Introduction

Ah yes, that splendid little war where the U.S. gained control of Cuba and the Philippines from Spain starting her colonial empire. My interest in the war started in the fourth grade when I found a copy of The Splendid Little War by Frank Friedel in a box in our house's crawl space. When I first started miniature wargaming seven years ago, converting from board wargames, I was thinking about the Spanish-American War as a possible wargame period. Well, I finally got around to do it! Addresses of manufactures and dealers are at the end of this article.

Figures

Being an obscure conflict, there are only three figure ranges for the period that I'm aware of. In 15mm, the most complete range is made by Freikorps 15 in Northern Ireland. All types of figures including infantry, cavalry and artillery figures are carried. Obscure units like the Astor Battery, dismounted Rough Riders, and Cuban volunteers are also featured.

I believe these figures were designed some years ago by the late great Dave Alsop. I used to hear stories how fragile Freikorps 15 figures were breaking at the ankles if you dropped them. However this is a thing of the past. I readily bent the figures with no breakage. Freikorps 15 switched to a more bendable metal with a price increase: forty cents per foot and eighty cents per cavalry.

I do like the sculpting style and animation of the figures. They have a sort of gritty, campaign look to them. My only problems are some of the mold lines are hard to remove. I wish some figures like the Spanish Infantry had more than two poses. I am a big fan of irregular appearing units. A special bonus are the personality figures of Teddy Roosevelt leading a charge to pot-bellied General Shafter.

This is the line I used for my armies. I chose it based on it being the most complete one. Freikorps 15 takes credit cards and has good mail order service but takes about six weeks, even with airmail. I suspect this is due to them not keeping a big stock of the obscure war ranges on hand and casting them. This is what they told me when I called about my Garibaldi.

If you want to stay with a U.S. firm, Frontier Figures carried by Modeler's Mart has a small range. I can not comment on the figures having not seem them but their War of 1812 figures my friend uses look good.

For 10mm fans, a good substitute would be ACW Confederates wearing floppy hats with blanket rolls. A nice cheap source are AIM figures carried by Division after Division. I think they retail at $2.60 per pack of 20.

For 25 mm, I read in The Principla of War Rules: The Magazine that Falcon Miniatures of the U.K. (not the U.S. one) has come out with a small range. Jeff Coe, a British wargamer who games obscure wars used Falcon Figure's service to design these figures. Falcon Minhtura then decided to marked Jeff's figures. Possibly, American troops from 25mm Boxer Rebellion ranges would work.

Painting Information

The only source for painting figures that I am aware of is the booklet Remember the Maine and To Hell With Spain written by Greg Novak. This booklet is carried by Friekorps 15. Uniforms of both sides are described in great detail.

The Spanish basically wore a white uniform with light blue stripes. From a distance, the uniform appeared to be a light bluish gray. I used The Armory's Confederate gray color drybrushing it twice over a black primer coat. I didn't feel like painting several blue stripes on a 15mm figure. The Americans wore a combination of old and new clothing because of the recently expanded army. I went wild painting the Rough Riders a wide variety of colors.

Rules

Being a relatively small, obscure war, there is no rule book that I know of written specifically for the Spanish-American War. I do know of four rulebooks which have a section devoted to it.

My current favorite is Principles of War, published by the Victorian Military Society of England carried by On Military Matters. These rules work with any figure scale with no casualty removal. Instead, each unit has a strength value that is used for morale checks and fire and melee combat. Command is done DBA Ancient rules style by rolling different die types for command points. See my review in MWAN #83 for more information.

While there are no army lists in the rulebook for Spanish and American armies, their colonial army lists book do feature Spanish-American War lists. I disagree with the American list though, arming them with a repeating rifle. The Danish Krag-Jorgensen rifle held far fewer shots compared to the Mauser's the Spanish were using. To overcome the effects of Spanish firepower at San Juan Heights, the Americans had to bring up a battery of Gatling Guns. Now I know why the Krag rifle was used.

