Conquistadors?

[Il Duce]

Are there any lists out there for Spanish in the New World?

My thoughts are 1Knt (or Cav?) 8 Blds, 3 Ps (Guns and Crossbows) and maybe an artillery option. There could also be Native allies (Tlaxcallans, etc...).

[Chris Brantley]

Steve Thomas has a great DBA variant with army lists called New World DBA:

http://balagan.org.uk/war/dbx/new_world/index.htm

I recall one of the DBA army lists (Toltec-Chichimec, IV/19) had a small Conquistador contingent that would be fielded within the list..but I may be thinking of the DBM equivalent.

Rudy Nelson has proposed the following variant list derived from the DBM lists:

SPANISH CONQUISTADORS 1518-40 (IV-19/81)
1 x 3Kn (G), 6 x 4Bd, 2 x 4Bw (CB), 1 x Art or 2Ps (HG), 2 x 4Bd (Ally)

Source: http://fanaticus.org/DBA/armies/Variants/dbmallies.html

If you'll search the Forum for Conquistadors, I recall you'll find a number of postings that touch on this topic.

Hope that helps.

[Terry37]

I went with the Humberside orgs, as the number of Spaniards/Conquistadors involved in the conquest of the new world was very small. So Humberside works great and has allowed for some really fun games.
Humberside allows for 4 elements of Spaniards and 8 elements of Indian allies. The four Spaniards are - 1x4 blade, 1x4 shot(arquebusier) or 1x2 psiloi (crossbows), 1 knight (which is also assumed to be the general), and 1 artillery.

Hope this helps,

Terry

[OzarkOrc]

I would go with three or four elements of Spanish, the rest Native Allies; At least for formal battles (Whichc is more or less what the DBA Model is about). Use the Tarascan (IV/19), Mixtec (IV/53) or Aztec (IV/63) list as a base, Replace the General with a 3Kn (QK against all the foot)(G), Spanish Bd and one Shooter (Arquebus/Cb); The rest should be native Allies.

Thats what is so amazing about the Conquest, until the microorganisms kick in, the Aztecs own ability to win friends was what defeated them....

Karl G

[Il Duce]

Thanks. These are helpful answers. I'm inclined to think the guns and CB would work better as Ps so they could support the blades. I wonder if the horses should be cavalry since they would charge and fall back to the blades, but the quick kill of knights seems like a realisic effect. The thing is that knights might struggle against bow armed natives.
Also, would you class the Tlaxcallans as the Aztec list or the Tarascan list? The Tarascan list makes them different from the Aztecs by a heavy bow contingent. The Osprey books imply they relied heavily on bows, while Ian Heath's book seems to indicate a closer similarity to the Aztecs.

By the way, the Ian Heath book is an awesome repository of knowledge on this time period. I got it off of Amazon.com and I highly recommend it.

One more by the way: Does anyone know where I might find accounts of Legazpi and the Conquistores in the Philippines (and elsewhere in the Pacific)?

[Terry37]

Il Duce, The Tlaxacans would fall under the Tarascans in DBA, as that is the closest for them. And I agree the Ian Heath book is awesome. FYI, they pronounce their name as T-lash-a-cans, the 'X' always has an "sh" sound to it. For example Mexico would be pronounced Ma-she-co. interesting isn't it and a great history to study. I just finished my Tlaxacna army and am doing the last stand of Conquistadors to go with them now. Good luck, and keep us posted,

Terry

[Jeff Caruso]

Il Duce, The Tlaxacans would fall under the Tarascans in DBA, as that is the closest for them. And I agree the Ian Heath book is awesome. FYI, they pronounce their name as T-lash-a-cans, the 'X' always has an "sh" sound to it. For example Mexico would be pronounced Ma-she-co. interesting isn't it and a great history to study. I just finished my Tlaxacna army and am doing the last stand of Conquistadors to go with them now. Good luck, and keep us posted,

Terry

Terry,

Phonetically, I'd spell Mexico as May-He-Koh. And Tlaxacans has several variant spellings that make for a different pronunciation. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to pull all my research materials out and spend the time looking this up, as interesting as it would be.

[APHooper]

This subject is my current DBA obsession. None of the previously published lists covering the Spanish in the New World is completely satisfying. My notes on the subject are now at 40 pages and climbing, and I may very well have a book-length manuscript when I'm done. As I read more and more on the subject, I'm astonished by the number and variety of battles fought during the Spanish conquest of the Americas. The period seems like it has been badly underepresented in wargaming in general.

