readers.

So I decided to try shifting gears and putting the information in a graphical form: maps. Lots of maps. And some charts. Nice, clean TO&E charts. Edward Tufte has been a big influence on me and I think bringing some of his graphic principles to bear will give you just as rich an informational experience in a far more appealing fashion than what I've generated so far. I will then rewrite the text in a more basic style so that I can pull the general narrative out of the data dump. It's going to be a major delay in the project but my goal is to give you a final product that will earn a lasting place on your bookshelf and generate games for years to come. It's worth an extra 3 months.

On another front, Victoria Pannunzio has finished the uniform illustrations for "The War in the North". She did 72 figures for this volume under the guidance of Professor Julio Mario Luqui Laglezye, including several uniforms that have never been presented anywhere else. It's a very colorful mix of uniforms covering all the years from 1810 until 1824 and will be a great addition to the book. I will try to present uniform data for all the units that appear in the scenarios as I did in "The War in the South" but the honest truth is the data has been far more difficult to come by, especially for the American Royalist units like the Cazadores de Cachiri or Sagunto Regiments. If you have any information you'd care to share, please email me at the address in the Contact section.

I'd like to take a brief moment to thank some people who have contributed to the "Liberators!" project in the past few weeks: Pedro Manzano sent along a useful list of Royalist units that served in Venezuela and Colombia. Dave Watson has run Maipo games at the Glasgow and District Wargaming Society and at Falkirk Cannonade while Ian Spence and Martin Gane are preparing a South American demonstartion game for Salute! 2008. Very cool.

Look for an announcement soon, hopefully before Labor Day (September 3) and thanks for your support.

Kubla Con report

2007-05-28T11:32:00.001-07:00

I'm happy to report that Kubla Con was a success. I arrived on Friday and was at first a little worried. It looked like attendance was going to be down from last year but Saturday and Sunday found the hotel packed with folks enjoying all genres of our hobby. I don't have any numbers other than the guesstimate from my own lyin' eyes but it looked like Kubla continues its growth and that's a good thing.

The other good thing I noticed this year was a marked increase in the number of non-historical gamers giving historical scenarios a try. Call it the "Flames of War" effect. While I don't like the FoW system the simple fact that they bring fresh players to our side of the hobby makes them the best thing to happen to historical gaming in at least 2 decades. So "huzzah" to them and let's have more of it.

I ran the Lima scenario from the supplement twice. Both battles were close, hard fought Patriot victories. I decided to run the scenario with the following victory conditions: if a side ended any rally phase with 25 or more stands eliminated they withdrew from the field with the other side claiming a minor or tactical victory. If both sides ended a rally phase with 25 or more stands eliminated the battle was a draw. Since the "What If" reflects San Martin fighting a reluctant battle while Canterac's historical strategic objective was to relieve Callao, not crush the Patriot army or capture Lima, I decided there was no opportunity for a decisive victory. In the first game the Royalists lost 26-22 though it easily could've gone the other way. In the second game the Royalists lost 28-21 but the 28 was only due to a daring (desperate?) Royalist charge across the entire line on the last turn that saw them rolling particularily badly in the melee phase. Overall, it was a very balanced scenario and I'd recommend it for whenever you want a pickup game or simply a good, straight up , head-to-head test.

The scenario also generated several useful comments on the quick play rules. I'm going to be looking at ways to both simplify and somehow increase the effectiveness of cavalry charges. Also, it was pointed out that the rules never specifically state that artillery should be treated as a skirmish stand even though that is how I run them. So, let me say it: artillery stands are treated as skirmish targets for purposes of fire and melee, meaning it is -1 to hit them in fire but +1 in melee. Finally, it was noted (and I agree) that artillery should be able to fire through enemy skirmishers to hit a formed unit behind them. So, artillery can fire through enemy skirmishers. Muskets, however, cannot. Look for all these changes on the errata section on the Yahoo Group.

Thanks to Scale Specialties for stocking both the "Liberators!" book and supplement and a big thanks to Arthur, Erik, Bob, Sean, Robert and the other fellow (I'm sorry, I forgot your name) who played in the demos. I will definitely be back next year!

Pre-Kubla Con Update

2007-05-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

I leave for Kubla Con tomorrow morning, bright and early. It's been quite a week defying the odds to get the game ready. A week and a half ago I was making plans to switch to running the Battle of Maipo as I didn't think I had any chance of getting the armies painted up for the "What If" Battle of Lima scenario. Then I got on a serious painting roll. I didn't get all the units done that I wanted but I covered all the outstanding gaps...meaning units I had never painted before. There are some stand-ins but I don't think you'll mind and it'll be fun to run a fresh scenario. As I mentioned on the Yahoo Group, I'll be running games on Saturday at 3:00pm and Sunday at 1:00pm. If you're there join in or just stop by to say hi.

When I get back from Kubla Con there will be an announcement about something that we've all been waiting for. I can't wait to tell you all. Look for a mass email and matching announcements on The Miniatures Page, the Yahoo Group and the Grenadier Productions homepage.

With the scramble to get the Lima scenario ready and a hectic work schedule in my private life, writing on the 2nd "Liberators!" has ground to a halt. This does not mean that nothing is going on; Victoria is finishing up the plates and I'm in discussions with another artist on providing work for some of the planned "Liberators! Skirmish" booklets, which will begin appearing after the next full volume is printed. This artist is well known and has done work for Osprey, Military Illustrated and Brasseys. Hopefully our conversations will lead to another announcement.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Please take a moment to think of the men and women who have fallen and those who are currently serving.

New Yahoo Group

2007-03-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

I've activated a Yahoo! Group to replace the forum. As many of you noted and as I was painfully aware, the forum was slow or down way too often. So I've replaced it with the new Yahoo! Group. Joining is free and it's very easy so I hope to see you there. If you're signing up for the "Liberators!" group you should also be sure to sign up for Alan Saunder's SACA Wars group (South American Central American Wars). In addition to independence, they cover every other conflict with some emphasis on War of the Triple Alliance and Pacific War. It's a great group with great members.

Teaser

2007-03-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

Some website changes are in the works...

I'm writing the history section of the new book. The challenge for this section is presenting a concise yet comprehensive overview of the campaigns. It's first draft material but it's good to be getting it onto paper. I'm also collecting uniform and organizational material for those sections. I've got a lot of scattered references and it's amazing how I'll open a folder and find some great stuff I had photocopied in one of my library frenzies but completely forgotten about later. For example, I discovered last night that I have detailled uniform information for almost all the Cundinamarca forces in the 1811-1814 campaigns in Colombia. A quick look at the shelf next to my computer shows me thousands of pages in over 20 binders...wonder what else I've grabbed and forgotten about over the years...I remember something about the food rations of Ecuadoran battalions...

This is getting fun.

Forum Problems?

2007-02-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! I need your imput: do you have any difficulties with the forum? I ask because I have noticed lately that the server runs in-cred-i-bly slow sometimes and other times simply refuses to access pages. Now, it is hardly what any of us would consider a data heavy site...some text and one, maybe two avatars...so I'm wondering I need to consider switching from forumforfree to another provider.

Have you had any problems with the forum?

Should I set up a new forum on another site?

If so, do you have a suggestion on which free service to use?

Thanks,
John

Update: the forum has been intermittent all day. I just tried from another portal and it said the server was down. Hmmm...

Go check out the Perry's

2007-02-01T20:13:00.000-08:00

I've been asked about using the new Perry Miniatures line of Carlist War figures for South America. With the eternal caveat that we need our own line of figures, I say "sure". The Isabelina line are quite good for the later war forces (especially if you're doing Ica, Torata and Moquegua). The brand spankin' new cavalry figures come with either lances or sabres...perfect for our period...and if you're not averse to conversions sticking Isabelina cavalry heads on Carlist shell jacket cavalry will really get you close to the mark on some of the units. About the only real quibble I have is with the commanders: officers in South America would be wearing bicornes, not shakos. Oh, and stay away from the Isabelina horse artillery...that's a uniform I'm not familiar with. Other than that, have at 'em!!! I'm sure thinking about it. You'll see the link to Perry Miniatures on the right side of this webpage.

On the book front I'm still working through the Morillo material. I'm reading about the 1817 campaign to retake Margarita island. There won't be any scenarios but it's very useful for the "Armies and Leaders" sections. For example, Morillo's papers make it clear that it was common in the north for the Royalists to form composite cazadore battalions (he refers to them as "columns"). I haven't, however, found similar composite granadero battalions. Morillo's archives have also been very useful in helping me to get a handle on the general Royalist order of battle: what units were formed where and when, which units were disbanded and where their troops were reassigned, etc.