Another rulebook which has a section on gaming the war is Republic and Empire written by Aarofan Gregory and carried by Outland Games. These rules feature a DBA Ancient rules variant combat system. I have not tried these rules but they look good.

An old mainstay for British Gamers are Soldiers of the Queen carried by Tabletop Games. While the rulebook doesn't feature Spanish-American War, their new scenario book, More Soldiers of Queen does. This booklet features hundreds of random scenarios for anything from Zulus to the British in Tibet, 1904. Even though you might not use these rules, order a copy. They are a great source of ideas.

The booklet I mentioned earlier, Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain, has a section on using Johnny Reb ACW rules with modifications for gaming the war. Though I don't game ACW, I think Fire and Fury rules could be modified. For skirmish gaming, The Sword and the Flame rules could be modified.

Organization and Basing

The Principles of Wars rules I use do not use casualty removal. The number of figures a unit has doesn't matter. However, I use their suggested twelve figures per infantry unit or six figures per cavalry unit. What a "unit" is depends on the size of a battle I'm running. A "unit" represents a battalion for a battle that has 10,000 troops per side to a company for a 1500 man battle.

I was encouraged by Brent Oman's article in MWAN (I forgot the number) on a basic twelve infantry units for an army. For some of my wargame projects, I had painted way too many troops. I decided m sixteen infantry units and five artillery batteries for each side. Because Calvary didn't play a big part, I added only three Calvary units to each side.

Terrain and Gaming

The Spanish-American War featured fights in the thickest jungle. I assume that the table top is completely covered in jungle unless marked with a piece of felt for clear areas. I liberally throw lichen and use jungle sections made by 'orrible Howard Whitehouse to simulate jungle.

Most of the time, the Spanish opened up fire on the Americans with the Americans trying to find them. Spotting rules are definitely needed. I use a cardboard counter per unit plus a number of dummy counters. The Principle of War rules I use have a simple spotting table based on a die roll. Wanting short range fire fights all of the time, I let units fire at each other up to sixteen inches. When a unit fires, I make the assumption that they are automatically spotted.

Scenarios

I am not aware of a single wargame scenario that has been written for the Spanish-American War. However, the war did feature the clash at Las Guisimas, the assault on San Juan Heights and the attack on El Caney.

The trouble is some of these conflicts are too lopsided. For example, 521 Spanish troops defended San Juan Heights against 10,000 Americans. My feeling is to give the Spanish more troops in a rattle like this. What fun would it be for the Spanish to have one infantry unit hold out against twenty American units? When I create a wargame scenario, I like to create the feeling of the conflict out I like to give each side a fair chance of winning.

These problems can be overcome by gaming hypothetical battles. What if the Spanish attacked the Americans after they landed at Siboney? What if the Spanish and Americans didn't agree to a truce and the Americans assaulted Santiago?

Another solution is to a fight a campaign game. I'm considering using the board wargame Remember the Maine which was featured in Strategy and Tactics magazine, issue number 108. You might find a copy from a used game dealer or try a game auction at a convention. Both naval and ground combat are simulated. The map is divided up into sea areas in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean from the U.S. to Spain. There is a small land map for major ports of Havana and Santiago. Counters represent individual capital ships, groups of gunboats or infantry regiments. The rules are nice and simple totaling about twelve pages. I have played the game a few times and enjoyed it.

One strong point that attracted me to the period was the U.S. troops can be used to fight in the Philippine Rebellion just after the war. Freikorps l5 Cuban rebels would be perfect for the Philippine rebels. In a pinch, though they wore a different uniform, the U.S. troops could be in the Boxer Rebellion too.

Books on the Period

There are many books on this period. Several were published shortly after the war. Personally, I feel they are mostly propaganda pieces claiming we were fighting for Cuba's freedom. What follows is an opinion of the books I have read. I plan on buying a few more to read.