Steve Thomas's variant is cool, but I'm committed to keeping the game to 12 elements per side, so that if someone someday wants to run a battle between the Medieval Germans and the Argentinian Querandi, the armies will have the same number of stands. The Humberside Extension lists are a good starting point, and I like using the Jaeger and Shot elements they include. But the single option provided for the Mexican and Peruvian conquests are only vaguely appropriate for those campaigns, and they were written without reference to the full list of elements included in DBA 2.0.

I also find it too limiting to define the Spanish as a handful of armored cavaliers and gunners adrift in a sea of native allies. There are plenty of cases where Spanish troops engaged native warriors with no known aid from allied nations. And there are perhaps as many engagements between the armies of rival conquistadors as they fought with indigenous opponents.

The Soanish were often profoundly outnumbered by the Americans they faced, but since the native armies were unable to affect the Spanish at anything beyond bow range, there was a limit to how many of their soldiers could actually participate in the fighting at once. And even if the Spanish themselves were a tiny fraction of the troops in their combined armies, killing the European leaders was the only realistic way of defeating them.

The lists as published to date, in both DBM/DBR and the Humberside Extension, focus on just the first acts of the Conquest in Mexico and Peru. None of the lists published so far would do a good job of illustrating either side in the Mixton rebellion, Balboa's campaigns in Panama, or Manco Inca Yupanqui's siege of Cuzco, just to name a few examples.

I thought that it would be easy to come up with lists that covered the Spanish effort on a regional basis. But the conquistadors present such a confusing picture of divided loyalties and persistant rivalries that the only method that make much sense to me is to attach each list to a specific commander, many of whom campaigned in several different parts of the new world. I've got about ten of them written up so far; the next step is to work on lists to cover the native American nations that they fought. I haven't even begun to think about what kind of miniatures might be used to represent them on the table....

This is already a long post, so I'll break this here, then write another with an example of the lists I've come up with, along with way too much historical background. Wikipedia is truly a wonderful thing.

Andy Hooper
Seattle

[APHooper]

Here's an especially obscure example of my conquistador lists. "Jg" represents a Jaeger element, which moves 3" and fires at +2 to a 3" range.

G) Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon in the Carolinas, 1521-1526
Littoral Aggression: 1
1 x 3Bd (Gen), 2 x 3Bd or 3Ax, 1 x 3Cb, 1 x 2Jg, 2 x 3Ax (sailors & armed slaves), 5 x 2Ps

Historical Notes:
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon (c. 1475 – 1526) is one of the more obscure figures of the age of exploration, but he has the distinction of having founded the first European settlement within the boundaries of the present-day United States. There is no clear agreement as to where his colony was located, but strong evidence indicates that it did exist, including eyewitness accounts from its bedraggled survivors.

Vasquez de Ayllon was fortunate to make the voyage to Hispaniola in the 30-ship fleet of its new colonial Governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cacéres. Ovando led the first mission to the new world organized to include members of all levels of Spanish society, as well as a cross-section of trades and professions. It was the arrival of Ovando’s mission in 1502 that marked the beginning of civilized life for most immigrants in the colony. Vasquez de Ayllon took enthusiastic advantage of the encomienda system, planted lucrative crops like sugar cane, and quickly became a wealthy man. Eager to explore even more territory for exploitation, and interested in the possibility of a northwest passage to India, he bankrolled a small fleet under the command of Francisco Gordilla in 1521.

Gordilla sailed around the tip of Florida, up its eastern coast, and some distance beyond. He returned with positive impressions of the territory he had seen. This inspired de Ayllon to seek a charter from Emperor Charles V, granting him the right to establish colonies in any lands that he discovered. After one more personal reconnaissance mission in 1525, he gathered a fleet of six ships, recruited 500 European colonists and purchased 100 African slaves to support a new colony on the Atlantic coast. They departed from Santo Domingo in the middle of July, 1526.

Because he shared the then common misconception that the American coastline was either the easternmost extension of Asia itself or a large archipelago east of that continent, de Ayllon held out hope that he would find either Asian settlements or an ocean passage to India somewhere in the course of his exploration. Therefore, he carefully explored the coasts of Florida and Georgia on his way north, finally making his first permanent landfall somewhere in Winyah Bay, South Carolina, on September 29th, 1526.