I also wanted to make you aware of a fantastic resource that I've just started exploring: Google Books. Just go to Google and click on "more". You'll see "books" appear in a separate drop down window. Pick that and good luck! They're free .pdf downloads so if you find something that looks good just click on it. Don't expect to find anything current, however: the books are all copyright expired and public domain (that's how they can be free downloads). So far I've found a couple of interesing things, including a history of Peruvian artillery. I also stumbled on a backdoor of one of the volumes of the Morillo archives I mentioned above but I can't get back to it. I was at work and I knew I should've downloaded it immediately but I thought I'd easily find it again when I got home. It was the last volume so I don't feel so bad. I'll just have to hit the copier for the sections of interest.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

2007-01-14T23:11:00.000-08:00

Well, it's not until tomorrow but I thought I'd note the holiday for one of the greatest Americans of the 20th Century.

I've spent the last week engrossed in Antonio Rodriguez Villa's "El Teniente General Don Pablo Morillo..." biography. Well, not the biography itself but the 3 volumes of archival documents that go with it. It's a fascinating look into how the primary Royalist commander saw the war and the politics and personalities involved on the Royalist side. It's also interesting to read field reports from the various Royalist commanders. Neither side liked to dwell on their failures and since "the victors write the history" it's a useful corrective to the standard histories that typically leap from glorious Patriot victory to glorious Patriot victory. The documents are also filled with many good OB details. Unfortunately, there are no easy estado mayors or troop returns to copy but dribbles here and there that, in total, help flesh out the Royalist side of some of the possible scenarios (El Juncal, Cachiri, La Hogaza, 3rd La Puerta/Semen, etc.).

I'm also working on how to deal with the British and Irish battalions. While I'm trying to keep a balance I fully understand that these units will be of obvious interest to many, if not most, of the readers. Rest assured that at least 4 scenarios will have at least one of these battalions in them, so there will be plenty of opportunity to add these formations to your collection. I just have to make sure that they are kept in the context of the overall conflict. If you have any thoughts on the matter feel free to send me a line or post them to the forum.

Talk soon,
John

Supplement Supplemental

2007-01-10T00:13:00.000-08:00

Well, the new "Lberators!" supplement has been available for a couple of weeks now and the first feedback has been really good. Thank you to everybody who has taken the time to comment and thank you to everyone who has purchased a copy. There are still copies available so be sure to check the order page if you haven't bought your copy.

A question has arisen on a rather important point in the quick play rules: what is the figure scale? I use an approximate 1:30 scale for infantry and cavalry while one gun model represents 2 pieces. Remember that the orders of battle are still presented as raw numbers so if, for example, you see a 4 gun artillery battery listed it would be represented by 2 models in the quick play rules.

I'm digging into the meat of the next full volume, "The War in the North". I've been fixated on the 1812 and 1814 campaigns, determined to deliver at least one 1812 scenario and 3 or 4 1814 scenarios. Of that total, I'm hoping to have at least 3 be non-Bolivar scenarios. I'd like the final book to be about half Bolivar, half non-Bolivar. Besides giving you a chance to use other Patriot commanders I think this strikes a good balance in showing that independence was not won by one commander or army. Mariño, Bermudez, Urdaneta, Piar, Ribas and Paez were vital in securing Venezuelan independence and Ecuador and Peru owe just as much to Jose Antonio de Sucre as they do to Simon Bolivar. Additionally, I'm trying to avoid simply picking Patriot victories. That is somewhat difficult as the northern theatre is definitely a case of "the victors write the history".

With all that in mind, it looks as if the Battle of Boca Chica, March 31, 1814 is in the mix. This was a 4,000 troop per side daylong battle between Santiago Mariño and Jose Tomas Boves. Other 1814 scenarios I'm considering include one of the battles of San Mateo, 2nd La Puerta, Urica and, of course, 1st Carabobo. For 1812 it will be one of the June battles between Miranda and Monteverde. I'm also staying open to some of the non-Venezuelan battles of the early years. These are usually too small for the scenario sizes in "Liberators!" (2000-5000 men per side) but something like Juanambu or El Panecillo might squeeze in (hey, I've got OBs and workable maps...).

As always, if you have any material or ideas you'd like to contribute, please email me via the communicate page. If you have any questions, comments or thoughts you'd like to put out to everybody else, please put it up on the forum. Speaking of the forum, there was one complaint over at the SACA Wars Yahoo Group about not being able to access the page properly. If anyone else has had any difficulty, please let me know. Now back to ploughing through Morillo's letters, looking for needles in haystacks...

New Supplement & New Year

2006-12-25T16:40:00.000-08:00

I'd like to start off by thanking everybody who showed patience and trust and ordered the new supplement. You should have started receiving them and by the end of this week everyone who ordered a copy should have it.

I'm pretty excited about the new supplement and very interested in your feedback. I tried to incorporate some of the most common suggestions from the first book: inclusion of musician's uniforms, rules, and a "denser" layout (a lot of people felt the spacing in the first book was a waste of space...). I intend on continuing this trend with the next "proper" volume in the series "The War in the North". Please feel free to email me directly or post on the forum. If you email me, please make sure the subject line is clear and easily distinguishable from the mountain of spam I've been receiving the last few months. Indeed, if anyone has written and I haven't gotten back to you, you probably got swept up in a mass deletion. I look over every subject and sender but it's possible you could've just gotten mixed in.

Speaking of the next volume, it will be entitled "Liberators! Napoleonic Wargaming in South America, 1810-1830; Volume 2, The War in the North: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru". At least you know what it covers... As I've mentioned before, it's basically the "Bolivar Book". At this point scenarios include Araure 1813, 3rd La Puerta (aka "El Semen"...no kidding) 1818, Pantano de Vargas 1819, Boyaca 1819, 2nd Carabobo 1821, Pichincha 1822, Bombona 1822, Junin 1823 (with a varient for a full battle) and Ayacucho 1824. Many other scenarios are under consideration. There will also be sections on the history of the theatre, the armies and organizations and, of course, the uniforms. This book is far more complicated than the first volume, especially in the history section. Providing coherent campaign maps is going to be quite a challenge, especially in the early campaigns. I'll be consulting my Edward Tufte books for ideas on how to simply and clearly present the material, that's for sure.

The goal is to have the book out sometime in the summer. If anyone cares to assist in providing OB sources, maps and or uniform information, please email. The supplement benefitted from the contributions of several of you and I hope Volume 2 does as well.

Best to you and yours in the New Year!
John

Act of God, indeed

2006-12-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

This is why I never like announcing anything before I have it in my hands...

In the last post I made the bold announcement that I'd be sending the supplement out on Friday, December 15...barring an Act of God. Well guess who stepped in. I dutifully received copies of the supplement on Friday, December 15 with one small, incorrect, detail: the front cover was blank. My printer said the cover file was received with a back cover only. I looked at my original layout file and it showed both covers. The pdf export showed both covers. However, the spread layout used by Adobe InDesign (the layout program I used) left open the possibility that it could have exported incorrectly for a proper press run.

We have made arrangements to do an emergency run next week.

Thank you to everyone who has ordered a copy. I appreciate your patience and rest assured I will get your copy of the supplement to you as soon as physically possible.

The Supplement is NOW AVAILABLE

2006-12-06T15:52:00.000-08:00

I proudly present "Liberators! Supplement I: The War in the South"! You will find the book listed on the Home page of the website. You will find it available for sale on the Orders page. Please note that I am still awaiting the paper shipment and, therefore, the supplement is not ready for shipment. This is a preorder. However, everything is in place and barring an Act of God it should be ready to ship no later than Friday, December 15.

You will find a brief description of the contents on the Home page. I'm sure it won't take too long to figure out that the Montevideo scenarios did not make the final cut. As regular readers of this blog know, I struggled with those scenarios for hours on end. I finally decided to publish the supplement without them. To compensate, I have set the price at $14.95, down from the originally planned $19.95. Also, you can rest assured that I have not given up on the Montevideo scenarios. Look for them down the road...possibly as free downloads.

Now, on to "Liberators! Volume 2: The War in the North"!

Tweaking the Scenario Pack

2006-12-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

I've fixed the text errors & rearranged some pics. Adding a couple charts. One on basing suggestions (the quick play rules can use any basing as long as it's consistent but I realized some folks might appreciate seeing how I've based my collection...it's pretty standard fare) and another on formations. I have some clarifications to do on the skirmishers and it's ready to go.

Scenario Pack

2006-11-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

It's almost here. I'm doing final edit on completed layout. It's suprising how many little mistakes show up once you print out a "first pass pages" copy...like I somehow forgot half the general's ratings. Look at it on a computer for months and never see it, put it on paper and notice it within 10 seconds!

