A Potpourri

This is an article about a wargame idea and some rules. Oh yeah, and a battle report... and some terrain ideas. About eight years ago a local wargame vendor held a sale. Among other things, I bought some 15mm Aztecs and Conquistadores. Didn't want 'em at the time but they were going cheap and I figured 'someday...'. They sat in my "someday" pile until a few months ago, when I felt like painting something different. Out came the Aztecs.

The more I painted, the more I read about the period. The more I read, the more enthusiastic I became. Before I knew it I had Conquistadores and Aztecs ready to rumble.

While painting I had assumed that The Feathered Serpent woul send me a vision of a rules set that would capture the essence of the time. Despite their numbers, the technologically backward Aztecs were never really a match for the Spaniards so the game couldn't hinge on that outcome. The Aztecs had to be a problem, but very beatable. The setting had to be exotic. The Spaniards had to be aggressive, greedy, and treacherous.

These Conquistadores were an interesting bunch. A series of long wars had ended in Europe and here was this entire class of guys who knew only fighting, and were very good at it. They were given generous land grants in Cuba and Hispanola to get them the heck out of Europe, but they soon tired of the quiet life. It was easy for men like Cortez to raise small but very aggressive armies of veteran fighting men for their highly speculative expeditions.

The Idea I finally hit on the idea that the two players would each play a Conquistador captain and each would also control one half of the defending Indians. The two captains would compete against each other to get from their landing place at one end of my 16' table to the Aztec temple at the other end. The first to arrive at the temple captures a treasure beyond imagination, wins the allegiance of his rival's soldiers, and wins the game. The terrain was set up to encourage (but not require) movement along two parallel paths. The players couldn't use Spaniards to attack Spaniards or Aztecs to attack Aztecs.

The armies and the rules

The scale was one figure equals one man, but the figures were mounted in groups on 'standard' 40mm element bases. Each of the Spanish captains had 2 elements of horsemen, 3 elements of sword and buckler men, 3 elements of arquebusiers, 3 elements of crossbowmen, and 1 cannon. Each player also controlled 3 Indian bands of 12 elements each. I used a homemade version of DBA. The players each got one D6 per turn to move their Spanish and one D6 to move one of their 3 Indian bands. Basically, each troop type got a factor to add to their die roll when shooting or in melee. The factors were:

Horsemen 6
Swordsmen 4
Cannon 3
Arquebus or crossbow 2
Eagle or Jaguar Knight 2
Other Aztec warriors 1
Aztec bows and slings 0

If an attacking element got a higher total than their enemy they pushed him back and if they got double the enemy was destroyed. Indians pushed back by gunpowder weapons went back 1d6 instead of the standard base depth, and couldn't end the turn in contact with a friendly base. That way, gunpowder could be used to terrorize and break up Indian formations. The Indians all started near the temple with player #1 controlling the Indians facing player #2 and vice versa. The Spanish had to land on the beach, spending pips to do so. One pip would land an infantry stand, two to land a stand of horsemen, and three to land a cannon and crew. That allowed the two players some decision making about what they would land first and whether they would risk moving out before all of their men were ashore. A Spanish command would be routed if it lost half of it's elements and each of the 12 element Indian bands was routed if it lost a third.

The Game

In the game, I lived up to my reputation for foolhardy risk taking. I put my cannon ashore first along with a few arquebusiers. I pushed them ahead, spending too many of the pips I should have been investing in landing the rest of my company. My opponent was more methodical, and assembled all of his people on the beach before moving out. Of course, my cannon was overrun by Jaguar Knights and the few men who escorted it were shot down by massed archery. I brought up the rest of my force just in time to see the end of the massacre.

After some tough fighting my Conquistadores pretty well tore up the Aztecs facing them, but not fast enough. The other Spaniard used his cannon and missile troops to soften up the Indians facing him, and then launched a coordinated charge of swordsmen and lancers that punched a hole through the native horde. A few turns later he was standing on top of the temple, treasure in hand and a smirk upon his loathsome visage.

The Terrain

With this type of game, atmosphere is everything. The look of the game can really set the mood and enhance enjoyment. An exotic jungle setting would help the effect, so I guess my Indians weren't exactly Aztecs. I dubbed them the Central American jungle Lost Civilization of the Lotecs. I had a lot of plastic palm trees that I got from a mail order craft supply house many years ago, but sitting out there alone they looked kind of tame. I needed ground cover, lots of it. A couple of friends were making jungle terrain from those little plastic plants that you can buy for your fish tank. I hit the pet store and got a bunch of that. I also went to the craft store and got an 8" square of long plastic grass for $5 and a little box full of tiny leafy plastic plants for $5.

I mounted all of the palm trees 2 or 3 to a base interspersed with lots of mixed plastic ground cover, and made other bases with just the ground cover. It looks great! Serious jungle. These bases of thick jungle were placed on the table in a way that offered lots of decision making for the players, while still tending to channel movement along two parallel lines. Of course, the Lotec tribe had to have a fancy temple to sacrifice their victims on.

Many years ago I wrote an article for this publication titled 'The Cheap, Lazy Wargamer'. One of the items in the article was an idea about using those cheap children's plastic sand castle molds to make a plaster of Paris castle. I still had the molds, which included a square tower and a half dozen wall sections. I mounted all of this on a sheet of white styrofoam and hit it with multiple coats of white housepaint (I'll paint the house next year!). A good Central American temple has to have a broad staircase to the top. I made mine out of craft sticks. Using Elmer's glue, I half overlapped one stick on another to get that stair effect. About 100 sticks later there was a great, broad staircase sweeping up the front of the tower.

If you have a temple, you have to have a pagan idol. I'm keeping my eyes open for one of those 'blocky' Aztec looking figures to paint up as an idol, but for now I painted a 25mm fantasy figure of a man/frog in a glossy topaz and mounted it at the top of the temple. I'm not just saying this because I made the thing, but it looks great!

You can get one of these plastic sand castle things anywhere they sell beach toys for almost nothing. The plastic plants are also easy to acquire, but be careful to get just the tiny ones that will look right with your figures. Give it a try and have fun with it.