A considerable mythology has built up around this first settlement, which de Ayllon named San Miguel de Guadalupe. Most historians and archeologists who have worked on the problem now believe that it was located near the mouth of the Pee Dee river in South Carolina. But another tradition holds that the Spanish settlement was on the James River peninsula in Virginia, very near or at the site of the later English colony at Jamestown. There’s no question that Vasquez de Aylllon sailed up the James river later in 1526, and he was also the first European to discover the Chesapeake Bay. It’s possible that he could have founded a second outpost on the banks of the James, but there is no compelling evidence to suggest that he did.

The location on Winyah Bay was not a healthy one, and Vasquez de Ayllon resolved to move the expedition south again. Their ships damaged by rocks and storms, some of the colonists built new boats, while others marched overland. The colony was most likely re-established on Sapelo Island, Georgia.

San Miguel de Guadalupe suffered a steady attrition of colonists as Vasquez de Ayllon searched for his passage to India. There were several battles with indigenous warriors. But de Ayllon probably did not survive long enough to supervise the defense of the colony, as he died of “ship fever” before the end of 1526. The new San Miguel persisted for less than a year. As the despairing Europeans resolved to return to Hispaniola, the African slaves decided that life in the wilderness was preferable to continuing bondage, and they escaped into the forest. Some of them probably survived and became part of the nearby native societies.

Army Notes: De Ayllon’s expedition to Carolina seems to have had more interest in mercantile and exploratory pursuits than military conquest, and so the forces they raised to face conflicts with the indigenous Americans were improvised with the personnel available. However, this also made the expedition well-suited for craft and construction projects, including boat-building, so it is particularly appropriate to take advantage of the littoral invasion option with this army. On the other hand, no account mentions the presence of any horses in the colony, so the list contains no mounted elements.

Andy Hooper
Seattle

[Tony Aguilar]

I thought that it would be easy to come up with lists that covered the Spanish effort on a regional basis. But the conquistadors present such a confusing picture of divided loyalties and persistant rivalries that the only method that make much sense to me is to attach each list to a specific commander, many of whom campaigned in several different parts of the new world. I've got about ten of them written up so far; the next step is to work on lists to cover the native American nations that they fought. I haven't even begun to think about what kind of miniatures might be used to represent them on the table....

This is already a long post, so I'll break this here, then write another with an example of the lists I've come up with, along with way too much historical background. Wikipedia is truly a wonderful thing.

Andy Hooper
Seattle

Ok, Andy let me pick your brain...

Any ideas on a force make up for:

Pedro Menendez de Aviles' force based in St. Augustine and attack on Ft. Caroline?

Conquistadores are one of my favorite subjects, I have not research them as they are not an army that I can bring to conventions (as they are not tournament legal). Otherwise I would be all up in that. :)

[Terry37]

What a great subject. My efforts and research were primarily only in Mexico and the conquest of the Aztecs. I can however recommend a few sources that may be helpful.

First read Bernal Diaz's excellent account of the conquest titled "The Conquest of New Spain". This is a real eye opener and a great read.

Next I also recommend reading "The Broken Spears" (my copy is the edition edited by Miguel Leon-Portilla, and is the Aztec account of the conquest, as told to the priests and monks who came to the New World after the conquest (remember the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican Indians had no written language prior to the Spanish conquest, instead using codex or pictographs to tell and keep their history). Sadly there are very few Codices left as those same priest and monks burned so many of them in a purge of "ungodly" things!

Of course the excellent Ian Heath book is a must have, for what the various natives and Spaniards looked like.

I got my copies of these books from Amazon.

Lastly. I encourage you to look at this web site, very much dedicated to the conquest. Chronofus is extremely knowledgeable on the subject, and has spent untold amounts of time translating and studying the various Codices he has been able to obtain copies of. He has also been a tremendous help to me in my own research.

http://chronofus.net/php/index.php

Tony, my knowledge of Spanish, left over from high school, is pretty limited as that has been a long, long time ago, but I understand the current pronunciation of Mexico as you give it. However in Nahuatl, language of the Aztec and many other Mesoamerican Indians, the “x” had/has an “sh” sound. Perhaps it evolved into the current sound, I don’t know. You are right in that Mexico may have been pronounced as May-She-Co as opposed to Ma-She-Co, but both may be correct then??? If anyone wants to learn or hear the Nahautl language try watching Mel Gibson’s movie - Apocalypto, although about the Mayans, I believe they are speaking it and that will give you a good idea. I don’t know how all those actors learned to speak it so well!!!! It seems to be a very tough language to learn, as I tried to learn enough to let me better read the sources I was studying.