So I should be finished with first pass changes in the next couple days. Then I'll do a second pass home print and from there it's off to print! Since I'm doing everything close to home it should be available by the 15th. I'm thinking of putting the scenario pack up on the website for presale so that I can just ship copies and get them to you before Christmas. Please remember that the scenario pack will be a limited run so order it as soon as you see it on the website!

El Silencio Grande

2006-10-13T21:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long silence. I've been pulling double shifts at work and it's just been a killer (I do freelance video editing in addition to tour managing and, occasionally, writing wargames reference books or military history articles) . In fact, I'm bleary eyed as I write this.

Still, I owe you a what's up.

I've been getting some emails asking what the status of the projects are. Unfortunately, due to the above, not much further along than my last post. To be honest with you, the scenario pack is 80-90% done. I've worked out one of the Montevideo scenarios and if I could just sit down for a day and wrestle out the other one it would be pretty much set. Trust me, it is goal number one to have this thing available for Christmas presents! Volume 2 is exactly where it was last time except I've done some bedtime reading, specifically biographies of Bolivar and Nariño. I am maintaining my goal of next summer for a release.

I also want to point you all to the Perry Brothers line of Carlist 28mm figures. Michael showed me some greens when I was in England last month. They are SPECTACULAR. Better yet, many of the figures work very well for South American Independence. As of this writing they should be coming online in a matter of days or weeks. When they do, do yourself a favor and stock up on them! Even if you have no real interest in 28mm, these figures are really, really good. You won't regret it. Of course, if you buy them please be sure to mention how much you would LOVE to have a dedicated line for South America. I know I sure would. I have only hung out with them twice but the Perrys, along with Ally, are great guys...genius at sculpting aside. In the year the book has been out I haven't met anybody more cool, more easy to just have a beer and shoot the bull with than that lot.

http://www.perry-miniatures.com/

Some other really good news: the Network Neutrality bill died a quiet death as time ran out on the recent Congressional session. WE WON (this round). Basically, enough pressure and press was brought to this abomination of a bill that its supporters ran to hide from the light. Of course, we know this isn't the end of it: there's too much money at stake and the recent Congress just loves to do things in the dark of night when no one is looking...so it wouldn't suprise me if they try to sneak it past in the supplemental session they've got planned. If that fails they'll see how the election goes. Not to endorse any candidate or party...I fully understand how divided the US is and how quickly folks raise their danders, plus the fact that this is a wargaming blog, not a political one...but for the sake of our hobby, hope for a Democractic majority in at least one of the houses. The monied interests involved will have to rethink their allegiances and the issue will quietly fade for at least a while. The recent Google purchase of YouTube didn't escape my notice: it looks like they're positioning for a worst case scenario on this, but we're not about ANY of those big boys. We're about our hobby and the fact that even the giants like GW and Battlefront are nobodies in that mega-corporate world. Gaming has thrived due to the freedom of the internet and due to the fact that, up to now, our sites have to be treated exactly the same as any of the rest of them. We need to keep it that way.

As always, thanks for the emails and support. Use the forum, support our friends in the industry, especially Perry Miniatures, Scale Creep Miniatures (check out his ACW line if you're into that period!), Principles of War and SACA Wars. Talk soon.

Maps!

2006-09-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Bay Area and wanted to get a quick post in before heading off to family obligations. Short story, I found some really useful stuff in the Berkeley stacks, most notably a small, 1955 Venezuelan study on Bolivar's 1813 campaign by Carlos Siso. Specifically, the period between the Battles of Barquisimeto and Araure. The best part of this study is that it includes MAPS! All I previously had of either of these battles were some photos of the battlefields in 2 different sources. Barquisimeto might be just a tad too small for the final book but will probably make it as a bonus scenario. Araure, however, is one of Bolivar's key battles: arguably his first truly "great" victory. It is also the perfect size for a tactical scale Napoleonic wargame. As such, it has been from Day 1 a "must have" scenario for the book.

I also picked up a nice chapter from a book by the Spanish Ministry of Defense dealing with infantry tactics from the mid-1700's until the end of the 1820's; a Colombian dealing with the Spanish "Reconquista" of 1816, General Pablo Morrillo's campaign to retake Nueva Granada, the key battle of which was Cachiri and some archival material on the early Venezuelan forces of 1812-1814. If I could get a week at the NRLF facility, where all the really obscure stuff is stored, I think I'd be about as far along as I'm going to get without traveling to Caracas, Bogata or Quito.

I also spent a day at ConQuest, which was nice. Played an ancients game (yes, I do have other interests!) and picked up a great fantasy card game called Battleground. Basically you use cards instead of miniatures. I know, some folks will scream heresy but it's an elegant design, simple yet deep, and will be a perfect "pick up" game for those nights when we can't get a quorum (more and more frequent in this middle aged day of jobs, families and juggled schedules). To be honest, the design of Battleground is similar to a design concept I had for another project I've never written about (because it's for another company and doesn't deal with South America) but, also to be honest, it is far more thought out and clearly presented. A good inspiration.

Talk soon and Go Huskers, Go Chiefs!

So Where's the Scenario Pack?

2006-09-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know that's your question. I'm a gamer too, you know, and impatience for new goodies is in all our blood. The short answer is it's over a month late and I apologize. The long answer is it's still sitting on my computer. I'm still wrestling with the Montevideo scenarios. My latest idea is to present the smaller, skirmish size scenarios alongside the larger, tactical scale ones. Of course, this then affects my page count and leads to a reorganization of the layout...On the upside, I think I have worked out the printer arrangement. If the arrangement holds, it should be a very quick turnaround once it's finished.

In other news, I'll be at Conquest in San Francisco this weekend. I'm actually going so I can spend the days at the Berkeley library, hunting for material for Book II but I'm looking forward to doing some evening gaming, watching some football and having a few beers in whatever passes for a bar at the hotel. I'm really hoping to try the Alamo supplement for GDW's Old West rules. Yeah, yeah, I hear you moaning but I'm curious to see what kind of game they give as it may be an opening for how to present some of these skirmish games I keep talking about. Anyhow, copies of "Liberators!" will be available at the Scale Specialties booth and possibly the Aberrant Games booth.

I've also had a couple of very interesting email exchanges with readers, one about the cannon launches (aka "small boats" or "gunboats") in the Chiloe scenario and another about sources for Book II. I really enjoy these conversations and would encourage everyone to post them on the forum. It's been very sporadic over there but it could really be a useful tool to make information available to all the "Liberators!" community. I also encourage everyone to join the SACA Wars Yahoo group. This is a great board with a lot of activity. There's collaborations brewing for a War of the Triple Alliance book, a War of the Pacific book and, of course, the occasion post on Independence. It's a great place for any South American interest.

Almost There

2006-08-01T00:16:00.001-07:00

The scenario pack is almost finished. I have the Montevideo scenarios to finish laying out, cover art to create and to assemble the master layout. Then it's to print!

To be honest, I have a lot of doubt about the Montevideo scenarios. I suspect they would be much better skirmish games than tactical level games...which leads to something I've been knocking around for some time: developing skirmish level scenarios for "Liberators!" That's a topic for another post but it impacts the scenario pack because one of the scenarios (Combat at Tres Cruces) is a forgone British victoriy as a tactical game . To mitigate this near certainty you'll probably see the first ever set of "Liberators!" victory conditions. Basically, victory will be determined not by "if" the British win but by how many units they have to commit to do so.

The other scenario, Assault on Montevideo, is much more even as a game but would probably have a better "feel" at the skirmish level. Storming a breach and then working through the streets of a town can be done at a battalion level but I suspect it looks better and is far more entertaining at 1:10 than 1:30 or 1:40.

Anyhow, I hope to have some form of layout complete by the end of this week. I appreciate your patience and look forward to offering you new material.

Talk soon,
John

Delays, delays

2006-07-17T23:09:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I have to tell you that there's just no way the scenario pack will be ready for Historicon. Simply put, I bit off more than I could chew. I figured that since I had a rough draft of the quick play rules, 2 of the scenarios already on the web and another that I gave as a show special at Salute! and Kubla Con, it would be a simple matter to whip the rest into shape.

Uh huh.