Dierks, J. C. . A Leap to Arms. New York: J. B. Loppencott Company, 1970: This title is a good, short, introduction to the period that is easily read. I loved the table of ship data and the description of the naval side. This book probably isn't in print. I found my copy in a used book store.

Friedel, Frank. The Splendid Little War. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1958. As I mentioned in the introduction, this was the first book on the war I read. I was struck by the number of pictures that I have not seen anywhere else. It is still worth it trying to find a copy, just for the pictures. The clear, concise text is an added bonus!

Jeffers, H. Paul. Colonel Roosevelt: Theodore Roosevelt Goes to War. New York: Jolm Wiley Sons, Inc., 1996: This book is for all of you Rough Rider fans out there! Jeffers wrote one on Roosevelt as a police commissioner in New York City and continues his saga. The book concentrates on Roosevelt's love of the navy and the battles at Las Guisimas and San Juan Heights. This book is my second choice to buy. I purchased my copy from Scholar's Bookshelf.

Novak, Greg. Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain. Freikorps 15, 1990 Written by a former MWAN author, this book is a must for gaming the period. It is essential for painting information. As a bonus, it describes the land engagements quite well and has modifications for using Johnny Reb ACW rules. It is still available from Freikorps 15.

O'Toole, G. J. A.. The Spanish War: An American Epic. New York: W. W. Morton ~ Company, 1984: If you buy one book on the war, buy this one! It is that good. O'Toole describes everything in great detail: the mistakes, the stupidity, the political climate and the battles. It is still available from The Scholar's Boolcshelf.

Trask, David F. . The War with Spain in 1898. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1981: This book has a good description of the land and naval campaign but I have one problem. The author concludes that Teddy Roosevelt did not almost start the war single handed because the naval plans were already in place. I disagree having read overwhelming evidence in other works. It is still worthwhile to read for an alternative viewpoint. Again, it was available from The Scholar's Bookshelf but I'm not sure if they still carry it.

Conclusion

I hoped this article has sparked your interest and convinced at least one person to game this period. It is not for people who like open battle fields and fair fights. If you're like me and enjoy conflicts In different settings, this period is for you. Everytime I've ran a battle in it, everybody has fun.

Sources of Books and Miniatures

Division after Division, C/O Roger Dospill, 16710 Bradbey Rd., Fisherville, KY 40023: Roger carries the AIM IO mm ACW figures at a great price. Other manufactures are carried like Feudal. I wonder if Roger has the new Feudal 15 mm Sikh War figures in! Send a $1.00 for a catalog.

Falcon Figures, 34 the Causeway, Chippenharn, Wiltshire SN153DB: I'm not sure of the price of their figures or a catalog or if they take credit cards. A $5.00 bill should do the trick.

Freikorps 15, 25 Princetown Road, Bangor, Co. Down, BT20 3TA, Nothem Ireland: If you're into obscure periods like the Great Paraguayan War, you need this catalog. They accept credit cards. Send a $5.00 bill for a catalog.

Modeler's Mart, 1555 Sunshine Dr., Clearwater, FL 34625: Note their new address. Write to get on their mailing list.

On Military Matters, 55 Taylor Terrace, Hopewell, NJ 08525: They carry Principles of War rules for $18.00 plus $3.50 for postage and handling. A colonial army list book featuring Spanish and American armies retails for $12.00. Send $3.00 for a catalog of rule books plus used and new books.

Outland Games, 1061 Bertram Ave., Dayton, OH 45406: They stock Freikorps 15 right here in the U.S. If they don't have what you want, they will order it for you. Write for a free catalog.

The Scholar's Bookshelf, 110 Melrich Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512: Most of you probably get a few catalogs a month from this company like I do. A wide range of books are carried along with a few bargains.

Tabletop Games, 29 Beresford Avenue, Skegnes, Lincolnshire, PE25 3JF: Soldiers of the Queen rules retails for 3.75 pounds while the scenario book, More Soldiers of the Queen sells for 4.25 Pounds. They take credit cards.