Anyway, just a few thoughts and hopefully some helpful resources in putting together some historically accurate armies.

Terry

[Jeff Caruso]

Here's an especially obscure example of my conquistador lists. "Jg" represents a Jaeger element, which moves 3" and fires at +2 to a 3" range.

G) Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon in the Carolinas, 1521-1526
Littoral Aggression: 1
1 x 3Bd (Gen), 2 x 3Bd or 3Ax, 1 x 3Cb, 1 x 2Jg, 2 x 3Ax (sailors & armed slaves), 5 x 2Ps

Historical Notes:
Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon (c. 1475 – 1526)



Vasquez de Ayllon was fortunate to make the voyage to Hispaniola in the 30-ship fleet of its new colonial Governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cacéres. Ovando led the first mission to the new world organized to include members of all levels of Spanish society, as well as a cross-section of trades and professions. It was the arrival of Ovando’s mission in 1502 that marked the beginning of civilized life for most immigrants in the colony. ..

...he bankrolled a small fleet under the command of Francisco Gordilla in 1521.

Gordilla sailed around the tip of Florida, up its eastern coast, and some distance beyond. He returned with positive impressions of the territory he had seen. This inspired de Ayllon to seek a charter from Emperor Charles V, granting him the right to establish colonies in any lands that he discovered. After one more personal reconnaissance mission in 1525, he gathered a fleet of six ships, recruited 500 European colonists and purchased 100 African slaves to support a new colony on the Atlantic coast. They departed from Santo Domingo in the middle of July, 1526.

A considerable mythology has built up around this first settlement, which de Ayllon named San Miguel de Guadalupe.

San Miguel de Guadalupe suffered a steady attrition of colonists as Vasquez de Ayllon searched for his passage to India. There were several battles with indigenous warriors. But de Ayllon probably did not survive long enough to supervise the defense of the colony, as he died of “ship fever” before the end of 1526. ... the African slaves decided that life in the wilderness was preferable to continuing bondage, and they escaped into the forest. Some of them probably survived and became part of the nearby native societies.

Army Notes: De Ayllon’s expedition to Carolina...this also made the expedition well-suited for craft and construction projects, including boat-building, so it is particularly appropriate to take advantage of the littoral invasion option with this army.
Andy Hooper
Seattle

Andy,

Fascinating post, I cut a bunch out of it to reply but would like you to recommend some sources for reading more on the these particular Spanish Conquistadores. Its tempting me to want to do some 15mm Spanish Conquistadores.

Jeff

[Tony Aguilar]

Its tempting me to want to do some 15mm Spanish Conquistadores.


Historicon 2009 Fortune's Favorites III: La Fortuna en el Mundo Nuevo.

Hmmm??? :D

[Jeff Caruso]

Historicon 2009 Fortune's Favorites III: La Fortuna en el Mundo Nuevo.

Hmmm??? :D

Tony,

I was thinking in terms of designing a small range of Conquistadores, like the ones I had in 25mm. :)

There are already, other plans for FF III in 2009.

Jeff

[APHooper]

[QUOTE=Tony Aguilar]Ok, Andy let me pick your brain...

Any ideas on a force make up for:

Pedro Menendez de Aviles' force based in St. Augustine and attack on Ft. Caroline?

Here you go, Tony -- I "jumped ahead" to finish this one:

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in Florida, 1564-1570
Littoral Aggression: 3
1 x 3Bd (Gen), 1 x 3Bd or 3Cav, 1 x 4Pk or 3Bd, 1 x 3Sh or 3Cb or 2Jg, 1 x 2Ps (Wardogs) or Art, 2 x 3Ax or 2Ps (Sailors) or 5Wb (Allies), 2 x 2Ps

Historical Notes:

Master of the Treasure Fleet:
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (1519 – 1574) was an admiral of the Spanish navy, and one of its most celebrated commanders of the 16th Century. His European exploits were extensive, and he commanded the galleon that carried King Phillip II to Britain to wed Queen Mary in 1554. The same year, he guided the Armada de la Carrera on a systematic sweep of the West Indies, began the construction of several forts, and confirmed the strategic importance of the Bahamian Channel and the port of Havana. And perhaps most impressive of all, he brought the fleet back safely to Spain.