The project is moving forward, however, and I fully intend on getting this limited edition supplement out as soon as possible. Truth is, it's shaping up to be a deeper, more detailed work than I anticipated and you'll be the beneficiary of the added work. This weekend I started throwing out the generic "generals" uniforms that I have previously presented. These were almost all based on regulation uniforms, oftentimes of a brigadier general. In their place I began illustrating the actual uniforms worn by the individual commander. Usually these come from period portraits. Obviously, this opens possibilities for their own problems...for example, Bernardo O'Higgin's uniform for Rancagua is based upon a later portrait and is probably different that what he wore in the field...but I think the overall effect will be to give your command stands individuality and flair. You'll also be getting musician's uniforms wherever possible. To be honest, it's not exhaustive but there should be enough to give you a better sense of how to paint up your drummers and trumpeters. Finally, I have developed some of the uniform details in my illustrations: embroidery, collar patches, cuff shapes, etc. The idea is for my illustrations to more fully reflect the information you would see in one of Cesar's plates in the first book. It's all adding up to a new standard that will carry over into the 2nd Volume and I hope it will make the delay worthwhile.

Book 2 is progressing. In fact, just tonight I was going through "La Forja de un Ejercito, Documentos de Historia Militar 1810-1814" for various uniform bits for Venezuela. I've also started compiling artwork for possible use in the next book. I still could use battle map and OB help on the 1812-1817 stuff so if you've got anything, please let me know, especially anything for Mariño. The goal is to get this out next summer so I really need your help and input now.

Talk soon,
J

Net Neutrality Update

2006-07-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on this one but thought you should know that the telecoms effectively won another vote. They got their disaster through committee in the Senate, placing them one vote from having both a House and Senate bill. It was something of a farce of a hearing that did little more than to openly display the telecom supporter's complete ignorance on this issue. Senator Stevens' (R. Ak) description of the internet has been widely posted but will go down in history as one of the most technologically uninformed statements ever. It was as if they were debating the future of the printing press without knowing what ink is. The other bit that was hilarious was the new talking point that consumers could file anti-trust lawsuits if telecoms started controlling content. This coming from people who have made "frivolous lawsuits" a stump issue for decades, in a Congress that has repeatedly made it harder for an individual's lawsuit to even happen, only shows the complete dishonesty from which they argue.

Despite all this, it ended up being a good day. First, the committee vote was tied, 11-11, the first time our side has been even. Every vote has shown gains on our side and losses on theirs. Second, Sen. Ron Wyden (D. OR) immediately announced a "hold" on this legislation. A hold signals an intent to filibuster. He declared this hold until net neutrality is guaranteed in the final bill. Sen. Frist (R. TN) effectively conceeded that he does not have the votes to defeat a filibuster. That ledger will keep swinging as, third, editorials and articles finally began appearing in the media on this issue, all of them suddenly realizing what a horrible idea this is. Finally, Google took the anti-trust talking point and shoved it back in their faces by declaring that they would actively and regularly file such lawsuits if the legislation passes as stands. At this point, that might be the most important factor: the telecoms will never fear an individual or even a small, class action suit that will inevitably be settled out of court and without admission of guilt but they are terrified of large corporations with deep, deep pockets who could effectively destroy their profits.

After this flurry, things got suddenly quiet. My guess is the telecoms are rethinking their strategy. They've realized that the issue is now on the radar and that the longer it stays there the worse it looks. My guess is they'll either let the issue lay until after the November elections or they'll try to sneak it in under the cover of night in the closing days of this Congressional session. Point is, we've won this round...barely...but need to stay vigilant to keep the internet open and equal to all.

Where Things Stand

2006-06-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here's where I'm at on things. I just finished a rewrite/reworking of the quick play rules that I used at Kubla Con. One of the pillars of "Liberators!" is that it is playable with any tactical Napoleonic rules system. That will not change. However, enough of you have indicated that you want a dedicated rules set that I've decided to go forward with this natural progression. In a nutshell, they are clean, straightforward rules that focus on speed of play and event resolution.

I'm also back to the Montevideo 1807 topic. I finally found a useable map. It is an 1819 Spanish map of the 1813 Seige of Montevideo, a seige that occurred on the same ground as the fighting in 1807. I started converting it to game terms yesterday and will finish the job this afternoon (after the Argentina/Holland World Cup match at noon...guess who I'm rooting for!). I've also decided to give up on the idea of a mini-campaign. Instead I will provide 2 scenarios: the nameless combat that occurred on January 20 and the British assault on Montevideo in the early morning hours of February 3. I might go ahead and build a couple scenarios for the Reconquista and Defensa of Buenos Aires. I have shied away from it for 2 reasons: first, it probably makes a better skirmish level game than tactical level and, second, you need to have a lot of buildings. Of course, the practical gamer could just cut out felt squares to represent them, so if you don't really care about aesthetics that's not really a consideration. Anyhow, I'm weighing it so we'll see.

I've cinched down about as good an OOB as I'm going to get for "What If" Lima, 1821. The map will be very generalized. That's not too suprising since I didn't really expect anyone to be doing a battle map of a battle that never happened but I was hoping I could easily access a colonial era topographic of Lima. On the plus side, the armies were deployed on a llanos that by all accounts was flat and open so I don't think we're risking missing any vital topographical features.

On "What If" Rancagua, 1814 I'm also in search of a map. I know I had one at one time but now all I can find are maps of the actual battle itself, which occurred inside the town. BTW, if the Assault on Montevideo scenario is well-received and I get enough demand for more city fight scenarios, even at a skirmish scale, I'll happily work up the real Rancagua. It was quite a desperate, cinematic battle and would play great at a 1:10 or even 1:5 scale.

Originally I was going to include the Battle of Zepita, 1823 in Volume 1. When I decided the cut-off for the book was going to be roughly when San Martin was "deposed" and the Argentine-Chilean contribution essentially ended (aka Torata-Moquegua) I decided to cut it and use if for Volume 2. Unfortunately, it looks like it's not even going to make the initial cut for the scenarios in Volume 2 (there's just too much Bolivar to cover and I want to be sure to include some others like Sucre, Mariño, Nariño, Campo Elias, Piar, etc.). So it's finished and simply looking for a home. Can you say "scenario pack"?

Yep, all of this leads to the scenario pack that I'm desperately trying to get up and out before Historicon. Right now the planned contents are: Chiloe, 1826; Ica, 1822; Alternative Chacabuco, 1817; Combat near Tres Cruces, 1807; Assault on Montevideo, 1807; "What If" Lima, 1821; "What If" Rancagua, 1814; Zepita, 1823 and the rules set.

As I've mentioned before, I've received several emails asking for copies of the Alternative Chacabuco scenario. I want to state clearly that this scenario pack, while intended for unveiling at Historicon, will also be for sale via the website. It is going to be a limited edition run so you'll want to secure your copy as soon as it becomes available.

Finally, my good friend, collaborator and mentor Professor Julio Mario Lugui Lagleyze has a new book out. It is called "Por El Rey, La Fe y La Patria: El Ejercito del Peru en la Independencia". This was the book he was commissioned by the government of Spain to write when he was named Historian of the Year in 2004. I do not have it yet but if it is anywhere near as good as his previous books it is a "must have".

June 20 Net Neutrality Update

2006-06-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know, "isn't this a game blog?" If Net Neutrality wasn't so important to both the "Liberators!" project and our hobby in general I wouldn't spend so much time on it.

The latest attempt to keep Net Neutrality as a core principle of the internet is the Snowe-Dorgan Internet Freedom Preservation Act (s.2917). This act preserves the system as it was intended, developed and has always been. Further, it allows the telecoms to freely develop their own services, though not to bundle them with other services or force customers to accept them.

The telecoms "say" all they want is to give consumer's choice and to improve internet technology. S.2917 gives it to them. Unfortunately they oppose s.2917, which gives their true game away. To the telecoms this isn't about choice, this isn't about consumer rights, this isn't about new generations of technology, it's about control.

As you can tell from the sponsors, this bill is about as "centrist" as you can get. Again, it's worth repeating: it is supported by everyone from Common Cause and MoveOn.org to the Christian Coalition, Gun Owners of America and Free Republic. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed a petition to support its goal. I'll get to the point: call your Senators and ask them to support the Snowe-Dorgan Internet Freedom Preservation Act (s.2917). Please do it today.

Net Neutrality Update

2006-06-09T08:07:00.000-07:00

Well, we lost another round to the lobbyists and their deep pockets full of cash. Despite having a coalition of over 700 groups and 800,000 individuals from across the political spectrum, the House voted down the bipartisan Markey Amendment that would've preserved Net Neutrality. Then they voted to approve the COPE Act, which now moves to the Senate.

The Senate will be our last battleground to stop this debacle of a bill from becoming law. They say we have more sympathy in the Senate but the telecoms are going all out on this. They smell the billions of dollars in profit and control over the most powerful medium in human history. They know they are one step away from dictating the terms for access to every web site in existence, including this one. They have set up astroturf groups to confuse the issue, they are pouring out millions to lawmakers, they are hiding the story from the mainstream media outlets that they control: they are fighting tooth and nail and we have to fight tooth and nail to stop them.

