With this year being the centennial of the Spanish-American War, I decided to game the conflict. I couldn't wait and I was actually ready last year! I started out with a Spanish ambush on some poor Americans. I then finally got around to gaming the battle of San Juan Hill to run at summer wargame conventions.
When I set up the battle, I realized how easy it would be to solo and try out some ideas I've read about. Basically, 8000 Americans attacked 500 Spanish entrenched on San Juan and Kettle Hills. This means in the scale I'm using , fifteen strong American units attack six weak Spanish units. The Spanish barely have enough units to man both hills making them easy to run solo. I would control the attacking Americans.
When I gamed it with an opponent, the Americans have a hard time as they did historically. The U.S. army lost approximately 1000 men killed and wounded. The resulting fire was so fierce that Teddy Roosevelt felt that the Spanish numbered 4000 men!
As a starting point, I used a map and some ideas from the boardgame "Rough Riders" published by Simulations Workshop (2708 General Chenault NE, Albuquerque, NM 87112 ) for $12 postpaid. In the game, the Spanish receive random infantry reinforcements while it's possible for the Americans to get more artillery batteries than they did historically. I liked this idea so much that I adopted this rule for my game. The random Spanish reinforcements help balance the scenario.
In the orders of battle below, I took some liberties with history. Teddy Roosevelt did not officially command a brigade during the battle but I have him anyway since he showed personal initiative. Also, I wanted to use my Teddy Roosevelt figure I painted up. Historically, only Major Lamadrid's units set up on San Juan Hill. I thought the scenario would be too lopsided favoring the Americans so I have Colonel Varquero's units set up too.
By changing the map and background, this scenario can be used for other periods. What about a British detachment holding off a horde of Zulus or a small group of Romans defending a wall against a bunch of barbarians?
American Order of Battle
U.S. 5th Corps Commander: General William Shafter (POOR)
1st U.S. Division
- 1st Infantry Brigade: General Hamilton Hawkins (POOR), 6th, 16th and 71st Infantry Regiments
2nd Infantry Brigade: Colonel Pearson (AVERAGE), 2nd, 10th and 21st Infantry Regiments
3rd Infantry Brigade: Colonel Wikoff (AVERAGE), 9th, 13th and 24th Infantry Regiments
Calvary Division (dismounted)
- 1st Cavalry Brigade: Colonel Caroll (POOR), 2nd, 10th and 21st Cavalry Regiments
2nd Cavalry Brigade: Colonel Teddy Roosevelt (Average), 1st, 11th and Rough Riders Cavalry Regiments
Artillery:
- Grimes Battery (Medium), starts on board
Parker Battery: Gatling Guns, arrives turn 4
Reserve Artillery: Hughes and Watson Batteries, both medium.
- For the reserve artillery to enter, roll 2D6 each turn for the number of batteries arriving:
- 2-9: No units
10: 1 battery arrives
11-12: All remaining batteries arrive.
Spanish Order of Battle
Major Lamadrid (POOR) with Voluntarios, 1st and 2nd Puerto Rican Regiments
Colonel Vaquero (POOR) with 1st, 2nd and 3rd Talvera Regiments
Artillery: Ordonez Battery (medium)
Reserves: General Linares (POOR) with Hospital Battalion, 55th Asian Battalion and Company B, San Fernando Regiment.
- Roll 2D6 each turn for number of arriving reserve units:
- 2-7: No units arrive.
8-12: 1 unit arrives.
Rule and Scenario Notes plus Victory Conditions
I use a ruleset from England, Principles of War (PoW) for colonial conflicts. It is available from On Military Matters (55 Taylor Terrace, Hopewell, NJ 08525) for $18 plus $3.50 for postage. PoW features a DBA style command system with officers rolling for command points. A POOR officer generates 1-4 command points a turn and an AVERAGE officer 1-6 points per turn. It takes a command point to move a unit or a group of units. It also takes a point to rally a shaken unit. It doesn't cost any points to fire units. Hopefully your ruleset includes leadership rules.
Every unit in PoW has a strength value that is tracked on a roster sheet. This one value is used for all combat and morale checks. The figures are more for decoration and are never removed. For PoW, I use the variable strength unit rule. All the Spanish start with 4+D6 strength. American Infantry have 6+D10 strength while cavalry start with 4+D10 strength. Artillery for both sides start with 4+D6 strength. If your ruleset uses figures for combat results, start out the Spanish with about half the figures of a normal unit. Give the Spanish a morale bonus for being in a trench.
Regarding weapons, I armed the Americans with the BLR (breech loading rifle) weapon from PoW. Since the Spanish Mauser was clearly supperior, arm the Spanish with a RR (repeating rifle) per PoW. The Spanish Mauser held more shots and used smokeless powder. Hopefully, your ruleset accounts for the weapon differences.
Basically, I set up all the Spanish on San Juan Hill except for an infantry unit on Kettle Hill. If you want, use a simple die roll to decide who sets up on Kettle Hill.
- Roll a D6:
- 1-2: No one is there.
3-4: Artillery Battery is there.
5-6: An infantry unit is there.
I figured that the Spanish would basically be defensive per the historical battle and remain behind the trenches. However, when I played this scenario with one of my friends as the Spanish, he deployed two units forward and beat me handily! If you want to use this strategy, use simple die roll to decide how many units to deploy outside the trenches. Roll a D6:
- 1-3: Deploy one unit forward.
4-6: Deploy two units forward.
Deploy the Spanish about 6" away from the base of San Juan Hill if you use this option.
I set up the Americans Historically. If you look at the Order of Battle, deploy the units in order from East to West on the table to simulate historical deployment. Units in the Jungle can set up as far North as they want to if they remain in the jungle. Otherwise, American units in the open set up a foot from the South board edge. The Spanish get one round of fire to start the scenario.
A unit can see three inches into jungle. It causes a one shift to the left on the combat table in PoW. San Juan Hill River is fordable East of the ford where the 71st New York was historically held up. The river takes half a move to cross. The blockhouse can hold one Spanish unit. However, only half the unit's strength points can fire from one side of the blockhouse.
Remember to roll for Spanish and American reinforcements each turn. To make it harder for the Americans, the Spanish arrive on the northern board edge that is closest to an American unit. If you want, divide the board edge into six areas and roll a D6 to decide.
Victory conditions are simple. The Americans win if they kill all Spanish units on San Juan and Kettle Hills in twenty turns and lose less than six infantry units. Otherwise, they lose.
My Replay
When I soloed the battle, I had the Americans advance in column up the hill. I wanted the units to engage in coordinated melees and not take the time to fire. The Grimes battery would form a grand battery with the arriving artillery reinforcements.
The Americans easily took Kettle Hill and pushed the lone Spanish unit aside. However, trouble started on the left flank with the arrival of Spanish reinforcements. In one confused melee, two American units were lost. When all the other American units got in melee range, the Spanish were pushed back. Three more American units were lost. Basically, I achieved an historical result.
Conclusion
I hope you have fun playing this scenario. My approach was to make it as generic as possible. Some of you probably prefer a more detailed approach to soloing a battle down to having unit reaction tables. Feel free to add more rules and tables if you want. I'm more of the "off the cuff and make the rules as I go along" type. That's what makes soloing gaming so wonderful.
More Spanish-American War
-
Spanish-American War Part 1 (LW122)
Spanish-American War Naval Wargame: Battle of Manila Bay (LW123)
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