As the mines of New Spain produced ever more staggering amounts of gold and silver, the problem of transporting it to Spain became the most important mission of the Spanish fleet. Menéndez gained fame as a pirate hunter in the Americas, and in 1561 he was entrusted with the safety of one of the greatest treasure fleets to date. He successfully delivered the flota of 1561, except for one missing vessel; but sadly, the single lost ship had carried Menéndez’ son and other family members.

He petitioned for permission to return to search for the missing vessel, but there was a delay of years before his request was heard. He was eventually given permission to return to the new world, but only if he would also explore and colonize the peninsula known as La Florida. Menéndez spent much of his own fortune preparing the expedition, and finally sailed for Havana in 1564. Before he left, word reached Spain that France had established a colony of their own in northern Florida. King Phillip II directed Menéndez to destroy any French settlements he encountered, showing no quarter to the protestant heretics he found there.

The Colony of Ft. Caroline:
The French first tried to establish a colony of the south Atlantic coast of the modern United States in 1562, when the protestant Admiral Gaspar de Coligny organized an expedition directed by the Norman pilot Jean Ribault. Ribault left 28 men on present-day Parris Island, at a settlement they named Charlestown. Unfortunately, the colony was not self-sustaining, and after a year, all but one colonist attempted to sail back to Europe in an open boat, and were reduced to cannibalism before being rescued in British waters.

In 1564, Ribault’s second-in-command René Goulaine de Laudonniére brought more than 200 colonists to a bluff overlooking the St. John’s river at the site of present-day Jacksonville. They built a settlement with a redoubt they named Fort Caroline, and endured a year of hunger, attacks by native people and mutiny, before Ribault returned with hundreds of reinforcements and a powerful fleet. These forces entered Fort Caroline in August of 1564, just days before Menéndez and his own fleet reached the area. He fought a minor engagement with the French fleet, then sailed 35 miles south. The Spanish made landfall on August 28th, the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo, in whose honor their colony was named. This was the first Spanish colony in North America to persist more than a year or two, and is the oldest continually-occupied city in the continental United States.

The French had the advantage of numbers, and Ribault moved south against St. Augustine before Menéndez could reinforce his colony. But his fleet, with most of his troops embarked, was struck by a surprise storm that lasted several days. Most of the ships were lost, and the survivors scattered along the coast. Meanwhile, Menéndez had gathered his troops for a surprise attack on Ft. Caroline, and overhwlmed its 250-man garrison at dawn. Because of their religion, and because the Spanish had no way to feed them, all the men in the colony were shortly put to death. Only 50 women and children were spared.

Returning south, Menéndez’ troops gathered up the survivors of Ribault’s fleet, and received the surrender of Ribault himself, who clearly expected his men would be treated with civility. Instead, they were murdered as well, and the site of the infamous act was henceforth known as Matanzas or “Massacre” inlet. A Spanish fort, built in 1740, still stands at the site today.

Following this infamous atrocity, which was regarded as barbaric even by the sanguine standards of the wars of religion, France abandoned its effort to colonize the southeast coast of North America. However, the destruction of Ft. Caroline did not pass without reprisal. The Spanish burned the fort, and then built their own works on the site. In 1568, Dominique de Gourgues landed a French force that burned the Spanish fortification, and slaughtered every single member of its garrison in a grisly revenge for Ribault and his expedition. The Spanish duly rebuilt the stockade, but abandoned it for good before 1570, and the actual location of the fort has since been lost.

Menéndez’ among the Calusas:
By the time the French took revenge for Ft. Caroline, Pedro Menéndez’ De Aviles was no longer in direct command of the troops at St. Augustine. He had returned to sea in order to explore the Southwest coast of Florida and soon made contact with several indigenous nations, including the Calusas, the Ais, and the Tocobago. He married the sister of the leader of the Calusas, a man known to the Spanish as “King Carlos.” She accepted baptism under the name “Doña Antonia.” But relations with the Calusas remained difficult, and Menéndez’ did little to endear himself to his brother-in-law by frequently threatening harm to his sister as a means of applying diplomatic pressure. He further alienated the Calusas by sending embassies to their traditional enemies in the Tocobago nation. In Menéndez’ defense, virtually all the other nations of Florida appeared to be traditional enemies of the Calusas, but this was still sufficient breach that open warfare resulted.