If you haven't, please call your Senator TODAY and ask them to support Net Neutrality. Join Save the Internet, write letters to the editors of your local newspaper and spread the word among your family, friends and coworkers. It is hard to overstate how concerted the efforts of the telecoms have been to set the stage for this takeover, nor how much they are pouring into sealing the deal with this bill. They are trying to make it sound like they just want to give you more choices. They are LYING.

The only way to save the internet as we know it is to act. Please act now.

Kubla Con Report

2006-06-01T08:34:00.000-07:00

Kubla Con was great fun. I'd like to thank everybody who played the Battle of Salta scenario, bought a copy of "Liberators!" or just stopped by to take a look. I appreciated all the positive response on the quick play rules as well as all the suggestions to make them even better. The con was a microcosm of what I envisioned "Liberators!" to be: a collaboration of people bringing a new period to our hobby.

I've been receiving private requests for the alternate Chacabuco scenario that I've been using for a show special. I also received a good number of requests for the quick play rules. I've been mulling an idea of a scenario pack for a while now and I think this might be the tipping point to get it done. The idea is to put the 2 scenarios that are currently on the website together with alternate Chacabuco and 3 scenarios that I'm still working on (alternate Rancagua, 1814, "what if" Lima, 1821 and the long suffering Montevideo, 1807), as well as the quick play rules. This will be a month detour from working on Volume 2 but I think it will be a good way to both get new material to you and sort of clear the decks on my end to concentrate on the next book. As always, feel free to post to the forum or email me and check back often for updates.

Off to Kubla Con

2006-05-25T23:00:00.000-07:00

I'm off first thing in the morning for Kubla Con in San Fran. Simon from Aberrant Games (the fine sci-fi "Rezolution" game and line) and my friend Chris will be here at 7:00 for the drive to SF. Hopefully traffic isn't too crazy and we can be there by early afternoon. The first "Liberators!" demo is at 7:00pm. I hope I can catch a nap somewhere in there...

An update on the Network Neutrality issue. While the telecoms and their millions of lobbying dollars and NSA phone tap cooperation are still pushing forward an increasing array of "We the People" are fighting back and the issue is very much in play again. In one of the most bizarre political alliances that surely speaks to the almost universal agreement that this is a truly *bad idea*, MoveOn.org joined forces with the Christian Coalition today to run a joint ad in the New York Times to preserve Net Neutrality. Meanwhile, Tim Berners-Lee, one of the original developers of the internet, has come out forcefully and repeatedly in favor of maintaining Net Neutrality. If you haven't done it yet, please call your Representative and Senators and ask that they SUPPORT Net Neutrality.

Hope to meet some of you at Kubla Con. Rene, get feeling better. You'll be missed but we'll definitely make good next year.

Fixed

2006-05-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

The link to the Alternate Cancha Rayada and Maipo OB has been fixed.

Great Site

2006-05-20T16:18:00.001-07:00

It's not South America, it's Waterloo, but the unit charts are a fine example of design. Let's just say I'm studying it...The Waterloo Campaign in Miniature

I've been having trouble accessing the new Cancha Rayada & Maipo OB file. Don't know why. It shows up fine on my system, the link is good, I've rewritten the entry at least 4 times but when I go live it's not available. I'm not the world's most saavy web guy so if anyone has any suggestions, please email me. I use Dreamweaver.

Kubla Con is next weekend. "Liberators!" will be available at the Scale Specialties booth. I'll also be running the Battle of Salta using a home brew set of rules Friday at 7:00pm, Saturday at 10:00am and 3:00pm and Sunday at 1:00pm in the Historical Miniatures room. I'm putting flags on the Patriot army this afternoon. After that, it's just a matter of putting the town of Salta together and off we go.

Painting this Patriot army gave me some good ideas for future freebies. I'm working up an Argentine musicians/trumpeters uniform chart and I've been researching and corresponding with Professor Luqui Lagleyze on flags, standards and pennents. Look for an article on that in the next couple weeks.

New OB for 1818

2006-05-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

You never know where research will take you...

I was researching the next volume of "Liberators!" yesterday, while keeping an eye out for Uruguayan material and yet somehow stumbled across a great Argentinian source for the first book. It's a 2004 book by Diego Alejandro Soria entitled "Las Campañas Militares del General San Martin". It's packed with order of battle information and I thought I would get some out to you as soon as possible.

Over on the forum Alan Saunders had asked about the Order of Battle for Maipo. He noted that his readings indicated around 5000 men per side. One of the first things I noted in Soria's book is that he writes that the Patriots had 5500 men and the Royalists 5300 men. Then and there I decided I present the material to you all in the interests of both providing a potentially more "game balanced" OB to those who want it and to illustrate my point on the forum about the variations in OBs.

Mr. Soria, the author of the book, is a retired Brigadier General in the Argentine Army and is the President of the Instituto Nacional Sanmartiniano. Even with his authority and expertise, however, his orders of battle illustrate the difficulties one encounters in researching this period. Specifically, a quick study of the Royalist OBs shows that the Royalist army is 129 men bigger at Maipo than at Cancha Rayada. In the text, Soria lists the Royalist losses at Cancha Rayada at 40 dead and 110 wounded, making a difference of up to 279 men (150 casualties plus the 129 additional men). Let us assume for the sake of generosity that all 110 men wounded at Cancha Rayada returned to the ranks in time for Miapo and that there was absolutely no falling out from the ranks on the march to Santiago, both highly unlikely. That still means we have 169 more men than we should. Is this disparity from incorporation of Patriot deserters or prisoners? Did the Royalists pick up recruits or receive reinforcements along the way? Nowhere is this disparity addressed.

Further, General Soria lists the Royalist strength at Maipo as "5300 hombres y 14 piezas", yet a quick count of his listed unit strengths shows 4420 men. Where are the "missing" 880 men? He does not provide strengths for the artillery but a generous 20 men per gun (of which there are 14) gives us 280, still 600 men short. Are these officers? On the strength of the Infante Don Carlos he lists "(951 efectivos)". Does this mean "soldados, cabos y sargentos" or does it mean "fit for duty"? He only states this for the Infante. No other unit has this notation, although over on the Patriot OB he lists this for the Cazadores de los Andes. He lists both the Infante and Cazadores first in their respective OBs. Does he mean that the "efectivos" note should apply to all units in the OB or is it specific to the Infante and Cazadores? If we should apply it to every unit, that breaks down to at least 80-100 officers per battalion, with an equal ratio for the cavalry and artillery. That would be 10-12 officers per company or squadron, a number that no army in the world at that time maintained. The only reasonable guess, is that by "efectivos" he means "soldados". The 10-12 men are everything else; cabos, sargentos, tenientes, capitans, colonels, ayudantes, etc. etc. Even then, it's still a high ratio compared to other, more complete, returns. I didn't hazard this guess in presenting the OBs to you, however.

Even after that you have to deal with the fact that General Soria states the Royalist army at Cancha Rayada was 4600 men. Now it's reconciling 5300 to 4600. Ugh.

All this illustrates why I believe that if you have an OB you prefer you should by all means go ahead and use it. "Liberators!" is for a game, after all, not a PhD dissertation. I work awfully hard to bring you the best material I can but I by no means assume some kind of infallibility.

The new OBs in the Free Stuff section by Friday morning. I hope you enjoy them and post your thoughts on the forum.

Busier Than It Looks

2006-05-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning and I've got 3 things going on my desk at the same time. I've been working on research for Volume 2 of "Liberators!". I'm currently going through some works by Vicente Lecuna, specifically "Un Critico Militar de Bolivar; Los principios del arte de la guerra. La batalla de Araure. La conquista de Guayana" and "Campaña del Libertador en 1818", as well as a study of Sucre's campaigns in Ecuador and a biography of General Anzoategui, a divisional commander under Bolivar. The 1818 and Sucre books have both yielded some excellent material, including the first map I've ever run across of The Battle of Huaqui in September, 1821. I skimmed the Anzoategui book, mainly just looking for OB material. "Un Critico Militar..." was a disappointment. I've really been struggling for good OBs and maps for the 1813 and 1814 campaigns. I figured a dedicated study by Lecuna would have at least one or the other but, truth be told, the narrative in his 3 volume general history "Cronica Razonada de las Guerras de Bolivar" is better for our purposes.

I'm also still working on the Battle of Salta figures. Still on that last batch of Patriot infantry but it's a beautifully sunny Southern California day so I think I'll get them knocked out this afternoon. After that it's wrestling through what figures I'm going to use for the cavalry regiments.

Finally, I've delved back into the never ending Montevideo scenario. One of the sources I found in my recent research hunt was a history of the Blandengue units. Again, not as definitively detailled as we all like but a really good source that answered a lot of questions regarding the organization and role of these units in the colonial forces. The chapter on the British invasions was suprisingly short and focused mainly on the skirmishing at Maldonado at the end of 1806 but it really helped me understand elements of the colonial OB that were causing me some hesitation in putting the scenario together.

I'll try and get something together for a web freebie in the next week. There's a lot of fighting in Uruguay that didn't get covered in Volume 1 and doesn't really have a place in any of the other volumes so maybe that's where I should look. Perhaps the Battle of Las Piedras in 1811...

Conventions

2006-05-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

I had promised a report on Salute! so I figured I'd bundle that with a bit on the upcoming Kubla Con in San Francisco.

Salute! 2006 was held on Saturday, April 22 at the ExCel facility in London, England. I was a bit nervous about the new ExCel location: out in the Docklands, running the same day as a home and garden show. My fears were misplaced. ExCel was an excellent facility with great transportation, numerous food choices and ample floor space. It did make the numbers of people look smaller because we were all crammed together like previous Salutes (I've also attended the 1999 and 2005 conventions).

Richard Holling from Principles of War was selling "Liberators!" He really pushed the book, giving it front and center placement and making sure that there were more than enough copies on hand. With the addition of the Alternate Chacabuco scenario it made for a very successful day. My apologies to the two Venezuelan gentlemen who came by asking to speak with me and wondering when Volume 2 will be released. I'm shooting for Summer, 2007.

I also ran into Brendan Morrissey and Alan Perry from Perry Miniatures. Brendan is the author of many books on the American Revolution and has been a source of support and friendship in my efforts with "Liberators!". We had a nice chat about writing, future projects and the state of publishing in the UK. Alan sought me out towards the end of the day. We have exchanged a few emails and it was really nice to get to meet him. He introduced me to Aly Morrisson, another Perry Miniatures sculptor, as well as Michael Perry. Great guys. We talked some about South America, the next volume of "Liberators!" and current and near future projects on the Perry workbench.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm painting up the Patriot army for the Battle of Salta, which I am going to be running at Kubla Con in San Francisco at the end of May. I'll be running the game Friday at 7:00pm, Saturday at 10:00 am and 3:00pm and Sunday at 1:00pm. Unfortunately, it's only a 2 player game. I'm offering more opportunities to play so anyone who wants can have a shot. Chris Herschel has stepped to the plate and done the terrain for me, all I have to do is get these figures knocked out. I'm working on the last batch of infantry and have a couple of cavalry regiments to go. I've gotten used to the eyesight issue I mentioned in the earlier post, mainly by using tons of natural light and painting in short bursts...maybe 15 minutes...followed by a 5 or 10 minute break. It slows my already slow painting quite a bit but it's saving on the eyestrain and I'm getting it done. As for Chris, he's going to be running WW2 demo games for a new system he's developing focusing on small unit, urban fighting. Having playtested numerous versions of his system over the last couple years I can tell you that it makes for a very entertaining afternoon. Be sure to check it out. The event is "Firefight in Ruins of Stalingrad" and is being run on Sunday at noon.

Politics, Pt. 3

2006-04-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we lost our first battle. The Congressional committee looking at the Markey amendment voted it down 22-34. The good news is that at the start of this effort, there were only 8 votes in favor of Markey. We gained 14 votes in just over a week of pressure. The COPE Act now goes to a full House vote. There is still time to get involved. Call your Representative and Senators and ask them to OPPOSE the COPE Act. Visit SaveTheInternet.com to learn more and get involved on this one, folks. It's not in the press so it's up to us to make it an issue and to get the votes to defeat this bill.

Special thanks to my Representative, Henry Waxman, for voting FOR the Markey amendment in the House Energy & Commerce Committee vote. The remainder of the California delegation in the committee voted as follows:

Hilda Solis: For
Mary Whitaker Bono: Against
Lois Capps: For
George Radanovich: Against
Anna Eshoo: For

Nebraska's representative (I grew up in Nebraska and the Big Red will always flow in my veins) voted as follows:
Lee Terry: Against

We really need help in Texas. If you live in Texas please call today.

The Awful Truth of Middle Age

2006-04-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official. I can no longer paint. 15mm, at least. Last year I had laser surgery done. Wonderful operation and I wouldn't take it back but they gave me what's called "monovision": one eye is supposed to see close up, the other distance. Works great 95% of the time but it sucks for painting. I struggle to focus, I can't quite make out lines or fine detail, all in all, it's a pain in the ass. Now, I've still managed to knock 2 battalions out today but I'd be lying if I said they're anything other than "wargame quality".

The reason for all this activity is that I am planning on running The Battle of Salta at the upcoming Kubla Con in San Francisco and realized that I really don't have the correct Patriot army. It's not a huge task, I have to paint up about 50 infantry and maybe 32-36 cavalry, but I think this may be it for 15mm. Too bad cuz I've got the standard wargamer's closet full of lead: South America, American Revolution, WW2, even some Byzantines I plan to get to "one of these days". Anyone have any painting service suggestions?

Politics, Pt. II

2006-04-26T16:03:00.000-07:00

There's one more point about the COPE Act of 2006 that I want to stress: not only would the controlling company be able to discriminate against websites based on pay, they would be able to discriminate based on content and on business relationship. Your site somehow associated with a competitor's network? Sorry, you're not getting on. Worse, imagine trying to order those 1944 SS infantry only to find the site blocked because somebody thought it was somehow promoting Nazism. Or if someone doesn't like Confederate re-enactors. Or maybe they think those D&D figures are promoting Satanism. Or maybe one of a million other potential blocks.

Think of what that could mean to our hobby. I have a hard enough time explaining wargaming to some of my friends, imagine trying to explain it to some corporate hack who doesn't know, doesn't care and is worried about losing his job if he screws up. We've already seen it in the cable world. I belong to Adelphia. Due to the Riggs family's religious views, this cable company blocked all the pay-for-porn channels for years. Due to the way broadband is provided by cable companies and the fact that consumers do not have a choice when it comes to subscribing to companies (you are geographically compelled to accept the cable company that monopolizes your region) you could literally be denied enjoying your favorite website, period or our entire hobby on the internet.

Call your Representative and Senators today. It is 3 simple phone calls and will take no more than 5 minutes. Tell them to oppose the COPE Act and support the Markey amendment preserving Network Neutrality. Do it now.

Politics

2006-04-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

A quick diversion into US politics. There is a move afoot in Congress to change the rules of the internet in order to allow AT&T, Time Warner and other companies to charge websites for use of networks. The name of the bill is the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE). This bill would change the current system whereby all websites receive equal access. This website receives the exact same treatment as amazon.com. Under the new plan, each carrier could slow or even deny this website access. This would apply to every website out there. Most of our hobby are small operations run more by labor of love than large profit margins. Having to pay to receive preferred treatment is a luxury many of us simply can't afford and this new bill would have a huge negative impact on our hobby. This issue cuts across ideological lines: from Free Republic to Daily Kos, Gun Owners of America to MoveOn.org, those who live and thrive via the web see the threat and oppose the bill.

If you are a US citizen I ask you to call your Representative and both Senators and ask them to OPPOSE the COPE Act. Do it as soon as possible. There will be a committee vote in the House this week and this disasterous bill must not pass. When you call your Representative, also ask them to SUPPORT the Markey amendment preserving Network Neutrality.

Free Article on Website

2006-04-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm off to London in a couple of hours. Can't wait for the Salute! convention and all the great people, companies and games. I'll try to take some pictures (I'm really not good with cameras, I prefer to live the moment than photograph it...know what I mean?) and I'll definitely post a report.

I've posted a new article on the "free stuff" page. It's a uniform article on the Argentine Cazadores a Caballo de la Escolta del General. It reflects the updated uniform that appears in the Alternate Chacabuco scenario as well as clarifies some poorly identified material in "Liberators!"

Alan Saunders is at it again over on the SACA Wars Yahoo! group. He's posted a battle report on the Tucuman scenario. Feel free to post to the "forum" section on the "communicate" page as well. I love this kind of feedback and posting it on the forum ensures that the material stays centralized and easily accessible to everyone.

I'll have more to report when I get back. The Alternative Rancagua scenario is coming along nicely, Helen Bachaus from Australia has graciously offered some uniform material and I've got some rare books coming from the bowels of the University of California library storage facilities on the early battles in Venezuela. Book 2 is officially under way!