He found somewhat more cordial relations with the people of coastal Georgia, then organized a column to travel south along the Atlantic coast from St. Augustine in 1567. Here he reported good relations with another native nation, the Tekesta, who had been frequent victims of the Calusa’s expansion. He persuaded three chiefs of the Tekesta to travel with him to Cuba, as he had ambitions to use them as interpreters in relations with the Arawaks and other Caribbean nations. He returned to Havana to find that he had been appointed the Governor of Cuba, and served in that capacity for the remainder of his service in the Americas. He returned to Spain at the end of his life and died in the Basque port of Santander in 1574.

Army Notes:
Most of the troops under Menéndez’ command were accustomed to being transported by ship, which meant that few among them had the use of horses. The expedition to the southeastern coast was made by land, and might warrant the inclusion of a cavalry element. But a sea dog like Menéndez would have been more comfortable fighting on foot, so there is no option for a 3Cav general. The fast-moving force that surprised and butchered the garrison of Ft. Caroline traveled too light to allow the inclusion of an artillery element, and the guns were needed aboard Menéndez’ships.

The allied warband option represents Calusa or Tekesta warriors who offered Menéndez their personal loyalty during his campaigns in Florida. The Tekesta patiently ignored repeated efforts to convert them to Roman Catholicism, and few of them were hisspancized as was the norm in other colonies. Their most important village was known to the Spanish as “El Portal,” for the huge wooden gates that once stood at the entrance to town.

It was notoriously difficult to operate full-size pikes in the forests of tropical and sub-tropical America, but Spanish tactics always sought to focus on a tercio of formed infantry. 9- or 10-foot half-pikes were more than long enough to outreach the Neolithic warriors of the Americas.

[Tony Aguilar]

You are my hero Andy. :2up

I can't wait to do some Swordsmen with Psiloi (Wardog) support. :D

Ideas on the French defenders?...I can see doing a little DBX scenario with these two forces. :)

Are there any Conquistadores that would more than one stand of Kn? Cortez, De Soto, Coronado?

[APHooper]

You are my hero Andy. :2up

I can't wait to do some Swordsmen with Psiloi (Wardog) support. :D

Ideas on the French defenders?...I can see doing a little DBX scenario with these two forces. :)

Are there any Conquistadores that would more than one stand of Kn? Cortez, De Soto, Coronado?

Coronado definitely had many horses, but found relatively few people to fight on his explorations.The forces operating in Peru had a much higher percentage of mounted troops than those in Mexico or tropical Meso-America. Pizarro had DeSoto as his master of horse during his conquest of the Incas, and he was noted for remarkable feats of horsemanship that we would probably call "trick" riding.

The first expeditions south of the Rio Plata released a number of horses into the Pampas, and within a generation, many of the locals had learned to fight on horseback. I think these would qualify as the first "native" mounted elements in the new world.

There is a Huguenot list in the Humberside Extension that would be a good start, I bet.

More to come, surely.

Andy Hooper
Bacteria Valley

[Paul Potter]

Terry Webb has a real nice set of rule modifications for playing Aztec vs. Spanish. They may already be posted somewhere on the forum. Would you be up to reviewing those for us Terry. We have had several very enjoyable games using his rules. I've been itching to play out the early Spanish civil wars in peru discused in the Ian Heath book. -paul

[btswanfury]

There is a Huguenot list in the Humberside Extension that would be a good start, I bet.

Problem with that is that the Huguenot list, much like the rest of it all, focuses on the Huguenots in France, which were historically a very cavalry heavy army with fairly weak infantry. In the New World, Huguenot campaigns (such as they were...ie. kicking around Florida and Rio de Janeiro) would have been all infantry.

Good place to start though...

[K.H.Ranitzsch]

If you are into historical novels, Isabel Allende's 'Ines of my Soul' about the conquest of Chile is a good read. It's written from a woman's perspective, but there is enough fighting, adventure and politics to satisfy a wargamer's needs.

[APHooper]

If you are into historical novels, Isabel Allende's 'Ines of my Soul' about the conquest of Chile is a good read. It's written from a woman's perspective, but there is enough fighting, adventure and politics to satisfy a wargamer's needs.

Huh -- So is this about Ines Suarez, the woman who led the defense of Santago in the Arauco war? I think she is the best candidate to be called a "female conquistador."

Andy Hooper
Seattle

[K.H.Ranitzsch]

Huh -- So is this about Ines Suarez, the woman who led the defense of Santago in the Arauco war?

Yes, it is her "autobiography", from her youth in Spain to old age in Santiago.

Greetings
Karl Heinz

[Tony Aguilar]

Now with DBA-RRR these guys defenitely seem like they could be a reality!