New Material

2006-04-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I've announced any new material. Here it is: I have worked up an alternate Chacabuco scenario. The alternate scenario supposses that the Patriots moved more cautiously on the 12th, perhaps delayed by a more effective Royalist skirmishing screen, allowing for Royalist reinforcements from Santiago. The scenario gives the Royalists several new units and makes for what should be a very even game. I've also used the opportunity to update the uniforms with both more detail than was presented in "Liberators!" (for example, the grenadier company of the Argentine 7th Infantry, which had been outfitted in excess artillery uniforms) and using additional research since I first compiled the scenario.

Unfortunately, you won't find the scenario on the website. That is because I am offering it as a show special at the upcoming Salute! convention in London. That's right, I'm going to Salute! I'll be at the Principles of War booth (or nearby as I don't want to be too much in Richard's way), available to answer your questions and/or discuss any aspect of the ongoing "Liberators!" project. As for the scenario, it will be given free for every copy of "Liberators!" sold at the show or for a nominal fee without the book. So stop on by, say hello and pick up a copy of both the book and the new scenario.

On another note, I'd like to tell you about a great email exchange I've been having with a reader in Chile. John McIntyre is in Santiago. He contacted me a few months back about a uniform discrepancy in "Liberators!" - the omission of the Argentine Cazadores a Caballo de la Escolta del General from the uniform charts section. He noted that they appeared in Cesar's plates and then further questioned the listing the unit did receive as the Cazadores de los Andes de Caballo for Cancha Rayada and Maipo. After a couple emails and a revisiting of my material I realized that, besides a point of poor editing on my behalf, I had wandered into an unresolved historical debate on the actual uniform for this unit. Long story short, John's question led to an article that I will soon be posting on the website that clarifies this issue. In addition, John sparked me to get serious about the proposed Alternative Battle of Rancagua, October 1, 1814 scenario that I was thinking about. Thanks to John for the questions, comments and assistance.

I'd also like to thank Alan Saunders for posting a Chacabuco battle report over at the South American Central American Wars gaming group on Yahoo. It was nice to hear that the scenario played well and nice to hear his rules suggestions.

As always, if anyone else has anything to add to the "Liberators!" world I'd love to hear from you. Either post to the website forum or send me an email. I want this project to be something we can all get involved in and your input will definitely help me shape the upcoming second volume.

One last note: be sure to check out the reviews of "Liberators!" in the current issues of Wargames Illustrated (#222) and Historical Miniature Gamer (#5). Thanks to those magazines for bringing "Liberators!" to the attention of gamers. Pick up a copy and help support our hobby.

Back From Tour

2006-03-26T10:42:00.000-08:00

As you may or may not know, one of my several jobs is tour manager for the English punk rock band GBH. I've been on the road with them for the last few weeks, which explains my silence on this here blog. That doesn't mean things haven't been happening, however. Rumor has it (I've yet to see a copy) that "Liberators!" was reviewed in Wargames Illustrated and I've been told to expect a review in the next Historical Miniature Gamer. I've had several people email me after purchasing copies of "Liberators!" at Cold Wars and am myself planning on attending Salute! in London come mid-April. I'll also be running a scenario at Kubla Con in San Francisco at the end of May. There's still the Montevideo scenario/mini-campaign to wrap up and post and the second volume of "Liberators!" is coming together.

So here's to rolling up the sleeves and getting back at it!

Still Working...

2006-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still working on the Montevideo 1807 scenario. Don't think I'll have it up by end of January but I'll definitely get it to you in February.

Looks like some friends and I will be attending Kubla Con in San Francisco at the end of May. I might lug along some figures and run a scenario so if you're there look around the miniatures area and be sure to say hi.

Research proceeds on Volume 2. While I'm still debating the extent of the book, it's definitely going to cover "the North": Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and the later Peruvian campaigns. At the moment, I've been focusing on the 1823 and 1824 Peruvian campaigns. If you have any good leads, especially for the 1813-1818 campaigns, or suggestions on battles you'd like to see covered, please contact me at info@grenadierproductions.com. As you might guess, I'm looking for solid OBs, maps and/or uniform descriptions.

In the Basement

2006-01-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to let you know what's brewing. I'm hard at work on the Montevideo, 1807 scenario for the "free stuff" section of the website. I also spent a day off over at UCLA doing some research. Found a great source on the Montevideo portion of the 1807 campaign as well as some good material on the later campaigns of Artigas versus the Portugese in Uruguay. Finally, I'm putting together some notes to help an upcoming article on "Liberators!"

Over at the forum there have been a couple of interesting new posts, including an expansion of the question of what rules are best for "Liberators!". This is a big issue since I deliberately made "Liberators!" generic and, hopefully, useable by any tactical rules set. If you've tried a scenario, please post over at the forum and let everybody know what rules you used and how the game went.

Happy New Years

2006-01-01T13:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years everybody! Sorry for being so quiet for the last week and a half. I was enjoying the holidays and was pretty much incommunicado. Anyhow, not everything was quiet. I did get in some research, including on the Sucre board game being planned by Khyber Pass Games for next year. I also started thinking about some possible articles to support "Liberators!" that would appear in some of the hobby magazines.

Anyhow, I'm back and things should pick up again. I'm looking forward to 2006 and hope we can build on the momentum of "Liberators!" Please tell your friends about the book and join in on the forum as well as the SACA Wars Yahoo group.

Happy Holidays

2005-12-22T17:01:00.000-08:00

Here's my hoilday present to all of you: the new Puquillihue and Bellavista will go up tonight or tomorrow and I'm starting an initial map for Ica. I'll have that up by Christmas. I've got the Montevideo scenario started but it'll take some more work to whip into shape. Look for that sometime in January.

Be warned that the Ica map might very well undergo revision. That's the cool thing about the webpage: I've realized I can post each "draft" as it comes along and simply replace it if and when I do something better. It also gives you a nice insight into how the book developed; as I got better OBs or maps old info would get modified or scrapped, as I read about the campaigns or armies text would be rewritten. That's part of why it took me so long to complete the project: because I always felt there was a new scrap of information just around the corner that would change or clarify a statement, number or uniform depiction.

Update: Sunday, December 25, 2005. The scenarios are up in the "Free Stuff" section. Enjoy!

In the Works

2005-12-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

I thought I should let you know what's going on with the freebies. I'm currently working on a scenario for the Battle of Ica, April 7, 1822. I've got the Order of Battle solidified and I'm putting together the uniforms. I'm expecting a modern topographic map of the area any day now...really, any day now...I said: "Any...Day...NOW". It's at 1:50000 scale so hopefully it will be detailed enough for our purposes. The Royalist commander, Jose Canterac, left a very detailled account of the battle that includes terrain descriptions so it'll be fun to see how close today's field matches 1822.

The updated map of Puquillihue and Bellavista should be up any day now. It turns out my previous map wasn't all that bad. Still, you'll see some differences from the current version.

Sometime in February you should look for my first mini-campaign. It will cover the British capture of Montevideo in 1807. Historically, this operation occurred over a 2 1/2 week period. At this point I'm looking at providing an Order of Battle, uniforms charts, strategic map for the mini-campaign and 2 scenarios.

Other freebies that are in the mix include a "what if" Chacabuco, a "what if" Battle of Rancagua in Chile on October 1, 1814 and some kind of coverage of the Royalist defense of Montevideo, which fell to a Patriot siege on April 20, 1814. This last scenario will probably be a "what if" based on a Royalist sortie that almost resulted in a major battle.

The Longterm Plan

2005-11-28T23:04:00.000-08:00

The recent hobby news section on The Miniatures Page (TMP) generated several questions and requests for certain battles, theatres, etc. I've also received several emails along the same lines. I thought I'd take the opportunity to let you know what the general game plan is for the "Liberators!" series, with the obvious caveats that it's all dependent on time and money.

I originally envisioned "Liberators!" to be a 3 book series. The first book, "The War in the South", is what I just released, is what is featured on the website and is, hopefully, what you own (if not, why not go back to the main page and order it right now?). The second book was going to be "The War in the North". It was going to cover the fighting in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, as well as the final campaigns in Peru. Basically it was the "Bolivar book". The third book was going to be "Mexico and Post-Independence". There are many fascinating battles and campaigns that came hot on the heels of independence as the newly formed states immediately lunged at each other's (and their own) throats. Coupled with the fact that the war in Mexico was mainly guerrilla in nature after the first couple years, and thus not really suitable for a Napoleonic wargame guide, I figured it would be a great way to cover both topics and bring the series to a colorful end as well as inspire someone to take the ball to the next set of conflicts.

Actually going through the process of publishing "The War in the South", however, is making me wonder about that schedule. "War in the South" was far more expensive than I initially intended...and that's not counting all the books I bought and stacks of copies made on numerous research trips to everywhere from Berkeley, California to Providence, Rhode Island. It also took far longer than I would have imagined and required more time and energy than I would have expected. This was a little shocking to me: I am a video editor in "real life" and know just how much grunt work goes into a good production. I have also written dozens of magazine articles (I wrote for Computer Gaming World for 2 years and have also contributed articles to Military Illustrated and The Company of Military Historians) and know how much effort goes into really writing a piece, especially to a specific length or word count. I also realized that I love research and helping other people with their projects more than spending my nights in Photoshop and Illustrator, trying to figure out how to make a scenario map attractive, informative and legible at the same time or wrestling with how to get a battle synopsis down to 250 words so the scenario fits in the page layout scheme.

So now I'm thinking of combining the second and third books into one. I don't intend to skimp on the content of either but simply knock them out together. This will save me bundles in design and printing costs and will enable me to buckle down and finish this project with one grand effort instead of two. This idea would also have the biggest plus of all: getting mountains of uniforms, scenarios and historical information into your hands for your enjoyment in the next year or 18 months than in two lumps over the next 3 or 4 years.

So there's where I'm at at the moment. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, feel free to comment on this post or send me an email at info@grenadierproductions.com

John

Word of Mouth

2005-11-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

This weekend I finally posted onto The Miniatures Page (aka TMP). As many of you know, this page is an excellent resource, keeping visitors up to date on all the hobby news and product releases. I had been waiting until the Thanksgiving weekend to post, figuring that there might be greater exposure due to the long holiday weekend here in the states. The post hit late Friday night (here in LA time...it would have been Saturday morning in the UK).

The results of the post were impressive. According to the statistics for TMP, there were 4,516 unique visitors yesterday. According to my website counter, there were exactly 300 hits to my website between the posting on TMP and my writing of this entry. Even if I subtract 50 hits for regular visitors and outside hits, this results in a 5.5% click through rate. My other marketing efforts to this point have consisted of focused postings on user groups that specialize in either Napoleonics, South America or a rules set that would work with "Liberators!". The best click through I had received for these efforts was around 2%. Obviously, the TMP post was a success, attracting actively interested individuals and generating not just sales but discussions of other projects, both my own and by others, which was a key reason that I wrote "Liberators!" to begin with.

I want to thank everyone who visited my site because of the TMP post. It's good to see you here and I hope you keep coming back. However, for "Liberators!" to succeed, I need to ask for a team effort that goes beyond this spike or even repeated website visits. If you have bought "Liberators!", show it to your friends and members of your group. Encourage them to buy a copy. Consider it as a Christmas gift for the guy who's always looking for unique periods or the military history buff who doesn't game but might want to have a beginning reference for the topic. Plop the book down conspicuously at club meetings and conventions. Hell, run a game or two. Post to the forum whenever you have a question or idea. To borrow a phrase from my tour managing world, become the "Liberators!" street team.

I'm asking this for more than to just sell more copies of my book. I'm asking because with each conversation, with each forum post, with each game hosted and sceptical "they're just Spanish anyways" grognard converted, we are building our own community...our own genre. As we do so, other projects will stand a better chance of getting off the ground. For example, Khyber Pass Games is currently developing a board game covering 3 of the battles of Antonio Jose de Sucre, one of the truly great generals of the era, for release next year. Imagine how much more confidence they'll feel for continuing the series if they know they can count on 500 or 1000 sales. Same thing for a miniatures company. This period flat out demands and deserves a dedicated line of figures. It'll be far more palatable for a manufacturer to take the risk if he knows that there's an active and growing number of us who will gobble up his products. The best way to show that is for him to see it at shows, to hear it from multiple sources.

I'll do my part in the street team as well. I'll keep the website active with this blog, forum posts and free scenarios and other updates. I'll also make sure that your support for "Liberators!" is known by other companies and work with them to help our genre grow and even provide a springboard for other topics like War of Triple Alliance, War of the Pacific and the Chaco War.

John

Research Focus

2005-11-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of visiting New York City this weekend. In the course of a wonderful 3 days of drinking, eating, walking (and walking and walking), museum hopping and just hanging out in Manhattan I dropped in to The Strand bookstore just off of Union Square. Combing through their stacks I happened across "Daily Life in Colonial Peru" by Jean Descola. I've seen this book before and decided to plunk down the 10 bucks.

There are no orders of battle, no maps and only one section on the military and militarization of Peruvian society but reading this book made me think of a topic that's almost entirely ignored in our hobby: why did they fight and how did the fighting reflect their world and culture? So often we are focused on the strategies and generals or the miniutae of the uniforms or tactics that we forget about what purpose these things served. In this case, what was independence? Why would crillos and peninsulares care? What about the mestizo and indian masses? How did the church view these developments? How did the armies affect life and livelihoods? There are so many elements that come to bear and that help explain some of the events that we wargamers, with our narrow interests and neatly compartmentalized rules sets, puzzle over endlessly. Usually, it's something along the lines of "how did that clown ever get in command?"

I'm reading the book and thinking about just what "The King" meant to Peruvians. Why be a Royalist? Why not? To most Peruvians, the King of Spain had no reality: he had never visited the territory, he had never been seen or heard by them and had only the most remote of connections to their daily lives...and yet he was the basis for their entire world. His name was authority, to act in it was to have power. The Indians understood the concept and were duped into submission on a fealty to him. The church and civil authorities were engaged in a delicate dance for control often determined by in whose favor his name was declared. It dawned on me that so many fought for him simply because to reject him was to literally end their way of understanding how the world was ordered. Leave decisions to the rich merchants in Lima? Insane. To some cabildo or congress composed of lawyers elected by the ignorant masses who barely were worth notice, much less consideration? A recipe for disaster. Suddenly, a word like "independence" truly becomes radical, and a threat.

Reading about the stratification of Peruvian society, with its delicate rules and interactions, one can also see how the Patriots were fighting for a different sort of freedom: the freedom to trade with Britain, the freedom to have taxes and wealth flow into local coffers rather than overseas but not necessarily the freedom of "one man one vote". The suspicions that many Peruvians felt towards Bolivar, Sucre and all the other "outsiders" also becomes more understandable, as does the greed that impoverished Colombians or llaneros felt when eyeing the opulent streets of Lima and Cuzco. One begins to sense the folly of Bolivar's dream of a united continent, a folly even he freely admitted towards the end.

It is one of the joys of our hobby that pushing little figures around a tabletop (or counters on a board or computer screen) can lead to such broad study and knowledge. I've always said wargaming was the best history teaching tool I ever encountered and this weekend definitely brought that whole idea home again.

John

PS: Support independent and second hand bookstores like The Strand. They're great for our communities and our hobby.

Recent Updates to the Website

2005-11-13T19:35:00.000-08:00

www.grenadierproductions.com has already undergone a lot of changes since its launch just over a month ago. Obviously, this blog is one example. Addtionally, we've added a forum to encourage communication between visitors. We've also posted our first bonus scenario, Puquillihue and Bellavista, as well as an alternative order of battle for Maipo in the "free stuff" section. You'll find a bibliography in the "resources" section, as well as links to some other sites and companies that will add to your enjoyment of Liberators!

There will be numerous other additions in the coming months as well. I'm currently reworking the Puquillihue and Bellavista map based on a research trip I took to San Diego last weekend that yielded a much better map than used initially. I'm also working up a scenario for the Battle of Ica in April, 1822. As with all the bonus scenarios that will be posted to the site, I had considered this battle for the book but set it aside for one reason or another. In this case it's that the historical battle was little more than a slaughter of a horribly handled Patriot army. I wanted to avoid "what ifs" for the book and the only way to make Ica into a good wargame is to give an alternative situation that evens the odds. Look for both the revamped Puquillihue and Bellavista and Ica to be up by the end of the year.

Down the road I've got at least 4 scenarios that I'd like to work up for your consideration. One might very well turn into a minicampaign. I'll also add links as often as possible. If you have suggestions for either scenarios or links, either post it on the forum or drop me an email. Point is, I plan to keep the site very active and hope that you'll both stop by and contribute to making it interesting and fresh for every visitor.

Welcome to Liberators!

2005-11-12T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hi and welcome to the Liberators! blog. This site will discuss the book "Liberators! Napoleonic Wargaming in South America 1810-1830". We can talk about anything from order of battle and uniforms minutae and which brand of miniatures to use to how to bring more obscure periods like South American Independence to the larger wargaming world.

"Liberators!" was a long time in the making. Although researched and written as a personal labor of love I hope it serves as a catalyst for raising the profile of this period and encouraging others to release their own products. One of the best elements of our hobby is that any one of us, or any group of us, can simply decide we want to do something and that something can then impact the entire hobby. Let's see if we can't do that here.